Tag: Ursa Major

M101 Pinwheel galaxy

April 11, 2024
Galaxy
2 Comments

The Pinwheel Galaxy, also known as M101, is a stunning spiral galaxy located in the constellation Ursa Major, about 21 million light-years from Earth. With a large, nearly face-on orientation, it displays beautiful, well-defined spiral arms filled with bright blue star clusters and reddish regions of active star formation. M101 is known for its striking symmetrical structure and massive size, spanning about 170,000 light-years across, making it almost twice the diameter of our Milky Way.

My first attempt to capture this galaxy was 8 years ago. This time I am equipped with a new camera and significantly improved processing skills:

TelescopeNewtonian 254/1000 mm
Aperture254 mm
Focal length1170 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
CameraZWO 2600MC @-10°C
CorrectorTeleVue Paracorr 2″
FiltersAntlia RGB
Exposure153x180s, Gain 100, bin 1×1,
Date2024-04-11

Comet C/2017 T2 PANSTARRS

January 6, 2022
Solar system
0 Comment

I missed the most prominent comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) in 2021 due to permanent, constant, ever-lasting bad weather. In the last 3 months, I was able to see the star only through the holes in the clouds (except one night during our winter vacation in Laax). At least I have time to process the old data I took a long time ago. In 2020 I took pictures of two comets and here is one of them. It’s called C/2017 T2 (PANSTARRS) and on the 25th of May 2020 was possible to spot it, roaming in the constellation Ursa Major.

I was postponing the processing very long time because the comets are the most difficult object to process. There is a fixed background of the stars and deep space objects and the comet is slightly moving across the field. This means that the pictures must be registered twice and merged together afterward. Since I have plenty of time now, I was able to experiment, and here is the final image:

TelescopeNewton 254/1000 mm
Aperture254 mm
Focal length1060 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
CameraZWO 071 Pro @-10°C
CorrectorExplore Scientific HR coma corrector
Filtersno
Exposure34x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date2020-05-25

M40 Double Star

June 1, 2019
Asterism
0 Comment

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:

TelescopeNewton 254/1000 mm
Aperture254 mm
Focal length1060 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
CameraZWO 071 Pro @-10°C
CorrectorExplore Scientific HR coma corrector
FiltersAstronomik L-1 - UV IR Block Filter
Exposure40x120s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date2019-06-01

M101 Pinwheel Galaxy

June 1, 2019
Galaxy
2 Comments

Messier 101 is a beautiful spiral galaxy, which can be located in the constellation Ursa Major. If I look back to my older picture, I must admit, it is worth spending a long time and dedicating some capture time for the hydrogen alpha channel.

Technical details:

TelescopeNewton 254/1000 mm
Aperture254 mm
Focal length1060 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
CameraZWO 071 Pro @-10°C
CorrectorExplore Scientific HR coma corrector
FiltersAstronomik L-1 - UV IR Block Filter
Exposure31x300s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date2019-06-01

M106 Galaxy

March 30, 2017
Galaxy
0 Comment

Galactic harvest continues. Here again, I focused my scope on previously photographed DSO. The galaxy is located in the constellation Canes Venatici (hunting dogs) not far from the famous Ursa Major (great bear) and is approximately 24 million light-years from us.

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 L, RGB
Exposure:27xL 300s bin 1×1, 15xRGB 200 s bin 2×2
Date:2017-03-30