Ladies and Gentlemen, if this image doesn’t end up in my Top 5 images of 2019, I’ve had one heck of a photographic year. I’m not saying that to brag, I’m just saying that because I LOVE this image. This is something I’ve wanted to try for a long time and just didn’t have the gear to pull it off, but this winter I got the chance, and I’m ecstatic with the result.
Now… some of you are wondering what in the heck you’re looking at, and why am I so excited about it. That’s fair. Allow me to explain.
What you’re seeing above is an image of the Orion Nebula. The Orion Nebula to the naked eye just looks like a star in the sky; specifically one of the stars of the Orion constellation. It turns out though that the bright spot you see in the sky isn’t a star at all, but what we believe to be dust and gas that are the remnants of an exploded star (yes it’s more complicated than that… no you probably don’t care). It’s INSANELY cool.
Below is my first attempt at trying to photograph the nebula, which I did two years ago. You can see in that image the actual Orion constellation, and then the small bright blue thing is a really bad capture of the above nebula. What you see above is what I was trying to capture in the picture below… and illustrates how you have to have the right equipment (and know how) to get something neat. I should offer that while I did get a new camera this year (new to me anyway), and that definitely plays a role in this type of shot, this really comes down to some cool equipment that my friends happen to have. My friends Allen and Ryan were kind enough to let me tag along with them and use their equipment to capture some images, for which I have to say thank you a million times over because it was so much fun!
More from the night next week!
–Dan Thompson
Trackbacks/Pingbacks