After a little more than 8 years, a revisit to this iconic area of the sky. While virtually every part of my gear setup besides the mount and the OTA has changed in that time, it is always interesting to note how the objects themselves seem to be frozen in time, given there extreme distance from us. Of course, my post processing skills have also advanced, along with the tools available - all combining to give a more detailed view of this fascinating region.
Imaged in RGB filters with Hα added to the red channel. The processing of this was very challenging, due to some issues with my setup, and the presence of extremely bright stars in the FOV. I also ended up dialing back the saturation of the final result a little bit.
The famous Horsehead Nebula (a dark nebula designated as Barnard 33) is approximately centrally located in the frame, with the bright Orion belt star Alnitak to the upper left and the Flame Nebula below that. IC 434 is the bright emission nebula behind the Horsehead that highlights it so beautifully against the night sky.
For comparison here is a link to my 8 year old version:
It still holds up well, but I do prefer the new one
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