I tried to view the Horsehead again today with what is my light-bucket for this refractorholic: My 8” Edge SCT. It started well, the Flame Nebula was more obvious than yesterday. In contrast, the stars do not look as crisp as yesterday. This confused me a little and as the Horsehead is an extremely marginal object for me to view, I decided to check an image on the computer re the guide stars. Ha, ha, no night vision after that and whilst waiting for it to come good, I could see the faint start of dawn. I had not allowed myself enough time for the task.
Before I had gone inside though, I did note that the surrounding nebula did not appear to have the pinkish colouring, which I observed yesterday. I used approximately the same magnification as yesterday (57 verse 53x), and with my 35mm Panoptic, I also had roughly the same sized field of view. Next time, I really need to use an EQ mount, which will make things a little simpler.
I have been doing this in the morning, because here, it is too difficult in the evening. The morning sky is darker (less houselights polluting the sky) and besides, Orion is in only in the evening during our Tropical Wet Season, when there are often lots of friendly mosquitoes keeping me company.
I can see myself going at 3.00am to a nearby darker site in about 2 or 3 months to observe this a little better. That will be when Orion is overhead.
I have searched a number of images to guide my efforts and selected one that is less overexposed than most. The original which is available at:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Astronomy/c...sehead_nebula/
. After this morning season, I have flipped this photo so that its directions are consistent with the view in my scopes, which all have star diagonals. I have then reduced the image to the region of the Horsehead and show the guide stars, which I use. I see 3 stars above the Horsehead that I have not noticed when using the scope. I will attempt to find these, providing they are not too faint. The attached images are still a lot, lot brighter than what I see with the scope.
Thanks for the replies and good luck with your efforts guys. I hope this information helps.