Category Archives: Astroimaging

    The Leo Triplet

    Leo Triplet

    A trio of galaxies gathers together in the constellation Leo.

    • Telescope: Stellarvue SVA130T-IS
    • Mount: Losmandy G-11 with Gemini 2 controller
    • Autoguiding: Yes
    • Optical Configuration: 0.72x field flattener & reducer (f/5)
    • Camera: Canon 60Da
    • Light Frames: 21, 300-s subframes stacked (105 min.)
    • Calibration: None (no darks, no flats, no biases)
    • Exposure Time(s): 105 min. (21 x 5 min.)
    • ISO: 800
    • Processing: Photoshop CC
    • Imaging Location: Sierra Nevada Mountains (Altitude: 8,600 ft)

    Springtime is galaxy season for astronomers in the Northern Hemisphere, when looking up means looking out of the plane of our galaxy and into the reaches of deep space where billions of other galaxies can be found. About 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo is a trio of galaxies called the Leo Triplet performing a primordial gravitational dance together.

    The Leo Triplet includes M65 (lower left), M66 (upper left), and NGC 3628 (lower right).

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    Virgo Cluster: Markarian’s Chain

    Markarian's Chain

    Markarian's Chain forms part of a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo.

    • Telescope: Stellarvue SVA130T-IS
    • Mount: Losmandy G-11 with Gemini 2 controller
    • Autoguiding: Yes
    • Optical Configuration: 0.72x field flattener & reducer (f/5)
    • Camera: Canon 60Da
    • Light Frames: 14, 300-s subframes stacked (70 min.)
    • Calibration: None (no darks, no flats, no biases)
    • Exposure Time(s): 70 min. (14 x 5 min.)
    • ISO: 800
    • Processing: Photoshop CC
    • Imaging Location: Sierra Nevada Mountains (Altitude: 8,600 ft)

    Each spring the constellation Virgo rules the nighttime sky, where a telescope can find dozens of galaxies vying for attention among the stars. This image reveals part of a galaxy cluster in Virgo called Markarian’s Chain, named after the Armenian astrophysicist Benjamin Markarian.

    Markarian’s Chain features a veritable zoo of galaxy types that includes elliptical, lenticular, and spiral. Many of the galaxies of Markarian’s Chain are also gravitationally attracted to each other and move together through space.

    The Virgo Cluster is the closest group of galaxies to our own Milky Way and contains upwards of 2,000 galaxies. The galaxies in this image range between 46 million and 126 million light-years from Earth.

    [For Ron, whose heart and soul will forever belong to the cosmos.]

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    Montage of 2017 Solar Eclipse

    2017 Solar Eclipse Montage

    Montage of 2017 Solar Eclipse

    • Telescope: Stellarvue SVA130T-IS
    • Mount: Losmandy G-11 with Gemini 2 controller
    • Autoguiding: No
    • Optical Configuration: 0.72x field flattener & reducer (f/5)
    • Camera: Canon 60Da
    • Light Frames: Six single frames of partial phases and six subframes of total phase
    • Calibration: None (no darks, no flats, no biases)
    • Exposure Time(s): Partial phases = 1/5000 s; total phase = 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30 & 1 s
    • ISO: 100
    • Processing: Photoshop CC
    • Imaging Location: Prairie City, Ore.

    A montage of images taken during the 2017 solar eclipse represents about two hours of the event from just after first contact (left) to just before fourth contact (right). As the moon’s silhouette moves from right to left across the solar disk, small sunspots are first masked and then unmasked. (To see the sunspots, click on thumbnail for a higher-resolution image.)

    During totality, and only during totality, the sun’s faint corona becomes visible. Lunar features also appear during totality due to earthshine.

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    Eastern Veil Nebula (NGC 6992)

    Eastern Veil Nebula (NGC 6992) Without Bright Stars

    The Eastern Veil Nebula (NGC 6992) without the bright stars

    [NOTE: A newer, reprocessed version of this image is available here: https://tvhiggins.com/astroimaging/veil-nebula-revisited/]

    • Telescope: Stellarvue SVA130T-IS
    • Mount: Losmandy G-11 with Gemini 2 controller
    • Autoguiding: Yes
    • Optical Configuration: 0.72x field flattener & reducer (f/5)
    • Camera: Canon 60Da
    • Light Frames: 25, 5-min. exposures
    • Calibration: None (no darks, no flats, no biases)
    • Exposure Time: 125 min. (25 x 5 min.)
    • ISO: 1250
    • Processing: Photoshop CC
    • Imaging Location: Prairie City, Ore.

    The Veil Nebula poses something of a challenge for astrophotographers. Located in a dense star field in the constellation Cygnus, this relatively dim emission nebula must compete for attention among thousands of stars. The nebula is the remainder of a star that exploded about 5,000 to 8,000 years ago, and the debris from it has now spread out to cover about 3 degrees of our sky, or six moon diameters. The Veil Nebula is roughly 1,500 light-years away from us.

    The image above shows the Eastern Veil Nebula, or NGC 6992, as astronomers call it. Like the name implies, it is the eastern part of a roughly circular structure that includes the Western Veil Nebula (NGC 6960). The red colors come from hydrogen gas, and the blue colors come from oxygen gas as the shock wave from the original explosion slams into the interstellar medium at nearly 400,000 miles per hour.

    To feature the nebula but not the stars, the image above was processed to remove the brightest stars. Without this processing, the image would look like this:

    The East Veil Nebula (NGC 6992), Reduced

    The Eastern Veil Nebula (NGC 6992) with the bright stars

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    2017 Solar Eclipse: Partial Phase I

    2017 Solar Eclipse: Partial Phase I

    Before totality, the Moon gobbles up a string of sunspots along the solar equator as it moves from right to left in this image.

    • Telescope: Stellarvue SVA130T-IS
    • Mount: Losmandy G-11 with Gemini 2 controller
    • Autoguiding: No
    • Optical Configuration: 0.72x field flattener & reducer (f/5); Baader solar filter
    • Camera: Canon 60Da
    • Light Frame(s): Single, 1/5000-sec exposure
    • Calibration: None (no darks, no flats, no biases)
    • Exposure Time: 1/5000 sec
    • ISO: 100
    • Processing: Photoshop CC
    • Imaging Location: Prairie City, Ore.

    Before totality, the Moon slowly swallows up a string of sunspots along the solar equator during the 2017 solar eclipse.

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