NGC 7331, Stephan's Quintet (Sept. 2015)

NGC 7331 in its glory, and all the little galaxies.

NGC 7331 is about 48 million light years away (based on studies of its Cepheid variables).  The galaxies above and behind NGC 7331 are far in its background, but they are probably relatively near to each other.

The group of galaxies to the lower left is called Stephan's Quintet, after its discover.  It is also called Hickson 92, after a cataloger of odd galaxy groups.  And this one is odd.  The oval on the left (NGC 7320) is in front of the others.  In the Hubble image of this group, that oval galaxy is blue.  Its red-shift suggests that it is only 35 million light years away---somewhat near NGC 7331 and thus not a member of the group.  The other galaxies in the area, however, are closer to 270 million light years away, far in the background.  Those background galaxies are gravitationally connected to each other.

There is a small galaxy above Hickson 92, and one tidal tail from the 92 group reaches up toward it.  This galaxy, NGC 7320C, is also connected to the Hickson 92 group and probably moved through it millions of years ago, causing the tidal tail.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 (107x420"); Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter(s): Astronomik CLS
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, PHD, SkySafari, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

IC1318 Bi-Color (Summer 2015)

The Ha [+NII] signal is overwelming in this area of the sky, but there is also prominent SII and some (less) OIII, so I mapped SII (and some OIII) to blue, Ha to red, and created a synthetic green channel to achieve this bi-color image.  The effect is to show Ha in red contrasted with the weaker SII signal.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 (Ha [+NII]: 20x1200"; OIII: 16x1200"; SII: 21x1200"); Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter(s): Astronomik 6nm NB
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, PHD, SkySafari, Maxim DL, Registar, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

IC 5070, or the Eye of the Pelican (8-2015)

This is the northernmost part (north is to the right) of the Pelican Nebula.  I can spot six Herbig-Haro objects.  Compare my image with this one from NOAO.  How many can you find?

This is also first light with PHD2.  I like the new guiding program.  It measures guide star seeing in arcseconds, and it is easier to control.  It also remembers my setup.  Kudos.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 (Ha 17x1500"; 21x1200"); Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter(s): Astronomik 6nm Ha
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, PHD2, SkySafari, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

B343 Fine, Summer 2015

B343 is an interesting patch of dust set against a background of glowing hydrogen in the constellation Cygnus.  Below the dark nebula and to the right lie ionization fronts formed in the hydrogen gas.  I think it's a pretty interesting area.

To the H-alpha set, which is used here as Luminance, I have added a night's worth of color with the SXVF-H9C.  The image looked better to me at 85% of original size, so no full resolution is posted.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. f/5.6)

Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 (Ha 11x1500", 11x1200") and SXVF-H9C (55x420"); Alnitak Flat-man flats

Filter(s): Astronomik 6nm Ha & CLS

Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG

Mount: Takahashi NJP

Software: Nebulosity, PHD, Maxim DL, Registar, Photoshop CS3

Location: The Woodlands, TX

B343 (Final Ha) August 2015

Full resolution image here.

I found a night in July for more time on B343.  Here is a complete H-alpha, full resolution image.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 (Ha 11x1500"; 11x1200"); Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter(s): Astronomik 6nm Ha
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, PHD, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

IC1318a (the most interesting part), July 24, 2015

We are blessed with clear-ish skies on a weekend with a quarter moon, which works for narrowband.  IC1318a is near the star Sadr in Cygnus, a prominent summer constellation.  I've shot this object before, but I've a goal to shoot OIII and SII this time, also, and make a color frame of it.  The star at the center of the frame is HD194789, a type B star about 1,050 light years away.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 (Ha 20x1200"); Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter(s): Astronomik 6nm Ha
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, PHD, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

B343 in Cygnus (June 6, 2015)

70% resolution available here.

This dark nebula in Cygnus is here framed by the light of ionized hydrogen.  On the right are two brighter ionization fronts; obviously the cloud is moving somewhere.  Nearby small dark nebulae spot the area.

Usually, I present images full-frame, but parts of this area are dim enough that I was unable to get a clean image in 4.5 hours.  This image is shrunk to about 70% of full frame.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 (Ha 11x1500"); Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter(s): Astronomik 6nm Ha
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, PHD, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

M82 (Spring 2015)

Galaxy M82 is amazing because it appears to be exploding.

I considered a version of the image with the background darker, but in fact the background contains several very distant galaxies and perhaps a distant galaxy cluster.  I enjoy the presence of these faint fuzzies enough to put up with a bit of photographic noise.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 (Lum 65x300") (Ha 19x1200"); SXVF-H9C (34x300"); Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter(s): Astronomik CLS, 6nm Ha
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, PHD, Maxim DL, Registar, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

M42, the Great Nebula (Dec. 15, 2014)

Ah, the dark art of imaging M42.  What can one say?

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT (f/7) and Astro-Tech AT2FF
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9C, 20x30", 20x60", and 29x300"; Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter(s): Astronomik CLS
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, PHD, Maxim DL, Registar, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

IC 1795 (Nov. 2014)

This area is up early in the evening now and sets for me behind the trees around 1 am.  This set of frames included one night of excellent seeing and one that was very poor.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. at f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9, Ha 21x1200" (6nm), Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter(s): Astronomik Ha
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, PHD, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

IC 410 and NGC 1893 (Fall 2014)

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. at f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 (Ha- 14x1200" (6nm) and 7x900" (12nm), SII- 22x900", OIII- 31x900" (total 19 hours 40 minutes)), Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter(s): Astronomik NB Filters
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, PHD, Maxim DL, Registar, Photoshop CS3 (and one Carboni action)
Location: The Woodlands, TX

M33 (October 2014)

This galaxy in Triangulum is a near neighbor, just around 2.8 million light years away.  It's so close it fills the view!  M33 is smaller than our own galaxy but contains numerous regions of gas and dust in which stars are forming.

M33 is just bright enough to be seen with mere eyes from a moonless sky away from all lights.  I've seen it from the SHSU Observatory.  The background sky in this image is bright (and contrast relatively low) because all of my data was gathered from my backyard (community of 100,000 just south of a city of 100,000 (including suburbs)).

This image combines monochrome full-spectrum sub-frames with color sub-frames I took in 2012.  I was glad to see the two data sets come together so well.  The combined mono and color frames were matched in Registar then combined in Photoshop.

Luminosity:

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. at f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 39x300", Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter: Astronomik CLS
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

Color:

Telescope: SV80ED (and William Optics 0.8x II fr/ff (eff. at f/5.6))
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9C (49x480"), Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter: Hutech IDAS-LPS2
Guiding: Meade DSI Pro and Hutech 50mm
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

NGC 891 (Oct. 2014)

This galaxy flies about 32 million light years away in the constellation Andromeda.

I've always imagined that our galaxy would look something like this edge-on.  The Milky Way is similarly ringed with massive clouds of gas and dust.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT (at f/7) and Astro-Tech AT2FF
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 85x360", Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter: Astronomik CLS
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

IC 410 in Ha (October 15, 2014)

Lying in the plane of the Milky Way, in the constellation Auriga, nebula IC 410 provided raw material for the star cluster (NGC 1893) in the center of this frame.  The light of the cluster's stars now makes the remaining gas glow.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. at f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 14x1200", Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter: Astronomik 6nm Ha
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

Initial Spectra, Vega and Mu Cephei (October 4, 2014)

[Click on picture for larger view.]

I acquired a Star Analyzer 100 grating to try spectroscopy.  Here are my first results.  These are just raw data from the camera; I have not calibrated for instrument response.  But you can see the hydrogen Balmer absorption lines are visible in Vega, an A-type star.  Furthermore, the blue end of the spectrum is lit up.  

Mu Cephei, a type M2 Ia star (probably, but classed as M1 or other kind of M2, also), is known for its red color, and the spectrum bears that out.  Titanium oxide lines dominate.  These stars are very different, and the difference is obvious in their low-resolution spectra.  Rather than identify lines in the spectrum of Mu Cephei, I have displayed a reference spectrum for a type M2 I star, which Mu Cephei is.  My little camera is obviously catching the major features.  That's pretty exciting to see.

The brightness of the bar at 0 means nothing.  Vega is dimmer only because of an accident of processing.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT (at f/7)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9
Filter: Star Analyzer 100 grating
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, RSpec, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

IC 417 and Stock 8 (October 2014)

Full resolution image here.

This nebulous area lies in the constellation Auriga.  It is part of a much larger cloud of hydrogen and other gases and dust in that area, in the plane of the Milky Way.  I enjoy the nebula's variety.  It sports fingers of gas and dust that are glowing, and others that are dark against a glowing background.  It has ionization fronts in long lines and glowing rings.  Out of the nebula has grown the cluster in the center of the image, Stock 8.  A study here suggests that the stars in the cluster are new, between 1 and 5 million years old.  Stars are still forming in the region.  My favorite image of this area, in vivid color, comes from the Mt. Lemmon Sky Center and is linked here.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. at f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 19x1200" (6nm Ha), Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter: Astronomik 6nm
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

IC 63 (October 2014)

Full resolution image here.

This ghostly nebula glows around Gamma Cassiopeia, one of the brighter stars in that constellation.  You can see the star's glow in the upper right of the image, just outside the frame.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. at f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 8x1200" (6nm Ha), Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter: Astronomik 6nm Ha
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

Bi-Color Eastern Veil Nebula, NGC 6995 - September 2014

Full resolution image here.

Here is the same veil as below with 220 minutes of OIII added.  The green is synthetic (80% OIII and 20% Ha).  I have seen bi-color images in which the OIII shines as blue, but my blue channel here is too weak.  Whether from the lower blue response of my camera, that I do not have enough time on OIII, the reddening of the sky above my light-polluted backyard, or all of these, the Ha overwhelms the blue. The night I collected OIII was also pretty hazy.  The effect of the blue in this image is therefore only to lighten/whiten the red.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. at f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9  Ha: 12x1200" (6nm Ha) + 12x900" (12nm Ha+NII); OIII: 11x1200".  Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filters: Astronomik 6nm Ha, 12nm OIII
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Photoshop CS3, Registar
Location: The Woodlands, TX

A Swatch of Veil - NGC 6995 (August 2014)

Full resolution image here.

Of course, this is part of the Veil Nebula, a supernova remnant in Cygnus.  This is just the Ha (and perhaps a bit of NII).  I've wondered whether the arcs help show the location of the original blast (relative to what remains).

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. at f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 12x1200" (6nm Ha) + 12x900" (12nm Ha+NII), Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter: Astronomik 6nm and 12nm Ha[+NII]
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

The Cygnus Wall in H-alpha (July 9, 2014)

Full resolution image here.

This well-known cloud of interstellar dust and gases in the constellation Cygnus glows here with the light of ionized hydrogen.  The image was taken with the moon >85% full.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. at f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 23x900"), Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter: Astronomik 6nm Ha
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX