This is finally my last image with the ED80 being my main imaging telescope. I was not planning to finish off with the Horsehead Nebula but I am delighted it was and in some ways it makes my feel good. This is my third image of the Horeshead and Flame, the first being a not so impressive 2.75 hr image from 2 yrs ago, the second was from last year and was much better with more detail and color, and finally this image. This image has much more Ha time and, therefore, had much less noise. I like the framing on my second image better than this one as I began collecting data the same nights as my recent Pleiades image (
https://www.astrobin.com/385346/?nc=collection&nce=712) and did not want to rearrange the camera.
The Horsehead is designated as Barnard 33 and is actually a dark nebula which sits in front of deep red emission nebula known as IC 434. The yellowish Flame nebula on the left side is designated as NGC 2024 and there is a small blue reflection, NGC 2023, below the Horsehead. Near the bottom center is a very small reflection nebula, IC 435, which is being illuminated by the star located in the center of this nebula. The whole complex is approximately 1,500 light-years away and is all part of the Orion Molecular Cloud.
The hardest part of imaging the Flame and Horsehead as a whole is the second magnitude star Alnitak (the left most star in the belt of Orion). My camera does not do very bright stars well as you can see the geometric patterns protruding from the star. The stringers in IC 434 are my favorite part and not surprisingly show up better in Ha. Overall I am really happy with how it turned out I don't know if I will image this anytime soon again as I have other plans with my new telescope.
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