Full-sized image (1300x1030)
This image shows the famous Horsehead dark nebula (IC 434) and the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) that flank the bright star Alnitak, the leftmost star in Orion's belt.
Image details:
Takahashi Sky 90 at f/4.12 (with flattener/reducer for FS78)
StarlightXpress HX916 CCD Camera
Astro-Physics AP900GTO German Equatorial Mount
SBIG CFW-8A Color Filter Wheel
This is an LRGB image, with the luminance made up of a total of 312 minutes of exposure time, 260 minutes through a Shuler 10nm H-Alpha filter, and 52 minutes through a red filter). The RGB exposure times were 52:42:45 minutes. Taken over 3 nights in late December 2003, from my backyard in Escondido, California. Image capture and sequencing was done with MaximDL/CCD, sub-frames were Sigma combined with Russ Croman's Sigma plugin for MaximDL/CCD, and the final LRGB layering and image adjustments were done in PhotoShop 7.0.