Widefield Mosaic in Orion Sep 2022
Williams Optics Redcat APO 51; - ASI2600MC;
Celestron CGEM II; IDAS NBZ Nebular Booster Filter;
3 frame Mosaic encompassing the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex from the Flame (NGC2024) and Horsehead (Bernard 33) Nebulae through the Running Man (NGC1977) and Great Orion Nebula (M43).
Frame 1 (Flame and Horsehead)
10 x 300s + 49 x 420s exposures, Bin 1, Gain 100;
Frame 2 (Great Orion Nebula)
27 x 240s + 48 x 300s + 19 x 420s, Bin 1, Gain 100;
Frame 3 (Orion Nebula below / right)
15 x 420s, Bin

Total Integration Time = 16.3 hours;

Since I was using a short focal length telescope for some wide-field imaging, I thought I would double down on the wide field by creating a mosaic of most popular parts of the Orion molecular complex.
While the Flame/horsehead and Orion Nebula are often imaged separately, they are actually not very distant, encircled by Bernards Loop, that lies just outside the bounds of this mosaic. I was interested in capturing the structure of this huge star forming region and the surrounding molecular clouds containing mainly hydrogen. The clouds are apparently being displaced in an unstable manner, as they form whisps in seemingly random directions. The cloud is between 1000 and 1400 ly away and hundreds of light years across.
Imaging and Processing this mosaic was a challenge due to the hust range of brightness presented by the subjects - from the core of the Orion Nebula to the faint background nebulosity. A range of exposures were used to facilitate this. To the right of the Orion Nebula, you can see the image get noisy due to the lack of integration time spent in this area. It is a good demonstration of what the GHS transforms can pull from the data, but if you go too deep for the exposure times, you will get noise.