The Witch Head Nebula is a dim reflection nebula near the bright star Rigel (Orion’s left foot). The region is also rich in ionized hydrogen which makes a nice backdrop and creates good color contrast between the blue-ish color of the Witch Head and the red ionized hydrogen gas.
About a month ago I captured just the Witch Head but I felt like it was missing the context of the wider area. I also like seeing Rigel since it’s the star powering the region. The featured image here is a six panel mosaic of the background with the closeup details of the Witch Head added.
The second image shows the layout of the panels. The finished image file is 206 megapixels with a file size of nearly 15 GB.
All images were done with the observatories Takahashi FSQ106 on a Paramount MX+ mount and a ZWO ASI6200MM Pro monochrome camera. The complete setup is available for hourly rentals so you can produce your own stunning images of the night sky.