The Horsehead Nebula Region
The Horsehead Nebula region is perhaps the most beautiful region of the sky. Many different objects are together in a magnificent mix of color and light. Just below and left of the bright star Alnitak in Orion, these objects lie in secret to visual observers unless they use special filters which allow their observation. But when this region is exposed to film for an adequate amount of time, the objects will reveal their beauty. In the image below, IC 434 is the bright red emission nebula which feathers across the center of the frame. B33 is the designation of the dark nebula of interstellar dust which outlines the shape of a horse head. Below and left of B 33 is the blue reflection nebula NGC 2023. The Flame Nebula, NGC 2024 is just below Alnitak and dominates the left portion of the image.
This image is a 3-frame mosaic. Each frame is a composite of two 60 minute exposures on hypered Kodak PJ400. They were taken with my 12.5" f/7 Newt.