Horse hunting.

[YKSE]

Alan,

Nice to know that you have good dark sky at home, a very promising for you to find the horsey

Here's a picture of 1° FOV thorugh a diagonal with NGC 2023 centered:

And a picture of same 1° FOV in a newt:

Identifying the few bright stars in the FOV should be a good starting point for locating the pony.

[alan potts]

Yong,

About the only stars I am seeing clearly at the moment are the two in a straight line between it and Alnitak, can't say I have picked up on that patch of nebula near by yet either. Things will get better as Orion gets higher in the sky and the other night when I made a half hearted attempt there was a 4 day old moon which will never help.

I think I am trying a bit too early in the evening and need the constellation higher, now we have 70cms of snow so any astronomy bar bino's is off the menu.

[YKSE]

Alan,

In my diagonal view, looking below Alnitak, the red marked stars are brightest, then come the purple marked ones, at least to my eye, the nebula to the right of 2023 is not bright at all.

[alan potts]

Yong,

I really feel i am seeing the background brightness but no head at the moment, it is by no means as obvious as you fine picture, I wish it was. I am sure it only me that is stopping a sighting, I get up very early in the morning so go to bed early. When I did the "all the planets in a night"  when I got back out Orion was across the other side of the sky and going down so much the same sort of position as it is rising at the moment. When due south it is 60 degree plus in my sky, that going to be the time to place a bet on this horse.

Interesting I see from the Deep Sky Atlas the background brightness which isn't, is called Orions Dagger.

These pictures are very useful, thank you!

Alan

[Beulah]

Thanks Yong for the illustration, that's very helpful. Can't wait to get back out there.

[PeterW]

Get a sense of the scale and you will probably only see s "gap" in the faint nebulosity.

Good luck

Peter