IC434 - the Horsehead Nebula

Description: The bright nebula IC434 is better known as the Horsehead Nebula. The horsehead is a dark dust lane that lies in front of the bright nebula illuminated by the star sigma Orionis. This image is a 'false-colour' infra-red image. The horse can be seen lying 'face-down'.

Image information: Stacked, dark-subtracted, registered combination of 20 x 15s images in I-, R- and V-bands. The image has undergone an unsharp mask to enhance clarity and a 3x3 binning to reduce noise. Image taken 14/01/2006 21:40.

Description: Here the horsehead has been put into its normal orientation in a much deeper, but monochrome image. The dust protrusion that forms the horsehead is much easier to see.

Image information: Stacked, dark-subtracted, registered combination of 50 x 10s unfiltered images. The image has been blurred with a Gaussian radius of 1 pixel to reduce the effect of noise, and the image has been tinted to the approximate (monochromatic) emission wavelength of the nebula.

Physical information: Magnitude: 11.0, size: 90.0'x30.0'.

Back to: Gallery, Home