This was my first attempt at photographing the central portion of the Orion Complex. This region contains the Orion Giant Molecular Cloud which envelops the constellation Orion but is directly observable only in the millimeter wavelength portion of the spectrum. In the visible regime, the sky from Orion eastward into Monoceros is chock full of diffuse nebulae, some of which are shown in this photo. In Orion’s sword are NGC 1976 (Orion Nebula) and NGC 1973,5,7 (Running Man Nebula). Near the left star in Orion’s belt, ζ Orionis, are NGC 2024 (Flame Nebula) and IC 434 with the less distant dark cloud, Bok 33, which together create the Horsehead Nebula.
This is a 168-second exposure at ISO 4000 using a 200mm lens at f/2.8. It was tracked but not guided, and the sky was clear but not especially dark, with a measured zenith V-mag of 21.5 per square arcsecond. I plan to re-image this region on the next good night using a series of many exposures to go deeper.