IC434 / B33 / NGC2024 / Sh2-279 / M42 - The Orion Complex - A cunning plan for a 3 panel mosaic coming together
What’s in the picture(s)
IC434 / B33 / Sh2-279 / M42 - The Orion Complex
Quote “IC434 is a bright
emission nebula in the constellation
Orion. The
Horsehead Nebula (also known as Barnard 33) is a
dark nebula silhouetted against it. It is located just to the south of
Alnitak, the easternmost star of
Orion's Belt, and is part of the much larger
Orion Molecular Cloud Complex.
The Flame Nebula, designated as NGC 2024 and Sh2-277, is an
emission nebula in the constellation
Orion. It is about 900 to 1,500
light-years away. The bright star
Alnitak (ζ Ori), the easternmost star in the
Belt of Orion, shines energetic
ultraviolet light into the Flame
Sh2-279 is an
HII region and bright nebulae that includes a
reflection nebula located in the constellation
Orion. It is the northernmost part of the
asterism known as
Orion's Sword, lying 0.6° north of the
Orion Nebula. The reflection nebula embedded in Sh2-279 is popularly known as the
Running Man NebulaThe Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a
diffuse nebula situated in the
Milky Way, being south of
Orion's Belt in the
constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest
nebulae and is visible to the
naked eye in the night sky. It is 1,344 ± 20
light-years away and is the closest region of massive
star formation to
Earth”What was the experience
This data was collected in January, but it has taken nearly 4 months to process revisions of the separate panels and combine all of this into a single mosaic. The difficulty was that each panel consisted of a combination of different exposures times, resulting in unequally balanced panels. Especially my horsehead panel was quite unbalanced in exposure and graininess compared to my M42 and Sh2-279 running man panels. Because of this, I had to loose some of the visibility on the background nebulosity to hide the (not so) seamless fit.
I couldn’t capture any more data before the nightside of earth was starting to point at the deep vastness of space with the view on the many galaxies, away from the nebulae in our Milky Way.
Separate from this mosaic, the top and bottom panel stand in their own respective right. I didn’t make a separate post of the middle panel, showing the running man in the space between the stars.
Panel IC434:
https://astrob.in/0jc5zr/B/Panel Sh2-279: The middle panel of this mosaic (Acquisition data for this panel only)
Panel M42:
https://astrob.in/tfzoj6/B/When planning for these 3 panels, I made sure that the overall framing, with RA and Dec as always aligned to X and Y, would nicely fit the region from flame/horsehead to M42, which explains why those respective images had ‘odd’ framing, skewed to the side.
I had even planned for some extended panels, venturing out in trying to grab the full overview of Orion's "Barnard's Loop" Sh2-276, but, like the famous multi-panel painting of the Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck, I’m still missing a panel (or 2 😂😉) to bring this to completion. I just hope it won’t be the ‘righteous judges’ that will be missing on my mosaic …🤞😎
How it was done
Scope: TS94 APO (FL 414mm)
Mount: EQ6-R Pro
Camera: ASI2600MC Pro
Photons:
Panel IC434 (top): 20220308-0310 L-Enhance 180s 87x 4:21
Panel Sh2-279 (middle): 20220124-0225 L-Enhance 180s 30x 120s 14x 60s 30x 2:21
Panel M42 (bottom): 20220124-0127-0204-0222 L-Enhance 120s 70x 60s 133x 30s 60s 5:02
Processing: PixInsight (Mac)
What have I learned from this
I had done a test mosaic of 2 panels in the Cygnus area early last year, but planning and building a 3+panel mosaic is a whole new level. Although I also have a couple of side panels covering M78 and more of B33, I’ll keep this for later. Before I tackle that task, I first want to get the exposures balanced on all panels … a learning point from this feat 😎
Clear Skies everybody! 🤩✨🔭
Follow me @astrowaut
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