Horsehead Nebula, copyright 2010 Jeff BallI love revisiting old friends with new gear and that is exactly what this image represents. The new gear was the Takahashi FSQ 85 and the Canon T1i camera modified by Brent Maynard. It also represents many new enhancement techniques that I have learned over the past few months. That is why we often revisit familiar friends, to bring new interpretation to the image through either refined artistic vision, new gear, new techniques, or all of the above.
Unfortunately, all of the new techniques require a great deal of time and result in a rather lengthy image optimization process. I hope to be more efficient with time, but I do like to let the image "stew" for a while before it is "served."
The image may be seen at this link "Horsehead Nebula." Please don't forget to click on the image for optimum presentation in a portfolio window.
I hope you enjoy the image of one of the great areas of our Milky Way galaxy. The area is around the star Alnitak in the constellation Orion and is approximately 1600 light years away. For scientific information on the area please see this link.