Southern Astro

Adventures in backyard astronomy from the Southern hemisphere

B33 Horse Head

Barnard 33 (B33) or, as it is more well known, the Horse Head Nebula is a dark nebula in the constellation of Orion located just to the south of the star Alnitak (Zeta Orionis) which is the eastern most star of Orion’s belt. One of the most iconic nebula and a perennial favorite of amateur astronomers, B33 is a dark cloud of gas and dust sitting in front of, and therefore blocking, the HII region IC434. The Horse Head nebula is estimated to be approximately 1500 light years from Earth and is a part of the greater Orion Molecular Cloud.

RA : 05h 40m 59.0s
Dec : −02° 27′ 30.0″
App Mag : +6.8
Dist : 1.375 kly
Size : 3.5 ly
App Size : 8 x 6 arcmin

The Horse Head Revisted

A perpetual favourite to visit, this year I tried with the QHY268 and Antlia filters on the ED80.

January 20, 2024 in B33 Horse Head.

A Portrait of A Horse

9th December 2020

Taken using the 10″RC at it’s native 2000mm (f8) focal length, this is a close up portrait of the famous Horse Head dark Nebula in Orion

December 22, 2020 in ASI1600mm-C, B33 Horse Head, Dark Nebula, GSO RC10 Truss, Skywatcher EQ8.

Horse Head 31 Dec 2019

New Years 2019, what better target than the Horse Head ?

January 1, 2020 in ASI1600mm-C, B33 Horse Head, Dark Nebula, Deep Space, ioptron CEM60, Nebula, Skywatcher ED80 Black Diamond.

Horse Head complex in Ha

Taken on the 8th Jan 2016 this was my first attempt at capturing the Horse Head Nebula (B33) complex.

January 22, 2016 in B33 Horse Head, Dark Nebula, Deep Space, Nebula.

Gallery

Current Moon Phase

Waxing Crescent Moon
The moon is currently in AriesThe moon is 4 days old
Distance: 57 earth radii
Ecliptic latitude: 0 degrees
Ecliptic longitude: 6 degrees

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