Month: November 2015

M45 Pleiades

November 16, 2015
Open cluster
1 Comment

Probably the most famous open cluster, visible by the naked eye is called Pleiades, Subaru, or Seven Sisters. Charles Messier cataloged this DSO under number 45 (M45). This cluster is located in the constellation Taurus. It’s the closest cluster to the Solar system (430 light years), has 8 light years in diameter and it’s characterized by the nebulosity – reflective illumination of the space dust by the blue light of the hot, young stars. The brightest stars have names: Alcyone, Atlas, Electra, Maia, Merope, Taygeta, Pleione, Celaeno, and Sterope.

M45 Pleiades

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NGC 7635 Bubble Nebula

November 15, 2015
H II nebula
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NGC 7635, known as Bubble Nebula is an HII region in the constellation Cassiopeia. Bubble shape structure is caused by the solar wind caused by a massive star.

Well, I must admit, the Hubble Space Telescope has a better resolution, but my telescope has a better price-performance ratio.

Telescope:Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture:254 mm
Focal length:730 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera:Moravian instruments G2 8300M @ -30C
Corrector:ASA 0.73 reducer
Filters:Baader Ha, OIII, SII
Exposure:39x Ha, 35x OIII, 32x SII, 300 s, bin 1×1

M15 Globular cluster in Pegasus

November 10, 2015
Globular cluster
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Globular cluster in Pegasus is very far from Earth, specifically 33 600 light years and its diameter is approximately 175 light years. It contains more than 100 000 stars.

Most of the globular clusters are quite bright (M15 has magnitude 6.2), therefore there is no long exposure required. On the other hand longer exposures might overexpose the core, therefore I selected exposure time to 2 minutes.

M15_cluster_2015-11-10-30C-120s-26L16RGB-FL730

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IC1805 Heart nebula

November 9, 2015
H II nebula
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This nebula’s visual angle (visual size) is several times bigger than the visual angle/size of the full Moon; therefore I had to use the shortest focal length I have available. For DSOs like that, I have a small Newtonian telescope with an aperture of 150 mm and a focal length of 600 mm. The focal length was reduced by the ASA reducer to 438 mm.

Heart nebula is very dim DSO; therefore narrow band is a good option to get some contrast. I collected a lot of data for all 3 channels: Ha, OIII, and SII. The final picture was composed in the Hubble palette. This means OIII goes into blue, Ha into green, and SII into the red channel.

Telescope:Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture:150 mm
Focal length:438 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera:Moravian instruments G2 8300M @-30C
Corrector:ASA 2″ reducer 0.73
Filters:Baader Ha 7 nm, OIII 8.5 nm SII 8nm
Exposure:17xHa, 21xOIII, 25xSII 600 s bin 1×1,
Date:2015-11-09

NGC6960 Veil nebula

November 9, 2015
Supernova remnant
3 Comments

For the third time I am trying to capture the whole Veil nebula, but again, there is a part missing. This time I used the smallest telescope, I have at home – newton 150/600, reduced to focal length 438 mm, by ASA 0.73 reducer. This picture contains the first picture in the left top corner and the second picture in the right bottom corner. Anyway, there is still something missing, therefore next time I have to reduce the focal length even more or do a mosaic.

Telescope:Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture:150 mm
Focal length:438 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera:Moravian instruments G2 8300M @-30C
Corrector:ASA 2″ reducer 0.73
Filters:Baader Ha 7 nm, OIII 8.5 nm SII 8nm
Exposure:9xHa, 9xOIII, 600 s, bin 1×1
Date:2015-11-09

M31 Andromeda galaxy

November 5, 2015
Galaxy
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Andromeda galaxy is the closed galaxy of our home – Milky Way galaxy. The diameter of Andromeda is approximately 220,000 light years; which is twice more than has Milky Way. It’s only 2.5 million lights away and it’s getting closer. The collision with the Milky Way is predicted to happen in approximately 4 billion years.

This DSO is one of the brightest and the biggest, which makes it relatively easy to photograph. This is actually my second attempt of Andromeda galaxy. One year ago with DSLR camera the picture was not looking so great, therefore I was waiting a year and here is the result:

M31 Andromeda galaxy

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