This is an object that I had planned to re-shoot for years. One of the most fascinating vistas in the constallation of Orion was on my list during my astro-trip to Tenerife in 1997. With an entirely different setup, my 8"-SCT together with high-performance film suitable for astrophotography, I was unable to capture most of the details in this picture. Well, the format was also not perfectly chosen, but even the innocent observer unfamiliar to astrophotography techniques will realize what happened to amateur astrophotography techniques within these 13 years!
The most famous detail within this picture is the horsehead nebula shown on plenty of astro-posters. It is a cloud of interstellar dust that obscures the red hydrogen gas behind. The distance to earth is some 1500 light-years, the diameter is 3 light years across.
North is to the left.