Big article on the Horsehead & its region from Nightfall in S Africa

[Weltevreden SA]

Hi Ever'body, Dana in S Africa checking in.



Our online deep-sky journal "Nightfall" has just posted a great piece about the Horsehead (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1d1-K_8aZzkvTAUKKcypTpSqkaJIdL1Bq) and all the other objects near it — IC 434, The Flame Nebula, NGC 2023, Alnitak, and the suprising role the multiple star system Sigma Orionis plays in all these. The article is 25 pages, thorough, and beautifully illustrated.

The link is here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1d1...pTpSqkaJIdL1Bq (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1d1-K_8aZzkvTAUKKcypTpSqkaJIdL1Bq)


Enjoy!

=Dana in S Africa

[eiddy]

A well written and interesting article. Well worth the read. Thanks for the link.
Nick

[silv]

Where's the LIKE-button? :)
I am reading it bit by bit, like a Christmas cookie I nibble on over days. Sooo fascinating, learning about the gigantic powers wrestling with each other over the course of aeons.
And then looking so harmlessly beautiful in DSO images.

I find, without having any previous astro-scientific knowledge nor inner access to either mathematics nor formulas, I can still enjoy reading this article. I skip the parts I feel too undereducated for, and sentences like this one: "One seemingly feckless star in our eyepieces is responsible for the whole shebang: σ Ori." or these two: "If we were astride the Horsehead, σ Ori would be a stellar dot about as bright as the gibbous moon. If we were on σ Ori looking back the Horsehead would be a round blob larger than the Coal Sack"
make the article accessible and enjoyable even to me. They're pulling me into a "story".

The only other pieces of this kind, scientific yet accessible and belletristic, I ever read were Dana's posting describing Paul's M8 and her words regarding the faint reflecting dust clouds around LMC/SMC. If I may be so blunt: I enjoyed these a little bit more than the Horsehead writeup.

If anyone can point me towards more of this kind of well written, knowledgable DSO literature, I'd be totally grateful!

Thank you for posting this article.
And all the best all around for 2019!
Annette

[Tinderboxsky]

Thank you for the heads up Dana. An informative and enjoyable read. There has been a lot of time and effort invested in this paper.

[Weltevreden SA]

Hi over there, ever'body . . .



I spotted Annette's note in the comments section of the HH in Orion. She asked where there might be more articles like this. Dana De Zoysa and I produce the Astro. Society of S. Africa's online deep-sky journal "Nightfall". It is a quarterly large-format all-colour "magazine" and is filled with articles like the HH piece, plus a lot of general articles such as a recent 150th anniversary tribute to Henrietta Swan Leavitt, the oldest star chart in the world (Chinese, 7th century), and a piece about astronomy typography in the early days of print before Newton. Here are links to all the articles Dana & I have produced since we started October last year:

(https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kbrzUjIT40b56VdECvcSTpa_oa MHaqks)
Nightfall V2#1 October 2017: (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kbrzUjIT40b56VdECvcSTpa_oa MHaqks)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kbrzUjIT40b56VdECvcSTpa_oa MHaqks

Nightfall V2#2 February 2018: (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hqinin4V6X0yVQu3DUxJsBEqFf CxKBtB)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hqinin4V6X0yVQu3DUxJsBEqFf CxKBtB

Nightfall V2#3 October 2018: (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_Nnlye4f_6oKWsgBVON0h0QS_vs4rHcD/view)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_Nnlye4f_6oKWsgBVON0h0QS_vs4rHcD/view

Special Report #1: The Oldest Star Atlas in the World (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vh6_lA5sUo7mRODfzLj0Al65Dz iq9BBb)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vh6_lA5sUo7mRODfzLj0Al65Dz iq9BBb

Special Report #2: Riding with the Valkyries: O Runaway Stars Observers Challenge (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1l3qhoaMfda9gjgavr0MWl7t0bh 10nbrn)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1l3qhoaMfda9gjgavr0MWl7t0bh 10nbrn

Special Report #3: Magellanic Mystery Solved (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kOC4vBJiLdCxiBu2edvB8VgPt9 v1X1pI)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kOC4vBJiLdCxiBu2edvB8VgPt9 v1X1pI

Special Report #4: Seeing the Dark (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tsL0VzGLmJR1r-mYqj1M69JrKyI_PpNs)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tsL0VzGLmJR1r-mYqj1M69JrKyI_PpNs

Special Report #5: The Winds of Change are Blowing Over Aquila (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_FyJCgJRZDSv4YQn7vSs1aKc8f FBIyr0)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_FyJCgJRZDSv4YQn7vSs1aKc8f FBIyr0



The Horsehead piece is part of a 3-piece section devoted to Orion, coming out in our next issue, schedule for later this month. I'll announce it here when we post it.



Hope you enjoy.



=Doug Bullis (& a wave from Dana)

[big-blue]

Thankyou Dana for sharing.
A wonderful read.
I look forward to the other links.
Happy New Year

[multiweb]

+1 The HH article was very good. Well constructed with great illustrations and in layman's terms. Very cool stuff. :thumbsup: