The core of M42 including several proto-planetary discs. See the smaller images for close-ups. Look at the bright star at the bottom right in the center, surrounding it are several externally illuminated photo-evaporating protoplanetary discs. Luckily there is a shorter word for that: proplyds. The other enlargment shows another proplyd.

This was imaged with the the 10" Meade Starfinder and ASI120MM cmos camera, using just 1 second exposure times. The image is an RGB recording, I used astronomik RGB filters.

equipment used
ZWO ASI120MM
Meade Starfinder 10