Tag: Nebula

M8 Lagoon Nebula

September 1, 2018
H II nebula
1 Comment

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

NGC281 Pacman nebula

January 13, 2018
H II nebula
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NGC281 is a HII region, which reminds a head of the main character in very popular game from nineties. It is located in constellation Cassiopeia and it 9500 light-year far from us. This nebula was discovered long time ago by Edward Emerson Barnard and it is possible to observe this nebula by reasonable sized telescope under dark skies. Well, I wouldn’t see probably anything, because I live in light polluted area, therefore I had to use narrow band filters, which block the light pollution.

The picture is composed out of 66 narrow band exposures, which means slightly more than one hour per channel. First one is bi-color composition of hydrogen and oxygen, the others are in Hubble palette (hydrogen in green, oxygen in blue and sulfur in red).

Technical details

Telescope:Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture:254 mm
Focal length:1000 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingTS 60 mm, ZWO 174 MM
Camera:Moravian instruments G2 8300M @-30C
Corrector:GPU coma corrector
Filters:Baader narrow band
Exposure:8x22xHa, 22xOIII, 22xSII 180 s, bin 1x1,
Date:2018-01-13

 

IC1848 Soul nebula

November 23, 2017
H II nebula
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Soul nebula is a beautiful HII region, where new stars are being born. It’s located in the constellation Cassiopeia and it’s 7500 light-years from Earth. The nebula has a neighbor Heart Nebula (IC1805). One can say that in this constellation the heart and soul are close to each other.

As usual, I used narrow-band filters to capture this spectacular nebula. It didn’t fit into my field of view; this means I would need a shorter focal length.

Update 2023-05-07. I returned to this data and reprocessed it, using the latest post-processing know-how. I learned a lot in the last few years, and Pixinsight got very useful plugins. For example, Blur Exterminator sharpens the data, but it still looks realistic without any artifacts. However, the biggest difference is the white balance of the picture. I used the rainbow SHO technique published by
lukomatico.

Technical details

Telescope:Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture:150 mm
Focal length:438 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingTS 60 mm, ZWO 174 MM
Camera:Moravian instruments G2 8300M @-30C
Corrector:ASA 0.73 reducer
Filters:Baader narrow band
Exposure:8x77xHa, 77xOIII, 77xSII 180 s, bin 1×1,
Date:2017-11-23

IC5070 Pelican nebula

November 15, 2017
H II nebula
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Pelican nebula is large cloud of hydrogen gas, where many stars are being born, located in constellation Cygnus (Swan). The nebula is approximately 2000 light-years away from Earth. If you use bit of an imagination, you will be able to see the pelican in the dark cloud surrounding the brighter center of the nebula – good luck with searching.

The picture was taken completely by narrow band filters. The first one is in “fake” Hubble palette and second one as a bi-color image (Ha in red channel, OIII in green and blue channel).

Technical details

Telescope:Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture:150 mm
Focal length:438 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingTS 60 mm, ZWO 174 MM
Camera:Moravian instruments G2 8300M @-30C
Corrector:ASA 0.73 reducer
Filters:Baader narrow band
Exposure:8x32xHa, 32xOIII, 32xSII 180 s, bin 1x1,
Date:2017-12-15

IC1396 Elephant trunk nebula

October 29, 2017
H II nebula
2 Comments

Elephant trunk nebula is visually one of the biggest deep space objects in the sky. It covers more than 6 times the diameter of the Moon. I had to use the telescope with the shortest focal length and use focal reducer ASA 0.73. Recently, I managed to improve the picture quality of this reducer by adjustment of the tilt. The nebula can be located in constellation Cepheus, but it cannot be spotted visually because it’s very dim.

I spent 4 nights capturing these photos. In total, there is nearly 19 hours of exposure time. Probably this is my longest integration time I have ever made. The first picture is in fake Hubble colors, second one in more or less visible spectrum colors.

 

Technical details

Telescope:Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture:150 mm
Focal length:438 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingOrion Mini Autoguider
Camera:Moravian instruments G2 8300M @-30C
Corrector:ASA 0.73 reducer
Filters:Baader narrow band
Exposure:8x125xHa, 125xOIII, 125xSII 180 s, bin 1x1,
Date:2017-10-17

M20 Trifid nebula

October 26, 2017
H II nebula
3 Comments

Trifid nebula is a combination of emission, reflection and dark nebula – pretty unique. It got its name from 3 dark lines across emission (red) part. The lines are dust clouds blocking the light emitted by ionized hydrogen.  It’s possible to observe this nebula, but one needs dark skies and a telescope with aperture at least 120 mm. The nebula can be found in constellation Sagittarius and it’s 5200 light-years far from Earth.

The picture was taken in Gavdos during my first dark sky chasing. The total integration time is only one hour, which is remarkable for such portable setup.

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:20x 180s Gain 240
Date:2017-09-23

M27 Dumbbell nebula

August 31, 2017
Planetary nebula
0 Comment

Here comes another comparison between two cameras, telescopes and mounts. ZWO 1600 MC competes with Moravian G2 8300. Ritchey-Chrétien 154 mm competes with Newton 254mm f4 and Gemini G53f is challenged by iOptron CEM25P. I know it is incomparable aperture, price and portability, moreover the integration time is in favour of Newton, but I am very positively surprised by the outcome of the portable setup (ZWO, RC, iOptron). The nebula is logically better captured by the Newton, but RC telescope has definitely more regular star shapes (except the corners, there is quality quite poor).

Brief description of the Dumbbell nebula is here. Upper picture was made by heavy equipment (MII G2, Newton 254mm and Gemini G53f) and the lower picture was captured by portable setup (ZWO, RC 154 and iOptron).

Technical details

Telescope:Newton 254/1000 mm
RC 154/1370
Aperture:254 mm
154 mm
Focal length:1000 mm
917 mm
MountGemini G53f
iOptron CEM25P
AutoguidingTS 60 mm, FL240 mm, ZWO 174 MM
Camera:Moravian instruments G2 8300M @-30C
ZWO 1600 MC @ -15C
Corrector:GPU
Astro Physics CCDT67
Filters:Baader Ha, OIII, SII
Exposure:46xL 180s bin 1x1, 20xRGB 120s bin2x2
30x 180s Gain 300
Date:2017-08-31

M57 Ring Nebula

August 13, 2017
Planetary nebula
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Messier 57 is a planetary nebula, which can be located in constellation Lyra, not far from well-known star Vega. The name planetary nebula has nothing to do with a planet, because in a small telescope it can look like a Jupiter, but in the reality it was a star, similar to our Sun. At the end of its life, when the fuel was consumed, the star inflated and ejected the material away. The nebula, as we see it today is illuminated by the white dwarf in the middle.

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:31x 120s Gain 139
Date:2017-08-13

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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M42 Great nebula in Orion

January 7, 2017
H II nebula
2 Comments

I don’t want to repeat myself, therefore the description of the most famous nebula visible from the northern hemisphere can be found here.

The previous picture has some strange halo around the bright star Hatsya and I was thinking why. Recently, a similar picture came out of my telescope and I realized that this strange halo is caused by the frost on the secondary mirror. I manufactured a homemade dew shield and I don’t have these problems anymore.

This picture is, as usual, composed of narrowband pictures. When I look at it I am still not happy, therefore I hope next year will be better weather and I will make a better picture.

Telescope:Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture:254 mm
Focal length:730 mm
Mount:Gemini GF53f
Autoguiding:Orion Mini, TS 50/160 mm
Camera:Moravian instruments G2 8300M @-30C
Corrector:ASA 0.73 reducer
Filters:Baader Ha, OIII
Exposure:17xHa, 15xOIII, 240 s, 10xHa, OIII 60 s bin 1x1
Date:2017-01-07

M1 Crab nebula

January 7, 2017
Supernova remnant
0 Comment

It all started here. The crab nebula is the first cataloged deep-space object. Charles Messier was searching for the comet (1758) but discovered his first deep-space object. The Crab nebula, also called Messier 1, is a supernova remnant like a Veil nebula, but it’s much further from the Solar system – 6500 light years.

My first picture was made with a pinched mirror, therefore I waited two years and captured it properly. Since I live in a light-polluted area, I chose narrow band filters to get better contrast and composed this picture out of hydrogen alpha (red channel) and OIII (green and blue channel) narrow band pictures.

And here is the picture in “false” colors – Hubble palette (SII – red, Ha – green and OIII – blue).

Telescope:Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture:254 mm
Focal length:1000 mm
Mount:Gemini GF53f
Autoguiding:Orion Mini, TS 50/160 mm
Camera:Moravian instruments G2 8300M @-30C
Corrector:GPU
Filters:Baader Ha, OIII
Exposure:16xHa, 10xOIII, 10xSII 300 s bin 1×1
Date:2017-01-07

IC59 IC63 Gama Cassiopeia nebula

December 8, 2016
Reflection nebula
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Is a reflection nebula located in constellation Cassiopeia, approximately 600 light years from Solar System. This nebula is very dim, therefore I used narrow band filters Ha, OIII and SII and composed two pictures. One is composed in real colors, second in fake (Hubble) color palette.

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NGC6992 Veil nebula

October 31, 2016
Supernova remnant
0 Comment

The most photographed deep-space object by me is the Veil nebula. I simply love this supernova remnant. The previous mosaic picture revealed that the eastern part is slightly brighter, therefore I pointed my telescope with a longer focal length and made this bi-color picture.

Telescope:Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture:254 mm
Focal length:1000 mm
Mount:Gemini GF53f
Autoguiding:Orion Mini, TS 50/160 mm
Camera:Moravian instruments G2 8300M @-30C
Corrector:GPU
Filters:Baader Ha, OIII
Exposure:21xHa, 19xOIII 300 s bin 1×1
Date:2016-10-31

NGC7380 Wizard nebula

October 6, 2016
H II nebulaOpen cluster
0 Comment

Wizard nebula is an open cluster associated with nebulosity.  Visually, it has apparent size of the full Moon, but since it’s very far from the Earth (7200 light years), its real diameter is about 100 light years.

So, where is the wizard located? It took me a while to find him, but if you turn your head 90° counter-clockwise, you see two darker hands. It looks like he is trying to grab something. Then above the hands you see the wizard’s conical hat.

First picture is a composition of 3 narrow band pictures (Ha, OIII and SII) and composed in Hubble Space Telescope palette. Second one is more-or less visible spectrum.

ngc7380-wizard-2016-10-06-30c-600s-32x-haoiiisii-fl1000-dbe-proc ngc7380-wizard-2016-10-06-30c-600s-32x-haoiiisii-fl1000-dbe-rgbeq

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NGC6960 NGC6992 Veil nebula mosaic

September 1, 2016
Supernova remnant
1 Comment

Here is another picture of my favorite Veil nebula. The first attempt here with a long focal length (1000 mm), the second attempt here with a shorter focal length (730 mm), and finally third here with the shortest focal length I have (430 mm). Still, I haven’t captured everything of the nebula last year and this year I focused my smallest telescope on the western part of the Veil nebula and created a mosaic.

The picture, as well as the previous ones, are bi-color images. I captured hydrogen alpha (Ha) and oxygen III (OIII) narrow band images and inserted the Ha image into the red channel and OIII into the green and blue channels.

Telescope:Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture:150 mm
Focal length:438 mm
Mount:Gemini G53f
Autoguiding:ZWO 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:30x Ha, 30x OIII, 600 s, bin 1×1
Date:2016-09-01

NGC6820 Nebula

August 23, 2016
H II nebula
0 Comment

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

NGC7023 Iris nebula

August 10, 2016
Reflection nebula
0 Comment

Iris nebula is one of the most difficult deep space object to capture. Not the nebula itself, but the dark clouds around it. In order to capture these clouds you have to be under very good skies – with minimal light pollution. The reason is simple – the clouds are dark, but the background as well, therefore if you want to visualize the contrast between something which is dark and something which is even darker, good skies are essential. Since I live in sub-urban area, I had to wait till 1 o’clock at night. At this time nearly all street lamps are switched off and the light pollution drops to acceptable level.

Anyway back to the nebula – it’s reflective nebula (similar to Pleiades) located in constellation Cepheus. It’s 1300 light years far from the Solar system and it has 6 light years in diameter.

NGC7023-Iris-2016-08-08-30C-17x300sL-14x120sRGBb2-FL1000-GPU

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M17 – Omega Nebula

August 3, 2016
H II nebula
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Omega Nebula is a giant cloud of the hydrogen gas where new stars are born. It’s around 5000 light years from Solar system and it has 15 light years in diameter. The nebula is located in constellation Sagittarius (The Archer) and it’s the most massive star-forming location in our galaxy. Visual observation is possible, but only with the telescope (medium or big aperture) and from the place with low light pollution.

Since this nebula is visible in summer, there is not enough time to collect enough photons during one night (short nights in summer). Therefore I had to photograph this deep space object several nights (4 in total) and I collected 7.2 hours of the exposure time. Since the light pollution is quite high on the south, I used narrowband filters to collect three channels (H alpha, OIII and SII). I was playing with pixel math and placing partially some narrowband images into Red Green Blue channels and here are the results of my experimentations:

M17-2016-07-05-22Ha32OIII32SII-300s-30C-FL1000-01 M17-2016-07-05-22Ha32OIII32SII-300s-30C-FL1000-RGB M17-2016-07-05-22Ha32OIII32SII-300s-30C-FL1000-SCNR

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NGC2237 Rosette nebula

February 17, 2016
H II nebula
1 Comment

Another place where the stars are born is called Rosette nebula. It is a cloud of hydrogen gas, located 5000 light years from Earth in constellation Monoceros (unicorn). The diameter of this nebula is 50 light years.

This time I processed collected data by two different ways. Basic data are three monochromatic pictures captured through narrow band filters: Hydrogen alpha, Oxygen OIII and Sulfur SII.

First technique is called Hubble pallet – natural color of H alpha is red, but it’s inserted into green channel, oxygen is blue, therefore ends in blue channel and sulfur is even more “red” than the red color, therefore lands in red channel. After many different post-processing steps the final picture looks like this:

NGC2237-Rosette-2016-02-10-360s-40C-17Ha-19OIII-10SII-FL730-Hub

Second technique is more realistic for the human eyes and brain, and requires pixel math. H alpha is red, SII even more, therefore the combination of this pictures (SII + 0.8*H alpha) will end up in red channel. Green channel is a combination of 0.075*H alpha + OIII. Finally blue channel is just OIII.

NGC2237-Rosette-2016-02-10-360s-40C-17Ha-19OIII-10SII-FL730-Tri

I am quite curious which picture you like more…

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B33 Horsehead Nebula

February 7, 2016
H II nebula
0 Comment

Horesehead nebula is a dark nebula located in constellation Orion, approximately 1550 light years from Earth. The bright star is on the picture is called Alnitak (eastern star of Orion’s belt). Horsehead shape is a cloud of cold gas, blocking the light coming from ionized hydrogen in the background.

This nebula is my favorite, but it’s not so simple to photograph, due to its dimness. Even with very fast telescope (f-stop 2.8) I had to use quite long exposure times – 6 minutes. The picture was postprocessed by bi-color technique, which means putting 27 H alpha pictures into red channel and 17 OIII pictures into green and blue channel. This was done in Pixinsight software.

B33-2016-02-05-FL730-40C-360s-27Ha-15OIII-LHa

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