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Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy M95, a barred spiral galaxy not too far (as galaxies go) from us in the Milky Way Galaxy (about 10 times further away than is the Andromeda Galaxy). Color/processing variant.
Original caption: 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.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy M95, a barred spiral galaxy not too far (as galaxies go) from us in the Milky Way Galaxy (about 10 times further away than is the Andromeda Galaxy). Inverted grayscale variant.
Original caption: 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.
The Dumbbell Nebula — also known as Messier 27 or NGC 6853 — is a typical planetary nebula and is located in the constellation Vulpecula (The Fox). The distance is rather uncertain, but is believed to be around 1,200 light-years. It was first described by the French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier who found it in 1764 and included it as no. 27 in his famous list of extended sky objects [2] .Despite its class, the Dumbbell Nebula has nothing to do with planets. It consists of very rarified gas that has been ejected from the hot central star (well visible on this photo), now in one of the last evolutionary stages. The gas atoms in the nebula are excited (heated) by the intense ultraviolet radiation from this star and emit strongly at specific wavelengths.This image is the beautiful by-product of a technical test of some FORS1 narrow-band optical interference filtres. They only allow light in a small wavelength range to pass and are used to isolate emissions from particu
This image was taken with a Seestar S50.
Mi is known as the Crab Nebula due to a drawing made of it by the Third Earl of Rosse in the 19th Century. He's also responsible for M97 being called the Owl Nebula for the same reason.
M1 is the first object in Charles Messier's famous 110 object catalogue because he thought he was looking at Halley's Comet initially but soon realised it was not. This inspired him to create his catalogue so that he and other comet hunters did not waste time studying the wrong type of DSO.
M100 is a stunning example of a grand-design spiral galaxy. This image reveals the galaxy’s prominent spiral arms. These dusty structures swirl around the galaxy’s nucleus and are marked by a flurry of star formation. M100’s characteristic arms also host several small black holes, including the youngest one ever observed in our cosmic neighborhood.
This image also reveals a handful of more distant galaxies, including NGC 4312 near the top.
The galaxy was discovered in 1781 by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain, Charles Messier’s fellow comet hunter who discovered eight comets in his lifetime. M100 is located 56 million light-years away from Earth and appears dim in the night sky. 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 this galaxy. M100 is located in the constellation Coma Berenices and is best observed during May.
Text from NASA Goddard
This was a test image, taken whenever my primary target was too low to image. But it turned out to be of such good quality I decided to post it as luminance only. This year I hope to add color data.
Taken from Blue Canyon California May 2021
Luminance only; 4.5 hours
Scope: TEC140, Camera QSI 683, Mount MYT
Reprocessed March 2023
This odd cyanobacteria begins as a surface slime on the stream substrate; it is triggered to grow “ears” by the presence of Cricotopus midge larvae. The larvae live safely inside the ears until they emerge to float to the surface, sprout wings and take to the air. The cyanobacteria also benefits from this arrangement, since the ears dramatically increase the photosynthetic surface area available to make its food.
Some Nostoc species have been known as “Star Jelly” since antiquity. Ancient naturalists (and Age-of-Enlightenment comet hunters) noticed the slimy stuff in wet meadows during meteor showers. Perhaps because that was the only time that the ancient naturalists were out in wet meadows at night?
They hypothesized that the slime came in on the meteors, a rather creepy notion that eventually took hold in 1950’s paranoid sci-fi literature and film during the first phase of the Cold War and the dawn of the Space Age. The idea is expressed in the now well-worn trope of alien parasites drifting in from space, usually on meteors, to the detriment of humans who never decisively win against these relentless and incomprehensible invaders.
Examples include: The Puppet Masters (Heinlein, 1951); The Meteor/It Came From Outer Space (Bradbury, 1952); The Body Snatchers/Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Finney, 1954); The Blob (Linaker & Simonson, 1958); and The Dark Brotherhood (Lovecraft & Derleth, 1966).
2hr combined, 5 min subs, Seeing was not good.
The Leo Triplet (also known as the M66 Group) is a small group of galaxies about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. This galaxy group consists of the spiral galaxies M65, the M66, and the NGC 3628.
Equipment:-
Explore Scientific, David H Levy Comet Hunter 152mm Mak Newt ,Focal Ratio:f/4.8 main scope, Skywatcher 80mm guide scope, Skywatcher NEQ6PRO mount, Starlight Xpress Lodestar guide camera, Starlight Xpress SXVR M26C main imaging camera.
Software:-
Maxim DL5, PS5, Noel Carboni Actions
Date: 24/03/2012
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy Messier 59. Inverted grayscale variant.
Original caption: 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.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy Messier 59. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: 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.
19 panel mosaic, taken on September 10, 2019. ES "Comet Hunter", 152mm F/4.8 Maksutov-Newtonian, F=2800mm (Barlow lens), ZWO ASI 120MC-s CCD camera. Processed in MS ICE, Registax and Photoshop CS2. Resized to 65% of original.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy Messier 59.
Original caption: 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.
Was able to achieve focus by taking the barlow element out of the barlow adapter and screwing it onto the standard 2" threads of the camera adapter. f=732mm & f/4.8 (w/o barlow), 1/25s, untracked. I will try 1500mm soon.
Negative projection at 30mm with 3X Barlow Explore Scientific Comet Hunter. Getting the G moons seems to kill what little detail I was getting on the planet. 1/50 at f/5.7 with 105mm. One shot - no stacking/cropping. I think a webcam is a better way to go...
Compare to last try: www.flickr.com/photos/jahdakinebrah/6117431588/
M16 "Eagle" nebula and the "Pillars of Creation", taken on June 23&24, 2020. Nikon D5500 (stock) with IDAS D2 filter, telescope ES "Comet Hunter" Maksutov Newton D=152mm, F/4.8, 130 minutes total exposure (30x2 min + 15x3 min+ 5x5 min subs) @ ISO100 &ISO200. This is 100% resized image presentation.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy Messier 59. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: 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.
Moon, Jun 01, 2020, 23:34:26 UT, Explore Scientific "Comet Hunter" 152mm F/4.8 Maksutov Newtonian, GSO Barlow 2.5x, F=2400mm, ASI 120MC-S camera. Image is derived from a video with 3898 frames (5% best frames combined in Autostakkert!). This is 150% size drizzled image.
Crater Plato, Montes Alpes and Vallis Alpes. Image taken on Jun 30, 2020, at 19:08:55 UT. Telescope: Explore Scientific "Comet Hunter" 152mm F/4.8 Maksutov Newtonian, GSO Barlow 2.5x, F=2800mm, CCD camera ASI 120MC-S. Image is an integration of 5% best frames from a video containing 4120 frames. Processed in Autostakkert!, Registax 6 and PS CS2). This is 150% size drizzled image.
168P/Hergenrother is a periodic comet in the solar system. The comet originally named P/1998 W2 returned in 2005 and got the temporary name P/2005 N2.
The comet came to perihelion on 1 October 2012.
Camera Modified Canon EOS 650D, 4 x 30 sec exposures combined.
Explore Scientific, David H Levy Comet Hunter 152mm Mak Newt main scope, Skywatcher 80mm guide scope, Skywatcher NEQ6PRO mount, Moravian Auto guider G0-0300
Software:-
Maxim DL5, PS5, Gradient Exterminator, Noel Carboni's Actions. — at Harrold, Bedfordshire, UK.
Craters Clavius (lower right) , Moretus (upper left) and the others. Image taken on Jun 30, 2020, at 18:50:16 UT. Telescope: Explore Scientific "Comet Hunter" 152mm F/4.8 Maksutov Newtonian, GSO Barlow 2.5x, F=2800mm, CCD camera ASI 120MC-S. Image is an integration of 5% best frames from a video containing 3991 frames. Processed in Autostakkert!, Registax 6 and PS CS2). This is 150% size drizzled image.
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 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.
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). (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlpool_Galaxy)
43 x 120s frames - 1h 26m total exposure
ZWO ASI533MC Pro colour camera - Gain 100, cooled to -10˚C
Skywatcher 72ED
Skywatcher Az-Gti and wedge (EQ mode firmware upgrade), Skywatcher field flattener
ZWO ASIAir Pro
ZWO EAF
ZWO ASI 120mm mini mono
ZWO mini guide scope.
This is the great globular cluster in the constellation Hercules. A globular cluster is like a itsy-bitsy galaxy, with only a few hundred thousand stars instead of the billions found in a galaxy. This globular cluster actually orbits our own Milky Way. With any halfway-decent picture, you'll see a cluster of thousands of individual stars. This cluster is one of the brightest in the skies, visible with the naked eye from a suitably dark location. It'll just look like a pale smudge with the naked eye though.
This globular cluster is also known as M13, because it is 13th in Messier's list of deep space objects that are not comets. He was a comet hunter, so he made a list of all the objects he could find that might be mistaken for one.
This is the biggest family member. Couldn't get her in the last shot ;-)
She goes out for her maiden voyage soon. It was a long and hard search and who knows if this is the perfect fit or not, but I finally parted with some serious astrophoto bux.
We'll see if she's up to the hype and more importantly if I can figure her out...
explorescientific.com/sharingthesky/index.html It says: "$999.95 through Nov 11th, 2010 - Save $200! ," but I just now got it for that so the deal is still on.
Moon mosaic from 2 individual images, Dec 20 2021, 22:17 UT, telescope ES Comet Hunter Maksutov Newtonian D=152mm, F=731mm, x2.5 Barlow (F=1950mm), camera ZWO ASI 178MC, exposure 0.004s, 60 second video for each individual image(10% best frames stacked in Autostakkert).
Taken in 2009-10 with the Starshooter Pro V1 single shot color cooled CCD camera shortly after receiving it. Used the 6 inch f/5 and CG5-AST mount from Inyokern, CA. Only 20 minutes of image capture time. The bright star located at 4 o'clock from the cluster is UW Can Maj, an eclipsing contact binary variable star. In fact, it is believed to be part of the cluster but there are contradictory indications as to it's distance. The components are both blue supergiants of a rare type. One is 16 times more massive than is our Sun, while the other is 13 times more massive. Oddly enough the more massive component is 1/3 the brightness of the lighter one but both are much, much brighter than our sun: 63,000 and 200,000 times so! These two massive stars are really tearing around one-another: Their period is about 4.5 days. The cluster itself, believe it or not, was discovered in around 1650 by Father Giovanni Batista Hodierna. He observed from SE Sicily with a 20 X singlet lens (ala Galileo) refractor and discovered several comets. He also created, nearly 100 years before Charles Messier, the earliest known list (some 40 objects) of telescopic nebulous objects to be ignored by comet hunters.
Negative projection is always hit and miss, especially handheld. The seeing was pretty gross, looked like an oasis with the classic wavy air movements ripping the details to shreds, but hey at least I got some bands.
3x Barlow + 30mm on Comet Hunter single exp. This is a real space photo. Not light art :-P
At last, a clear night. I took this image with my Celestron 5" telescope, stacking over forty 5-minute exposures and combining flat frames and dark frames to eliminate unwanted noise. The fuzzy patches surrounding the central spiral galaxy are even more galaxies. That's a lot of stars for one small photo.
This spiral galaxy in the middle is known as M100. Boring, but it hasn't been given any other name. It is tucked behind the constellation of Leo in Coma Berenices.
According to NASA, M100 is a stunning example of a grand-design spiral galaxy. The dusty spiral arms swirl around the galaxy’s nucleus and are marked by a flurry of star formation. M100’s characteristic arms also host several small black holes, including the youngest one ever observed in our cosmic neighbourhood.
The galaxy was discovered in 1781 by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain, Charles Messier’s fellow comet hunter who discovered eight comets in his lifetime. M100 is located 56 million light-years away from Earth and appears dim in the night sky. 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 this galaxy. M100 is located in the constellation Coma Berenices and is best observed during May.
Telescope: Celestron C5 Schmidt Cassegrain OTA with 0.63x flattener/reducer.
Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro
Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Pro
Main Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -10C
Filter: Optolong L-pro filter
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI174MM Mini guidecam
Guide via: ZWO OAG
Stacked from:
Lights 46 at 300 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Darks 20 at 300 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Flats 30 at 50.0ms, gain 101, temp -10C
Dark Flats 30 at 50.0ms, gain 101, temp -10C
Bortle 4 sky.
Integrated the saved frames in Astro Pixel Processor and adjusted in Photoshop CS4.
Full Moon on July 5, 2020. Telescope ES MN152 "Comet Hunter", D=152mm, F=731mm, Nikon D5500, combination (integration) of 36 exposures, 1/2000 s each, ISO 200. This is 100% original sampling.
THE WIDE FIELD OF NEBULA M78 - A STELLAR NURSERY
Reflection nebula located in the constellation Orion. A reflection nebula is created when light from a star is scattered or reflected off a nearby dust cloud. M78 is located approximately 1,600 light-years away from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 8.
M78 has the distinction of appearing very comet like, with one side of the nebula flaring away like a comet’s tail. This has fooled many comet hunters into believing they have made a new discovery.
BEST DETAILS
www.astrobin.com/full/5h1cx0/D/
EQUIPMENT:
Esprit 150mm triplet
Zwo asi 6200mc
Mount CEM120
Frames 215 x 300"
LOCATION: Munhoz - MG - Brazil
DATES: From 11/08/2023 to 12/21/2023
PROCESSING AND CAPTURE:
Adobe Photoshop, ASTAP, SGP, PHD2 and PixInsight
Author: Fernando Oliveira de Menezes
Email: Barretosmed@hotmail.com
INSTAGRAM: www.instagram.com/menezes_fo?igsh=MTV0dm9hYzYzdDNtcQ%3D%3...
(Organizing author of the book Amateur Astrophotography in Brazil)
clubedeautores.com.br/livro/astrofotografia-amadora-no-br...
The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a (M51a) or 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. It is 7.22 megaparsecs (23.5 million light-years) away and 23.58 kiloparsecs (76,900 ly) in diameter.
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 and its pair with NGC 5195 to understand galaxy structure (particularly structure associated with the spiral arms) and galaxy interactions. Its pair with NGC 5195 is among the most famous and relatively close interacting systems, and thus is a favorite subject of galaxy interaction models
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. 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.
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).
Equipment: SkyWatcher NEQ6Pro, GSO Newton astrograph 200/800, GSO 2" coma corrector, QHY 8L-C, SVbony UV/IR cut, Optolong L-eNhance filter, FocusDream focuser, guiding QHY5L-II-C, SVbony guidescope 240mm.
Software: NINA, Astro pixel processor, Siril, Starnet++, Adobe photoshop
203x180 sec. Lights gain15, offset113 at -10°C, 38x300 sec. Lights gain15, offset113 at -10°C via Optolong L-eNhance, master bias, 150 flats, master darks, master darkflats
4.3. until 12.4.2024
Belá nad Cirochou, Slovakia, bortle 4
Komet 116P/Wild 4,
snimljeno: 26.3.2022. u 23:16:01 UTC+1, ES 152mm F/4.8 Maksutov-Newton "Comet Hunter", F=737mm, ASI178MC, IR-cut filter, 60x10s, gain 180. offset 25, binning 2x2, Mag. est.(JPL) = 14.8
Messier 1, the Crab Nebula, is the most famous known supernova remnant. According to historical records, the Chinese recorded the appearance of a "guest star" in 1054
AD, probably when the supernova was first seen from Earth. The resulting Crab Nebula continues to expand at the amazing rate of almost 50 million miles per day. At
the centre of the nebula is a super dense spinning neutron star known as a "pulsar." In 1758 Charles Messier, a comet hunter, noted the nebula, prompting him to compile his now famous list of deep sky objects in order that other comet hunters would not mistake
them for comets - hence, the designation M1.
Cherryvalley Observatory
MPC Observatory Code: I83,
Rathmolyon,
County Meath,
Ireland.
The Dumbbell Nebula -— also known as Messier 27 or NGC 6853 — is a typical planetary nebula and is located in the constellation Vulpecula (The Fox). The distance is rather uncertain, but is believed to be around 1,200 light-years. It was first described by the French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier who found it in 1764 and included it as no. 27 in his famous list of extended sky objects [2] .Despite its class, the Dumbbell Nebula has nothing to do with planets. It consists of very rarified gas that has been ejected from the hot central star (well visible on this photo), now in one of the last evolutionary stages. The gas atoms in the nebula are excited (heated) by the intense ultraviolet radiation from this star and emit strongly at specific wavelengths.This image is the beautiful by-product of a technical test of some FORS1 narrow-band optical interference filtres. They only allow light in a small wavelength range to pass and are used to isolate emissions from particular atoms and ions. In this three-colour composite, a short exposure was first made through a wide-band filtre registering blue light from the nebula. It was then combined with exposures through two interference filtres in the light of double-ionized oxygen atoms and atomic hydrogen. They were colour-coded as “blue”, “green” and “red”, respectively, and then combined to produce this picture that shows the structure of the nebula in “approximately true” colours.They are three-colour composite based on two interference ([OIII] at 501 nm and 6 nm FWHM — 5 min exposure time; H-alpha at 656 nm and 6 nm FWHM — 5 min) and one broadband (Bessell B at 429 nm and 88 nm FWHM; 30 sec) filtre images, obtained on September 28, 1998, during mediocre seeing conditions (0.8 arcsec). The CCD camera has 2048 x 2048 pixels, each covering 24 x 24 µm and the sky fields shown measure 6.8 x 6.8 arcminutes and 3.5 x 3.9 arcminutes, respectively. North is up; East is left.
M51 is a galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici (pronounced kay-knees ven-at-is-eye) which is Latin for ‘hunting dogs’ and is 31 million light years away give or take about 7 million ly and 77,000 ly in diameter making it just over three quarters the size of the Milky Way. In the image you can see that M51 comprises two galaxies with NGC5195 seen to the left of the main galaxy. The two are often identified as M51a and M51b with the former being the larger galaxy. M51a is known as is an ‘interacting grand-design spiral galaxy’ which refers to the interaction between a and b.
It was not identified as a galaxy until Edwin Hubble noted it as such. In fact, until Hubble’s paper of 1929 was released explaining much more about the universe, everyone believed everything seen in space was inside the Milky Way. The galaxy was discovered in 1773 by Charles Messier who added it to his catalogue to help comet hunters avoid claiming it as a comet.
Another name for it is the Whirlpool Galaxy as a result of a drawing by the 3rd Earl of Rosse in 1845 who made it look a bit like a Viennese Whirl!
Telescopio: EXPLORE SCIENTIFIC COMET HUNTER 150mm
Montura: CGEM
Cámara: ASI178MC
Procesado: Autostakkert, Registax 6 y PS
Ciudad: Tijuana
Estado: Baja California
País: México
Fecha: 21 de Diciembre de 2020 a las 6:04 pm
Autor: Adrián Ibarra
M1
Between 1745 and 1781 French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier compiled a list of 110 fuzzy objects that remained at fixed positions in the sky. The purpose of the list was to help people not waste their time observing fuzzballs that don't move across the stars. It was a list of things UNINTERESTING to Messier. Now labeled M1-M110, the complete list of 109 (Wait, wasn't it 110? That's a story for another day...) fuzzy blobs in the sky are known to be star clusters, nebuale and galaxies. A popular astronomy challenge is to observe as many Messier objects as possible in a single night. A fun photographic challenge is to capture images of all 109 objects. I recorded these a few nights ago when it happened to be clear, but the slightly gibbous moon was too bright to bring out any serious detail and dew began to coat the camera later in the night too.
The first image is M1, the Crab Nebula. It is the remains of a star that went supernova, and supposedly the stellar explosion could be seen in daylight in 1054 A.D. The bright star in the image is called Tianguan, in the constellation Taurus, just above Orion's head.
In the second image is M108, an almost edge-on spiral galaxy, and my field of view was inadverdently wide enough to also capture M97, a so-called planetary nebula, the remains of a Sun-like star that has reached the end of its life. The bright star in the image is Merak, one of the stars in the scoop of the Big Dipper.
Hopefully I'll capture better images of these this year, but so far , 3 out of 109 objects captured!
#messiercatalogue #messier1 #crabnebula #messier97 #owlnebula #messier108 #deepskyphotography #astrophotography