Messier 42, the Orion Nebula, is the easiest deep sky object to see in the northern hemisphere. It’s so bright that you can see it as a fuzzy patch in the center of Orion’s “sword”. It’s one of the premier deep sky objects to look at, whether visually or photographically. It’s also a bit of a challenge to image because the dynamic range is so bright.

This was an image with the little Seestar S30 taken from home. I was testing out the new equatorial mode on the Seestar and this was my test target. I was planning to run for a few hours but the clouds showed up early and put an end to it. But, M42 is so bright that it makes even a 30mm telescope look good!

The nebulous region at the top of the frame is known as the Running Man though in this image the silhouette of a running man is not that obvious.

The Orion Nebula is roughly 1,350 light years away and it’s the closest massive region of star formation to us.

As I write this, Orion is getting ready to depart out sky for a few months before returning in the early morning sky a few months from now. This is a good time to catch it right after dark and catch your own view of it, whether with the naked eye, binoculars, or with a telescope!

This is 55m 30s of one-shot color data. You can find all the technical details on astrobin.