The Horsehead nebula

At a distance of about 1500 light-years, the horsehead nebula, also known as Barnard 33, is a huge dust cloud obscuring the light of the emission nebula IC 434 behind it. Hanging just below Alnitak, the left-most star in Orion's belt, the dusty dark cloud shaped like a horse's head is silhouted by the glowing hydrogen behind.

Above image taken November 24, 2008, with the 300mm F:4.5 Nikkor mounted on the 402 camera- exposure is 20 minutes.  The bright star is of course, Alnitak, and the red region below and to the left of that star is the emission nebula NGC 2024. Unfortunately, an aircraft flew through my field of view during the red exposure.  Compare with the C-14 image below.

Image taken 1:30 a.m., November 6, 2007. Exposure is 15 minutes in each color, using track and accumulate of 30  30-second snaps.