Captured Nov 10th 2012_Flame and Horsehead Nebula

Sometimes, less is more. My setup includes an SCT with an 8 inch mirror. Riding piggyback on the SCT is a small guidescope for tracking purposes. But last night, after setting up the alignment, i capped off the main scope and mounted the DSLR camera on the little guidescope. The guidescope has less than 1/3 the magnification of the main scope, but last night, i was going for field of view. 

I love the constellation Orion. This time of year, around midnight, it dominates the sky. And it is just full of interesting targets. The main star in this photo is Alnitak. It is the leftmost star in Orion's belt. Alnitak is about 730 Light years from earth. Just below and to the left of Alnitak is the Flame Nebula (NGC2024). It is about 900 to 1,500 light years away. Also below Alnitak and to the right is the Horsehead Nebula (IC434),1500 light years distant. I've been wanting to include all three components into one photo for some time. Last night was the night.

This image consists of 60 photos at 60 seconds each. ISO1600. I took five darks and five bias. i used no flats. Everything was stacked in DeepSkyStacker and then processed in Photoshop. I really didn't do much processing. Just a generic histogram stretch and a bit of gradient work. That was it. I like this photo, but i think that on the next clear night i get, i will concentrate on the horsehead nebula with the main scope. 

clear skies...