View allAll Photos Tagged Starcluster
This is a portrait of the winter sky rising in the southeast on January 9, 2021, taken from home in Alberta.
The constellation of Orion is at centre with blue-white Sirius in Canis Major below and reddish-yellow Aldebaran in Taurus above. Castor and Pollux in Gemini are at left. Procyon in Canis Minor is between the Castor-Pollux pair and Sirius. Bright star clusters flank the scene, with the Pleiades (M45) at top and the Beehive Cluster (M44) in Cancer at far left. Several other smaller star clusters in and along the Milky Way are also visible, even at this scale with an ultra-wide lens.
This is a stack of 10 30-second tracked exposures with the 15mm Venus Optics Laowa lens at f/4 on the Sony a7III at ISO 6400. and taken as part of lens testing this night.
1 stack of 100 60s images, Canon 800D at ISO 800, Canon 400mm f5.6 lens at f6.3, iOptron Skyguider Pro tracker. 100 darks, 120 biases.
Day before conjunction - the Friday evening was completely clouded over.
Sony a7r3 (+APS-C crop), Sigma 100-400mm @ 400mm f/7.1-f/8.
11 lights, total integration time 530s.
A starry night over the island at Nubble Lighthouse on Cape Neddick, Maine. With my own eyes, I could only see the sky and the red light flashing in the dark.
(30 seconds at ISO1250)
This is the nebula rich region in the constellation of Monoceros the Unicorn with the dark Cone Nebula (left of centre) and the small V-shaped and bright Hubble’s Variable Nebula at bottom, a reflection nebula that varies in form and brightness. Above the Cone Nebula is the triangular Christmas Tree Cluster, NGC 2264, here upside down as the bright blue star 15 Mon is the base of the tree. The large region of nebulosity is Sharpless 2-273. The V-shaped dark nebula above centre is LDN 1603.
Near 15 Mon is a blue reflection nebula. Another blue reflection nebula IC 2169 and associated star cluster Collinder 95 is at left — I framed the field to contain this nebula. Other bits of reflection nebulosity surround it - clockwise: NGC 2245, NGC 2247 and IC 446 above the main nebula. The rich faint cluster near centre is Trumpler 5.
This is a blend of 8 x 5-minute exposures at ISO 800 unfiltered with 6 x 8-minute exposures at ISO 1600 shot through an Optolong L-Enhance dual-band nebula enhancement filter (it lets through only Oxygen III blue-green and Hydrogen-alpha red to really enhance the nebulosity). All exposures with the Canon EOS Ra mirrorless camera through the SharpStar HNT150 Hyperbolic Newtonian Astrograph at f/2.8, from home on a very clear moonless night January 26, 2020. All stacked, aligned and blended in Photoshop 2020.
Aberkenfig, South Wales
Lat 51.542 N Long 3.593 W
Skywatcher 254mm Newtonian Reflector, Nikon D780 at prime focus with Skywatcher coma corrector. EQ6 Syntrek Mount.
Imaging session commenced 01:20 UT
35 x 25s at ISO 2000
Also 18 dark frames & 18 flats.
Processed with Deep Sky Stacker and levels adjusted with Lightroom & G.I.M.P.
Final image slightly cropped.
This cluster of multi-colored stars is located 4600 lightyears away in the constellation Auriga the charioteer- Telescope at 40x magnification - 1600 Iso @ 25 seconds.
The supernova remnant in Cygnus variously called the Veil Nebula, the Network Nebula, the Lacework Nebula, or the Cygnus Loop. Nearby is the bright and large star cluster NGC 6940 over the border in Vulpecula. It is obvious in binoculars but not often recorded in the same frame as the Veil. But the wide field of the little RedCat astrograph is ideal for framing such Milky Way starfields. This shows both the eastern and western halves of the Veil as well as the little bits in between such as prominent Pickering’s Triangle component.
This is a stack of 7 exposures, each 8-minutes at f/4.9 with the William Optics RedCat 51mm scope, and the Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 3200 and with the Optolong L-Enhance dual narrow-band filter in place for all exposures. It picks up the Hydrogen-Alpha reds and Oxygen III greens very well, but with little of the cyan tint usually associated with OIII visible in this case. The field is 8° by 5°.
Encroaching dawn twilight prevented me taking a set of unfiltered images to blend in with these but they would not have been as essential for this field. Shot May 27/28, 2020 from home.
Shot from Forest Road 23 on a moonless night.
CAMERA: Yashica Lynx 14e 35mm rangefinder
LENS: 45 mm f/1.4
FILM: Fuji G-800 color negative
EXPOSURE: 30 seconds @ f/1.4
SCANNED FROM: 5" x 7" print
FILE NUMBER: 99-4 #34
M13 is a globular star cluster in the constellation Hercules containing hundreds of thousands of stars. Captured during a period of travel restrictions from within Seattle City Limits.
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 8" @ f/7
Camera: QSI 683wsg
Mount: Astro-Physics Mach 1
Integration: 30 mins (20 x 90 sec) each of RGB
Binning: 1x1
Processing Software: PixInsight + Paint Shop Pro
Chandra's 2005 image of the star cluster Trumpler 14 shows about 1,600 stars and a diffuse glow from hot multimillion degree X-ray producing gas. The cluster has one of the highest concentrations of massive, luminous stars in the Galaxy. Located on the edge of a giant molecular cloud, it is part of the Carina Complex which contains at least 8 star clusters.
The bright stars in Trumpler 14 are young (about 1 million years old), and much more massive than the Sun. They will shine brightly, exhaust their prodigious energy, and explode spectacularly as supernovas in a few million years.
In the meantime, the young, massive stars have a profound influence on their environment through the ionizing effects of their light, and the high-speed winds of particles that are pushed away from their surfaces by the intense radiation. Shock waves that develop in these winds can heat gas to millions of degrees Celsius and produce intense X-ray sources. In the accompanying image (below, right), the bright white source in the center of the wide-field image (above) has been resolved to reveal several massive stars.
On a larger scale, stellar winds can carve out cavities in the clouds of gas and dust that surround the stars, and trigger the formation of new stars. These cavities are filled with million-degree gas that produce the diffuse X-ray glow in the image.
The glow in the lower, rectangular part of the image (the gap between the upper and lower portions of the image is an instrumental artifact) is from a gas cloud that has been enriched with oxygen, neon, silicon and iron. This probably marks the final contribution of a once-bright star that exploded as a supernova thousands of years ago, and in the process dispersed these heavy elements into the interstellar medium.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/PSU/L.Townsley et al.
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #ChandraXrayObservatory #cxo #starcluster
The rich Starcloud in Scutum the Shield framed here with a field of view similar to binoculars, and showing the prominent star cluster M11, aka the Wild Duck Cluster, at upper left. The cluster Messier 26 is at bottom right, and the small globular cluster NGC 6712 is at lower left. The tiny green planetary nebula IC 1295 is just visible at this scale to the left of NGC 6712. The area is bounded by many Barnard catalog dark nebulas. The very red star below centre is S Scuti. The large and loose open cluster at far right near the star Alpha Scuti is NGC 6664 with the dimmer Trumpler 34 to the left of it.
This is a stack of 10 x 6-minute exposures with the SharpStar 61mm EDPH apo refractor, with its flattener/reducer lens for f/4.5 and with the stock Canon R6 camera at ISO 800. Guided with the MGEN3 autoguider with dithering on but no LENR or dark frames to eliminate thermal noise or edge amp glows.
Several types of deep-sky objects are represented here: an emission nebula, dark nebulas, and star clusters, in this rich field in Cygnus.
The field frames the bright and magenta Cocoon Nebula (at lower left), aka IC 5146, at the end of the dark nebula B168, aka The Dark Cigar, which itself is southeast of the bright but sparse star cluster Messier 39 at upper right. The field is also wrapped in faint red emission nebulosity. A dimmer smaller star cluster, Platais 1, sits above M39.
This is a rich field about 6° by 4°, embedded in the main band of the Milky Way in northern Cygnus.
This is a blend of: a stack of 8 x 6-minute exposures at ISO 1600 through a clear Astronomik UV-IR cut filter, layered with a stack of 11 x 12-minute shots at ISO 2000 through an IDAS NB1 narrowband filter for the red H-alpha nebulosity. All were with the 76mm SharpStar apo refractor with its matching flattener/reducer for f/4.4, and with the red-sensitive Canon EOS Ra camera. Autoguiding and inter-frame dithering was with the MGEN3. No darks or LENR were applied here on this cooler autumn night.
All stacking, alignment and blending with Photoshop. I brought out the faint nebulosity with the use of luminosity and color range masks created with Lumenzia and Zone System Express 7. Diffraction spikes added for artistic effect with Astronomy Tools Actions. A mild Orton glow added with Luminar AI for fun.
This is the central area of Cygnus and its bright Milky Way starcloud surrounded by red nebulosity. At left is the star Sadr (gamma Cygni) with the complex of nebulosity catalogued as IC 1318. At centre is the distinct Crescent Nebula, NGC 6888, a expanding nebula created by winds from a hot Wolf-Rayet star. At bottom left is the star cluster Messier 29, though looking a little lost in the rich starfields here. At top is the cluster IC 1311, looking more obvious than M29 but not observed visually and included in the NGC catalog. Odd. At far right are the large and loose star clusters NGC 6883 and NGC 6871, the latter an obvious binocular sight. To the left of Sadr is the small cluster NGC 6910. The dark nebulas B145 and LDN 862 are at right. The small emission nebula at bottom is Sharpless 2-104.
This is a stack of 6 x 6-minute exposures at ISO 1600 without a filter, blended with 8 x 12-minute exposures at ISO 3200 taken through the Optolong L-Enhance dual narrowband filter to really bring out the faint nebulosity. All were with the William Optics RedCat 51mm f/5 astrograph and red-sensitive Canon EOS Ra full-frame mirrorless camera.
Blending the two sets of exposures brings out the nebulosity while retaining the more natural colours in the stars and background sky. All stacked, aligned and blended in Photoshop CC. Taken from home in the wee hours of the morning of May 15/16, 2020 before dawn’s light began to wash out the sky.
Messier (M) 44, aka the Beehive Cluster or the Praesepe, in Cancer, shot on a night with high thin haze, adding the star glows. The cluster is framed to include its flanking stars Asellus Borealis (Gamma Cancri) at top and Asellus Australis (Delta Cancri) at bottom. North is up. Several tiny 15th magnitude galaxies are in the field, despite the less than ideal sky conditions.
This is a stack of 19 x 4-minute exposures at ISO 800 with the Canon EOS Ra, and through the SharpStar 94mm EDPH api refractor and its reducer/flattener at f/4.5.
This is a rich region for star clusters and nebulas on the Cassiopeia-Cepheus border:
The bright open star cluster Messier 52 is at upper left, and below it is the Bubble Nebula, NGC 7635. Below the Bubble is the aptly named Lobster Claw Nebula, Sharpless 2-157 showing subtle shades of red and pink. The small bright nebula to the right of the Bubble is the unnamed NGC 7538. The large nebula at upper left is the Cave Nebula, Sharpless 2-155. However, the entire field is filled with faint nebulosity as well as small intense red patches. A small yellowish star cluster at lower right is NGC 7419.
This is a stack of 10 x 8-minute exposures through the William Optics RedCat 51mm f/4.9 astrographic refractor with the red-sensitive Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 800, and blended with a stack of 4 x 15-minute exposures through the Optolong L-Enhance narrowband filter, with the EOS Ra at ISO 3200, to make up for the nearly 3 stops loss of light from the filter. But it really pops out all the faint nebulosity. This was the first use of the add-on filter drawer from Starizona, which facilitates adding and removing a 48mm filter into the light path without having to remove the camera and risk field rotation. It worked very well.
Guiding was with the Lacerta MGEN 3 stand-alone autoguider, which also controlled the camera shutter and applied dithering of 10 pixels between each frame to reduce thermal noise without having to apply LENR in camera or dark frames. However, the temperature was -16° C this night so thermal noise was likely low anyway! But the dithering doesn’t hurt! All images were stacked, aligned and mean combined in Photoshop with the filtered set blended with a Lighten blend mode. Taken from home November 11, 2020, using the Astro-Physics Mach1 mount.
Kappa Crucis star cluster, a radiant and gorgeous real Jewel Box in the southern sky, next to Mimosa star (at the top of the image) in the Southern Cross
“… some modern writers have compared this cluster’s appearance to some celestial set of Traffic Lights…. NGC 4755 is likely as one of the best known celestial objects of the southern skies, and is arguably the most beautiful and most loved of all deep-sky objects in the entire sky” —Source: www.southastrodel.com/Page002.htm
40 lights * 81sec, 15 darks, 15 bias, 15 flats, ISO 800,
WhiteCat 51 APO 250mm f/4.9,
Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer, PoleMaster, SonyA7iii
Stacked/processed with PixInsight (evaluation version) and Siril. Cropped and enhanced with DxO PhotoLab
This is a complex of faint nebulas and star clusters in Cepheus:
While this exposure shows the field as one large nebula, the arc-shaped region at top is catalogued as NGC 7822. The region below with dark lanes through it is Cederblad 214. The loose open cluster at right is NGC 7762, with the small yellowish cluster (dimmed by interstellar dust) is King 11. A small, sparse cluster at the centre of Ced214 is Berkeley 59.
The field of view is about 8° by 5.5° with the 250mm focal length RedCat astrograph.
This is a stack of 8 x 8-minute exposures through the William Optics RedCat 51mm f/4.9 astrographic refractor with the red-sensitive Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 800, and blended with a stack of 8 x 15-minute exposures through the Optolong L-Enhance narrowband filter, with the EOS Ra at ISO 3200, to make up for the nearly 3 stops loss of light from the filter. But it really pops out all the faint nebulosity.
All images stacked, aligned and blended with Photoshop.
Guiding was with the Lacerta MGEN 3 stand-alone autoguider, which also controlled the camera shutter and applied dithering of 10 pixels between each frame to reduce thermal noise without having to apply LENR in camera or dark frames. This was on the Astro-Physics Mach1 mount.
cluster RCW 38 is a relatively close star-forming region. This 2003 image covers an area about 5 light years across, and contains thousands of hot, very young stars formed less than a million years ago. X-rays from the hot upper atmospheres of 190 of these stars were detected by Chandra.
In addition to the point-like emission from stars, the Chandra image revealed a diffuse cloud of X-rays enveloping the star cluster. The X-ray spectrum of the cloud shows an excess of high-energy X-rays, which indicates that the X-rays come from trillion-volt electrons moving in a magnetic field. Such particles are typically produced by exploding stars, or in the strong magnetic fields around neutron stars or black holes, none of which is evident in RCW 38.
One possible origin for the high-energy electrons is an undetected supernova that occurred in the cluster. Although direct evidence for such a supernova could have faded away thousands of years ago, a shock wave or a rapidly rotating neutron star produced by the outburst could be acting in concert with particles evaporating off the young stars to produce the high energy electrons.
Regardless of the origin of the energetic electrons, their presence could change the chemistry of the disks that will eventually form planets around stars in the cluster. For example, in our own solar system, we find evidence of certain short-lived radioactive nuclei (Aluminum 26 being the most well known). This implies the existence of a high-energy process late in the evolution of our solar system. If our solar system was immersed for a time in a sea of energetic particles, this could explain the rare nuclides present in meteorites found on Earth today.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/CfA/S.Wolk et al.
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #chandraxrayobservatory #ChandraXRay #cxo #chandra #astronomy #space #astrophysics #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter #solarsystemandbeyond #galaxy
The open star cluster M41 in the constellation Canis Major. The picture is a combination of twelve 30 second images processed using DeepSkyStacker, Gimp, and Lightroom.
Also known as The Seven Sisters, M45 is an open cluster about 444 ly from earth in the constellation Taurus. Light from the hot blue stars is reflected by interstellar dust.
Rio Rancho NM Bortle 5 zone -- from my balcony
October 11 2021
William Optics Redcat 51
ZWO 183mc pro
ZWO 30mm f/4 mini guide scope and ZWO 120 Mini
Optolong L-Pro filter
ZWO ASI Air Pro
Sky-Watcher HEQ5
112 X 300s lights (9 hr 20 min) ; with darks and bias
Gain 111 at -10C
Processed in DSS and PS
The green or cyan Comet PanSTARRS passing above the Double Cluster in Perseus on January 25, 2020. This PanSTARRS (one of many!) is C/2017 T2. The star cluster to the left of the comet is NGC 957. The loose cluster in the bottom left corner is Trumpler 2.
This is a stack of 8 x 4-minute exposures at ISO 400 with the Canon EOS Ra on the SharpStar HNT150 Hyperbolic Newtonian astrographic reflector at f/2.8.
View of Veterans Memorial Highway under starlight. The road leads to the summit of Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondacks, but it was closed for the season, so the road was practically deserted, making for a nice night under the stars during the new moon. The Pleiades star cluster is clearly visible (left of center). Taken with a Rokinon 14mm lens.
Sometimes, post-processing doesn't generate the expected results. This raw image taken with a Fujifilm X-T3, Nikkor 180mm f/2.8 @ f/5.6, iso 1600, exp 88x60s, full frame (in this case) was best served without introducing noise through the process of enhancing contrast, saturation, and enhancing red nebulous regions. Sure there is some spherical distortion near the edge but it isn't a distraction.
Photo taken 2 Dec between 8:33PM and 10:11 PM.
This is the rich region in the centre of the constellation of Auriga with the Flaming Star Nebula, IC 405 at right and the roundish IC 410 at bottom with the cluster NGC 1893. At top left is the star cluster Messier 38, with small NGC 1907 below it. The small nebula at left is IC 417 around the loose cluster Stock 8. The large elongated nebula at top is Sharpless 2-230. The colourful asterism of stars between IC 405 and IC 410 is the Leaping Minnow or Little Fish, aka Mel 31.
This is a blend of 8 x 4-minute exposures at ISO 800 unfiltered with 8 x 8-minute exposures at ISO 2000 shot through an Optolong L-Enhance dual-band nebula enhancement filter (it lets through only Oxygen III blue-green and Hydrogen-alpha red to really enhance the nebulosity). Blending the exposures adds the extensive red nebulosity recorded by the filtered images without turning the whole field — and stars — red and losing the blue reflection nebulas and subtle colour variations even in the red Ha nebulas.
All exposures with the Canon EOS Ra mirrorless camera through the SharpStar HNT150 Hyperbolic Newtonian Astrograph at f/2.8, from home on a very clear moonless night January 24, 2020. All stacked, aligned and blended in Photoshop 2020. High pass sharpening applied as well as a very selective use of frequency separation sharpening with WOW Freq Equalizer extension.
Taken w/ Skywatcher Evostar Pro 80 ED (w/.85x reducer/corrector & QHYCCD Polemaster), Skywatcher EQM-35, Nikon D7500.
80 lights x 60 s @ ISO 800, ~45 dark, ~45 flat, ~100 bias, stacked in DSS and post-processed in Photoshop
This is a bi-color narrowband image of the region in Cassiopeia containing the Bubble Nebula (lower right) and open cluster M52 (NGC 7654, upper left). The H-α image was mapped to red, and the [O III] image was mapped to green and blue. The composited image was then photometrically color calibrated in PixInsight before further processing.
After this step, I wondered why there was such a bright object in the lower right corner. A cool B-class star or and A-class star would have its light diminished at 656 nm due to the absorption line in its spectrum at that wavelength. This was glowing even brighter. Comparison with images of this region of the sky showed me that this is a nova that flared up earlier in 2021. Nova Cassiopeiae 2021 or V1405 Cas would have a shell of expanding hydrogen after the activity that caused it to brighten. Spectra of the object shows bright hydrogen emission lines. Another way of seeing this effect is in a narrowband image like this. The star itself isn't producing that color -- it's a shell of hydrogen gas that was expelled in the explosion that led to the nova.
H-alpha: stack of 25 3 minute exposures
[O III]: stack of 25 4 minute exposures
Shot with an Atik 414-EX on a Hyperstar on a Celestron Edge HD 925. Narrowband filters were 7 nm bandwidth from Atik Cameras. Initial preprocessing in Nebulosity; stacking, channel combination, and futher processing in PixInsight; final touches in Photoshop.
North is roughly at the top, and east to the left.
Picture an unguided image of the globular star cluster M92 in Hercules taken with a ZWOASI183MC camera through a 130mm f/5 reflecting telescope and processed using DeepSkyStacker and Lightroom.
Messier 17, the Swan Nebula, aka the Omega or Checkmark Nebula, with the open cluster M18 below it.
I shot this from home on a very clear night (as this object is low for me) on July 29, 2019, using the Astro-Physics Traveler and Hotech f/6 field flattener for a stack of 5 x 8-minute exposures at ISO 800 with the now 10-year-old filter-modified Canon 5D Mark II.
An unguided image of the The Pleiades star cluster and reflection nebula taken over Monticello, NY through a Canon 400mm f/5.6 L lens using a Canon 7D MKII dslr camera on a Celestron AVX mount. Ten 60 second images and four dark frames were stacked using DeepSkyStacker, then enhanced with Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop Elements.
A portrait of the W-shaped constellation of Cassiopeia, with her various star clusters and emission nebulas, and with the area laced with dark nebulas.
For nebulas — At upper left is IC 1805 and IC 1848, the Heart and Soul Nebulas. At upper right is NGC 7822 and Ced 214. At bottom is NGC 281 the Pacman Nebula. Just below centre is the faint IC 59 and IC 63 reflection nebulas near the star Gamma Cassiopeiae.
For star clusters — at far left is the Double Cluster NGC 869 and NGC 884. Left of centre is NGC 663. Below centre is NGC 457. At bottom right on the edge of the frame is NGC 7789. I should have framed the scene a bit farther to the south!
This is a stack of 11 x 6-minute tracked but unguided exposures at f/2.8 with the Rokinon 85mm lens and Canon EOS Ra at ISO 1600, blended with a single simular exposure through a Kenko Softon A filter to add the star glows. All were also shot through an Astronomik CLS clip-in filter, to reduce sky glow and enhance the nebulas. Taken December 4, 2020 from home on the AP Mach 1 mount.
(recadré - reframed)
Grand amas d'Hercule (M13), constellation d'Hercule
Magnitude visuelle +5,8 // Taille apparente 20 min d'arc
The Great Hercule Cluster (M13)
Nikon D5100 + Zenithstar73
60 x 60sec + DOF -- ISO 200
Siril + Gimp
AstroM1
(r2a.3)
A portrait of various emission nebulas in southern Gemini and into northern Orion. At top is the bright star cluster Messier 35, with the small more distant open star cluster NGC 2158 below and to the right of it. Left of centre is the shell-like supernova remnant, IC 443, aka the Jellyfish Nebula. The small blue reflection nebula above and to the left of it is IC 444 amid a field of fainter emission nebulosity. The round and bright nebula at bottom is IC 2174 in Orion, aka the Monkeyhead Nebula. It is mostly an emission nebula but has some blue reflection components. The smaller round red nebula above it is Sharpless 2-247. It appears to be an ionized HII region, as a form of bubble, but is not a planetary nebula. So this is a field of various forms of nebulas: emission, reflection and supernova remnants. Missing is an obvious planetary nebula or dark nebula.
The orange star to the right of the Jellyfish is Propus, or eta Geminorum.
This is a stack and blend of filtered and unfiltered exposures, the latter set maintaining the natural star colours, and avoiding the haloes introduced by the filters, particularly the L-eXtreme.
The image is a blend of: 10 x 6 minutes at ISO 800 without a filter + 8 x 12 minutes at ISO 1600 with an Optolong L-eNhance dual narrow-band filter + 6 x 16 minutes at ISO 3200 with the Optolong L-eXtreme vary narrowband filter, the latter set taken at the end of the sequence when the field was quite low. Through masking the L-eXtreme images contributed only some of the nebulosity, particularly the subtle cyan fringes on the leading edges of IC 443 — it is the Oxygen III cyans that the L-eXtreme is good at picking up.
All were with the Canon EOS Ra camera and through the SharpStar 76mm triplet apo refractor with the EDPH reducer/flattener for f/4.5. Guiding was with the multi-star Lacerta MGEN3 stand-alone auto-guider, which also controlled the camera shutter and performed dithering between each frame to shift each exposure by a few pixels for noise reduction in stacking. All stacking, alignment and blending was with Photoshop v22.3. Some curves were applied with Lumenzia luminosity masks to selectively adjust the mids or dark-mid tones. Nik Collection ColorEFX ProContrast filter applied locally to the nebulas, plus a high pass sharpening, both to further enhance the nebulosity. No darks or LENR frames were employed or applied on this cool but pleasant and very clear and dry late winter night.
A misty moonlit night was a poor time to try RGB, imaging but without any nebulae in my part of the sky at that time i decided to give it a shot, i chose a star cluster for 2 reasons - bright enough to show up in short exposures, and wouldn't require much stretching during post-processing.
Simple RG and B (no luminance) 2min x 10 subs per filter. with darks.
Longwood Gardens Pa.
Many thanks to all who take the time to view, comment, and favoring my images. Enjoy the day.
NGC 225 is an open cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia. These stars form a crescent around the reflection nebula VdB 4. This is seen at the center of the image. One of the stars in the cluster is causing the blue-white ghostly glow of the nebula. Starlight is scattered by the dust, which causes the blue light, a similar process to what makes our sky blue.
The distance from Earth is around 2200 light years.
Surrounding that reflection nebula in the image center is a large expanse of interstellar dust and gas with interesting globular fingerlike condensations of gas in several areas.
Image info:
Dates: Aug, Sept 2024
Location; somewhere in the Gila National Forest, NM US
Telescope: Takahashi FSQ106N
Camera: QHY268C
Mount: Rainbow Astro RST 135E
Data: approximately 11 hrs, 300 sec subs
Processing: Pixinsight
M11 is an open star cluster in the constellation Scutum, embedded amidst a Milky Way backdrop of dimmer stars and dust.
Captured under dark skies near Goldendale, WA.
Telescope: William Optics ZenithStar 100mm f/7
Focal Reducer: Astro-Tech 0.8x
Camera: Modified Canon 450D (XSi)
Mount: Astro-Physics Mach1 GTE
Integration: 30 mins (10 x 3 mins)
Software: PixInsight 1.8.8, Adobe Lightroom
Nella quiete del cielo estivo, M13 risplende come un gioiello incastonato nell'oscurità: una sfera perfetta di stelle, raccolte da una gravità antica e potente. Ogni punto luminoso è una stella che brilla da miliardi di anni — alcune più vecchie del Sole stesso — testimoni silenziosi della giovinezza dell’universo. La simmetria quasi ipnotica dell’ammasso racconta un equilibrio dinamico, mantenuto per ere cosmiche: un'armonia sferica di 300 mila stelle che resiste al caos galattico. Fotografare M13 è come aprire una finestra sull’eternità, osservando una cattedrale di luce che pulsa da oltre 11 miliardi di anni, sospesa a circa 22.000 anni luce da noi.
Telescopio Skywatcher 200/1000, 30 minuti di posa
#M13 #AmmassoGlobulare #GlobularCluster #Astronomia #Astrophotography #CieloProfondo #DeepSky #Telescopio #StelleAntiche #AncientStars #UniverseBeauty #BellezzaCosmica #NightSkyPhotography #AstrofotografiaItaliana #StarCluster #HerculesCluster #PassioneAstronomia #Astrophoto #SymmetryInNature #SpazioProfondo
Moonset illuminates the west side of Mt. Baker, WA, seen from a backroad viewpoint. The Pleiades and Hyades star clusters (on the left side of the image) are rising.
CAMERA: Olympus OM-1
LENS: 28 mm
FILM TYPE: 35mm color negative
FILM BRAND: Fuji G-800
EXPOSURE: 30 seconds @ f/2
FILE NO.: 97-12 #21
SCANNED FROM: 5" x 7" print
The brightest globular cluster in the northern hemisphere in Hercules is always challenging to image. This cropped Nikon d3500, Nikkor 180 mm f/2.8 @ f/5.6, iso 1600, 74x30s exposure under clear but hazy skies is a bit noisy but shows and hints at a lot of stars. Used unguided Astrotrac mount. Taken during evening of 22 May 2019.
Picture of the Day
Taken w/ Skywatcher Evostar Pro 80 ED (w/.85x reducer/corrector & QHYCCD Polemaster), Skywatcher EQM-35, Nikon D7500.
165 lights x 60 s @ ISO 800, ~45 dark, ~45 flat, ~100 bias, stacked in DSS and post-processed in Photoshop
The green Comet PanSTARRS passing near the Double Cluster in Perseus on January 22, 2020. This PanSTARRS (one of many!) is C/2017 T2. The star cluster to the left of the comet is NGC 957. The loose cluster at bottom left is Trumpler 2.
This is a stack of 8 x 4-minute exposures at ISO 400 with the Canon EOS Ra on the SharpStar HNT150 Hyperbolic Newtonian astrographic reflector at f/2.8.