January 18, 2025

Posts Comments

Home » Archives for January 2024

Archives for January 2024

NGC 2903 – Spiral Galaxy in Leo

January 30, 2024 by

Telescope: Astro-Tech 8” f/8 Ritchey-Chretien, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: Canon EOS Ra, Baader Mk III MPCC, GSO IR Blocking Filter

Guide scope: Astro-Tech 60mm, ZWO ASI120MM mini, PHD2

Exposure: 48x60sec, gain ISO 1600 saved as RAW, dithered every 2 images

Darks: Internal

Flats: 64×1/250sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Red zone, Bortle 8, fair transparency

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.5

Stacking: Average, 1 sigma clip

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Backyard EOS, Deep Sky Stacker, Nebulosity, Photoshop

NGC 2903 is a fairly bright (Mv 9.0) galaxy located just south of the head of Leo (the Lion). The galaxy is 20.5 million light years away and is 80,000 light years across, making it a little slammer than the Milky Way. I first spotted this galaxy while star-hopping around Leo and Cancer. It is an easy target in an 8” scope where I was able to clearly see the core and bar. The sweeping arms are gorgeous in the photograph, but they are not visible from my backyard.

NGC 2903 is currently well-placed rising in the east during the early evening.

Filed Under: Deepsky Imaging

NGC 2261 – Hubble’s Variable Nebula in Monoceros

January 26, 2024 by

Telescope: Astro-Tech 8” f/8 Ritchey-Chretien, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: Canon EOS Ra, Baader Mk III MPCC, GSO IR Blocking Filter

Guide scope: Astro-Tech 60mm, ZWO ASI120MM mini, PHD2

Exposure: 56x60sec, gain ISO 1600 saved as RAW, dithered every 2 images

Darks: Internal

Flats: 64×1/250sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Red zone, Bortle 8, poor transparency

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.3

Stacking: Average, 1 sigma clip

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Backyard EOS, Deep Sky Stacker, Nebulosity, Photoshop

Hubble’s Variable nebula is a small, bright, fan-shaped reflection nebula in Monoceros (the Unicorn). The bright tip of the nebula is not just a star, but a dense nebula hiding a binary system at its core (R Mon). Clouds of dust are believed to orbit this system, casting shadows up onto the veil causing the overall brightness of the nebula to vary. Time lapse sequences spanning weeks of time show the shadows sweeping across the nebula. Visually, NGC 2261 appears very much like a beautiful fan-shaped comet. In fact, it appears more like a comet than some comets!

NGC 2261 is presently rising in the east as the sky darkens.

Filed Under: Deepsky Imaging, Uncategorized

Waning Crescent Moon – 1/5/2024 5:30am EST

January 5, 2024 by

Telescope: Astro-Tech RC8 @ f/8, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: Canon EOS Ra, Baader Mk III MPCC, GSO IR Filter

Exposure: 98×1/400 sec, ISO 1600, saved as RAW

Seeing: Fair, 3/5, haze

Software: Backyard EOS, Nebulosity, Autostakkert, Registax, Photoshop

I took advantage of the clear evening last night to pull and all-nighter imaging run. When I stepped outside this morning to check on my gear I found that the sky was closing in and my scope was buried under a thick coating of frost. I was about to begin the process of covering my gear up and saw that the moon was in a hole in the overcast just large enough to grab a quick set of images, so I went back inside, slewed to scope over to the moon, set the exposure, and free-ran the camera until it started to fade, ending up with 98 usable frames. The result was kinda neat with the setting sun just barely catching the eastern rim of Copernicus. A pretty neat end to a very long night.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

M81 – Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major

January 2, 2024 by

Telescope: Unitron 510 5” f/16 refractor, Atlas EQ-G

Camera: Canon EOS Ra full frame DSLR

Filter: 2” Baader Fringe Killer (minus V)

Guide scope: Williams Optics 50mm Guidescope, ASI290MM, PHD

Exposure: 47x60sec, ISO 1600, saved as RAW

Darks: Internal (Long Exposure Noise Reduction)

Flats: 64x1/125s sky flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Bortle 8, fair transparency

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.6 mag/arc-sec^2

Stacking: Mean with a 1-sigma clip

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Backyard EOS, Deepsky Stacker, Nebulosity, Photoshop

This is the last image in this image set taken with the Unitron 510.

M81 is a beautiful spiral galaxy that is interacting with the nearby M82. The sky conditions for imaging this delicate galaxy were far from optimal, but it is still neat to see the beautiful sweeping arms sprinkled with star forming regions resulting from a close encounter with M82. Very pretty.

M81 is low in the northeast during the early evening and is high overhead after midnight.

Filed Under: Deepsky Imaging