The Horsehead region in Orion is one of the most interesting and colorful areas in the Winter sky. Alnitak is the eastern star in Orion's belt and is at the left center in the image. The radiation from this hot star excites the gases in the surrounding nebula and produces ionized emissions. The Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) in the lower left is a remarkable reflection nebulae with a background of glowing red Ha emission and a strong overlay of reflected light from Alnitak. Running to the right of Alnitak is a strong band of glowing red emission nebula known as IC 434. A large mass of obscuring dust is visible in the lower half of the image and part of it forms the familiar horse head shape of Barnard 33.
The Horsehead area is about 1600 light years away.

Imaging data:
Date: Feb 15,16,17 2009
Location: New Ringgold PA
Optics: Televue NP-101 at f/5.4
Mount: Paramount ME
Camera/Filters: Apogee Alta U8300 FLI CFW-2-7 FLI Filters
Guiding: Orion Starshoot Autoguider in Orion ST-80
Exposure: Luminance: 16x5 minutes unbinned, R:15x4 min G:15x4 min B:15x6 min HA:15x5 min all binned 2x2 for a total of 6.1 hours
Processing: Image acquisition using CCD Autopilot. Initial processing was done using Maxim DL with subsequent processing using Photoshop.