Happy Easter everyone! I hope you’ve all had a nice weekend.  Though this week’s Picture of the Week doesn’t have a specific tie to Easter, I personally find that all night sky images can speak to the glory of God, as the Psalmist mentions in Psalm 19:1 – “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands”.

This week’s image focuses on the Orion constellation, and all the nebulosity in and around it.  You can also see the band of the winter Milky Way reaching up and right, behind the tree.  Though much fainter than the summer (in the Northern Hemisphere) Milky Way you typically see in my pictures, I find it to be just as beautiful in its own right.

As with last week, I attempted with this image to light paint an interpretation of the constellation, as can be seen with the reds of the hydrogen alpha emissions.  To me it looks like one giant C (known as Bernard’s Loop), topped by a smaller, backwards C (known as the angelfish nebula – if you stare at it, you can see it 🙂 ).  Also as with last week, you can find an annotated version of this week’s Picture of the Week below, to help you see what’s what from an astronomy perspective.  Hopefully you all find these things helpful.  They’re truly fun to make!

More next week!

–Dan Thompson