The Horse and the Flame

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Image © 2022 — 2023 Jeremy Likness. All rights reserved.
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The Easternmost jewel on Orion's belt is brilliant Alnitak, a bright star that bombards NGC 2024 The Flame Nebula with ultraviolet light, causing the gases to glow and form a brilliant orange flame. Nearby, a cloud of dust is illuminated from behind by emission nebula IC434 to create a strikingly horsehead-like silhouette.

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Telescope:   Stellina
Length:   400mm
Aperture:   80mm
F-stop:   f/5.0
Sessions:   11
Captured:   2021-03-31 to 2021-12-02
Lights:   1000
Exposure:   10
Total exposure:   2 h
Ra:   5h 40m 57.3s
Dec:   -2° 08' 22.034
Size:   65.738 x 36.687 arcmin
Radius:   0.627 deg
Scale:   0.688 arcsec/pixel
Related images
The scene of the horse and the flame has always been one of my favorites even as one of the most popular targets. It contains a bit of everything; dust and dark nebulae, reflection and emission nebulae, bright stars and brilliant colors. I grabbed some extra time on this target last night. Here's my latest incarnation.
This classic pairing of well-named nebulae Horsehead and Flame is one of my favorite regions in the night sky. It has a bit of everything, from a brilliantly shining star to bright tongues of heat blazing from the Flame Nebula, to the horse head's shadow casting a silhouette on billowing intergalactic dust. I'll keep improving my technique for this target!
IC434 illuminates the nearby Horsehead Nebula that rears its head in silhouette. Dominating left is the triple star system Alnitak with its main superhot blue giant centerpiece that adorns the undulating waves of NGC2024, the Flame Nebula.
Took ~350 4-second 210mm of Orion's belt: Alnitak (with NGC2024 the Flame Nebula and IC434 the Horesehead Nebula), Alnilam and Mintaka. First pic of 2022!
A combination of new images for the Flame and Horsehead nebulae.
A capture of Orion's belt.
A black and white rendering of the detailed nebulosity around Orion's belt.

Objects in frame:

The star Alnitak (ζOri) IC434 NGC2024 NGC2023 Flame Nebula Orion B Horsehead Nebula
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IC434 NGC2024: The Horse and the Flame »