The Flame nebula was difficult to photograph well, partly because it is not so inherently contrasty, and partly because of multiple bright reflections from Alnitak.

The extremely thick dust can be seen as a blackened tree, after a bushfire, perhaps, with thin branches and thinner twiglets extending far out into the image. Alternatively, the central darkest part of the trunk is the silhouette of an evil bat-moth with outstretched wings.

H-alpha, 6 hrs in 1hr subs. Aspen CG16M on 20" Planewave. Processing with our own GoodLook 64. Field approx 0.5 deg, North up. 0.55 sec arc/pixel.

Flame nebulaHydrogen alphaNGC 2024