Hi again all. Here is another wide field image of the Milky Way galaxy above a line of scopes that were participating in a private star party at Rainbow Point in Bryce Canyon National Park. The party was part of the Astronomical League conference known as ALCON. The Milky Way was incredible from the site and there was essentially no light pollution. The skies at Bryce Canyon are among the darkest in the lower 48 states. This is a single 30 second exposure from my D700 camera.
Hi All. This image was taken from Rainbow Point in Bryce Canyon National Park, during a private stargazing party last weekend as part of ALCON. The skies were incredibly dark, but I took this image as a car was leaving and the taillights illuminated the trees a bit. I like the effect.
This image was taken from Rainbow Point in Bryce Canyon National Park during the recent ALCON star party. My view of the south sky is not really good from the observatory, so it was nice to get such a nice view from a dark sky site. What an incredible object!
This is an quick animation, made from two different images of M51 that were taken at different times. One was taken prior to the recent supernova, and the other was taken on June 5-6 of 2011, while the supernova was occurring. What an explosion this must be!
Hello all. This image is another image from my new Finger Lakes Instrumentation FLI MicroLine 8300 camera. It was taken on the night of June5-6 of 2011. I selected this common target because of the recent discovery of a supernova within the galaxy.
Hello all. This image is first light from my new Finger Lakes Instrumentation FLI MicroLine 8300 camera. It was taken on the nights of April 26th and 27th of 2011. I selected a familiar target for first light because I thought it would allow me to test the camera and compare it to previous efforts. I processed this image to try to show some of the dim extended portions of the surrounding area and many smaller galaxies, which are scattered throughout the image. I am pleased with the way the imaged turned out, given the new setup. All the parts seem to be working well together, although there are some issues in the upper corners. I am really excited to put this camera through its paces!
Pacman Nebula (NGC 281) in Narrowband Hi all. This image is a narrowband version of the Pacman Nebula, designated NGC 281, in the constellation Cassiopeia. The image is a false color version that is intended to illustrate the presence of particular emission frequencies within the nebula. The image consists of three separate images: one in the Sulfer II emission frequency (mapped to red), one in the Hydrogen-Alpha emission frequency (mapped to green), and one in the Oxygen III emission frequency (mapped to blue). This color mapping scheme is typically called the Hubble Pallette because many of the images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope have been presented in this color combination.
The nebula was discovered in August 1883 by E. E. Barnard, who described it as "a large faint nebula, very diffuse." The multiple star HD 5005, also called β1, was discovered by S. W. Burnham. It consists of an 8th-magnitude primary with four companions at distances between 1.4 and 15.7 arcseconds. There has been no appreciable change in this quintuple system since the first measurements were made in 1875. The nebula is visible in amateur telescopes from dark sky locations. (Some text from Wikipedia.com).
Scope: Astro-Physics Starfire AP130 EDFS F/6 Mount: Losmandy G-11/Gemini Camera: Starlight Xpress SXVF-H16 Filters: Optec for Ha and OIII and Baader for SII MaxIm DL, CCD Stack, PixInsight, and Photoshop
vdB141 Redux
van den Bergh (vdB141) in Cepheus I was very unhappy with my previously posted version of this object, so I decided to try again at processing the data. This one turned out much better. The original was captured from Vermillion Cliffs Observatory in Kanab, Utah. Although the nebula itself is fairly bright, the dust that surrounds the area is extremely dim and challenging to capture with my AP130 at F/6. I imaged nearly all night for two nights to capture this image. I especially like the "ghosts" that appear to rise up with raised arms. I hope you like this ghostly apparition in the sky.
NGC7380 - The Wizard Nebula This image is of the open star cluster NGC 7380. The area is also known as the Wizard Nebula. NGC 7380 is located in the constellation Cepheus at a distance of roughly 7,000 light-years from Earth, within the Milky Way Galaxy. The star cluster is embedded in a nebula, which spans a distance of 110 light-years. The stars of NGC 7380 are quite young, emerging from this star-forming region in the last 5 million years.
DWB-111, the Propeller Nebula, is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus. Astronomers seem to have more questions than answers, regarding this nebula. The origin of the peculiar structure is still completely unknown. The nebula's distance and source of excitation are also undetermined. DWB-111 mass is believed to be quite low, probably less than 50 solar masses. Obscuring dust is closely associated with the nebula, but seems to occur mostly in front of it.
Sharpless 140 in Cepheus This nebula is along the northeast circumference of a very large molecular
cloud called the Cepheus Bubble. This is a bubble of gas and dust
that is around 500 light years across and approximately 2,700 light
years away. From our vantage point on earth, this bubble extends across
10 degrees of sky! The bubble was formed only 10-20 million years ago inside
one of the outer spiral arms of our galaxy. Stars in the center of the bubble
formed and the most massive ones quickly exploded marking the origin of
this molecular cloud. The subsequent compression wave of gas trigged new
star formation- especially along the edges of the bubble where the gas is
most dense. SH2-140 is one such region. Another more famous area along the
southern rim of the bubble is
IC1396 (SH2-131). (Text description from "Best of AOP")
Here is a reprocessed version of IC59 and IC63, which are a combination of emission and reflection nebulae located near the bright star Gamma in the constellation of Cassiopeia. The blue reflection portion of the nebulosity is illuminated by the light of Gamma which varies in brightness from magnitude 1.6 to 3.0, and is located the the middle of the Cassiopeia asterism that looks like the letter "M" or "W" depending on its orientation. Although Gamma is a very bright star, it has no Arabic or Latin name. It does, however, have the nickname of "Navi". Gus Grissom, the second astronaut in space for the United States, named this star after his own middle name (Ivan) spelled backwards. Gamma, or Navi, was used historically for celestial navigation because it was very easy to find and identify in the night sky.
IC
59 and IC 63 are a combination of emission and reflection nebulae
located near the bright star Gamma in the constellation of Cassiopeia. The
blue reflection portion of the nebulosity is illuminated by the light of
Gamma which varies in brightness from magnitude 1.6 to 3.0, and is
located the the middle of the Cassiopeia asterism that looks like the
letter "M" or "W" depending on its orientation. Although
Gamma is a very bright star, it has no Arabic or Latin name. It does,
however, have the nickname of "Navi". Gus Grissom, the
second astronaut in space for the United States, named this star after
his own middle name (Ivan) spelled backwards. Gamma, or Navi, was used historically for
celestial navigation because it was very easy to find and identify in the night sky.
This is another image from my recent trip to Kanab, Utah. The conditions were very nice for imaging, and the hospitality at Vermillion Cliffs Observatory (Jerry and Cindy Foote) was as good as it gets! :) This incredible spiral galaxy is a mid-sized member of our
Local Group of Galaxies.
M33 is also called the
Triangulum Galaxy for the
constellation in which it resides.
About four times smaller (in radius) than our
Milky Way Galaxy
and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31),
it is much larger than the many of the local
dwarf spheroidal galaxies.
M33's proximity to
M31 causes it to be
thought by some to be a satellite galaxy
of this more massive galaxy.
M33's proximity to our
Milky Way Galaxy
causes it to appear more than twice the angular size of the
Full Moon, and be
visible with a good pair of binoculars. (Some text from APOD)
This is a combination of new and old data. The M42 data were collected on a recent trip to Kanab, Utah to visit with my good friends Jerry and Cindy Foote. The Running Man Nebula data were collected a few months earlier. I decided to put it all together into a nice Mosaic. What an incredible area of the sky this is! A beautiful mixture of emission nebula and reflection nebula, with lots of dust mixed in. Sweet!
The Great Nebula
in Orion, also known as M42, is one of the
most famous nebulae in the sky.
The star forming region's glowing gas clouds and hot young stars
are near the center of this mosaic that includes the bluish reflection nebulae
NGC 1977 and friends on the upper left.
Located at the edge of a giant molecular
cloud
complex, these beautiful nebulae represent only a small
fraction of this galactic neighborhood's wealth of
interstellar
material.
The Orion Nebula's estimated distance is 1,500 light-years
LBN 43742 and a piece of Sh2-126 in the 10 Lacertae Complex Hi all. This image shows LBN 437 and a piece of the emission nebula SH2-126 in the 10 Lacertae Complex. HD213835 is the bright yellow star in the upper left part of this image. This dusty area is also includes some emission nebulosity, which can be seen as a faint red glow. Adam Block mentioned that the dust looks like a dolphin or whale, standing on its tail. It also reminds me of a mobius loop.
Van den Bergh 158 and PK 110-12 1 Hello all. Here is my latest effort... imaged from Nocturne Observatory on the night of 9/6-9/7 of 2010. This is Van den Bergh 158, a dusty region with a reflection nebula near the brighter stars. This is a very dim object and the data were stretched hard to bring out the faint dust. The planetary nebula PK 110-12 1 appears as a small blue ball near the bottom-center of the image.
NGC7822 - in Hydrogen Alpha Hi all. Last night was one of the best seeing nights that I have experienced in my life, despite the bright moon. The skies were very stable. I decided to try a little hydrogen alpha imaging of NGC7822. I like this object because of the exquisite detail in the nebula and all the dark lanes. This image was stacked from 20 images, each of 20 minutes duration, for a total of 400 minutes. I couldn't be happier with the result. There are only a few night that allow my AP130 to really shine, and this was one of them. Please take a moment to look around this image... it is about as good as I will ever get. I hope to add some great OIII and SII data sometime soon, to complete a narrowband color version.
NGC7822 Narrowband Tricolor - Hubble Palette Hi all. This is my first real attempt at tricolor narrowband imaging. This image is composed of 3 emission line wavelengths of data: hydrogen alpha (mapped to green), oxygen III (mapped to blue), and sulfer II (mapped to red). This presentation of data is widely used in Hubble Telescope images, and allow the viewer to see which areas of an object are emitting light at specific wavelengths. This image was taken over three nights and includes over 1000 minutes of data.
M27 in RGB, Ha, and OIII Hi all. This image was taken over two nights from Nocturne Observatory in Northern Utah. I used five filters to create this image that is essentially in real color. The image particulars are listed below. Scope: AP130 EDF F/6 Mount: Losmandy G-11/Gemini L4 Camera: FLI MicroLine 3200ME Filter Wheel: FLI CFW-2-7 Filters: Optec R,G,B,Ha,OIII 180 minutes Ha and OIII 60 minutes each RGB MaxIm DL5, Photoshop CS3, PixInsight
This is a new image of the Great Hercules Globular Cluster designated as Messier 13 (M13). It was taken a few nights ago from Nocturne Observatory... in my back yard. This image is a composite of 28 images of 3 minutes each, taken through a luminance filter.
Scope: Astro-Physics AP130EDF F/6 with dedicated field flattener Mount: Losmandy G-11 Gemini L4 Camera: Finger Lakes Instrumentation FLI MicroLine ML3200ME with CFW-2-7 Filter Wheel Optec Filter
Abell 2151
Abell 2151 - The Hercules Galaxy Cluster Abell 2151, also known as the Hercules Galaxy Cluster, is part of a larger complex of galaxy clusters, superclusters, and clusters of superclusters, known as The Great Wall. This complex is approximately 15 million light years thick, 500 million light years long, and 200 million light years wide, and is the largest known structure in the universe. This image is filled with galaxies with many different forms, which makes for a nice field of view. Taken with a 5-inch telescope, a sensitive CCD, and some patience.
AP130 EDF F/6 Losmandy G-11/Gemini FLI 3200ME camera Optec Luminance Filter MaxIm DL5, CCDStack, and Photoshop CS3
This object, aptly named the Black-Eye Galaxy and designated as Messier 64 (M64), is located roughly 17 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices.
Observations have shown that M64 is actually
composed
of two,
counter-rotating groupings of stars, one in the inner 3,000 light-years
and the other extending to roughly 40,000 light-years, and interestingly, rotating in
the opposite direction.
The dusty black eye and bizarre rotation is likely the result of a
merger
of two different galaxies.
This spectacular spiral galaxy, designated Messier 101 (M101), is roughly 170,000 light years across. That is nearly nearly twice the size of our own Milky Way galaxy. The beautiful spiral arms are filled with interesting structures. What an amazing sight!!
Scope: Astro-Physics AP130 EDF Starfire refractor operating at F/6 Mount: Losmandy G-11/Gemini Camera: Finger Lakes Instrumentation FLI 3200ME with CFW-2-7 filter wheel Filter: Optec Autoguider: Starfish with Borg 45 34x10 minutes Luminance
This spectacular pair of interacting galaxies is located approximately 31 million light years away in the constellation Canes Venatici. I imaged the Whirlpool Galaxy last night and just decided to collect lots of luminance data and leave the color for another time. I ran the camera all night and collected 80 frames of 5 minutes each, for a total of 400 minutes.
This beautiful spiral galaxy, designated Messier 63 (M63 - NGC5055) is located about 25 million light years away in the constellation Canes Venatici. Also known as the Sunflower Galaxy, it is nearly 100,000 light years across. The incredible structure of this galaxy makes it a Springtime favorite for many observers. This image is a collaboration between myself and Patrick Wiggins. Patrick took the excellent luminance data (30 x 600 seconds) and I added my color data from an earlier image, taken at a much shorter focal length. Patricks data really is spectacular, capturing great detail in the complex structure of this beautiful galaxy. Patrick uses a C-14 with a mirror lock riding on a Paramount ME, with an SBIG ST-10 camera. My color data was taken using an ASA N8 Astrograph on a Losmandy G-11 mount, with a Starlight Xpress SXVF-H16 camera. Be sure to click this one a couple of times to get to the full version. Thanks Patrick!!
This was taken on the night of April 19, 2010, from Nocturne Observatory. This rarely imaged region sports a wealth of nicely colored stars with lots of obscuring dust. I am not completely sure about the designation of this object. The Sky 6 database calls it Lynds Dark Nebula #354, but I am pretty sure it is LDN1251. The orange star is HD214710, and the two other objects are small galaxies designated PGC69472 (left side) and PGC166755. This image required 24 Luminance frames of 300 seconds, and 8 frames each of 300 seconds for red, green, and blue (RGB).
Scope: Astro-Physics AP130 EDF F/6 with dedicated AP field flattener Mount: Losmandy G-11 with Gemini Camera: FLI MicroLine 3200ME with KAF3200ME chip Autoguided with Borg 45ED and Starfish Guide Camera Acquired using MaxIm DL5 and processed with MaxIm, PixInsight, and Photoshop CS3
As I examined my previous posting of this object, I was unhappy with the color processing. Some how I managed to lose the nice blues that are present in the reflection portion of this nebula complex. I started from scratch and reprocessed the color, being careful to hold the blues. Here is the result. This image was captured over several nights in March 2010, and is located in the constellation Monoceros. This part of the sky is loaded with areas of hydrogen-alpha emissions, but also offers a nice bright reflection nebula in the central portion of the image. This star-forming region of the sky is home to over 600 hot young stars, ranging from 1 to 4 million years old.
Scope: Astro-Physics AP130 F/6 Mount: Losmandy G-11 Camera: Starlight Xpress SXVF-H16 Optec Filters Total Exposure Time = Approx. 3.5 hours
This image was captured over several nights in March 2010, and is located in the constellation Monoceros. This part of the sky is loaded with areas of hydrogen-alpha emissions, but also offers a nice bright reflection nebula in the central portion of the image. This star-forming region of the sky is home to over 600 hot young stars, ranging from 1 to 4 million years old.
Scope: Astro-Physics AP130 F/6 Mount: Losmandy G-11 Camera: Starlight Xpress SXVF-H16 Optec Filters Total Exposure Time = Approx. 3.5 hours
The field
of view in this image includes three magnificent galaxies, NGC3628
(left), M65 (top right), and M66 (bottom right). These galaxies are all
spirals, but look different from each other because their disks are
tilted at different angles to our position. They are located in the
constellation Leo, and are roughly 30 million light years away from
earth.
This is an image of a very interesting group of objects, comprised of a molecular cloud with over 27,000 solar masses, with active star formation. It was photographed using narrowband hydrogen-alpha, oxygen III, and sulfer II filters. The image is a false color version, with hydrogen-alpha mapped to green, sulfer II mapped to red, and oxygen III mapped to blue, which is the Hubble telescope palette. The stars in this image are from the pseudo natural color version shown above. I hope you like this image.
Scope: Astro Systeme Austria ASA N8 astrograph - 8-inch at F/3.6 Mount: Losmandy G-11/Gemini Camera: Finger Lakes Instrumentation FLI MicroLine 3200ME with CFW-2-7 filter wheel Filters: Optec
This image is the same as above, but the hydrogen-alpha was mapped to red, the sulfer II to green, and the oxygen III to blue. This version provides a pseudo-natural color version of this interesting area of the sky. The equipment and data are the same as the Hubble color image below.
After trying and failing to image tonight, I decided to snap this shot of a huge moon ring. You can see Orion's Belt on the right, along with the Pleiades at the top of the image. Well... Its better than no image at all! Cheers, Tyler
This image was collected from my new observatory during a brief imaging session on February 19th, 2010. I managed to get 15 luminance frames of 600 seconds each.
Thesetwo objects are apparently the same size the the sky, but they are not the same at all. The object on the upper right (M97 - The Owl Nebula) is a star that is expelling gas shells at it slowly dies and becomes a white dwarf. It is only approximately 1500 light years distant from Earth. The object in the lower left of the frame is a nearly edge-on galaxy (M108) that is composed of several hundred billion stars and is approximately 45 million light years distant from Earth. If you look carefully, you can see dozens of small galaxies scattered throughout the image. These two objects can be captured in a single frame and make this area of Ursa Major a very nice place to point your telescope!
Scope: Astro-Physics AP130 Starfire EDF F/6
Mount: Losmandy G-11/Gemini
Camera: Starlight Xpress SXVF-H16 with FLI CFW-2-7 Filter Wheel and Optec LRGB filters
Guider: Fishcamp Starfish Autoguider
Exposure Details: 18 x 10 minutes Luminance unbinned - 8 x 10 minutes each RGB binned 2x2
This image was taken by a group of local astronomy enthusiasts from the Salt Lake Astronomical Society (SLAS) on the night of Friday, January 15th. It was captured using the 2-meter Faulkes North telescope on Haleakala in Hawaii.
The image nicely illustrates the intricate structure of this remnant of a huge supernova that was recorded by Chinese and Arab astronomers in 1054 CE. The nebula has a spinning neutron star at its core that has been dubbed the "Crab Pulsar". This neutron star has a spin rate of roughly 30.2 revolutions per second, and it is extremely energetic: giving off radiation at wavelengths from gamma rays to radio waves. The pulsar has been creating shock waves that can be seen near the center of this image as concentric arcs. These shockwaves have been captured in many images and their speed has been computed at an astounding 24,000 km per second, or nearly 8 percent of the speed of light. The diffuse blue light, called synchrotron radiation, is emitted from curving electrons traveling at up to 1/2 the speed of light.
This image was possible due to the hard work of many individuals, who handled all the arrangements, including Rodger Fry and Bob Moore, among many others. A special "Thank You" goes out to J.D. Armstrong, who made this entire project possible.
For more information on the shockwaves, CLICK HERE.
NGC1977 New Color
NGC1977 - The Running Man Nebula This image includes color data taken on the second night with the new observatory. The entire setup seems to be working well and I am keeping warm in the electric blanket that I got for Christmas. :)
This image was taken during my recent imaging trip to Kanab, Utah. Jerry and Cindy Foote invited several friends to their home for a weekend of imaging, fine dining, and great conversation. This image shows astronomy blogger and former reporter Joe Bauman enjoying a gorgeous night while sitting at his computer taking digital images through his telescope. Our own Milky Way Galaxy, dotted with satellites, meteors, and airplanes, provides a lovely backdrop to the scene. Just looking at this image makes me want to return to that beautiful setting as soon as possible. I really love this hobby.
Nikon D700 - Original date/time: 10/17/2009 at 22:19:13 Exposure: 30 seconds - F/2.8 - ISO speed: 5000 Focal length: 14 mm
This is the first of several images taken from the home of Jerry and Cindy Foote near Kanab, Utah, on a recent imaging trip to their home. The skies are dark and the hospitality is wonderful. This object is a favorite target of mine.
Scope: Astro-Physics AP130 EDFS operating at F/4.5 with reducer Mount: Losmandy G-11/Gemini Camera: Starlight Xpress SXVF-H16 Filter Wheel: Finger Lakes Instrumentation FLI CFW-2-7 Filters: Optec L:R:G:B image - 180:120:120:120 L = 18x10 minutes RGB = 12x10 minutes Acquired using MaxIm DL Processed using MaxIm and Photoshop
