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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

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

NGC 2392 – The Eskimo Nebula in Gemini

December 29, 2023 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: 67x30sec, 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: 18.5 mag/arc-sec^2

Stacking: Mean with a 1-sigma clip

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Backyard EOS, Deepsky Stacker, Nebulosity, Photoshop

NGC 2392, Eskimo Nebula, is a wonderful little planetary nebula Gemini. Visually this nebula looks much like its nickname, even in a small telescope. Planetary nebula are formed when a star sheds its outer shell as it nears the end of its life while the core collapses into a fiercely bright white dwarf whose intense radiation sets the expanding shell of gas aglow, often with a beautiful blue/green color. The structure of NGC 2392 shows that it experienced several shedding events.

The Eskimo Nebula is currently well placed in the east during the early evening and a fairly easy target for small telescopes.

 

Filed Under: Deepsky Imaging

NGC 1245 – Open Cluster in Perseus

December 27, 2023 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: 16x60sec, 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: 18.5 mag/arc-sec^2

Stacking: Mean with a 1-sigma clip

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Backyard EOS, Deepsky Stacker, Nebulosity, Photoshop

NGC 1245 is a relatively faint but rich open cluster in central Perseus. It may be a tad faint for small telescopes, but blossoms into a fine patch of stardust in larger telescopes.

NGC 1245 is currently well placed in the evening sky and is high overhead in the northeast as the sky darkens.

Filed Under: Deepsky Imaging

M103 – Open Cluster in Cassiopeia

December 25, 2023 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: 16x60sec, 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: 18.5 mag/arc-sec^2

Stacking: Mean with a 1-sigma clip

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Backyard EOS, Deepsky Stacker, Nebulosity, Photoshop

M103 is one of several open clusters in Cassiopeia. It is small, rather sparse, and was once thought to be an asterism rather than a true cluster, but it has since been shown to be a distant open cluster. Located just 1.5 degrees northeast of delta Cassiopeia it is easy to find and makes a nice target for small telescopes.

M103 is currently high in the northeast during the early evening.

 

Filed Under: Deepsky Imaging

Jupiter – 11/19/2023, 18h53m to 19h37m EST

November 29, 2023 by

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

Camera: ZWO ASI 294MC

Filter: 2” Baader Fringe Killer (Minus Violet)

Exposure: 5x(3min x 5ms), Gain 340, saved as RAW8/SER

Seeing: 3/5

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: SharpCap Pro, Autostakkert, Registax, Nebulosity, Photoshop

These are the final, processed images from my second evening dedicated to evaluating the 510 for planetary imaging using a ZWO ASI294MC camera with SharpCap Pro. If you look closely you can see the ghost of Europa disappearing behind the planet in the first image (18h 53m). Each image in this sequence is a set of five 3min x 5ms RAW8/SER files stacked in AutoStakkert, wavelets in Registax, then derotated and combined in WinJuPos. The results is very encouraging given that these were taken at the telescope’s native focal length without the aid of a Barlow. I am very happy with how sharp the limb of the planet looks without any of the artifacts that you often see from the wavelets. The colors are a bit soft, which I suspect is from using a very high gain on the camera. More testing is needed…

Filed Under: Solar System Imaging

Jupiter – 11/19/2023, 18h47m to 19h00m EST

November 28, 2023 by

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

Camera: ZWO ASI 294MC

Filter: 2” Baader Fringe Killer (Minus Violet)

Exposure: 3min x 2.3ms, Gain 400, saved as RAW8/SER

Seeing: 3/5

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: SharpCap Pro, Autostakkert, Registax, Nebulosity, Photoshop

This is from my second evening dedicated to evaluating the 510 for planetary imaging using a ZWO ASI294MC camera with SharpCap Pro. This is one of several sequences that I shot of Jupiter as it climbed higher in the east. Each sequence consisted of five 3 minute sets that were designed to be stacked in AutoStakkert, sharpened in Registax, and then de-rotated and combined in WinJuPos. During this particular sequence Europa slipped behind Jupiter with Io standing off to the right. This was such a neat event to watch I decided to show this as a stand-along sequence. This is a nice example of just how dynamic the Jovian system can be and how it can show significant changes in just a few minutes even with a small telescope.

Filed Under: Solar System Imaging

Saturn – 11/19/2023, 17h38m EST

November 27, 2023 by

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

Camera: ZWO ASI 294MC

Filter: 2” Baader Fringe Killer (Minus Violet)

Exposure: 5min x 15ms, Gain 400, saved as RAW8/SER

Seeing: 3/5

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: SharpCap Pro, Autostakkert, Registax, Nebulosity, Photoshop

This is from my second evening dedicated to evaluating the 510 for planetary imaging. I swapped out the Canon EOS Ra for a ZWO ASI294MC camera with SharpCap Pro. This image of Saturn was taken shortly after sunset as the planet approached the meridian. If you look closely you can see Dione to the left of the planet and to the right, from the upper right to lower right, is Tethys, Rhea, and Titan.

Filed Under: Solar System Imaging

Jupiter – 11/18/2023, 19h53m to 22h51m EST

November 25, 2023 by

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

Camera: Canon EOS Ra full frame DSLR

Filter: 2” Baader Fringe Killer (Minus Violet)

Exposure: 1024x1/500sec, ISO 3200, 5x movie mode, saved as AVI

Average Light Pollution: Bortle 8, fair transparency

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

Seeing: 3/5

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

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

This is the first is a series of images taken to evaluate using the Unitron 510 for lunar and planetary imaging. I have been very impressed with the image quality from this scope and I was curious whether that would carry over to imaging. This initial image set was taken with a Canon EOS Ra using its 5x movie mode. This isn’t necessarily the best system for planetary imaging, but the results are encouraging. From top to bottom these images were taken at 19h53m, 21h57m, and 22h51m. From left to right the moons are Io, Europa, and Ganymede. Callisto is out of the field to the right.

Filed Under: Solar System Imaging

Venus – 11/16/2023 6:05am EST

November 16, 2023 by

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

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

Exposure: 256 (of 512)x1/3200 sec, ISO 800, 5x Movie Mode, saved as AVI

Seeing: Fair, 3/5

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

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

This was a quick peek at Venus taken right before covering my gear after a long night of imaging. I was surprised that it showed so well using a DSLR without any sort of Barlow of Powermate. Venus is currently showing a waxing gibbous phase and is slowly shrinking as it draws ahead of the Earth in its orbit around the sun. (Photo credit: John Graham, 11/16/2023)

Filed Under: Solar System Imaging
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