Orion revealed: stunning beauty and vibrant colors

This is Orion as it actually lives in our sky: woven with dust, gas, and faint structures most people never see. It was captured on an exceptionally clear night from Seal Rock, Oregon, using an ordinary camera (unmodified Sony A7R IV) and lens (Viltrox 50mm f/2). I used the Star Adventurer Mini to track and took about an hour of full-minute (60-second) exposures. After blending these exposures together, this is what was revealed.

The fully revealed nebulae and stars of the Orion constellation

A stellar tour

What are you looking at?

In the top left, red supergiant Betelgeuse shines with brilliant colors as it approaches its impending doom. Astronomers estimate it will supernova (essentially collapse under its own weight and detonate with a nuclear explosion) anytime between now and 100,000 years from now. Give or take, of course. I recently got close and personal with Betelgeuse.

A close look at the star that defines Orion's shoulder

That wispy red arc that stretches along the left side is a very faint nebula known as Barnard's Loop. It is a 360 light-year-long remnant of an ancient supernova explosion that blasted out irradiated material that continues to be ionized by energy from other stars in the Orion molecular cloud complex, a vast region of interstellar materials that is forming new stars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfcj_BrINsI

The tour in video format

Three stars make Orion's "belt," including Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. The leftmost star, Alnitak, is surrounded by two beautiful nebulae. The Flame Nebula is an emission nebula that glows brightly due to ionized hydrogen gas illuminated by ultraviolet light from Alnitak. Perpendicular to the flame is the Horsehead Nebula. This is actually the combination of an emission nebula that illuminates the silhouette of a dark nebula that is shaped like a horse's head. Here's a closer look at the Horsehead.

The beautiful and aptly named "Horsehead nebula"

The area around Alnitak is illuminated by glowing gases. I created this "blueprint" for the area by taking the data from a hydrogen alpha filter and removing the stars to reveal just the texture and detail of the nebulosity of the region.

The intricate nebulosity around Alnitak, revealed

(This work is a part of my fine art collection and was printed on wood.)

Beneath the belt of Orion are a series of nebulae that make up the "sword." The first is the Running Man nebula, which projects the silhouette of a fitness enthusiast against a backdrop of vibrant purple, blue, and magenta.

And the man is runnin', runnin'...

(This image is a part of my fine art collection).

M42 and M43, the Orion Nebula and de Mairan's Nebula, are often mistaken as a single entity. This image shows both. M43 is the "head" while M42 is the "body."

The Orion Nebula (M42) and de Mairan's Nebula (M43).

The last stop on the tour is a part of the image that gives me hope. I've attempted to image the Witch's Head nebula on several occasions, but wispy clouds and light pollution always thwarted my attempts. The fact that it shows up so clearly in this image demonstrates the power of imaging from a dark site under clear skies. Now I know I can return with my telescope and take a solid pass at this elusive target. The region I'm referring to is in the lower right, and here it is zoomed in:

Which head? The Witch's Head!

The cost of admission to Orion

To acquire this image, I headed to a nearby dark site. Although Seal Rock has its share of lights and is very close to a busy Highway 101, the state park features a bluff separated from the city and highway by a hill topped with trees. This blocks enough light that you can see the Milky Way with your unaided eyes on a clear night. I took a wagon full of gear and had other targets, but here's the scoop on the Orion image.

I realized that for some reason, my Viltrox lens gathers vibrant detail and colors from nebulae even though I do not have a modified camera. (A modified camera has built-in stock filters removed to capture more of the light spectrum). I was confident from tests by my house that the lens would yield superior results from a dark location. I brought a basic tripod and mounted my Star Adventurer Mini, a small and portable device that allows you to align your camera along the polar axis and then uses a motor to rotate at the rate of apparent star motion, called sidereal. I positioned the "mini" so it was oriented in the direction of the north star which was clearly visible from my location. I then added my Sony camera with the 50mm lens and centered the constellation. I took 30-second exposures at ISO 640 for an hour. A single exposure looks like this, raw and unedited.

Single Orion exposure (50mm, 30 seconds, ISO 640)

Although the details are already clear, the multiple exposures allowed me to "stack" them together and increase the signal-to-noise ratio.

The temperatures were near freezing with a strong breeze, so I was heavily insulated as I shivered in my chair at 1am and waited for the exposures to finish!

I spent considerable time on the stacked image:

• Calibrating the color

• Removing the vignetting and gradients

• Softening the stars to reveal more nebulosity

• Reducing noise

• Sharpening the stars

• Improving the color and contrast of the nebulae

Ultimately, this is what I ended up with.

Annotated version: your map to Orion

I hope you enjoyed this tour of Orion!