Horsehead Nebula  (B33 + IC434 / NGC 2024 and more)- captured on La Palma on Oct. 31, 2022, Ralph Winter

Horsehead Nebula (B33 + IC434 / NGC 2024 and more)- captured on La Palma on Oct. 31, 2022

Horsehead Nebula  (B33 + IC434 / NGC 2024 and more)- captured on La Palma on Oct. 31, 2022, Ralph Winter

Horsehead Nebula (B33 + IC434 / NGC 2024 and more)- captured on La Palma on Oct. 31, 2022

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

1. Session Planning
 This was my very first attempt to take a picture of    
    [*]
    • B 33 - Horsehead nebula
    • IC434 (the red emission nebula behind B 33) and
    • NGC 2024 Flame Nebula

in the Orion constellation.

The exposure session (ASIAIR Plan) was activated at 22:17 and the initialization, targeting and exposure taking started as programmed at 0:30 on the next day. I went to bed shortly after activating the plan and had a real surprise next morning when I dismantled the scope and had a fist look at one of the 60 unprocessed images taken during the night.

2. Location and sky:
I took the images on the terrace of our bungalow of the La Palma Jardin facility located in Celta - El Paso - La Palma (Canary Islands) in Spain during the late night using an ASIAIR plan that was generated using the Skyatlas function of ASIAIR to center the target. The manual camera rotation was already adjusted during the earlier night. Unfortunately the sky properties where not too good, we had extremely high air humidity (>90%) and a dew point only 1° below the actual temperature resulting in sudden fog formation, but apparently the situation improved during the night, although the humidity is visible around the brighter stars in this image.

3. Session Results
I took 60 exposures of 5 minutes each (totaling to 5 hours of light) to collect enough light for this very beautiful target. The TS-Optics 90/600 APO refractor with a field of view of 1,8x1,2° was quite optimal for this target.

4. Post Processing
Image selection, registration, background improvement and color correction were done in PixInsight (Post Processing using PixInsight (starlust.de) ). No further image post processing was required.
No color or hue changes have been applied, the final image is showing natural colors.

5. Plate Solve and Camera Rotation
This picture was also the first successful result in setting the the camera angle exactly as I planned the frame by first shooting images using the Skyatlas in ASIAIR Preview mode on a target near the expected position B 33 in the earlier night to set the rotation accroding to the planned rotation as given by Telescopius.com.
ASIAIR rotation measurement:
Before Meridian Flip:  -103.259  
After Meridian Flip: 76.8233
Calculation: 180° - 103.259° = 76,741° (corresponds nearly with measured 76.8233° in Astrometry.net)
Astrometry.net rotation measurement:
Final image: 103,3°  (corresponds witth ASIAR rotation)
Plate Solve result (ASIAIR):
RA:5h42m27s DEC:-2°21'40" Angle = -103.268, Star number = 186

6. Main logfile entries  
2022/10/30 22:17:34 Plan IC434 Start  
2022/10/31 00:30:47 Solve succeeded: RA:5h46m49s DEC:-1°58'21  Angle = -103.259, Star number = 144  
2022/10/31 00:34:30 Auto focus succeeded, the focused position is 20595  
2022/10/31 00:34:38 Exposure 300.0s image 1# …  
2022/10/31 04:08:29 Exposure 300.0s image 42#  
2022/10/31 04:13:30 [Guide] Stop Guiding  
2022/10/31 04:13:31 Stop Tracking  
2022/10/31 04:18:11 Meridian Flip 1# Start
2022/10/31 04:19:47 Solve succeeded: RA:5h42m28s DEC:-2°21'43; Angle = 76.8233, Star number = 133
2022/10/31 04:19:47 [AutoCenter|End] The target is centered  
2022/10/31 04:19:47 [Meridian Flip|End] Meridian Flip succeeded  
2022/10/31 04:21:43 Auto focus succeeded, the focused position is
20594  2022/10/31 04:24:58 Exposure 300.0s image 43#  ...  
2022/10/31 05:53:19 Exposure 300.0s image 60#  
2022/10/31 05:58:20 [Autorun|End] Finish Autorun  
2022/10/31 05:59:48 EAF back to zero position  
2022/10/31 05:59:48 Shutdown ASIAIR  Log disabled at 2022/10/31 05:59:48

Comments

Histogram

Horsehead Nebula  (B33 + IC434 / NGC 2024 and more)- captured on La Palma on Oct. 31, 2022, Ralph Winter