IC4592 – The Blue Horsehead Reflection Nebula by Leonardo Orazi Via Flickr: http://ift.tt/1IjP4zU Do you see the horse’s head? What you are seeing is not the famous Horsehead nebula toward Orion but rather a fainter nebula that only takes on a familiar form with deeper imaging. The main part of the above imaged molecular cloud complex is a reflection nebula cataloged as IC 4592. Reflection nebulas are actually made up of very fine dust that normally appears dark but can look quite blue when reflecting the light of energetic nearby stars. In this case, the source of much of the reflected light is a star at the eye of the horse. That star is part of Nu Scorpii, one of the brighter star systems toward the constellation of the Scorpion Scorpius. A second reflection nebula dubbed IC 4601 is visible surrounding two stars on the upper right of the image center. [Text adapted from APOD] Optics: Takahashi FSQ-106EDXIII F/3.6 383mm. – APO Refractor Mount: AP Mach1 GTO Camera: Canon 5D MkII – Baader Mod Filters: OSC Guiding Systems: Tecnosky 60/228 Guide Scope- SX Lodestar Dates/Times: 17-19 June 2014 Location: Pragelato – Turin – Italy Exposure Details: OSC => 80 = > (16×5) ISO 1600 [num x minutes] Cooling Details: Ambient 14°C Acquisition: Maxim DK, Voyager, TheSkyX Processing: PixInsight, PS CS5 Mean FWHM: 3.21 SQM-L: 20.60 / 21.11 – Gatlinburg Garden Castle Rainbow Tower Library Imagination Station Temple Water Spirit Guardian Labyrinth Treasury Magic Healing