DSO – AstroFotoBlog

M99 Galaxy

April 5, 2021 JakubK

Galaxy

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This beautiful spiral galaxy is listed under number 99 in Messier’s catalog. It can be visually located during the spring months in the southwest corner of the constellation Coma Berenices. The galaxy has several spiral arms, which are the product of the interaction with another galaxy. This interaction also induced very high angular velocity, which is the highest in Messier’s catalog. Specifically, the outer parts move with a velocity of 1200 km/s with respect to the center of the galaxy.

I dedicated two nights to this galaxy. The telescope was collecting two whole nights the light traveling 45 million light-years. In total, the picture is a stack of 130 single shots, each 3 minutes long.

Telescope	Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture	254 mm
Focal length	950 mm
Mount	Gemini G53f
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-10°C
Corrector	MaxField coma corrector
Filters	No
Exposure	130x180s, Gain 95, bin 1x1,
Date	2021-04-05

NGC 253 Sculptor Galaxy

September 21, 2020 JakubK

Galaxy

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DSO Galaxy Kythira MaxField coma corrector Newton 150/600 NGC253 Rainbow Astro RST135 Sculptor Sculptor Galaxy Silver Coin galaxy Silver Dollar Galaxy ZWO ASI071MC Pro

Every time when I chase the darkness in southern lands, I try to capture some deep space objects in the southern hemisphere, which are not visible from Central Europe. One of these objects is the Sculptor Galaxy, which can be found, surprisingly, in the constellation Sculptor (south from Aquarius). Here are some features: it is approximately 11 million light-years away from us, it has roughly 90 000 light-years in diameter (similar to Milky Way) and it is characteristic by the intense star formation. This galaxy is sometimes called Silver Coin or Silver Dollar Galaxy, but I pushed the colors into the yellow spectra, therefore it looks like a gold coin.

Telescope	Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture	150 mm
Focal length	570 mm
Mount	Rainbow Astro RST 135
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, Guidescope 30 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-0°C
Corrector	TS MaxField
Filters	No
Exposure	127x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date	2020-09-21

NGC 6559 Nebula

September 21, 2020 JakubK

H II nebula

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Dark nebula DSO HII region Kythira MaxField coma corrector Nebula Newton 150/600 NGC6559 Rainbow Astro RST135 Sagittarius ZWO ASI071MC Pro

If we look in the middle of the night during the summer months (on the northern hemisphere) into the Milky Way’s core, we can find many prominent deep space objects, like Lagoon, Omega, Eagle, or Trifid nebulae. However, there are also not so well known, but also very beautiful, objects. For instance emission nebula NGC 6559, which can be located in constellation Sagittarius. The star-forming region is surrounded by the dark nebula B 91 in the shape of a heart. At the bottom left corner, a part of the Lagoon Nebula is visible.

Telescope	Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture	150 mm
Focal length	570 mm
Mount	Rainbow Astro RST 135
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, Guidescope 30 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-0°C
Corrector	TS MaxField
Filters	No
Exposure	54x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date	2020-09-21

NGC 6726 Nebula

September 13, 2020 JakubK

Reflection nebula Uncategorized

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Corona Australis DSO Globular cluster Kythira MaxField coma corrector Nebula Newton 150/600 NGC6723 Chandelier cluster NGC6726 Rainbow Astro RST135 ZWO ASI071MC Pro

NGC 6726 is a reflection nebula located in the constellation Corona Australis. Visually, there is a deep space neighbor, the Chandelier globular cluster NGC 6723. These deep space objects can be also found on my wide-angle picture of the Milky Way in the left bottom corner.

Telescope	Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture	150 mm
Focal length	570 mm
Mount	Rainbow Astro RST 135
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, Guidescope 30 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-0°C
Corrector	TS MaxField
Filters	No
Exposure	44x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date	2020-09-13

M22 Great Sagittarius Cluster

September 12, 2020 JakubK

Globular cluster

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Astrophotography in Greece Cluster DSO Globular cluster Great Sagittarius cluster Greece Kithira Kythera Kythira M22 MaxField coma corrector Messier22 Newton 150/600 Rainbow Astro RST135 Sagittarius

Messier 22, sometimes called Great Sagittarius Cluster is a globular cluster, visually located very close to the galactic core of the Milky Way. If we look in this direction by a telescope, the surrounding of this cluster is filled with many stars. The cluster itself contains approximately 100 000 stars and it has roughly 97 light-years in diameter. The region of the sky where is this cluster located is poorly visible from my home, therefore every time I travel south with my portable telescope, I capture some deep space objects in this region. This picture was taken under the dark skies of Kythira.

Telescope	Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture	150 mm
Focal length	570 mm
Mount	Rainbow Astro RST 135
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, Guidescope 30 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-0°C
Corrector	TS MaxField
Filters	No
Exposure	59x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date	2020-09-12

IC 1318 Sadr Region

September 11, 2020 JakubK

H II nebula

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Butterfly nebula Cygnus DSO IC1318 Kythira MaxField coma corrector Nebula Newton 150/600 Rainbow Astro RST135 Sadr Region ZWO ASI071MC Pro

Sadr Region, sometimes called The Gamma Cygni Nebula is a giant cloud of ionized hydrogen, located in the constellation Cygnus (Swan). The picture shows only a part of the whole complex. In order to capture the whole nebula, I would need a telescope with a much shorter focal length of the much bigger sensor of the camera. This is actually my second attempt. The first one from Milos Island was quite nice, but this time I dedicated a significantly longer time for this deep space object. Specifically, the picture is an integration of 405 minutes, which means nearly 7 hours in total.

Telescope	Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture	150 mm
Focal length	570 mm
Mount	Rainbow Astro RST 135
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, Guidescope 30 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-0°C
Corrector	TS MaxField
Filters	No
Exposure	135x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date	2020-09-11

NGC6888 Crescent Nebula

August 20, 2020 JakubK

H II nebula

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Crescent nebula Cygnus DSO Gemini gf53 IDAS NB1 Nebula Filter MaxField coma corrector Nebula Newton 254/1000 NGC6888 ZWO ASI071MC Pro

Another cloudless night and I decided to test the IDAS NB1 filter again This time on Crescent Nebula, located in constellation Cygnus. The nebulosity was captured well and it’s comparable to the narrow band image I captured a long time ago. However, the bright stars are surrounded by ugly reflections. I am not sure it’s due to the MaxField coma corrector or the filter. Next time I will try with ExploreScientific coma corrector and we will see.

Telescope	Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture	254 mm
Focal length	950 mm
Mount	Gemini G53f
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-5°C
Corrector	MaxField coma corrector
Filters	IDAS NB1 Nebula Filter
Exposure	103x180s, Gain 95, bin 1x1,
Date	2020-08-20

NGC7000 North America Nebula

August 10, 2020 JakubK

H II nebula

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Cygnus DSO Gemini gf53 HII region IDAS NB1 Nebula Filter Nebula Newton 254/1000 NGC7000 North America Nebula TS MaxField coma corrector ZWO ASI071MC Pro

After capturing the Eagle Nebula, I was searching for another nebula to test the new IDAS NB1 filter and I picked NGC7000 North America Nebula, switched on autoguiding, and went to sleep. The next morning I processed 138 pictures, each 3 minutes long. Well, I must say that this filter is a very good option for astrophotography in light-polluted locations.

Technical details:

Telescope	Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture	254 mm
Focal length	950 mm
Mount	Gemini G53f
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-5°C
Corrector	MaxField coma corrector
Filters	IDAS NB1 Nebula Filter
Exposure	138x180s, Gain 95, bin 1x1,
Date	2020-08-10

M16 Eagle Nebula

August 9, 2020 JakubK

H II nebula

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DSO Eagle nebula Gemini gf53 HII region IDAS NB1 Nebula Filter M16 MaxField coma corrector Messier16 Nebula Newton 254/1000 Serpens ZWO ASI071MC Pro

Eagle Nebula is probably the most known deep space object, due to one picture from the Hubble Space Telescope. The pillars of creation were detected, where the new stars are born. I already captured this nebula by using narrowband filters and a monochrome camera. This time I used a different approach – one-shot color camera + new IDAS NB1 Nebula Filter. This filter should completely suppress the light pollution from sodium lamps and partially from LED lamps, passing the most interesting wavelength of H-alpha, OIII, and H-beta. In my opinion, it works well even in my light-polluted home.

Technical details:

Telescope	Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture	254 mm
Focal length	950 mm
Mount	Gemini G53f
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-5°C
Corrector	MaxField coma corrector
Filters	IDAS NB1 Nebula Filter
Exposure	82x180s, Gain 95, bin 1x1,
Date	2020-08-09

M4 Globular cluster

July 23, 2020 JakubK

Globular cluster Uncategorized

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Antares Cluster DSO Fuerteventura Globular cluster M4 MaxField coma corrector Messier4 Newton 150/600 Rainbow Astro RST135 Scorpius ZWO ASI071MC Pro

Messier 4 (left side of the picture) is a globular cluster located in constellation Scorpius, close to the brightest star of this constellation Antares (right side). This cluster is the closest one to the Solar System, due to its “short” distance 7200 light-years and it contains several tens of thousands of stars. There is another globular cluster on the bottom side of the picture NGC 6144. The star Antares is classified as a red supergiant, with diameter several times bigger than the Sun, which makes it one of the largest know stars. it is only 550 light-years away, which means M4 and Antares are close only visually, but in reality, there is a very long distance between them.
If any brighter star is photographed by the Newtonian telescope, the diffraction cross appears due to the so-called “spider vanes” holder of the secondary mirror. If the spider vanes are not perpendicular to each other (like in my case), the diffraction pattern makes multiple ugly lines. This means I will have to correct it, as soon as I get back from Fuerteventura.

Technical details:

Telescope	Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture	150 mm
Focal length	570 mm
Mount	Rainbow Astro RST 135
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, Guidescope 30 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-0°C
Corrector	TS MaxField
Filters	No
Exposure	44x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date	2020-07-23

NGC6357 Lobster Nebula

July 22, 2020 JakubK

H II nebula

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Canary Islands DSO Emission nebula Fuerteventura HII region Lobster nebula Nebula Newton 150/600 NGC6357 Rainbow Astro RST135 Scorpius TS MaxField coma corrector ZWO ASI071MC Pro

Lobster Nebula is a HII region (giant cloud of excited hydrogen gas) located in constellation Scorpius. The nebula rises only 8° above the horizon in Central Europe, which means, it is submerged in light pollution caused by nearby towns, villages or cities. The situation is completely different on Canary Islands, where the nebula rises 27° above the horizon. Therefore, this nebula was my primary target of my expedition to Fuerteventura. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperated and strong winds caused bad seeing and didn’t allow me to capture more frames. So, next time it will be better.

Technical details:

Telescope	Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture	150 mm
Focal length	570 mm
Mount	Rainbow Astro RST 135
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, Guidescope 30 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-0°C
Corrector	TS MaxField
Filters	No
Exposure	40x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date	2020-07-22

M24 Sagittarius Star Cloud

July 21, 2020 JakubK

Open cluster

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Cluster DSO Fuerteventura M24 MaxField coma corrector Messier24 Milky Way Rainbow Astro RST135 Sagittarius Sagittarius Star Cloud Star cloud ZWO ASI071MC Pro

Messier 24 is spiral arm of our galaxy located in constellation Sagittarius. The region is heavily populated by the stars, which makes you think how big our home galaxy Milky Way is. I captured already few years back, but it would be a pity not to recapture this magnificent star cloud again with slightly shorter focal length and under dark skies of Fuerteventura.

Technical details:

Telescope	Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture	150 mm
Focal length	570 mm
Mount	Rainbow Astro RST 135
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, Guidescope 30 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-0°C
Corrector	TS MaxField
Filters	No
Exposure	75x120s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date	2020-07-21

IC 4304 Rho Ophiuchi Nebula

July 21, 2020 JakubK

Dark Nebula Reflection nebula

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Dark nebula DSO Fuerteventura IC4604 MaxField coma corrector Nebula Newton 150/600 Ophiuchus Rainbow Astro RST135 Reflection nebula Rho Ophiuchi ZWO ASI071MC Pro

Rho Ophiuchi is a triple star system (on the left side of the picture) in constellation Ophiuchus. The light from the stars is partially absorbed by the gas, which makes the blue reflection nebula visible. Smaller reflection nebula called IC 4603 is located on the right. The picture shows just small frame of significantly bigger nebula, called Rho Ophiuchi complex, which combines star Antares, globular cluster M4 and many more reflection, emission and dark nebulae. In order to capture the whole complex, one has to use significantly shorter focal length, like 130 – 200 mm.

The picture was taken under dark skies of Fuerteventura and it’s a stack of 73 pictures, 3 minutes each, which makes total integration time 219 minutes.

Technical details:

Telescope	Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture	150 mm
Focal length	570 mm
Mount	Rainbow Astro RST 135
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, Guidescope 30 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-0°C
Corrector	TS MaxField
Filters	No
Exposure	73x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date	2020-07-21

M7 Ptolemy cluster

July 21, 2020 JakubK

Open cluster

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Cluster DSO Fuerteventura M7 MaxField coma corrector Messier7 Newton 150/600 Open cluster Ptolemy cluster Rainbow Astro RST135 Scorpius ZWO ASI071MC Pro

Messier 7, sometimes called Ptolemy cluster, is an open cluster located in between constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius. The cluster is visually located on the galactic plane of the Milky Way, therefore there are many stars in the background. The cluster is badly visible from Central Europe. Much better opportunities to observe or photograph this cluster have astronomers or astrophotographers in southern countries. My last attempt to capture it in Greece was constantly disturbed by the weather, therefore we I was again in South, specifically at Fuerteventura, I didn’t hesitate and recapture this beautiful cluster.

Technical details:

Telescope	Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture	150 mm
Focal length	570 mm
Mount	Rainbow Astro RST 135
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, Guidescope 30 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-0°C
Corrector	TS MaxField
Filters	No
Exposure	64x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date	2020-07-21

M5 Globular Cluster

May 21, 2020 JakubK

Globular cluster

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Cluster DSO Explore scientific coma corrector Gemini gf53 Globular cluster M5 Messier5 Newton 254/1000 OAG Serpens ZWO ASI071MC Pro

Messier 5 is a globular cluster located in the constellation Serpens. I revisited this cluster after four years. Such a spectacular deep space object simply deserves more attention, than I was able to spend four years ago. At that time I used the same telescope, but now I have a different coma corrector and camera. Moreover, this time I dedicated significantly longer integration time, specifically I was collecting the photons 2.7 hours, which were traveling to us 24 500 years.

Technical details:

Telescope	Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture	254 mm
Focal length	1060 mm
Mount	Gemini G53f
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-10°C
Corrector	Explore Scientific HR coma corrector
Filters	No
Exposure	54x180s, Gain 95, bin 1x1,
Date	2020-05-21

NGC7023 Iris nebula

September 3, 2019 JakubK

Dark Nebula Reflection nebula

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Astronomik L-1 UV IR Block Filter Avalon M-Zero Cepheus Dark nebula DSO Explore scientific coma corrector Iris nebula Karpathos Nebula Newton 150/600 NGC7023 Reflection nebula

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:

Telescope	Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture	150 mm
Focal length	630 mm
Mount	Avalon M-Zero
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, Guidescope 30 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-5°C
Corrector	Explore Scientific HR
Filters	Astronomik L-1 - UV IR Block Filter
Exposure	37x120s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date	2019-09-03

M72 Globular Cluster in Aquarius

August 9, 2019 JakubK

Globular cluster

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Aquarius Astronomik L-1 UV IR Block Filter Cluster DSO Explore scientific coma corrector Gemini gf53 Globular cluster M72 Messier72 Newton 254/1000 ZWO ASI071MC Pro

Messier 72 is a globular cluster, which can be located in constellation Aquarius. The cluster is approximately 55 light-years from us, which makes it one of the distant objects from Messier catalogue. M72 is very special deep space object for me, because it’s the last object of Messier catalogue captured by me. Now I am thinking, shall I continue and try to capture NGC catalogue? Or shall I move to southern hemisphere? I am definitely sure that some of the Messier’s objects need to be recaptured.

Technical details:

Telescope	Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture	254 mm
Focal length	1060 mm
Mount	Gemini G53f
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-10°C
Corrector	Explore Scientific HR coma corrector
Filters	Astronomik L-1 - UV IR Block Filter
Exposure	60x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date	2019-08-09

M10 Globular Cluster

June 2, 2019 JakubK

Globular cluster

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Astronomik L-1 UV IR Block Filter Cluster DSO Explore scientific coma corrector Gemini gf53 Globular cluster M10 Messier10 Newton 254/1000 Ophiuchus ZWO ASI071MC Pro

Messier 10 is a globular cluster located in constellation Ophiuchus. This cluster belongs to one of the closest to the Earth – the distance is “only” 14 300 light-years. It has visually many globular neighbors: M12 northwest, M14 east and M107 southwest.

Technical details:

Telescope	Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture	254 mm
Focal length	1060 mm
Mount	Gemini G53f
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-10°C
Corrector	Explore Scientific HR coma corrector
Filters	Astronomik L-1 - UV IR Block Filter
Exposure	38x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date	2019-06-02

M12 Globular Cluster

June 1, 2019 JakubK

Globular cluster

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Astronomik L-1 UV IR Block Filter Cluster DSO Explore scientific coma corrector Gemini gf53 Globular cluster M12 Messier12 Newton 254/1000 Ophiuchus ZWO ASI071MC Pro

Messier 12 is a globular cluster located in constellation Ophiuchus. The cluster is 15,700 light-years away from Earth and contains approximately 200,000 stars. There are another two globular clusters in the vicinity: M10 south-east and M14 east.

Technical details:

Telescope	Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture	254 mm
Focal length	1060 mm
Mount	Gemini G53f
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-10°C
Corrector	Explore Scientific HR coma corrector
Filters	Astronomik L-1 - UV IR Block Filter
Exposure	32x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date	2019-06-01

M40 Double Star

June 1, 2019 JakubK

Asterism

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Asterism Double star DSO Explore scientific coma corrector Gemini gf53 M40 Messier40 Newton 254/1000 Ursa Major ZWO ASI071MC Pro

Messier 40 is a double star located in constellation Ursa Major (in the middle of the picture). Charles Messier was searching for the nebula in this part of the sky, which was observed by Johannes Hevelius. He was unable to locate any nebulous object, but he found this double star and catalogued them under the number 40. Double star should be a system of two stars, which are bonded by the gravity, but the latest measurements demonstrated that these two stars are close to each other only visually and they are completely unrelated.

Technical details:

Telescope	Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture	254 mm
Focal length	1060 mm
Mount	Gemini G53f
Autoguiding	ZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera	ZWO 071 Pro @-10°C
Corrector	Explore Scientific HR coma corrector
Filters	Astronomik L-1 - UV IR Block Filter
Exposure	40x120s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date	2019-06-01

AstroFotoBlog

Tag: DSO

M99 Galaxy

NGC 253 Sculptor Galaxy

NGC 6559 Nebula

NGC 6726 Nebula

M22 Great Sagittarius Cluster

IC 1318 Sadr Region

NGC6888 Crescent Nebula

NGC7000 North America Nebula

Technical details:

M16 Eagle Nebula

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M4 Globular cluster

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NGC6357 Lobster Nebula

M24 Sagittarius Star Cloud

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IC 4304 Rho Ophiuchi Nebula

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M7 Ptolemy cluster

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M5 Globular Cluster

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NGC7023 Iris nebula

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M72 Globular Cluster in Aquarius

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M10 Globular Cluster

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M12 Globular Cluster

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M40 Double Star

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