At the center of this image is the left star in Orion's belt, Alnitak, a giant
star 35,000 times brighter than the sun. The even brighter star near the
top of the image is the middle star in Orion's belt. The area around Alnitak
is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and interesting parts of the sky.
Much of the top half of this image shows the glowing cloud of hydrogen designated
IC 434. Between IC 434 and earth, and so blocking a bit of IC 434 from our perspective,
is probably the best known "dark nebula" in the sky, the Horsehead Nebula. In this
image, you can see that the Horsehead is just a small portion of a much larger cloud
of gas and dust. Below Alnitak is NGC 2024, another section of glowing hydrogen with
veins of dark nebula often called "The Flame Nebula". You can also see numerous blue
reflection nebulae throughout the image. Be sure to look at the "original" size image
to explore the details of this area.

Image data:
Camera: Canon 350 XT (modified)
Exposure: ISO 800, 5 minutes x 32,
plus 10 minutes x 12 through 7nm hydrogen-alpha filter
Telescope: William Optics 66mm ZS, 0.8x reducer / field flattener