IC434- is located in the well known constellation of Orion. It is a section of both reflection and emission nebulosity that extends from one of Orion's belt stars, Alnitak. Residing within this reef of dust and gas is the much sort after column of dark nebulosity called the Horse Head Nebula or B33. The dark column is made more prominent by the reef of HII gas which is excited by the bright, near by star Alnitak. (although this 1.74 mag. star is not seen in this field, you can make out its refraction spike, an optical effect, to the top L/H corner, extending across). The interesting mag. 30 reflection nebula to the bottom L/H corner is Ngc2023.                                                   It is a popular target for deep space imagers but is very hard to find for the casual observer. You will need a modest- large aperture telescope and very good dark skies to glimpse this fascinating faint object .

 Conditions- have been poor for well into a couple of months. This night/ morning was reasonable and was able to obtain some reasonable detail considering the shortness of the exposures and through a Ha filter. Average FWHM 1.8. Image heavily cropped.

Taking the luminance on the 8th & 9th seeing was poor but transparency was good. Average FWHM 1.7.