Last weekend I went to the mountains (at Plaiul Lisei, near Sambata de Sus), to spend a few nights under the stars. The weather was bound to be good at the destination and I was finally in posession of almost everything I needed for astrophotography (minus a polar scope - but there's something "magical" about doing a polar alignment by instinct and with the help of more experienced friends).
After 2 nights of stargazing, I left Plaiul Lisei with images of the Orion Nebula, the Horsehead Nebula, the Pleiades, and comet Lovejoy, among other things.
This is my second attempt at post-processing images with PixInsight (my first attempt was on M42). I think the finished product looks a lot better this time. I also tried not to pull too much on the Saturation curve :)
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| Alnitak and the Horsehead Nebula 1 exposure of 90 sec, at ISO 1600 |
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| Alnitak and the Horsehead Nebula 7x90sec + 5x60sec, at ISO 1600 stacked with DSS and postprocessed with PixInsight |
- Alnitak (Zeta Orionis or 50 Orionis) is one of the three bright stars that make up the asterism known as the Orion's Belt. It's actually a binary system, about 800 light years away from Earth. The primary star is blue-white in colour, proof of the high temperature on the surface (at about 50,000K it is nine times hotter than the Sun). Also, its brightness gives it a magnitude of +1.7, making it one of the most visible stars in the sky.
- The Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) is a gaseous region illuminated by the supergiant Alnitak, with dust lanes that resemble a tree in flames, hence the name.
- The Horsehead Nebula and IC 434 - at about 1,500 light years away, IC 434 is the bright nebulous region (an emission nebula) near the star Alnitak, pinkish in colour (due to the ionized hydrogen), against which you can see a dark region in the shape of a horse's head. The Horsehead Nebula (B33) is one of the most recognizable objects in the sky. Shaped as a horsehead, this dark nebula is illuminated by the nearby star Sigma Orionis and is a birthplace of stars.
- The Lump Star (NGC 2023) is improperly named a star, since it is actually a bright reflection nebula, illuminated by a very hot B-type star. 4 light years wide, it is one of the largest such nebulae in the sky.
- IC 431, 432 and 435 are all reflection nebulae, located around bright stars.
My set-up:
- Canon 450D
- Stellarvue SV80ED refractor
- EQ 3.2 equitorial mount
Images taken on January 17th, 2015, at Plaiul Lisei (Romania).
