Sara Wager Astrophotography
  • Recent images
  • Images Gallery
    • Interesting images
  • About me
    • Star People article
  • My Blog
  • Latest Dual rig adventure
  • Astro Pixel Processor tutorials
  • Asteroids and me.....
    • How to find asteroids
    • How to create an asteroid time lapse
  • My observatory
    • The observatory rebuild
    • Equipment
    • Light pollution and astro darkness
  • My guide to image capture
    • Real world comparison - Kodak / Sony chip
    • Dual imaging set up
    • Creating an inset in Photoshop
    • Artistic one channel processing
    • Rubbish in, Rubbish out - you decide
    • Image process tutorials
    • Start / finish - Processing is THE key
    • Building a mosaic >
      • SGPro - Creating a mosaic in software
    • The difference in RGB and Ha light
    • The benefits of extra subs in graphics
    • Narrowband information
    • To bin or not to bin...
  • Equipment reviews
    • PrimaLuceLab Eagle S
    • All things ODK 10
    • PrimaLuceLab PLUS mounting system
    • Avalon linear guide settings
    • Starting out with the Avalon StarGO - Fitting and connecting to a PC
    • Avalon StarGO - Setting a custom park
    • Mallincam All Sky
    • Aviosys IP Power 9258 4 port
    • Avalon M-Tre mount
  • My published images
  • Links
    • Other Astrophotographers
  • Useful books
  • Write in my Guestbook
    • Contact me

IC434 - The Horsehead and Flame nebula

The Horsehead Nebula (also known as Barnard 33 and IC434 ) is a dark nebula in the constellation Orion. The nebula is located just to the south of the star Alnitak, which is farthest east on Orion's Belt, and is part of the much larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. It is located approximately 1500 light years from earth. The Flame Nebula, designated as NGC 2024 and Sh2-277, is an emission nebula on the left hand side of the Horsehead.​
Picture
This is the Horsehead nebula and Flame that has been taken in narrowband and then blended in the tradition Hubble Space Telescope palette. I have decided to leave the green in the image as it added great depth that was otherwise missing. This is not normally presented in narrowband colours so it is quite unusual in this regard.

This was taken with the Takahashi FSQ85 dual rig, but the Ha was from the 2 pane mosaic from the previous year.
​
Details:
Mount: Skywatcher EQ8 / Mesu 200
Camera: QSI683 and Moravian G2-8300 with 3nm Astrodon filters
Scope: Takahashi FSQ85 x0.73

27x1800s Ha
11x1800s OIII
20x1800s SII

Total of 29 hours of integration time.
Picture
Picture
This is a two pane mosaic of the Horsehead area in Orion. I originally did the lower pane (the image below) but felt that a pane above this would give a sense of completeness in the image.

This is the first image that has taken advantage of the dual rig that I have got together. 

Details:

M: Mesu 200
T: Takahashi FSQ85 0.73x

​Pane 1: 

C: QSI683 3nm Ha filter

27x1800s

Pane 2: 
C: QSI683 3nm Ha filter
C: Moravian G2-8300 3nm Ha Filter

20x1800s QSI
8x1800s G2-3800

28x1800s

​Total exposure time 27.5 hours

Widefield

Picture
This is a single pane widefield image and you can see the difference between this image and the close up image below. 

This gives you a great feeling for how different telescopes at different focal lengths impacts on the apparent magnification of an object.
​
Details

M: Mesu 200
T: Takahashi FSQ85 0.73x
C: QSI683 3nm Ha filter

27x1800s totalling 13.5 hours of exposure

Close up

Picture

Details
M: Avalon Linear Fast Reverse
T: AT8RC CF
C: QSI690-wsg with 3nm Ha filter

This is a 3 pane mosaic in total, all exposures are 1800s and this it totalling 20 hours of exposure.

Annotated views of the widefield and closeup images

Picture
Click above to see larger annotation
Picture
Click to see larger annotation

Location of the Horsehead

Picture

The two different FOV's

Picture
Picture
© Sara Wager 2020
All images on this website are not to be reproduced or used without permission.

  • Recent images
  • Images Gallery
    • Interesting images
  • About me
    • Star People article
  • My Blog
  • Latest Dual rig adventure
  • Astro Pixel Processor tutorials
  • Asteroids and me.....
    • How to find asteroids
    • How to create an asteroid time lapse
  • My observatory
    • The observatory rebuild
    • Equipment
    • Light pollution and astro darkness
  • My guide to image capture
    • Real world comparison - Kodak / Sony chip
    • Dual imaging set up
    • Creating an inset in Photoshop
    • Artistic one channel processing
    • Rubbish in, Rubbish out - you decide
    • Image process tutorials
    • Start / finish - Processing is THE key
    • Building a mosaic >
      • SGPro - Creating a mosaic in software
    • The difference in RGB and Ha light
    • The benefits of extra subs in graphics
    • Narrowband information
    • To bin or not to bin...
  • Equipment reviews
    • PrimaLuceLab Eagle S
    • All things ODK 10
    • PrimaLuceLab PLUS mounting system
    • Avalon linear guide settings
    • Starting out with the Avalon StarGO - Fitting and connecting to a PC
    • Avalon StarGO - Setting a custom park
    • Mallincam All Sky
    • Aviosys IP Power 9258 4 port
    • Avalon M-Tre mount
  • My published images
  • Links
    • Other Astrophotographers
  • Useful books
  • Write in my Guestbook
    • Contact me