M67,Twice (12-2012 to 2-2013)

 Full resolution image here.

There is a time during the night in December through February when bright targets are not too plentiful.  This one, M67, is one of the few.  In between working on dimmer targets, I took some frames of M67.  We see M67 in the constellation Cancer.

M67 is an open cluster of stars that is between 2,500 and 3,000 light years away.  Its age is between 3.5 and 5 billion years.  Our Sun is about 5 billion years old, we believe.  The Sun and M67 are moving in the same general direction through space in our Milky Way Galaxy.  Some have speculated that our Sun was once a member of the cluster, though later studies (such as here) make this seem unlikely.

Regardless, M67 is a beautiful open cluster in a telescope.  No image really captures the beauty of the stars, but these remind me of the cluster.

The first was taken with the AT111EDT, a refractor.  The spikes were placed on the stars with software.  I think they are subtle and give the stars a bit of sparkle.  That image leads the three because it most nicely frames the cluster.  Here is the same image without the spikes:

Full resolution image here.

And here is one taken through the Orion 254mm f/4.7 Newtonian.  In this image, the spikes are part of the star shapes created by the telescope.  The color for the Newtonian image comes from the Palomar and AAO Digital Sky Survey II, publicly available on the web.  Thanks to Dick Locke for generously sharing a color-balanced sample image.

Full resolution image here.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics P-FLAT4 (eff. at f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9C; L (15x180"), R (6x300"), G (7x300"), B (7x300"); Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter: Astronomik CLS and RGB filters
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Registar, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX 

Telescope: Orion 254mm f/4.7 Newtonian and RCC I
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 (L: 9x240"), T-shirt flats
Filter: IDAS LPS-P2
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Registar, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

NGC 2244 & the Rosette Nebula Center, Bi-Color (Dec. & Jan, 2012-13)

Link to full resolution image.

Here is my recent NGC 2244 and Rosette data arranged as a bi-color.  In this rendition, I have mixed the Ha [+NII] data with SII at a 2:1 ratio.  These wavelengths, which fall in the red part of the spectrum, became Red.  Blue in this image comprises OIII and Ha data mixed at 4:1, and Green comprises OIII and SII data mixed at 4:1.  The color strengths were adjusted after combination to emphasize the difference between red and blue, so the contrast visible here is between Ha, NII, and SII, on the one hand, and OIII on the other, red v. blue-green.  Capture data for this image appears in the Hubble palette post for this object, dated February 4, 2013.  The telescope used was the AT111EDT, the camera the SXVF-H9.

NGC 2244 and the Rosette Nebula Center (Dec. & Jan. 2012-13)

Link to a full resolution image.

This is the center of the Rosette Nebula, a fascinating place.  The squall line of dust and gas clouds in the upper left (northwest) is being slowing washed away by stellar winds from the brilliant O stars in the cluster NGC 2244, which occupies the middle of the image.  In fact, the cluster has blown a hole in the middle of the cloud, which is why the background in the middle of the image is dimmer than the surrounding sky.  And the loops and filaments throughout the image add intrigue and color.  Also, notice some stars here appear distinctly yellow.  In this color scheme, those stars glow far more brightly in ionized sulphur than in ionized hydrogen or oxygen, and that in itself is a cool fact.

The Rosette is also famous for harboring Herbig-Haro objects.  The most famous of these is just to the left (north) of the brightest star in my image, and faintly visible, but more visible in this brightened and more contrasty cut from the Ha [+NII] image:

My image is processed roughly in the Hubble palette, which means green for Ha, blue for OIII, and red for SII.  I've modified the weighting of the colors slightly to boost contrast and (I hope) aesthetics.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics P-FLAT4 (eff. at f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9C; Ha [+NII] 10x15', OIII 11x20', SII 12x20'; Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter: Astronomik 12nm narrowband filters
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Registar, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX