Horsehead Nebula - Barnard 33
The Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) is a dark nebula in the constellation Orion. The nebula is located south of Zeta Orionis (Alnitak), the easternmost star in the Belt of Orion, and is one part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. Its distance from Earth is approximately 1500 light years. The emission nebula IC 434 behind the Horsehead is an HII region of glowing hydrogen gas that is ionized by the nearby star Sigma Orionis. The nebula's characteristic shape was first captured photographically by Williamina Fleming at Harvard College Observatory.
For a higher power view of this object using the ASA N12 Astrograph, see Horsehead Nebula(ASA N12).
Technical Details
- Object: Horsehead Nebula
- Object Type: Dark Nebula
- Other Names: Barnard 33 (in emission nebula IC 434)
- Date/Time: 2011 Jan 30 at 05:00 UTC
- Location: Bifrost Astronomical Observatory, Portal, AZ
- Telescope: Takahashi Epsilon 180 ED Hyperbolic Astrograph
- Mount: Astro-Physics 1200GTO
- Camera: Canon EOS 550D (Rebel T2i) (modified with a Baader UV/IR filter)
- Exposure: 8 x 300s, f/2.8, ISO 800
- File Name: IC434-01w.jpg
- Processing: Stacking 8 Images, Levels, Unsharp Mask (Photoshop CS5)
- Original Image Size: 3454 × 5179 pixels (17.9 MP); 11.5" x 17.3" @ 300 dpi
- Rights: Copyright 2011 by Fred Espenak. All Rights Reserved. See: Image Licensing.
