Orion Nebula

Hello!

I’m Aniket and recently, I have got a new pair of binoculars (Celestron Skymaster 25 x 70) as a gift, which has opened a new dimension, which is the deep sky. The deep sky houses tons of nebulae, galaxies, galactic clusters etc; which all of them are beautiful and mesmerizing in their own right.

As it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, it means that from my house, the Orion constellation is now visible! The Orion is named after a hunter in Greek mythology and is very easily recognized. It has bright stars like Betelgeuse, Rigel, Bellatrix and more. However, one of the most beautiful parts of the constellation is the Orion Nebula.

The Orion Nebula or Messier 42, situated around 1,500 light years from Earth (one light year equals 9.46 trillion kilometers or 5.88 trillion miles) is one of the brightest nebulae, and is even visible with the naked eye on a clear dark sky. It is located below the Orion’s Belt, in a region known as Orion’s Sword. Unfortunately, due to the place I lived in, where light pollution was rampant, it was near impossible to see the nebula at all. However, due to the new pair of binoculars we bought, it was now finally possible to see the nebula in all of its glory.

Even though it may seem easy to take a couple pictures of a nebula, it was insanely difficult due to me never trying this before. Firstly, an iPhone was attached to the binoculars using an adapter, which was itself set on a tripod. The hard part was aligning the binoculars to the Orion Nebula and focusing the camera to make sure that the final image was clear enough. Sometimes, when the camera was focused, the binoculars moved by mistake, which made us start again. Eventually, the problems were solved after much effort, which shows that persistence and perseverance always leads to success!

The nebula in the final image does not have any color due to it being too faint, which leads to the cone cells in the eyes not being triggered. But I hope you enjoy the picture taken!

Can you find it? If not, here’s the same picture marking where the Orion Nebula is!

Now can you see it?

I know, it is not THAT impressive compared to other pictures, but considering the fact that I live in a global metropolis and the resolution of my binoculars is pretty low compared to other optical instruments like telescopes, I can say that it is worth it for me and hopefully for you.

Learn more about Orion Nebula here: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-42-the-orion-nebula/

Thanks for reading! I will be sharing more astronomical observations in the future!