Telescope: Meade SN6 Comet Tracker at f/3.6, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: Full Spectrum Modified Nikon D5300, Baader Mk III MPCC

Filter: Orion Imaging Skyglow Filter

Guide scope: Orion 50mm, ZWO ASI120MM mini

Exposure: 29x60sec, ISO 200, saved as RAW

Darks: Internal (Long Exposure Noise Reduction On)

Flats: 32×1/10sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

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

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.1 mag/arc-sec^2

Stacking: Mean with a 2-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

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

Collinder 69 (Cr 69) is a large, bright open cluster that forms the head of Orion. Near its center is the beautiful double star Lamda Orionis (Meissa) shining at magnitude 3.4 and 5.5. This region is a delight in binoculars and small telescopes and simply wonderful in wide field scopes.

Collinder 69 is currently well placed rising in the east during the early evening.

Telescope: Meade SN6 Comet Tracker at f/3.6, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: Full Spectrum Modified Nikon D5300, Baader Mk III MPCC

Filter: Orion Imaging Skyglow Filter

Guide scope: Orion 50mm, ZWO ASI120MM mini

Exposure: 31x60sec, ISO 200, saved as RAW

Darks: Internal (Long Exposure Noise Reduction On)

Flats: 32×1/10sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

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

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 17.9 mag/arc-sec^2

Stacking: Mean with a 2-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

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

M45 is a big, beautiful, bright open cluster that is easily visible to the naked eye and is a delight in binoculars and small telescopes. Given the poor sky conditions I was surprised that I captured any of the reflection nebula, but it does a fair job of showing what the cluster looks like from a dark sky site. Interestingly, the nebula is not associated with the cluster, it just happens to be passing through a dusty region of space.

Telescope: Meade SN6 Comet Tracker at f/3.6, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: Full Spectrum Modified Nikon D5300, Baader Mk III MPCC

Filter: Orion Imaging Skyglow Filter

Guide scope: Orion 50mm, ZWO ASI120MM mini

Exposure: 72x60sec, ISO 200, saved as RAW

Darks: Internal (Long Exposure Noise Reduction On)

Flats: 32×1/10sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

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

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.1 mag/arc-sec^2

Stacking: Mean with a 2-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

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

This is M81 (bottom) and M82 (top), two bright spiral galaxies lying about 12 million light years away in Ursa Major. At present, these two galaxies are about 150,000 light years apart, though a few hundred million years ago the two passed very close to each other. The dark dust lane slashing across M82 is one result of this close encounter with M81 as are the blue star formation regions in M81. To the lower left is NGC 3077, another spiral galaxy.

This is one of a series of check-out images taken with my D5300a on the Comet Tracker. Given the very poor sky conditions I’m very happy with the results. This system offers the widest field of all of my scopes and does a great job providing context images.

M81 and M82 are circum polar objects and therefore never set from mid-northern latitudes. This time of year they are fairly well placed in the northeast during the late evening and are high overhead after midnight.

M35 & NGC 2158 – Open Clusters in Gemini

Telescope: Meade SN6 Comet Tracker at f/3.6, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: Full Spectrum Modified Nikon D5300, Baader Mk III MPCC

Filter: Orion Imaging Skyglow Filter

Guide scope: Orion 50mm, ZWO ASI120MM mini

Exposure: 13x60sec, ISO 200, saved as RAW

Darks: Internal (Long Exposure Noise Reduction On)

Flats: 32×1/10sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

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

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.4 mag/arc-sec^2

Stacking: Mean with a 2-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

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

Through a small telescope M35 is rather delicate and appears as a beautiful patch of stardust that just keeps on getting better as you use larger and larger scopes. NGC 2158 is the much smaller and fainter cluster to the lower right of M35. The apparent smaller size and red color of this cluster is a result of it being much farther away than M35; 16,500 light years for NGC 2158 versus 2,800 light years for M35. NGC 2158 makes a fine companion to M35 is large telescopes.

M35 is currently well placed rising in the northeast as the sky darkens.

Telescope: Meade SN6 Comet Tracker at f/3.6, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: Full Spectrum Modified Nikon D5300, Baader Mk III MPCC

Filter: Orion Imaging Skyglow Filter

Guide scope: Orion 50mm, ZWO ASI120MM mini

Exposure: 62x30sec, ISO 200, saved as RAW

Darks: Internal (Long Exposure Noise Reduction On)

Flats: 32×1/10sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

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

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.1 mag/arc-sec^2

Stacking: Mean with a 2-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

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

I like how this field shows how the Great Nebula is bracketed by NGC 1977 to the north and NGC 1980 to the south. Forming the Sword of Orion, this is a wonderful region to explore with a small telescope. Although visually the nebula shows a soft gray, it includes a wealth of fine detail. This is also a very rewarding region to photograph and even short exposures can show the beautiful range of colors. The red of the Great Nebula is the emission of hydrogen gas set aglow by hot young stars within the nebula, while the smoky gray/blue of M42 and the beautiful soft blue of NGC 1977 is starlight reflecting off of interstellar dust while the dark lanes are veils of dust in the foreground.

Telescope: Meade 12” LX850 ACF @ f/8, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: ZWO ASI071 MC Pro, -10C, Gain 200

Filter: Orion Imaging Skyglow Filter

Guide scope: Astro-Tech 60mm, ASI290MM Mini, PHD2

Exposure: 21x240sec, saved as FITS

Darks: 32x240s, saved as FITS

Flats: 32×0.02sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Bortle 8, poor transparency, haze, good seeing

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.3 mag/arc-sec^2

Stacking: Mean with a 2-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Nebulosity, Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop

This has got to be one of the most remarkable objects I have ever imaged. This small field, measuring about ½ degree wide, lies in the constellation of Lynx which is rising in the northeast this time of year. The field is sprinkled with galaxies as faint as magnitude 17 that appear as little smudges of various sizes and shapes. But the most remarkable object is the tiny red 15.2 magnitude ‘star’ at the center, only this isn’t a star, it’s a quasar; radiation from the accretion disk of a supermassive black hole at the core of an ancient galaxy that formed when the Universe was young. APM 08279+5255, the most distant object visible in amateur telescopes with an estimated distance of 12 billion light years, 87% of the way back towards the birth of the Universe itself! To put it in perspective the Universe is estimated to be 13.8 billion years old and the light from this object has been traveling for 12 billion of those years. The sun is young by comparison, only 4.6 billion years old. When the sun was born the light from this quasar had already been traveling for 7.4 billion years. The color is also fascinating. It appears red, but it’s not, it’s really a brilliant blue-white. This object is receding from us at such a great speed that its color has been red-shifted from blue, all the way across the visible spectrum to red.

APM 08279+5255 is currently well placed in the northeast after sunset and is high overhead by midnight. Although quite faint, APM 08279+5255 is certainly within the reach of large telescopes, even from suburban skies. This would make a fascinating visual target. It would be quite something to see 12 billion year old photons!

Telescope: Celestron Comet Catcher 5.5” f/3.6 Schmidt Newtonian, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro, 0C; Gain: 200

Filter: Hutech IDAS LPS P2

Guide scope: Williams Optics 50mm, Meade DSI Pro III, PHD

Exposure: 47x120sec saved as FITS

Darks: 32x120sec saved as FITS

Flats: 32×0.25sec Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Red zone, good transparency

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.7 mag/arc-sec^2

Stacking: Mean with a 2-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Nebulosity, Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop

M31 is an iconic spiral in the constellation of Andromeda. Under dark skies it is easily visible to the naked eye and from urban skies it is an easy object for binoculars and small telescopes. At a distance of some 2 million light years, it is the farthest object easily visible to the naked eye. M31 also has several satellite galaxies, two of which are visible here. M32 is about as bright as the core of M31 and is located at the bottom center of this field. To the upper right is the much fainter M110. It is easy to be disappointed with the visual appearance of M31 since it is often shown in highly processed images such as the one I give here. However, the true appearance is quite beautiful in its own way. The core is relatively bright and almost stellar, surrounded by a soft luminous glow that I always think of as pearl. This gradually fades into the background sky.

: Meade 12” LX850 ACF @ f/8, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: ZWO ASI071 MC Pro, -10C, Gain 200

Filter: Orion Imaging Skyglow Filter

Guide scope: Astro-Tech 60mm, ASI290MM Mini, PHD2

Exposure: 34x240sec, saved as FITS

Darks: 32x240s, saved as FITS

Flats: 32×0.02sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Bortle 8, poor transparency, haze, good seeing

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.2 mag/arc-sec^2

Stacking: Mean with a 2-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Nebulosity, Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop

NGC 1501 is a gorgeous planetary nebula in Camelopardalis. This is a great example of how well this telescope can perform when the seeing is good. This brings my check-out of this telescope to an end. Lesson learned; when the seeing is poor I may be better off using one of my faster wide field scopes, but when the seeing is good this telescope can do an excellent job capturing fine details in small targets.

NGC 1501 is currently well placed high in the northeast after sunset and it high overhead by 9 o’clock. Glowing faintly at magnitude 11.9 it can be a bit of a challenge, but shows well in a modest size telescope, say 10” or larger.

Telescope: Meade 12” LX850 ACF @ f/8, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: ZWO ASI071 MC Pro, -10C, Gain 200

Filter: Orion Imaging Skyglow Filter

Guide scope: Astro-Tech 60mm, ASI290MM Mini, PHD2

Exposure: 40x240sec, saved as FITS

Darks: 32x240s, saved as FITS

Flats: 32×0.02sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Bortle 8, poor transparency, haze, good seeing

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.3 mag/arc-sec^2

Stacking: Mean with a 2-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Nebulosity, Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop

M82 is a close neighbor to the nearby spiral galaxy M81 which is located about ½ degree to the south. These two form an interacting pair and M82 bears the scars of a close encounter with M82 about 100 million years ago. The dark dust lanes that cut across the central region of the galaxy are very distinctive and are easily visible in modest telescopes. M82 was originally classified as an irregular galaxy, but detailed studies had shown that it is actually a spiral seen nearly edge-on.

M82 rises in the northeast early in the evening and is overhead after midnight. (Photo credit: John Graham, 1-9-2021)

Telescope: Meade 12” LX850 ACF @ f/8, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: ZWO ASI071 MC Pro, -10C, Gain 200

Filter: Orion Imaging Skyglow Filter

Guide scope: Astro-Tech 60mm, ASI290MM Mini, PHD2

Exposure: 33x60sec, saved as FITS

Darks: 32x60s, saved as FITS

Flats: 32×0.02sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Bortle 8, poor transparency, haze, good seeing

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.5 mag/arc-sec^2

Stacking: Mean with a 2-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Nebulosity, Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop

M3 is a beautiful example of a globular cluster in a relatively lonely stretch of sky. The cluster is a member of the galactic halo and spends much of its time orbiting well outside the plane of the galaxy. It is presently 33,000 light years away from us, 40,000 light years from the galactic core, and 33,000 light years ‘above’ the galactic plane. Home to about 500,000 stars, M3 is relatively young as globular clusters go with an estimated age of 8 billion years.

M3 is currently a morning object, rising after midnight and is high overhead at dawn. This was the last image taken from my most recent all-nighter and I snuck it in first glow of dawn.