Telescope Reviews: Bound and determined : Horsehead thru a ten..BUT..

Carol's sketch with that lovely reference triangle is perfect as a guide in looking for this elusive dark nebula. That little angled trio of stars on its western point (left) are always what I show people as a guide in looking for B33. The faintest of them points right at the snout. You can still see these stars even with a NBP, H-Beta or Ultra Block in place. I suggest to people to forget about everything at first and only focus on those stars and where they are pointing. Often that's all it takes to get people to see B33. You have to be looking exactly in the right spot. For a best view it also requires observing it with an eyepiece that gives you an appropriate exit pupil to work with an H-Beta filter. This is from 4-7mm. Match all of this and I've found seeing B33 isn't as difficult as people think. I've had total newbies seeing it from not all that perfect conditions.

Story time;

In early September I was at a star party at a fairly nice location. Late in the night I wandered over to someone I'd met earlier to look through his 16" Starmaster. A bunch of them were looking at the "Flame" as Orion had finally risen above a ridge to the east. I asked if they minded if I had a look for the Horse Head. They all said sure as most had never seen it. Because I knew where to look although it was faint I could clearly make out the dark notch in the faint band of IC 434. Seeing that the eyepiece was a 13 Ethos I asked if anyone had a 1.25 H Beta. "No". So, "I'll be right back" and wandered off to get mine. With the H Beta in place B33 was then much easier to see and showing them those pointer stars all there could make it out although most were having difficulty. Then I started to think about the scope we were using. "What's the focal ratio?" "4.5" So that meant the exit pupil was only about 3mm. "Anyone got a 25-30mm 1.25" eyepiece?" "No" "I'll be right back." and went and got my 30 mm Orion Ultrascopic and plopped that along with the H Beta into the focuser. The change was remarkable. IC 434 had a hard N-S straight edge to the east side and the western edge feathered off to the west. Etched into the eastern edge like a chess piece was the Horse Head completeing the photographic view. My job there was done. For the rest of the time I was at that star party, every time I ran into that scope owner he thanked me for giving him the most memorable view he'd ever had with his scope.

This is not an object that needs magnification as much as it needs appropriate exit pupil. With my little ED 80 refractor from my reasonably dark backyard I've detected it on a perfect winters night.

Bill