The Horsehead Nebula in Hydrogen Alpha
Characteristics:
Magnitude: Unknown
Distance: 1600 light years (Horsehead Nebula, aka B33); 826 light years
(Alnitak- Zeta Orionis); 1165 light years (Sigma Orionis)
RA: 5h 41m 19s
Dec: -02 degrees 25' 56"
Description:
This famous region within the constellation of Orion, The Hunter
is filled with opaque dust as well as ionized hydrogen gas that emits
at wavelength 656.3 nm. The above image shows the Horsehead
nebula to the right of center, the Flame nebula in the upper left, next
to the bright star Alnitak. Here is a large mosaic
that I constructed from DSS data, showing the Horsehead Nebula within
the neighborhood of other famous targets like M42 and
M78. Please click here for
a larger image, and here
for more details regarding
this interesting region.
Photographic Details:
Date: December 2, 2006.
Scope: Takahashi
FSQ106, on the G11 Losmandy
Mount.
Autoguider: SBIG STV with
e-finder.
Camera: Maxcam CM10
Filter: Astronomik
Ha (6 nm) filter. Diffraction spikes were created using kite
string in front of the objective.
Exposures: 23 x 10' Ha
Conditions: Clear, cold, and a
little breezy-
temperatures down to about 35 degrees F during the night.
Post-processing: Debloomed, calibrated,
aligned in Maxim. Combined
using RC Sigma Reject
MaximDL, followed by DDP
in ImagesPlus (IP). Subsequent processing in Photoshop CS (16
bit format).
Please
note: Graphics on this website may not be reproduced without
author permission.
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