Tag: Sagittarius

M8 Lagoon nebula M20 Trifid nebula

July 4, 2021
Globular clusterH II nebulaMilky Way
0 Comment

Constellation Sagittarius is full of deep space objects. I think we all agree that the most beautiful one is the Lagoon nebula, accompanied by the Trifid nebula. I captured these nebulae already, but with a much longer focal length. This time I used a significantly shorter telescope – only 180 mm to reveal the other deep space objects. The bright star at the bottom left is the star Kaus Bolearis, where the archer has his head. This star is surrounded by the globular clusters: M22 Great Sagittarius cluster on the left and M28 on the top.

Technical details:

LensAskar FMA180 F4.5
CameraCanon EOS 6Da
MountiOptron Skyguider Pro
Exposure50x60s, ISO 1600
Date2021-07-03

NGC 6559 Nebula

September 21, 2020
H II nebula
0 Comment

f 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.

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
Exposure54x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date2020-09-21

M22 Great Sagittarius Cluster

September 12, 2020
Globular cluster
0 Comment

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.

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
Exposure59x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date2020-09-12

M24 Sagittarius Star Cloud

July 21, 2020
Open cluster
1 Comment

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

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
Exposure75x120s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date2020-07-21

M8 Lagoon Nebula, M20 Trifid Nebula

July 18, 2020
Dark NebulaH II nebulaOpen clusterReflection nebula
4 Comments

These two magnificent nebulae are located visually close to each other in the constellation Sagittarius. This means we are looking in the direction of the galactic core of the Milky Way. Trifid Nebula (up left) is a combination of a reflection nebula (blue part), a dark nebula (brown clouds), an emission nebula (red region), and a star cluster. On the other hand, the Lagoon nebula (right side) is an emission nebula – a giant cloud of ionized HII gas. Due to the very low southern declination, it’s challenging to photograph these deep space objects from my home place in Central Europe. Therefore every time I travel south, I take the opportunity and recapture these nebulae. My first attempt of M20 was made with a focal length of 917 mm, the second one with 630 mm and now I used a gentle focal reducer. A focal length of 570 mm allowed me to fit both nebulae into the field of view of the APS-C sensor size. The picture is an integration of 213 minutes, taken under the dark skies of Fuerteventura.

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
Exposure71x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date2020-07-18

M70 Globular cluster

September 15, 2018
Globular cluster
1 Comment

Messier70 is a globular cluster located in constellation Sagittarius. The cluster is at a distance approximately 29’300 light-years from the Solar System. Neighbor cluster M69 was captured during the same night.

M70 is the 15th globular cluster captured by me on Milos Island – mission accomplished.

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
Exposure37x60s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-15

 

M69 Globular Cluster

September 15, 2018
Globular cluster
2 Comments

Messier69 is a globular cluster located in constellation Sagittarius. It is approximately 29’700 light-years away from Earth. Together with Messier70 are close to galactic center of Milky Way (distance between them is 1’800 light-years) and there were two last deep space objects captured on Milos Island. These two were the last missing Messier objects, which I wanted to capture and I was very happy that I managed.

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
Exposure37x60s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-15

 

M28 Globular Cluster

September 10, 2018
Globular cluster
1 Comment

Messier 28 is a globular cluster located in constellation Sagittarius. Center of Milky Way takes care about the background, which is filled by many stars. The cluster is 17900 light-year away from the Solar system and it has diameter approximately 60 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
Exposure25x120s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-10

M55 Globular Cluster

September 9, 2018
Globular cluster
1 Comment

Messier 55 is a globular cluster located in constellation Sagittarius. M55 is one of the closest globular cluster, having distance from the Solar System only 17’600 light-years, compared to M54, which is one of the furthest globular clusters (86’400 light-year). I managed to capture these two clusters during single night.

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
Exposure37x120s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-09

M54 Globular Cluster

September 9, 2018
Globular cluster
3 Comments

Messier 54 is a globular cluster located in constellation Sagittarius. It has been assumed that the cluster’s distance is 50’000 light-years. Recently (1994) it was discovered that this cluster doesn’t belong to Milky Way galaxy, but it’s a part of Dwarf elliptic galaxy in Sagittarius and it is approximately 86’400 light-year from Earth. This means M54 is first discovered globular cluster outside of our galaxy.

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
Exposure25x120s, Gain 134, bin 1x1,
Date2018-09-09

NGC6822 Barnard’s Galaxy

September 7, 2018
Galaxy
1 Comment

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

M75 Globular Cluster

September 3, 2018
Globular cluster
1 Comment

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