Space exploration, astronomy, and the cosmos are continual interests of mine.

Watching PBS as a kid and reading books about the planets, learning about the space shuttle and apollo missions. One of my science classes in Jr. High focused strongly on study of the solar system. I took an astronomy class in college and even did a report for a Philosophy of Engineering class regarding manned exploration of Mars.

This winter, in the cold and bleak, I was bored so I decided to turn my camera to the stars. Amazingly (to me) you can see the Orion Nebula (albeit dimly) through a moderately zoomed lens. You can probably see it with the naked eye if the sky is dark enough.

So I thought this was pretty sweet, I started researching telescopes, and ways to mount a DSLR to them, equatorial mounts, the whole bit.

Then I remebered the hubble space telescope, and checked out the website at spacetelescope.org. As it happens, the Hubble space telescope has taken a rather famous image of the Orion Nebula. Below is an animation showing my photo of the Orion Nebula, versus Hubble’s.

I guess a gazillion dollar telescope orbiting space is going to take better pictures than me.

Who’d a thunk it?

Check out a larger version of the Orion Nebula (taken by the Hubble Space Telescope) here.