The Horsehead Nebula (also known as Barnard 33) and NGC 2023 are located in the constellation Orion, one of the most recognizable region of the night sky. This area is rich in fascinating celestial objects and is part of the larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, about 1500 light-years from Earth.
The Horsehead Nebula, discovered by the Scottish astronomer Williamina Fleming in 1888 and named for its characteristic horse-head silhouette, is a small dark nebula that appears as a dense, shadowy cloud against the bright backdrop of ionized hydrogen gas from the bright emission nebula IC434.
The dark appearance of the Horsehead Nebula is due to the thick clouds of interstellar dust that block the light from the emission nebula behind it. This region is an active stellar nursery, with new stars forming in its obscured depths.
NGC 2023, bottom left in the image, is one of the brightest reflection nebulae. This nebula glows with a bluish hue due to the light from a young, massive B-type star, HD 37903, reflecting off the surrounding dust particles. The intense ultraviolet radiation from the central star illuminates the surrounding material, creating a striking contrast to the darker areas nearby. NGC 2023 is particularly remarkable for its size (10 x 10 arcminutes) and complexity, as it contains numerous intricate structures formed by the interaction of stellar winds and radiation pressure.
In fact, that image (which can still be seen on my website here) was the first image I took from Àger (long before I had an observatory there).
That image, reasonable for the conditions in which I took it, is a wide-field image and I had wanted to make an image of that area with higher resolution for a long time.
The image on the right is the new version taken in December 2024 with TOA-150B and STL-11000M, with an image scale of 0.845"/pixel (drizzle x2).
It is a Ha-LRGB composition with 35 hours of accumulated exposure. In the processing of this image, I was able to use the MultiscaleGradientCorrection tool for the first time with very good results.
Image processing: Pixinsight.
Observatory automation and remote operation with Talon6.
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