Leo Trio

The Leo Trio lies about 35 or 36 million light years away. These galaxies are gravitationally bound together. The one in the upper left, M66, is roughly 100,000 light years across. Assuming these systems are all roughly the same distance, they may well be within 1 million light years of each other. It's no wonder that they show signs of distortion. Look carefully at M66. Which side appears longer, left or right? Whichever you decide, it is clear that M66's two sides differ, and this is thought to be the effect of having neighbors nearby. The galaxy on the right, NGC 3628, is also distorted. Its stars are being pulled out all around it, like too much lettuce spilling out of a ham sandwich. Even more interesting, NGC 3628 has a long tidal tail that is too faint to appear in this image but is clear in this very cool and very deep image by Steve Mandel (processed by Ken Crawford).

This image is the last of my January 18 run. This was also taken with the AT66ED and the Atik 16, unguided on the LXD75. It is about an hour's worth of 10-second exposures. No darks, no flats, no bias frames.

Trapezium Stars E & F, AR6, and Atik 16

The Trapezium of Orion! These six stars (you must click on the picture to see the larger image) are gravitationally bound. This is a "multiple star," not just a double or triple star. There are several others in the same tiny group. In fact, you can see in this image a hint of a few others---perhaps G, H, and I---if you compare this image with the one near the bottom of this link. There may even be other stars shown in this image. Look at the blobby shape of the lowest star. It turns out that faint stars exist just to the lower left and right of this star. My little AR6 with this makeshift imaging system can't resolve them, but perhaps light from these stars is deforming this component of cluster. (Thanks to Anjal Sharma of the Huntsville Amateur Astronomy Society for pointing out the deformation and the possibility of other stars there.)

Anyone who reads this blog much knows that I check the Trapezium almost every time it is up and I am out. I take great delight in seeing the four stars hanging together in the sky. I am even more delighted when I see the E and F components. I've described them here and in three earlier posts. But they are so easy to see in the AR6! Moreover, they are bright stars. So I figured: The focal length of the AR6 is 1219mm. If I can attach the Atik 16 to the AR6 and use an Ha filter, I can take many very short exposures and stack them to show the E and F components. This is the result. This is unguided on the LXD75, and it was pretty shaky. In fact, this is only 28 out of the 100 sub-exposures I took, but they were only 1- or 2-second subs, so I didn't lose much time. Shakiness and "seeing" took a toll. Also, the thing took some time to set up. I was afraid Orion would move behind my neighbors' tree before I was finished. In the end, I had 30 minutes to spare. The Ha filter is an Astronomik 13nm bandwidth. One key to the process was Nebulosity's Drizzle function, which yielded a better resolution than mere stacking or combining.

Here are two great images of the Trapezium by Samir Kharusi and Roland Christen. Both make me want to try again soon.

M46 (& NGC 2438), M47, NGC 2362

These are some of the fruits of January 18th's night out. This is the Atik 16 attached to the AT66ED. Baader UV/IR cutoff filter only. Unguided on the LXD75.

Luna & the Airplane

This prop plane flew right across the moon as I was manually focusing on the moon itself. Lucky for me the focus was a little short: Not a bad shot of the plane! This will be the largest full moon of the year. The moon is nearer now than it will be at the time of any other full moon this year. Perhaps if the moon was not so large, the plane would not have fit so well within it in this shot! This lucky shot was re-published on Spaceweather.com, here. Canon XTi, Nikkor 300mm 1:4.5, ISO 1600, 1/3200 seconds.

Luna in a Nikon Nikkor 300mm f/4

Finally, a clear night! It gave me a chance to try out a new (used) Nikon Nikkor 300mm f/4. Here is Luna through the lens. I'd say for a good, classic, relatively inexpensive (auction-obtained) lens, this image is quite free of annoying chromatism. It's relatively easy to focus, too, though the Canon XTi.

North America Nebula & Pelican Reprocess

These frames were taken on the night of July 31-August 1, and I posted an earlier version here. But we have now had 21 straight cloudy days and nights! My photon deprived mind has begun scheming for ways to see the sky (we did have five minutes of partial clearing last night, and one could catch glimpses of Sirius through the clouds now and then, but mostly I was wrapping presents all night (little kids like everything to be wrapped, even if it's just a piece of candy)). One way to see stars is to reprocess old images. The earlier version of this set had a satellite or something fly through one sub-image. This version lacks that frame and takes advantage of better software and five months more experience. Open cluster M39 is in the upper left corner, and several other deep sky wonders are glimpsable between the stars. If you have a good chart, you can do some observing here! This image is a crop from a stack of 1-minute exposures with the Canon 400D and a 50mm f/1.8 lens stopped down to f/3.2.

Luna Venus Jupiter Conjunction (12-01-08)

Taken with the XTi and a 50mm lens from downtown Houston (at sunset, the most daylit image) and later in The Woodlands, TX.