View allAll Photos Tagged Comet_Hunter
Part of the chain of star-forming regions in Orion, not far from the Horsehead Nebula. This is a reflection nebula, only illuminated by reflecting blue light from young stars nearby. I especially like the very dark, obscuring dust lanes that run through this area. The little blue blob to the right of the frame-- to me it looks like one of those ghostly fish they find whenever they send submarines down to the far depths of the sea, haha. The ones with the oversized eyes :)
Random nonsense aside, this object was discovered in 1780 by Pierre Mechain, colleague of Charles Messier. It was immediately added to Messier's catalog as... you guessed it... M78. Messier was obsessed with documenting all of the "faint fuzzies" that might be mistaken for a comet, as he was an avid comet hunter. By creating his detailed catalog he was able to avoid "rediscovery" of the same non-comets again and again. I guess Mechain and Messier would have loved to see what their black & white fuzzies looked like after very long exposures such as this...
The surrounding red is part of the massive hydrogen-alpha nebula regions that pass through this part of sky near Orion.
This star forming area is known by many names. Messier 17, The Swan Nebula, and the Omega Nebula are perhaps the best known names of this beautiful object. It is located near the plane of the Milky Way in the constellation of Sagittarius. Normally, this object appears in photos as a complex red structure. It is that red structure that signifies that hydrogen gas is present when images are presented in the more traditional RGB colour format.
This photo has been created using narrow band techniques. Three filters were used individually to capture three separate images. These images are then assigned to an individual colour channel, resulting in a false coloured image. I have used a SII filter to represent the Red channel of the image. An H-Alpha filter for the green, and finally an OIII filter for the blue channel. With each wavelength assigned to its respective channel, a false colour image can be created.
The contours within the image allow identification of the gases within the structures. It does add an element of pop from traditional imaging, and in many instances it can look pretty funky as well.
The image was taken from the city, in Melbourne, Australia. Narrow band imaging techniques help cut through the heavy light pollution, and works best on emission nebula like the image presented.
M17 is located about 5500 light years from earth, and is approximately 15 light years across. These structures have an abundant supply of raw materials to fuel the birth of new stars. The combined mass of the gasses within the nebula are estimated to have more than 30000 times the mass of our Sun.
The French comet hunter Charles Messier included this object in his famous astronomical catalogue in 1764 with the descriptive name of Messier 17.
Instruments used:
Telescope: ........... 10" Ritchey-Chrétien (RCOS)
Focal Length: ........ 2305.00 mm
Camera: .............. SBIG STL-11000 Mono
Pixel size: .......... 9.00 um
Mount: ............... Astro-Physics AP-900
Filters: ............. Baader Planetarium: H-Alpha 7 nm, SII 8.5 nm, OIII 8.5 nm
Location: Melbourne, Vic, Australia
Dates: June 2016
Imager: Terry Robison / Canada-Australia Imager
#my_astrophotography
The #Fishhead_Nebula
IC 1795 - The Fish Head Nebula, also known as the Northern Bear Nebula, is part of a huge star forming system of gas and dust located along the Perseus spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy.
The nebula is located in the constellation Cassiopeia approximately 6000 light-years from the Earth and is adjacent to the much larger Heart Nebula. The brighter region of IC 1795 is designated NGC 896 and is the home to many massive, young, stars.
Distance from Earth 6000 Light years.
Equipment :
152mm David H. Levy Comet Hunter
Mount
AZ-EQ5 GoTo Mount
Camera
ZWO ASI294 mc pro
Guide Camera
ZWO ASI120MC
Imaging Software
Astro Photography Tool
Stacked
DeePSkYStacker
Pixinsight
Lightroom
40 Light images
180 sec. Each
15 Flats
20 Dark
100 bias
Borlt 4/5
No filters
A 2-shot panorama taken before dawn on Saturday, July 11, 2020 showing Comet NEOWISE over Seattle. This shot was at 3:40 AM and the shot I posted yesterday was at 4:07 AM. Good luck, all you comet hunters! :D
A couple of things about the Crab... First, it's not M1 because it's the brightest faint fuzzy in Messier's catalog, rather it was the first one he recognized as a permanent fixture in the sky which could confuse comet hunters. Second, the "crab" relationship makes more sense when you see the fuzzy gray blob through a small backyard telescope. The intricate structure you see here is a modern construct which is less evocative of crab than some sort of crazy single-celled organism. Messier didn't have the narrowband filters, CMOS cameras, and computing power that lets me extract all sorts of detail from a little backyard scope, too bad for him!
Tech Stuff: Borg 71FL/1.08 Borg Flattener/QHY 163 mono/iOptron CubePro. 8 second unguided exposures captured in SharpCap LiveStacks: Night 1 H-alpha (red channel) 132 minutes total; Night 2 Oiii (blue and green channels) 126 minutes total. Processed in PixInsight, finished in ACDSee. From my yard in Westchester 10 miles north of NYC during December's full moon.
I've been dying to get this with my Celestron C8 since acquiring the Celestron Starsense Autoguider system. Quite happy with the result! I love side-on and almost-side on galaxies look - for some reason it shows off their vastness to me.
With an apparent magnitude of 8, the Sombrero galaxy is beyond the limit of naked-eye visibility but can be spotted through small telescopes most easily during May. M104 is located 28 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, and with a mass equal to 800 billion suns, it is one of the most massive objects in the Virgo galaxy cluster.
M104 was discovered in 1781 by the French astronomer and comet hunter Pierre Méchain, one of Charles Messier’s colleagues.
Image Details:
- Imaging Scope: Celestron C8 SCT
- Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Color with ZWO IR cut filter
- Guider: Celestron Starsense Autoguider
- Mount: Celestron CGEM
- Acquisition Software: Sharpcap
- Guiding Software: Celestron
- Light Frames: 25*4 mins @ 100 Gain, Temp -20C
- Dark Frames: 25*4 mins
- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
- Processed in PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom, and Topaz Denoise AI
The largest are the Celestron Skymaster 25x100. They need a tripod at almost 4kg, however the views are surprisingly good on deep sky objects. I have a Meade and a Manfrotto tripod for them. I can say that Manfrotto do make good tripods, and they are expensive, but well worth the money.
Next is the 11x80 Celestron Comet Hunter, light enough for hand held use, so gets more use than the big one. I don't know if was just lucky but the optics on these are superb.
The smallest are the zeiss, I've owned these for about 25 years.
The meades were from Lidl. The quality of these ranged from just OK (for the price) to very good. I chose the best of 10 pairs and got some that are very good indeed.
The 12x50 Tohyohs(middle pair) are the latest addition, second hand. They are sharp(ish)
to the edge of field, but have a significant barrel distortion, but not really noticeable for casual astro observing.
I keep a pair of vintage Olympus 6-15x35 zoom binoculars at work - despite the poor reputation of zooms they are very good.
I just need to add some 15x70s and a pair of top quality Nikons as a benchmark......
Astronomy with binoculars? - It's good fun!.
Just found my bresser 10x50s (Lidl or Aldi? I can't remember!). Looks like they came out of the same factory as the Meade 10x50s but when comparing the two the view through the bresser has noticeably more contrast. Looks like I'll keep the meades bouncing around in the car....
Latest edition to the collection is a pair of Greenkat 10x50 with quick focus - not an asset for astronomical use but very convenient for garden use.
My Astrophotography
#orion_nebula and a side of of the #running_man_nebula
Telescope 🔭
152mm David H. Levy #Comet_Hunter at Focal length 730mm.
Mount
AZ-EQ5 GoTo Mount
Camera
ZWO ASI294 mc pro
Guide Camera
ZWO ASI120MC
No filters
60 images light frames:
40 X 60 sec
20 X 5 sec
15 flats
120 sec.
Imaging Software
N.I.N.A
Stacked using
DeePSkYStacker
Pixinsight
Photoshop
#من_تصويري
#مجرة_المثلث أو مسييه 33 (بالإنجليزية: Triangulum Galaxy أو Messier 33 أو NGC 598) هي مجرة حلزونية تبعد نحو 3 ملايين سنة ضوئية عن الأرض، وتقع في كوكبة المثلث.
تضم المجموعة المحلية ثلاث مجرات الكبيرة هي مجرة المثلث وأندروميدا ومجرتنا درب التبانة. تشغل المجموعة المحلية مكانا في الفضاء يبلغ نصف قطره 10 ملايين سنة ضوئية وتحتوي بالكامل على نحو 40 من المجرات معظمها مجرات قزمة.
#my_astrophotography
The #Triangulum_Galaxy is a spiral galaxy 2.73 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is catalogued as Messier 33 or NGC 598. The Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, behind the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy.
Telescope التليسكوب
🔭 152mm David H. Levy Comet Hunter at Focal length 730mm.
محرك استوائي Mount
AZ-EQ5 GoTo Mount
كاميرا التصوير Camera
ZWO ASI294 mc pro
كاميرة توجيه Guide Camera
ZWO ASI120MC
برنامج التصوير Imaging Software
Astro Photography Tool
برنامج التكديس Stacked using
DeePSkYStacker
Pixinsight
40 Light images
120 sec. Each
My Astrophotography
The Horsehead Nebula (and Flame Nebula)
Telescope 🔭
152mm David H. Levy #Comet_Hunter at Focal length 730mm.
Mount
AZ-EQ5 GoTo Mount
Camera
ZWO ASI294 mc pro
Guide Camera
ZWO ASI120MC
No filters
148 images light frames:
100 X 90 sec APT
48 X 90 sec N.I.N.A
15 flats
100 Bias
20 Darks
Imaging Software
N.I.N.A + APT
Stacked using
DeePSkYStacker
Pixinsight
Photoshop
Bortle 4/5
#my_astrophotography
The #Wizard
NGC 7380 is a young open cluster of stars in the northern circumpolar constellation of Cepheus, discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1787. The surrounding emission nebulosity is known colloquially as the Wizard Nebula, which spans an angle of 25′.
Distance from Earth 8000 Light years.
Equipment :
152mm David H. Levy Comet Hunter
Mount
AZ-EQ5 GoTo Mount
Camera
ZWO ASI294 mc pro
Guide Camera
ZWO ASI120MC
Imaging Software
Astro Photography Tool
Stacked
DeePSkYStacker
Pixinsight
Lightroom
45 Light images
180 sec. Each
15 Flats
20 Dark
100 bias
Borlt 4/5
No filters
Charles Messier (1730–1817) was a French astronomer best known for his "Catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters." An avid comet-hunter, Messier compiled a catalog of deep-sky objects in order to help prevent other comet enthusiasts from wasting their time studying objects that were not comets.
The Messier catalog includes some of the most fascinating astronomical objects that can be observed from Earth’s Northern Hemisphere. Among them are deep-sky objects that can be viewed in stunning detail using larger telescopes but are also bright enough to be seen through a small telescope. This characteristic makes Messier objects extremely popular targets for amateur astronomers possessing all levels of experience and equipment. They are so popular, in fact, that they have inspired a special award from the Astronomical League (an organization for amateur astronomers) given to observers who are able to spot each of these objects. Those who succeed receive a certificate and are given the distinction of being in the Messier Club.
While the Hubble Space Telescope has not produced images of every object in the Messier catalog, it has observed 93 of them as of August 2017. Some of Hubble's photographs offer views of a given object in its entirety, but many focus on specific areas of interest. While Hubble is able to magnify objects very effectively, it has a relatively small field of view. This means that, in some cases, Hubble would need to take many exposures to capture an entire object. Although this is not always an efficient use of its time, as is the case for the widely spaced “open” star clusters in the Messier catalog, many exposures are taken when the scientific value justifies the time spent. One of these objects is the Andromeda galaxy (designated M31 in Messier’s catalog). In order to create a mosaic image that depicts almost half of Andromeda, Hubble has taken nearly 7,400 exposures of the galaxy.
The Hubble Space Telescope is equipped to take images in various wavelengths of light in order to provide more insight into its targets. The famous Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula (also known as M16: the 16th object in Charles Messier’s catalog) were imaged using both visible (left) and infrared (right) filters. Using infrared light, Hubble is able to probe past the dense gas and dust of the nebula to reveal stars that are hidden in visible wavelengths.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team
I'm thankful for young eyes.
I was inviting young people to go with me "comet hunting." They probably were thinking it was "quaint" or some such notion, but what I really needed was their youthful vision. I probably would have gone home empty - handed and disappointed, but for fellow "comet hunters" arriving on top of the knoll. They were able to find, spot, see the comet and helped me to find it. And they knew my kids, went to school together, many years ago.
D500-w-300PF_10-13-24_064-c
Messier 01 Crab Nebula
A famous and conspicuous supernova remnant whos stellar explosion was recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054ad. The supernova was powerful enough to have created a neutron star now known as The Crab Pulsar, rotating 30.2 times per second, and emitting x-rays.The supernova was visible in the day for over a month and at night for almost 2 years before fading below naked eye visiblity.
The remnant seen here reminds me of a young Cygnus loop (Veil Nebula) another supernova remnant 9000 years old, the similarity in colour and the “string” like structure is apparent although much closer together in the Crab. Estimated to be 6,300 light years away the nebula is 13 x 11 light years across and is expanding at a rate of 1.800 km/sec. The total luminosity in all spectral ranges is over 75,000 suns!!
First discovered by John Bevis in 1731 Charles Messier independently discovered the Crab Nebula in 1758 when he was looking for Haley's comet, after realizing he had mistaken the nebula for the comet he decided to star a catalog of nebula that resembled comets, marking their location in the sky so future comet hunters would not be fooled as he was, the Crab Nebula was his first entry M1.
Tech
TS 127 Apo
SW NEQ6 Pro
ZWO 1600mm Pro Cooled
ZWO 7p FW
ZWO Narrow Band Filters
SS Mini Auto Guider
Field Flattner
Sequence generator pro
PHD 2
Deep sky stacker
Photoshop cc
6 x 600 sec Ha
6 x 600 sec Oiii
6 x 600 sec Sii
September 2018
North Frontenac dark Sky Preserve
Not a new target, but always a pretty one and challenging one with so many subtle wisps of cosmic dust.
The Pleiades (Messier 45) is an open star cluster containing young (around 100 million years old) B-type stars in the northwest area of the constellation Taurus. At a distance of about 444 light years, it is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and the nearest Messier object to Earth.
The Pleiades contains multiple reflection nebulae — dust that is illuminated by the hot blue stars. This dust cloud was once thought to be leftover material from the cluster's formation but is now believed to be an unrelated dust cloud through which the stars are currently passing.
Charles Messier was an avid comet hunter and compiled a catalog of deep-sky objects to help prevent other comet enthusiasts from wasting their time studying objects that were not comets. Messier published his catalog of comet-like objects in 1771, and the inclusion of the Pleiades has been noted as curious, as most of Messier's objects were much fainter and more easily confused with comets. One possible explanation is that Messier simply wanted to have a larger catalog than his scientific rival Lacaille, whose 1755 catalog contained 42 objects. Messier's original catalog contained 41 objects, so he added some bright, well-known objects to boost the number on his list to 45. In later years, with the help of his friend and colleague Pierre Méchain, the list of entries was increased to 103. The current Messier list stands at 110 entries.
Data for the attached image was shot through red, green and blue filters using a monochrome camera. Total exposure times were blue - 14 hr, green - 9 hr, and red - 9 hr.
On April 1, 2017, comet 41P will pass closer than it normally does to Earth, giving observers with binoculars or a telescope a special viewing opportunity. Comet hunters in the Northern Hemisphere should look for it near the constellations Draco and Ursa Major, which the Big Dipper is part of.
Whether a comet will put on a good show for observers is notoriously difficult to predict, but 41P has a history of outbursts, and put on quite a display in 1973. If the comet experiences similar outbursts this time, there’s a chance it could become bright enough to see with the naked eye. The comet is expected to reach perihelion, or its closest approach to the sun, on April 12.
A member of the Jupiter family of comets, 41P makes a trip around the sun every 5.4 years, coming relatively close to Earth on some of those trips. On this approach, the comet will pass our planet at a distance of about 13 million miles (0.14 astronomical units), or about 55 times the distance from Earth to the moon. This is the comet’s closest approach to Earth in more than 50 years and perhaps more than a century.
Read more: go.nasa.gov/2nLNzes
Photo caption: In this image taken March 24, 2017, comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák is shown moving through a field of faint galaxies in the bowl of the Big Dipper. On April 1, the comet will pass by Earth at a distance of about 13 million miles (0.14 astronomical units), or 55 times the distance from Earth to the moon; that is a much closer approach than usual for this Jupiter-family comet.
Photo credit: Image copyright Chris Schur©, used with permission
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Find us on Instagram
The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a, M51a, and NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. Its distance is estimated to be between 15 and 35 million light-years.
The galaxy and its companion, NGC 5195, are easily observed by amateur astronomers, and the two galaxies may be seen with binoculars. The Whirlpool Galaxy has been extensively observed by professional astronomers, who study it to understand galaxy structure (particularly structure associated with the spiral arms) and galaxy interactions.
What later became known as the Whirlpool Galaxy was discovered on October 13, 1773, by Charles Messier while hunting for objects that could confuse comet hunters, and was designated in Messier's catalogue as M51. Its companion galaxy, NGC 5195, was discovered in 1781 by Pierre Méchain, although it was not known whether it was interacting or merely another galaxy passing at a distance. In 1845, William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, employing a 72-inch (1.8 m) reflecting telescope at Birr Castle, Ireland, found the Whirlpool possessed a spiral structure, the first "nebula" to be known to have one. These "spiral nebulae" were not recognized as galaxies until Edwin Hubble was able to observe Cepheid variables in some of these spiral nebulae, which provided evidence that they were so far away that they must be entirely separate galaxies even though they are seen close together.
The advent of radio astronomy and subsequent radio images of M51 unequivocally demonstrated that the Whirlpool and its companion galaxy are indeed interacting. Sometimes the designation M51 is used to refer to the pair of galaxies, in which case the individual galaxies may be referred to as M51A (NGC 5194) and M51B (NGC 5195).
---
I imaged this object back in 2018 using the same scope but with an Astro-Physics CCDT67 reducer, making it an F5.4. This time I shot without the reducer at F8, making it a bigger challenge from my Bortle 5 sky to catch the faint outer portions.
This image is shot from my light polluted backyard using an Altair Astro Ritchey Chretien 10" F8 telescope on an NEQ6 Pro (belt upgraded) mount. Camera used is an Atik 383L+ mono with Astrodon LRGB filters. The image is composed of 5Hr RGB data for color and 15Hr of Luminance for detail.
Total exposure is 20 Hr.
The Lagoon Nebula (M8) is an emission nebula that is located 5,000 light-years from Earth and measures 140 light-years by 60 light-years (1.5°). Though it appears grey in telescopes to the unaided eye, long-exposure photographs reveal its pink hue, common to emission nebulae. It is fairly bright, with an integrated magnitude of 3.0.
The Trifid Nebula (M20, NGC 6514) is an emission nebula in that lies less than two degrees from the Lagoon Nebula. Discovered by French comet-hunter Charles Messier, it is located between 2,000 and 9,000 light-years from Earth and has a diameter of approximately 50 light-years. The outside of the Trifid Nebula is a bluish reflection nebula; the interior is pink with two dark bands that divide it into three areas, sometimes called "lobes". Hydrogen in the nebula is ionized, creating its characteristic color, by a central triple star, which formed in the intersection of the two dark bands. M20 is associated with a cluster that has a magnitude of 6.3.
This luminous orb is the galaxy NGC 4621, better known as Messier 59. As this latter moniker indicates, the galaxy was listed in the famous catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by French comet-hunter Charles Messier in 1779. However, German astronomer Johann Gottfried Koehler is credited with discovering the galaxy just days before Messier added it to his collection.
Modern observations show that Messier 59 is an elliptical galaxy, one of the three main kinds of galaxies along with spirals and irregulars. Ellipticals tend to be the most evolved of the trio, full of old, red stars and exhibiting little or no new star formation. Messier 59, however, bucks this trend somewhat; the galaxy does show signs of star formation, with some newborn stars residing within a disc near the core.
Located in the 2000-strong Virgo Cluster of galaxies within the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin), Messier 59 lies approximately 50 million light-years away from us. This image was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, P. Cote; CC BY 4.0
This is a widefield view of M1, or NGC 1952, the Crab Nebula in the depths of space. M1 is found in the constellation of Taurus.
Appearing as an oval-shaped mass of tangled filaments it is the remains of a supernova. Records are believed to show that the supernova was seen in daylight and it was recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054!
It was brighter than the planet Venus and remained visible to the naked eye some 2 years after discovery.
It was independently discovered by Charles Messier when he erroneously thought he'd discovered Halley's Comet. He was searching (without success) for that comet after its return was predicted.
This led Messier to start to produce his famous catalogue listing objects which could confuse him and future comet hunters. The first entry being M1 The Crab Nebula, a case in point!
Observations by William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse in 1840 and his subsequent sketch which looked like a crab led to the name which we still use today....it's definitely not crab-like!
M1 lies at a distance of around 6500 lightyears from us. At the heart of this object is the Crab Pulsar, a neutron star 17-19 miles across and spinning at a rate of around 30 times per second!
The pulsar was discovered by Dr Jocelyn Bell in 1968.
Imaged with my focal reduced Esprit 120 and a ZWO 2600MC.
I lost a lot of subs. due to clouds (surprise!) and ended up with 37 satisfactory exposures.
37x2min Lights - total 74mins
Darks - Temp. Matched
Flats and Dark Flats
Camera at gain 100 and cooled to -10°C
Processed in AstroPixel Processor and Photoshop 2022.
I was happy to get some filament structure in the image as these features are much better resolved in narrowband. I would like to revisit the object with narrowband filters at some stage. Remaining hopeful..
The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, is an open cluster of stars located approximately 440 light-years away towards the constellation of Taurus (The Bull), making it the nearest star cluster to Earth. The cluster’s central region spans about eight light-years, with the diameter of the Pleiades as a whole estimated at 43 light-years. The Pleiades is a very prominent sight to the unaided eye during winter in the Northern Hemisphere, while in summer the cluster is best seen by observers in southern latitudes.
Most of the cluster’s members are very young, hot blue stars formed within the last 100 million years. So far, about 1,000 stars have been confirmed. The hint of bluish nebulosity around the brightest stars originates from a cloud of interstellar gas and dust that the cluster is passing through at the moment. The tiny particles of dust scatter the blue light from the nearest stars more favourably than other colours, so the region appears to twinkle in blue. The cluster contains many brown dwarfs, or failed stars. These objects, though more massive than planets, do not possess enough mass to ignite nuclear fusion reactions in their cores and burst into life as bright stars.
Cultures all over the world have marvelled at the Pleiades since early times, including the Maori from New Zealand, the Persians, the Indians, the Chinese, and the Maya and the Aztec in Central and South America. The Japanese call the Pleiades Subaru. Of the many ancient references to this remarkable and dazzling star assembly, among the most notable are those of the ancient Greek poets Hesiod and Homer, who included the Pleiades in his epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey circa 750 BC. The Bible also contains three mentions of the Pleiades.
The French comet hunter Charles Messier determined the position of the cluster and included it as the entry number 45 (Messier 45) in his famous catalogue from 1771.
source: eso.org
This object has been captured using a QHY600 60 Megapixel Full Frame Monochrome CMOS camera mounted on a Takahashi 130 FSQ. Data acquired by Terry Hancock from Grand Mesa Observatory.
RA: 03h 46m 03.518s
DEC: +24° 08' 32.237"
Size: 3.19 x 2.13 deg
Orientation: Up is 181 degrees E of N
Location: Taurus
Distance: 444 ly avg.
Magnitude: 1.6
Acquisition Januray 2021
Total acquisition time of 6.9 hours.
Technical Details
Data acquisition: Terry HANCOCK
Processing: Nicolas ROLLAND
Location: The Grand Mesa Observatory, Whitewater, CO
L 57 x 120 sec
R 39 x 120 sec
G 57 x 120 sec
B 55 x 120 sec
Optics: Takahashi 130 FSQ @ F5
Mount: Paramount ME
CCD: QHY600M CMOS
Pre Processing: CCDstack & Pixinsight
Post Processing: Photoshop CC
من تصويري
#مجرة_الألعاب_النارية
(بالإنجليزية: Fireworks Galaxy) وتعرف ايضًا بـ NGC 6946 أو كالدويل 12، ترى بين كوكبة الدجاجة و كوكبة الملتهب، اكتشفت من قبل ويليام هيرشل في 9 سبتمبر 1798.
مجرة الألعاب النارية تبعد عنا حوالى 22.5 مليون سنة ضوئية.
المجرة إن جي سي 6946 هي واحدة من أقرب المجرات الحلزونية العملاقة خارج المجموعة المحلية، تحتوي على مستوى عال من تكون النجوم في جميع أنحاء القرص الخاص بها، بالإضافة إلى منطقة انفجار نجمي قوي.
ولهذا سميت هذه المجرة مجرة الألعاب النارية، تتسم المجرة NGC 6946 بمعدل عال في حدوث مستعرات عظمى فيها بالمقارنة لمجرتنا، مجرة درب التبانة ، حيث يحدث في مجرتنا مستعر واحد فقط تقريبا في كل مئة عام.
#my_astrophotography
The #Fireworks_Galaxy
Known as NGC 6946 is a face-on intermediate spiral galaxy with a small bright nucleus, whose location in the sky straddles the boundary between the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus.
Distance to Earth: 22.5 million light years
المعدات Equipment :
152mm David H. Levy Comet Hunter
محرك استوائي Mount
AZ-EQ5 GoTo Mount
كاميرا Camera
ZWO ASI294 mc pro
كاميرة توجيه Guide Camera
ZWO ASI120MC
برنامج التصوير Imaging Software
Astro Photography Tool
التكديس Stacked
DeePSkYStacker
Pixinsight
Lightroom
45 Light images
120 sec. Each
Borlt 4/5
No filters
Using data from the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, a European citizen scientist spotted a never-before-seen comet in the satellite data — the 4,000th comet discovery in the spacecraft’s 25-year history.
Currently nicknamed SOHO-4000 and pending its official designation from the Minor Planet Center, the comet has a rather small nucleus, estimated around five to ten metres in size, and it was extremely faint and close to the Sun when discovered. This means SOHO is the only observatory that has spotted the comet, as it is impossible to see from Earth – with or without a telescope.
The comet is seen here in an image from SOHO alongside the spacecraft’s 3999th comet discovery. The two comets are relatively close, approximately 1.5 million km apart, suggesting that they could have been connected together as recently as a few years ago.
Author of the discovery is Trygve Prestgard, who recently completed a Master’s degree in geophysics from Université Grenoble Alpes in France.
Like most other SOHO-discovered comets, SOHO-4000 is part of the Kreutz family of sungrazers. The Kreutz family of comets all follow the same general trajectory, one that carries them skimming through the outer atmosphere of the Sun.
“I feel very fortunate to have found SOHO’s 4,000th comet. Although I knew that SOHO was nearing its 4,000th comet discovery, I did not initially think that this sungrazer would be it,” said Trygve, who first spotted the comet in SOHO’s data. “It was only after discussing with other SOHO comet hunters, and counting through the most recent sungrazer discoveries, that the idea sunk in. I am honored to be part of such an amazing collaborative effort.”
Like most who have discovered comets in SOHO’s data, Trygve is a citizen scientist, searching for comets in his free time with the Sungrazer Project – a NASA-funded citizen science project, managed by Karl Battams from the US Naval Research Lab, which grew out of comet discoveries by citizen scientists early into SOHO’s mission.
“I have been actively involved in the Sungrazer Project for about eight years. My work with sungrazers is what solidified my long-term interest in planetary science,” said Trygve, who has discovered around 120 previously-unknown comets using data from SOHO and NASA’s STEREO mission. “I enjoy the feeling of discovering something previously unknown, whether this is a nice “real time” comet or a “long-gone” overlooked one in the archives.”
Launched in 1995, SOHO studies the Sun from its interior to its outer atmosphere, with an uninterrupted view from its vantage point between the Sun and Earth, about a million miles from our planet. But over the past two and half decades, SOHO has also become the greatest comet finder in human history.
SOHO is a cooperative effort between ESA and NASA. Mission control is based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. SOHO’s Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment, or LASCO, which is the instrument that provides most of the comet imagery, was built by an international consortium, led by the US Naval Research Lab.
Credits: ESA/NASA/SOHO/K. Battams
***************************************************************************
Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, between 00.53 and 01.14 EDT
(285 km by road north of Toronto)
* Altitude of GALAXIES at time of exposures: 39°, declining to 35°
* Temperature 0° C.
* Total exposure time: 10 minutes
* 660 mm focal length telescope
___________________________________________
Description:
The constellations Leo, Ursa Major and Canes Venatici, which are well seen in the northern hemisphere spring, are populated with many galaxies that can be seen in amateur telescopes, as long as the observer gets out of the light-polluted city and finds a dark rural sky.
Near the familiar star pattern of Leo (the Lion) are three bright galaxies that are favourite targets of amateur stargazers. M66 (lower left) is a spiral galaxy located about 31 million km from our Milky Way galaxy. It has loosely wound arms and prominent dust lanes, and recedes from us at the rate of ~700 km per second.
The nearby M65 (lower right) is another spiral galaxy that is a little fainter and 4 million km further away than M66.
Both of these galaxies were discovered by famed French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier on 1780 March 1 at the Paris Observatory.
The larger but fainter galaxy NGC 3628 (top centre, also called the "Hamburger Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy at the same distance (35 million km) as M65. Discovered by English astronomer William Herschel in 1786, this galaxy appears almost edge-on as seen from Earth, and has a very prominent dark dust lane along its outer edge.
Foreground stars to about 16th magnitude can be seen in this image.
For a version of this photo WITH LABELS, click on your screen to the RIGHT of the photo, or click here:
www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/40825176593
__________________________________________
Technical information:
Nikon D810a camera body on Tele Vue 127is (127 mm - 5" - diameter) apochromatic astrograph, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO equatorial mount
Ten stacked subframes; each frame:
ISO 2500; 1 minute exposure at f/5.2, unguided
(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)
Subframes stacked in RegiStar;
Processed in Photoshop CS6 (levels, brightness / contrast, colour balance)
***************************************************************************
Started back in February 2019 and finished over the last three beautifully clear night. In total 13hrs of Lum, 5 hrs each RGB and 14hrs of Ha. Lum and RGB through my Esprit150/SX46 and Ha through piggybacked Esprit100/ASI1600mm mounted on a Mesu 200. Processed in APP, Pixinsight and Photoshop with mild deconvolution of Lum and Ha.
The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a, M51a, and NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. Distance is estimated to be 23 million light-years and diameter 76,000 light years. Its mass is estimated to be 160 billion solar masses
What later became known as the Whirlpool Galaxy was discovered on October 13, 1773, by Charles Messier while hunting for objects that could confuse comet hunters, and was designated in Messier's catalogue as M51. Its companion galaxy, NGC 5195, was discovered in 1781 by Pierre Méchain. In 1845, William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, employing a 72-inch (1.8 m) reflecting telescope at Birr Castle, Ireland, found the Whirlpool possessed a spiral structure, the first "nebula" to be known to have one.
Also in the image are IC4263 (top right) , IC4277 (below left) and IC4278 (below)
I finally got to see this Great Comet this evening, and even managed a few snapshots. I have to try and find a less obstructed vantage point for the coming evenings...
Still, that comet is quite a sight!
By coincidence, a Not-A-Comet (according to 18th century French comet hunter Charles Messier's famous list) is hiding in the actual comet's sprawling tail: The globular cluster Messier 5 is visible as a nebulous spot, not unlike a fainter version of the comets head, roughly in the centre of the frame. Can you find it?
The ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, SOHO, detected its 3000th comet on 14 September 2015, seen as the dot in the crosshairs in the inset heading towards the Sun (left). It was spotted by Worachate Boonplod of Samut Songkhram, Thailand.
SOHO was launched in 1995 to observe the Sun and its stormy atmosphere, and the flow of the solar wind out into interplanetary space. The telescope’s prowess as a comet-hunter, however, was unplanned, but turned out to be an unexpected success. With its clear view of the Sun’s surroundings, SOHO can easily spot a special kind of comet called a sungrazer – so-called because of their close approach to the Sun.
Around 95% of SOHO comets have been found by ‘citizen scientists’ thanks to the SOHO data being publicly available online in near-real time.
Full story: ESA/NASA solar observatory discovers its 3000th comet.
Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals a spiral galaxy named Messier 95 (also known as M95 or NGC 3351). Located about 35 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo (The Lion), this swirling spiral was discovered by astronomer Pierre Méchain in 1781, and catalogued by French astronomer Charles Messier just four days later. Messier was primarily a comet hunter, and was often left frustrated by objects in the sky that resembled comets but turned out not to be. To help other astronomers avoid confusing these objects in the future, he created his famous catalogue of Messier objects.
More information: www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1841a/
Credit:
ESA/Hubble & NASA
Today’s rather aquatic-themed NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy Messier 77, also known as the Squid Galaxy, which sits 45 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus (The Whale).
The designation Messier 77 comes from the galaxy’s place in the famous catalog compiled by the French astronomer Charles Messier. Another French astronomer, Pierre Méchain, discovered the galaxy in 1780. Both Messier and Méchain were comet hunters who cataloged nebulous objects that could be mistaken for comets.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. C. Ho, D. Thilker
#NASAMarshall #NASA #NASAHubble #Hubble #NASAGoddard #galaxy
In anticipation of the upcoming 35th anniversary of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, ESA/Hubble is continuing the celebrations with a new view of the Eagle Nebula. This vast stellar nursery displays a towering spire of cosmic gas and dust that incorporates new data processing techniques developed since an image of this region was last released two decades ago.
Does this Hubble image of a sculpted pillar of gas and dust look to you like a curling party streamer, a plume of smoke from a blown-out candle, or an unusual balloon? Regardless of what you see when you gaze at this cosmic cloud, this new portrait is a cause for celebration.
As part of ESA/Hubble’s 35th anniversary celebrations, a new image series is being shared to revisit stunning Hubble targets that were previously released. New images of NGC 346 and the Sombrero Galaxy have already been published. Now, ESA/Hubble is revisiting the Eagle Nebula (originally published in 2005 as part of Hubble's 15th anniversary celebrations) with new image processing techniques.
Unfurling along the length of the image is a pillar of cold gas and dust that is 9.5 light-years tall. As enormous as this dusty pillar is, it’s just one small piece of the greater Eagle Nebula, which is also called Messier 16. The name Messier 16 comes from the French astronomer Charles Messier, a comet hunter who compiled a catalogue of deep-sky objects that could be mistaken for comets.
The name Eagle Nebula was inspired by the nebula’s appearance. The edge of this shining nebula is shaped by dark clouds like this one, giving it the appearance of an eagle spreading its wings.
Not too far from the region pictured here are the famous Pillars of Creation, which Hubble has photographed multiple times, with images released in 1995 and 2015.
The heart of the nebula, which is located beyond the edge of this image, is home to a cluster of young stars. These stars have excavated an immense cavity in the centre of the nebula, shaping otherworldly pillars and globules of dusty gas. This particular feature extends like a pointing finger toward the centre of the nebula and the rich young star cluster embedded there.
The Eagle Nebula is one of many nebulae in the Milky Way that are known for their sculpted, dusty clouds. Nebulae take on these fantastic shapes when exposed to powerful radiation and winds from infant stars. Regions with denser gas are more able to withstand the onslaught of radiation and stellar winds from young stars, and these dense areas remain as dusty sculptures like the starry pillar shown here.
This image was developed using data from the Hubble observing programme #10393 (PI: K. Noll).
[Image Description: A tall, thin structure of dark gas clouds. It is darker and broader at the base and broadens out again at the top, with spikes, fingers and wisps of gas protruding in all directions from its head. Some parts are illuminated, but most is dark, lit only at the edges from behind. A wall of colourful gas lies behind it, bluish at the top and redder towards the bottom. Several blue and gold stars are scattered across it.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll; CC BY 4.0
Today’s rather aquatic-themed NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features the spiral galaxy Messier 77, also known as the Squid Galaxy, which sits 45 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus (The Whale).
The designation Messier 77 comes from the galaxy’s place in the famous catalogue compiled by the French astronomer Charles Messier. Another French astronomer, Pierre Méchain, discovered the galaxy in 1780. Both Messier and Méchain were comet hunters who catalogued nebulous objects that could be mistaken for comets.
Messier, Méchain, and other astronomers of their time mistook the Squid Galaxy for either a spiral nebula or a star cluster. This mischaracterisation isn’t surprising. More than a century would pass between the discovery of the Squid Galaxy and the realisation that the ‘spiral nebulae’ scattered across the sky were not part of our galaxy and were in fact separate galaxies millions of light-years away. The Squid Galaxy’s appearance through a small telescope — an intensely bright centre surrounded by a fuzzy cloud — closely resembles one or more stars wreathed in a nebula.
The name ‘Squid Galaxy’ only came about recently. This name comes from the extended, filamentary structure that curls around the galaxy’s disc like the tentacles of a squid. The Squid Galaxy is a great example of how advances in technology and scientific understanding can completely change our perception of an astronomical object — and even what we call it!
A Hubble image of the Squid Galaxy was previously released in 2013. This new version incorporates recent observations made with different filters and updated image processing techniques.
[Image Description: A close-up of a spiral galaxy, seen face-on. Its center glows brightly. From the sides of the galaxy’s core emerge spiral arms which wind through the round disc of the galaxy, filled with shining pink spots where stars are forming and more dark-red dust. Some faint stars can be seen around the galaxy, as well as a particularly bright star in the lower left of the image.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. C. Ho, D. Thilker; CC BY 4.0
My Astrophotography
Messier 81 and 82 are a pair of galaxies in Ursa Major (near the Big Dipper). They are about 12 million light years away.
Equipment
Main Scope:
152mm David H. Levy Comet Hunter at Focal length 730mm
Guiding Scope: 50mm. Focal 180mm
Mount: Skywatcher EQ-5 Pro Synscan Goto
Guide camera: ZWO ASI120mm
Main camera: ZWO ASI294MC -Pro cooled camera
Imaging Software: stellarmate EKos
Accessories:
Stellarmate Plus
Pegasus Pocket Powerbox
Quad Channel Digital Dew Controller
Sesto Senso focuser
ASC 20cm USB dew heater for guide scope
ASC-150cm dew heater (12V) for main scope
Programs:
DeePSkYStacker
PixInsight
Adobe Lightroom
Details:
2 Days 4/2/2021 and 19/3/2021
Camera temp: -15°C
Gain: 80
Light: 35x90s (52 muniutes)
Light: 120*60s (2 hours)
Light:
Total of 2.52 hours
Taken From Bortle 4/5
Humidity 70%
Moon: 57.7%, Waning Crescent - in day 1
moon: 30.8%, Waxing Crescent - in day 2
In 1771 the French astronomer Charles Messier published a catalogue listing 110 nebulae and star clusters. He did this to help comet hunters discern between fuzzy blobs in the sky that were new comets, or already-discovered deep sky objects. Messier listed each object with the letter “M” (for Messier, of course) and a catalogue number. Unknown to Messier at the time was the fact that some of these “nebulae” were discreet galaxies like our Milky Way, located millions of light-years from us on Earth. My photo brings you three of these Messier objects, M31, M33 and M110. Apart from their dry catalogue names, two of these galaxies have the common names of the “Andromeda Galaxy” (M31) and the “Triangulum Galaxy” (M33).
I captured this photo without the use of a telescope or telephoto lens. I shot nine pictures of the foreground and sky, plus twelve “dark” frames, which were combined in software to reduce the amount of digital noise present. For all of the twenty-one images, I used the same equipment and settings. These were my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 12800.
Early on 8 April 2024, a citizen scientist found a comet in images from the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). It follows the recent discovery of SOHO’s 5000th comet. But this one – named Comet SOHO-5008 – was special for a different reason.
Karl Battams (US Naval Research Lab), manager of the SOHO Sungrazer Project, predicted that comet SOHO-5008 would be visible during the total solar eclipse, which was due to plunge parts of the United States and Mexico into darkness later that very same day.
Petr Horálek, from the Institute of Physics in Opava (Czechia), was in Mexico for the eclipse. The clouds cleared and Petr could take this beautiful shot of the Sun’s awe-inspiring corona. To the lower left of the Sun, Comet SOHO-5008 is revealed.
Soon after Petr captured the comet on camera, it met its demise, coming so close to the Sun that it disintegrated.
Observations of these ‘sungrazing’ comets from the ground are extremely rare, and this sighting was only possible thanks to the total solar eclipse.
The image is a composite of 100 frames, with the wide corona imaged at a focal length of 200 mm (exposure time from 1/4000 to 2 seconds) and the inner corona imaged at a focal length of 1100 mm (exposure time from 1/500 to 4 seconds).
SOHO’s prowess as a comet-hunter was unplanned, but turned out to be an unexpected success. With its clear view of the Sun’s surroundings, SOHO can easily spot sungrazing comets. This has made it the most prolific discoverer of comets in astronomical history.
Click here to see the image without the inset.
SOHO is a cooperative effort between ESA and NASA. Mission control is based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. SOHO’s Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment (LASCO), the instrument that provides most of the comet imagery, was built by an international consortium, led by the US Naval Research Lab.
Credits: Petr Horálek (Institute of Physics in Opava), Josef Kujal (Astronomy Society in Hradec Králové), Milan Hlaváč
On May 3, 1764, Charles Messier discovered this globular cluster (M3) and mistook it for a nebula without stars. He added it to his growing catalog of objects/regions that comet-hunters should avoid so they are not misled by diffuse non-star objects. He would end up cataloging 110 different "Messier objects" in his lifetime, while searching for comets. To him, these were basically areas of "non-interest" and he was far more interested in the 13 comets that he discovered throughout his observations.
Onto the object at hand... Messier 3 (M3) is a globular cluster that contains about 500,000 stars. The center of this cluster is about 32,000 light years away from Earth. This particular image came from about 3 hours of RGB data, roughly 1 hour in each color. Taken in my backyard on April 23-24, 2021 in Parkesburg, PA.
Scope: Skywatcher 150 PDS on Skywatcher HEQ5
Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro with EFW and ZWO filters
***************************************************************************
Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, between 02.03 and 02.19 EDT
(285 km by road north of Toronto)
* Altitude of M3 at time of exposures: 63°
* Total exposure time: 8 minutes
* 1253 mm focal length telescope
___________________________________________
Description:
This globular cluster was the first object in the catalogue of deep-sky objects that famed French observer and comet hunter Charles Messier discovered himself, on May 3, 1764. It is just below naked eye visibility, with a magnitude of 6.4, and is a lovely sight in moderate amateur telescopes.
From Wikipedia:
This cluster is one of the largest and brightest, and is made up of around 500,000 stars. It is estimated to be 11.4 billion years old. It is ... 32,600 light-years away from Earth. Messier 3 is quite isolated as it is 31,600 light years above the galactic plane and roughly 38,800 light years from the centre of the Milky Way. It contains 274 known variable stars, by far the most found in any globular cluster.
___________________________________________
Technical information:
Nikon D810a camera body on Explore Scientific 152 mm (6") apochromatic refracting telescope, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO equatorial mount
Eight stacked frames - each frame:
1253 mm focal length
ISO 1000; 1 minute exposure at f/8; unguided
(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)
Subframes registered in RegiStar;
Stacked and processed in Photoshop CS6 (levels, brightness/contrast, colour balance)
***************************************************************************
This colourful star cluster mixing older yellow stars with younger blue ones was the second object to find its way onto Charles Messier's list of targets to be avoided being mistaken for comets by comet hunters such as himself and was published in his original 1764 catalogue of just 45 entries, of which 41 were objects located for the first time by Messier himself.
This is a close-up LRGB image taken through my 356mm/14imch f/10 SCT using a mono CCD.
Luminance = 23x60seconds
Red = 10x30seconds
Green = 10x30seconds
Blue = 10x30seconds
Peter
***************************************************************************
Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, between 00.53 and 01.14 EDT
(285 km by road north of Toronto)
* Altitude of GALAXIES at time of exposures: 39°, declining to 35°
* Temperature 0° C.
* Total exposure time: 10 minutes
* 660 mm focal length telescope
___________________________________________
Description:
The constellations Leo, Ursa Major and Canes Venatici, which are well seen in the northern hemisphere spring, are populated with many galaxies that can be seen in amateur telescopes, as long as the observer gets out of the light-polluted city and finds a dark rural sky.
Near the familiar star pattern of Leo (the Lion) are three bright galaxies that are favourite targets of amateur stargazers. M66 (lower left) is a spiral galaxy located about 31 million km from our Milky Way galaxy. It has loosely wound arms and prominent dust lanes, and recedes from us at the rate of ~700 km per second.
The nearby M65 (lower right) is another spiral galaxy that is a little fainter and 4 million km further away than M66.
Both of these galaxies were discovered by famed French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier on 1780 March 1 at the Paris Observatory.
The larger but fainter galaxy NGC 3628 (top centre, also called the "Hamburger Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy at the same distance (35 million km) as M65. Discovered by English astronomer William Herschel in 1786, this galaxy appears almost edge-on as seen from Earth, and has a very prominent dark dust lane along its outer edge.
Foreground stars to about 16th magnitude can be seen in this image.
For a version of this photo WITHOUT LABELS, click on your screen to the LEFT of the photo, or click here:
www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/40825178543
__________________________________________
Technical information:
Nikon D810a camera body on Tele Vue 127is (127 mm - 5" - diameter) apochromatic astrograph, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO equatorial mount
Ten stacked subframes; each frame:
ISO 2500; 1 minute exposure at f/5.2, unguided
(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)
Subframes stacked in RegiStar;
Processed in Photoshop CS6 (levels, brightness / contrast, colour balance)
***************************************************************************
Scanned from film. Taken from Westport, Connecticut on a fall evening in the late 1980s, an exposure of ~20 seconds with a 35mm SLR and ISO 400 film. The picture shows the constellations Andromeda and Triangulum. The photo also shows the two largest galaxies in the vicinity of our own Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and the Pinwheel or Triangulum Galaxy (M33).
The Andromeda Galaxy, the bright, fuzzy patch at top center, was first reported in AD 953 by the Persian astronomer al-Sufi, who called it a “little cloud”. We know today, though, that it is considerably larger than our own galaxy; it can be seen with the naked eye from reasonably dark suburban skies. The Milky Way and M31 are approaching each other in a cosmic dance in which they will pass close to each other in about 2 billion years, and eventually merge about 5 billion years from now into one large, elliptical galaxy.
The Pinwheel Galaxy was discovered telescopically in 1764 by the French comet hunter Charles Messier (M33 means it's the 33st object in Messier's catalogue of objects that could be mistaken for comets). It is smaller than the Milky Way and usually requires binoculars or a telescope to observe (though keen-eyed observers in very dark-sky locations may be able to see it with the naked eye).
The bright star at the upper right is Alpheratz, or Alpha Andromedae (the brightest star in Andromeda; stars within a constellation are labeled sequentially by Greek letter according to brightness, with Alpha being the brightest); it also marks the upper left corner of the Great Square of Pegasus.
From Alpheratz, the stars of Andromeda stretch to the lower left in two strands. The lower strand ends at Almaak (Gamma Andromedae), which reveals itself as a beautiful double star in a small telescope. Between M31 and Almaak is Upsilon Andromedae, a binary star around whose primary star four planets with masses ranging from 0.6 to 4 Jupiters have been discovered. At the bottom of the photo is the constellation Triangulum; the Pinwheel Galaxy is the faint patch marked with a note.
This star cluster apears in Charles Messier's original list of 45 'fuzzy objects' compiled in 1764. The final Messier list in 1781 had 103 entries, although later additions have made that 110.
Messier was a famous comet hunter in 18th century France, but these objects were often mistaken for comets with the limited ability of telescopes in his day, so he started keeping a list to avoid mistaking them for real comets. Ironically Messier had no interest in such objects, although more than 200 years later we still use his list to identify them.
This image is a stack of 54x120seconds using a deep sky colour camera through my 356mm f/10 SCT.
Peter
Fortunately, we had three "clear" nights around the new moon this month. I say "Clear" because the skies had no clouds, but it was hot and humid and the sky transparency was not at all great! But if you have no clouds and no moon - you collect photons!
This time of year is a little tough in that the nights are also mighty short. I really could not start capture until 11pm and I had to shut down shortly after 3am.
This clearly reduces productivity!
On the other hand, I recently got my portable Astrophoto rig up and running, so I had 3 platforms capturing 3 targets at the same time! That's a first for me!
Three times the capture! (or… three times the likelihood of really screwing things up!)
This is the first image to come from that session. This was shot with my with my Astro-Physics 130mm OTA sporting an ASI2600MM-Pro camera and this is the second target have tried with that combination.
My first attempt at capturing M51 was done almost one year ago with an OSC camera and I captured about 70 minutes of data.
This time around I was able to capture on the nights of June 4th, 5th, and 6th and ended up with just short of 10 hours of data.
I collected Luminance, and RGB data, but I also collected some shots through my narrowband Ha filter. I then created two versions of this image. In this version, folded in the Ha data - which provides the red blobs and highlight along the spiral structure of the Galaxy. These are regions of intense new star formation.
I'm reasonably happy with the result - the Ha filter data lends some better structure to the arms of the galaxy and the mistiness of the companion galaxy looks to me like a big thumps-up emoticon!
I also created a version without the Ha data, and I will post that one too, in case your are curious.
Which one do you like better?
I continue to be impressed with this new camera - however I did find that the 2600 cooler could not handle the hotter weather and could not get down to -15C as I desired. (note my two other ASI1600MM-Pros) had no trouble doing this). I assume the larger format APC-C sensor just generates that much more heat when operating. So I ended up running them at -10C.
Here is some background on M51 from Wikipedia:
The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a, M51a, and NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. Its distance is estimated to be 31 million light-years away from Earth.
….
What later became known as the Whirlpool Galaxy was discovered on October 13, 1773, by Charles Messier while hunting for objects that could confuse comet hunters, and was designated in Messier's catalogue as M51.[ Its companion galaxy, NGC 5195, was discovered in 1781 by Pierre Méchain, although it was not known whether it was interacting or merely another galaxy passing at a distance. In 1845, William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, employing a 72-inch (1.8 m) reflecting telescope at Birr Castle, Ireland, found that the Whirlpool possessed a spiral structure, the first "nebula" to be known to have one.[ These "spiral nebulae" were not recognized as galaxies until Edwin Hubble was able to observe Cepheid variables in some of these spiral nebulae, which provided evidence that they were so far away that they must be entirely separate galaxies even though they are seen close together.
I always thought this galaxy had a pretty cool history - it really helped us to understand the scope of the known universe….
Thanks for looking!
Pat
-------------
Here are the details for this image:
*Number of frames is after bad or questionable frames were culled.
67 x 90 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, unity gain, ZWO Gen II L Filter
77 x 90 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, 0 gain, ZWO Gen II R Filter
63 x 90 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, unity gain, ZWO Gen II G Filter
62 x 90 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, unity gain, ZWO Gen II B Filter
11 x 300 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, unity gain, Astronomiks 6nm Ha Filter
Total of 9.9 hours
30 Darks at 300 seconds, bin 1x1, -10C, gain 100
30 Darks at 90 seconds, bin 1x1, -10C, gain 0
30 Dark Flats at Flat exposure times, bin 1x1, -15C, gain 0
Flats done separately for each evening to account for camera rotator variances:
30 L Flats
30 R Flats
30 G Flats
30 B Flats
30 Ha Flats
Capture Hardware:
Scope: Astrophysics 130mm Starfire F/8.35 APO refractor
Guide Scope: Televue 76mm Doublet
Camera: ZWO AS2600mm-pro with ZWO 7x36 Filter wheel with ZWO LRGB filter set,
and Astronomiks 6nm Narrowband filter set
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290Mini
Focus Motor: Pegasus Astro Focus Cube 2
Camera Rotator: Pegasus Astro Falcon
Mount: Ioptron CEM60
Polar Alignment: Polemaster camera
Software:
Capture Software: PHD2 Guider, Sequence Generator Pro controller
Image Processing: Pixinsight, Photoshop - assisted by Coffee, extensive processing indecision and second guessing, editor regret and much swearing…..
Image credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Janice Lee
Processing and copyright: Leo Shatz
Messier 100, also known as M100, NGC 4321 is located approximately 50 million light-years away in the constellation of Coma Berenices. This galaxy is one of the brightest members of the Virgo Cluster, a group of about 1,300 (and possibly up to 2,000) galaxies.
Its apparent magnitude of 10.1 means that, while it can be seen through small telescopes, it will appear only as a faint patch of light. Larger telescopes can resolve more details of the galaxy.
The galaxy was discovered on March 15, 1781 by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain, Charles Messier’s fellow comet hunter who discovered eight comets in his lifetime.
Messier 100 is a stunning example of a grand design spiral galaxy, a type of galaxy with prominent and very well-defined spiral arms.
These dusty structures swirl around the galaxy’s nucleus, and are marked by a flurry of star formation activity that dots Messier 100 with bright blue, high-mass stars.
Messier 100 has a diameter of about 107,000 light-years and hosts an active galactic nucleus, a bright region at the galaxy’s core caused by a supermassive black hole that is actively swallowing material, which radiates brightly as it falls inwards.
The galaxy became famous in the early 1990s with the release of two images of the object taken with Hubble before and after a major repair to the telescope, which illustrated the dramatic improvement in Hubble’s observations.
This new image, taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), demonstrates the continued evolution of Hubble’s capabilities over two decades in orbit.
Text source: www.sci-news.com/astronomy/hubble-messier-100-06701.html
Into the constellation of Sagittarius - Milkyway From the 10th National Annual Star Party of Greek Amateur Astronomers at mountain Parnon. Special thanks to the Astronomical Union of Sparta! Sagittarius is one of the constellations of the zodiac. It is one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy and remains one of the 88 modern constellations. Its name is Latin for the archer, and its symbol is Sagittarius.svg (Unicode U+2650 ♐), a stylized arrow. Sagittarius is commonly represented as a centaur pulling-back a bow. It lies between Scorpius and Ophiuchus to the west and Capricornus to the east. The center of the Milky Way lies in the westernmost part of Sagittarius. As seen from the northern hemisphere, the constellation's brighter stars form an easily recognizable asterism known as 'the Teapot'. The stars δ Sgr (Kaus Media), ε Sgr (Kaus Australis), ζ Sgr (Ascella), and φ Sgr form the body of the pot; λ Sgr (Kaus Borealis) is the point of the lid; γ2 Sgr (Alnasl) is the tip of the spout; and σ Sgr (Nunki) and τ Sgr the handle. These same stars originally formed the bow and arrow of Sagittarius. Marking the bottom of the teapot's "handle" (or the shoulder area of the archer, are the bright star (2.59 magnitude) Zeta Sagittarii (ζ Sgr), named Ascella, and the fainter Tau Sagittarii (τ Sgr). To complete the teapot metaphor, under good conditions, a particularly dense area of the Milky Way can be seen rising in a north-westerly arc above the spout, like a puff of steam rising from a boiling kettle. The Milky Way is at its densest near Sagittarius, as this is where the galactic center lies. As a result, Sagittarius contains many star clusters and nebulae. Nebulae Sagittarius contains several well-known nebulae, including the Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8), near λ Sagittarii; the Omega Nebula (Messier 17), also known as the Horseshoe Nebula or Swan Nebula, near the border with Scutum; and the Trifid Nebula (Messier 20), a large nebula containing some very young, hot stars. The Lagoon Nebula (M8) is an emission nebula that is located 5,000 light-years from Earth and measures 140 light-years by 60 light-years (1.5°). Though it appears grey in telescopes to the unaided eye, long-exposure photographs reveal its pink hue, common to emission nebulae.[8] It is fairly bright, with an integrated magnitude of 3.0. The Lagoon Nebula was discovered independently by John Flamsteed in 1680, Guillaume Le Gentil in 1747, and Charles Messier in 1764. The central area of the Lagoon Nebula is also known as the Hourglass Nebula, so named for its distinctive shape. The Hourglass Nebula has its shape because of matter propelled by Herschel 36. The Lagoon Nebula also features three dark nebulae catalogued in Barnard's Catalog. The Lagoon Nebula was instrumental in the discovery of Bok globules, as Bart Bok studied prints of the nebula intensively in 1947. Approximately 17,000 Bok globules were discovered in the nebula nine years later as a part of the Palomar Sky Survey; studies later showed that Bok's hypothesis that the globules held protostars was correct. The Omega Nebula is a fairly bright nebula; it has an integrated magnitude of 6.0 and is 4890 light-years from Earth. It was discovered in 1746 by Philippe Loys de Chésaux; observers since him have differed greatly in how they view the nebula, hence its myriad of names. Most often viewed as a checkmark, it was seen as a swan by George F. Chambers in 1889, a loon by Roy Bishop, and as a curl of smoke by Camille Flammarion. The Trifid Nebula (M20, NGC 6514) is an emission nebula in Sagittarius that lies less than two degrees from the Lagoon Nebula. Discovered by French comet-hunter Charles Messier, it is located between 2,000 and 9,000 light-years from Earth and has a diameter of approximately 50 light-years. The outside of the Trifid Nebula is a bluish reflection nebula; the interior is pink with two dark bands that divide it into three areas, sometimes called "lobes". Hydrogen in the nebula is ionized, creating its characteristic color, by a central triple star, which formed in the intersection of the two dark bands. M20 is associated with a cluster that has a magnitude of 6.3. The Red Spider Nebula (NGC 6537) is a planetary nebula located at a distance of about 4000 light-years from Earth. NGC 6559 is a star forming region located at a distance of about 5000 light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Sagittarius, showing both emission (red) and reflection (bluish) regions. The grouping of the Lagoon Nebula, the Trifid Nebula, and NGC 6559 is often called the Sagittarius triplet. In addition, several other nebulae have been located within Sagittarius and are of interest to astronomers. M24, also called the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud, is a star cluster with an approximate magnitude of 3. About 9400 light-years away, it has a diameter of approximately 330 light-years. Embedded in M24 is NGC 6603, a smaller star cluster that is very dense. NGC 6567, a dim planetary nebula, and Barnard 92, a Bok globule, are also nearby. NGC 6445 is a planetary nebula with an approximate magnitude of 11. A large nebula at over one arcminute in diameter, it appears very close to the globular cluster NGC 6440. NGC 6638 is a dimmer globular at magnitude 9.2, though it is more distant than M71 at a distance of 26,000 light-years. It is a Shapley class VI cluster; the classification means that it has intermediate concentration at its core. It is approximately a degree away from the brighter globulars M22 and M28; NGC 6638 is southeast and southwest of the clusters respectively. text : bit.ly/2aQwWsc Canon eos 6D, EF 85 f1.2 LII, 85mm, f/2.8, iso800, 6X3min, Skywatcher EQ6, Unguide, DSS, PS
This luminous orb is the galaxy NGC 4621, better known as Messier 59. As this latter moniker indicates, the galaxy was listed in the famous catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by French comet-hunter Charles Messier in 1779. However, German astronomer Johann Gottfried Koehler is credited with discovering the galaxy just days before Messier added it to his collection.
More information: spacetelescope.org/images/potw1921a/
Credit:
ESA/Hubble & NASA, P. Cote
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals a spiral galaxy named Messier 95 (also known as M95 or NGC 3351). Located about 35 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo (The Lion), this swirling spiral was discovered by astronomer Pierre Méchain in 1781, and catalogued by French astronomer Charles Messier just four days later. Messier was primarily a comet hunter, and was often left frustrated by objects in the sky that resembled comets but turned out not to be. To help other astronomers avoid confusing these objects in the future, he created his famous catalogue of Messier objects.
Most definitely not a comet, Messier 95 is actually a barred spiral galaxy. The galaxy has a bar cutting through its centre, surrounded by an inner ring currently forming new stars. Also our own Milky Way is a barred spiral.
As well as hosting this stellar nursery, Messier 95 is a known host of the dramatic and explosive final stages in the lives of massive stars: supernovae. In March 2016 a spectacular supernova named SN 2012aw was observed in the outer regions of one of Messier 95’s spiral arms. Once the light from the supernova had faded, astronomers were able to compare observations of the region before and after the explosion to find out which star had “disappeared” — the progenitor star. In this case, the star was an especially huge red supergiant up to 26 times more massive than the Sun.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA; CC BY 4.0