ASTRO: Flame Nebula NGC 1977

This shot gives a whole new meaning to reflection "nebula"!

With a big bright moon nearby I decided to try the H-alpha filter on the
Flame. I quickly discovered I hate Alnitak (Zeta Orionis). No matter
what I did it put nasty reflections in the image. Put it out of the
field and they were really bad unless it was so far out so was much of
the nebula. Put it in the field and they wiped out most of the western
half. I finally found if I cut off the "top" of the nebula I could
minimize the damage. I even waited until it was west of the meridian
and thus the camera upside down to see if that helped. Not much if any
-- it was still pretty bad. This was the best I could do. I have no
idea what is causing the overlarge donut reflections. Even a slight
movement of the FOV caused them to multiply and brighten greatly.

14" LX200R@F/10, 2x30 minutes H-alpha binned 2x2, STL-11000M, Paramount ME

Rick

--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".