Some might assume that in order to see a nebula, you need a telescope. For the most part, these dim, deep sky objects are a challenge to see even through a telescope in the darkest of skies. However, one nebula is an outlier to this notion. The Orion Nebula is the crown jewel of all nebulae in the Northern Hemisphere when it comes to luminosity. It is one of the very few nebulae that can be seen with the naked eye.
To see the Orion Nebula, you do not need to go to a dedicated dark sky site, yet it is best to go to a location that is classified as Bortle-5 or lower. To find such locations, you can simply look up a light pollution map online. The nebula itself is located just below the iconic Orion’s belt, within what appears to be a line of three stars. However, the central star is the actual nebula! It will appear slightly fuzzy and gray in color.
Unfortunately, the cone cells in our eyes are not sensitive enough to pick up faint colors. So, in order to reveal the rich colors of the Orion Nebula, one must expose a camera for multiple minutes while tracking the object through the sky. This is what I did to create the image in this article. More specifically, I used a stock DSLR, 300mm lens, and a star tracker to gather approximately one-and-a-half hours of data on the Orion Nebula.
We hope you have the chance to witness this incredibly bright nebula for yourself one day. There are many awe-inspiring things to find in the night sky. All we have to do is escape the light pollution and look up!
