Horsehead & Flame Nebula (Guangyan (astrosymmetry))

Horsehead & Flame Nebula

This beloved scene is a perennial astrophotographer favourite. There are thousands of photographs like this out there, but this one is my first attempt. Before starting astrophotography, I never would have imagined that this scene was something I would have been able to photograph.

I missed imaging this during the winter, so tried to grab a last-minute session (15, 17 Mar 2024 from Seattle area) before it sets for the season. I had initially planned to photograph M45 that evening, but I did a last-minute change due to the brightness of the quarter moon and its proximity to M45. I only got one hour of imaging time before it had dipped into the horizon murk.

Two days later, I went out to the waterside and did another session using a dual-band filter (Ha and Oiii) and collected another 72 minutes of data. I extracted synthetic Ha and combined it with OSC to reveal more of the red hydrogen. Sky-glow, horizon lights, and headlights from passing cars created some very challenging light leaks and gradients.

For just 2hr 12min of total integration time in non-ideal conditions, I think I achieved an acceptable albeit low-contrast and noisy image.

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	n/a
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Astrometry.net job	n/a
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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