Nebula - Astrophotography by Pete Richardson

The beauty of deep space never fails to amaze and being able to image these wonderful objects from home is incredibly rewarding. These huge areas of gas and dust are both places of birth and death of stars within the cosmos and are what adorn many pages of astronomy magazines and books. At a point in the distant past our own sun and planets would have be born in a nebula not to dissimilar to the ones we now see and image.
M42 the Great Orion Nebula is one of the most photographed objects in the night sky and for good reason. It is certainly one of the most beautiful and can still challenge the seasoned astrophotographer due to its high dynamic range between faint wispy outer nebulosity and bright central star forming regions.