homcavobservatory
OwlNebulaM97andSurfboardGalaxyM108_80MMand8InchComposite_March2019_HomCavObservatory_ReSizedDown2HD
Object Details: Two extremely different objects appear to lie near each other in our sky in the constellation of Ursa Major. Visible in the center image at left is the Owl Nebula (M97) - a shell of expanding gas expelled from a star in the midst of it's death throes; while at right of center is an object nicknamed The Surfboard Galaxy - a barred spiral consisting of 24 million solar masses. Although appearing in the same region of our sky, the Owl Nebula lies a 'mere' 2,600 light-years from Earth while the Surfboard Galaxy is far in the background at 46 million light-years away.
Image Details: Taken simultaneously using (center) an 80mm f/6 triplet apochromatic refractor (ED80T CF) connected to a Televue 0.8X field flattener / focal reducer and (at far left & right) a vintage 1970 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector. The 80mm was piggybacked on the 8-inch, and the scopes utilized twin (unmodded) Canon 700D / t5i DSLRs.
These optics were tracked using a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system and guided using PHD2 to control a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / auto-guider in an 80mm f/6 Celestron 'short-tube' refractor which itseelf was piggybacked on top of the 80mm apo.
The attached composite image was constructed using stacks of short sub-exposures, and was processed using a combination of DeepSkyStacker, PixInsight and PaintShopPro. As presented here it has been re-sized down to HD resolution and the bit depth has been lowered to 8 bits per channel.
Additional details, as well as the individual ('nearly full frame') close-up image of M97 can be found at the link attached here: www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/40801122653/ while that of M108 can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/48801893297/
OwlNebulaM97andSurfboardGalaxyM108_80MMand8InchComposite_March2019_HomCavObservatory_ReSizedDown2HD
Object Details: Two extremely different objects appear to lie near each other in our sky in the constellation of Ursa Major. Visible in the center image at left is the Owl Nebula (M97) - a shell of expanding gas expelled from a star in the midst of it's death throes; while at right of center is an object nicknamed The Surfboard Galaxy - a barred spiral consisting of 24 million solar masses. Although appearing in the same region of our sky, the Owl Nebula lies a 'mere' 2,600 light-years from Earth while the Surfboard Galaxy is far in the background at 46 million light-years away.
Image Details: Taken simultaneously using (center) an 80mm f/6 triplet apochromatic refractor (ED80T CF) connected to a Televue 0.8X field flattener / focal reducer and (at far left & right) a vintage 1970 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector. The 80mm was piggybacked on the 8-inch, and the scopes utilized twin (unmodded) Canon 700D / t5i DSLRs.
These optics were tracked using a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system and guided using PHD2 to control a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / auto-guider in an 80mm f/6 Celestron 'short-tube' refractor which itseelf was piggybacked on top of the 80mm apo.
The attached composite image was constructed using stacks of short sub-exposures, and was processed using a combination of DeepSkyStacker, PixInsight and PaintShopPro. As presented here it has been re-sized down to HD resolution and the bit depth has been lowered to 8 bits per channel.
Additional details, as well as the individual ('nearly full frame') close-up image of M97 can be found at the link attached here: www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/40801122653/ while that of M108 can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/48801893297/