Le nebulose a riflessione blu polverose Messier 78 (in basso) e NGC 2071 (in alto) in Orion vicino all'arco rosso del Barnard's Loop a sinistra. Un riflesso a ventaglio
6659 x 4401 px | 56,4 x 37,3 cm | 22,2 x 14,7 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
20 ottobre 2023
Altre informazioni:
The dusty blue reflection nebulas Messier 78 (bottom) and NGC 2071 (top) in Orion near the red arc of Barnard's Loop at left. A fan-shaped reflection nebula above NGC 2071 is not identified on any charts I had. Dark dust lanes run through the region and colour the sky brown. The tiny variable nebula known as McNeil's Nebula is below M78. Remarkably, some small 16th magnitude galaxies in the PGC catalog are recorded amid the dust at upper right in the frame. This is a stack of 20 x 5-minute exposures with Askar APO120 refractor at f/5.6 with the 0.8x Reducer/Flattener and the filter-modified Canon R camera at ISO 800. No filter was employed here. Applications of the Detail Extractor filter in the Nik Collection ColorEFX and the Nebula Filter action in the PhotoKemi Photoshop action set really brought out the dust lanes. Next time I will frame M78 off to the right to include more of Barnard's Loop in this colourful region of sky. I shot this field in the couple of hours before dawn at the end of an all-night session of imaging from home on October 19/20, 2023, as a target of opportunity added at the last minute on a superb night.