Lorenzo Comolli's Astronomy HomePage

Hires links: Stars+Nebulae , Nebulae only , H-alpha starless , RGB starless, Stars only.

Horsehead nebula and neigborhood is a classical field for astrophotography, with striking colors and contrasts between the stars and the faint nebule.
The processing was aimed to evidence the faint background of the H-alpha emission of Orion. A fundamental step of processing was the removal of stars by means of StarNet++ algorithm by Nikita Misiura. Look to all the above versions with and without stars.

See also my other Horsehead nebula images, one with Newton 200 mm f/6 taken in 2011 and one with Schmidt camera 400/300/600 taken in 2008.

GIF animation of all image versions in this order: Stars+Nebulae , Nebulae only , H-alpha starless , RGB starless, Stars only.

Here below some other shots of the field

Technical Data
Optics	TEC 140
Focal Length	1011 mm
Focal Ratio	f/7.2
Exposure Time	Total 4 h 40 min, composed of Ha-RGB 250:10:10:10 min (single exp of 10 min for Ha, and 5 min for RGB)
CCD	ZWO ASI 6200 MM @-30°C bin 1x1
Location	Pian dell'Armà, pratone dei milanesi (PV, Italian Apennines) at 1350 m height
Date	12 January 2024
Mount	Gemini G-41
Tracking	ZWO ASI 174 mini on an 80mm f/5 refractor
Temperature and humidity	T= -4 °C, RH=70 %
Sky brightness at zenith (with SQM-L)	21.2 mag/arcsec^2
Notes	Very clear night, with only a weak wind, with 20 cm of snow on the ground.