When looking up into the sky, one of the first constellations many see is Orion, made up of three bright stars, one of which is the 11th brightest star in the sky. This photo of the Orion constellation, which also features the Great Orion Nebula and Horsehead/Flame Nebulae, was captured by CIERA graduate student Imran Sultan from Bortle Class 8-9 city skies, meaning it is a very bright night sky with little celestial visibility, in dual narrowband. The Horsehead/Flame Nebulae can be found south of the easternmost star of Orion’s Belt and is part of the much larger Orion molecular cloud complex. Sultan, who practices astrophotography in his free time, is a graduate student in CIERA Professor Claude-Andre Faucher-Giguere’s group. In 2023, Sultan’s photo of the Western Veil Nebula and the Flower Moon won first place and runner-up respectively in the astronomy category of the Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition. The equipment used to capture this constellation includes the ZWO ASI533MC Pro, Samyang 135mm f/2, Optolong L-Ultimate 2″ filter, Star Adventurer GTi, ZWO 30mm f/4 guide scope, and ASI120MM Mini guide camera, ASIAIR Pro.
Credit: Imran Sultan/Northwestern/CIERA
- Science