The Orion Nebula, M42, is one of the brightest nebulae in the night sky. It is a star factory, or star nursery, with new stars forming from the gas and dust. At about 1,350 light years away it is the closest such star-forming to the Earth. It is estimated to be about 24 light years across. This image was my first effort with a new mount, telescope and camera (new at the time, that is).

General note:

This image has been taken with narrow-band filters, each sensitive only to the bright emission of a particular element (where H is the symbol for hydrogen, O for oxygen and S for sulphur). The images have then been assigned to the red, green and blue channels of final image.

Such narrow-band imaging was very useful at the Hondsdijk observatory (in the Netherlands) because of the strong light pollution, a problem which does not exist at Le Bourdieu.