The Pinwheel Galaxy (M101)

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The Pinwheel Galaxy (M101)

The Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) in Ursa Major

  • 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: 41, 300-s subframes stacked (205 min.)
  • Calibration: None (no darks, no flats, no biases)
  • Exposure Time(s): 3.42 h, 205 min. (41 x 5 min.)
  • ISO: 800
  • Processing: Photoshop CC
  • Imaging Location: Sierra Nevada Mountains (Altitude: 8,600 ft)

About 21 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major (The Big Dipper), the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) offers one of the finest examples of a spiral galaxy. Oriented face-on, its spiral structure displays colorful red, white, and blue regions rich in new star formation. The red regions denote vast areas of molecular hydrogen gas, where new stars are born, and the bright blue areas shine from thousands of hot young stars. Astronomers estimate that the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) is 170,000 light-years in diameter and contains a trillion stars.

The Pinwheel Galaxy has hosted an unusual number of supernovas, with a total of four being observed since 1909. Encounters with five prominent companion galaxies have also led to some obvious distortions of the spiral arms.

The Dumbbell Nebula (M27)

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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.)

The Eagle Nebula (M16)

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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.

The Leo Triplet

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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).

Virgo Cluster: Markarian’s Chain

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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.]