Just wondering if anybody here has visually observed the horsehead nebula and if so, what were the conditions at the time of observation and what size instrument/magnification did you use.
Seen it a few times with my 8" LX90. From a very dark sky though. Couldn't see the horsehead shape itself but just the nebula. Needs a wide field of view. A contrast boosting filter helps also.
Trevor, You'd be lucky to spot it in an 8" even from the darkest of skies. I remember one time looking at it with a h-beta filter through a 20" from the darkest skies of west mayo (with jed glover, phil lardner and ronan newman) and it was just on the very edge of visibility.
However you never know.
I have a 1.25" inch lumicon h-beta filter. If you (or anyone) wants to borrow it you'd be more than welcome to.
I have a 1.25" inch lumicon h-beta filter. If you (or anyone) wants to borrow it you'd be more than welcome to.
Dave, if you are at Galway at the weekend my self and Trevor will be there and would love to take you up on that offer. Just last club meeting we were asked about the practicability of using these type of filter (narrow band filters) and we had to admit that we had no experience of them.
See you there?
Will check the images we took last night to see if my "electronic eye" saw it.
Here is the result of two 120 second raw exposures at ISO 1600 through a 300mm F5.6 Sigma lens on my 300D, stacked in DeepSkyStacker, one dark frame and a little bit of Paint Shop pro for resizing.
Not great, need more images but the clouds and the cold were getting to me! However I can just see a hint of of the horsey!
Bigger version at www.kerryastronomyclub.com/gallery-deep.htm
You see the Horsehead Nebula by not seeing it. Being a Dark Nebula it appears just appears like a bay (not a horse's head!) in the adjacent Emission Nebula.
In my (former) 33cm (given good conditions) it was easy enough, but this was with a h-beta filter. It bigger than you might think.
At a recent Webb Society meeting it came up for discusssion, few in England had managed to see it. Those in rural Ireland should be better off.
