DETAILS
Exposure: 29×360″ @ ISO 1600
Lens: Pentax Takumar SMC 6×7 200mm f4 @ f5.6
Filter: Hutech IDAS LPS 2″
Mount: Skywatcher EQ6 Pro
Camera: Amp-off Modded & Cooled Canon 350D
Date: 15th March 2010
Location: Rasos de Peguera (Barcelona, Spain)
Comments: I wanted to include in the framing M78 and the Barnard’s loop but due to a flexure the framing got a displacement upwards of 2 or 3 pixels every exposure, this is why M78 is cut on the lower left part of the image.

Orion is a prominent constellation located on the celestial equator and visible throughout the world. It is one of the largest, most conspicuous, and most recognizable constellations in the night sky. Its name refers to Orion, a hunter in Greek mythology.
Orion includes the prominent asterism known as the Belt of Orion: three bright stars in a row, which are:
Mintaka, also known as Delta Orionis, is the faintest of the three stars in Orion’s Belt. It is a multiple star system, composed of a large B-type blue giant and a more massive O-type white star. The Mintaka system constitutes an eclipsing binary variable star, where the eclipse of one star over the other creates a dip in brightness. Mintaka is the westernmost of the three stars that constitute Orion’s Belt. In the image it’s the star bright star at the upper side.
Alnilam, also known as Epsilon Orionis, is a B-type blue supergiant, despite being nearly twice as far from the Sun as Mintaka and Alnitak, the other two belt stars, its luminosity makes it nearly equal in magnitude. Alnilam is losing mass quickly, a consequence of its size; approximately four million years old. It’s the bright star near the center of the image.
Alnitak, also known as Zeta Orionis, is the easternmost star in Orion’s Belt. It is a triple star some 800 light years distant, with the primary star being a hot blue supergiant and the brightest class O star in the night sky. It is the bright star at the bottom of the image, just above the flame nebula.
The image shows also a lot of nebulae, among which highlight Barnard’s loop at the lower left corner and flame & horsehead to the right of Alnitak, which are part of a much larger nebula that is known as the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex.