Horsehead and Flame Nebulae, 2019

Orion

The dark space horse (IC 434) and the star-forming flame (NGC 2024) in the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, home to protoplanets and young and bright stars 1,400 light years away.

Tech Card

Dates / Locations

10th November 2018, Exmoor, GMT+0, United Kingdom, TEMP: 8C, HUM: 96%, Bortle Class 3 ~SGM: 21.75 mag./arc sec2

14th, 16th, 28th & 30th January 2019, Bedworth, GMT+0, United Kingdom, Bortle Class 5 ~SGM: 19.57 mag./arc sec2

Equipment

Camera: Nikon D810A

Imaging Telescope: Takahashi FS-60CB

Correcting Lens: Takahashi Reducer 0.72x (composite focal length at 264mm and focal ratio at f/4.9)

Mount: iOptron CEM25EC

Image Quality

14 bit RAW (NEF)

Exposure time per image / number of composities and sensitivity

ISO 400 12 x 120" subs

ISO 400 77 x 180" subs

ISO 400, 5 x 240" subs

ISO 1600, 10 x 60" subs

ISO 1600, 8 x 180" subs (Bortle 5)

ISO 3200, 1 x 180" sub (Bortle 5)

Total Integration Time

5hrs 42mins

Calibration Frames

23 Darks, 23 Bias, 25 Flats

Software

PixInsight 1.8 Core

Photoshop