Knight of Clear Skies

1 hour ago, MartinB said:

Thanks for the link and also pointing me to NGC 1333.  I can certainly see the similarity

You're welcome, always good to see something a little different. I wonder of the rosebud will eventually open as stellar winds expel gas and dust from the centre of the nebula, and we'll see something similar to M42. Or possibly some of the obscuring dust is distant enough that it will remain obscured. 

Interesting object, reminds me of NGC 1333 in Perseus.

Here's an IR view from WISE:

http://viewer.legacysurvey.org/?ra=325.6787&dec=66.0883&layer=unwise-neo6&zoom=9

On 26/08/2022 at 19:04, Astro_Gaz said:

Yeah, I do love starless on images with lots of nebula, thank you for your kind words  

You're welcome. I think starless versions often give a greater sense of depth which the starfield can often hide. Possibly something to do with how we perceive depth, we expect objects to blur with distance which doesn't happen with point sources. 

Very nice, think the starless image works particularly well here.

Thanks all. There are a few other targets I think should make good optical/IR composites so I'll be have a go at a couple more sometime.

It's a bit like the Man in the Moon, once you see it you can't un-see it.

(By the way, the NA & Pelican are actually one HII region obscured by an intervening dust cloud. The ionizing source is a very hot star hiding behind the dust, barely visible at optical wavelengths.)

I had a go at making a composite of with of my images with some IR data from one of NASA's space telescopes. The idea was to show that a great deal of the activity in a star-forming region is hidden at visible wavelengths. Emission nebulae are often visible parts of much larger structures.

The image on the left is mine, a mix of Ha and RGB data taken with the Samyang 135mm f2. The image on the right uses data from NASA's WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) space telescope, with a blend of the two in the middle.

Field of view is about 9x9 degrees so it covers a large swathe of sky in central Cygnus. The IR image shows good coherence with the visible image in the star-forming regions around the Cygnus wall and head of the Pelican. As I understand it, Ha emission comes from a relatively thin shell, as only a small depth of materiel provides shade from the ionizing source. I'll have a go at making a crossfade video to show this more clearly.

At lower right is the Cygnus X complex, the largest known star-forming region in the Milky Way. It shows little coherence with the visible-light image as it's behind them, largely hidden behind dust clouds. It contains the Cygnus OB2 & OB9 associations, the former is visible as a dim star cluster but without the intervening dust some of its stars would be nearly as bright as Deneb. This map shows the extent of Cygnus X if you keep scrolling up past the NA & Pelican (Sh2-117), and past the much more distant Butterfly (Sh2-108):

http://gruze.org/galaxymap/map_2020/

Also of interest is the bright star at bottom-middle in the IR image, but almost invisible in RGB. This is NML Cygni, a red supergiant and one of the largest known stars.

Hope you find this of interest.

This image makes use of data products from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

This is well worth a look, an ultra-deep image of these interacting galaxies:

https://theastroenthusiast.com/the-interacting-triplet-of-m81-m82-and-ngc-3077-an-ultra-deep-219-hour-collaboration-detailing-the-nuanced-interaction-remnants-and-galactic-cirrus/

But what makes it interesting is that the page has a version with HI radio data added, which shows the gas bridges between the galaxies in blue.

This could be useful for distinguishing IFN from faint tidal bridges.

On 14/07/2022 at 15:00, Knighty2112 said:

Seems like every generation like to find faults with the previous ones, so for the current ‘woke’ generation I asssume that later generations will continue to find faults in them too!  

Often for the better, there are good reasons why we don't send children up chimneys these days. I hope the next generation will genuinely find fault with ours, there are plenty of problems we aren't addressing adequately.

Nice job, I think you have captured the jet there.

Thanks all. I have some more timelapse footage to edit together, provided I can do it in the right way. I'm trying to give some sense of the scale of these DSOs in the sky.

Thanks for the heads up.

Had a go at capturing a timelapse of the NA & Pelican rising over some trees. Used an Ha filter to isolate them from the background, the close-up shots are 30 second exposures with the Samyang 135mm. In the foreground of the wide shot we were testing out a SkySense which could be very handy for public outreach events. It worked very well, hitting the target quickly each time.

Sounds like a good one. Can't find any video of it but looks like it's been reported here, so there may be more to come:

https://fireball.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/report/268648

Here's the link on Astrobin.

Here's a timelapse of Orion's Belt & Sword rising over Kit Hill, Cornwall.

Nice find Gorann. Looking at it in IR from WISE shows structures coherent with the shells in your image.

Adjusting the opacity slider makes it easier to see how they line up. The SN has swept up surrounding dust into filaments and heated it.

Was framing up the Rosette nebula earlier and saw a meteor burst very close to it on the liveview. Think I saw the a vapour trail drift away from it over the next couple seconds. If anyone was out imaging the Rosette it might be worth checking your subs.

Fine result on a difficult target.

On 27/01/2022 at 08:38, Stu said:

Thanks. Did you need to lengthen the holes to fit it?

Tested the controller and it's working fine. A friend of mine fitted the battery (it's their mount and controller I use), I don't believe they had to perform any surgery on the PCB.

13 hours ago, Stu said:

Could you let me know how you get on please? I’ve got two that need doing! Was that battery correct? Will get some ordered up if so. Many thanks 🙏 

Will do. The battery is now fitted but I need to test it out.

Thanks Andrew.

After over 20 years of use, the internal battery in the Vixen SkySensor I use has failed. It still works but it's a right pain to enter all the settings each time it's powered up. I found this useful guide to replacing the battery:

https://www.atm-workshop.com/skysensor-battery.html

I think I've found the correct battery here, I'd appreciate it if someone could take a quick look and sanity check it for me please?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/LS14500-2PF-Lithium-Battery-soldering-Metal-metal/dp/B00432X9AO/ref=sr_1_8?adgrpid=55994738867&gclid=Cj0KCQiAraSPBhDuARIsAM3Js4pciin6eFp5Ycq2ghwlWsn8rAl1L0MiWPQ29z3ivjmZELL9LJs1l6QaAuOQEALw_wcB&hvadid=259012927905&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1006879&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=8399788309656975884&hvtargid=kwd-296729583584&hydadcr=22927_1724234&keywords=ls14500&qid=1642711960&sr=8-8

Narrowband filters are also a good option for Moonlit nights, this was taken a couple nights ago.

Without the Moon perhaps I'd have got a bit more of the faint stuff.

Moony nights are also good for testing and debugging.

A welcome clear sky but a bright Moon dictated a bright target, so here's the Heart nebula.

About 80 minutes of Ha with the 200mm L f2.8 lens and 1600MM cool (1 minutes subs). The colour starfield is just a 20 second exposure with the Samyang 135mm f2 and 6D.

Hope you like it, was good to get out imaging again.