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Filippo Ciferri
HorseHead Nebula
By: Jason Fiola
Introduction
• Hello
• I Make Money Making YouTube Videos
– Machinima
– FullScreen INC.
• I Teach Guitar at LA School of Music
AND
I LOVE PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
Introduction
• The HorseHead Nebula
– Most recognizable Stellar Sculpture
• Personal Favorite
• Term stellar sculpture may or may not be a real
term.
Introduction
• Also Known as Bernard33
• Part of the much larger Orion Molecular Cloud
Complex, or just Orion nebula
• In the constellation Orion.
Introduction
• Located Just south of Alnitak
– Alnitak is the eastmost star in Orion’s belt
• Many cultures throughout history and around the world have
noticed this asterism.
• First recorded in 1888
– SUPER easy year to remember
• Recorded by Williamina Fleming
– On Photographic Plate B2312 (harder to remember..)
– At the Harvard College Observatory.
Introduction
• Some final Introductory Notes on the HorseHead
– About 1500 Light years away from the sun
– Dimensions are about 7’x7’
• Depending on how tightly you frame it.
– Napkin calculations,
• it is ~4 parsecs across or 13 light years.
• 250 solar masses.
Introduction
• Finally, it’s J2000 coordinates are
RA 05h 40m 59.0s
DEC -02* 27’ 30.0”
PAUSE
Hubble IR
Data and Observations
• Brayden and I went out for 2 observing sessions
• First session, 14011415
– January 14th 2014
– With Kevin and Winter
• They were observing Arp 273
– Brayden and I stayed later to try and get some data.
Data and Observations
• The data taken that day? None of it used..
– Moon had risen
– Sky was too bright
– We did at least get a routine down that we later used
for our second attempt.
Data and Observations
• Our procedure was
– Find Alnitak with our eye, center in finder scope,
center on telescope and set coordinates
• RA 5h 41m 28s
• Dec -01* 56’ 10”
• Mag = 1.85
– Focus star, HIP 26756
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RA 5h 41m 45s
Dec -2* 17’ 56”
Mag = 7.5
FWHM = 6.1  Not good..
Data and Observations
• Finally we moved the telescope to 5h 41m 42s
and -2* 23’ 37”
• We then tried to center the HorseHead as we
liked it framed.
– We noted 3 stars in a triangle that we used in the
future to align our image each session.
– We also noted the new coordinates after we framed
the HorseHead as we liked it
• 5h 41m 43.8s
• -02* 26’ 47.5”
Data and Observations
• One more lesson from our first session
– Pay attention to the dome’s openning..
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The HorseHead travels across the sky quickly…
Make sure it stays in view of the door..
Images started to get dark
Took us a while to figure out why
It was cold
No one wanted to go outside..
Data and Observations
• Second session a much more successful trip.
• 14020102 or Feb 1st 2014
• Unfortunately the filter wheel was not yet ready
– We definitely had enough time this night to take a
color image.
• We followed the same steps
– Same check star, same focus star
– FWHM = ~3.5 <- AWESOME!
– Took 2 hours of data.
Data and Observations
• BUT!...
• Of course each session has to have it’s hiccups,
this session was no different.
• I love this story..
• Another lesson
– Keep Clean Notes, and.. READ THEM! (Often)
Data and Observations
• Luckily things went smoother from this point
forward.
• Until we need to take our Darks..
• Program wouldn’t let us
• Last person that used the telescope set it to
autodark.
Data and Observations
• FINALLY our finally image!
• Next slide..
JUPITER
Focus Area and Current Research
• Stellar Nurseries
• Research paper
– “Infrared Census of Star Formation in The Horsehead
Nebula.”
Stellar Nurseries
• A region where many young stars are being
formed in dark molecular clouds.
• The horsehead nebula happens to be one of
these nurseries.
• The Paper I picked explains.
Infrared Census of Star Formation in
The Horsehead Nebula
• “The HorseHead Nebula is the closest
radiatively sculpted pillar to the sun.”
• Discussed piercing through the dark dust cloud.
• Measuring 45 sources
– 3 are bona fide proto-stars
– 5 are major candidates
– Within the 7’x7’ region called the HorseHead.
Brendan P et. al
Infrared Census of Star Formation in
The Horsehead Nebula
• Paper also discusses two star formation theories
• Radiation driven implosion model
– EVIDENCE found
• Sequential star formation
– Evidence not found.
Brendan P et. al
Bibliography
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Brendan P. Bowler, William H. Waller, S. Thomas Megeath, Brian M. Patten,
Motohide Tamura (2009) Infrared Census of Star Formation in The
Horsehead Nebula, http://arxiv.org/abs/0901.0564
http://www.hrastro.com/B33_HorseheadNebula/HorseheadNebula_1024x68
0.jpg
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1304/horseheadir_hubble_1225.jpg
http://d1jqu7g1y74ds1.cloudfront.net/wpcontent/uploads/2006/12/horsehead.jpg