The Alnitak Region in Orion

Full view for maximum effect.

The Alnitak Region in Orion.

This image has taken me since November 12th to finalise, working on it on-and-off. Without a doubt, this has been the most challenging composition as far as capturing (four hours of raw data) and processing is concerned. My right hand is completely stuffed from all the post-processing. I've now resorted to using the mouse with my left hand at work to compensate. I know, I'll probably just end up with two sore arms and a sore back, but, it's all about equilibrium.

I lost all my raw data for every single astrophotograph I've taken. Altogether, about 20 GB of data. Gone. I transferred the data to my housemate's notebook temporarily as I needed the room to process another image. Three days later, his hard drive decided to die of mechanical failure. So, to all those people who requested prints and other products, I'm sorry, all that is for sale is what you will find on my prints page. I'm still coming to terms with my loss.

As for this image:

The bright star to the left is Alnitak, which dominates this region. Alnitak (Zeta Orionis) is located about 830 light years away from our own Sun. It is the southeast most star in Orion's Belt. It has a visual magnitude of 1.7 and an absolute magnitute of -5.3.

The orange nebula in the bottom left is called, for obvious reasons, the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024 or Orion B). NGC 2024 is an emission nebula which is being excited by Alnitak. The closeness of Alnitak makes the nebula hard to see through a telescope. However, with a reasonable aperture and moderate magnification, if you keep Alnitak out of the field of view, you're able to see a soft glow with a prominent dark vein running North to South.

To the right of NGC 2024 is NGC 2023, a dark nebula.

I think everyone knows what the centrepiece is in this image. If in doubt, it's the Horsehead Nebula. The Horsehead Nebula is also referred to as B33, and is a reflection nebula.

The beautiful shroud of pink above the Horsehead Nebula is IC434, an emission nebula.

To the top right is Sigma Orionis, a main sequence star. Surrounding it is an open cluster referred to as SigmaOri.

North is left.

This composite consists of one set of images; one set of 40 images taken at ISO-400..
Each individual image was a 300 second exposure.
IRIS was used to calibrate each image (dark subtraction [median combined master dark] and flat field division [median combined master flat {lights and darks}]), to register, align, and finally stack.
Photoshop CS2 was used to adjust levels, curves, frame and resize the final composite.

Target: The Alnitak Region in Orion
Date: Sunday, November 12th, 2007
Time: First image: 12:28 AM
Time: Last image: 04:33 AM
Location: Lake Bathurst, NSW, Australia
Camera: Canon EOS-350D (modified: Baader UV/IR filter)
Telescope: Meade SN10 10" F/4.0
Focal length: 1016mm
Mount: Losmandy HGM-200
Exposure: 48 x 300 seconds (4 hours) @ ISO-400 (RAW)
Software: IRIS: Calibration, registration, stacking; Adobe Photoshop CS2: post-processing and framing