Messier 42 - The Orion Nebula

Messier 42, also known as The Orion Nebula or NGC 1976, is a diffuse nebula in the Milky Way situated south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion and is known as the middle "star" in the "sword" of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky with an apparent magnitude of 4.0. It is 1,344 ± 20 light-years away and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. Messier 42 is estimated to be 25 light-years across. Older texts frequently refer to the Orion Nebula as the Great Nebula in Orion or the Great Orion Nebula.

The Orion Nebula is one of the most scrutinized and photographed objects in the night sky and is among the most intensely studied celestial objects.

This was my very first photo of a "deep sky" object with my new telescope and camera.

Equipment:
OTA: Apertura 6" Ritchey-Chretien reflector (f/9)
Reducer: Astro-Physics CCDT67 0.67x reducer (f/6 overall)
Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Pro Cooled Color camera (20.1 mp)
76x5s subs (6.33 minutes) stacked in SharpCap 4.1
Saved to PNG from SharpCap & processed with Paint Shop Pro 6