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| The Horsehead Nebula taken from our backyard in strong moonlight and added light pollution |
As deep sky images go, this photo of the Horsehead Nebula is rather poor. It is the first time I have had a go at this rather enigmatic subject and I'm sure that, with practice and patience, I will one day do much better.
The Horsehead Nebula does however have special significance for me. As a small boy I spent many a happy hour reading through one of the late Sir Patrick Moore's books and in particular gazing at an image of the Horsehead Nebula taken with the 200 inch reflector on Mount Palomar. For me it exemplified the mystery and wonder of 'Space and the Universe'.
Ironically, my photograph is much better than the one in the book. My telescope has an aperture of 5 inches, one fortieth of the diameter of the Hale telescope on Mount Palomar but the photo I scanned as a kid was taken with a camera using chemically treated glass plates. My much smaller scope can produce much better images thanks to my DSLR and the power of computer processing.
As I looked through the eyepiece I could just make out the Flame Nebula, to the left of the Orion Belt star Alnitak, but the Horsehead Nebula only became visible after I stacked and processed a number of photos of the area. As I viewed the stars in Orion's Belt, I watched a satellite or piece of space junk drift silently across the eye-piece's field of view. Considering mankind's recent and incredible technological advances it is such a shame that we have not made a greater commitment to cleaning up after ourselves!
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| The Horsehead Nebula my data reworked 12 May 2014 |
The Horsehead Nebula, always reminds me of the black knights on my chessboard. In reality it is an immense cloud of gas and dust illuminated from behind by an ionised cloud of hydrogen gas (IC 434). The hydrogen is being ionised by the nearby star Sigma Orionis. The Horsehead Nebula, also known as Barnard 33, is some 1500 light years distant.
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| The Hubble Space Telescope's image of The Horsehead Nebula |
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| Star map showing the position of the Horsehead Nebula beneath the belt star Alnitak. |
Credits: Wikipedia, Starmap Pro and NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team
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