This is the final image of M42, stretched and processed from a stack of 50 frames.
This nebula is in the dagger hanging from Orion's belt. To the naked eye, it appears as a single (but slightly fuzzy) star. It is 24 light years across, and is around 1,300 light years from Earth. In the very center of the photograph is a tight cluster of four stars, called The Trapezium. Those stars a very young, and provide the energy that illuminates the colorful nebula around it. Think of a lightbulb inside of a lampshade.
"But see, Orion sheds unwholesome dews; Arise, the pines a noxious shade diffuse; Sharp Boreas blows, and Nature feels decay, Time conquers all, and we must Time obey." - Alexander Pope
This is the final image of M57, stretched and processed from a stack of 30 frames.
This nebula is in Lyra, The Harp. It is not visible with the naked eye, and hardly visible in binoculars. It is 2.5 light years across, and is approximately 2,300 light years from Earth.