M81 & M82 (May 2023)

 

This is a data set from OMI Astro.  It's 11.4 hours of R-Ha/G/B.  This is actually one of my favorite parts of the sky.  These two galaxies are very bright.  In my 10", they look like a whirlpool and a wave, about of equal size.  I can almost squeeze them in the same field of view with the eyepieces I use.  It's quite a sight to come across these very bright objects.  In the telescope view, they have no color at all because they are so dim, even though they are about as bright as galaxies appear at the eyepiece.  Leave it to the camera to pick up colors. OMI collected the data with a Takahashi TOA 150.  I was hoping to work with data collected with a refractor, and that's a good one.

Busy Sun (2-27-2024)

 

This is 1/4000th of a second with the Canon T3i through the SW80ED with 0.85x flattener/reducer. We are near the peak of the solar cycle.  The big spot upper right is numbered 3590 by those who count.

Eta Carinae Nebula from 2022

 Eta Carinae is the bright star near the center of the frame.  The star formed from this cloud and then (with several other type O and B stars not quite so bright but also extremely hot) lit up the cloud from within.  Eta Carinae itself is unstable and increased sharply in brightness in 1837 before dimming back down.  It's been a constant object of study for astronomers ever since, as is the nebula surrounding it.  Unfortunately, the nebula is too far south for me to see in Texas, so this data came from Martin Pugh Observatories.