M38 and NGC 1907 (Jan. 2023)

 

This is 19x600" with the Atik 460EXC and LPS-P2 through the SW ED80.  Which is better, the more stretched shot or the less stretched one?  The less stretched one is closer to what the area looks like through a large telescope.  The more stretched one shows stars as deep as 17th magnitude.

Pluto and Palomar 8 (July 10, 2013)

 

 (Click on pictures for larger images.)

Here is Pluto!  See it?  It is just to the east (left) and a little south of the obscure globular cluster Palomar 8.  (You will have to click on the image, at least.)  Palomar 8 is about 42,000 light years away, which is not that far for a globular, but we see it through the mid-section of our own Milky Way galaxy.  That is why there are so many stars in this image.  Lots of gas and dust also block the view, especially obscuring blue light.  That is why the cluster is just a dusty bit of reddish fluff near the middle of the image.

The real treat here is the planet's juxtaposition with the globular.  But Pluto is hard to see!  The dimmest stars in this image are about magnitude 16.  Pluto is around magnitude 14, but quite a few magnitude 14 stars shine here.  How to find Pluto?  Well, I used two resources: the chart on pages 52-53 of the June 2013 Sky & Telescope, and sky-map.org, which plots planet locations against the DSS2 All Sky Survey.  Pluto is the only magnitude 14 object at the location, and I can see stars in the image two magnitudes deeper.  I am confident I have the planet here.  Care to find it in the above image?  If not, here is the same image with pointers:

Want a closer look?  Here is the pixelated, enlarged view.  Some star magnitudes are labeled so that you can more easily spot the planet.  You might compare this view with the survey view on sky-map.org.  Search for "palomar 8."  For a few weeks right now, the sign for Pluto will be very nearby.

There is a time warp in this image.  The light from Pluto has been traveling from the Sun (roundtrip to Pluto and back to us) for about 8 hours 37 minutes.  Light from Pluto itself (sunlight bouncing back) traveled about 4 hours 22 minutes.  Light from Palomar 8 has traveled from the other side of the galaxy for 42,000 years.  We are literally looking back in time.  Light from the Sun reaches the earth in a bit more than 8 minutes.  Pluto's relative distance from the Sun, as compared to ours, is understandable in light minutes: 8 minutes v. 262 minutes.  It's easy to see why the diminutive ball of rock is so cold.

I call Pluto a planet in this post.  Some would prefer it be designated something else.  I have no interest in that debate.

I used the AT65EDQ for this image.  I wanted to see how deep the scope and color camera combination would go.  Partly I wanted to "observe" Pluto with a 65mm scope.  I think it's amazing that such a small scope will allow me to see such a dim object.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT65EDQ and TeleVue NPR-1073 (eff. at f/5.2)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9C (39x240"), Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter: IDAS LPS-P2
Guiding: Meade DSI Pro and Hutech 50mm
Mount: Takahashi EM-10
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

NGC 6910, Sadr, and IC 1318 (July 2013)

 Full resolution image here.

The star cluster in the upper left is NGC 6910.  I took a close-up image of it a couple of years ago with the 10" Newtonian, here, but I wanted to go back for a view of the larger context.


The bright star to the right of the cluster is Sadr, or Gamma Cygni.  It is the heart of (the constellation) Cygnus, the Swan.

The nebulosity throughout the image is known as IC 1318, though this is not all of it.  IC 1318 covers an area all around Sadr.

This is second light with the AT65EDQ.  This image is also a test of the TeleVue focal reducer NPR-1073.  The 65EDQ's only obvious drawback is its speed.  TeleVue's 0.8x reducer takes the 65EDQ down to f/5.2, plenty fast for my purposes.  Star images are not perfect in this image, but they are certainly close enough for me (and I'm not sure where the fault lies, at this point).

The image has been reduced slightly to lessen the effect of lingering noise in the image.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT65EDQ and TeleVue NPR-1073 (eff. at f/5.2)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9C (35x480"), Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter: IDAS LPS-P2
Guiding: Meade DSI Pro and Hutech 50mm
Mount: Takahashi EM-10
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3 (one Carboni action)
Location: The Woodlands, TX

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 5850 (May 18, 2012)

This galaxy is a rather difficult target.  Its central bar is fairly bright, but the ring and outer spiral arms are diffuse and difficult to separate from the skyglow above my suburban home.

The galaxy is interesting both because of its morphology and because it appears to have developed asymmetry as a result of its encounter with its larger neighbor to the northwest, NGC 5846, which can be seen glowing at the bottom edge of my image (in which north is to the right).

My favorite image of NGC 5850 comes from the Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter and is linked here.  Ah, what one can do with a 24" scope on top of a mountain.

NGC 5850 is between 58 and 93 million light years away.  Most distance estimates to the apparent neighbor galaxy, NGC 5846, are closer to the larger number.

Trees and dew limited my exposure time to just over 3.6 hours.  The image may improve quite a bit if I double that on a later night.

Telescope: Orion 10" f/4.7 Newtonian and Astro-Tech Coma Corrector (eff. at f/5.17)
Camera and Exposure: 31x7' thru the SXVF-H9
Filter: Hutech IDAS-LPS2
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

NGC 891 (August 26, 2011)

This galaxy in Andromeda is interesting primarily because we see it nearly edge-on.  The combined light of the stars across the disk make the galaxy bright to us, and the dust lane cutting through the disk is prominent.   NGC 891 is between 14 and 41.1 million light years away, though most non-redshift estimates cluster around 32-39 million light years.  My favorite image of this object is Adam Block's (here).

Telescope: Orion 10" f/4.7 Newtonian and Baader RCC1
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9C, 16x10'
Filter: IDAS-LPS2
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

NGC 4565 (April 11, 2011)

This interesting galaxy is a popular target for imagers because we see it nearly edge-on. The roundish central bulge and the prominent dust lanes are interesting features, and the galaxy is relatively bright because we see it from the side---the combined light of stars across the galactic plane. NGC 4565 is between 34 and 72 million light years away. Several distance estimates cluster around 40 million light years. The galaxy is also the most prominent member of a small group of galaxies clustered in its area.  My favorite image of this galaxy is Stan Moore's, here; it was not taken from the city, as mine was.

Telescope: Orion 10" f/4.7 Newtonian
Camera & Exposure: SXVF-H9C, 35x10'
Coma Corrector: Baader RCC I
Filter: IDAS-LPS2
Guiding: Orion Deluxe OAG, Meade DSI Pro, PHD
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

M63 or NGC 5055 (4-5-11)

This lovely galaxy lies between 23 and 34 million light years away in the constellation Canes Venatici.  At this distance, it is a close neighbor (for a galaxy) of M51.  I've always been fascinated with this galaxy because images show the relatively straight dark lane cutting through what is in this image the lower part of the galaxy.  I've always suspected that a smaller galaxy was combining with this one.  I suspected this even more strongly when I saw in some images a ribbon of light in the same line as the dark lane that was clearly part of this system but was located somewhat away from the galaxy.  I can see this feature in my data, but it was too faint and noisy to leave in the color version.  Here is a version of my data in black and white, inverted, with contrast maximized.  You can see the ribbon of light on the bottom right under the second-brightest star in the image.  There may be a faint line of light stretching from the dark lane to the ribbon.

After seeing this in others' images, I strongly suspected there was more to the story, so I was pleased when Jay GaBany and others produced this very deep image (here) of the galaxy showing loops and streamers all around it from smaller galaxies falling into the larger one.

Telescope: Orion 10" f/4.7 Newtonian

Camera & Exposure: SXVF-H9C, 27x10'

Coma Corrector: Baader RCC I

Filter: IDAS-LPS2

Guiding: Orion Deluxe OAG, Meade DSI Pro, PHD

Mount: Takahashi NJP

Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3

Location: The Woodlands, TX

NGC 2683 (2-28 & 3-1-2011)

This lovely galaxy, found in the constellation Lynx, lies several million (more than 15 but less than 40 million, based on several studies) light years away. This image is 34x7' through the 6" I-newt and an IDAS-LPS-P2 and Baader MPCC, with the SXVF-H9C. Data was collected from the backyard.

IC 447 and some light pollution (3-1-2011)

IC447 is in the constellation Monoceros. It is a beautiful nebula, even from the burbs. This image is 13x7' through the 6" I-newt and an IDAS-LPS-P2 and Baader MPCC, with the SXVF-H9C. Of course, the image could use more time, and what it could really use is time with a scope and camera away from city lights, but I'm glad to catch the nebula, nonetheless.

M35 (2-28-2011)

This cluster is about 2,800 light years away in the constellation Gemini. It's sort of a showpiece in the 15" dob. This image was taken with the 6" I-newt, the SXVF-H9C, the Baader MPCC, and the IDAS-LPS-P2 filter. It is 26x2'.

A Brief Horsehead Nebula (3-1-2011)

I'm liking this setup. This image was taken with the Orion 6" f/5 imaging newt, Baader MPCC, IDAS-LPS-P2 vfilter, and SXVF-H9C camera, from the backyard. This is just 7x7', so I'm well short of an hour (my neighbor has this tree, you see). Anyway, it's very impressive what this relatively little scope (at least it looks little on the NJP) will pick up in 49 minutes.

IC 410 Tadpoles & Part of NGC 1893

These tadpole-like structures are part of a cloud of hydrogen and other gases and dust in the constellation Auriga. A cluster of stars, dubbed NGC 1893, has formed from the cloud. Those stars can be found throughout the image but are centered in the upper right, where the brightest of them are found. The brightest stars of NGC 1893 radiate energy which is pushing the cloud of gas and dust away. But some of the cloud is thicker and may hide stars in formation whose gravity counteracts the radiation from the bright stars. Where this occurs, the gas and dust remains, and a shock front forms where the radiation meets the stubborn part of the nebula. Behind the edges of the shock front and trailing away, is the gas and dust pushed around and away, like a tail, from the stubborn gas and dust remaining in the head, giving the tadpole-like appearance.

This image is 32x4' with the Atik 16 through the AT8RC and an IDAS LPS-P2 filter. The 67% moon rose during the final sub-exposures. The stars here are slightly out of round. I believe it is the way the camera is attached to the focuser. Honestly, I wish focusers had T-threads. It'd be so much easier.