Dark nebula in Orion
The iconic Horsehead Nebula is probably the best-known dark nebula in the night sky. Almost everyone has seen its picture. Curiously, the Horsehead is an extremely hard to see through a telescope, and many dedicated amateur astronomers have never seen it. Even with my 18-inch Dobsonian telescope, I have only managed to glimpse its dark shape using a specialized filter that selectively lets through the light of the dim background nebula.
The bright and overexposed nebula at the top of this image is NGC 2023.
| Apparent Size | 8' x 6' |
| Distance (light yrs) | 1,500 |
| Right Ascension | 5:41.0 |
| Declination | -2 27 |
| Field of View | 35' x 27' |
Image details: Exposure times of 12 minutes luminance and 9 minutes each of red, green and blue, taken with an SBIG ST-8300M imager and a 12" Meade telescope at f/5.6.
February 2012