Lorenzo Comolli's Astronomy HomePage

Horsehead nebula and neighborhood

Click on the image for a higher res version

This is the famous field around the Horsehead nebula, a very popular object between the wide public, mainly due to the similarity to the name.
This image shows many objects and colours:

Alnitak, zeta Orionis, mag. 1.9, blue color (the biggest star)
Horsehead dark nebula, B33
IC 434, the red emission nebula behind the Horsehead
NGC 2024, the Flame nebula, with a brown-orange color (below Alnitak)
some other light blue nebulas:

NGC 2023, near the Horsehead, with blue and brown colors
IC 435, at the lower border
IC 432, at the left of Alnitak, with some superimposed red nebulas
IC 341, abobe the last

Technical Data
Optics	Newton 200 mm (homemade by L. Comolli, F. Riccio and P. Battaglia)
Focal Lenght	1260 mm
Focal Ratio	f/6
Corrector	Baader MPCC
Exposure Time	2h10m (single exp of 10 min)
CCD	Canon EOS 5D with baader filter
Sensitivity	800 ISO
Location	Capanne di Cosola (AL, Italian Appennines) at 1500 m height
Date	4 February 2011
Mount	Gemini G-41
Tracking	Lodestar on an 80mm f/5 refractor
Temperature and humidity	T= +2°C, RH=36%
Sky brightness at zenith (with SQM-L)	21.0-21.3 mag/arcsec^2
Notes	Great transparency, but very bad seeing, so the stars are not pinpoints. North at left. A small amount of H-alpha data was added on the red background, using data from an older image with the Schmidt camera. Thanks to Daniele Cipollina for some hints about processing. Diffraction spikes are multiple due to non perfect straightness of the secondary mirror supports.

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