The Flame and Horsehead Nebulae
1500 light years from earth the bright blue supergiant star Alnitak, the easternmost star of the Belt of Orion, shines energetic light into the Flame Nebula causing the ionised hydrogen to glow. In front of the Flame Nebula is a dark cloud of gas, causing its flame-like appearance.
On the other side of Alnitak lies the well known Horsehead Nebula. The red or glow originates from hydrogen gas predominantly behind the nebula, ionized by the nearby bright star Sigma Orionis. Magnetic fields channel the gases leaving the nebula into streams, shown as streaks in the background glow.
Nearby to the Horsehead Nebula is the blue reflection nebula NGC 2023. At 4 light years diameter, it is the largest reflection nebulae discovered. A similar reflection nebula named VDB 57 is shown at the bottom of the frame.
Image:
- 50x 240s Luminance bin1x1 + 35 flat + 50x dark + 120x bias
- 24x 120s Red bin2x2 + 32 flat + 50x dark + 120x bias
- 13x 120s Green bin2x2 + 32 flat + 50x dark + 120x bias
- 23x 120s Blue bin2x2 + 32 flat + 50x dark + 120x bias
Total exposure 5 hours 20 minutes.
Hardware:
- Skywatcher Black Diamond ED120
- SkyWatcher EQ8 Pro Mount
- QSI 683-ws8 Camera @ -15°C
- Astronomik Typ 2c LRGB Filters
- Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
- Innovations Foresight On Axis Guider
- Starlight Instruments Focus Boss II
Location:
- Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)
Software:
- Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 9
- Captured with AstroArt 6
- Guiding with PHD2 + PHD_Dither
- FocusLock live focusing
- CCDInspector: Image analysis & rejection
- CCDStack 2+: Calibrate, align, stack, combine RGB.
- Photoshop CC: Noise reduction, shadows/highlights, high pass filter, merge L+RGB, color balance, curves.