The Flame Nebula (NGC 2024 or Sh2-277) is an orange colored emission nebula in the constellation Orion near the Horsehead Nebula and just off the belt of Orion. It is about 1350 light-years away. Alnitak, the eastern most star in the Belt of Orion, provides the bright blue flare in the top of this image. With a large aperture telescope at moderate magnification, the Flame Nebula is just barely visible in very dark skies.

This stack of 53 images was filtered out of over two hundred images taken over several weeks in late December and early January, 2025 with varying atmospheric conditions. This image was taken with my QHY-247C on my Edge C11 with the 0.7x focal reducer. Using 5 minute exposures, this stack is over 4.4 hours of integration.

Image Center:	View full size annotated image.
Right Ascension:	5h 41m 42.515s (85° 25m 37.726s)
Declination:	-1° 50m 52.827s
Orientation:	Up is 91.4 degrees East of North.
Image Size:	40.885' x 27.277'	Pixel Scale:	0.415"

Principal objects in field: NGC 2024

All identified catalog objects: NGC 2024