The Great Orion Nebula

Anyone who knows the night sky knows about the biggest, brightest nebula visible from the northern hemisphere - the Great Orion Nebula. Afterall, it's one of the very few nebulae that are so big & bright, you can spot it with the naked eye. It's also part of the Orion Constellation that dominates the winter sky - especially easy to spot with the 3 star Belt of Orion. By the way, scientists believe the Orion Nebula is a stellar nursery with a big nebulous cocoon that's giving birth to as many as a thousand stars. With the Orion Nebula (appearing in the bottom) and the Running Man Nebula (top), this area has some wonderful color that comes from huge clouds of dust and gas. What I wasn't expecting was the green color appearing on the edge of the Orion Nebula (showing up naturally in the one shot color images). I captured this image (from my home in Colorado) using iTelescope.net's T2 telescope based in Mayhill, New Mexico. I captured 38 images over 4 nights (in a 3x1 mosaic) and processed them with Astro Pixel Processor, Photoshop and Topaz Denoise. Exposure Settings • 3x1 mosaic (14 images left, 12 center, 12 right) • 38 images (all full color) • Exposure Time: 5 minutes (each image) • Total Exposure Time: 3 hours, 10 minutes Telescope Optics & Camera • Optics: Takahashi TOA-150 (T2, Refractor) • Focal Length: 1,105 mm • CCD: QHY268C "One Shot Color" - 26 mp