Category Archives: Astroimaging

    The Dumbbell Nebula (M27)

    Dumbbell Nebula (M27)

    The Dumbbell Nebula (M27)

    • 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: 15, 300-s subframes stacked (75 min.)
    • Calibration: None (no darks, no flats, no biases)
    • Exposure Time(s): 75 min. (15 x 5 min.)
    • ISO: 800
    • Processing: Photoshop CC
    • Imaging Location: Sierra Nevada Mountains (Altitude: 8,600 ft)

    When a star reaches the end of its life, it sometimes leaves behind a colorful display of its demise called a “planetary nebula.” The Dumbbell Nebula (M27) is the largest such display in our sky, and certainly one of the most colorful. This planetary nebula is about 1 light-year across and about 1,360 light-years away, giving it an angular width of about 5 to 8 arcminutes in the nighttime sky, depending on which way you measure it. It may be as much as 14,600 years old and is “slowly” expanding at an estimated speed of 31 km/s, or about twice the speed of Voyager II as it leaves our solar system. The star responsible for this colorful ball of expanding gas can be seen at the exact center of the nebula in the image above.

    The Dumbbell Nebula is located in the constellation Vulpecula (“little fox” in Latin) surrounded by a dense field of thousands of stars, as shown in this full-frame image below:

    Dumbbell Nebula, Full-Frame

    In this full-frame image, the Dumbbell Nebula (M27) resembles a soap bubble floating among thousands of stars. (Field of view < 2 degrees wide.)

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    The Eagle Nebula (M16)

    Eagle Nebula

    The Eagle Nebula (M16)

    • Telescope: Stellarvue SVA130T-IS
    • Mount: Losmandy G-11 with Gemini 2 controller
    • Autoguiding: Yes
    • Optical Configuration: 1x 910 mm (f/7)
    • Camera: Canon 60Da
    • Light Frames: 24, 300-s subframes stacked (120 min.)
    • Calibration: None (no darks, no flats, no biases)
    • Exposure Time(s): 2 h or 120 min. (24 x 5 min.)
    • ISO: 800
    • Processing: Photoshop CC
    • Imaging Location: Sierra Nevada Mountains (Altitude: 8,600 ft)

    Home to the famous “Pillars of Creation,” the Eagle Nebula in the constellation Serpens is a diffuse emission nebula about 7,000 light-years from us. The small dark region of gas and dust near the center of the nebula resembles the silhouette of an eagle, hence the name. This small area of the nebula also defines the so-called Pillars of Creation made famous by a composite high-resolution image taken with the Hubble Space Telescope.

    https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-goes-high-definition-to-revisit-iconic-pillars-of-creation

    The deep red color of the Eagle Nebula originates from light emitted by singly ionized hydrogen gas (H-alpha). The vast clouds of gas and dust of nebulae make them effective stellar nurseries, where the stuff of the universe is transformed into gleaming new stars.

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    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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