The Orion Nebula: My Journey
- Siddardh Budamagunta
- Nov 17, 2020
- 2 min read
Orion Nebula is one of the most beautiful nebulae in the night sky and it is also one of the brightest nebulae in the night sky making it relatively easy to photograph. It is located in the constellation of Orion below Orion’s belt
Nebulae are groups of dust and gas in space. Of the many different types of nebulae, the Orion Nebula is an Emission Nebula, which means that it is made of ionized gas and emits its own light.
My Experience
When I first started astrophotography I needed an easy target to photograph. It was December of 2019, and I heard that this was the best time to photograph Orion, so the first nebula I pointed my camera at was Orion. Back then I was very new to many of the astrophotography tools, like stacking, and I didn’t know how to properly use photoshop. I had made a few attempts during December, but I just really struggled with figuring out how the stacking software(Deep Sky Stacker) works, and I didn’t really know how to photoshop.
Eventually though, on a cold clear January night, I managed to take my first successful shot of Orion.
After this shot, I took a short break, and I tried photographing other objects like the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Pleiades. Then in April, I tried photographing Orion again. Though I got some decent pictures in January, I wasn’t completely satisfied with the way the images looked, so I wanted to try again. This time I tried doing a wide field shot of Orion so that I could increase my exposure time. Back then, I didn’t even have an intervalometer, so I had had to click the shutter for every 10 shots, and I took 290 light frames, 40 dark frames, and 40 bias frames.
I was hoping to get more detail in the Orion Nebula, and I was also hoping to get the Running Man Nebula, and Flame Nebula but I wasn't able to. It's probably my fault, and I should have used a higher ISO. Though I wasn't to take a great shot of Orion last spring, now that we are heading into winter, I will have an opportunity to do so very soon.
Your capture of Orion is beautiful! It's great that you are learning from your experience to further improve.
Wow! This topic is very interesting and I had no idea you were interested in it. Although I loved reading it, I think it would be better if you documented exactly how you failed and what you changed to get a little better each time. It would be a great help for you so that you can look back on your past mistakes and it can also help others who could be interested in this topic!
Thank you! Please share this with anyone who might be interested
Wonderful Star gazing ! A look at far away night sky is what ancient astronomers did to calculate the age of this Universe ! Your budding interest in the stars and their phenomenon ,the constellations and their mythology , the past and the future of Cosmic cycles and much more are really a fascinating insight to develop deep and abiding faith in the immense cosmology . All the best for your hard work.
Good narration and photos. But you need to read more about real good time for each and every object in the sky. Best of luck.