The beautiful blue of a reflection nebula, velvety red from ionized hydrogen atoms, and dark nebula resembling a horse’s head can all be seen in this image. There are even stars with spikes caused by a reflector telescope. What a combination of celestial objects containing many rare beauties in one image!
Almost every astrophotographer dreams of visiting the Atacama Desert in the Chilean Andees. It is a dream to have a telescope there, or have access to some of the telescopes there. Why Atacama, Chilean Andees? The driest place on earth, and high elevation from sea level, it is a place where NASA and ESA (European Space Ageny) have spent millions, perhaps billions, to build the largest and most advanced telescopes on earth. It is home to VLT (Very Large Telescope) Paranal Observatory, La Silla Observatory, and many more future observatories such as ELT (Extremely Large Telescope).
What does this image to do with all these observatories and telescopes? No, it is not shot with one of those million-dollar telescopes, but it is shot with a telescope located in Atacama Desert, Chilean Andes.
The El Sauce Observatory in Rio Hurtado, Chile stands at the elevation of 1525 meters above sea level. This is where astronomers and astrophotographers, both professional and amateur, reach telescopes in the facility remotely and use those telescopes as their window to universe.
Remotely using such equipment and being able to reach to southern skies (differs from northern hemisphere skies) is a unique experience. Being able to acquire high quality raw files and to pre- and post-processing that data takes the astrophotography experience to a whole other level.
The Horsehead Nebula aka Barnard 33 is a famous small dark nebula in the constellation of Orion resembling a prominent horse head. The nebula is located at the South of easternmost star of Orion's Belt, Alnitak, and is part of the much larger Orion molecular cloud complex. It appears within the southern region of the dense dust cloud known as Lynds 1630, along the edge of the much larger, active star-forming H II region called IC 434 (red region behind the dark nebula of horse head).
NGC 2023 is an emission and reflection nebula at the same time (lower left of the Horsehead Nebula in the image) located in the constellation of Orion at a distance of 1300 light years from the sun.
IC 434 is a bright emission nebula in the constellation Orion. It was discovered by William Herschel. Emission, star forming, reflection, and dark nebula in one frame, and all these different nebulae are the part of the same nebula complex, is what makes this image very unique.
This specific pair of Nebulae was shot with one of the most powerful telescopes in El Sauce Observatory, 24 inches aperture f/6.5 with 3962 mm focal length reflector, and high-end mono CCD camera with 3056x3056 pixel array with 12 μm pixel size, tracking mount Mathis MI-1000/1250 with absolute encoders and finest narrow band and broad band filters to capture different wavelength of lights from the celestial objects.
Equipment & Exif
Planewave CDK24 Telescope
Aperture: 610 mm (24 inches)
Focal Length: 3962 mm
F-ratio: 6.5
Mount: Mathis MI-1000/1250 with absolute encoders
Camera: FLI PL 9000
Filters(50mm square): Ha (3nm), OIII (3nm)
Off-Axis guider: Astrodon MonsterMOAG
Guiding camera: Starlight Xpress Ultrastar
Observatory name: El Sauce Observatory
Location: Río Hurtado, Coquimbo Region, Chile
Total 8 Hours Integration
Luminance 17 x 600 seconds
Red 11 x 600 seconds
Green 11 x 600 seconds
Blue 10 x 600 seconds
1/1 Edition
Artist: Mustafa Aydın
Image Credits: Mustafa Aydın / Telescope Live
Extended Editorial License
Can be used to display privately, or in commercial and non-commercial settings, or in groups with an unlimited number of participants. The license includes unlimited use and display in virtual or physical galleries, documentaries, and essays by the NFT holder. Provides no rights to create commercial merchandise, commercial distribution, or derivative works.
