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Orion Nebula multiband 2x2 mosaic - IHO
2026-04-03
- Classification
- Photograph
- Museum
- Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- CC BY 4.0, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Kids profiles and older: it shows nature, places, still life or a children's book. How works are placed
About this work
To my knowledge, this is the very first image of the Orion Nebula processed in this manner.
This multiband study of the Orion Nebula covered the near infrared, red, green, and blue bands along with H-alpha and [O III] emission. This image was assembled by adding infrared data to the red image channel, H-alpha data to the green image channel, and [O III] data to the blue image channel. The resulting IHO palette reveals continuum sources (stars and reflection nebulosity) in red, hydrogen emission in green, and oxygen emission in blue.
This palette also distinguishes bright reflection regions (such as the center of the Trapezium) from regions that are truly dominated by [O III] emission rather than continuum reflection leaking through the filter. Of special note is M 43 (de Mairan's Nebula) at the northeast (top left) corner: it is notable for lacking [O III] emission because its ionizing star (NU Orionis) is not sufficiently hot to strip two electrons from enough oxygen atoms. In amateur telescopes, M 43 is very obvious with an H-beta line filter or UHC filter, but is almost extinguished by an [O III] line filter.
Mount: Sky-Watcher Wave 150i (strain wave German equatorial…
