Horsehead Nebula up Close

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Horsehead Nebula up Close

[Public Domain] 1 Jan 2017 Dylan O'Donnell
CATEGORY : Astrophotography
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I’ve photographed and shared the famous Horsehead Nebula a few times now but this is the first time I’ve done it so close, at 1480mm focal length. Thanks in part to the stability and tracking of the new Celestron CGX mount I’m using, but no thanks to the tropical Australian summer weather which meant I only scraped in 16 shakey 5 minute mono frames after 5 nights of trying. I reckon I could do a nicer job with a clear run on this target but I’m going to move on for now! The colour data was taken 12 months ago using the hyperstar setup (540mm FL) but the detail / luminance in this image is new. Regardless of it’s many shortcomings I’m still really struck by the billowy shape and structure of the dark nebula and the depth in this field of view.

For the technically inclined, this broadband photo is taken with a straight unfiltered QHY9 mono, and the RGB with a QHY12 Colour CCD. Celestron 9.25″ Edge HD & Lepus 6.3 Focal Reducer.

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