The Horse Head Nebula

This is probably one of the most identifiable objects in our skies. It’s located in the constellation Orion, a summer time object for us in the Southern Hemisphere. About 1500 light years away, it has a striking resemblance to a horse’s head in silhouette. Barnard 33 is a diffuse dark nebula, and its shape is simply the result of dust obscuring a direct line of sight to the bright red emission nebula IC 434. It’s incredible how an absence of light can yield something awesome. I love the star in the lower left. In my head, it appears to be a vortex or tunnel is forming straight out of a SciFi movie.

I used Ha filter to create this image, highlighting the glowing ridges and curtains of light in the top.

 

 

Large Version:

live.staticflickr.com/65535/51837744675_03d76fc7e7_o.jpg

 

 

Instruments

Telescope: 10" Ritchey-Chrétien RCOS

Camera: SBIG STL-11000 Mono

Mount: Astro-Physics AP-900

Focal Length: 2310.00 mm

Pixel size: 9.00 um

Resolution: 0.82 arcsec/pix

 

11.16 Hours

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Terry

 

Done