Barnard’s Loop by Klaus Brasch

Photo of the Week for February 20, 2015

The huge but dim Barnard’s Loop nebulosity curves around the east and south side of the belt and sword of the winter constellation Orion. The Loop is about 1,400 light-years distant and may be the remnants of one or more massive stars in the Orion Nebula that exploded as supernovas about 2-million years ago.

Barnard's Loop by Klaus Brasch — Barnard’s Loop (*Klaus Brasch*)

This impressive photo of the region was captured by Canadian astrophotographer Klaus Brasch earlier this month under the extremely dark and transparent skies of Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument near Flagstaff, Arizona. He used a filter-modified Canon 6D DSLR camera fitted with a Mitakon 135mm lens for a total of 8 one-minute exposures at ISO 3200 (four at f/4 and and four at f/5.6) later digitally stacking them into the final image seen here.