Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Orion (Ori)  ·  Contains:  48 sig Ori  ·  50 zet Ori  ·  Alnitak  ·  B33  ·  Flame Nebula  ·  Horsehead nebula  ·  IC 431  ·  IC 432  ·  IC 434  ·  IC 435  ·  NGC 2023  ·  NGC 2024  ·  Orion B  ·  Sh2-277  ·  The star Alnitak (ζOri)  ·  The star σOri  ·  VdB51
Horsehead & Flame are back in the sky, Christophe Perroud
Powered byPixInsight

Horsehead & Flame are back in the sky

Horsehead & Flame are back in the sky, Christophe Perroud
Powered byPixInsight

Horsehead & Flame are back in the sky

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

This is my second visit to this iconic nebula in the northern sky and I really love this area (-8

Wiki says : The Horsehead Nebula (also known as Barnard 33) is a small dark nebula in the constellation Orion. The nebula 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. It appears within the southern region of the dense dust cloud known as Lynds 1630, along the edge of the much larger, active star-forming H II region called IC 434.

The Horsehead Nebula is approximately 422 parsecs or 1,375 light-years from Earth. It is one of the most identifiable nebulae because of its resemblance to a horse's head.

The dark cloud of dust and gas is a region in the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex where star formation is taking place.

Colour images reveal a deep-red colour that originates from ionised hydrogen gas (Hα) predominantly behind the nebula, and caused by the nearby bright star Sigma Orionis. Magnetic fields channel the gases, leaving the nebula into streams, shown as foreground streaks against the background glow. A glowing strip of hydrogen gas marks the edge of the enormous cloud, and the densities of nearby stars are noticeably different on either side.

Heavy concentrations of dust in the Horsehead Nebula region and neighbouring Orion Nebula are localized into interstellar clouds, resulting in alternating sections of nearly complete opacity and transparency. The darkness of the Horsehead is caused mostly by thick dust blocking the light of stars behind it. The lower part of the Horsehead's neck casts a shadow to the left. The visible dark nebula emerging from the gaseous complex is an active site of the formation of "low-mass" stars. Bright spots in the Horsehead Nebula's base are young stars just in the process of forming.


For this session, I wanted to push my gear a bit more and took 5 mins subs @200iso. Tracking was pretty good and only a few image have been rejected. But working on stars shape was a bit though this time. As the sky quality wasn't optimal due to fair transparency and high humidity level, I'm not sure it was a good idea to go with 5' single exposure...and the focus wasn't perfect as well... Anyway, the horse is still lovely to see and there is some nice contrast in its surrounding gas regions!

Hope you'll enjoy this new image too! Criticism, feedback and thumbs up are welcome ;-)

Stay healthy and keep your eyes on the stars.

Christophe

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

Horsehead & Flame are back in the sky, Christophe Perroud