alan4908

Well , you don't often come across deep sky images of variable stars, so here's one The LRGB image below is centered on the eclipsing binary star V0455 Cyg and has an Ha blend into the lum and red channels. I've also included an annotated version that shows the position of another variable star 1386 Cyg that was also in the field of view. The image was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents just under 15 hours integration time. Alan LIGHTS: L:17, R: 11, G:10, B:11 x 600s; H: 11 x 1800s all at -20C.

A somewhat neglected image target, NGC 3359 is a barred spiral galaxy about 50 million light years distant located in Ursa Major. The central bar is relatively young at an estimated 0.5 billion years. The galaxy is very colourful with the bluish spiral arms incorporating young energetic blue stars and vast regions of intense star formation which appear as pinkish glows. The LRGB image below was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents an integration time of about 16 hours. Alan LIGHTS: L:39, R:17, G:20, B:18 x 600s all at -20C.

IC443 is a supernova remnant about 5000 light years distant in the Gemini constellation. The event, 3000 to 30000 years ago, ionised hydrogen atoms in nearby molecular clouds creating lattice like filaments of luminosity. The orange glow on the right edge, centre of the image is from the red giant star Propus, which is just outside the field of view. The image is a LRGB composition with a Ha blend into the red and lum channels. It was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents just under 16 hours integration time. Alan LIGHTS: L:17, R:14, G:11, B:8 x600s; Ha:15 x1800s all at -20C.

Thanks for the comment ! Alan

M5 is located in Serpens about 25,000 light years distant and is one of 160 clusters that orbit the Milky Way core in a spherical halo. It is estimated that the cluster contains in excess of 100,000 stars which are bound together by their mutual gravitational attraction. The majority of the stars where formed more than 12 billion years ago making it one of the oldest globular clusters in the Milky Way. The older stars are yellow/red stars giants, whilst the younger blue stars are believed to have been formed from stellar interactions of the densely packed older stars. The concentration of blue stars increases towards the centre where interactions are stronger. Interestingly, it also contains at least 105 low mass periodic variable stars. The LRGB image below represents just over 14 hours integration time and was taken with my Esprit 150. Alan LIGHTS: L:30, R:25, G:15, B:16 x 600s.

Thanks ! - on the bigger scope front , I do really like my Esprit 150 Thanks ! Thanks - it look me a few attempts at trying to get the blue reflection nebula to something that I liked. Alan

Thanks for the comment - it was a bit of a challenge with the colour channels, so I thought of a bit of experimentation was in order.

IC 417 (aka spider nebula) is located in the constellation of Auriga about 10k light years away. It’s an emission nebula that is energised by hot blue stars. The image below shows the head of the spider. To enhance details, I blended in some Ha in the red and lum channels. To avoid a red colour dominance I also significantly boosted the blue channel. This highlighted some details, in particular, the ghoul at the bottom of the spiders head. The image below represents about 21 hours integration time and was taken with my Esprit 150. Alan LIGHTS: L:36, R:18, G:12,B:16 x 600s; Ha: 14 x 1800s.

The wandering blue star AE Auriga is the power house of the Flaming Star Nebula (IC405). Ultraviolet radiation emitted by the star causes nearby hydrogen gas to emit red visible light, closer to the star, dust reflects starlight creating a blue reflection nebula. 2m years ago the star was within the Orion Nebula but gravitational interactions with nearby stars resulted in the star being ejected and so it now wanders the skies. For the image capture, I decided on a LRGB approach with a Ha blend into the red channel to improve the visibility of the surrounding hydrogen gas. The image below was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents 11 hours integration time. Alan LIGHTS: L:5, R:11, G:10, B:7 x 600s; Ha:11 x 1800s.

Thanks ! Thanks - I too liked how the background came out this time. Thanks Alan

A second attempt at M81 with my Esprit 150, this version incorporates some Ha that I recently acquired. The LRGB image below has an Ha blend into the red channel and represents just over 17 hours integration time. Alan LIGHTS: L:26, R:15:, G: 18, B:15 x 600s; Ha:10 x 1800s all at -20C.

It looks like the new product part is the motor drive system for a Feathertouch focuser. Two options now exist - a Handy Stepper Motor (which I have) or the newer Posidrive Motor System - see https://starlightinstruments.com/store/image/data/Brochure/StarlightInstruments-FocuserBossII.pdf Alan

Here's five from 2021 - all acquired with my Esprit 150 and a SX Trius 814. Alan NGC4449 NGC3628 NGC3184 CDE173 Pickering

The centre of the Heart Nebula (IC1805). The image is a bicolour narrowband image with HII mapped to red and OIII mapped to green and blue, acquired with my Esprit 150. To obtain realistic star colours, I eliminated the narrowband stars with StarXterminator and replaced them with RGB data that I had previous acquired with my ED80. In total the image represents 15 hours of integration time. Alan LIGHTS: R:10, G:14, B:9 x 600s; HII:9, OIII:10 x 1800s.

Thanks Craig ! Thanks Adam Thanks for the comment. I used my SX Trius 814 camera which gives me 0.7 arc seconds/pixel with my imaging set up. Alan

Discovered in 1788 by William Herschel, the field galaxy NGC2683 is about 30m light years distant in Lynx. It is inclined at 78 degrees to Earth and has a classic “flying saucer” appearance and so, not surprisingly, it is also known as the UFO galaxy. It has low luminosity with a low rate of star formation. Dust lanes are clearly visible around the spiral arms. A large population of old yellow stars form a relatively bright core, whilst much younger blue stars can be seen in the star forming region at the top right. Various background galaxies are also visible. The LRGB image below was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents just over 13 hours integration time. Alan LIGHTS: L:34, R:16, G:15, B:14 x 600s all at -20C.

IC348 IC348 is located about 1000 light years away in the Perseus constellation and consists of an open star cluster of about 400 stars. These stars illuminate the surrounding dust and gas to produce a blue reflection nebula about 15 light years across. The cluster is estimated to be only 2m years old. More than half the stars have ring shaped disks, indicating potential planet formation. Thirty brown dwarfs have been discovered within the cluster, with three having a mass as low as 10 times that of Jupiter. In 2013, a very rare object (LRLL 54361) was discovered near the reflection nebula. This emits a flash of light every 25.34 days and is believed to be a pair of proto-stars orbiting each other. The stars attract dust and gas as they orbit each other and dump the matter into the growing stars as they near each other in their orbits, resulting in a short blast of intense radiation. IC348 is embedded in a star forming region known as the Perseus molecular cloud. This is mainly visible in the mid and far infra-red wavelengths, however, in visible light it’s almost invisible. The LRGB image below represents c11 hours integration time and was taken with my Esprit 150. The image has a very high dynamic range and is not helped by the very bright star Atik which scatters light rays everywhere. It certainly makes processing a challenge ! Alan IC348 IC348 (annotated) LIGHTS: L:27, R:12, G:16,B:13 x 600s.