Astronomy Picture of the Day 2-25-03

NASA ^ | 2-25-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2003 February 25

M42: Wisps of the Orion Nebula
Credit & Copyright: John P. Gleason (Celestial Images)

Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby starbirth region, is probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away. In the above deep image, faint wisps and sheets of dust and gas are particularly evident. The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the unaided eye just below and to the left of the easily identifiable belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion. In addition to housing a bright open cluster of stars known as the Trapezium, the Orion Nebula contains many stellar nurseries. These nurseries contain hydrogen gas, hot young stars, proplyds, and stellar jets spewing material at high speeds. Also known as M42, the Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun.

[petuniasevan]

Here's the details for this GREAT amateur photo:

Technical Details:

• Subject: M42, Orion Nebula
• Instrument: Astro Physics 7-inch f/7.0 EDF Refractor
• Instrument: Nikon 300mm f/2.8 EDIF Lens
• Platform: Astro Physics 1200 German equatorial mount
• Exposure: 1 X 70 minutes
• Exposure: 7 X 30 minutes, hydrogen alpha
• Film: Kodak PPF 400
• CCD: SBIG ST10E
• Photographer: John Gleason, Celestial Images
• Notes: Original Kodak PPF 400 negative scanned as a transparency onto Kodak ProPhoto CD. No masking performed to preserve highlight details in the bright core of the Orion nebula. Color balance and curves stretch in PhotoShop to enhance faint details of molecular cloud surrounding brighter portions of the nebula. Further exposure enhancement by combining Hydrogen alpha CCD image to reveal fainter, background nebula.

  Note he used a 7-inch REFRACTOR telescope! Great for detail (no obstruction to reduce light transmission) but a lens that size costs BIG bucks!

  Here are the Hydrogen-Alpha filter image and color film image to compare:

  

[petuniasevan]

[MozartLover]

What a beautiful image. Thank you!

[MeekOneGOP]

Beautiful, thanks !

[SquirrelKing]

Thanks! This thread is spiffy.

[Joan912]

It's just beautiful! Thanx for the daily pings. :)

[Capitalism2003]

stupid question: aside from Astronomy, what classes should I be taking if I want to work for Nasa someday? I find this stuff fascinating...would love to work on the newest jets and stuff like that..finding ways to approach the light barrier. That would be my dream job

[firewalk]

Thanks for the ping

[bmwcyle]

BTTT

[biblewonk]

It sure doesn't look like that with my new binoculars.

[Sally II]

That's an amateur photo? By the way, my Dad got one of those fancy Mead telescopes and we haven't been able to see more than the moon. We're very frustrated star watchers. Anyhow, those are spectacular photos. It's amazing how much amazing beauty exists so far beyond our vision.

[RightWhale]

A hydrogen-alpha filter is expensive, but it is something you can make yourself if you are interested in amateur telescope making.

[Ronaldus Magnus Reagan]

With amateur telescopes (and even larger ones) it is very hard to see any color. The only way to see color in astronomical objects is to attach a camera to your telescope. Then you take a picture where the shutter on the camera lens stays open for a long time in order to capture the color.

If you just are looking at sky objects through a good quality telescope without a camera, you will only see black and white colors.

This is really the dirty little secret of astronomy and buying a telescope. No color to be seen unless you take a picture and develop it.

As for your Dad, if he got a good Meade telescope, he will see many cool things. Start with the planets. Buy an astronomy magazine at your newstand to find out where the planets are in the sky at the present time. Astronomy magazine and Sky and telescope magazine are the two biggest. Maybe you can just go to their web site to find the planet locations. Then after the planets, go to galaxies, globular star clusters, nebula's, etc.

[Sally II]

My Dad does have a pretty good Mead telescope. He got it for Christmas, and I know it was about a $800 - 1000 range machine. The trouble is that we tried to view the larger stars and saw only a bright light upclose. We even bought a higher powered lense. The only thing we can see in interesting detail is the moon. :o( Maybe we need to take a class to learn how to use it. It just seems that we'd be able to see about as much moon detail with a cheaper, low quality telescope. I know we should be able to see more.

[petuniasevan]

RA used to work in Mission Control.

I'll bet he can help you.

[petuniasevan]

It won't.

The nebula is not bright enough through binocs to show color. If you look with a telescope, you may begin to see some pastels.

On the other hand, a camera or CCD gathers photons over time (exposure) to reveal the fine details and color which you could not otherwise see.

See, that's the problem with images such as this one, and the great Hubble pics. They attract skywatchers, who go out and get binocs or a small scope and try to find this stuff. When M42 doesn't look like the above image, or they can't even SEE the Horsehead Nebula, they get disappointed and disillusioned.

This is more like what you'd see through binocs or small scope:

[petuniasevan]

Take your 'scope to a star party.

There's always one somewhere in CA.

There will be people there willing to help you figure out how to use the Meade.

Try the Sacramento Valley Astronomical Society

http://www.skywatchers.org/

[Ronaldus Magnus Reagan]

Sally,

Forget about looking at individual stars through the telescope. The stars are so far away that you won't be able to see a disk, only a pinpoint of light. You need to look at other things. Start with Jupiter and it's moons. You will probably see the bands across Jupiter's disk and at least 4 moons (if they arn't behind Jupiter at the moment). Then go to Saturn and see the rings (if they arn't edge-on at the time of year you are looking). Go to Uranus and you might see a blue-green disk (with no features). Get a sky chart and hop-scotch your way from one point of light to the next and you might actually see Pluto! (but doubtful if you only bought a $1,000 telescope).

Best objects besides the big planets are the galaxies and nebulas. And the occasional comets!

At any rate, it's a great reason to bond with your family outside at night while sipping some hot chocolate!

As the cruise line advertising says..."GET OUT THERE"!
LOL!
Enjoy the time with your Dad.

[sistergoldenhair]

Awesome. Thanks for the ping.

[RadioAstronomer]

Capitalism2003, you have freep mail. :-)

Thank for the ping petuniasevan!