Abell 31 or PK219+31.1, OIII Added

With OIII added, Abell 31 looks something like this. The OIII is very faint. Even with 18x7' (126 minutes) of exposure through the Atik 16, stacked, the OIII was very dim. I stretched the data as much as I could. The Atik 16 is not nearly as sensitive to OIII as it is to Ha. Here is a version with less brightness:

IC 443, the Jellyfish Nebula (2-4-2011)

This nebula is the remnant of a supernova. The nebula and the neutron star that is left after the supernova occurred (neutron star not pictured here) are located about 5,000 light years away in the constellation Gemini. The nebula is well-studied, and some facts about it are reported here with a nice image of the area. The Wikipedia entry for IC 443 is interesting and appears (as of this posting) to be well-documented. This image is 23x7' with the Atik 16.

Abell 13 or PK 204-8.1 (2-4-2011)

This interesting planetary nebula in Orion shines brightest by far in Ha [or NII]. This is 10x7' through an Astronomik Ha [+NII] filter.

Abell 33 or PK 238+34.1 (2-4-2011)

Abell 33 is a fine planetary nebula in the constellation Hydra. This is just 9x7' through an Astronomik 12nm OIII filter with the Atik 16 and 120mm achromat + WO 0.8x II ff/fr = astrograph.

NGC 2174, the Monkey Head Nebula (1-2011)

I was able to take OIII subs this week. Combined with the Ha and mapped to more or less natural color, the nebula now looks like this. The OIII subs were 24x7' taken with the Atik 16 through the 120mm + WO 0.8x II ff/fr = f/4 achromat and Astronomik Ha [+NII] and OIII filters. Here is the OIII data:

Abell 5 or PK 141-7.1 (1-25-2011)

This rather dim planetary nebula in the constellation Perseus was right overhead when I began a set of 17x7" sub-exposures with the 120mm + WO 0.8x II ff/fr = f/4 achromatic astrograph. Taken through an Astronomik 12nm Ha filter. The galaxy at upper left shining so brightly in Ha is PGC10824.

NGC 3193, 3190, and 3187 (1-1-2011)

This is (at least) three of the galaxies in Hickson 44, a galaxy group in Leo (from the Hickson catalog). I have always thought this trio intriguing because of the different shapes shown (and also because it would fit in my small camera field). NGC 3193, upper left, is an elliptical galaxy that is nearly featureless. NGC 3190, by contrast, is a spiral galaxy that we see almost edge-on. It sports a prominent dust lane and smaller dust lanes branching off on the left. To the right of NGC 3190 is NGC 3187, also a spiral galaxy whose shape has been disrupted by other galaxies in the group, probably including NGC 3185, not pictured here. Most recent estimates put this group of galaxies about 80 million light years from us. Cite. My favorite image of the group is here.

This image was taken on my first night out with the Orion 10" newt. Camera was the Atik 16. An IDAS LPS2 filter was also used. The image is just 22x2'. The background is bright because I did not have enough signal yet (in just 44 minutes of exposure) from the galaxies to cut out skyglow noise.