IC434 and horsehead

[Argonavis]

I have never seen the horsehead nebulae without a H-Beta filter, it seems almost mandatory, irrespective of aperature.

An interesting site for this object is:

http://home.earthlink.net/~astro-app/horsehead/index.html

[ving]

I have heard of people glimsing it without a filter... and this shall be my goal should the clouds ever clear! :)

thanks for the link

[seeker372011]

Phil harrington has said he has observed the H-H with a 20 x40 binos..

on the other hand even with a HBeta filter and a18 or 20 scope at SPSP I was most dissapointed with how indistinct the H-H appeared

seeing on the night accounts for a lot

[Argonavis]

Dark nebs are the first to suffer from less than desirable seeing. Transparency is a given - you really need transparency, but you need seeing too. The iconic status of this object would not exist if all we had were visual impressions. No one would bother to look. It appears like an amorphorous dark patch to me. What drives the popularity of this object is not its very uninspiring visual appearance, but all those images in the astronomy books and magazines. I consider that Be146 against ngc5367 in Centaurus is more interesting, but almost unknown.