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Scope: C8 at f/5.1, Location: Dos Picos Park Ramona, CA 3 December, 2005 Camera: Artemis285
Exposure: 7 x 420 sec H-Alpha (1x1), 8 x 120 sec Luminance (1x1) with IR/UV Block plus Red Filter 6 x 90 sec RGB Exposures (2x2).
Processing: Images were captured with Artemis Capture (as FITs). Aligned/stacked in Registax 3 and saved as FITS. Luminance, H-Alpha, and Color channels were scaled and rough color balanced in Astroart. Minor central gradient removal in Astroart. Channels were co-registered in Astroart. In Photoshop, the H-Alpha exposure was the main exposure for the luminance construction - the 120 sec Luminance was used for star field depth and detail and to capture full visible bandwidth of NGC2023 (in the lower left). Curves and Levels were applied in Photoshop to optimize object appearance. Final LRGB combine was done in Photoshop using Luminance Layering (or LLRGB). Color balancing and final touches were done in Photoshop. Selective layer sharpening was performed on prominent nebula features. Final Image size is approximately 1396x1040.
All exposures in this image were guided; North is to the left in this image. Dark nebula B33 (with the surrounding emission nebula IC 434 outlining it) is popularly known as the Horsehead Nebula. The object in the lower left is NGC 2023 - an emission / reflection nebula. This image replaces an earlier image that can be seen in the Archives here. The Horizontal FOV is 30'.
Image center is located approximately - Equatorial 2000: RA: 05h 41m 03s Dec: -02°24'38"