The Horsehead Nebula, B33, below the Belt of Orion and the star Alnitak, along with the bright Flame Nebula, NGC 2024, to the left of Alnitak. Many other bright reflection nebulas populate the field, such as NGC 2023 just left of the Horsehead itself. The quintuple star system Sigma Orionis is right of the Horsehead. The dark Horsehead is set against the bright streak of the emission nebula IC 434. This is a stack of 10 x 4 minute exposures with the Celestron Rowe-Ackerman Schmidt Astrograph, a 620mm focal length f/2.2 astrograph in hand for review, and using the filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 400. Autoguided on the Mach 1 mount. Taken from New Mexico, Nov 28, 2014.
This is the Belt of Orion with its three blue stars across the top of the frame (L to R: Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka), with the iconic Horsehead Nebula (aka B33) below Alnitak, with the dark Horsehead set against the bright nebula IC 434, aka Orion’s Dagger. The pinkish nebula above Alnitak is NGC 2024, the Flame Nebula. The small blue reflection nebula left of the Horsehead is NGC 2023, with smaller IC 435 to the left of it. The field is filled with the large open cluster Collinder 70. The multiple star at bottom left of centre is Sigma Orionis. Many other smaller bits of reflection nebulas populate the field in and around the Belt. This is a blend of 8 x 5-minute exposures at ISO 800 unfiltered with 6 x 10-minute exposures at ISO 1600 shot through an Optolong L-Enhance dual-band nebula enhancement filter (it lets through only Oxygen III blue-green and Hydrogen-alpha red to really enhance the nebulosity). The filtered shot is blended in with the unfiltered shot to retain the best of both worlds: the rich reds captured by the filtered images without losing the range of colours in the other nebulas such as the salmon pinks of the Flame and the blue reflection nebulas and stars. All exposures with the Canon EOS Ra mirrorless camera through the SharpStar HNT150 Hyperbolic Newtonian Astrograph at f/2.8, from home on a very clear moonless night January 27, 2020. All stacked, aligned and blended in Photoshop 2020.
IC 59 and 62 faint reflection nebulas near Gamma Cassiopeia. Stack of 5 x 12 minute exposures at ISO 800 with Canon 5D MkII and 105mm A&M apo refractor at f/5.1 with Borg reducer/flattener. NexGuide autoguider-- some trailing in RA present.
