Tag: Cepheus

IC1396 Elephant Trunk Nebula

October 5, 2022
H II nebula
0 Comment

Elephant Trunk Nebula is my favorite nebula in the constellation Cepheus. I photographed it many times using many different telescopes. The focal length was either too short or too long. Now I tried a focal length of 414 mm and an APS-C sensor, to frame it. I photographed this nebula for two nights, the total integration time is nearly 11 hours.

And here are the stars processed out:

TelescopeSharpstar 94EDPH
Aperture94 mm
Focal length414 mm
MountRainbow Astro RST 135
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, QHY Mini Guide Scope
CameraZWO 2600MM @-10°C
CorrectorF4.4 Quad Reducer
FiltersAntlia Ha, OIII, SII 3 nm
Exposure129x300s, Gain 100, bin 1x1,
Date2022-10-05

IC1396 Elephant Trunk Nebula

January 12, 2022
H II nebula
0 Comment

I have a new toy. Motivated by a quite bad experience with ASKAR 180 FMA and its chromatic aberration I started to search for a better pocket-size telescope. To decide which one was quite simple. I would say there is nothing sharper and nothing with a better reputation than William Optics RedCat 51mm. The detailed comparison with ASKAR will come a bit later. This is the first light, where I tested the portable setup – iOptron Skyguider on a tripod, Canon 6Da, and the RedCat. The Moon was shining like crazy, therefore I attached the dual narrow band filter Optolong L-eXtreme filter. After 3 hours of collecting the filtrated photons, a pretty nice picture came out of it. I took this DSO using the same camera combined with the ASKAR 180FMA (link) but in broadband. Therefore, it’s like comparing apples and oranges. However, the RedCat looks much sharper and it contains more details. I cannot wait to test the RedCat under dark skies.

TelescopeWilliam Optics RedCat 51/250 f4.9
Aperture51 mm
Focal length250 mm
MountiOptron SkyGuider Pro
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
CameraCanon 6Da
Correctorno
FiltersOptolong L-eXtreme 2"
Exposure62x180s, Iso 1600
Date2022-01-12

IC1396 Elephant’s Trunk nebula

July 8, 2021
Dark NebulaH II nebula
1 Comment

Elephant’s Trunk nebula is an emission nebula located in constellation Cepheus. I tried to capture this magnificent nebula in 2017 and in 2018, but it never fit in the field of view of my camera-telescope assembly. This time I used a focal length of only 180 mm, combined with a large full-frame sensor. Well, and finally it fits. Moreover, even the B174 dark nebula at the bottom left corner found the spot on the sensor. The picture was taken under a very dark Cretan sky.

Technical details:

LensAskar FMA180 F4.5
CameraCanon EOS 6Da
MountiOptron Skyguider Pro
Exposure159x120s, ISO 1600
Date2021-07-08

NGC7023 Iris nebula

September 3, 2019
Dark NebulaReflection nebula
1 Comment

Iris nebula, known as NGC 7023, is a reflection/dark nebula located in constellation Cepheus. It’s 1300 light years far from the Solar system and it has 6 light years in diameter. In the middle of the nebula rules so called baby star, which is only few thousand years old. The star was created partially from the gas which is now illuminated.

The picture was taken under dark skies of Greek island Karpathos during my 2019 expedition. Unfortunately, the weather was very bad. There wasn’t a single cloud on the sky, but it was extremely windy, therefore I got only one single steady night and this night I wanted to capture also other deep space objects. Therefore the picture is a stack of only 37 pictures, each 2 minutes long.

Technical details:

TelescopeNewton 150/600 mm
Aperture150 mm
Focal length630 mm
MountAvalon M-Zero
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, Guidescope 30 mm
CameraZWO 071 Pro @-5°C
CorrectorExplore Scientific HR
FiltersAstronomik L-1 - UV IR Block Filter
Exposure37x120s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date2019-09-03

NGC6946 Fireworks Galaxy, NGC6939 Ghost Bush Cluster

September 10, 2018
Galaxy
0 Comment

NGC 6946, sometimes called Fireworks Galaxy, is a beautiful spiral galaxy located between constellations Cepheus and Cygnus. It is approximately 22.5 million light-years away from Earth and it’s a part of Virgo Supercluster of galaxies. The name didn’t get from the shape, but due to frequent explosions of supernovae.

Next to the galaxy is located NGC6939 Ghost Bush Cluster, which is a part of our own Galaxy, therefore the distance from earth is “only” 4000 light-years.

The picture is the last one from the day. I slewed to target, switched on auto guiding and went to sleep. Therefore the picture is an integration of 73 photos, each 5 minutes long, i.e. 6 hours of total time. This is probably the picture with the longest integration time from Milos.

Technical details:

TelescopeNewton 150/600 mm
Aperture150 mm
Focal length660 mm
MountiOptron CEM25P
AutoguidingQHYCCD miniGuideScope 130 mm f/4.3, ZWO 174 MM
CameraZWO 071 Pro @-10C
CorrectorExplore Scientific HR coma corrector
FiltersAstronomik L-1 - UV IR Block Filter
Exposure73x300s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-10

 

IC1396 Elephant’s Trunk nebula

September 6, 2018
H II nebula
1 Comment

IC 1396 is a mixture of ionized interstellar gas and dust cloud located in the constellation Cepheus, approximately 2’400 light-years from earth. Due to relative proximity of the nebula, it didn’t fit into the field of view of my telescope/camera. My previous picture, which I captured by the same telescope, was created by using focal reducer and therefore nearly fit into the field of view of even smaller CCD chip. However, under dark skies of Milos, there is no need to use narrow band filters and very nice dark nebulae are nicely visible.

Technical details:

TelescopeNewton 150/600 mm
Aperture150 mm
Focal length660 mm
MountiOptron CEM25P
AutoguidingQHYCCD miniGuideScope 130 mm f/4.3, ZWO 174 MM
CameraZWO 071 Pro @-10C
CorrectorExplore Scientific HR coma corrector
FiltersAstronomik L-1 - UV IR Block Filter
Exposure53x180s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-06