> I look for the Horsehead nebula, NGC 2024 looks very good and moving
> off Zeta Ori I can see a faint edge which must be IC 434. I think I
> can see the Horsehead, but it is probably wishful thinking, as NGC
> 2023 which is nearby doesn't show much nebulosity. Steve has an
> H-Beta filter, and we get an excellent view of the Horsehead against
> the emission nebula. In a curious coincidence the Horsehead is the
> astronomy picture of the day on Friday. My 17 year old son thinks it
> looks more like the back end of the horse, but even he is impressed
> by the picture.
Although I didn't post this earlier, here are the notes I took on B33
(Horsehead) on Thursday evening (12/28/00) which Robert and I examined
closely through my scope --
17.5" (12/28/00): at 100x using an H-beta filter, the huge IC 434 strip was
very prominent and easy to follow from Zeta Orionis throughout the entire 50'
field of view in a N-S orientation with a razor-sharp eastern edge against a
very dark sky due to the narrow bandpass filter. The Horsehead, itself, was
easy to view with direct vision as a nearly black, semi-circular 4'
indentation which protruded into the nebulosity. With averted vision there
is a short extension or knob on the north side which forms the snout of the
horse and with concentration faint nebulosity is visible just below (east) of
the snout.
> Jim Shields has M82 at high power, in which he is looking for
> super-clusters, earlier he had a colliding pair of galaxies in view.
> A small oval galaxy running into the middle of an edge on. The pair
> looked like a high wing airplane, or the Enterprise (Star Trek)
> viewed from the front. Quite a treat. Jim suggests looking at "Thor's
> Helmet", after a few minutes Steve has it in view, and that is quite
> a sight. The helmet looks like its namesake, with a high eye-guard,
> and a neck flap in place, and a darkened area where Thor's face would
> be, and fainter mistiness past the face accentuates the region.
"Thor's Helmet", aka NGC 2359, NGC 2362 and IC 468, is truly one of the
showpiece emission nebulae in the sky and one of my favorites. I logged the
following notes after several minutes of gazing --
17.5" (12/28/00): "Thor's Helmet" is a remarkably bright, detailed nebulosity
at 100x using an OIII filter. The central region is 5' bubble (illuminated
by a Wolf-Rayet star) with a brighter rim along the west side giving a "C"
appearance with irregular knots, filamentary whisps of nebulosity and areas
of thinner nebulosity in the interior. A number of fainter stars are
superimposed in the interior with some brighter mag 11 stars are along the
north rim. Attached at the south end is a brighter 4' extension elongated
towards the west with a mag 9 star at its SE side. This section then thins
out into a long 10' streamer which precedes the main section and forms the
southern "horn" of the helmet. A second long, thicker streamer is attached
at the north end of the central mass and extends out to the NW (also
catalogued as IC 468). A fainter strip of nebulosity also begins on the north
end and extends 10' due west while weak nebulosity is also west of the
central helmet off the south side.
Steve Gottlieb