Alnitak Strikes Again

Many astrophotographers have had a tough time imaging the Horsehead and Flame nebulae around the bright star Alnitak. It is famous for causing reflections and usually reeks havoc on imaging systems. My recent attempt proves I am not immune to this phenomenon.

I actually got hit with a double whammy because I recently installed a dew heater on the secondary mirror of my RC and accidentally left a wire sticking out behind the mirror. This caused some odd artifacts that are mostly noticeable on the brighter stars.

As for Alnitak, it caused some reflections in the upper left and right parts of my image. It appears that the upper left is reflections from my tube baffles. Above and right of the Horsehead is a reflection that is most likely from my Astro Physics CCDT67 Telecompressor. You can clearly see them in this greyscale image.

With a rather large crop of the image I was at least able to salvage something from it.

I hope to be able to revisit this target soon and will move Alnitak outside of the field of view when using the RC. I could probably use my wide field apo and not have this problem but I'd like to get the added detail that isn't possible with the short focal length scope.

I think the problems caused from the dew heater have been fixed so hopefully I'll get some clear nights to do some more testing soon.