Orion Nebula and the Horsehead

The Orion Nebula, the Flame, and the Horsehead dark nebula, framed with the Belt of Orion (the three aligned stars on the right), in a telephoto image. The image is achieved by a single exposure. Generally this kind of deep night sky images were used to be composite images resulted of various exposures but thanks to the pristine conditions at Paranal and the advanced camera technology this image was doable by classic single exposure photography. The photographer has also used a skyglow filter (for DSLR cameras) to increase the nebulosity contrast. In the foreground is one of the telescopes on the Cerro Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert, Chile. With its dark and transparent sky, Paranal is home to the Very Large Telescope (VLT), operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). It is composed of four 8-metre telescopes and smaller auxiliary telescopes, each 1.8 metres in aperture (pictured here) which are important elements of the VLT interferometer.