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Oriented in Portrait mode to try to avoid
Zeta Orionis to the lower right.



            
 There are a few
            spectacular objects in the sky with very bright stars in the
            immediate vicinity, making photography of them difficult. This
            is one of them, NGC2024 in Orion, just to the North east of 2nd
            magnitude Zeta Orionis. The bright star is off to the lower right,
            making reflections within the optical system. This is the first
            time I have been able to get the entire nebula using the 12.5"
            and CCD. The previous camera, the ST7E would only get a fraction
            of it.

            
The color of this object
            is very curious indeed. It is not the usual pink or reds seen
            in most emission nebula. The addition of a large amount of obscuring
            dust imparts a more orangish hue to the nebula, as seen here.
            This nebula in addition does not respond well to nebular filters
            because of the dust, making viewing of this object even more
            difficult.

            
Shooting Notes: This
            object is an RRGB, using the red filter for the luminance in
            a further attempt to isolate this nebula from the bright star.
            This tends to make red stars look brighter, and blue stars dimmer
            but more saturated.

Instrument:  12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian
Platform:  Astrophysics 1200 QMD
CCD Camera:  SBIG ST8i NABG with Enhanced Cooling
Guider: SBIG ST4
Exposure:  RRGB = 40:20:20:20 (RGB Binned 2x2)
RGB Combine Ratio:  1: 1.1: 1.6
Filters:  AstroDon RGB Tricolor
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing FWHM = 4.5 arcsec (Maxim DL - 10min subframe), Transparency 8/10
Outside Temperature:  10 C
CCD Temperature:  -20 C
Processing Tools:  Maxim DL,  Photoshop, PixInsight, RW Debloomer.
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