The Belt of Orion

Object

The Belt of Orion
Description

The belt of Orion is a large area of intestellar dust, and star forming regions. The Horsehead nebula around the left most star, Alnitak is a glowing red region with clouds of dust obscuring some parts, creating the silouette of a horses head. The area around the central 'star' of Orion's Sword is the Great Orion Nebula, (M42). This is a stellar nursery, with clouds of dust coalessing into new stars._ As you can see from the image, the entire area contains large clouds of intestellar dust, some glowing due to reflection from nearby stars (bluish) and some emitting their own light in the hydrogen alpha line (red), and some just obscuring.
Objects in image: 34 Ori), 41 Ori A), 41 Ori C, 42 Ori), 43 Ori), 44 Ori), 46 Ori), 48 Ori, 50 Ori), Flame Nebula, Great Orion Nebula, IC 420, IC 423, IC 426, IC 431, IC 432, IC 434, Lower Sword, M 42, M 43, Mairan's Nebula, NGC 1975, NGC 1976, NGC 1977, NGC 1980, NGC 1981, NGC 1982, NGC 2023, NGC 2024, Orion B, Orion Nebula, Part of the constellation Orion (Ori), The star 31 Ori, The star Alnilam (ε Ori, The star Alnitak (ζ Ori, The star Hatysa (ι Ori, The star Mintaka (δ Ori, The star Mizan Batil I (c Ori, The star Mizan Batil II (θ2 Ori, The star Trapezium (θ1 Ori A, The star θ1 Ori C, The star σ Ori, Upper Sword, the Running Man Nebula
Image
Scope

200mm f/2.8L
Camera

Canon 40D
Mount

Losmandy G11
Filters

none
Guiding

C8 and ST-2000XCM
Exposure Info

Total exposure time 5 hours (45x4min)
Date

11/05/2008
Copyright

Photo copyright Thomas Kerns, Beluga Lake Observatory