Wreathed in Smoke and Flame

How great it is to clean off the dust from my telescope and take it out under the dark skies over the weekend (well dark-ish anyway – the moon was at 56%).

I decided to target the easily recognisable Horsehead and Flame nebula, although I prefer to personally name it the “Balrog Nebula” after J.R.R.Tolkien’s mythical demon, as his description seems to match this composition closely:

“The flames roared up to greet it, and wreathed about it; and a black smoke swirled in the air. Its streaming mane kindled, and blazed behind it. In its right hand was a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire; in its left it held a whip of many thongs” [Lord of the Rings, Book 1].

Taken with a modified Canon 6D DSLR through a Skywatcher 120ED refractor – details are below.

| 2018-01-25 | Chittering, Western Australia | EOS6D modified | Skywatcher 120ED Esprit | UV/IR cut-filter for RGB and Baadar Ha | ISO1600 | 17 x 300sec for RGB and 15 x 600sec for Ha | 1 x panel, cropped | NEQ6 mount | Synguider |