The Horsehead Nebula in the constellation Orion is known for its distinctive profile that resembles a Chess Knight. The nebula is a dark lane of dust amid a bright emission nebula that stretches far beyond this camera frame. The very bright star to the left of the Horsehead is Alnitak, and its brightness makes photographing this region a challenge simply because it is so bright that it can cause internal reflections in the camera. Fortunately, that was not an issue in this image.
Below Alnitak is NGC2024 – The Flame Nebula. It’s an emission and reflection nebula with very delicate wisps and filaments. Alnitak’s radiation strikes this nebula ionizing the molecular hydrogen causing it to glow. The entirety of the constellation Orion is embedded in a cloud of hydrogen too faint for the naked eye to see but easily captured in widefield cameras (much wider field than the image below).
The image below is the composite of ten, 6-minute exposures; the second frame is a cropped version intended to highlight the Horsehead and Flame nebulae.
