Astrophotography: Horsehead and Flame Nebula

It's 2020 and a new decade!  While I look forward to all the new changes a new year will bring, our night sky mostly looks the same for most of our lifetimes.  It is always nice to take some time and see some of the hidden beauty that is above us every night.    I always look forward to the last few weeks of December since this is usually a time I can try my hand at a few pictures while on Christmas break.   One of the most common targets in our night sky that I have never tried to shoot is the Horsehead nebula (IC 434) and so I took the opportunity to try to get a shot.

This was my second imaging session with the ASIair and since I last used it they added a polar align feature.   I tried messing with it a bit, but I still found it pretty clunky.    I needed to do a new plate solve and wait for the software after each polar adjustment of my scope.   The polar align feature  was cumbersome compared to using Sharpcap that can help you polar align in real time.  So in the end I hooked up my camera up to Sharpcap for polar align and for focusing.  However after that, the ASIair really did a great job controlling my mount and taking the pictures.  If you are interested in how to use the ASIair check out my last astrophotography blog entry:  M81 and M82 with the ASIair

Here is the final pictures of the Horsehead Nebula I was able to acquire.  While the Horsehead is predominant in the picture, there is a lot of other stuff to see in this active region in our sky.

The Horsehead nebula is located in the Orion constellation.   In fact the super bright star that lights up the picture is the star Alnitak.   It is the brightest O-type star in the entire night sky and makes up one of three stars on Orion's belt.   To the right of Alnitak is the Horsehead nebula which is a dark cloud of dust and gas that is making the "horsehead" shape.   This area is a place where star formation is happening.   The horse head sits in front of a beautiful red background of ionized hydrogen that is common in this entire area.  To the left of the star Alnitak is the Flame nebula (NGC 2024).  The ultraviolet rays from the star Alnitak are knocking electrons form the ionized hydrogen gas that resides in this area.  As the ionized hydrogen gas and the electrons recombine, there is a beautiful nebula for us to admire.  This nebula is also where many new stars are forming.  Right in between the Flame nebula and the Horsehead nebula and below the star Alnitak is a reflection nebula named NGC 2023.   There is just so much going on this picture.  This area of the sky is ripe with activity on a scale that is hard to comprehend, but beautiful to reflect on.

Here are the acquisition details of the picture.  There is a lot more ionized hydrogen gas in this area that I did not pick up with my camera.  Eventually I will try out some filters that can help show even more of the red color that dominates this area in our sky.