- NGC 2024 The Flame Nebula
The Flame Nebula (NGC 2024 or Sharpless 277) is a large, relatively bright reflection nebula in the constellation Orion. It is located next to the bright star Alnitak (ζ Orionis), the eastern star in Orion's Belt. In my image, Alnitak appears as the bright (visual magnitude 1.74) blue-white star near the top of the image. The proximity of Alnitak makes imaging NGC 2024 difficult, since the glare from this star tends to overpower nearby objects, like the Flame. This nebula is made visible largely by reflected light from Alnitak. In this way, it is similar to the smaller reflection nebula NGC 2023 located near the middle of the right side of the image. The redder color of the Flame Nebula is due to the intervening dust clouds that both redden the light reflected by the nebula but also give the nebula its flame-like appearance. NGC 2024 does not exhibit the dark red color of Hα emissions characteristic of emission nebulas. For comparison, look at the dark red emission nebula along the upper right corner of the image— this feature is part of the "wall" that leads to the Horsehead Nebula located just outside the right edge of this image.
The Flame Nebula is located at a distance of around 1350 LY from us. It covers an area of the sky approximately 30 × 30 arc-min. It was first described by William Herschel in 1786.
There are several other smaller nebular features in the area around the Flame. In the lower right corner is the small, fairly bright reflection nebula IC 435. In the upper left corner, the slight nebulosity around one of the pair of stars there is the reflection nebula IC 431. Below it is another faint reflection nebula, IC 432, surrounding the variable star V901. This whole group of nebular objects is part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, which includes the Horeshead Nebula and the Orion Nebula (M 42).
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