View allAll Photos Tagged globularcluster
Comet Leonard approaching globular cluster M3. Photographed close to the horizon and therefore in difficult light polluted conditions, even in my rural location. Comet Leonard subsequently dipped permanently below the horizon to give a more dramatic show for Southern Hemisphere observers during the Christmas period.
Albeit beautiful, the San Francisco Bay Area is a heavily light polluted urban environment. My astronomy club, the SFAA (San Francisco Amateur Astronomers) as access to Mount Tamalpias State Park, an Island of open space in a heavily urbanized location. Mnt. Tam offers glimpses of the Milky Way which is otherwise invisible here. At a reasonably high elevation, the sky really darkens when the fog rolls in and blocks the light dome of the City of San Francisco, which is about 15 miles to the South. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the summer sky offers an excellent view of Scorpius and Sagittarius, which are brimming with star clusters and emission nebula and comprise the foot of the Milky Way. Even a good pair of binoculars pointed to the South will yield excellent results if you're inclined to star gazing.
This is the pairing of the bright and large edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 253 with the large and loose globular star cluster NGC 288. The two are just 1.75 degrees apart in the constellation Sculptor, but are actually 12 million light years apart in space, with NGC 288 belonging to our Milky Way Galaxy, while NGC 253 is another galaxy altogether!
They lie close to the South Galactic Pole, so are directly below the plane of the Milky Way, indeed as far from the Milky Way band as you can get!
NGC 253 is one of the brightest galaxies in the sky and belongs to the Sculptor Group, one of the next galaxy groups out from our own Local Group that includes the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies. NGC 253 is a spiral galaxy, while NGC 288 is a Class X globular, meaning it is loose and easily resolved.
NGC 253 is also known as the Silver Coin Galaxy and is Caldwell 65 in Sir Patrick Moore's list of non-Messier objects.
The field is 3º by 2º.
Technical:
This is a stack of 20 x 3-minute exposures with the Askar APO120 refractor with its 0.8x Reducer for 560mm focal length and f/5.6, and the Canon Ra at ISO 1600. No filter was employed. The mount was the Astro-Physics AP400, autoguided with the MGEN3 autoguider. Taken Oct 2/3, 2024 from the Quailway Cottage in southeastern Arizona, where even from latitude 32º N the objects are still fairly low in the south.
Documentary shot (cropped) of comet Leonard that was taken from a not very good locacion (in terms of light conditions) relatively near the town Lučenec, Slovakia. The comet (in the constellation Boötes) was visually observed throuh small 8x42 binocular and had approx. same brightness and appearance as the globular cluster M3 (up in the center).
camera Pentax K-5II
lens smc Pentax-A 135mm F2.8@3.5
ISO-2000
stack of 51x1,3s, 51x2s and 2x5s using SIRIL
postprocessing done in Darktable
Another ellipsoidal collection of stars leftover from the formation of the Milky Way Galaxy. Part of why the center appears so dense is that, at over 11 kpc, the center is farther away than the center of our galaxy.
Stack of 24 90s exposures shot with a Celestron Edge HD 925 at f/2.3 with Hyperstar and an Atik 314L+ color CCD. Preprocessing in Nebulosity; stacking and processing in PixInsight; final touches in PS CS 5.1.
Image center (J2000) is at
RA 21h 33m 27s
DEC -0° 49' 30"
This scintillating image showcases the globular cluster NGC 6540 in the constellation Sagittarius. A globular cluster is a stable, tightly bound multitude of stars that can contain anywhere from tens of thousands to millions of stars, all trapped in a closely-packed group by their mutual gravitational attraction. The brightest stars in this Hubble Space Telescope image are adorned with prominent cross-shaped patterns of light known as diffraction spikes, caused by their light reflecting off the structure of Hubble rather than the stars themselves.
Hubble peered into the heart of NGC 6540 to help astronomers measure the ages, shapes, and structures of globular clusters toward the center of the Milky Way. The gas and dust shrouding the center of our galaxy block some of the light from these clusters, as well as subtly changing the colors of their stars. Globular clusters contain insights into the earliest history of the Milky Way, and studying them can help astronomers understand how our galaxy has evolved.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Cohen
For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw2233a/
This is a stack of 17 1 min exposures. The framing was to try to get the galaxy in the same shot, since this was part of a session where I was sharing the view with my astronomy lab students. So there's a tiny looking galaxy (NGC 5263) at the far right side of the frame.
Celestron Edge HD 925 at f/2.3 with Hyperstar
Atik 314L+ color CCD with light pollution filter
Preprocessing in Nebulosity
Stacking and processing in PixInsight
Final touches in PS CS 5.1
Image center is at
RA 13h 41m 30s
DEC +28° 12' 54"
Fornax globular clusters
Credit: DESI LIS, Giuseppe Donatiello
Fornax dwarf is one of the first satellite galaxies of the Milky Way to be discovered in 1938 by Harlow Shapley. It is located at 140 kpc (430,000 light years). Since the discovery, six sources were considered possible globular clusters but never concretely confirmed until 2019, when they were verified in the DES images.
Beyond all reasonable doubt, they were true clusters and not random groupings of stars. Five of them are globular clusters and one an open cluster of low brightness.
The 4 brighter clusters (Fornax H2, H3, H4, H5) all looked with bright cores. Fornax H1 is faint and appeared quite dim and roundish. About Fornax 6 - reported in 1939 paper on the Sculptor and Fornax systems - Harlow Shapley noted a "very faint cluster of unidentified character, mag 16.6; at 2h 35m 56', -34° 51' (1900), which is probably a part of the Fornax system."
Perhaps this composition is the first for the public to show them together.
Acknowledgments
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) data are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (“CC BY 4.0”, Summary, Full Legal Code). Users are free to share, copy, redistribute, adapt, transform and build upon the DESI data available through this website for any purpose, including commercially.
This image used data obtained with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). DESI construction and operations is managed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High-Energy Physics, under Contract No. DE–AC02–05CH11231, and by the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility under the same contract. Additional support for DESI was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Astronomical Sciences under Contract No. AST-0950945 to the NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory; the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA); the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT); the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain (MICINN), and by the DESI Member Institutions: www.desi.lbl.gov/collaborating-institutions. The DESI collaboration is honored to be permitted to conduct scientific research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak), a mountain with particular significance to the Tohono O’odham Nation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, or any of the listed funding agencies.
EN
In this large field capture made on April 7, 2019, we can see in the upper part the sting of the scorpion that begins with the bright blue "Lesath" in the upper left.
Looking towards the arm of Sagittarius we can find multiple nebulae, like the cat's paw nebula in the upper part, the prawn nebula in the central part, multiple H1 regions and dozens of stellar clusters distributed in the galactic neighborhood.
Made in the cajon del Maipo, Chile.
ES
En esta captura de gran campo realizada el 7 de abril de 2019, podemos ver en la parte superior el aguijon del escorpión que comienza con la azul brillante "Lesath" en la parte superior izquierda, Mirando hacia el brazo de Sagitario podemos encontrar múltiples nebulosas, como las nebulosas de la pata de gato en la parte superior, la nebulosa de la gamba en la parte central, multiples regiones H ll y decenas de cumulos estelares repartidos en el vencindario galactico.
Realizada en el cajon del maipo, Chile.
Exif:
Sony SLT-A77
50 mm F/1,4 Minolta
50mm - F/4 - Iso 800
15 frames x 120s
Crop X2
40 minutes of integration using a ZWO ASI183MC-P, Astromic CCD Light Pollution Filter, and Tamron 250mm lens.
Aberkenfig, South Wales
Lat +51.542 Long -3.593
Skywatcher 254mm Newtonian Reflector, Olympus E410 at prime focus. EQ6 Syntrek Mount.
27 x 40s at ISO 800
Also 10 dark frames.
Processed with Deep Sky Stacker and final levels adjusted with G.I.M.P.
The final image is cropped but it still displays some slight coma towards the edges. This is one drawback of a parabolic f/4.8 Newtonian.
A fairly satisfactory outcome considering the light pollution. Also, the target does not get far above the horizon at my location.
So big and bright that it can be seen with the naked eye even when only a few degrees above the horizon, this star cluster is believed to be the core of a dwarf galaxy that was captured by our own Milky Way galaxy some billions of years ago. Although visible from parts of the continental United States, this cluster remains very close to the southern horizon for observers in the mid-northern latitudes and is best seen there for only an hour or two each night during April, May, and June.
Shown here when it was barely eight degrees above the horizon and somewhat dimmed by light pollution, this photo was taken using a 5 inch aperture, f/4.2 telescope and a Sony NEX-5R digital camera (ISO 3200, a stack of seventy-seven images each exposed for 30 seconds, producing a total exposure integration time of just over 38 minutes).
This is one of the few deep sky objects that looks impressive even as a preview on your camera's built-in LCD display.
Image registration, integration, and initial processing done with PixInsight v01.08.01.1087 Ripley (x64) with final tweaks in Photoshop CS5 and Apple's Preview application.
This photo is best viewed in the Flickr light box.
All rights reserved.
ESA's star-surveying Gaia mission has released a treasure trove of new data as part of its ‘focused product release’. As part of this data release Gaia explored Omega Centauri, the largest globular cluster that can be seen from Earth and a great example of a ‘typical’ cluster.
The team has revealed 526 587 stars that Gaia had not seen before, detecting stars that lie too close together to be measured in the telescope’s regular pipeline and those in the cluster core that are up to 15 times fainter than previously seen. The new data reveal 10 times more stars in Omega Centauri; this new knowledge will enable researchers to study the cluster’s structure, how the constituent stars are distributed, how they’re moving, and more.
This image is from today’s data release; it is contrasted against a previous image from Gaia's Data Release 3 to highlight just how many new sources have been imaged in the cluster’s centre. Only faint stars within Omega Centauri are plotted here.
Alt-text: This image shows a star cluster, which appears as a circular collection of bright stars against a dark background. There are so many stars present in the cluster's core that the central region appears to be almost solidly bright rather than comprising individual stars.
Acknowledgments: Michele Trabucchi, Nami Mowlavi and Thomas Lebzelter
Credits: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Taken with a TMB92L, Canon T3i DSLR, and Celestron CG-4 mount. Consists of 41 light and 23 dark frames, each a 35-second exposure at ISO 800, stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Photoshop.
Resembling a wide-brimmed hat with a tall bulge at the center, galaxy M104 is nicknamed the Sombrero Galaxy. Far larger than any hat on Earth, this Sombrero is 50,000 light-years wide. We see the galaxy nearly edge-on, so the dark dust in its pancake-like disk appears to bisect a large, white, rounded core of stars. Roughly 29 million light-years away, the Sombrero can be spotted with a modest telescope in the constellation Virgo.
Using Hubble, a team of astronomers led by John Kormendy of the University of Hawaii found evidence of a supermassive black hole at the center of the Sombrero Galaxy. Estimated to be as massive as a billion Suns, it's one of the heftiest black holes in the neighboring universe.
Hubble observations also reveal that the Sombrero Galaxy includes nearly 2,000 globular clusters — 10 times more than in our galaxy. Globular clusters are giant, spherical-shaped groups of stars that are sometimes older than the galaxy in which they reside. The Sombrero's globular clusters range from 10 billion to 13 billion years old, similar to those in the Milky Way.
Several teams of astronomers have used Hubble and telescopes on the ground to study the Sombrero's globular clusters. They've found that some clusters are rich in elements heavier than helium (which astronomers call "metals") and some are poor. Among other findings, the observations reveal that the "metal-rich" clusters are concentrated in the galaxy's bulge and that they are typically smaller than the "metal-poor" ones. Such studies are helping astronomers figure out how ancient globular clusters developed early in the universe's history.
For more information, visit:
hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2003/news-2003-28.html
Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
ESA's star-surveying Gaia mission has released a treasure trove of new data as part of its ‘focused product release’. As part of this data release Gaia explored Omega Centauri, the largest globular cluster that can be seen from Earth and a great example of a ‘typical’ cluster.
The spacecraft’s beautiful new view of Omega Centauri is shown here as visualised by Gaia Sky. It combines stars as seen in Gaia Data Release 3 and via a new Gaia mode implemented as part of the new data release. Stars with varying brightness levels are on display, ranging from a magnitude just below the naked eye's visibility limit to those over a million times fainter.
The team has revealed 526 587 stars that Gaia had not seen before, detecting stars that lie too close together to be measured in the telescope’s regular pipeline and those in the cluster core that are up to 15 times fainter than previously seen. The new data reveal 10 times more stars in Omega Centauri; this new knowledge will enable researchers to study the cluster’s structure, how the constituent stars are distributed, how they’re moving, and more.
Alt-text: This image shows a star cluster set against a dark background. The further in towards the cluster’s centre, the higher the density of stars.
Acknowledgments: Toni Sagristà, Stefan Jordan, Katja Weingrill, Alexey Mints, Tineke Roegiers
Credits: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Messier 13 - The Hercules Globular Cluster
Credit: ZTF, Giuseppe Donatiello
J2000 RA 16h 41m 41.24s Dec +36° 27′ 35.5″
Messier 13 (M13), or NGC 6205, is a globular cluster of about 300,000 stars in Hercules, discovered by Edmond Halley in 1714, and catalogued by Charles Messier on June 1, 1764.
M13 is about 145 light-years in diameter and at 25,100 light-years away from Earth.
The Arecibo message of 1974, which contained encoded information about the human race, DNA, atomic numbers, Earth's position and other information, was beamed from the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope towards M13 as an experiment in contacting potential extraterrestrial civilizations in the cluster.
Here is a wide-field view of the M3 Globular star cluster in the constellation Canes Venatici. This was photographed on April 16, 2014 using a Canon T4i and 400mm lens. Five 90-second exposures at ISO 1600 and ISO 800, stacked in DSS.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is a dark nebula of gas and dust that is located 1° south of the star ρ Ophiuchi of the constellation Ophiuchus. At an estimated distance of 131 ± 3 parsecs, This cloud is one of the closest star-forming regions to the Solar System.
Optics: Canon 100-400L II Camera Lens
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro
Mount: Astro-Physics 1100GTO
Processing: Pixinsight
Hubble captured this close-up of stars in Caldwell 86 using the Advanced Camera for Surveys in 2005. These observations helped astronomers identify white dwarfs (the burned-out relics of once-normal stars) in Caldwell 86 and indicated that white dwarfs are kicked out of the cluster’s core when they form.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and H. Richer (University of British Columbia)
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
10 x 120s, Gain=100, L filter
Stacked in PixInsight
Levels stretch in Photoshop
ZWO ASI6200MM-Pro
TeleVue NP101is
Losmandy G11
With no more than ten frames and no noise reduction applied, I am surprised at how clean this image is. I plan to collect and add ten frames each in R, G and B.
I can see vignetting in the corners. I do have flat calibration frames to correct it. Vignetting will not be an issue in the cropped final image.
Messier 4
Credit: Giuseppe Donatiello, Giovanni Vincenzo Donatiello
Taken at Piano Visitone, Parco Nazionale del Pollino
Imaging telescopes: Maksutov 127/1500
Imaging camera: Canon EOS 4000D
Mounts: Synta EQ5
RA center: 16h 23' 39"
DEC center: -26° 31' 15"
Caldwell 93 is a glimmering globular cluster of over 100,000 stars, all united by gravity. The cluster holds its stellar population within a sphere that is about 100 light-years in diameter. Also cataloged as NGC 6752, this island star city resides in the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Globular clusters are the first homesteaders of the Milky Way, some possibly as old as the galaxy itself. The stars in this ancient swarm are all thought to be close to the same age — about 10 billion years old.
This Hubble image, taken in visible and infrared light using the Advanced Camera for Surveys, revealed that a remarkable fraction of the stars near the cluster’s core are multiple star systems. Hubble also discovered the presence of blue straggler stars, which appear to be surprisingly younger than their neighbors. The blue stragglers are thought to be formed by star mergers and collisions in the dense stellar environment at the cluster’s core.
Hubble’s observations of Caldwell 93 also uncovered something unexpected — a galaxy! Dubbed Bedin 1, this galaxy is over 2,000 times farther from Earth than Caldwell 93, but it was serendipitously discovered peeking out between the cluster's stars. It measures about 3,000 light-years across, which is only 1/30th the size of the Milky Way. In addition to being tiny it is also incredibly faint, leading astronomers to classify it as a dwarf galaxy. It is 13 billion years old — nearly as old as the universe. Because of its old age and isolation, which resulted in hardly any interaction with other galaxies, the dwarf is the astronomical equivalent of a living fossil from the early universe.
Caldwell 93 was discovered by astronomer James Dunlop in 1826. The cluster is about 13,000 light-years away and is found in the southern constellation Pavo. With a magnitude of 5.4, Caldwell 93 is one of the brightest globular cluster in the night sky, potentially visible to the naked eye under very dark skies. Binoculars will provide a remarkable view of this stellar collection, which is best observed during winter in the Southern Hemisphere. It can also be spotted from the Northern Hemisphere in the summer from sites close to the equator.
For more information about Hubble’s observations of Caldwell 93, see:
www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1205a/
hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2019/news-2019-09.html
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
Caldwell 73, or NGC 1851, was discovered by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop in 1826. It is located roughly 40,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Columba and has an apparent magnitude of 7.3. This dense globular cluster can be spotted through a pair of binoculars, appearing as a fuzzy patch of light. Small telescopes will resolve some of the cluster’s individual stars, away from its compact center. Caldwell 73 is easiest to view from equatorial latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere during the winter and from the Southern Hemisphere during the summer.
The stars in many known globular clusters are about the same age, indicating that the stars formed at roughly the same time. However, observations of Caldwell 73 reveal that it hosts stellar populations with different ages. The cluster is also encircled by a diffuse halo of stars. Although the origins of the halo and multiple star populations are unknown, one idea is that Caldwell 73 is a remnant of two clusters that collided within a dwarf galaxy that once hosted them both. When the clusters merged, the outer regions of the host galaxy may have been stripped away via interactions with more massive galaxies, leaving only the stellar nucleus and halo behind.
This image of Caldwell 73 was captured by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. It is a composite of multiple observations taken at ultraviolet and visible wavelengths. The observations were taken to help astronomers better understand why some globular clusters appear to play host to multiple generations of stars. A bright, blue, giant star appears to the lower left of center.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Piotto (Università degli Studi di Padova); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
This is a cropped version of my WISE Rho Ophiuchi mosaic, showcasing the prettiest parts, including the stellar nursery, Antares, Sigma Scorpii, and the three globular clusters. See the full mosaic for more information.
Full mosaic link: www.flickr.com/photos/geckzilla/28192549011/
Comet Lovejoy (C/2013 R1) is seen near the M13 globular cluster in Hercules on the morning of December 11, 2013. This photograph was a stack of 30 six second exposures (Canon T2i / ISO 1600 / 100 mm f/2.0 lens @ f/2.8) The images were stacked using ImagesPlus.
My UKMON Fireball Challenge is to create an astronomy sketch or piece of astronomy inspired art every day for 2 months. This is my day 52 sketch, and I chose the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, M13. I've never attempted to sketch a globular cluster before because I find them very intimidating to draw! I created this in layers, using one of my own photos from 2013 as a reference.
Sketched with graphite pencils on white paper. The finished sketch was scanned and a digitally inverted version was created as well as the original.
The Globular Cluster Messier 92 (or M92) in the constellation Hercules. Experimenting with short exposures and high ISO settings. This image is a total of 1 minute 15 seconds and comprised of 5 images at ISO3200. Canon 6D at prime focus of a Meade 12" LX-90.
This is our first attempt of capturing the W Cen (NGC 5139) globular cluster this is just a small part of it, it's raw and natural this is what we captured using our ZWO ASI120mc-s planetary camera on a 5-sec exposer. We used an 8" SCT LX90 with tracking. This can be seen in near the southern cross in the southern hemisphere.
A stunning view I captured of Messier 13: The Hercules Cluster on April 19, 2015 at Frosty Drew Observatory in Charlestown, Rhode Island, USA. Messier 13 is a massive globular cluster in the constellation Hercules. Found at 25,000 light years distant, M13 is about 150 light years in diameter. The core region of M13 is so dense, that upwards of 100 stars may exist in an area of 3 light years of space. M13 is barely naked eye visible under dark skies without the Moon present.
Photo Details:
Camera: Canon 60D MagicLantern
1370mm
f/9
ISO: 2500
Exposure: 120 seconds * 10 frames
This is a median composite of 10 shots to reduce noise.
-Scott
RASA 8" + QHY128C + EQ8
11 x (10 + 2.5 + 0.5) min
Crop of the central ~2/5 part of the horizontal frame,
2020/04/11, 40km south of Moscow
A southern view with essentially no light pollution from Death Valley allowed me to get this shot. In addition to the globular cluster, galaxy PGC42334 appears a few arcminutes north of it (toward the top). There are other galaxies also visible in this image.
The image is from 14 65s exposures taken with a Celestron Edge HD 9.25" at f/2.3 with HyperStar and an Atik 314L+ color CCD. Preprocessing in Nebulosity; stacking and initial processing in PixInsight; finall touches in PS CS 5.1.
The image scale is 2.5" per pixel. J2000 coordinates of the center of the image:
RA: 12h 39m 27.6s
DEC: -26° 44' 51.7"
In the November 2013 edition of Sky and Telescope magazine, Alan Whitman mapped out structures within Andromeda that he has observed with his 16-inch Newtonian and a colleague had observed with a 12.5 inch Newtonian scope.
Whitman A. Going Deep: Exploring Messier 31. Sky and Telescope 2013; Nov: 58-61.
Newtonians are famous for being able to grab lots of light and resolve at high magnitude but long exposure astrophotography gives you a chance to catch up. The first page of the article is a black and white photographic negative of Andromeda that has been labelled with all the globular clusters (G designation), open clusters (C designation) and stellar associations (young, star-forming regions, A designation) that the pair have observed over many years.
I have used their map to construct my own based on my 115 minute integration with just a 360/71mm scope and have labelled everything that I could match on their map with my own.
These black and white negative “plates” are interesting because this is how Astronomers in the 1920s, such as Edwin Hubble explored the Cosmos. One of Hubble’s smartest moves was to hire the best photo technician and developer that he could get so that his plates were of the highest quality.
G = globular cluster (located immediately to left of letter “G”).
C = open cluster(s) (located immediately above or below letter “C” OR circled if close together).
A = stellar association (circled).
I am just amazed that I can locate globular clusters around a galaxy 2.5 million light years away with a small scope in my back garden!
Taken with the William Optics FLT 91, 6AIII flattener/Reducer.
ZWO ASI2600MC Pro camera with Optolong L-Pro 2" filter.
Processed with PixInsight and Affinity Photo 2.
More details here: astrob.in/kqas1y/0/
M12 is a globular cluster in Ophiuchus. It is sometimes called the Gumball Cluster.
This was an experiment with unguided imaging after careful PEC training of my mount. Of 20 60s exposures only 6 were usable. Back to the autoguider then!
This is a stack of 6x60s exposures using a QHY22 camera on a 300mm F/4 Newtonian telescopes. Darsk, flats and bias applied. Registered and stacked in DeepSkyStacker and post processing in PixInsight.
It is a globular cluster in the constellation of Pegasus, it is estimated to be 12 billion years old. It is one of the most densely packed known globular clusters with over 100,000 stars; it is notable for having a large number of variable stars and pulsars and one double neutron star. M15 is 33,600 lights years distant from Earth with an absolute magnitude of 9.2.
Image Profile:
Lee, IL
Type: LRGB
Frames: Ha 8x600 1x1; Lum 8x300 1x1; RGB 6x300 2x2 each
Imaging Date: 20140904
Hardware:
-Main scope: AT8RC with flattener
-Guiding Scope: Orion 80mm Short Tube
-CCD: QHY9M with filter wheel with LRGB Ha
-Orion Atlas Mount
Imaging Applications:
-Acquiring: Nebulosity Ver. 3.0.2
-EQMOD with Starry Nights Pro 7
-Guiding: PHD Ver. 1.11.3
Processing Applications:
-CCD Stack
-Photoshop cs3
Comments: A muggy night with the light of the Moon until it set after 2:00am. Winds over 10mph from SSE made me quick early. Lows of 74F.
This swarm of stars is Caldwell 105, a densely packed stellar collection known as a globular cluster. These compact clutches typically contain hundreds of thousands of stars, all bound together by their mutual gravity. The stars pictured here are very old, some of the first inhabitants of the Milky Way, born at the time of our galaxy’s formation. Scientists target globular clusters for study because of their potential to help unveil information about the formation and evolution of galaxies.
The subtle color differences peppered across this Hubble image, which was taken in visible and infrared light with the Advanced Camera for Surveys, actually reveal a lot about the stars that inhabit the cluster. That’s because a star’s color reveals its temperature. Our Sun produces more yellow light than any other color because its surface temperature is about 10,000° Fahrenheit. If the Sun’s surface were cooler — say 5,000° F — it would look reddish; if it were hotter — say 20,000° F — it would look blue.
It takes a lot of nuclear fuel to power hotter stars, so a higher temperature means a larger mass. More massive stars burn through their nuclear fuel faster, so they only grace the skies for a relatively short time. Since the stars in Caldwell 105 tend to have yellowish-white tones, we know that they are old, cool, and not very massive.
Located about 22,000 light-years away, Caldwell 105 is one of the Milky Way’s 150 (or more) globular clusters. It is located in the southern constellation Musca and is best seen in the autumn from the Southern Hemisphere. (Observers in the Northern Hemisphere would need to be located near the equator to see it, low in the southern sky during the spring.) The cluster was discovered by French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in 1751 during a journey to South Africa and was subsequently catalogued as NGC 4833. With a magnitude of 7, the cluster is unlikely to dazzle except in large telescopes.
For more information about Hubble’s observations of Caldwell 105, see:
www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1631a/
Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
This Hubble image captures what looks like a galactic glitter bomb in the night sky. Caldwell 104, also cataloged as NGC 362, is a globular star cluster located about 27,000 light-years away. Among the earliest homesteaders of the universe, globular clusters are snow-globe-shaped islands of several hundred thousand (or more) ancient stars. Globular clusters like Caldwell 104 typically reside in a spiral galaxy’s halo, which is a relatively sparsely populated, spherical area that surrounds the galaxy like a shell. They are integral to the birth and growth of their host galaxies.
Caldwell 104 is one of about 150 globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy, but it stands out from the rest. The cluster is unusually young, as indicated by its composition. Following the Big Bang, the universe consisted only of hydrogen and a little helium. The first stars formed from this material and, through the process of nuclear fusion, spent their lives producing heavier elements, which astronomers call “metals.” But the process can only continue for so long before the stars either run out of fuel or grow unstable. Ultimately, massive stars are doomed to explode in violent events called supernovae, which blast their material out into the cosmos. This stellar detritus is recycled into new generations of stars, so stars that form later contain higher proportions of metals than their older relatives.
Astronomers have discovered that Caldwell 104 boasts a surprisingly high metal content, which means that it formed more recently than expected. Most globular clusters are much older than the majority of stars in their host galaxy, but the stars in Caldwell 104 appear to be 2 billion to 3 billion years younger than stars in other Milky Way globulars. Astronomers have used Hubble multiple times to investigate the young cluster’s stellar population. This image was taken in visible light using Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.
Discovered from Australia by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop in 1826, Caldwell 104 cannot be viewed from the Northern Hemisphere except near the equator, but it can be seen year-round from mid-Southern latitudes in the constellation Tucana, near the Small Magellanic Cloud. Binoculars or a modest telescope will provide a somewhat hazy view of the magnitude-6.4 cluster, but a large telescope will reveal individual stars.
For more information about Hubble’s observations of Caldwell 104, see:
www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1643a/
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
NASA/ESA/Hubble Team/Kevin M. Gill
Red: hst_12605_07_wfc3_uvis_f438w_drz
Green: hst_12605_07_wfc3_uvis_f336w_drz
Blue: hst_12605_07_wfc3_uvis_f275w_drz
Caldwell 66, also known as NGC 5694, was discovered by William Herschel in 1784 and is one of the oldest, most remote globular clusters in our galaxy. Located roughly 100,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra, this collection of stars appears very faint in the sky with an apparent magnitude of 10.2. A small telescope is needed to spot the distant cluster. It can be seen best from southern locations in the Northern Hemisphere in the late spring and from the Southern Hemisphere in the autumn.
Most globular clusters reside on the outskirts of a galaxy and are gravitationally bound to their galaxy. This means that the clusters will remain in orbit around the galaxy’s gravitational center. However, astronomers suspect that Caldwell 66 is traveling on an unbound, hyperbolic (or U-shaped) path around our Milky Way galaxy. The cluster is located far enough away from the galactic center that it is only loosely bound by gravity, and it is traveling through space so quickly that it will likely escape from our galaxy’s gravitational grip.
This image of Caldwell 66 is a composite of observations made in visible and ultraviolet light by Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The observations were taken to help astronomers better understand the evolution of globular clusters and to more precisely determine the age of the cluster. A faint background galaxy appears near the right edge of the image.
Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Fahlman (Dominion Astrophysical Observatory), R. Ibata (Université de Strasbourg), and F. Ferraro (Università di Bologna); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules (M13) is arguably the most spectacular star cluster in the northern skies and under dark conditions it can even be seen with the unaided eye. Also shown near to the upper right corner of this image is the small (3.3 x 1.7 arc minute) spiral galaxy NGC 6207. An even smaller and fainter galaxy (IC 4617, see image notes) is visible about midway between NGC 6207 and the center of M13.
Photographed around midnight on May 29/30, 2014 from my light-polluted driveway using a Stellarvue SV80ST2, 80mm aperture, f/6 refractor telescope and a Sony NEX-5N digital camera (ISO 1600, a stack of three hundred and forty-seven images each exposed for ten seconds, producing a total exposure integration time of fifty-seven minutes and 50 seconds). Tracking for each of the exposures was performed by a Celestron AVX mount (no manual or auto guiding, standard sidereal rate after All-Star polar alignment).
The base exposure time used to capture this image was only 10 seconds, but a large number of images (over three hundred) were stacked to create the final result. These short exposure times allow me to work under my red zone skies without a light pollution filter and while using an unmodified, APS-C format digital camera.
Image registration, integration, and adjustments done with PixInsight v01.08.01.1087 Ripley (x64) with final tweaks in Photoshop CS5.
This photo is best seen in the Flickr light box or at full size (1280 x 1024).
All rights reserved.
M13
Mount: CGEM
Imaging scope: C9.25 at f/6.3
Imaging FL: 1480mm
Imaging camera: unmodified Nikon D200
Lights: 50x120s (100min) at ISO 800
Calibration: 9 darks, no bias, no flats
Guide scope: Orion 80mm ED at f/7.5 (piggyback)
Guide FL: 600mm
Guide camera: Philips SPC900NC (LX modified, 2s intervals)
Other details: guided with PHD (using GPUSB), calibrated and stacked using Deep Sky Stacker, post-processed in IRIS and Photoshop.
This image of the globular star cluster Caldwell 87 (or NGC 1261) combines observations made by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 in visible and ultraviolet light along with infrared observations from its Advanced Camera for Surveys. The observations helped astronomers track the motions of the cluster’s stars and better understand the stars’ chemical abundances.
In the past, astronomers thought that all the stars in a globular cluster had similar ages and similar chemical abundances. However, recent studies suggest that this might not be true. It seems as though many globular clusters contain stars with varying chemical abundances, suggesting the stars are different ages. Hubble’s observations of Caldwell 87 have allowed astronomers to investigate this further.
Discovered in 1826 by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop, Caldwell 87 is located roughly 50,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Horologium. It has an apparent magnitude of 8.3, and a small telescope is needed to spot it in the night sky. The cluster is best observed in the late spring from the Southern Hemisphere (or in the late autumn from southern latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere).
Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Piotto (Università degli Studi di Padova), and A. Sarajedini (Florida Atlantic University); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
Caldwell 81, or NGC 6352, is a loose globular star cluster located roughly 20,000 light-years from Earth. This cluster is located in the constellation Ara and was discovered in 1826 by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop while he lived in Australia. With an apparent magnitude of 7.8, Caldwell 81 can be found with a small telescope. The cluster is best viewed in the Southern Hemisphere during winter but can also be observed from equatorial latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere during its summer.
This image of Caldwell 81 is a composite of visible and infrared observations using Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and ultraviolet observations using its Wide Field Camera 3. These observations were made to help astronomers understand the characteristics of the cluster’s stars and investigate the evolution of globular clusters. The researchers were able to track the motion of the stars in the cluster and better determine Caldwell 81’s age, which is roughly 12 billion years.
Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Sarajedini (Florida Atlantic University), A. Kong (National Tsing Hua University), and G. Piotto (Università degli Studi di Padova); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
Antares,globular cluster M4 & (part of) The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex
20 frames taken 4/28/12
Experimented by creating a 2 pane mosiac
Conditions were poor, evident by all the noise. Planning to add more subs when conditions are better and correct halos and color around each star
Combined 5x300sec frames from previous version with a 2 pane mosiac 5x600sec/each pane-taken with ST-80, T3i and CLS filter
Added 5x600 sec Ha from T3 and 75-200mm lens f/5.6 (200mm)
2 hours 5 minutes
Telescope used: Orion ST-80(my "guide scope") mounted to 8" Meade LX-50 on standard Meade equatorial mount & HD tripod, Canon T3 w/ 75-300mm lens and Ha filter piggybacked on 8" Meade as well
Images aquired using APT
Guided with Starshoot Autoguider and 50mm guide scope
Aligned and stacked with Nebulosity
Post-process with Star Tools, GIMP & Windows Live Photo
Totals:
2 hours:
5x300,5x600 w/T3i (CLS filter) & ST-80
5x600 w/T3 (Ha filter) & 75-300mm lens at 200mm
Questo complesso di nebulose di vario tipo che circondano la gigante rossa Antares, la stella più luminosa della bellissima costellazione dello Scorpione, e di cui fa parte la famosa nebulosità attorno alla stella "Rho Ophiuchi", mi ha sempre affascinato e già da più anni ho tentato di riprenderla.
Ma, complice anche il soggetto non facile e molto evanescente, per cause meteo e/o errori durante l'acquisizione, non avevo mai raggiunto un risultato soddisfacente.
Anche quest'anno ho ritentato in due sessioni distinte.
La prima del 16 giugno 2012 durante la quale a causa della non ottima trasparenza del cielo
l'Inquinamento luminoso (IL) mi ha costretto ad utilizzare l'astronomik CLS unitamente ad una posa di soli 300sec.
Il risultato però è stato rovinato da un mio errore in fase di acquisizione: ho sottostimato il
valore del dithering. Se a questo aggiungiamo la temperatura ambiente di circa 19°che a 1600m slm sono un pò tanti pur essendo in Sicilia, si può immaginare la tipologia e la quantità di rumore presente nella foto.
Fortunatamente si è presentatala l'opportunità di una seconda sessione la sera del 23 giugno.
Questa volta le condizioni meteo erano più favorevoli e pur utilizzando una posa di 300sec a 1600iso ho deciso di non utilizzare filtri anti-IL.
Se da un lato il rumore era molto contenuto, dall'altro il gradiente da IL ha praticamente cancellato la nebulosità rossa presente attorno alla stella "tau Scorpii".
Ho cercato di rimediare mediando con PS le due sessioni.
Il risultato a dire il vero non mi soddisfa del tutto, ma ho ritenuto che il lavoro elaborativo dedicatogli meritasse la pubblicazione.
LA versione a maggior risoluzione >> www.astrobin.com/full/14496/0/?mod=none&real=
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Lens: Zenit Giove-11A 135mm f/4 (ЗЕНИТ ЮПИТЕР-11A)
Camera Canon EOS 550D (Rebel T2i) mod. Baader BCF
Mount: Sky Watcher HEQ5 Synscan
date 16/06/2012 and 23/06/2012
35x300s 1600iso / 21 dark /21 flat / 21 bias (16/06/2012)
integration 2h 55min
21x300s 1600iso / 21 dark /21 flat / 21 bias (23/06/2012)
integration 1h 45min
Seeing 3 (scala Antoniadi inversa)
temperatura 19°C (16/06) and 14°C (23/06)
Location: Monti Nebrodi (Sicily-Italy) a 1600m slm
Elaborazione DSS + PSCS3