Carl Kwadrat
Nebulae in the Orion B Molecular Cloud Complex
This wide-angle natural color photo shows several of the nebulae in the Orion B Molecular Cloud Complex centered around the star Alnitak which is the leftmost star in Orion’s belt. Alnitak is the bright young giant star that sits to the left-center of the this Flickr photo. It is so bright that the long exposure shows it as a blue-white bright circle rather than just a point of light.
At the center of the photo is the Horsehead Nebula (B33). B33 is a dark or absorption nebula that is composed of interstellar dust and neutral hydrogen molecules that a few degrees above absolute zero. B33 blocks the light from the red emission nebula IC 434 that lies behind it. IC 434 is a vast region of heated ionized gas. The ionized hydrogen glows red due to the extreme ultra-violet radiation from the bright star Sigma Orionis above B33 in the photo. This intense ultra-violet radiation causes the electrons in the hydrogen atoms to be knocked free and their eventual recombination with the proton produced the glowing red light of the nebula.
The Flame Nebula NGC 2024 lies below the bright star Alnitak. This is a red emission nebula that is a stellar nursery where new stars are forming. The black portions of the nebula are dark nebula dust lanes that block the view of the gas and stars in NGC 2024 that lie behind it.
Below and to the left of B33 is the small reflection nebula NGC 2023. This nebula is primarily a dust cloud that reflects the blue light from the young stars in front of it to make it visible from Earth.
The photo was taken using iTelescope’s small, robotic remotely controlled T20 astrograph at the New Mexico Skies Observatory in Mayhill, NM. T20 uses a Takahashi FSQ 106ED telescope with a 106 mm (4.2 inch) diameter and a focal length of 530 mm (20.9 inches) with a photographic speed of f/5. The image sensor attached to the telescope is a Santa Barbra Imaging Group SBIG STL-11000M Monochrome CCD astronomical imaging camera. Astrodon wideband luminance, red, green, blue, and a 5 nm narrowband hydrogen-alpha filter were inserted separately in front of the SBIG’s camera sensor. A total of the 6.9 hours of exposure time was used to capture all the data for this image.
The calibrated exposures were downloaded via the Internet to my home computer for processing to produce the final Flickr image shown above. The following software was used to process the Orion B Molecular Cloud raw data: Astro Pixel Processor, PixInsight, Photoshop 2021, Topaz Denoise AI, and Topaz Sharpen AI.
Nebulae in the Orion B Molecular Cloud Complex
This wide-angle natural color photo shows several of the nebulae in the Orion B Molecular Cloud Complex centered around the star Alnitak which is the leftmost star in Orion’s belt. Alnitak is the bright young giant star that sits to the left-center of the this Flickr photo. It is so bright that the long exposure shows it as a blue-white bright circle rather than just a point of light.
At the center of the photo is the Horsehead Nebula (B33). B33 is a dark or absorption nebula that is composed of interstellar dust and neutral hydrogen molecules that a few degrees above absolute zero. B33 blocks the light from the red emission nebula IC 434 that lies behind it. IC 434 is a vast region of heated ionized gas. The ionized hydrogen glows red due to the extreme ultra-violet radiation from the bright star Sigma Orionis above B33 in the photo. This intense ultra-violet radiation causes the electrons in the hydrogen atoms to be knocked free and their eventual recombination with the proton produced the glowing red light of the nebula.
The Flame Nebula NGC 2024 lies below the bright star Alnitak. This is a red emission nebula that is a stellar nursery where new stars are forming. The black portions of the nebula are dark nebula dust lanes that block the view of the gas and stars in NGC 2024 that lie behind it.
Below and to the left of B33 is the small reflection nebula NGC 2023. This nebula is primarily a dust cloud that reflects the blue light from the young stars in front of it to make it visible from Earth.
The photo was taken using iTelescope’s small, robotic remotely controlled T20 astrograph at the New Mexico Skies Observatory in Mayhill, NM. T20 uses a Takahashi FSQ 106ED telescope with a 106 mm (4.2 inch) diameter and a focal length of 530 mm (20.9 inches) with a photographic speed of f/5. The image sensor attached to the telescope is a Santa Barbra Imaging Group SBIG STL-11000M Monochrome CCD astronomical imaging camera. Astrodon wideband luminance, red, green, blue, and a 5 nm narrowband hydrogen-alpha filter were inserted separately in front of the SBIG’s camera sensor. A total of the 6.9 hours of exposure time was used to capture all the data for this image.
The calibrated exposures were downloaded via the Internet to my home computer for processing to produce the final Flickr image shown above. The following software was used to process the Orion B Molecular Cloud raw data: Astro Pixel Processor, PixInsight, Photoshop 2021, Topaz Denoise AI, and Topaz Sharpen AI.