The Belt of Orion, enmeshed in nebulosity, emission and reflection, including the famous Horsehead Nebula at left below Zeta Orionis, aka Alnitak, and with NGC 2024 the Flame Nebula above Zeta. Numerous bits of dark and reflection nebulosity fill the area as well as a large cluster of blue stars, Collinder 70.
Belt of Orion with Horsehead and Flame Nebulas. Taken Jan 19, 09 with 77mm f/4 Borg astrograph lens (300mm focal length) and Canon 20Da camera at ISO 400 for 4 x 18 minute exposures. On AP Mach 1 mount. Autoguided with SBIG ST402 camera and PHD Guider. Excellent night but lots of snow and sky was good but somewhat lit by snow illumination.
The Belt of Orion with the Horsehead Nebula at botton, the dark nebula set in the bright emission nebula IC 434. The nebula at left of the Zeta Orionis (aka Alnitak) is the Flame Nebula, NGC 2024. The reflection nebula at upper left is the M78 complex with NGC 2071. The other Belt stars are Alnilan (centre) and Mintaka (upper right). The field contains a wealth of other blue reflection and red emission nebulas. Taken from Australia, March 2014 with the Borg 77mm astrographic apo refractor (330mm focal length) at f/4.3 for a stack of 5 x 10 minute exposures with the filter-modified Canon 5D Mark II at ISO 800.
