Horsehead Nebula

Classification: Dark Nebula

Constellation: Orion

Distance: 1375 light years

Equipment: SkyWatcher 72ED with a Nikon D5500 DSLR, mounted on a Sky-Watcher EQM-35 Pro

Total Exposure: Around 90 minutes

Processing Notes: Only around 45 light frames, stacked and processed using Siril

About This Object

Taken in November 2024, I only managed around 90 minuets of exposures before the clouds rolled in, definitely one to revisit next winter. The Horsehead Nebula (also known as Barnard 33) is a small dark nebula located about 1,375 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Orion. The nebula is located just to the south of Alnitak, the easternmost star of Orion's Belt, and is part of the much larger Orion molecular cloud complex. It appears within the southern region of the dense dust cloud known as Lynds 1630, along the edge of the much larger, active star-forming H II region called IC 434. It is one of the most identifiable nebulae because of its resemblance to a horse's head. (Partial description taken from Wikipedia)