This is a difficult area to image and process. At least for me. It is so spectacular, there is so much contrast and color, the temptation to go overboard is irresistible. Generally I prefer a less color saturated approach, but I thought, what the heck. So here it is, overdone in all its spectacular glory.

When confronted with this astounding array of astronomical objects in one frame, it’s hard to decide where to look first. The eye is naturally drawn to the bright star Alnitak, the leftmost star in the Belt of Orion, which is both illuminator and sculptor of the image. Its photons and charged particles impact and reflect off of vast clouds of dust, giving rise to fantastic shapes such as the one on the right, the iconic Horsehead Nebula. This amazingly dense cloud shows up black against a background of red, ionized hydrogen gas.

Below and slightly left of the Horsehead is the nebula known only as NGC 2023; its delicate blue with pink undertone coloration pales compared to the other objects in this photo. The salmon colored fiery Flame Nebula, at the lower left, is an emission nebula that lives up to its name. It is about 900 to 1,500 light-years away. Alnitak shines energetic ultraviolet light into the Flame knocking electrons away from the great clouds of hydrogen gas that reside there. Much of the glow results when the electrons and ionized hydrogen recombine and release a photon. Additional gas and dust lie in front of the bright part of the nebula, causing the dense, dark network that appears in the center of the glowing gas.

About Revision J:

The Horsehead Nebula was first identified in the late 19th century by Scottish astronomer Williamina Paton Fleming as she compiled one of the first astronomical catalogues based on photographic observations. In the image she used, taken at visible wavelengths, the Horsehead Nebula stood out as a tiny silhouette against the diffuse glow of the IC 434 nebula. Later investigations would reveal that like other 'dark nebulae,’ the Horsehead consists of material so dense that it blocks visible light from background stars or surrounding clouds. Inside the dense dark nebulae, stars are on the verge of being born. Mrs. Fleming was also the first researcher to identify a White Dwarf star.

This monochrome capture is the same image astronomer Fleming used in her discovery. Made from a single 90 minute exposure, it was taken at the Harvard College Observatory by W.H. Pickering in 1888 through an 8-inch refractor telescope, captured on a glass photographic plate. The red arrow (which I added) points to the Horsehead.