Horshead and friends (Ben Godson)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Orion (Ori) · Contains: 48 sig Ori · 50 zet Ori · Alnitak · B33 · Horsehead nebula · IC 434 · IC 435 · LBN 953 · LBN 954 · LBN 958 · LBN 962 · LDN 1635 · LDN 1636 · NGC 2023 · NGC 2024 · Orion · Sh2-277 · The star Alnitak (ζOri) · The star σOri

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Horshead and friends

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Horshead and friends

The Horsehead is a dark nebula close to orion's belt, named for its resemblance to the head of a horse. It is part of a much larger region of dust and gas at the bottom of the image and is illuminated by the bright gas behind it, casting a shadow to its bottom left on the dust in front of it.

The red light comes from the Hα emission of hydrogen caused by a particular electron transition. The energy for this is the star at the top of frame Sigma Orionis which is a hot blue star releasing UV photons which ionise the hydrogen gas around it, causing it to emit light. The red line seen is the very edge of this cloud.

Though not apparent in this image the gas is channeled into streams and filaments by the magnetic field of Sigma Orionis.

Also visible to the bottom left of the Horsehead are NGC 2023 and the Flame Nebula. NGC 2023 is one of the largest reflection nebulae discovered at around 4 light years across, illuminated by the reflection of light from bright stars at its centre. On the other hand the flame nebula is an emission nebula, this time its ionisation is caused by Alnitak the brightest star in the frame and part of Orion's Belt

This image is a combination of 19 60 second exposures using a super fast celestron RASA telescope and a OSC camera

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	2364407
PixInsight job	42E2BXKJZZVDETC9Q3BRV0F31GF229QO
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	05h41m01s.680
RA (top/left)	05h38m16s.658
RA (top/right)	05h38m50s.605
RA (bottom/right)	05h43m45s.355
RA (bottom/left)	05h43m11s.257

Dec (center)	-02°24′36″.52
Dec (top/left)	-01°38′59″.50
Dec (top/right)	-03°16′36″.30
Dec (bottom/right)	-03°10′11″.49
Dec (bottom/left)	-01°32′36″.95

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Horshead and friends

Horshead and friends

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Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

Horshead and friends

Horshead and friends

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