Horsehead Nebula and Friends

This region of our galaxy is special thanks in no small part to the stars in the top right corner which light up the dust and gas below them casting shadows and making everything look so 3d. In my biased opinion (😉) you won’t find a better shot of this region. I’m sure some smart Alec will burst my bubble at some point, until then a big thanks to all my supporters who donated to the Betty project and the goodly folks who bought my previous pictures which paid for my flight out to the Canaries. Here is the video that shows how and where Betty bagged this picture. And a big thanks to you if you buy this print as it will fund future missions.

Printed on Giclée Hahnemühle Photo Rag paper which is more expensive than regular paper but I think its worth it because the whites are whiter, the darks are darker and critically there are no reflections. There are 4 sizes (A0 Huge (see pic above) , A1 Large, A2 Medium or A3 Small). Also we can mount A1, A2 and A3 sizes in a quality black or white frame if you wish. The print run will be limited to 500 so when its gone its gone. If you have any questions please email me directly on [email protected]

Altinak is the left hand star of Orion’s belt. Its about about 300 light years in front of the cloud of dust and gas upon which the horse sits. Pretty much all the other giant blue stars are right in the cloud because that's where they were born. Many of these giant ungrateful so and so's are burning huge holes in the gas from which they were born faster than my kids are burning holes in my pockets (see NGC 2023, IC435, IC432 and IC431). σ Orionis is particularly big and problematic child. It is 1400 times fatter than the sun(😮). This monster is currently burning away the hydrogen rich gas behind the horse. 

 One mystery is why σ Orionis hasn’t managed to vaporise the horse itself. I go with the theory that the horse is protected by a giant magnetic field. Sounds bonkers but the ‘streamers’ which are rising out of the red gas behind the horse are tracing the magnetic field lines generated by σ Orionis and recently the professional nerds have discovered magnetic field lines inside the Horse travelling in opposing directions. TBH no-ones figured it all out yet but that's why I love taking really detailed pictures and seeing if I can get some clues. Oh and if you look carefully you can see blue and red streaks behind the Flame nebula... what's that all about?

And finally watch the video clip below because I bang on about the Herbig Haro object we captured which I personally love as it gives a sense of scale.