About 30 minute total exposure time, 20-second subs, Bortle 6 suburban sky (my front yard, USA). This is my second attempt at Orion, and I'm very much a newbie at AP. Still thought I'd share!
Interesting facts I learned about Orion:
Distance & Size
– About 1,344 light-years away – one of the closest stellar nurseries to Earth
– The visible nebula spans about 24 light-years across, but the entire Orion Molecular Cloud Complex is hundreds of light-years wide
– You can see it with the naked eye as the "fuzzy star" in Orion's sword
Stellar Nursery
– One of the most active star-forming regions near us – contains ~1000 stars in various stages of formation
– The Trapezium Cluster at its core contains 4 massive young stars only ~1M years old
– These hot O and B-type stars ionize the hydrogen gas, creating the characteristic red/pink glow (H-alpha emission)
The Running Man Connection
– The bluish nebula visible at the top of the image is NGC 1977 (Running Man Nebula) – it's a *reflection* nebula (reflects starlight) rather than emission
– It's part of the same molecular cloud complex
by VerbaGPT