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For me, it was a 70/700 refractor nice and easy, but what scope did you start with? (P.S. I don't want the Refractor vs Reflector fight again!) -
The Radio Astronomy Section, which is part of the British Astronomical Association (BAA) and supported by the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) and The Mansfield and Sutton Astronomical Society are pleased to announce that the UK Radio Astronomy Meteor Beacon - GB3MBA is now up and running. Beacon Status and Frequency can be found here - https://ukmeteorbeacon.org/Bstatus The next phase of the project will be looking at creating a standard receiver with custom software, however anyone who is interested can now use the Beacon to detect Meteors via Radio. If you want any more information please use the Contact Us form on the site - https://ukmeteorbeacon.org/ContactAdd or email us at Contact@ukmeteorbeacon.org Kind regards John B -
From the album: Deep Sky Imaging
The Antennae Galaxies ( NGC 4038/NGC 4039) are a pair of interacting galaxies in the constellation Corvus. They are currently going through a starburst phase, in which the collision of clouds of gas and dust, with entangled magnetic fields, causes rapid star formation. Imaged using a 8" SCT (at the native 2032mm focal length), with a QHY268M camera. The total exposure time of this image for all of the LRGB filters was 5 hours and 9 minutes. Exposures: L:15x600s @ FW:31, R:17x120s G:15x180s B:16x300s @ HCG:62/OFS:25© Mariusz Goralski
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From the album: Deep Sky Imaging
The Eagle nebula (M16/NGC6611) in the constellation Serpens exposed through narrowband filters at Hα, OIII and Hβ wavelengths to emulate natural colors as those narrowband wavelengths are closely corresponding to the RGB wide band. This image was taken with a 8" SCT (at the native 2032mm focal length), with a QHY268M camera and tracked using a "hypertuned" CGEM mount. The total exposure time of this image was 12 hours and 45 minutes. Exposures: Hα:17x600s, OIII:17x900s, Hβ:17x1200s @ HCG:62/OFS:25 The color channel assignments are HAlpha, OIII and HBeta as RGB.© Mariusz Goralski
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From the album: Deep Sky Imaging
The Sombrero Galaxy, also known as M104 or NGC 4594, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo located 31 million LY from Earth. The galaxy has a diameter of approximately 50,000 light-years), a third of the size of the Milky Way. It has a bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane in its inclined disk. The dark dust lane and the bulge give this galaxy the appearance of a sombrero. Imaged using a 8" SCT (at the native 2032mm focal length), with a QHY268M camera on a hypertuned CGEM mount. The total exposure time of this image for all of the LRGB filters was 6 hours and 14 minutes. Exposures: L:17x600s & 15x300s @ FW:31, R:14x120s, G:12x180s, B:13x300s @ HCG:62/OFS:25© Mariusz Goralski
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From the album: Deep Sky Imaging
Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) is a globular cluster in the constellation Centaurus. Located at a distance of 15,800 light-years, it is the largest globular cluster in the Milky Way at a diameter of roughly 150 light-years. It is estimated to contain approximately 10 million stars, totalling the equivalent of 4 million solar masses. This photo was imaged using a Celestron C8 and a QHY268M at the native 2032mm focal length. This very bright object was exposed for only 78 minutes, 14x180sec subs through a UV & IR Cut filter and 12 x 60s subs through each of the red, green and blue filters.© Mariusz Goralski
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From the album: Deep Sky Imaging
Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is a galaxy in the constellation of Centaurus 13 million lightyears away. NGC 5128 is one of the closest radio galaxies to Earth and is also the fifth-brightest in the sky, making it an ideal amateur astronomy target. The galaxy is only visible from below very low northern latitudes but is best seen or imaged from the southern hemisphere. This photo was imaged using a Celestron C8 and a QHY268M at the native 2032mm focal length. This object was exposed for 3 hours and 56 minutes, 16x600sec luminance subs through a UV/IR rejection filter and 6x120s red, 8x180s green and 8x300s blue filters.© Mariusz Goralski
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From the album: Deep Sky Imaging
The Hamburger Galaxy, not my best image as it's quite low in the northern sky from my location and I was exposing while shooting over house roofs which, no doubt, caused thermal currents and destabilised the star and object light. NGC 3628 is a unbarred spiral galaxy, located about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. Along with M65 and M66, NGC 3628 forms the Leo Triplet, a small group of galaxies. Its most conspicuous feature is the broad and obscuring band of dust located along the outer edge of its spiral arms, roughly resembling meat between bread rolls and giving it the nickname "The Hamburger Galaxy". This image was exposed across two nights, 3 & 4 April 2022, using a QHY268M through a Celestron C8" SCT at the native 2032mm focal length, tracked on a Hypertuned CGEM mount. Total exposure time was 6 hours and 23 minutes through all LRGB filters.© Mariusz Goralski
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From the album: Deep Sky Imaging
The Pencil Nebula, NGC 2736, is a part of the Vela Supernova Remnant, near the Vela Pulsar in the constellation Vela, about 815 light-years away. This images total exposure time was 9 hours and 50 minutes, consisting of 13 x 600 second H-Alpha, 12 x 900 second OIII and 14 x 1200 second H-Beta 7nm narrowband channels. Taken through a 80mm Refractor @ f6.25, on a hypertuned CGEM mount with QHY268M camera.© Mariusz Goralski
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From the album: Deep Sky Imaging
The Dolphin Head Nebula, Sh2-308 (RCW11 & LBN1052), is a bubble of gas expelled from the star EZ Canis Majoris in the constellation "Canis Major". This image was exposed in HAlpha, OIII and HBeta narrowband color. This photo consists of 12x600s Hα, OIII:12x900s OIII and 11x1200s Hβ at High Control Gain of 62 and an offset of 25. Taken from a semi rural (Bortle 4-5) sky through a 80mm Refractor @ f6.25, on a hypertuned CGEM mount with QHY268M camera for a total exposure time of 8 hours and 40 minutes. Object name: Dolphin/Gourd Nebula Object ID: Sh2-308 (RCW11 & LBN1052) Constellation: Canis Major Coordinates: RA: 06h54m15.88s, DEC: -23°48’44.70” (star Central: EZ CMa/WR 6 & Orange: O1CMa) Distance: 4530 LY Magnitude: 7.0 Exposure Date: 09 - 13 March 2022© Mariusz Goralski
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From the album: Deep Sky Imaging
Another image of one of the most popular objects imaged by astroimagers... The Horsehead Nebula/Barnard 33 with Alnitak and the Flame Nebula, but exposed mainly through narrowband filters, but emulating natural colors of the object. I was planning to combine H-Alpha as red, OIII as green and H-Beta as blue channels to create a natural colour image through CCD narrowband filters, eliminating any light pollution or moon sky-glow in the process. Unfortunately, the last night when I was able to do any imaging of subs for this object was on the 20th February before it became cloudy every day and night with constant rain. Having already completed the capture H-Alpha and RGB data, I set my exposure plan to alternate between OIII and H-Beta subs during that night, which is lucky because I only had a short window of a few hours and it turned out to be my final night of imaging for the foreseeable future. I managed to get only 3 x 30 minute H-Beta and 4 x 20 minute OIII narrowband subs. After waiting for a couple of weeks, I figured that I'm not going to get much decent time on Barnard 33 before it become obscured by landmarks so I decided to combine my currently exposed subs, H-Alpha into red, OIII into green and H-Beta into blue, as planned, and added 25% intensity from my RGB subs resulting in the image above. This image total exposure time was 9 hours and 32 minutes, channels consisting of 15 x 600 second H-Alpha, 4 x 1200 second OIII and 3 x 1800 second H-Beta 7nm narrowband subs with only 25% intensity added from the 14 subs each through red (180s), green (300s) and blue (600s) filters. Taken through a 80mm Refractor @ f6.25, on a hypertuned CGEM mount with QHY268M camera. I think that my narrowband imaging imitating natural color experiment is (once again) successful... the first time I tried this filter to channel alignment was on the Trifid nebula last August. The advantages of exposing images through this narrowband filter to channel alignment is that most of (if not all) light pollution is rejected, imaging is possible during moon light (within reason), colors look natural, I find that more detail is captured through narrowband compared to broadband filters and narrowband filtered subs are much less susceptible to lens flares and/or internal reflections when there are bright stars near by to the object. The only disadvantage I can think of is that the subs exposure times are a lot longer, resulting in much longer total exposure times needed for each image... although I'm starting to doubt this fact now after seeing how clean my H-Beta and OIII stack ended up being when they were stacks of only 3 and 4 subs... perhaps shorter exposure time per channel will suffice?© Mariusz Goralski
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From the album: Deep Sky Imaging
The Rosette Nebula is a large spherical Hydrogen Alpha region located in the constellation Monoceros. The cluster and nebula lie at a distance of some 5,000 light-years from Earth and is roughly 130 light years in diameter. The open cluster NGC 2244 is closely associated with the nebulosity being the stars of the cluster which have been formed from the nebula's matter. The complex has the following NGC designations: NGC 2237 – Part of the nebulous region (Also used to denote whole nebula) NGC 2238, NGC 2239 & NGC 2246 – Part of the nebulous region NGC 2244 – The open cluster within the nebula This images total exposure time was 7 hours and 40 minutes, consisting of 15 x 600 second 7nm narrowband H-Alpha subs for the luminance channel and 15 x 180 second red, 15 x 300 second green and 19 x 600 second blue subs for the color data... color data was exposed during a full moon. Taken through a 80mm Refractor @ f6.25, on a hypertuned CGEM mount with QHY268M camera.© Mariusz Goralski
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Hey, made a short doc with an Astronomer at the University of Toronto who just recently found 10 super-agb star candidates... when there was only 1 prior. This has huge implications on how many supernova we can expect to see in the Universe and the elemental composition of the Universe. Check it out below! This project got us thinking about the implications of showing the scientific process in a new light. This helps with the new expectations of science communication for researchers. The scientific process never gets shown or properly explained. Discoveries in Astronomy is never astronomer looks through telescope then Eureka! A discovery! There's so much more to it then just that. There's hours and hours of organizing data, analyzing the data and writing the paper. So I hope the short doc somewhat does it justice and hope to get some feedback! -
From the album: Deep Sky Imaging
NGC 1512 is a Barred Spiral galaxy, 38 million light years away in the constellation Horologuim. The galaxy displays a double ring structure with one ring outside on the main disc and another surrounding the galactic nucleus. The galaxy shape is unusual with several faint loose spiral arms photographically revealed like they are flung away from the galaxy, but this is the result of NGC1512 being in the process of merging with NGC1510, a near by lenticular galaxy, causing tidal distortion of the outside spiral arms. Imaged in Ha & LRGB with a QHY268M camera, through a C8 SCT at 2032mm focal length, tracked on a CGEM mount for a total exposure time of 12 hours and 5 minutes.© Mariusz Goralski
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From the album: Solar System Objects
I didn't get a chance to spend too much time hunting the best seeing conditions for planetary imaging this year, but this is the best image of Saturn that I captured this season... Captured through a 8" SCT @ f30 (Televue 3X Barlow) using a Skyris 618C CCD.© Mariusz Goralski
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From the album: Solar System Objects
I didn't get a chance to spend too much time hunting the best seeing conditions for planetary imaging this year, but this is the best image of Jupiter that I captured this season... Captured through a 8" SCT @ f30 (Televue 3X Barlow) using a Skyris 618C CCD.© Mariusz Goralski
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From the album: Deep Sky Imaging
A Barred Spiral Galaxy located 37.5 million LY away in the constellation ”Grus” - NGC7424 imaged on multiple nights between 4th and 11th September 2021 in LRGB natural color. Not my best work as it was imaged during hazy & light polluted skies due to back burning procedures in the area and so I had to stretch the data quite aggressively. This is an object I will need to return to image in the future. Imaged through a 8" SCT at f6.3 and exposed for a total time of 13 hours, 27 minutes and 30 seconds, consisting of 41x300s & 18x600s of UV/IR Cut "Luma" subs @ gain 31 (6h25m)... Color data aquisition was 5x150s & 25x300s of Red, 28x300s of Green and 29x300s Blue color subs @ HCG:62 gain... all subs at Offset 25 (7h02m30s).© Mariusz Goralski
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As the poor weather and short nights are limiting my observing projects, I have been busy finishing a heavy duty aluminium and stainless steel parallelogram mount for my large 100mm APM binoculars. Here is a summary description of its build: http://refreshingvie...rammount.htm�.� It has been derived from a wooden version that I built last summer. I plan to give away the wooden model to a fellow SPOG astronomer who wants to do some bino observing while his camera is capturing photons on the scope. The parallelogram mount is an extremely comfortable to observe the night sky – the eyepieces really do seem to float in front of your eyes. If you are observing at the zenith, simply push the binos higher or if you are looking at the horizon, simply lower them down. This really does make a refreshing change from my Newtonian where the eyepiece remains where it wants to and I have to crick my neck down to meet it!! I have yet to use it for serious astronomy as the awful weather and long summer days are getting in the way. That being said, I have managed a few sessions at dusk scanning the brighter stars against a blue sky before it gets properly dark. To put the mount through its paces, I have had great fun tracking numerous airliners and high flying birds. The mount moves with ease across the sky with wonderfully smooth and controlled motions in pan and tilt at all altitudes. It is quite something to see high altitude airliners in detail from the ground as they slowly cross the sky! This mount is clearly going to be a pleasure to use once the observing season starts up again. This setup is definitely a keeper and will be used my observatory and under the dark skies of Salisbury Plain.
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ngc 253 John Herschel in South Africa ( NGC 253, Sculptor Galaxy )
MikeODay posted a blog entry in The Sculptor Galaxy - NGC 253
Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope Having spent the years 1825 to 1833 cataloguing the double stars, nebulae and clusters of stars visible from Slough, in the south of England, John Herschel, together with his family and telescopes, set sail from Portsmouth on the 13th of November 1833 bound for Cape Town. As detailed below, in an extract from his book, the family enjoyed a pleasant and uneventful voyage and arrived some 5 months later at Table Bay with all family and instruments in good condition. Reading on however, one might very well think that it might not have ended so well had they but left shortly after ... “... (iii.) Accordingly, having- placed the instrument in question, as well as an equatorially mounted achromatic telescope of five inches aperture, and seven feet focal length, by Tulley, which had served me for the measurement of double stars in England; together with such other astronomical apparatus as I possessed, in a fitting condition for the work, and taken every precaution, by secure packing, to insure their safe arrival in an effective state, at their destination, they were conveyed (principally by water carriage) to London, and there shipped on board the Mount Stewart Elpliinstone, an East India Company's ship, Richardson,Esq. Commander, in which, having taken passage for myself and family for the Cape of Good Hope, we joined company at Portsmouth, and sailing thence on the13th November, 1833, arrived, by the blessing of Providence, safely in Table Bay, on the 15th January, 1834, and landed the next morning, after a pleasant voyage, diversified by few nautical incidents, and without seeing land in the interim. It was most fortunate that, availing himself of a very brief opportunity afforded by a favorable change of wind, our captain put to sea when he did, as we subsequently heard that, immediately after our leaving Portsmouth, and getting out to sea, an awful hurricane had occurred from the S. W. (of which we experienced nothing), followed by a series of south-west gales, which prevented any vessel sailing for six weeks. In effect, the first arrival from England, after our own, was that of the Claudine, on the 4th of April, with letters dated January 1st.(iv.) ...” “Result of Astronomical Observations, Made During the Years 1834, 5, 6, 7, 8, At the Cape of Good Hope ... “ by Sir John Herschel, 1847 John Herschel rented a property and set up the twenty foot reflector near Table Mountain, at a site, that was then, just outside of Cape Town. The Twenty Feet Reflector at Feldhausen, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, 1834 This telescope was made by Herschel in England and transported, along with his other instruments, by ship to Cape Town and then inland to Feldhausen. The telescope is a Newtonian reflector, built to William Herschel’s design, with a focal length of 20 feet and clear aperture of 18 1/4 inches ( f13 ). The location of the telescope was established by careful survey to be: lat 33d 55’ 56.55”, long 22h 46’ 9.11” W ( or 18.462 deg E ). The site of the great telescope was memorialised by the people of Cape Town by the erection of a granite column that is still there today. ............. Observations of the Sculptor Galaxy Amongst his many thousands of observations made from Cape Town, of nebulae, clusters of stars, double stars, the sun, etc., Sir John Herschel records that he observed V.1 ( CH10 - Caroline’s Nebula - the Sculptor Galaxy ) during two different “sweeps” and gave it the number 2345 in his South African catalogue. Sweeps: 646 - 20th November 1835; 733 - 12th September 1836 At the latitude of Feldhausen, and on these dates, the Sculptor galaxy would have been at an altitude around 80 degrees above the northern horizon when near the meridian ( which was where the telescope was pointed during Herschel’s “sweeps” ). The sight afforded from this location, with the Sculptor Galaxy almost at the zenith, must have been significantly brighter and clearer than the Herschels had thus far been granted from its location way down near the horizon south of Slough. .......... Other Obsevations by John Herschel from Cape Town Also observed by John Herschel in 1835 were the people and animals that inhabit the moon ... The Great Moon Hoax of 1825 - “Lunar Animals and other Objects, Discovered by Sir John Herschel in his Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope ... “ -
Observations of the Sculptor Galaxy ( NGC 253 ) by William and John Herschel ......... Part 2. Observations of "Caroline's Galaxy" by Sir John Herschel, 1830's Sir John Herschel, the only child of Mary Baldwin and Sir William Herschel, was born in 1792 when his father was in middle age and already famous as one of world's leading astronomers. Having excelled in school, and no doubt inspired by his famous elders, John Herschel decided upon a career as a 'man of science' and set out to pursue a wide range of interests; with one particular focus being a continuation of the study of the heavens commenced by his father and aunt, Caroline Herschel. In 1820, with the assistance of his father, John Herschel supervised the construction of a new telescope at Slough in England. As described in the extract below ( from a paper presented to the Royal Society in 1826, titled "Account of some observations made with a 20-feet reflecting telescope ... " ), the telescope had a polished metal mirror with clear aperture of 18 inches, focal length of 20 feet and was modelled on the same design created by his father. It is this telescope, in the 1820’s and early 30’s, following the death of his father and the return of his aunt Caroline to Hanover, that John Herschel used to 'sweep' the night sky and extend the catalogue of nebulae and clusters of stars that was published by his father ( see W. Herschel's Catalogue of One Thousand new Nebulae and Clusters of Stars ). On the 1st of July 1833, having complied sufficient observations, John Herschel presented to the Royal Society an updated list of the positions and descriptions of the Nebulae and Clusters of Stars that he had thus far observed. As noted in the introduction to the paper published in the Philosophical Transactions, he had planned to wait before publishing until he had complied a fully comprehensive general catalogue of objects visible from the south of England. However, due to his expectation of “several more more years additional work” needed to complete the task and his assessment that he now was in a position to address, at least in part, the then current “... want of an extensive list of nebulae arranged in order of right ascension ...”, he elected to present his list, “ ... simply stating the individual results of such observations as I have hitherto made ... “. It was not until October 16, 1863, some thirty years later, that Sir John would deliver to the Royal Society his General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars. As well as introducing many objects that had not previously been recorded, Sir John’s list of 1833 included a re-examination of, and in some cases a small correction to, the positions of many of the deep sky objects observed by his father and noted down by his aunt. One of these re-visited objects was, unsurprisingly, the large and bright nebula discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1783 and recorded in Sir Williams’s catalogue as V.1 / CH 10 ( object number one, of class five ( very large nebulae ) / Caroline Herschel #10 ). In total, John Herschel records around 2500 observations of nebulae and clusters of stars in his 1833 paper; with observation #61 being V.1, the “ Sculptor Galaxy “ . The measured position of V.1is given in RA and the angle from the north celestial pole ( all reduced to epoch 1830.0 ). The description can be interpreted by reference to the legend in the paper. Thus, “ A vL mE vB neb “ becomes “ A very large, much extended, elliptic or elongated, very bright nebula “. He also notes that in addition to this observation, #61, noted down from sweep #306, V.1 was also observed in sweep #292, “but no place was taken”. The figure to which he refers , figure 52, is included towards the back of his paper and is a sketch he made of the Sculptor Galaxy. to be continued ...
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Observations of the Sculptor Galaxy ( NGC 253 ) by William and John Herschel The very large and bright 'nebula' discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1783, that we now know as the Sculptor Galaxy, was observed a number of times by her 'dear brother' Sir William Herschel and by her 'beloved nephew' Sir John Herschel, Baronet. Some of these observations were recorded and published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society and, with respect to those by Sir John in South Africa, in the book of Astronomical Observations at the Cape of Good Hope. ......... Part 1. Observation of the 'class V nebula', H V.1, by Sir William Herschel, 1783 In 1782, with the fresh patronage of King George III, William Herschel, together with his sister Caroline, undertook the not inconsiderable task of transferring his astronomical equipment from Bath to Datchet ( near Windsor ) in England. Shortly afterwards, in 1983, Sir William began a "sweep of the heavens" with the very large Newtonian telescope of his design and construction. With this mighty telescope's twenty foot focal length and clear aperture of a little over eighteen and half inches, William was able to see fainter objects and smaller detail than any other astronomer of that time. ( source: The Scientific Papers of Sir William Herschel, Vol.1 ) ...... On the 30th of October, 1783, in the course of one of his "sweeps" with the twenty-foot telescope, Sir William Herschel observed Caroline's 'nebula' and noted down ( or perhaps more likely, dictated to Caroline ) a description of what he saw and a reference to its position relative to a 4th magnitude star in the Piscis Austrainus constellation, #18 Pis. Aust. ( with reference to Flamsteed's Catalogue ( or HD 214748 , HIP 111954 as we might call it )). Over the course of the next three years, Sir William would go on to view the Sculptor Galaxy a total of seven more times; as recorded in his paper "Catalogue of One Thousand New Nebulae and Clusters of Stars", presented to the Royal Society on the 27th of April 1786. ( Source ) Sir William's somewhat cryptic notes can be translated by reference to the key provide in his paper and doing so reveals the following: Class: V. ( very large nebula ) Number: 1 Observed ( by WH ): 30 Oct 1784 Reference star: 18 Piscis Austrainus ( Flamsteed's Catalogue; the best reference for the time - we might use epsilon Pis. Aust. or HD 214748 / HIP 111954 ) Sidereal direction rel. to star ( following or leading ): following star Sidereal time rel. to star: 128 min 17 sec Declination direction rel. to star: north of star Declination amount rel. to star: 1deg 39min Observed: 8 times ( up until April 1786, the date of the paper ) Description: - cB: "confidently bright" - mE: "much extended" - sp: "south preceding" - nf: "north following" - mbM: "much brighter middle" - size: 50' x 7 or 8' " CH" denotes that it was discovered by his sister Caroline Herschel The note he refers to expands on details of Caroline's discovery ... ...............................................
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The Discovery of the Sculptor Galaxy by Miss Caroline Herschel in 1783 On the 23rd of September 1783, sitting before her telescope in the field behind the house she shared with her brother William in Datchet near Slough in the south of England, Miss Caroline Herschel "swept" the sky searching for new comets and never before seen star clusters and nebulae. On this occasion, way down in the sky, not far above the Southern horizon, Miss Herschel saw and noted down a very bright and large nebula where one had never before been recorded and that was later recognised by her brother, Sir William, as the discovery by Caroline Herschel of the nebula he listed in his catalogue as H V.1. ( circ. 1825-33, Sir John Herschel, beloved nephew of Miss Caroline Herschel ) Today we know this 'nebula' to be, not as some thought then, a swirling mass of stars and gases within our own galaxy, but rather, a galaxy not unlike our own but way more distant than the outer reaches of of own Milkyway galaxy. Given various names, Silver Dollar Galaxy, Sliver Coin Galaxy or simply by its number in the New General Catalogue, NGC 253, it is most commonly called the Sculptor Galaxy and we owe its discovery to the first female professional astronomer. Caroline Herschel ( 1750 - 1848 ) ... ( link ) ( 1782 - 1783 ) ... ... ... H V.1 Observed ( by WH ): 30 Oct 1784 128 minutes, 17 seconds following and 1 degree, 39 minutes north of referenced star Description: - cB: "confidently bright" - mE: "much extended: - sp: "south preceding" - nf: "north following" -mbF: "much brighter middle" - size: 50' x 7 or 8' from: ( link ) ............................... The location reference to H V.1 ( NGC 253 ) in William Hershel's catalogue is in relation to a star found in Flamsteed's Catalogue, 18 Pis. Aust., which is #18 in Piscis Austrainus or Epsilon PsA, the 4th magnitude star HD214748 ( HIP111954 ) ( source ) ( Plate from "Atlas Coelestis" by John Flamsteed, 1646-1719 ) ------------------------------------- William Herschel found favour with the King and was granted a position as Royal Astronomer to George III in 1782. Shortly after, William and Caroline moved from Bath to Datchet ( near Windsor ) and took up residency in a rented house which, whilst somewhat delapadated and damp, had ample accommodation and fields for William to construct and deploy the large telescopes he wished to build. It was in these grounds that Caroline set up her "Sweeper" to look for comets and doing so also discovered a number of 'nebulae' including ( in 1783 ) what was later to become known as the Sculptor Galaxy. ( The Herschel house at Datchet near Windsor ) ( The Lawn, Horton Road, Slough ( Datchet ) - Google Maps ) ............. Caroline Herschel's "Sweeper" was a 27" focal length Newtonian telescope that was supported in a kind of altitude-azimuth mount consisting of a rotating table and a small gantry and pulley system that was used to effect altitude adjustments by sliding the tube up and down against a board used to provide stability. There has been some conjecture as to the exact details of the construction, however the image below, even if perhaps not the actual instrument, gives an indication of the overal design philosophy. Late in her life Caroline Herschel recorded details of her telescope in a booklet titled "My little Newtonian sweeper": In her memoir, Caroline Herschel describes the performance of her observations as the conducting of "horizontal sweeps"; from which one might assume the task consisted of setting the altitude in accordance with the plan for the night's observing and then slowing rotating the top of the table in azimuth as one observed and noted down the objects that passed across the view in the eyepiece. However, with the arrival of this new "telescopic sweeper" in the middle of 1783, Caroline Herschel added the new method of sweeping in the vertical, as noted below in an extract from her observing book ( source for both extracts: "Caroline Herschel as observer", Michael Hoskin, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 2005 ) .... The achievement of her discovery of the 'nebula' in the Sculptor constellation was remarkable in so many ways; not the least of which being the low path in the sky that the Sculptor galaxy follows when observed from Datchet in southern England - which on the night of her observation would not have exceeded 12 degrees or so above the horizon. Today, 234 years later, and blessed with 21st century luxuries and conveniences, I write on my IPAD and flip over to my planetarium application, SkySafari, and model the sky as it was seen by Caroline Herschel from near her house on the 23rd of September, 1783 ... ( SkySafari by Simulation Curriculum )
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From the album: Deep Sky Imaging
This is my first image created using my new camera. This is NGC3603 and NGC3576 (AKA The "Statue of Liberty" nebula), a massive H-Alpha region containing a very compact open cluster, located in the constellation "Carina" about 20,000LY away. I took this photo on multiple nights, between 7th - 17th May 2021. Imaged using a QHY268M attached to a 80mm f6.25 refractor on a equatorial mount. Total exposure time was 25 Hours and 35 minutes using 7nm HII, OIII and SII Narrowband filters... imaged from a bortle 4-5 semi rural sky. HII: 3x600s, 12x900s & 8x1200s subs OIII: 18x900s & 11x1800s subs SII: 21x900s, 2x1200s & 7x1800s @ HCG:62© Mariusz Goralski
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From the album: Deep Sky Imaging
The Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) also known as the Grand Nebula, Great Nebula in Carina, or Eta Carinae Nebula, is a large complex area of bright and dark nebulosity in the constellation Carina. The nebula lies at an estimated distance between 6,500 and 10,000 light-years from Earth. This image was taken from my backyard in Bortle 4-5 skies through a 80mm refractor at F6.25 (500mm focal length) with a QHY268M camera through 7nm H-Alpha, SII and OIII filters. Total exposure time was 5 hour and 50 minutes. Subs captured were HII: 12x600s OIII: 2x600s & 4x900s SII: 10x900s @ HCG:62 on 18th May 2021.© Mariusz Goralski
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From the album: MOON
Moon Surface with AstroDinsk 23 April 2021 21:35 Celestron Nexstar 6SE ZWO ASI astrocamera 462mc-
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- moon
- moonsurface
- (and 16 more)
