Pin Wheel Galaxy (M101)

(click the image for full screen view)

This photo was taken on Mar. 25th from a vacant lot in Tucson AZ.  It is composed of 33-3 min. exposures.  A Baader UHC-S filter was used.  It was a cloudless night but the seeing and transparency conditions were poor.  The moon was waxing gibbous 82% full!  This is the beauty of CCD photography - an image is possible when you can't see anything through the eye piece.


The Pin Wheel Galaxy is a spiral galaxy in Ursa Major and is about 27 million ly from Earth.  It has a linear diameter of about 170,000 ly.  The image field is about 40 arc min. wide.

Imaging Setup:

Stellarvue 115T20 Apo Triplet

Stellarvue Field Flattener

HEQ-5 Mount

Orion Star Shoot Pro One-Shot Colour Camera

KW Telescope Guide Scope (QHY-5 Camera)

PHD Guiding

Nebulosity 2 – Image Capture

Deep Sky Stacker 3.3.2

Adobe Photoshop CS2 – Image Processing

The Crab Nebula (M1)

(click image for full screen)

This image consists of 6 6 min. exposures taken on Jan. 7 from a vacant lot in Tucson. M1 is a supernova remnant located near the southern "horn" of Taurus, about 6,300 ly from Earth. It is 6x4 arc minutes in size.  This is one of my first images and I was still experimenting with exposure time. I plan to re-shoot with greater exposure time, which should reveal greater detail.


According to the SEDs Data Base (http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/data2.html)  Chinese astonomers observed and recorded the supernova in 1054 AD as a "guest star. The records show that the supernova was so bright that it was visible in the daylight for 23 days.  The nebulous remnant was found by Charles Messier in 1758 and became the first item in his catalogue.

Imaging Setup:

Stellarvue 115T20 Apo Triplet

Stellarvue Field Flattener

HEQ-5 Mount

Orion Star Shoot Pro One-Shot Colour Camera

KW Telescope Guide Scope (QHY-5 Camera)

PHD Guiding

Nebulosity 2 – Image Capture

Deep Sky Stacker 3.3.2

Adobe Photoshop CS2 – Image Processing

Leo Triplet (M65, M66, NGC3628)

(click image for full screen)

This photo consists of 45 3 min. (135 min. total) exposures taken on Mar. 15 and 18 from a vacant lot in Tucson, AZ.  It is a work in progress.  I am hoping that more exposure time will reveal more detail in the galaxies.  NGC3628 (upper left) is edge-on and is bisected by a dust lane. M65 is a tight spiral galaxy (upper right).  M66 is a spiral galaxy (lower right).  The galaxies are about 35 million ly from Earth.  The image size is about 65x65 arc minutes.

Imaging Setup:

Stellarvue 115T20 Apo Triplet

Stellarvue Field Flattener

HEQ-5 Mount

Baader UHC-S Filter

Orion Star Shoot Pro V2.0 One-Shot Colour Camera

KW Telescope Guide Scope (QHY-5 Camera)

PHD Guiding

Nebulosity 2 – Image Capture

Deep Sky Stacker 3.3.2

Adobe Photoshop CS2 – Image Processing

Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) & Horsehead (IC 434)

(click image for full screen)

This photo consists of 12 8 min. exposures taken on Feb. 17 from a vacant lot in Tucson, AZ.  I am surprised that a total exposure of 96 min. was sufficient to capture this detail.  The Flame nebula is located to the left of the star Alnitak, one of the Orion's belt stars.  The Horsehead can be seen in the lower right. The image size is about 65x65 arc minutes.
 

Imaging Setup:

Stellarvue 115T20 Apo Triplet

Stellarvue Field Flattener

HEQ-5 Mount

Baader UHC-S Filter

Orion Star Shoot Pro One-Shot Colour Camera

KW Telescope Guide Scope (QHY-5 Camera)

PHD Guiding

Nebulosity 2 – Image Capture

Deep Sky Stacker 3.3.2

Adobe Photoshop CS2 – Image Processing

Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237)

(click image for full screen)

This photo consists of 35 exposures taken on Feb. 13, 15 and 16 from a vacant lot in Tucson, AZ. The total exposure time is 260 minutes. The Rosette nebula is located in Monoceros just west of Orion. The open cluster NGC2244 is embedded in the centre of the nebula.  The image is about 100x68 arc minutes.

Imaging Setup:

Stellarvue 115T20 Apo Triplet

Stellarvue Field Flattener

HEQ-5 Mount

Baader UHC-S Filter

Orion Star Shoot Pro One-Shot Colour Camera

KW Telescope Guide Scope (QHY-5 Camera)

PHD Guiding

Nebulosity 2 – Image Capture

Deep Sky Stacker 3.3.2

Adobe Photoshop CS2 – Image Processing

Orion Nebula (M42 & M43)

(click image for full screen)

This photo consists of 47 exposures taken on Jan. 3, 5 and 13, and Feb. 18 from a vacant lot in Tucson, AZ. The total exposure time is 194 minutes. M42 and its smaller companion M43 (right centre) are about 1400 ly from Earth.  The open cluster NGC1977 is on the right. The dark lanes in the nebulosity are called "the Running Man" (here shown up-side down). The image size is about 100x67 arc minutes.


Imaging Setup:

Stellarvue 115T20 Apo Triplet

Stellarvue Field Flattener

HEQ-5 Mount

Orion Star Shoot Pro One-Shot Colour Camera

KW Telescope Guide Scope (QHY-5 Camera)

PHD Guiding

Nebulosity 2 – Image Capture

Deep Sky Stacker 3.3.2

Adobe Photoshop CS2 – Image Processing