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There is
always a compromise between field of view and resolution in any
astronomical image. With the 12.5" I can get the Horse head
and not much more but at a seeing limited resolution. With the
Schmidt camera, the entire region is awash with delicate nebulosity,
however this image hardly resolves the dark lanes in NGC2024
or B33. (Horse Head). I feel this is my best composition yet
on this region, With north to the left, the entire span of the
Zeta Orionis complex and IC434 nebulous strip that contains B33
can be visualized, along with several remarkable blue reflection
nebulosities with internal dark details.
Image Details:
The bright convoluted
yellowish nebula that dominates the lower left corner is NGC2024,
the Flame Nebula. This huge half a degree wide emission/reflection
nebula also is cut in half by a dark dust lane, yellow in color.
The bottom edge is bluish from reflection from zeta. Zeta Orionis
is the brilliant 2nd magnitude star just to the left of center.
I is a type O9 hot blue star full of ionizing radiation to light
all the nebula in this field.
The red strip of
hydrogen nebulosity spanning most of the top half of the field
is IC434, which contains B33 - The famous Horse Head Nebula.
This is a dark nebula superimposed on IC434 and the top edge
is brighter because it is interacting with the giant molecular
cloud.
Just to the lower
left of B33 is a stunning blue reflection nebula, NGC2023 with
an 8th magnitude type B1 star to illuminate it at its center.
To the left of Zeta Orionis are two smaller reflection nebula.
The upper one, IC431 is relatively featureless, but just below
it IC432 changes from a rich blue to purple as it mixes with
the glowing hydrogen. There is also a dim 19 magnitude galaxy
just to the upper right of the Horse Head, I'll leave it to you
to find it with your favorite atlas.
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