Preserving the Orion Nebula's core

It's too easy to burn out the core when imaging M42. We explain an easy way to avoid it

Along with the Andromeda Galaxy, the Orion Nebula (M42) is probably the most photographed deep-sky object. And for good reason – it's large, bright, highly detailed and very colourful. But its brilliance can work against you, as many smart scope owners have discovered. It's all too easy to burn out the core, leading to a nebula that looks beautiful around the outside but a pure-white mess in the middle. This month, we're looking at a simple method for restoring the core to produce a high-dynamicrange (HDR) image of the nebula similar (albeit more colourful) to what you'd see through the eyepiece. Let's first discuss why the core burns out. Take a photograph of the nebula exposed for the core and it'll look wonderfully detailed. However, much of the intricacy and…

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BBC Sky at Night United Kingdom (Digital) - 1 Issue, January 2025

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