Portuguese astrophotographer Miguel Claro has published an amazing image of the Orion constellation. It shows not only stars, but also dark clouds of interstellar gas illuminated by red light. The last color reflects the intensity of the radiation of hydrogen, which is part of their composition.
Red Orion
Miguel Claro from Lisbon, Portugal, has released an amazing image of the Orion constellation, rendered in red colors. Thus, this astrophotographer, who is also a science popularizer and author of articles on astronomy, has attempted to show how complex this astronomical object really is.
Claro is a member of several astronomical organizations and the official photographer of the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, where he collected the data to create this image. In February and March of this year, he spent 40 minutes each day, collecting a total of about 7 hours of observations. These observations formed the basis for the image he created.
Of course, people do not see Orion as it appears in the photograph, regardless of their location. The photographer used special filters to highlight certain wavelengths, revealing the red nebulae that are so striking in the photo.
What can you see in the photo?
What can you see in the photo? The large, complex semicircle around the three stars forming Orion’s Belt, known as Barnard’s Loop (Sh2-276), is a nebula located about 1,600 light-years away and extending for 300 light-years. Barnard’s Loop is part of the even larger Orion molecular cloud complex, consisting of dust, hydrogen, and helium, and is a place where stars are born.
Miguel Claro always wanted to create an image that would show the beauty of the reddish hydrogen surrounding one of the most spectacular and colorful areas of the night sky that can be seen from Earth. This cloud contains such famous wonders as M42, Horse Head, LDN 1622, the large Lambda Orionis Ring and the bluish (OIII) Witch Head Nebula, close to Rigel star.
According to www.space.com
