This positively breathtaking image was among the winners of the 2014 Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest

Sep 20, 2014 23:03 GMT  ·  By

I've seen my fair share of space photos over the years, but I have to admit that this image of the Horsehead Nebula is among my all-time favorites. In fact, I'm having serious trouble taking my eyes off it long enough to write this piece.

The image is the work of space enthusiast Bill Snyder of the US, who not too long ago entered it into the 2014 Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest. Not at all surprisingly, the image made Bill Snyder the winner of the “Deep Space” category.

As detailed by astronomers, the Horsehead Nebula sits at a distance of about 1,500 light-years from our planet, in the constellation Orion. It comprises massive amounts of dust and gas which form a cloud whose appearance resembles a horse's head.

What makes this image stand out is the fact that it does not show the horse-like cloud alone, but also the gas and the dust resting at its base. In case anyone was wondering, the glowing spot in the lower left of the photo is a bright star.

“This was captured with a Planewave 17-inch scope in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California. The CCD camera used was an Apogee U16 with Astrodon filters,” the Royal Observatory in Greewich, England, explains how Bill Snyder obtained this image.

Furthermore, “The exposure times were 1.5 hours each of red, green and blue, plus 8.3 hours of hydrogen alpha, making the total amount of exposure time for this image nearly 13 hours.”