Tag: Emission nebula

NGC7000 North America Nebula

August 26, 2022
H II nebula
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I am back from a very intensive trip to Namibia. The report is still pending because I post-processed the data the whole summer. Please stay tuned. Anyway, a few days in August was nice weather, so I took the SharpStar 94 EPDH telescope and pointed into the constellation Cygnus. There are many deep-space objects in this constellation because it is on the galactic plane. Probably the brightest and the most spectacular is North Americal Nebula, sometimes called the Cygnus wall. Since I live in a light-polluted area, I used narrow-band filters to create this image, which is a combination of Hydrogen-alpha (Ha) in the green channel, oxygen III (OIII) in the blue channel, and sulfur II (SII) in the red channel.

And here is a simplified bi-color variant (red – Ha, green OIII, blue OIII):

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
Exposure96x300s, Gain 100, bin 1x1,
Date2022-08-26

NGC2264 Cone nebula

March 10, 2022
H II nebula
0 Comment

The Cone Nebula is a molecular cloud of excited hydrogen gas, located in the constellation Monoceros. It belongs to the group of nebulae, which can be observed/photographed during the winter in the northern hemisphere. I tried to capture this object a long time ago without success. I must say, it’s a very difficult one, so I attempted this time with new equipment. Specifically new extra, super, mega narrowband filters, having a bandwidth of only 3 nm. Combined with a small 6″ Newtonian telescope I was able to generate a pretty decent picture.

Here is a fake Hubble palette edit:

And here is a more natural-looking bi-color edit:

TelescopeNewton 150/600 mm
Aperture150 mm
Focal length570 mm
MountRainbow Astro RST 135
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, QHY Mini Guide Scope
CameraZWO 2600MM @-10°C
CorrectorMaxField coma corrector
FiltersAntlia Ha, OIII, SII 3 nm
Exposure142x300s, Gain 100, bin 1x1,
Date2022-03-09

IC2177 Seagull Nebula

January 23, 2022
H II nebula
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I am not a huge fan of birding, but I captured this “Seagull” with pleasure. Initially, I noticed on my wide-angle photo, that there is a giant nebula north of Sirius. I checked in Stellarium what would be the optimal focal length and found out that this is a perfect target for William Optics RedCat combined with an APS-C sensor. Moreover, I was able to fit the M50 open cluster into the field of view (on the left side).

TelescopeWilliam Optics RedCat 51/250 f4.9
Aperture51 mm
Focal length250 mm
MountRainbow Astro RST 135
AutoguidingZWO 178MM, QHY Mini Guide Scope 30/130 mm
CameraZWO 071 Pro @-10°C
Correctorno
FiltersOptolong L-eXtreme 2"
Exposure85x180s, gain 95
Date2022-01-23

NGC1499 California Nebula

January 23, 2022
H II nebula
0 Comment

California Nebula is a cloud of ionized hydrogen gas (HII region), which can be found in the constellation Perseus. The nebula is 1320 light-years away from Earth and it is 100 light-years long. Visual observation is very difficult, due to very low brightness. The first person who spotted this nebula was Edward Emerson Barnard in 1885. Since it is an emission nebula, it can be relatively easily photographed even under the light-polluted sky, with help of a narrowband filter.

I always wanted to capture this nebula, but the focal length must be relatively short. This is a perfect opportunity to test the William Optics RedCat. This time not with Canon EOS 6Da, but I attached a cooled astro camera ZWO ASI071 and placed the Optolong L-eXtreme dual-band filter.

TelescopeWilliam Optics RedCat 51/250 f4.9
Aperture51 mm
Focal length250 mm
MountRainbow Astro RST 135
AutoguidingZWO 178MM, QHY Mini Guide Scope 30/130 mm
CameraZWO 071 Pro @-10°C
Correctorno
FiltersOptolong L-eXtreme 2"
Exposure105x180s, gain 95
Date2022-01-23

NGC 2237 Rosette Nebula

January 12, 2022
H II nebula
0 Comment

I couldn’t imagine a better final object for the winter season. Rosette Nebula is my favorite H II region in the constellation Monoceros. At the same time, I used this deep-space object to test my portable Newtonian telescope with my new monochromatic camera ZWO ASI 2600MM. Well compared to the previous setup, this camera has much smaller pixels, which increases the requirements for the optics, specifically for the coma corrector. I am not happy with the star shape and for my planned trip to Namibia, I will try to find a portable refractor.

Here is a “fake” Hubble palette (SII, Ha, OIII):

And here more realistic bi-color variant (Ha, OIII, OIII)

TelescopeNewton 150/600 mm
Aperture150 mm
Focal length570 mm
MountRainbow Astro RST 135
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, QHY Mini Guide Scope
CameraZWO 2600MM @-10°C
CorrectorMaxField coma corrector
FiltersAntlia Ha, OIII, SII 3 nm
Exposure94x300s, Gain 100, bin 1×1,
Date2022-01-12

NGC6357 Lobster Nebula

July 22, 2020
H II nebula
1 Comment

Lobster Nebula is a HII region (giant cloud of excited hydrogen gas) located in the 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 the Canary Islands, where the nebula rises 27° above the horizon. Therefore, this nebula was the primary target of my expedition to Fuerteventura. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate and strong winds caused bad seeing and didn’t allow me to capture more frames. So, next time it will be better.

Technical details:

TelescopeNewton 150/600 mm
Aperture150 mm
Focal length570 mm
MountRainbow Astro RST 135
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, Guidescope 30 mm
CameraZWO 071 Pro @-0°C
CorrectorTS MaxField
FiltersNo
Exposure40x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date2020-07-22

NGC2264 Cone nebula

February 27, 2017
H II nebula
1 Comment

Cone nebula is a giant cloud of ionized hydrogen gas, which includes the Christmas Tree Cluster. It’s located between two bright winter stars Betelgeuse (constellation Orion) and Procyon (Canis Minor) and it’s 2700 light-years far from the Solar System. There is a famous picture from Hubble Space telescope of the tip of the cone – star forming complex.

Bi-color picture didn’t look as I expected, therefore I decided to publish only mono version of hydrogen alpha channel.

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NGC6820 Nebula

August 23, 2016
H II nebula
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NGC6820 Nebula doesn’t have a name, so let’s call it Hidden octopus nebula (because only one tentacle is visible). Hidden octopus nebula is a giant cloud (50 light years in diameter) of ionized hydrogen alpha gas, where new stars are born. The tentacle forms a similar structure just like in the more famous M16 Eagle nebula. It’s located in the constellation Vulpecula (Little fox) not far from M27 Dumbbell nebula and it’s 6000 light years from Earth.

The picture was processed in the bi-color technique. This means I collected the photos through two filters: H alpha and OIII. H alpha was inserted into the red channel, and OIII into the green and blue one.

ngc6823-nebula-2016-08-04-300s-30c-22ha-20oiiii-fl1000-gpu

Telescope:Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture:254 mm
Focal length:1000 mm
Mount:Gemini GF53f
Autoguiding:ZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera:Moravian instruments G2 8300M @-30C
Corrector:GPU
Filters:Baader Ha OIII
Exposure:22xHa 30 s, 20xOIII, bin 1x1
Date:2016-08-23

NGC 6888 – Crescent Nebula

April 17, 2016
H II nebula
1 Comment

In an emission nebula located in constellation Cygnus (swan), 5000 light years from Earth. The nebula has 25 light years (!) in diameter. This constellation, as well as the nebula is lying on the plane of our home galaxy Milky Way. Therefore there are so many stars visible.

The picture was processed by bi-color technique – this means that the picture is assembled from two narrow band images: hydrogen alpha (Ha) and ionized oxygen (OIII). Ha was inserted into red channel and OIII into green and blue.

NGC6888_2015-08-23_600s_22Ha_8OIII-30C

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