Astrophotographer Emil Andronic spent almost 70 hours capturing the light of a beguiling reflection nebula near the head of the Hunter in the constellation Orion, revealing impressive detail in the structure of the interstellar cloud as it glowed over Britain in late 2025.
Reflection nebulae are huge clouds of interstellar dust, which shine by scattering the blue light from nearby stars, according to NASA. Emission nebulae, meanwhile, glow with their own light, having been altered by the radiation from nearby stars.
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“Ced 51 is a target that I wanted to capture for a very long time, but most of the time the conditions were not so good and each time I ended up shooting something else,” Andronic told Space.com in an email.
Andronic captured the nebula using a pair of 8-inch (200 mm) telescopes equipped with a series of specialized red, green blue and H-alpha filters and cooled astronomy cameras. The data was captured from Hertfordshire in the UK as the constellation Orion climbed higher in the autumn sky.
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“This time I started collecting my data in early fall when Orion was just coming up in the night sky and this way… I was able to get 69 hours and 15 minutes of HaLRGB data,” Andronic continued. “Because Greater London with its very bad light pollution is not that far from where I live, it’s a bit difficult to shoot LRGB in the south, but after a careful selection of the best subs (exposures), I got a result that I’m very happy with.”
The individual exposures were then carefully stacked and edited using the PixInsight astronomy software and good old Adobe Photoshop, resulting in a stunning nebula image studded with the multicolored light from countless stars.
Interested in falling in love with astrophotography for yourself? So be sure to check out our collection of best cameras and lenses for astrophotographytogether with ours beginner’s guide to capturing the Milky Way’s glowing bands with a DSLR camera. You can also check out our roundups of best smart telescopesthat will have you taking your own incredible pictures of galaxies and nebulae in no time!
Editor’s Note: If you would like to share your astrophotography with Space.com readers, please send your photos, comments, and name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
