welcome back this is my continuation of a countdown of the 10 best nebulae
for astrophotographers if you haven't seen part one i'll link it right here
for you to check out all right number five is the lagoon nebula the lagoon is one of the brightest
diffuse nebula in the sky it's also in a very dynamic part of the night sky right in the core
of the milky way meaning looking into the center of our own galaxy it's nice and bright on its
own but in an even wider field of view we can capture ic 1275 and the trifid nebula as well
at negative 24 degrees in declination it's well situated for the southern hemisphere and
most of the northern hemisphere those at about 50 degrees north or higher will have to travel
south to capture it well though number four is the horse head nebula discovered by wilhelmina
fleming on a glass plate photograph in 1890 today it's one of the most famous nebula
due to the many photographs of it as it really does look exactly like a horse head in profile
it's mostly a dark nebula obscuring part of an interestingly shaped red h2 region it can carry
it can be a bit challenging to photograph since it's relatively small at just about
eight arcminutes tall and very close to a bright star called omnitoc that can give
some troubles with reflections the hubble space telescope has shown that it's really beautiful
in non-visible wavelengths like the infrared as seen here at negative 0.5 degrees declination
it's well situated for most of the world to see at some point in the year number three is the
rho ufiuki cloud complex yellow reflection nebulae are relatively rare and usually small but the one
around antares the antares nebula is large and brilliant and then there is so much else going
on in this region including a red emission nebula a blue reflection and dark nebula streamers going
off to the core of the milky way if you like lots of color then this region of the sky cannot be
beat you could focus on just one part of the scene with a telescope to capture the whole thing you're
either going to need to build a mosaic of images if using a telescope or if you use a camera lens i
think 135 millimeters up to about 200 millimeters is great for row at negative 24 degrees it's the
same situation as lagoon good for most people except for the high northern latitudes number two
is the karina nebula this one has so much going on it's one of those nebula you could probably spend
years photographing and never run out of creative new things to do with it especially with narrow
band filters the whole thing is over a two degrees across but you can also focus on various parts
within it this hubble image of a small feature within the karina nebula they called the mystic
mountain is one of my favorite astrophotographs of all time i've never shot any part of the carina
myself as i still have to get down to the southern hemisphere with some astrophotography gear but i
really look forward to it on my next trip number one is the orion nebula probably not a surprise
it was the first nebula i photographed and i'm guessing it's the first nebula the majority of
astrophotographers start with it's easy to find it's super bright the core region is actually
so bright that some people think it's not really a beginner target i tend to disagree because i think
blow out the core even with a blown out core it's still incredibly beautiful like most nebulae on
this list there are many different approaches to orion there's lots of beautiful dust all around
it and you can bring that dust out with a deep integration meaning lots of total time it has a
companion which is the running man and the running man is really just as beautiful as orion itself
lastly the whole constellation of orion is full of amazing nebulae you can just start with orion
and go from there it's well situated for most of the world at negative five degrees declination
here in the north it's definitely a winter object so depending on where you live
you may have to brave the snow and cold temperatures but it's well worth it well i
hope you enjoyed my list i'm sure there'll be some strong opinions about what i included or left off
feel free to share in the comments till next time this is nico carver from nebula photos clear skies