INTRODUCTION

Welcome to my image blog from Lancashire, UK. Living in Lancashire does make imaging a challenge. Our incessant damp cloudy weather is legendary and coupled with light pollution probably as bright as can be found anywhere (I am 15 miles NW of the centre of Manchester) makes for testing times! Add to that flight path one with constant aeroplanes, which is why it has been suggested as possibly the worst place on Earth for imaging.

Now the good news. With modern light pollution filters we can still produce excellent results - at least when the clouds clear - but of course we cannot match dark sites - I avoid looking at images from such sites as they are very depressing and un-representative of what the rest of us have to suffer! So if you too live in cloudy suburbia then I hope the following images offer some encouragement.

I often shoot the luminance and the colour simultaneously - there are not enough clear spells to alow the luxury of shooting separately. Shooting LRGB with one telescope would take years! So two telescopes and two cameras was the obvious solution . Also necessary is having a dome slot wide enough for both to have a clear line of sight. The luminance is usually taken with the RCOS + Apogee Alta and the colour with the Takahashi + Canon 40D. Despite their disparate focal lengths this works reasonably well as the Canon has 5 micron pixels (plate scale 2 arcsecs/pixel) and the Apogee 18 micron ones when binned 2x2 (plate scale 1.3 arcsecs/pixel). I find binning essential to maximise signal and improve the signal-to-noise ratio.

The images are all taken from my back garden and appear in order of me processing them - we have plenty of cloudy nights for that. I use a combination of IRIS and Maxim for processing with final tweaks in Photoshop. To get rid of the light pollution takes much trial and error. IRIS scores here with several options but processing often comprises many nights work - certainly always longer than the actual taking. The exception are images taken with an h-alpha filter which is a superb light pollution filter. It also permits imaging with strong Moonlight present - isn't it funny how it always seems to be clear at full Moon!

NEW AstroCanvas NEW - Prints on canvas of my latest images now available. Note if there is one you would like that is not listed there (yet) please email me.

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MAY 19th, 2013

Virgo Cluster Mosaic

The Virgo Cluster comprises up to 2000 member galaxies and forms the heart of the even larger Virgo Supercluster, of which our Local Group is just an outlying member.

With the Eyes and the M84/M6 mosaic already taken I only needed the bottom left corner to complete a 4 panel mosaic. I was able to shoot the missing piece on the 27th April. It only contained one galaxy of note, the insignificant NGC4425 but it was a poor night so nothing to lose really.

The Observatory is shut now for the summer - it doesn't get dark properly again here until August. Still a few more images to process though.

Image details:

• Dates: 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th & 27th April 2013
• Telescope: RCOS 12.5 inch at f/9.
• Camera: Apogee Alta U9.
• Exposure: Luminance 9 hours with CLS filter (RCOS) plus RGB 9 hours with Takahashi FSQ106/Canon 40D

M84 M86

MAY 12th, 2013

Galaxies M84 & M86 - Virgo Cluster

This pair of giant elliptical galaxies are probably not quite as close together as they look. Although both are part of the large Virgo Cluster, M86 (left) is part of its own sub-group (including NGC 4438 - see below). It has a large velocity relative to other members of the main group and is falling towards the centre from the far side. This fall is so fast that is has a blue shift (ie approaching us). M84 (right) is part of the sub-group dominated by M87. A third sub-group surounds M49. Hubble images of the nucleus of M84 have revealed jets powered by a central black hole.

The edge-on spiral galaxy towrds the top is NGC 4402. It is suffering "ram-pressure stripping" as it falls through the intra-cluster medium. There's a great Hubble image of this galaxy. The edge-on spiral towards the botton is NGC 4388 and is probably suffering a similar fate. It is classed as a Seyfert 2 type galaxy and there is also an excellent image available - this time taken with the 8 metre Subura telescope.

A two panel mosaic was required to fit these large galaxies and their neighbours all in. Ten minute sub-exposures were used to prevent the galaxy cores over-exposing.

Image details:

• Date: 3rd, 4th & 5th April 2013
• Telescope: RCOS 12.5 inch at f/9.
• Camera: Apogee Alta U9.
• Exposure: Luminance 4 hours (25 x 10 mins) with CLS filter (RCOS) plus RGB 3 hours (25 x 10 mins) with Takahashi FSQ106/Canon 40D

M84 M86

MAY 8th, 2013

The Eyes, Galaxies NGC 4435 & 4438

The Eyes is the popular name given to this pair of galaxies close to the centre of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, 50 million light years distant. NGC 4438 is the larger galaxy and is thought to have been originally a spiral galaxy which has been highly distorted by a close encounter with another galaxy. In contrast, the second smaller galaxy, NGC 4435 is a barred lenticular galaxy which appears remarkably undisturbed. So rather than these two galaxies interacting it is more likely that the giant elliptical galaxy M86 (out of shot) is the culprit in distorting NGC 4438. Recent observations have found filaments of hydrogen gas connecting NGC 4435 to M86, highly suggestive of a collision in the past.

Image details:

• Date: 1st April 2013
• Telescope: RCOS 12.5 inch at f/9.
• Camera: Apogee Alta U9.
• Exposure: 3 hours (9 x 20 mins) with CLS filter (RCOS) plus 3 hours (18 x 10 mins) RGB with Takahashi FSQ106/Canon 40D

The Eyes

APRIL 28th, 2013

Galaxy Cluster Abell 1495

A bit confusing as Abell produced a catalogue of Galaxy Clusters as well as Planetary Nebulae. This time it's from his "Catalog of rich clusters of galaxies".

This image is taken from the top-left (north-east) corner of the full frame of my image of the Box (Hickson 61). It serendipitously included Abell 1495 so it always pays to check what else has been captured in an image. Abell counted 123 galaxies from magnitude 17 down to magnitude 19. My image goes a bit deeper - probably around magnitude 21 - and consequently reveals even more, around 200 galaxies, despite not including all of it. Most of the galaxies are, of course, just faint smudges at its huge distance of 1.8 billion light years. The bright star is SAO 82192 and is magnitude 9.44.

Image details:

• Date: 30th March 2013
• Telescope: RCOS 12.5 inch at f/9.
• Camera: Apogee Alta U9.
• Exposure: 3.33 hours (10 x 20 mins) with CLS filter (RCOS) plus 3.33 hours (20 x 10 mins) RGB with Takahashi FSQ106/Canon 40D

Abell 1495

APRIL 21st, 2013

The Box, Hickson Compact Galaxy Group 61

The Box (Hickson 61)

APRIL 14th, 2013

Dwarf Spherical Galaxy Leo II (Harrington-Wilson No2)

Despite its insignificant appearance this is one of the most studied of dwarf galaxies. Why? Well Leo II is the second most distant dSph galaxy assumed to be orbiting the Milky Way (MW) and should therefore be in pristine condition, unaffected by interactions/encounters with our galaxy. Recent research by several groups have confirmed this e.g. “we conclude that this dSph is rather an isolated Local Group satellite that is falling into the MW regions and passing its (dark) halo for the first time (e.g., Chapman et al. 2007; Majewski et al. 2007.)” - LÉPINE et al. 2011. So probably not a satellite after all. It's distance is around 700,000 light-years.

Perhaps the best image of this object was taken 8.2 metre Subaru Telescope (Komiyama et al 2007). They detected over 80,000 stars down to magnitude 26. Koch et al (2007) estimated “the mass-to-light for Leo II to lie in the range 25 to 50. This is, in conjunction with the flatness of the dispersion profile, is striking evidence that Leo II is a dark matter dominated system”.

Never going to be a showpiece object, I was pleased to be able to record it fairly clearly. I would estimate the stars in Leo II in my image to be around magnitude 19 to 21. They are also reasonably well resolved as the star density in this galaxy is very low.

Image details:

LeoII

MARCH 30th, 2013

Comet Panstarrs (C/2011 L4) over Blackpool Tower

Comet Panstarrs with Blackpool Tower on the horizon.

MARCH 24th, 2013

Gemini with the Bolton Astronomical Society Canon 300D

Just when you think the weather cannot possibly get worse it does. March has been clouded out apart from a few gaps here and there.

I recently acquired for our society a modded Canon 300D at a very reasonable price. It has had the deep-red blocking filter replaced making it very sensitive to the important H-alpha nebula emission line. This was the first test I managed with it - just enough time to show that it performs well. If you compare this to the image of Akira Fujii then it becomes obvious that the camera's H-alpha perfomance exceeds that of the camera used by this well-known astro-photographer. The bright (red) nebula Sh2-252 has recorded more prominently and even the smaller Jellyfish Nebula is obvious (between the two yellow/red stars). This gives an indication of the superb H-alpha sensitivity of this modded camera. The camera is for loaning out to members contemplating making a start in imaging.

• Date: 10th March 2013
• Telescope: Bolton Tracker
• Camera: Canon 300D (modded) + 28mm Pentax lens @ f5.6
• Exposure: 24 minutes (6 x 4 minutes) using IDAS LPR filter.

Gemini

MARCH 17th, 2013

Planetary Nebula Abell 24 (PK 217+14.1 )

I had long needed a deep-sky object in Canis Minor but it is not renowned for any spectacular objects. However, Abell 24 looked promising and turned out to be surprisingly bright given it is almost totally ignored.

Very little information available on this object but I did find a paper by C.T. Hua and S. Kwok (Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. Ser. 138, 275-297 (1999)). The following is an (edited) extract from their paper. The H-alpha and [N II] images of Abell24 show two strong elongated E-W lobes with a fragment of (W-side) arc which could be part of a helical structure. The [N II] image, noticeably larger, displays a double shell with remarkable radial structures outwards. These jet-like structures are similar to those observed in the [N II] image of NGC 6543 (HST archives, program 5403, P. Harrington, P.I.). The patchy lane in the north shows up even more sharply. The two bright lobes could be the "waist" of a bipolar PN, with the underlying emission being the projection of two bubbles on top and below the waist. The jet-like radial structures, not apparent in wide bandpass images of Manchado et al. (1996, p. 125), are clearly seen in the NE and SW directions.

Note regarding the prominent [N II} emission referred to by Hua & Kwok: the bandpass of most H-alpha filters (including mine) includes as well the close-by [N II] emission. Only filters with an extremely narrow bandpass can discriminate these two different emissions. Strictly normal H-alpha filters should be described as H-alpha + [N II}. This is one object that would benefit from 3nm Ha and 3nm NII filters perhaps revealing those "jet-like structures" - but at nearly £1000 each I'll pass this time!

Image details:

Abell 24

MARCH 10th, 2013

Christmas Tree Cluster, Cone Nebula and VdB 78

Pushing my luck shooting under strong moonlight but with so few clear nights this winter I took a chance. This is the last of the sequence of images with the 300mm lens and it is now back inside until next winter.

Several objects of note in this widefield view. The Christmas Tree Cluster is left of centre and surrounded by (bluish) reflection nebula. Below this is the Cone Nebula NGC 2264. The cone's shape comes from a dark absorption nebula of cold molecular hydrogen and dust in front of the bright emission nebula. The faint but rich cluster just below centre is Trumpler 5 (Collinder 105). This open cluster is extremely old at 3 billion years. To the right is blue reflection nebula Van den Bergh 78. Trickiest of all to spot is Hubble's Variable Nebula NGC 2261. Looking a bit like a tiny comet, it is located near to the bottom about a third the way in from the left.

Image details:

Area around the Christmas Tree Cluster

MARCH 3rd, 2013

Rosette Nebula (Nebula: NGC2237-9; Cluster: NGC2244)

Weather as normal meaning 3 separate nights needed to get a decent signal of this popular object. I shot the nebula off-centre in order to record the faint east (left) and north (top) extensions.

The Rosette Nebula (Caldwell 49) is a large cloud of dust and gas with the open cluster NGC 2244 (Caldwell 50) at its centre. This young cluster has formed from the nebula and has created the central cavity. Radiation and stellar winds from the hot young stars within the cluster have blown the remaining material outwards. UV radiation from the hottest stars causes the nebula to shine. Research by Schneider et al. (1998) supported this scenario. Located in Monoceros.

Image details:

Rosette Nebula

FEBRUARY 17th, 2013

IC405, 410 & 417 (Sh2-229, -236, -234)

Our shocking weather continues and it took no less than 4 separate nights to get barely enough signal for this group of objects. We simply don't seem to get cloud free nights any more.

A group of disparate nebulae at different distances and different origins. The Flaming Star Nebula (right) is a foreground object surrounding and illuminated by the variable star AE Aurigae. This star has a very high proper motion and is classed as a runaway star having been ejected from the Orion region. IC410 on the other hand (lower left of centre) is a background emission nebula illuminated by the open cluster NGC 1893. The third fainter nebula (upper left) is also in the background and is known as the Spider.

Image details:

IC405, 410 and 417

FEBRUARY 3rd, 2013

Californian Nebula, NGC 1499

A return to a familiar target but this time using the Pentax 300mm lens. The plan was for 4 hours of exposure - 2 hours before the meridian and 2 hours after - but the last hour's worth was too light polluted to be used - a mist had rolled in. I find a meridian flip worth the effort as it averages out the fixed pattern noise of the 40D - the camera is upside down for the second sequence of images.

Discovered by E. E. Barnard in 1884, this bright emission nebula in Perseus is easy to image but the outer reaches require long exposures. The star most likely to be ionising the nebula is the bright, hot & blue Xi Persei (below middle & right a bit)

Image details:

NGC 1499

JANUARY 27th, 2013

Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1530

In Camelopardalis is possibly the most spectacular barred spiral in the northern hemisphere. Despite being around 120 million light years away much detail is visible which gives a clue that this is an intrinsically large galaxy.

NGC 1530 has a prominent bar with two wide open spiral arms originating from its ends. There is a lot going on in this galaxy and its most unusual feature is a bright mini-spiral ("nuclear spiral") at its core and orientated roughly perpendicularly to the bar (see inset). One of the most researched galaxies with several papers devoted to it and particularly focusing on gas inflow into the bar and nuclear region.

Image details:

NGC 1530

JANUARY 20th, 2013

Asterism: Klingon Battlecruiser

It's bad news if you see one of these coming towards you! In reality it is open cluster NGC 1662 but it does bear an uncanny resemblance to a Klingon Battlecruiser of Star Trek fame. Russell Sipe (Sky&Telescope, February 2005) was first to spot that the stars fitted the running lights of the battlecruiser (D7 Class). Not to be confused with a Romulan Warbird!

NGC 1662 is a young open cluster situated in the direction of the galactic anticenter and relatively distant from the galactic plane. This large distance from the plane may seem surprising for such a young cluster and suggests that the formation mechanism could have been the collision of a high velocity cloud with the gas of the galactic plane. (Ref: Dias at al., Astronomy & Astrophysics 2000).

Image details:

NGC 1662

JANUARY 13th, 2013

Galaxies NGC 678, 680, 691, 694 & IC167

NGC 678, 680, 691, 694 & IC167

JANUARY 10th, 2013

Galaxies NGC672 & IC1727 (VV338)

Interesting pair of galaxies located in Triangulum that support the evidence for dark matter (see later). They are of uncertain distance but certainly dwarf and relatively local (<32 Mly).

The NGC 672/IC 1727 group consists of six members: the NGC 672/ IC 1727 galaxy pair (VV338 pair) and four more nearby dwarf Irregular galaxies. NGC 672 was classified Sc+ (Holmberg 1958) and later as SBc (de Vaucouleurs et al. 1976). IC 1727 was classified by the same authors as IrrI and SBm. Recent research by Zitrin & Bosch (2008) studied a string of galaxies comprising NGC 672/IC 1727 group, the NGC 784 group and several other galaxies in the same vicinity with similar redshifts. They proposed that the observational evidence argued in favour of interpreting the galaxies as being located along a dark matter filament that is itself located in a low-galaxy-density region and is accreting intergalactic cold gas focused by the filament.

Image details:

NGC 672 and IC1727

JANUARY 6th, 2013

Asterism: David's D

OK not its real name, that's Collinder 21, but when I came across this grouping I thought it good enough to deserve a name! It does look a bit like a capital "D".

Following research by Sandro Villanova et al., this group was found (on the basis of proper motions and radial velocities) not to be the remnant of an open cluster but a chance alignment of brightish stars. You don't actually need 4.5 hours to image this object - it just so happened I was imaging nearby galaxies with the RCOS which do need that long.

• Date: 10th December 2012
• Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106 (4-inch Refractor)
• Camera: Canon 40D.
• Exposures: 4.5 hours with UHC filter (18 x 15 minutes).

Collinder 21

JANUARY 1st, 2013

Edge-on Galaxy NGC 891

Around 30 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda, this dramatic edge-on spiral galaxy looks very much like our own Milky Way. It has a flat thin galactic disk and a central bulge divided down the middle by a prominent dark dust lane. Remarkably obvious at this distance are filaments of dust that extend hundreds of light-years above and below the center line. This dust is thought to have been blown out of the disk by supernova explosions and/or intense star formation activity.

Image details:

NGC 891

DECEMBER 30th, 2012

Abell Galaxy Group 2666 (NGC 7768 Group)

Around 325 million light-years from home, this Abell cluster is one of the smaller ones. Some difference of opinion as to who discovered it - perhaps John Herschel but it was also observed by Lord Rosse in Ireland. It lies inside the Square of Pegasus.

Just the middle part is recorded in my image, ie the area around the cluster's central elliptical cD galaxy NGC 7768. A feature of the group being the number of edge-on galaxies present. This was just a quickie image whilst I was waiting for the next target to rise.

Image details:

NGC 7768 Group

DECEMBER 19th, 2012

Sharpless Sh2-202, Van den Bergh 14 & 15 & Pazmino's Cluster

Sharpless Sh2-202 is a very faint emission nebula (red) and just over 4 hours with a DSLR camera was simply not enough! However, the two reflection nebulae VDB 14 & 15 (towards the left and bluish) have recorded better. The pretty cluster above middle, right a bit, is Stock 23, also known as Pazmino's Cluster.

These nebulae are located straddling the border between Cassiopeia and Camelopardalis.

Image details:

Sh2-202

DECEMBER 16th, 2012

Heart & Soul Nebulae (Sh2-190 & 199)

The Soul Nebula (left) is also known as the Baby Nebula and back in film days it was called the Foetus Nebula. The Heart Nebula (right) inludes IC1805. Located in Cassiopeia. Two nebulae that for once resemble their popular names.

It took no less than 4 nights to get enough clear spells to image these objects. The Pentax lens can just fit them in but it is a tight squeeze. Wiil increase the exposures to 15 minutes next time.

Image details:

Heart and Soul Nebulae

DECEMBER 12th, 2012

Jupiter with a Celestron Celestar & Microsoft Lifecam

Just like buses - two planetary images coming together. Don't worry I am not going to make a habit of it.

With Jupiter better placed this year than it is going to be for several years to come then it was too good an opportunity to miss. Vintage Celestron Celestar C8 with a Microsoft Lifecam Cinema HD webcam. See Imaging>lifecam section for more details.

Image details:

Jupiter and the Great Red Spot (plus its junior partner).

DECEMBER 10th, 2012

Jupiter with an Aldi Mini-Dobsonian Telescope

Something completely different! Aldi sold in the run up to Christmas a starter telescope branded National Geographic. Similar to the Celestron/Skywatcher first-scopes but of slightly longer focal length. The scope is 76 mm aperture with probably just a spherical mirror but does give some great views of brighter objects. It is a huge improvement on the usual starter telescopes and is much more beginner/child friendly.

I tried imaging with my webcam to see what was possible with what is after all an un-driven telescope. These images are quite represenative of what can be expected in the eyepiece. The first one has Jupiter over-exposed so no detail evident. The second one I paid more attention to the exposure setting and, if you squint a bit, there is a hint of a belt(s).

Image details:

Jupiter and the Galilean Moons

DECEMBER 2nd, 2012

IC 1396 in Cepheus (Sh2-131)

Although generally referred to IC1396 the full nebula is probably more accurately called Sh2-131. The IC entry refers to a cluster with nebulosity which is really the central area only. Herschel's Garnet Star is on the top (northern) edge.

Returned to testing the Pentax lens this time fully open at f/2.8 for the H-alpha images. Whilst the lens was ok for the these processing proved a problem. I had done a few h-alpha images with a DSLR before but not realised that the flats were not working. However, in this case it was obvious something was amiss. What happens is IRIS (I use this for DSLR processing) could not deal with h-alpha flats or least couldn't produce a master flat correctly. This is because out of every 4 pixels 3 are near zero (black) and only one has a significant value (the red pixel). I managed a work around but more investigation is needed.

Image details:

IC 1396

NOVEMBER 25th, 2012

Comet 168P/Hergenrother

The comet was at perihelion on 1 October 2012 and was expected to reach about apparent magnitude 15-16 but due to an outburst it brightened to magnitude 8. This outburst also seems to have caused it to frgament although my image on 15th November 2012 shows no obvious second nucleus.

Wearther forecast for the 15th was rain coming in with at most one hour of clear skies so I targetted this comet as it passed above the Square of Pegasus.

Image details:

Comet Hergenrother

NOVEMBER 18th, 2012

Planetary Nebula NGC 40 (Caldwell 2)

Sometimes called the Bow Tie Nebula. By far the best description of this object is given in Observing the Caldwell Objects by David Ratledge (Springer 2000) - but I would say that wouldn't I.

The widefield shot shows faint nebula around and to the south of NGC40. Not certain if just some or all of this is associated with the planetary nebula. I consulted other published images but most seem to take the sky down to zero and wipe it all out.

Image details:

NGC 40

NOVEMBER 11th, 2012

The Bubble Nebula, NGC 7635 - two for the price of one

Simultaneous shooting with both telescopes enabled both a wide field and close-up to be taken at the same time. The widefield image includes the cluster M52.

The central star is a massive young Wolf-Rayet type whose stellar winds have created the Bubble or cavity in the surrounding molecular cloud. The star (SAO 20575) is thought to have a mass in the range 10-40 Solar masses.

Image details:

Bubble Nebula Nebula - RCOS

M52 and the Bubble Nebula Nebula - Takahashi

NOVEMBER 4th, 2012

Sharpless Sh2-171, (includes NGC 7822 & Cederblad 214)

Huge object or objects really. The brightest central portion is NGC 7822, the patch on the top edge is Cederblad 214 and the odd shaped cluster towards the top right is NGC 7762.

Again testing the 300mm lens - this time with 10 minutes exposures. Providing there is no Moon-light then 10 minutes seems better. Refocused the lens every hour and got some strange results - the internal focus affects distortion. Stacking was a nightmare!

Image details:

Sh2-171

OCTOBER 29th, 2012

The Veil Nebula, NGC 6960, 6974, 6979, 6992

Various name for this supernova remnant over the years - Bridal Veil, Filamentary Nebula, Cygnus Loop, Pickering's Traingle....but generally known as just the Veil Nebula nowadays.

Even a 300mm lens cannot fit in all of this huge supernova remnant in Cygnus. Blue/green denotes oxygen and red hydrogen. I was testing the lens for a more difficult target later in the year. The 5 minute exposures were a bit too short - I will run a test of 10 minute exposures in the future.

Image details:

Veil Nebula

OCTOBER 22nd, 2012

The Fetus Nebula, NGC 7008

One of the oddest looking planetary nebula around. The bright spot on the NNE edge is a low excitation knot known as Kohoutek 4-44. There is a raw Hubble image of this part. It is located in Cygnus

The weather did not cooperate and it took 4 nights to get enough signal for this interesting planetary nebula. This object was too small for the Tak to producee usable RGB data so the Ha and OIII had to suffice.

Image details:

Fetus Nebula

OCTOBER 15th, 2012

Sharpless Sh2-132 (close-up 2 panel mosaic)

An advantage of shooting simultaneously with two telescopes/cameras is you get the same object but at different scales.

For the RCOS, I decided on a two panel mosaic to try and cover more of this big object. I shot the west panel before the meridian and the east after. As this part of the nebula is mainly H-alpha no OIII data was collected - colour coming from the wide-field image.

Image details:

Sh2-132 - close-up

OCTOBER 7th, 2012

Sharpless Sh2-132 (Wide-field)

Rarely imaged sharpless nebula which is a bit of a challenge for a DSLR camera or least the outer reaches are. Unusually for a Sharpless object this nebula has a strong OIII signal (blue-green) which came as a bit of a surprise.

• Date: 26th September 2012
• Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106 (4-inch Refractor)
• Camera: Canon 40D.
• Exposures: 28 x 10 mins with UHC filter.

Sharpless Sh2-132

OCTOBER 2nd, 2012

The Crescent Nebula, NGC 6888

An old favourite but one where I wanted to re-take with better OIII information. I could have done with twice the time but as usual the weather did not cooperate.

Image details:

Crescent Nebula

SEPTEMBER 26th, 2012

Lacerta from Kelling Heath

The only other image I managed on our annual jaunt to the Kelling Heath Star Party. You just can't get the Milky Way's dusty brown colours from home. The light pollution filters knock them out.

The image covers northern Cygnus and Lacerta up to Cepheus at the top edge. The huge dark nebula NNE of Deneb is prominent as are the bright North American/Pelican Nebulae. The emission nebula at the top middle is IC1396 with Herschel's Garnet Star on it top edge. The small (red/magenta) nebula near the top left corner is the Wizard Nebula.

• Date: 13-15th September 2012
• Telescope: Bolton Tracker
• Camera: Canon 20Da + 50mm Pentax lens..
• Exposure: 40 minutes (10 x 4 minutes).

Northern Lacerta and Cygnus

SEPTEMBER 23rd, 2012

Sagitta from Kelling Heath

Taken on our annual jaunt to the Kelling Heath Star Party. Weather was good with several clear nights but I had camera problems - the Canon refusing to fire from either of 2 cable releases. So I admired the views instead - best was M13 in a 16-inch with an ETHOS eyepiece - wow!

What a difference no light pollution filter makes! Sagitta just right of centre and Delphinus bottom left. The coathanger is easy to locate but can you spot the Dumbbell Nebula? It's cyan coloured with a hint of red edges - pretty small at this scale though!

• Date: 13-15th September 2012
• Telescope: Bolton Tracker
• Camera: Canon 20Da + 50mm Pentax lens..
• Exposure: 40 minutes (10 x 4 minutes).

Sagitta

SEPTEMBER 10th, 2012

The Crescent Nebula, NGC 6888 (Widefield)

Not the first image of the autumn session but the first I have been able tp process. Other images are awaiting clear nights to complete.

This widefield image with the 4-inch Takahashi includes part of the Gamma Cygni Nebula (top) and the open cluster IC4996 bottom left.

• Date: 8th September 2012
• Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106 (4-inch Refractor)
• Camera: Canon 40D.
• Exposures: 120minutes with UHC filter (24 x 5 minutes).

Crescent Nebula

AUGUST 30th, 2012

The

Observatory

Re-opens

It's official - 2012 is the wettest summer for 100 years! However, it was no surprise that the first clear night coincided with full Moon! It was a chance to check things out after a 3 month shut-down. First target was the Crescent Nebula NGC 6888 and some Ha exposures were taken. I'll hopefully get another clear night for the OIII frames later.

New for this winter is the Pentax 300mm lens with its own parallel guider (Astro Tech 66mm). Brian has mounted them on a losmandy dovetail plate which is interchangeable with the Tak. It's a really sturdy job with the 66mm offset for clearance purposes. The 300mm will give nearly twice the field of the Tak - ideal for larger objects.

MAY 27th, 2012

Spiral Galaxy M101 and Supernova 2011fe

Supernova 2011fe was discovered on August 24, 2011 by the Palomar Transient Factory, a research program run by astronomers at CalTech. It was still visible when I got around to imaging in April 2012, In my image is a unusual green/blue colour and quite prominent. Not sure if this colour is real or a consequence of the UHC filter I was using. It is towards the bottom (south) of M101, about 3/4 the way out.

Imaging has now finished for the summer break - it simply doesn't get dark enough during the middle 10 weeks.

Image details:

M101

MAY 16th, 2012

M105 Group

Not the most inspiring of groups with two featureless ellipticals but it was one I had omitted imaging until it was recently required for a talk. My standard 20 minute sub-exposures burnt out the elliptical galaxy nuclei so a couple of 5 minute subs were used just for the their centres.

M105 is the right-hand (westerly) galaxy, NGC 3371 is in the middle and NGC 3373 the blueish spiral to the left. NGC 3373 is probably a background object and not part of the Leo I group.

Image details:

M105 Group

MAY 8th, 2012

Arp 1 (NGC 2857) and Arp 285 (NGC 2854 & 2856)

Originally published in 1966, The Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies is a catalog of peculiar galaxies produced by Halton Arp. A total of 338 galaxies (or quite commonly galaxy interactions as many are multiple objects) are listed in his atlas.

You would imagine that the first entry Arp 1 would be the most peculiar of all but not so. It is a perfectly regular face-on Sc type spiral which Arp included because he thought it was of low surface brightness. It is compared to the interacting pair Arp 285, NGC 2854 and 2856, (lower right) but these are the "peculiar" ones, not Arp 1. Arp 1 is often referred to as Arp's Spiral.

UPDATE: Supernova SN 2012fg in NGC 2857 discovered 7th October 2012 - Missed it!

Image details:

Arp 1

APRIL 29th, 2012

Two Open Clusters, M44 and M67

Unusual targets for me but these images were required for a talk I was giving on the Constellations and their best deep-sky objects.

M44, the Beehive Cluster, is visible to the naked eye from dark skies as a misty patch but it is all but invisible from Lancashire. Note the two red giants and two small background galaxies – one right of centre, the other towards the left edge.

In contrast to the Beehive Cluster, M67 comprises mainly yellow-red giants with very few blue stars (known as blue stragglers). This gives away its age as one of the oldest open clusters known at around 4 billion years.

Image details:

The Beehive Cluster, M44

M67

APRIL 15th, 2012

Ring Galaxy NGC 2859

NGC 2859 is classed as a (R)SBO galaxy, SBO denotes a barred lenticular galaxy and the R a ring. Lenticular galaxies are in effect armless spiral galaxies if that makes sense. It is located in Leo Minor.

However, probably the most interesting aspect of this galaxy are the quasars found by Arp that lie close to NGC 3859's companions, one of which lies inside my image. This 19.2 magnitude quasar, designated U1, is adjacent to UGC5004 (the companion galaxy north of NGC 3859) and has a redshift of 0.23. This equates to a distance of 3 billion light years - approximately 12 times that of the galaxy. It is one of the objects Arp used to dispute the reality of quasar's redshifts. These views are almost universally discredited now and quasar's redshifts are accepted as a true indication of distance and the expansion of the universe.

A feature of the full size raw image is the presence of literally hundreds of faint background galaxies around magnitude 20 - presumably components of a distant cluster(s).

Image details:

NGC 2859

APRIL 8th, 2012

Sharpless Nebulae Sh2-254, 255, 256, 257 and 258

Continuing on the trail of the Sharpless nebulae this relatively unknown group in Orion caught my eye and with 5 objects for the price of one it was too good to miss. Shot with a 92% full Moon present, they didn't need a huge long exposure as they are quite bright - well at least they are for Sharpless objects.

Image details:

Sharpless Sh2-254, 255, 256, 257 and 258

APRIL 1st, 2012

The Double Bubble Nebula, NGC 2371-2

The "other" planetary nebula in Gemini! Also known as the Peanut or Gemini nebula.

Discovered by William Herschel and catalogued as two separate entries. Presumably he saw the two bright spots in the inner zone and these are what he recorded as two objects. The two outer lobes, from bi-polar jets, are probably far too faint to have been what he observed. The central star has a temperature of over 100,000K. There is a Hubble Space Telescope image of this object but it is frankly disappointing.

Image details:

NGC2371-2

MARCH 20th, 2012

Lunar Geology (Selenology)

Below is the image from my Astronomy Now article "Shooting the Moon in Full Colour", April 2012 magazine. The colour saturation has been boosted (using IRIS) to reveal the geology of the Lunar surface. The grid overlay has also been produced with IRIS. See the magazine article for the full details on how it was done and what the colours depict.

Lunar Geology

MARCH 14th, 2012

Reflection Nebulae Van den Bergh 67, 68 & 69

It took four nights between clouds and moonlight to get sufficient signal for this group of objects located in Monoceros. Sidney Van den Bergh published his catalogue of Reflection Nebulae in 1966 but, as is obvious from the image, the region is awash with red emission nebulae as well.

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Van den Bergh 67, 68 & 69

MARCH 7th, 2012

Emission Nebulae Sharpless Sh2-207 & 208

Not the most spectacular of the Sharpless nebulae but with a 99% full Moon blazing away targets were a bit limited. The northern nebula is Sh2-207 - it's a bit like a mini-rosette nebula. The southern smaller one is Sh2-208. The remaining faint nebula in the image, including the faint wisp just to the west of Sh2-208, appears un-catalogued. They are to be found in Camelopardalis.

Image details:

Sharpless Sh2-207 and 208

FEBRUARY 26th, 2012

The Crab Nebula, M1

I recently came across Rob Gendler's latest image of the Crab Nebula and immediately thought I need to do better! That image was taken with a 0.9 metre (3 feet) RC on a remote mountain top site but we can always try. As might be expected I couldn't get close but I ended up with a better image than before.

Image details:

Crab Nebula

FEBRUARY 25th, 2012

The California nebula, NGC 1499

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Image details: This bright emission nebula in Perseus is so named because it appears to resemble the outline of the US State of California. Just a quickie exposure for me at only 100 minutes. The magical UHC filter again. I am busy looking for a nebula in the shape of Lancashire - it's about time we one named after us!

• Date: 16th January 2012
• Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106 (4-inch Refractor)
• Camera: Canon 40D.
• Exposures: 100 minutes with UHC filter (10 x 10 minutes).

California Nebula

FEBRUARY 19th, 2012

The Horsehead and Flame Nebulae

A difficult object for me to image. It never rises high in the sky and is directly over the city of Manchester. In addition light pollution filters play havoc with the colours of the Flame Nebula which should have a yellow cast but of course this is precisely the wavelengths LPR filters block. Taken with the UHC filter again but still required some light pollution gradient removal - good old IRIS! Unusually for me, an image that is orientated with north to the left.

Image details:

• Date: 16th January 2012
• Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106 (4-inch Refractor)
• Camera: Canon 40D.
• Exposures: 4 hours with UHC filter (24 x 10 minutes).

Horsehead Nebula

FEBRUARY 12th, 2012

Sharpless Sh2-212 with a UC HII region and YSO (star 228)

A neglected but very interesting Sharpless emission nebula. Sh2-212 is a spherical HII region ionised by a central cluster. The latter is most evident in the infra-red where approximately 900 sources (stars) have been identified. However, probably the most interesting object lies near to its north-western edge where a Ultra Compact HII region is located. At its centre is a Young Stellar Object (YSO), also known as star 228. This YSO is high mass, around 14 solar masses and still growing, high temperature, around 30,000K, and high luminosity, approximately 17,000 times that of the sun. It has reached the main sequence so nuclear reactions have begun but it still has an envelope and disk from which it is accreting mass. It is a second generation star within Sh2-212 and appears to have formed in isolation. Reference: Deharveng et al, 2008.

Image details:

Sharpless Sh2-212

FEBRUARY 5th, 2012

The Flaming Star Nebula, IC405

Resumption of trials with the UHC filter - it is certainly a cracking light pollution filter.

The nebula is illuminated by the variable star AE Aurigae. It is a runaway star that was most likely ejected during a very close encounter of two binary star groups. This encounter, which is also credited with ejecting 2 other runaway stars, Mu Columbae and 53 Arietis, has been traced back to the Trapezium region of the Orion Nebula around two million years ago.

Image details:

• Date: 14th January 2012
• Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106 (4-inch Refractor)
• Camera: Canon 40D.
• Exposures: 4.5 hours with UHC filter (27 x 10 minutes).

IC 405

JANUARY 29th, 2012

The Crystal Ball Nebula, NGC 1514 (H IV.69)

An important nebula in the history of astronomy as this was the nebula that caused William Herschel to change his mind as to exactly what was their nature. Until discovering and observing NGC 1514 (H IV.69) he thought all nebula were composed of stars he could not resolve but this one clearly looked like a star within a (gas) cloud. He coined the name Planetary Nebula and the rest, as they say, is history. He was both right and wrong. The nebula has nothing to do with planets but he was right that it was (is) a star embedded in a gaseous cloud. Not a bad deduction for 1790!

Image details:

NGC1514

JANUARY 22nd, 2012

Spiral Galaxy NGC 1560

NGC 1560 is a relatively nearby dwarf Sd galaxy seen edge-on. It is part of the Maffei/IC342 Group. The latter is an important group just beyond the Local Group but our view is heavily obscured by the Milky Way. NGC 1560 is less obscured and has had its rotational curve measured twice which has a tantalising “wiggle”. Current estimates for the distance of this galaxy vary quite a lot but 12 Mly seems about average.

Image details:

NGC1560

JANUARY 14th, 2012

Supernova SN2012a in NGC 3239 taken 13th Jan 2012

Sensational early discovery of a supernova by amateurs Bob Moore, Jack Newton, and Tim Puckett in the irregular galaxy NGC 3239. It is still brightening and my image shows it has now (13th Jan) probably reached mag 13?

Image details:

SN2012a

JANUARY 10th, 2012

The answer to life, the universe and everything is...... 37

The answer is written in the stars! A little light relief as I decided to image this famous cluster/asterism in the shape of the number 37. No deeper meaning here - just a bit of fun! Sometimes referred to as "IC37" it is in reality NGC 2169 in Orion.

Miserable weaather seems to be continuing into 2012!

Image details:

NGC2169

JANUARY 1st, 2012

Spiral Galaxy, NGC 772 (Arp 78)

The terrible run of weather continued through December with effectively only one clear night. This odd galaxy in Aries was my target as it was one I had only taken in the early CCD days and a better image was needed.

Not a spectacular galaxy being a 130 million light years distant but NGC 772 has a very unusual appearance and Arp included it in his Catalogue of Peculiar Galaxies. Close inspection reveals faint clouds around the galaxy particularly to the south near the companion galaxy. The odd appearance and surrounding clouds are probably the result of interactions with nearby galaxies of which 2 or 3 are visible in my image although none of them are very large.

Image details:

NGC772

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