The Flame Nebula - NGC 2024

[MarsG76]

Hi All,

As time goes on, with hectic life and a combination of (what seems like) strategically placed full moon and clouds in the sky, I find myself with less and less time to spend on the hobby... imaging is mostly automatic with my now remote accessible and controllable backyard observatory, but I still find that I'm rushing my latest images... in exposure time and processing...
Either way, I had a little bit of imaging time so I decided to hit 3 objects in one clear full night... and repeat exposing the three objects through various (but the same filters) in one night...
 

This is the famous "Flame" Nebula - NGC2024, seen in almost every Horsehead nebula image and is an emission nebula in the constellation "Orion", located about 1350 LY away.

This image was a side project after the two galaxies I was imaging on the same dates (NGC1512 & NGC1232 still waiting to be processed) have drifted out of line of sight.
This image would have been perfect for such a short exposure time at this focal ration if not for the corrector plate reflections caused by the bright star, "Alnitak".

This image was exposed across multiple nights between 14 and 31 December 2021 for the Luminance, Red, Green and Blue channels for a total exposure time of only 3 hours and 45 minutes.

Image taken through a Celestron 8" SCT at f10 (2032mm focal length) using a QHY268M astronomy camera on a CGEM mount.

 

Clear Skies,
MG