Tag: iOptron CEM25P

NGC6822 Barnard’s Galaxy

NGC6822 is a galaxy located in the constellation Sagittarius and it is 1.6 million light-years from Earth. This galaxy belongs to a local group of galaxies with Andromeda, Triangulum Galaxy, and Milky Way. This galaxy is quite famous because Edwin Hubble discovered several variable stars in this galaxy. These variable stars can be used for the determination of the distance from Earth. Barnard’s Galaxy was the first galaxy to accurately determine distance.

Barnard’s Galaxy is a very dim deep space object; therefore I dedicated quite a long integration time to it (180 minutes) and I chose a long exposure time for each frame (300 seconds). Several nebulae are visible in the picture. These are the red spots located on the left side of the galaxy. Bubble Nebula and Ring Nebula are giant HII regions, where new stars are born.

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
Exposure36x300s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-07

M107 Globular Cluster

Messier107 is a globular cluster located in the constellation Ophiuchus. The cluster is very close to galactic disk of the Milky Way and 20’600 light-years far from Earth.

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
Exposure18x180s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-07

IC1396 Elephant’s Trunk nebula

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

NGC 6888 Crescent Nebula

Crescent Nebula, also known as NGC 6888, is a HII region, hot ionized hydrogen gas cloud. The nebula got the shape by high speed stellar wind of Wolf-Rayet star, which is colliding with slow moving mass, ejected by this star during transformation into a red giant. The nebula is approximately 5000 light-years away from us and it can be located in constellation Cygnus.

The picture is the last one from 6.9.2018. In the evening I captured Omega nebula, M80. As a last deep space object I pointed on Crescent Nebula, started auto guiding and went to sleep. Therefore the picture is a stack of 64 pictures; each has 3 minutes of exposure time, thus total integration time 192 minutes.

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
Exposure64x180s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-06

M17 Omega Nebula M18 Open Cluster

Due to moderate focal length of my telescope (660 mm) I managed to capture two Messier’s object in one shot. Specifically it was Omega nebula M17 (on the right) and open cluster M18 (on the left). I already captured Omega nebula some time ago, but due to its very low declination, the picture was not that nice. I was really happy that I got the opportunity on island Milos to capture it again. The cluster M18 is approximately 4200 light-years away from Earth and it has diameter 17 light-years.

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
Exposure37x180s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-06

M80 Globular Cluster

Messier80 is a globular cluster located in the constellation Scorpius. M80 is approximately 28’400 light-years far from Earth and it has several hundred thousand stars. M80 belongs to one the densest globular cluster and it’s characterized by frequent star collisions in the center.

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
Exposure20x120s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-06

 


IC 1318 Butterfly Nebula, Barnard 347

IC 1318 is an emission nebula, sometimes called Sadr region, located in constellation Cygnus, surrounding bright star Sadr. The star Sadr didn’t fit into the field view of my telescope/camera, but left the trace in form of diffraction spike at the top of the picture. The nebula contains many dark nebulae and the biggest in the middle of the picture is called Barnard 347.

The picture is another demonstration of dark skies of Milos and it is an integration of 77 pictures, each 3 minutes exposure, which means nearly 4 hours of integration time.

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
Exposure77x180s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-05

M4 Globular cluster

Messier M4 is a globular cluster located in constellation Scorpius. It has approximately 100 000 stars and it’s roughly 7200 light-years away from us, which makes it one of the closest globular clusters to the Solar system. Hubble Space Telescope discovered many white dwarf stars, which are the oldest known stars in our galaxy, having an age of 13 billion years.

The picture was taken during my travels to Greek island Milos and it’s only integration of 24 of two minutes exposures. This means only 48 minutes in total.

Technical details:

Telescope:Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture:150 mm
Focal length:660 mm
MountiOptron CEM25P
AutoguidingQHYCCD miniGuideScope 130 mm f/4.3, ZWO 174 MM
Camera:ZWO 071 Pro @-10C
Corrector:Explore Scientific HR coma corrector
Filters:Astronomik L-1 - UV IR Block Filter
Exposure:8x24x120s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date:2018-09-05

M31 Andromeda galaxy

After capturing many clusters I wanted to switch to more interesting objects, which would test the quality of the skies on Milos, therefore I slewed my portable newton telescope to probably the most famous galaxy – Andromeda. During the post-processing I was astonished how many details were revealed after such short integration time. I would not be able to capture such picture from home, even if I would use any light pollution filters and much longer integration time.

Brief description of the galaxy: Andromeda is our galactic neighbor and it is approximately 2.5 million light-year from Earth, but it is approaching (110 km/s). There are estimates that our Milky Way and Andromeda will collide, but we still have some time, because it should occur in 4.5 billion years. Andromeda has diameter 220 thousand light-years, which makes it twice bigger than our own galaxy Milky Way. Two clouds surrounding the main galaxy are dwarf galaxies M32 and M110.

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
Exposure18x180s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-05

M24 Sagittarius Star Cloud

Messier 24, also called Small Sagittarius Star Cluster, is a giant cloud of stars and open star clusters. In fact, M24 is not gravitational bonded object, but it is only spiral arm of Milky Way galaxy. The light coming from the cloud is partially blocked by two prominent dark nebulae. The cloud is literally surrounded by Messier objects. In north-east direction can be located Omega Nebula M17 and  open cluster M18, just 3° direction north open cluster M25 can be seen, 5° direction west open cluster M23, 6° south-west nebulae M20 Trifid and M8 Lagoon nebula.

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
Exposure27x180s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-05

M7 Ptolemy Cluster

Similar to M6, there is another bright open cluster in constellation Scorpius called Ptolemy Cluster or Messier 7. The cluster was discovered very long time ago (130 BC) by Greek astronomer Klaudios Ptolemaios. It belongs to one of the brightest and the biggest star clusters, which are visible by naked eye, but not from Central and Northern Europe.  The open cluster M7 consists of several hundreds of blue stars and it’s approximately 1000 light-year away from Solar System. The background illuminates our home galaxy Milky Way.

To capture this cluster was quite tricky. First two attempts were interrupted by windy and cloudy weather. During the third one I managed to expose 17x 120s and 8x 180s, i.e. 58 minutest in total.

Technical details:

Telescope:Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture:150 mm
Focal length:660 mm
MountiOptron CEM25P
AutoguidingQHYCCD miniGuideScope 130 mm f/4.3, ZWO 174 MM
Camera:ZWO 071 Pro @-10C
Corrector:Explore Scientific HR coma corrector
Filters:Astronomik L-1 - UV IR Block Filter
Exposure17x120s, 8x180s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date:2018-09-04

M22 Great Sagittarius Cluster

This spectacular globular cluster is called Messier 22 or Great Sagittarius Cluster. It’s located, surprisingly, in constellation Sagittarius, close to Galactic Bulge, therefore the background is illuminated by many stars. Oh, and it’s so many of them. If you realize that each bright dot is a star and most probably not just a star, but whole solar system, it makes you think how big the universe is. The distance from Earth only 10’000 light-years, makes this cluster the closest one to us.

Due to its low declination, it’s quite difficult to photograph this cluster from Central Europe. Therefore I took the opportunity and captured M22 on Milos Island. The picture is an integration of only 94 minutes.

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
Exposure47x120s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-04

M73 Asterism of four stars

Messier73 is a group of stars (asterism), which are visually close to each other if viewed from Earth. M73 was discovered by Charles Messier on October 4 1780 and catalogued as an open cluster with some nebulosity. Latest investigation revealed that M73 is not a cluster, but just an asterism.

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
Exposure75x180s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-04

M30 Globular Cluster

Messier 30 is a globular cluster located in constellation Capricornus. Compared to recently captured globular clusters there are not so many stars in the background. M30 is about 27’100 light-years far from Earth, has 93 light-year in diameter and it contains approximately 150’000 stars.

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
Exposure60x180s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-03

 


M9 Globular Cluster

Messier 9 is a globular cluster located in constellation Ophiuchus. Particularly interesting is, that it’s surrounded by a dark cloud, which is called Barnard 64. Also interesting is the fact that this cluster is one of the nearest globular clusters to the center of our galaxy.

The picture was taken on island Milos by integration of 24 picture each 120s, which means only 48 minutes in total.

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
Exposure24x120s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-03

M75 Globular Cluster

Messier75 is a globular cluster located in the constellation Sagittarius.  It is approximately 67’500 light-years away and is has diameter 134 light-years.

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
Exposure19x180s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-03

M8 Lagoon Nebula

Lagoon nebula (sometimes called Messier 8) is a giant intergalactic cloud of ionized Hydrogen. The nebula is located in constellation Sagittarius and it’s 4100 light-years away from Solar System. It belongs to one of the brightest nebulas visible from northern hemisphere.

I have to admit, this nebula was the main reason and target of the trip to Milos and it was the first deep space object captured there. When I processed the picture I was so happy that the nebulosity is so clearly visible without any narrow band filters. Well, mission accomplished.

Technical details:

Telescope:Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture:150 mm
Focal length:660 mm
MountiOptron CEM25P
AutoguidingQHYCCD miniGuideScope 130 mm f/4.3, ZWO 174 MM
Camera:ZWO 071 Pro @-10C
Corrector:Explore Scientific HR coma corrector
Filters:Astronomik L-1 - UV IR Block Filter
Exposure39x180s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date:2018-09-01

M55 Globular cluster

Messier55 is a globular cluster located in constellation Sagittarius. This cluster is very difficult to photograph from central Europe, because there is located not far from horizon. For example Charles Messier hat troubles to locate this cluster and it took him 14 years to spot it. I made a trip to Gavdos – the southernmost place is Europe. There the cluster was significantly upper in the sky.

M55 is 17600 light-year far from the Solar system, it has approximately 100 light-year diameter and contain 100 000 stars.

Techanical details

Telescope:RC 154/1370
Aperture:154 mm
Focal length:917 mm
MountiOptron CEM25P
AutoguidingQHYCCD miniGuideScope 130 mm f/4.3, ZWO 174 MM
Camera:ZWO 1600 MC @ -15C
Corrector:Astro Physics CCDT67
Filters:UV, IR cut
Exposure:37x 120s Gain 240
Date:2017-09-29

NGC 7293 Helix nebula

Helix nebula is the closest and the brightest planetary nebula in the sky. It was discovered by Karl Ludwig Harding quite long time ago at 1824 in constellation Aquarius. This nebula is similar to Dumbbell or Ring Nebula, only it’s much bigger and bit closer – approximately 450 light-years.

I took this picture on Gavdos. This nebula was my primary target there, because in Switzerland is located not far above the horizon, therefore I would have to capture it through heavy light pollution. In the southernmost point of European continent was way upper in the sky. I was collecting the light coming from this nebula several nights and it was worth it:

Technical details

Telescope:RC 154/1370
Aperture:154 mm
Focal length:917 mm
MountiOptron CEM25P
AutoguidingQHYCCD miniGuideScope 130 mm f/4.3, ZWO 174 MM
Camera:ZWO 1600 MC @ -15C
Corrector:Astro Physics CCDT67
Filters:UV, IR cut
Exposure:116x 180s Gain 139
Date:2017-09-22

Chasing darkness in Greece on small island Gavdos

I was always dreaming about dark skies because I live in a suburban area with relatively strong light pollution. Two friends returned from Gavdos where they spent their summer vacation and told me that they had never seen so many stars in the sky – at that moment I was tempted. One year later I decided to combine our summer vacation (mid-September) with chasing the dark skies. Swimming, snorkeling, hiking during the day, and photographing, observing during the night.

We have been to Greece already, so we knew what to expect – beautiful beaches, people with great hospitality, and tourists everywhere. But Gavdos is something different. It is a small island south of Crete. The island is the southernmost point of the entire European continent, which is optimal for astrophotography, because the deep space objects, which are near to the horizon in Switzerland, are 12° upper in the sky. Only a few people live on Gavdos, which means there is no light pollution compared to other Greek islands. There are neither big hotels, discotheques nor organized beaches. On the other hand, there are places where you can sleep and there are many taverns where you can get something delicious. Moreover in all taverns is Wi-Fi. Electricity is mostly produced by solar panels and stored in batteries and some taverns use generators, so there is electricity available the whole night. This means you don’t have to carry heavy batteries to power the mount or camera cooling with you.

It’s not so straightforward to get there. We flew to Heraklion (Crete capital), hired a car, and drove to Paleiochora. Crete is quite a big island and it took us 3-4 hours to drive from Heraklion to Paleiochora. From there we took a 6-hour ferry to Gavdos. The ferry arrives at Karaves – a small harbor, where there is a tavern and mini-market. Some info about the accommodation on Gavdos can be found here. We stayed at Metochi – a small house with a restaurant. The owner Maria was an excellent host and she was always smiling and charged with positive energy. Every evening, when we were returning from the restaurant back to our house, we saw millions of stars. The Milky Way was so bright! I have never seen so many stars in my life. It was something spectacular.

I was thinking a lot about what equipment I take with me to Gavdos. The telescope must be portable and has to fit in my backpack, so the Newtonian is not a good option. Refractors with slightly bigger aperture are long, therefore also not so suitable. I did the research and found an interesting small reflector – 6″ (150 mm) Ritchey-Chrétien. It’s small and when I removed the focuser, it fit in my Lowepro Pro Trekker 450 AW bag even with the camera, finder, autoguider, and with all the cables. It has only one disadvantage – it’s quite slow with a focal ratio of f9. This can be improved with the focal reducer Astro Physics CCDT67. The focal ratio drops from f9 to acceptable f6. It’s still not as fast as my Newtonians, but the main thing is that it’s portable and inexpensive. Some reviews of this telescope can be found here or here.

The second part is the camera. My Moravian G2-8300 is an excellent camera, but together with the filter wheel, it has 2.5 kg, thus not optimal for traveling. I was searching for something lighter, with the same size of the chip and, of course, with the cooling. I found the ZWO Color CMOS Camera ASI 1600MC-Cool. This camera has approximately the same quantum efficiency, but it has only 400 grams!

The last part of the gear is the mount. Here it was quite simple to decide and I purchased iOptron CEM25P lightweight equatorial mount with low periodic error and suitable payload capacity.

So, I had in my hand luggage 13 kg (fortunately they never checked the weight of the hand luggage) and my suitcase had 31 kg and I managed to pass all security checks.

Back to Gavdos, I placed my portable astrophotographical equipment behind the house and took some pictures. Unfortunately, the weather was not so optimal. The skies were clear every night, but most of the time was very windy and I mean really very windy. I was able to photograph only 3 nights. This was quite disappointing, but I managed to capture Helix and Trifid Nebula.

Since we had a car, it was easy to travel around and every day we visited new beaches. Some of them are not accessible by car, so you have to hike for an hour or two. But it’s worth it. For instance, beach Potamos is one of the nicest beaches I have visited in my life and we were nearly alone there.

Beach Lakoudi is also nice and there we were completely alone.

Beach Tripiti is the southernmost place in Europe

The beaches are beautiful, but they were not the main reason why we traveled to Gavdos. To be under such clear skies and not to take a picture of the Milky Way would be a shame. At the highest point of the island, there is a lighthouse – Faros. The lighthouse is not functioning anymore, but there is a museum and tavern. So, one can with a glass of wine or beer enjoy a beautiful sunset.

If you stay a bit longer, the Milky Way shows its beauty. The conditions are excellent for such wide-angle photography because 200 km south there is nothing but the sea.

The picture was taken by Olympus PEN-F, lens Olympus ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO @ 12 mm, f/2.8, ISO 1600, exposure 20s. The crop factor is 2, which means that the equivalent focal length for the full-frame sensor is 24 mm. This focal length is not so great for the Milky Way, but the optical quality is remarkable. Comatic aberration is gently visible in the upper left corner and there is no chromatic aberration. Well done Olympus! One of the main advantages of this camera is the weight. The camera with the lens has only 0.8 kg, which is exactly half of the weight compared to my previous setup Canon EOS 40D with Tokina 11-20 F/2.8.

Just to conclude the post, we really loved Gavdos and we would definitely come back. The island has its own magic. It was pure relaxation there and I miss it. I can only recommend to everyone to go to Gavdos, not just due to the clear and not polluted skies, but also due to the specific atmosphere of unspoiled nature.

On our way back we stayed a couple of nights on Crete. The Moon started to shine, so I decided to take a picture of this white monster with my portable setup. Ritchey-Chrétien telescopes are not so great for the Moon or planets, due to a big central obstruction caused by the secondary mirror. Some say these telescopes are not suitable at all for this purpose. However, the picture is very sharp. I must say that it’s much better compared to pictures I made in Switzerland with significantly bigger telescopes and smaller central obstruction. This is caused by the seeing – in Greece, the atmosphere is more steady compared to Swiss skies. Conclusions – it always doesn’t depend on your equipment, nature has to cooperate as well.