View allAll Photos Tagged planetarynebula
Editor's note: this is an inset from this gorgeous panel image: www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/8076983365/in/photostream
Check out the "NASA Thinks Pink" Flickr gallery:
www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/sets/72157625045060125/
Inset image: Nebula NGC 6826
Main caption: This gallery shows four planetary nebulas from the first systematic survey of such objects in the solar neighborhood made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The planetary nebulas shown here are NGC 6543, also known as the Cat's Eye, NGC 7662, NGC 7009 and NGC 6826. In each case, X-ray emission from Chandra is colored purple and optical emission from the Hubble Space Telescope is colored red, green and blue.
In the first part of this survey, published in a new paper, twenty one planetary nebulas within about 5000 light years of the Earth have been observed. The paper also includes studies of fourteen other planetary nebulas, within the same distance range, that Chandra had already observed.
A planetary nebula represents a phase of stellar evolution that the sun should experience several billion years from now. When a star like the sun uses up all of the hydrogen in its core, it expands into a red giant, with a radius that increases by tens to hundreds of times. In this phase, a star sheds most of its outer layers, eventually leaving behind a hot core that will soon contract to form a dense white dwarf star. A fast wind emanating from the hot core rams into the ejected atmosphere, pushes it outward, and creates the graceful, shell-like filamentary structures seen with optical telescopes.
The diffuse X-ray emission seen in about 30% of the planetary nebulas in the new Chandra survey, and all members of the gallery, is caused by shock waves as the fast wind collides with the ejected atmosphere. The new survey data reveal that the optical images of most planetary nebulas with diffuse X-ray emission display compact shells with sharp rims, surrounded by fainter halos. All of these compact shells have observed ages that are less than about 5000 years, which therefore likely represents the timescale for the strong shock waves to occur.
About half of the planetary nebulas in the study show X-ray point sources in the center, and all but one of these point sources show high energy X-rays that may be caused by a companion star, suggesting that a high frequency of central stars responsible for ejecting planetary nebulas have companions. Future studies should help clarify the role of double stars in determining the structure and evolution of planetary nebulas.
These results were published in the August 2012 issue of The Astronomical Journal. The first two authors are Joel Kastner and Rodolfo Montez Jr. of the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, accompanied by 23 co-authors.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.
Read entire caption/view more images: www.chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2012/pne/
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/RIT/J.Kastner et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Read more about Chandra:
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
_____________________________________________
These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
Last night's effort.
C9.25 prime focus, f10
ZWO ASI120mm at 50% gain, binned 2x2,
LRGB 20 each x 30s lights, 25 darks. 5 degree C.
AZ-EQ6 unguided
Processed in Nebulosity
Squeezing a little more detail out each time I image M57. Happy considering this is an uncooled camera and no guiding.
Editor's note: this is an inset from this gorgeous panel image: www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/8076983365/in/photostream
Check out the "NASA Thinks Pink" Flickr gallery:
www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/sets/72157625045060125/
Inset image: Nebula NGC 7662
Main caption: This gallery shows four planetary nebulas from the first systematic survey of such objects in the solar neighborhood made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The planetary nebulas shown here are NGC 6543, also known as the Cat's Eye, NGC 7662, NGC 7009 and NGC 6826. In each case, X-ray emission from Chandra is colored purple and optical emission from the Hubble Space Telescope is colored red, green and blue.
In the first part of this survey, published in a new paper, twenty one planetary nebulas within about 5000 light years of the Earth have been observed. The paper also includes studies of fourteen other planetary nebulas, within the same distance range, that Chandra had already observed.
A planetary nebula represents a phase of stellar evolution that the sun should experience several billion years from now. When a star like the sun uses up all of the hydrogen in its core, it expands into a red giant, with a radius that increases by tens to hundreds of times. In this phase, a star sheds most of its outer layers, eventually leaving behind a hot core that will soon contract to form a dense white dwarf star. A fast wind emanating from the hot core rams into the ejected atmosphere, pushes it outward, and creates the graceful, shell-like filamentary structures seen with optical telescopes.
The diffuse X-ray emission seen in about 30% of the planetary nebulas in the new Chandra survey, and all members of the gallery, is caused by shock waves as the fast wind collides with the ejected atmosphere. The new survey data reveal that the optical images of most planetary nebulas with diffuse X-ray emission display compact shells with sharp rims, surrounded by fainter halos. All of these compact shells have observed ages that are less than about 5000 years, which therefore likely represents the timescale for the strong shock waves to occur.
About half of the planetary nebulas in the study show X-ray point sources in the center, and all but one of these point sources show high energy X-rays that may be caused by a companion star, suggesting that a high frequency of central stars responsible for ejecting planetary nebulas have companions. Future studies should help clarify the role of double stars in determining the structure and evolution of planetary nebulas.
These results were published in the August 2012 issue of The Astronomical Journal. The first two authors are Joel Kastner and Rodolfo Montez Jr. of the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, accompanied by 23 co-authors.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.
Read entire caption/view more images: www.chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2012/pne/
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/RIT/J.Kastner et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Read more about Chandra:
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
_____________________________________________
These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the planetary nebula NGC 6326.
Original caption: The Hubble Space Telescope captured this beautiful image of NGC 6326, a planetary nebula with glowing wisps of outpouring gas that are lit up by a central star nearing the end of its life. When a star ages and the red giant phase of its life comes to an end, it starts to eject layers of gas from its surface leaving behind a hot and compact white dwarf. Sometimes this ejection results in elegantly symmetric patterns of glowing gas, but NGC 6326 is much less structured. This object is located in the constellation of Ara, the Altar, about 11,000 light-years from Earth. Planetary nebulae are one of the main ways in which elements heavier than hydrogen and helium are dispersed into space after their creation in the hearts of stars. Eventually some of this outflung material may form new stars and planets. The vivid red and blue hues in this image come from the material glowing under the action of the fierce ultraviolet radiation from the still hot central star. This picture was created from images taken using the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The red light was captured through a filter letting through the glow from hydrogen gas (F658N). The blue glow comes from ionised oxygen and was recorded through a green filter (F502N). The green layer of the image, which shows the stars well, was taken through a broader yellow filter (F555W). The total exposure times were 1400 s, 360 s and 260 s respectively. The field of view is about 30 arcseconds across.
This image is 57 light frames at 2 minutes a piece and ISO 800, 33 dark frames, 35 flat frames, 46 bias frames. Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, and post processing in Photoshop. - See more at: adirondackastro.com/#sthash.WdVadFJr.dpuf
An irregular Planetary Nebula roughly 2600 light years from us in the southern constellation of Musca.
Taken with an 11" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope pushed to a focal length of 4.8 metres at f20. The 3.2 megapixel camera covers a field of only 10 x 6 arcminutes. Around a third of the width of the full moon across the frame, and the width of nebula, less than half that again...
This RGB composite was created from 4.1 hours of Hydrogen-alpha exposures and 50 minutes each of Red, Green and Blue. 6 hours and 36 minutes in total.
The Dumbbell Nebula (also known as the Apple Core Nebula, Messier 27, or NGC 6853) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1,360 light years. (Wikipedia)
This object was the first planetary nebula to be discovered by Charles Messier in 1764. It is a popular target for amateur observation. It is 2.5 light-years across, and is the result of a supernova explosion about 10,000 years ago.
The central star, a white dwarf, is estimated to have a radius which is 0.055 R☉ which gives it a size larger than any other known white dwarf. The central star mass was estimated to be 0.56 M☉. (Wikipedia)
This was a joint project with Ariel. cropped version
Press "L" to view large on black
The Little Dumbbell Nebula (aka the Barbell Nebula and the Cork Nebula) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Perseus.
Looks MUCH better on a dark background in the light box.
Technical info about the image:
Object: The Little Dumbbell Nebula, M 76, NGC 650/651
Sky: LM ~5
Mount: CGEM
Imaging scope: C9.25 at f/6.3
Imaging FL: 1480mm
Imaging camera: SBIG ST-4000XCM
Lights: 90x180s (4.5h)
Calibration: 7 sky flats, 36 darks
Guide scope: Orion 9x50 finder scope
Guide camera: Meade DSI I (2s intervals)
Other details: Images acquired with CCDOPS v5, guided with PHD (using GPUSB), calibrated and stacked using Deep Sky Stacker, post-processed in Photoshop CS5.
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Looking for a better astronomy planner for iOS? Head over to my profile for a link to Observer Pro.
This image of the globular cluster NGC 1846 was taken by Hubble in 2006, and "remastered" in 2011. If you look straight down from the cluster center, you'll see a tiny green blip: that's the death throes of a star. Details and explanation are in my blog.
blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/11/22/the-gr...
Image credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), with P. Goudfrooij (STScI)
During this year's summer holiday in Norway, I tried to make some use of the fabulously dark skies up north (once it actually became dark, that is). One night, where my family and I put up our tent in the wilderness next to a mountain lake, I also set up my photo gear and gave M57 a shot (or rather many...). I tried a number of other things that night, which I haven't processed yet.
This image was taken with the trusty TAIR-3S 300 mm telephoto lens. I find it instructive how the small green dot actually becomes a ring once you zoom in. Really gives you the idea why this kind of object was dubbed a "Planetary Nebula", though it is actually a remnant of a dying sun-like star and has nothing to do with planets (which, if they existed around this star, were probably rather singed when the star was in its red giant phase shortly before). You might even spot some faint traces of red around the bright green ring if you look closely.
Acquisition details:
Samsung NX 30 unmodified mirrorless camera
TAIR-3S 300 mm f/4.5 @f/5.6
no filters
Tracking: Skywatcher Star Adventurer
Exposures: 176x 30 s @ ISO3200
Calibration: darks and flats
Stacking: Deep Sky Stacker
Further Processing: SiRiL (also photometric color calibration), fitswork, Luminar 2018
Telescope: Newtonian Astrograph FótonAstro 8" F4
Mount: Sky-Watcher AZ-EQ6 GT
Camera: ZWO ASI2600mm Pro
Filters: V-Pro Series from Antlia
Guide camera: ZWO ASI120mm Mini
NGC 7662 otherwise known as the Blue Snowball Nebula is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Andromeda.
Taken 6/19/2010 from Western Massachusetts.
Telescope: 11" EdgeHD SCT
Camera: Modified Canon Rebel XSi
ISO1600
60 x 15 second exposure (15 minutes)
Processed in Deepsky Stacker and Photoshop
The beautiful planetary nebula in Lyra. The death of a star caused this beautiful nebula.
Taken with my Canon dslr and 150pds telescope.
M27, also known as the Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula located 1,360 light years from Earth. The nebula is what is left after a star similar to our Sun gets closer to the end of its life. After expanding and becoming a 'red giant', the outer layers of the star are ejected becoming the shell shown in this picture.
At the center of the nebula, the star is now a 'white dwarf', having just a fraction of its original size. It emits ultraviolet radiation, which ionizes the ejected shell and making is visible to us
Photo taken with a Canon XSi and a Nexstar 8i SE + 0.63 FF/FR. 180 x 15 seconds exposures + 25 darks. I will add flats some day.
Edited European Southern Observatory image of the Skull Nebula, just in time for Halloween.
Original caption: Captured in astounding detail by ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), the eerie Skull Nebula is showcased in this new image in beautiful pink and red tones. This planetary nebula, also known as NGC 246, is the first known to be associated with a pair of closely bound stars orbited by a third outer star.
M57 Ring Nebula, Meade RCX400 12inch, Starlight Xpress SXVFH9,SXVAO, LRGB-42L-14R-14G-14B, seeing poor. AO using new Exview Autoguider. No Darks or Flats. Processed Maxim DL5, PS CS2, RC Gradient X. 24 August 2008.
Image of a nebula taken using a NASA telescope -
Original from NASA. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.
The Ring Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 57, M57 or NGC 6720) is a planetary nebula in the northern constellation of Lyra. Such objects are formed when a shell of ionized gas is expelled into the surrounding interstellar medium by a red giant star, which was passing through the last stage in its evolution before becoming a white dwarf. This image taken using a Canon T3i mounted at prime focus on a Meade LX-90 12" telescope.
a little return to processing. i'm supposed to be doing something else right now... oh well.
a pretty planetary nebula that seems to be a bit of a newer discovery. i was a little selective in processing the nebula separate from the stars and implemented some data from another eso telescope to increase colour contrast in the nebulosity.
kudos to Sakib for pointing this data out to me.
red: vlt/fors2 ha (FORS2.2012-07-01T05:25:13.081)
green: psuedo + ntt/efosc b#639 (EFOSC.2013-06-06T04:10:49.192)
blue: vlt/fors2 oiii (FORS2.2012-07-01T05:30:59.372)
Image of a nebula taken using a NASA telescope -
Original from NASA. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.
Out of this world public domain images from NASA. All original images and many more can be found from the NASA Image Library
Higher resolutions with no attribution required can be downloaded: www.rawpixel.com/board/418580/nasa
The Owl Nebula (in the lower left) is a planetary nebula near the star Merak in Ursa Major. M108 is a barred spiral galaxy viewed nearly edge-on.
Here is the version of the other picture with annotations added in Pixinsight. See? I didn't lie. Lots of galaxies. My guess is that there are even a few galaxy clusters here, but I don't feel like checking
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1384107617300933
right now to be sure.
A rework of the stack taken on June 13-14, 2012. I created more temperature matched darks with the cooled camera. Only set left from the old library is the 14C. If I ever get enough of those to try again, I may revisit this data. At this point, because of the flaws in the lights, I think I'm finished with this target for the season.
Restacked in DSS 3.3.3 beta 47 with best 85% filter applied. This gives 24 lights that are "better" even with the light leaks. Focus is not perfect on several of the lights so that's what I hoped to remove with the 85% setting.
As before, this is a stack of images of the M57 region as taken through an Orion 127mm Maksutov Cassegrain telescope with a full-spectrum modified Pentax K10D camera. The camera is further modified with a peltier device to cool hot spots on the body to help keep thermal noise to a minimum. Baader Moon and Skyglow filter used to control some LP. Lights are 10 minutes at 400 ISO. Guiding done via SSAG on Orion ST80 on Losmandy GM8 mount. Off center position because of slop in the DEC axis.
After stacked, I brought the FIT into PI where I ran deconvolution, then DBE, then 200x iterations of masked stretches, then a few rounds of curves, then ACDNR. Final step of solving and annotating before exporting to LR 3.
Image Plate Solver script version 1.51
==================================================
Referentiation Matrix (Gnomonic projection = Matrix * Coords[x,y]):
+0.000024753523 +0.000225118281 -0.276562916275
-0.000225158051 +0.000024794168 +0.373793262939
+0.000000000000 +0.000000000000 +1.000000000000
Resolution ........ 0.815 arcsec/pix
Rotation .......... -96.275 deg
Focal ............. 1366.01 mm
Pixel size ........ 5.40 um
Field of view ..... 48' 13.0" x 28' 5.4"
Image center ...... RA: 18 53 23.321 Dec: +32 56 18.56
Image bounds:
top-left ....... RA: 18 52 03.895 Dec: +33 18 42.66
top-right ...... RA: 18 52 29.604 Dec: +32 30 47.68
bottom-left .... RA: 18 54 17.557 Dec: +33 21 47.99
bottom-right ... RA: 18 54 42.078 Dec: +32 33 51.34
The Hourglass Nebula is a planetary nebula (which can be misleading because they have nothing to do with planets). A planetary nebula is an expanding shell of glowing gas that was thrown out into space by a dying star. The Hourglass nebula is about 8000 light years away.
This image was taken using a 6" telescope at the St. George campus of the University of Toronto.
This gallery shows four planetary nebulas from the first systematic survey of such objects in the solar neighborhood made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The planetary nebulas shown here are NGC 6543, also known as the Cat's Eye, NGC 7662, NGC 7009 and NGC 6826. In each case, X-ray emission from Chandra is colored purple and optical emission from the Hubble Space Telescope is colored red, green and blue.
Check out the "NASA Thinks Pink" Flickr gallery:
www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/sets/72157625045060125/
In the first part of this survey, published in a new paper, twenty one planetary nebulas within about 5000 light years of the Earth have been observed. The paper also includes studies of fourteen other planetary nebulas, within the same distance range, that Chandra had already observed.
A planetary nebula represents a phase of stellar evolution that the sun should experience several billion years from now. When a star like the sun uses up all of the hydrogen in its core, it expands into a red giant, with a radius that increases by tens to hundreds of times. In this phase, a star sheds most of its outer layers, eventually leaving behind a hot core that will soon contract to form a dense white dwarf star. A fast wind emanating from the hot core rams into the ejected atmosphere, pushes it outward, and creates the graceful, shell-like filamentary structures seen with optical telescopes.
The diffuse X-ray emission seen in about 30% of the planetary nebulas in the new Chandra survey, and all members of the gallery, is caused by shock waves as the fast wind collides with the ejected atmosphere. The new survey data reveal that the optical images of most planetary nebulas with diffuse X-ray emission display compact shells with sharp rims, surrounded by fainter halos. All of these compact shells have observed ages that are less than about 5000 years, which therefore likely represents the timescale for the strong shock waves to occur.
About half of the planetary nebulas in the study show X-ray point sources in the center, and all but one of these point sources show high energy X-rays that may be caused by a companion star, suggesting that a high frequency of central stars responsible for ejecting planetary nebulas have companions. Future studies should help clarify the role of double stars in determining the structure and evolution of planetary nebulas.
These results were published in the August 2012 issue of The Astronomical Journal. The first two authors are Joel Kastner and Rodolfo Montez Jr. of the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, accompanied by 23 co-authors.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.
Read entire caption/view more images: www.chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2012/pne/
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/RIT/J.Kastner et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Read more about Chandra:
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
_____________________________________________
These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
Taken from New Mexico Skies Observatory using an SBIG STL-6303 camera and 51-cm RCOS telescope on a Software Bisque PME 1 Mount.
Luminance filter
LINK
Other images from this series:
1. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51912817758/
2. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51913339650/
3. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51912722131/
4. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51912817498/
5. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51911758022/
6. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51911757837/
NOTE
The Soap Bubble Nebula, or PN G75.5+1.7, is a planetary nebula in the constellation Cygnus, near the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888). It was discovered by amateur astronomer Dave Jurasevich using an Astro-Physics 160 mm refractor telescope with which he imaged the nebula on June 19, 2007 and on July 6, 2008. The nebula was later independently noted and reported to the International Astronomical Union by Keith B. Quattrocchi and Mel Helm who imaged PN G75.5+1.7 on July 17, 2008. The nebula measures 260″ in angular diameter with a central star that has a J band magnitude of 19.45.
A 'planetary nebula', formed by a 'dying' star puffing off its outer gas layers.
Manually, off-axis guided for 6 x 10 & 6 x 5-minute exposures at ISO 1600, f10.
Subs registered & stacked using DeepSkyStacker software.
Unmodded EOS 40D & Celestron C8 telescope
Imaged using the Bradford Robotic Telescope's Galaxy Camera (Schmidt-Cassegrain Celestron C14 optical tube. 3910mm focal length, 355mm aperture at f/11 with a FLI MicroLine fitted with a E2V CCD47-10. 1k x 1k pixels, each 13um square. Class 2).
Further processing done using FITS Liberator & Pixelmator 3.0 FX.
M27 with data from about 4 more nights of testing in June.
Again, 10 minute subs at 400 ISO. Taken in Menlo Park, CA - deep in a red zone.
Total stack was: 51 lights (best 80% out of 64), 144 Darks, 58 Flat Frames, 22 Dark Flats ,199 Offset/bias, 6 groups based on temperatures from 12C to 17C.
Stacked with DSS 3.3.3 beta 47 with 2x drizzle on a custom frame. Processed with PI using DBE, Masked Stretch, and Histograpm stretch. Couldn't get the plate solve to work.
Camera used: Full spectrum modified Pentax K10D cooled with external peltier device, Baader Moon and Skyglow filter used.
Telescope: Orion 127mm Maksutov Cassegrain (f12)
Mount: Losmandy GM8
Given that I was having a lot of challenges with tracking on this set of data, I'm surprised that I got anything good from them. There are still oblong stars, but it's good for now.
PK 329-02.2
Planetary nebula in Norma
Source: Hubble Legacy Archive
hst_06119_0a_wfpc2_f555w_pc
hst_06119_0a_wfpc2_f814w_pc
M46 from 09 March 2013 using a single exposure with my Canon T4i and Meade 12" LX90.
Messier 46 (also known as M 46 or NGC 2437) is an open cluster in the constellation of Puppis. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1771. Dreyer described it as "very bright, very rich, very large." M46 is about 5,500 light-years away. The planetary nebula NGC 2438 appears to lie within the cluster near its northern edge (the faint smudge at the top center of the image).
M27 as seen overnight on June 18, 2012. I continued my efforts to improve my technique for guiding while the telescope is set up in the back yard.
For this evening's experiments, I added an additional counterweight to the system - giving 5 lbs on the string. This has the effect of giving a stronger east bias. I was hoping that this would eliminate the RA drift problems I've seen. It seems to work well - the only real drift is in DEC.
Also, what I did prior to this shot was tighten up the DEC axis. I inserted a single belleville washer on the axis of the worm gear to assist in taking up lateral play. The effect is that DEC is now much tighter without having to bind on the ring gear. The washer will provide a small amount of spring to the system to act as a pre-load for system as well.
What I did not do was limit Maxim to only guiding in one direction in DEC. I've done this with PHD quite a bit but in this case, I was trying to figure out if the Maxim stiction and backlash settings were enough to fix the problem.
This is a stack of 31 lights on this target. Individual lights are 10 minutes at 400 ISO. Captured with a full spectrum mod Pentax K10D camera with the Baader Moon and Skyglow filter. Scope used was the Orion 127mm Maksutov Cassegrain. Guided with Maxim with the SSAG on a ST80 all on a Losmandy GM8. These are all from one night. Meridian flip was at about 2 am time and I let it keep running until I got up in the morning.
Stacked in DSS from a collection of 39 total lights with 85% kept. I did a 2x custom frame. I thought it might show some of the local detail better. Not sure if it worked well. Maybe a drizzle would have been good since there are so many lights.
In PI: DBE, Masked Stretch, a run of curves, and ACDNR used to try to improve the image. There's a lot of brown in the background - mostly because of being in the city. I may have pushed this processing a little bit too far given the heavy local light pollution.
Image Plate Solver script version 1.51
============================
Referentiation Matrix (Gnomonic projection = Matrix * Coords[x,y]):
-0.000022742430 +0.000210832794 -0.115733286451
-0.000210969707 -0.000022616320 +0.220275140133
+0.000000000000 +0.000000000000 +1.000000000000
Resolution ........ 0.764 arcsec/pix
Rotation .......... -83.842 deg
Focal ............. 1458.61 mm
Pixel size ........ 5.40 um
Field of view ..... 24' 47.5" x 16' 38.8"
Image center ...... RA: 19 59 39.826 Dec: +22 43 07.21
Image bounds:
top-left ....... RA: 19 59 09.665 Dec: +22 56 20.02
top-right ...... RA: 19 58 58.245 Dec: +22 31 40.38
bottom-left .... RA: 20 00 21.523 Dec: +22 54 33.36
bottom-right ... RA: 20 00 09.890 Dec: +22 29 54.04
Edited Spitzer Space Telescope image of the Helix Nebula. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: A newly expanded image of the Helix nebula lends a festive touch to the fourth anniversary of the launch of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. This spectacular object, a dying star unraveling into space, is a favorite of amateur and professional astronomers alike. Spitzer has mapped the expansive outer structure of the six-light-year-wide nebula, and probed the inner region around the central dead star to reveal what appears to be a planetary system that survived the star's chaotic death throes.
Large and labeled images in my blog:
astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/09/many-ways-to-die.html
A collection of planetary nebulae and supernova remnants
Note. Images in this poster are not in same scale.
Hubble Space Telescope image by way of the European Space Agency of the planetary nebula NGC 6543, which fortunately has a better name: the Cat's Eye Nebula. (That's one big cat!)
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the spiral planetary nebula (which is very strange) IRAS 23166+1655. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: This remarkable picture from the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows one of the most perfect geometrical forms created in space. It captures the formation of an unusual pre-planetary nebula, known as IRAS 23166+1655, around the star LL Pegasi (also known as AFGL 3068) in the constellation of Pegasus (the Winged Horse). The striking picture shows what appears to be a thin spiral pattern of astonishingly regularity winding around the star, which is itself hidden behind thick dust. The spiral pattern suggests a regular periodic origin for the nebula’s shape. The material forming the spiral is moving outwards a speed of about 50 000 km/hour and, by combining this speed with the distance between layers, astronomers calculate that the shells are each separated by about 800 years.The spiral is thought to arise because LL Pegasi is a binary system, with the star that is losing material and a companion star orbiting each other. The spacing between layers in the spiral is expected to directly reflect the orbital period of the binary, which is indeed estimated to be also about 800 years.The creation and shaping of planetary nebulae is an exciting area of stellar evolution. Stars with masses from about half that of the Sun up to about eight times that of the Sun do not explode as supernovae at the ends of their lives. Instead a more regal end awaits them as their outer layers of gas are shed and drift into space, creating striking and intricate structures that to Earth-bound observers often look like dramatic watercolour paintings. IRAS 23166+1655 is just starting this process and the central star has yet to emerge from the cocoon of enveloping dust.This picture was created from images from the Wide Field Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys on Hubble. Images through a yellow filter (F606W, coloured blue) were combined with images through a near-infra red filter (F804W, coloured red). The exposure times were 11 minutes and 22 minutes respectively and the field of view spans about 80 arcseconds.Links Paper discussing the intriguing AFGL 3068 (PDF format)
Kaleidoscopic version of a Hubble Space Telescope image of the planetary nebula IC 4634.
Original caption: This striking Hubble image of the planetary nebula IC 4634 reveals two shining, S-shaped ejections from a dying star. This star, awash in glowing material at the centre of the picture, bloated as it aged and launched its outer layers off into space. The starâs very hot, exposed core has since beamed intense ultraviolet radiation at these lost shells of gas, making them glow in rich colours. This process has been far from orderly or calm, however, as revealed by the distinct, separate waves of thrown-off gases. One is more distant and therefore was spewed first, followed by a more recently ejected tide of matter that formed the tighter S-shape. The result is remarkably symmetric on each side of the central star. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescopeâs Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) captured this image of IC 4634, which is found more than about 7500 light-years away in the constellation of Ophiuchus (the Serpent Holder). IC 4634 and other objects like it are known as planetary nebulae due to their appearance through early telescopes as rounded, faintly luminous discs similar to the distant planets Uranus and Neptune. The picture was created from images through five different filters (F487N, F502N, F574M, F656N and F658N) that captured light emitted by different elements in the gaseous features. The total aggregate exposure time was 4000 seconds and the field of view is just 29 arcseconds across.
Out of this world public domain images from NASA. All original images and many more can be found from the NASA Image Library
Higher resolutions with no attribution required can be downloaded: www.rawpixel.com/board/418580/nasa
-Object Info-
Name: NGC7662
Other names: Blue Snowball Nebula
Type: Planetary Nebula
V Mag: 12
-Image Info-
Date: October 22, 2010
Location: Florida Tech, Melbourne, FL
Telescope: Ortega .8m
Imager: FLI 1024x1024
CCD Temp: -20 C
Filters: BVR
Exposure: BVR 5 x 60s each
Total Exposure: 15min
Calibration: 50 bias, 20 dark, BVR 6 flats each
Processing: calibrated in IRAF, combined in Maxim DL, post processed in Photoshop
In the image North is up and East is to the left.
Credit: Student Astronomical Society members Don Schumacher, Andrew Colson, Beverly Watson, Norah Ashoura, Rachel Furtado, Tom Barranger, and Ashley Vargas