Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Orion (Ori)  ·  Contains:  Flame Nebula  ·  IC 434  ·  IC 435  ·  NGC 2023  ·  NGC 2024  ·  Orion B  ·  The star Alnitak (ζOri)
Horse Head and Flame Nebula, Thomas
Horse Head and Flame Nebula
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Horse Head and Flame Nebula, Thomas
Horse Head and Flame Nebula
Powered byPixInsight

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Description

After many weeks of changing low pressure areas, snow and frost, a few nights of very modest seeing followed. Unstable jet streams produce twinkling stars, but little joy for the astrophotographer. Not to be completely out of practice, I took the opportunity last night. The FWHM was above 6, on good nights it is around 3.5 with my constellation, so stars bloat with nice other side effects.

For the aim of the night I aligned the system to the emission nebula IC 434. Most people know the silhouette of the dark cloud similar to a horse's head (also from the spectacular Hubble images). With a distance of 1500 light years, the nebula is right on our doorstep. Flame Nebula, Alnitak and NGC 2023 give the section an appropriate stage.

Two hours of exposure, a nice layer of ice on the telescope and accessories (-8 degrees) and increasing haze finished the exposure. Well, I enjoyed collecting a few photons even with amateur means under the conditions.

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Horse Head and Flame Nebula, Thomas