One of the most beautiful objects, the Horsehead Nebula in Orion is one of the most famous objects in the night sky.
The Horsehead gets it name from the dark silhouette against the deep red background nebula. The silhouette is actually a dark molecular cloud called Barnard 33 and was discovered photographically in the late 1800s.
The deep red hydrogen gas nebula (IC434) shines by ionization from the bright star Sigma Orionis
The Hubble Space telescope asked Internet users to vote on an object to photograph, and the Horsehead won out overwhelmingly! Here is the photo taken by Hubble, and shows gas and dust collapsing into new stars.
Also in my photo you can see NGC2024 the Flame nebula off to the left.
While slightly out-of focus, and slightly underexposed this is my first shot of the Horsehead, and I'll re-shoot it again later.
The Horsehead Nebula (IC434, B33 and NGC2024)
