alan4908

Thanks for the comment ! Alan

Orientated nearly face on to Earth and situated close to the northern celestial pole, NGC 1530 has a low surface brightness and is classified as a barred spiral galaxy. It is estimated to be between 80 and 113million light years away and receding at over 2400km/s. Whilst not often imaged by amateurs, it is one of the most examined galaxies by the professionals. Many of these studies focus on mechanisms for star formation, which is rare amongst galaxies with a prominent bar. The strong HII emissions, seen in the image, are evidence of star formation. The galaxy is relatively isolated, so I decided to crop the image to better reveals the galaxy’s details. To enhance the spiral structure of the core, I used Russell Croman’s (free) ColorCorrectedHDMRT PI script that corrects for Hue changes whilst compressing dynamic range. The LRGB image was acquired with my Esprit 150 and represents approximately 11 hours integration time. Alan LIGHTS: L:24, R:10, G:12, B:18 x 600s. BIAS: 80, DARKS:23, FLATS:10 all at -20C.

Thanks for the comment Bryan. Yes - lots of stars, so I spent a bit of time trying to bring out their various colours. I always find this a bit of a challenge, particularly when you have blue stars embedded in red nebulosity. Alan

Thanks for the comment Laurin. Yes, the NSG script is definitely impressive and it will now form part of my standard processing in PI. Alan

The Tulip Nebula (aka Sh2-101) is about 6000 light years away in Cygnus and consists of a collection of hydrogen, oxygen and sulphur gases. Ultraviolet light from nearby young stars ionise the gas creating red, green and blue colours, making it a popular narrowband target. In particular, the very bright blue/white star HDE 227018 shown near the centre of the image creates a bluish/violet bubble within the nebula. Since I prefer natural colours, I decided to image using LRGB techniques but to enhance details and contrast, I also decided to capture HII emissions via an Ha filter which I subsequently blended into the red and luminescence channels. The result is below represents 19 hours integration time and was taken with my Esprit 150. For those that may be interested: after watching Adam Blocks tutorials on the Pixinsight script Normalize Scale Gradient www.adamblockstudios.com/categories/PixInsight - this is my first image using this script – it really does appear to give more realistic sub frame weightings and facilitates easier removal of light gradients. Alan LIGHTS: L:21, R:17,G:15,B:13 x 600, Ha: 16 x 1800s; BIAS:100; FLATS:40; DARKS:30 all at -20C.

Yes, I also use Aladin, which I find to be an excellent program but mainly to identify background objects within the field of view. Alan

Thanks I shall explore that one. FYI I normally use CCDNavigator for selecting my targets, I mainly use this since it is also communicates ACP Expert, allowing a new target to be programmed with just a mouse click. Alan

Thanks Peter Thanks - Yes, it definitely is a colourful object, so it is a little surprising that it doesn’t often appear on SGL, perhaps this is due to it’s small apparent size. Alan

Thanks Michael.

Thanks - yes, the Ha filter definitely makes the star forming regions stand out (nice pic by the way) I will have to try this should I ever revisit this target.

Yes, given the relatively good UK seeing conditions from my site I did wonder if going below 0.7 arc seconds/pixel would bring any additional resolution to my images, however, I subsequently convinced myself that I was at the limit for my system + site. Alan

Thanks - yes, it is well worth the effort of imaging but take note that it has a small apparent size. I was at 0.7 arc seconds per pixel and still decided to crop it. Alan

NGC3184, also known as the Little Pinwheel Galaxy, is located in Ursa Major at the border with Leo Minor and is about 40 million light years distant. Since it is only 20 degrees inclined from face on, its distinct spiral structure is clearly visible. The yellowish core contains old mature stars, while the spiral arms show star forming HII regions scattered amongst mainly blue stars. A dim gaseous disc surrounds the galaxy which has been found to contain over 1000 compact star clusters. To the right of the image you can also see a red giant star. A few much more distant galaxies are also visible in the background. This LRGB image was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents just over 12 hours integration time. LIGHTS: L:25, R:16, G:17, B:15 x 600s, DARKS:30, BIAS:100, FLATS:40 all at -20C. Alan

Thanks for the comment Peter Alan

Located in Cygnus, I could only find a handful of images of this relatively bright nebula, so it appears quite a neglected target. What I particularly like are how the blue stars add colour contrast to the deep red of the emission cloud. This close up also reveals the dark structure in the central region. This LRGB image has an Ha blend into the red channel and represents 23 hours integration time, it was taken with my Esprit 150. Alan LIGHTS: L:27, R:21, G:20, B:20 x 600s; Ha: 17 x 1800s. FLATS:40, DARKS:20, BIAS:100 all at -20C.

I also have the same weather sensor but use it in conjunction with ACP Expert. The Hitec Astro Weather has an ASCOM weather service object ID with the name HitecWeather.Weather - in order to set this up in ACP you simply tell it the ASCOM ID of the weather server and it then knows the state of the weather (Safe or Unsafe). Although I'm not familiar with Voyager, I'd have thought you be able to perform a similar set up. FYI - given the variability of the UK weather I use 20 mins before starting things again. Alan

Thanks - I agree with your point on the detail, that's why I went for an imaging set up with the highest resolution I thought was practical for Deep Sky imaging given my local conditions - 0.7 arc seconds per pixel. Alan

Thanks for the comment. On the tidal tail - I was expecting this to go all the way to the galaxy but it hit my noise floor quite a way out. I presume it still exists here but it must be much dimmer in this region. Thanks. Yes, I too really like how those HII regions have come out on the final image. Good luck with your future capture ! Thanks Peter. Thanks, I'm glad you liked it ! Alan

Thanks for the comment Yes - that faint band of light to the left of the galaxy is the very long tidal tale . It doesn't often appear on images, probably because it is is very faint. As explained above, it was probably created c800 million years ago when M66 passed by and ripped stars and gas out of NGC 3628. Thanks - yes, I agree - I've often looked at images at this galaxy but never really paid as much attention to the amount of detail before. Alan