The Horsehead Nebula, Barnard 33, IC 434

The Horsehead Nebula, Barnard 33, IC 434, is a dark nebula resembling a horse's head. The dark nebula is part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. It is located in the eastern most region of the belt of the constellation Orion.

The Horsehead Nebula is silhouetted against an HII Emission Nebula. The HII gas cloud is composed of excited hydrogen gas that glows a deep red (656.28 nm.). Radiation from the multiple star cluster, Sigma Orinus, excites the hydrogen gas causing it to glow. Sigma Orinus is off the top edge of the image. (NSF, NOIRLAB)

The white glow to the lower left is part of NGC 2023, an emission and reflection nebula. (TheSky Professional)

Image processed by Andrew F. Macica, original data from Telescope Live.

Imaging Details:

Observatory: Oria, Spain

Telescope: Officina Stellare 700 RC

Aperture: 700 mm (27.5 inches), f/8

Focal Length: 5600 mm

Camera: FLI ProLine PL16803 CCD

Filters: LRGB

Total Exposure: 6 hours 40 min.

Image Processing: PixInsight 1.8.9-3 Ripley (x64);

BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, StarXTerminator (RC Astro);

Python 3.9

Adobe Photoshop 25.12.1;

Adobe Lightroom Classic 14.2

Instruction on PixInsight from Adam Block Studios.