Captured from Grand.MesaObservatory.com over 2 nights in October 2017 using the QHY367C CMOS camera on Walter's TAK 130 FSQ, 4 minute exposures were used for the color and 10 minute exposures were used for the H Alpha filter for a total integration time of 6.9 Hours.

For comparison to some of my earlier imagery of The Horsehead please check this out using the QHY11 and QHY9 Mono CCDs www.flickr.com/photos/terryhancock/16080005364/in/datepos...

Image Details

Terry Hancock downunderobservatory.com

Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Whitewater, Colorado

Date: 13th, 14th October 2017

RGB 43 x 4 min,

H Alpha 5nm 24 x 10 min

Camera: QHY367C

Gain 2850, Offset 76 with Dark Frames no Flat.

Optics: Walter Holloway's Takahashi FSQ 130 APO Refractor @ F5

Filters by Chroma

EQ Mount: Paramount ME

Image Acquisition software Maxim DL5

Registered, Calibrated and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

Post Processed with Pixinsight and Photoshop CS6

Less than one hundred light years from the Orion Nebula lies the

aptly named Horsehead Nebula, another outcropping of the Orion

Molecular Cloud and one of the most recognizable assemblies in the

heavens. Whereas the Orion Nebula generates enough light to be

visible to the unaided eye, the Horsehead has a far lower surface

brightness and presents a challenge to visual observers even with

large telescopes. But it’s a delight for astrophotographers and arm-

chair stargazers.

The Horsehead complex lies just south of the brilliant blue supergi-

ant star Alnitak, the easternmost star in Orion’s Belt and just north of

the Orion Nebula. The glowing reddish-pink region in the back-

ground is cataloged by astronomers as IC 434. Like the Orion Neb-

ula, IC 434 is an emission nebula. It’s powered by the blazing-hot

star Sigma Orionis, just south of Alnitak. Much of the nebula is per-

meated by tenuous streaks caused by magnetic fields in the region.

Etched against the glowing IC 434 is the chess-piece outline of the

dark nebula Barnard 33 (B33). This is one of more than three hun-

dred dark clouds of gas and fine dust discovered by Edward Emer-

son Barnard, the prodigious and self-made American astronomer

who rose from abject poverty after the American Civil War to be-

come the most astute professional observer and astrophotographer

of the early 20th century. `

Dark nebulae are common in the Orion complex and throughout the

spiral arms of the Milky Way. But B33 lies in the foreground of the

reddish-pink emission nebula so it stands out as clearly as a burglar

in a brightly lit window. This dark nebula itself is an eddy of gas and

dust, swirling at some 20 km/s. Within the nebula, small pockets are

slowly collapsing to form more stars. But most of the nebula will be

blown away by the gentle but steady pressure of ultraviolet light

from massive new stars over the next 5 million years.

All information from The Armchair Astronomer by Brian Ventrudo and Terry Hancock

The book is available in multi-media format from Apple’s iBooks store, in high-resolution PDF format, and in standard e-book format from Amazon’s Kindle store.

cosmicpursuits.com/e-books/armchair-astronomer-volume-1-ne

#QHY #QHY367C #Universetoday #Sky #Cosmos #Astrophotography #Astroimaging