The Great Orion Nebula is an emission nebula and is located in the "sword" of the constellation of Orion and is readily visible to the naked eye.  Four hot young stars near the center of the nebula (called the Trapezium) along with other young stars in this stellar nursery stimulate the surrounding dust and gas to give off its own light.  The upper object is known as the Running Man Nebula.   This is a blue reflection nebula and the dark intersecting lanes give the appearance of a man's arms spread wide as he crosses the finish line! 

IMAGE DETAILS:

• Date & Location:  October 21, 2009 - Bernville, PA

• Weather:  Calm wind - 37F.

• Sky Conditions:  Clear with average transparency. 

• Optics:  TeleVue TV60is Refractor (360mm -f/6) with field flattener.

• Filter:  Hutech IDAS-LPS (Light Pollution Suppression)

• Mount:  Losmandy G-11 equatorial with Gemini V4

• Guiding:  None

• Camera:  Canon T1i (500D) Hap Griffin Modified - Baader UV/IR

• Exposure:  26 min (4 x 4 min, 2 x 3 min, 1 x 2 min, 1 x 1 min, 3 x 20 sec) @ ISO 800, RAW

• Calibration Frames:  In camera dark frame subtraction

• Processing:  Photoshop CS4, Noise Ninja, NIK 

• Comments:  This is one of my first light images that was tracked, but not guided.  Star Trailing resulted in part due to an off center polar alignment scope reticle and the need for Periodic Error Correction (PEC).