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Alnitak Nebula Complex in Orion

January 12, 2022 by
Alnitak Nebula Complex in Orion

Telescope: ES DHL Comet Hunter MN6 at f/4.8, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: Baader modified Nikon D610

Filter: 2” Radian Triad Ultra Hb, OIII, Ha, SII filter

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

Exposure: 12x300sec, ISO 400, saved as RAW

Darks: Internal (Long Exposure Noise Reduction On)

Flats: 32×1/5sec, tee shirt flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Red zone, 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 Nikon, Nebulosity, Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop

This is a very busy region of the sky near Alnitak, the eastern star in the belt of Orion. Alnitak is the brilliant star at the top of this field. NGC 2024 (the Flame Nebula) is to the left and the beautiful red emission nebula IC 434 drapes down the center of the field with the iconic Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) pushing up through it. To the left are the reflection nebula NGC 2023 and the tiny IC 435. To the lower right is Sigma Orionis, a wonderful complex of stars that is a fine target for binoculars and small telescopes. In larger scopes it resolves into a wonderful group of double and triple stars.

Alnitak rises in the east as the sky darkens.

Filed Under: Deepsky Imaging

NGC 1499 – The California Nebula in Perseus

January 9, 2022 by
NGC 1499 – The California Nebula in Perseus

Telescope: ES DHL Comet Hunter MN6 at f/4.8, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: Baader modified Nikon D610

Filter: 2” Radian Triad Ultra Hb, OIII, Ha, SII filter

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

Exposure: 22x300sec, ISO 400, saved as RAW

Darks: Internal (Long Exposure Noise Reduction On)

Flats: 32×1/5sec, tee shirt flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Red zone, 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 Nikon, Nebulosity, Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop

NGC 1499 is a part of a vast expanse of interstellar hydrogen set aglow by the nearby Xi Perseus (Menkib) in the lower right of this field. This section of the nebula lies about 1,000 light years away and is about 100 light years in length.

NGC 1499 is currently high in the northeast as the sky darkens. (Photo credit; John Graham, 11/6/2021)

Filed Under: Deepsky Imaging

NGC 7293 – The Helix Nebula is Aquarius

January 8, 2022 by
NGC 7293 – The Helix Nebula is Aquarius

Telescope: ES DHL Comet Hunter MN6 at f/4.8, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: Baader modified Nikon D610

Filter: 2” Radian Triad Ultra Hb, OIII, Ha, SII filter

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

Exposure: 23x180sec, ISO 400, saved as RAW

Darks: Internal (Long Exposure Noise Reduction On)

Flats: 32×1/5sec, tee shirt flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Red zone, poor transparency

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

Stacking: Mean with a 1-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

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

The Helix is one of the closest planetary nebula with a distance of only 650 light years. It spans a diameter of about 2.5 light years and is relatively young with an age estimated to be about 10,600 years. NGC 7293 is one of those wonderful objects that hides in plain sight. It is so large (about half the size of the full moon) that its light is spread out over a large area, making it very difficult to see and all but invisible from my red-zone backyard.

NGC 7293 is currently in the southwest as the sky darkens.

Filed Under: Deepsky Imaging

The James Webb Space Telescope – 1/3/2022 22h30m EST

January 4, 2022 by
The James Web Space Telescope – 1/3/2022 22h30m EST

Telescope: GSO 8” f/12 Classical Cassegrain @ f/12, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: Canon EOS Ra, Baader Mk III MPCC

Filter: 2” GSO IR Blocking Filter

Guide scope: Astro-Tech 60mm, Starlight Xpress Super Star, PHD2

Exposure: 17x180sec, ISO 800, saved as RAW

Darks: Internal (Long Exposure Noise Reduction On)

Flats: 32×1/20sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

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

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

Stacking: Mean with a 1-sigma clip (sky); maximum (JWST).

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

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

The dashed line crossing to the left of center in this field is the James Webb Space Telescope as it was approximately 538,000 miles out crossing Monoceros on its way to a halo orbit around the Earth’s L2 Lagrange point. I located the field using an ephemeris generated by the JPL Horizons Web App. Shining at about 15th magnitude I initially thought that I had missed the telescope as I was getting different positions from different sources. Just like my annual pilgrimage to Pluto, the telescope wasn’t the star that I thought it was in the source images. When I was about to give up, thinking that it wasn’t in the field, I blinked the first and last pictures in the sequence. After several minutes of searching I finally spotted the telescope moving on the left side of the source field. I then re-processed the source images using a normal mean with a sigma clip to stack the background sky, and a maximum combine to stack the images of the telescope. There were combined into a single image in Photoshop and cropped to center the telescope as best I could. The track shows as a series of short dashes, each dash showing the apparent motion of the telescope during the 3-minute exposure. The gaps in the track are from the 3-minute darks taken between each frame and the time needed to transfer the image to my computer. The motion itself is mostly parallax from the rotation of the Earth and not the telescope itself.

When the telescope arrives on-station it is expected to fade to about magnitude 17 where it should be within easy reach of cameras and small telescopes. The telescope will also be located near the Earth’s shadow, so it should remain well placed in the evening sky throughout most of the night. Neat stuff!

Filed Under: Solar System Imaging
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