Astrophoto: A Mexican Orion

By Nancy Atkinson - March 28, 2011 at 4:54 AM UTC | Observing

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This stunning new image of the Orion Nebula has a bit of salsa to it!

César Cantú of the Chiledog Observatory

in Monterrey, Mexico took this image earlier this month. But he had to travel to Paredón, Coah in Mexico to escape the fog to get this great image. Here are the specs: Orion Atlas mount, 90mm Astrotech APO telescope camera; LRGB QSI540, 3 hours with 600 seconds subs. But the fog tried to follow, César told us. "The intention was 4 hours, but the fog did not allow it," he said. See more of his great images at this website,

Astronomía Y Astrofotografía.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com