The winter constellation Orion (The Hunter), probably the most known asterism over the whole sky, contains a lot of beautiful and very interesting objects. One of the most imaged is the famous HorseHead, a dark nebula located close to the Orion belt. Near the belt is located also another beautiful emission/reflection nebula, less imaged than its neighbor, shaped as a flame, and called consequently The Flame Nebula (NGC2024). This is an amazing photographic target, with an intricated structure of dark zones which are spotted over an area of emission and reflection nebulosity. However, visually it's very difficult to be observed. NGC2024 was discovered in 1786 by Wilhelm Herschel, who describe it as "a wonderful dark spot divided into three or four parts, and enclosed in mild luminous nebulous matter".
- Camera : Starlight Xpress SXV-H9 with Astronomik 13nm Ha and RGB Type II dichroic filters
- Telescope : Takahashi FS-102 at F/8 on a GM2000-FS2
- Guiding : ST4 on a Vixen 80/910mm.
- Exposure : 6x1200sec. Ha unbinned - 3X300sec. each RGB binned 2x2
- Processing : MaxIm (align, combine, stretching) - Photoshop (final enhancing)
- Location : St. Barthelemy (Val d'Aosta) - 1800 mt. height
- Date : December 11, 2004
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