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Showing results for tags 'galaxy'.
Found 109 results
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Hi, this is my first time using my new Esprit 100ED, my first time processing using Pixinsight, and it's my first image using a Mono + filters. I loved them, can't wait to try on more targets. here's the result: Equipments: SkyWatcher Esprit 100ED SkyWatcher EQ6-R SkyWatcher EvoGuide 50ED Guidescope Imaging cam ZWO ASI1600MM Cool Pro ZWO EFW ZWO LRGB+NB 36mm filters Guiding cam ZWO ASI290MM Mini Seeing was avarage Location was in a Green Zone Exposures: Ha 11x1800sec L 39x300sec R 13x300sec G 15x300sec B 15x300sec Darks: 24x300sec 10x1800sec Bias: 70 Thanks
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Hello everyone, So, I come back with a nice galaxy that we don't see often in the astronomy forums. This week-end, I was ready to do some shots on nebula and I installed already the reducer but when I was ready, It was too late to have a shots on my target so I decided to change and to do some shots on this galaxy that is interesting target concerning the polar ring. I was lasy to remove my reducer and to install again the flattener so I was afraid to get small target view but it is ok. Concerning the exposure time, I have done 15 x 600s + 18 x 300s in Luminance (without guiding) : I hope you will like it. Franck
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Last of my collection of data from the weekend clear skies. C11 with focal reducer (1760mm), ASI183mm Pro. Astrodon filters. Mesu 200. Pixinsight. M108 25 x 60s Lum 8 x 60s RG&B Thanks for looking Dave
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The Great Barred Spiral Galaxy ( NGC 1365 ) in the Constellation Fornax ………………………. ( edit - star chart added ) The Great Barred Spiral Galaxy ( NGC 1365 ) - Chart ( please click/tap on image see larger and sharper version ) A full size ( 6200 x 4407px ) image can be downloaded from here. ………………………. Details: Below the equator, not seen from much of the Northern hemisphere, NGC 1365 passes very nearly directly overhead an observer situated near Cape Town, as Sir John Herschel was in November of 1837 when he discovered this “remarkable nebula” that is numbered 2552 in his book of observations from the Cape. Not called a “nebula” now, of course, this striking object is one of the nearest and most studied examples of a barred spiral ( SB ) galaxy that also has an active galactic nuclei resulting in its designation as a Seyfert galaxy. At around 60 M light years from Earth, NGC 1365 is still seen to occupy a relatively large area ( 12 by 6 arc minutes ) due to its great size; at some 200,000 light years or so across, NGC 1365 is nearly twice as wide as the Milky Way and considerably wider than both the Sculptor and Andromeda galaxies. This High Dynamic Range ( HDR ) image is built up from multiple exposures ranging from 4 to 240 seconds with the aim of capturing the faint detail in the spiral arms of the galaxy whilst also retaining colour in the brightest star ( the orange-red 7th magnitude giant, HD 22425 ). Also, scattered throughout the image, and somewhat more difficult to see, are numerous and far more distant galaxies. ................. Identification: The Great Barred Spiral Galaxy New General Catalogue - NGC 1365 General Catalogue - GC 731 John Herschel ( Cape of Good Hope ) # 2552 - Nov 28, 29 1837 Principal Galaxy Catlogue - PCG 13179 ESO 358-17 IRAS 03317-3618 RA (2000.0) 3h 33m 37.2 s DEC (2000.0) -36 deg 8' 36.5" 10th magnitude Seyfert-type galaxy in the Fornaux cluster of galaxies 200 Kly diameter 60 Mly distance .................. Capture Details: Telescope: Orion Optics CT12 Newtonian ( mirror 300mm, fl 1200mm, f4 ). Corrector: ASA 2" Coma Corrector Quattro 1.175x. Effective Focal Length / Aperture : 1375mm f4.7 Mount: Skywatcher EQ8 Guiding: TSOAG9 Off-Axis-Guider, Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2, PHD2 Camera: Nikon D5300 (unmodified) (sensor 23.5 x 15.6mm, 6016x4016 3.9um pixels) Location: Blue Mountains, Australia Moderate light pollution ( pale green zone on darksitefinder.com map ) Capture ( 3, 7 & 8 Dec 2018 ) 7 sets of sub-images with exposure duration for each set doubling ( 4s to 240s ) all at unity gain ( ISO 250). 140 x 240s + 10 each @ 4s to 120s total around 9.7 hrs Processing ( Pixinsight ) Calibration: master bias, master flat , master dark Integration in 7 sets HDR combination Links: 500px.com/MikeODay photo.net/photos/MikeODay <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike-oday">www.flickr.com/photos/mike-oday</a> Image Plate Solution =================================== Resolution ........ 0.586 arcsec/px ( full size image ) Rotation .......... -0.003 deg ( North is up ) Field of view ..... 58' 37" x 38' 55" Image center ...... RA: 03 33 36 Dec: -36 08 27 ===================================
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M31 testing to find the happy settings for when the heat and humidity leaves taken 4 nights after Florence saturated the Carolinas with water. taken in not ideal conditions but, I was having withdrawals. I needed to test out different settings to see which would give me the better data , UG or HDR and guess which one out? Stars are a lot better since I got my autoguiding going , now to get rid of the boil and clouds.
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After a clear start to the evening here, I set up my 200p with the intention to do some imaging. As usual, after it was properly dark and I was pretty much ready to go, the clouds rolled in - though they were thin and quite broken. This put paid to any thoughts of imaging and so I decided to have a look for the galaxy C3, NGC 4236, which is relatively large and has a low surface brightness. I didn't have much confidence that my 8" F5 Newtonian would have the light grasp to pick out anything but I thought that I'd have a go anyway. The star hop is very straightforward and I managed to get the finder lined up in the right place without too much difficulty. The faint background marker stars were also visible in the finder and so lining up wasn't so bad, although equatorial mounts can be a bit awkward at high DEC values. I popped in my 15 mm EP and had a look. There was nothing much to see to start with apart from the stars I used for lining up the telescope was obviously much brighter and I spent a bit of time matching the views between what I could see in the fnder and the main scope. After a bit of time I could see that the background sky glow wasn't uniform and there was a hint of a slightly brighter band that was just about visible. It's easy to confuse internal refflections within the scope for features (even with the dew shield attached) and so I used the RA and DEC controllers to jog the scope slightly to see if the band would move with the field stars. Sure enough, the band did move in register with the stars. I had my laptop at hand and I looked up some astro images of the galaxy and, indeed, the band I could see was lined up relative to the field stars in the same way as the galaxy is aligned in the images. I was really please with this as I could at least make out something of the brighter regions of the galaxy and the night ended on a bit of a high.
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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 ... -
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: Slynxx Learning Curve
First proper try at capturing M31 30 x 75 sec Light Frames 10 x Dark Frames Canon 700D (Un-modded) Canon EF 75-300 ISO 1600 Stacked using Photoshop & the Median stacking process.-
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From the album: Deep Sky Imaging
This is a 7 hour exposure of the M74 galaxy using a astro full specturm modded Canon 40D DSLR through a IR Cut filter. The image is taken with a Celestron 8" SCT at F6.3 through a focal reducer(1280mm focal length). The image consists of mostly 450s subs and approximately 1 hours of 120s subs, all at ISO 800. This galaxy is located at about 30 Million Light years distance from us, at for a magnitude 10 object it did seem like quite a faint object to image, this could be due to the it's low altitude throughout the whole exposure and a little bit of city light pollution in that part of the sky. -
From the album: Stargazer33's Album
C8, CG5-GT, f6.3 focal reducer, Canon 1100D© 2013 Bryan Harrison
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From the album: Astro Collection
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From the album: Jon's images
7 x 135s lights, 2 x 135s darks, 11 x bias, total 15m44s, unguided, overprocessed M31. Just as a test to see if I'm learning the right way to do things. -
Here's my quicky at M82 SN2014J, two nights ago and the only clear night for ages but quite gusty so the 200p what an excellent sail. 16 x 180s Lights10 x 180s Darks800iso200p HEQ5 Guided in phdProcessed in Nebulosity & CS6
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The sky cleared for a spell last night, though there were still patches of cloud floating past, and so I got the scope setup for a bit of observing and imaging. I start hopped from Almaak to bAnd and after a right angle turn to the line of three stars HIP11185, the faint HIP11099, and HIP11090, I managed to find C23. It lies close to HIP11185 on an approximate line back to bAnd. It is pretty faint but with slightly averted vision is certainly looks like a smudgy streak. I only viewed it with my 20 mm EP but I think that a little experimenting at higher power may have helped. I found that that the best views of M51, on previous sessions, were with my 10 mm EP which really helped to contrast the galaxy against the background glow of the sky. The cloud rolling back in last prevented me trying this sadly. Hopefully, I'll get the chance to try again soon.
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Another final process i done the other night. Had the data for a couple weeks now and have had many different versions but this one i enjoy the most. I was able to pull out some of the nice the galactic cirrus dust in this area using new techniques involving luminance layers which i have never used before. Without them i wasnt able to bring any of the IFN to the surface! I cant actually find an image that shows more of the flux nebula than i have here but if anybody knows of one i would be interested in seeing it just to compare. Exposure Details:70* 300 seconds, f7, ISO 800, calibration frames, 805mmScope: Altair Astro 115EDTCamera: Canon 600DaMount: NEQ6
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Centaurus A or NGC 5128 is a galaxy in the constellation of Centaurus. Its a Radio galaxy around 10-16 Mly away. The image info: Telescope: ASA 12'' F3.6 Mount ASA DDM85 Camera: FLI 8300 Mono Location: Namibia Hope you like it, Thanks, Haim
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M63 galaxy,taken over several nights, in LRGB, through a skywatcher MN190, an atik 314 mono. Could have done with more images per stack, but though it was worth a share being its the first time ive tryed proper colour. Each colour was between 12-15 at 6 mins.......
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Hey I am new to this forum, For now I am going to be heading towards (amateur astronomy hobbyist) till I finish my education and hopefully become an astronomer! I am really interested in astronomy,but sadly I miss the equipment ,My equipment for now is : Strong binoculars My eyes A kids toy telescope well, I really am most fascinated by galaxies and nebulae, so i am waiting (since 8 months) that my mum gets money and buys me a real telescope! So does anyone know any good cheap (100$-300$) telescopes which can see galaxies? If anyone would give me a link to buy it I would really appreciate it!
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Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744 in Pavo NGC 6744 is a Milky Way like barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Pavo. Visible only from lower latitudes, the light we see now left this galaxy around 30 million years ago. Details: Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744 in Pavo. Skywatcher Quattro 10" f4 Newtonian telescope. Skywatcher AZ Eq6 GT Mount. Orion 80mm f5 guide scope and auto guider - PHD2. Baader MPCC Mark 3 Coma Corrector, no filter. Nikon D5300 (unmodified). Field of view (deg) ~ 1.35 x 0.90. ISO800, 14bit NEF, Long Exp. NR on. 44 x 120sec 4th Sept 2016 Processed in PixInsight and finished off in Photoshop. Links: https://500px.com/MikeODay http://photo.net/photos/MikeODay
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The Silver Coin Galaxy ( NGC 253 ) in the Sculptor constellation - updated. 24th March 2017: New version that was reprocessed ( again ) to improve colour balance ... original version below ( colours are a little too yellow ) ( click on image to see full size ) The Silver Coin Galaxy ( NGC 253 ) in the Sculptor constellation ( aka the Silver Dollar or Sculptor Galaxy ). Caroline Herschel in 1783 was the first to recordthis bright ‘nebula’ in an area of the southern sky that Nicolas de Lacaille had called the “Apparatus Sculptoris” or “the sculptor’s studio”. Whilst relatively close to us compared to the billions of far more distant galaxies in the Universe, the great size of the “Sculptor Galaxy” and the huge distances involved are still hard to comprehend. To put this into some perspective, the light that is just now reaching one edge of the great disc left the opposite edge when the Earth was in the grip of last great Ice Age 70,000 years ago and the light we now see has been travelling towards us for over 11 million years. Details: NGC 253 - "Silver Coin" or "Sculptor" galaxy. RA 00 48 23, DEC -25 11 52. Skywatcher Quattro 10" f4 Newtonian telescope. Skywatcher AZ Eq6 GT Mount. Orion Short Tube 80mm guide scope & auto guider - PHD2. Baader MPCC Mark 3 Coma Corrector & no filter. Nikon D5300 (unmodified). Field of view (deg) ~ 1.35 x 0.90. 20 x 180 sec ISO 800, long exp noise reduction on. Pixinsight & Photoshop. 4th November 2016 updated version 17 March 2017
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In my moderately light-polluted skies, I've been hunting for this galaxy for several nights in a row. Was starting to doubt I'd ever see it. Finally, guided by Stellarium (double-flipped so it matches what I see in the finderscope), I managed to find the right patch of sky. Absolutely no trace of the galaxy in either finderscope, or main scope, but in a 30 second exposure of the DSLR, I finally made out a fuzzy blob. Thrilling moment, I have to say! (I guess that's why we do what we do...). Sadly, I had to rush to get just 10 x 2 minute subs before the clouds came in, but I'm totally inspired and waiting for the next clear night to do a better job. (Skywatcher 200P, EQ5 GoTo mount unguided, Canon 450D ISO 800, 10 x 2min subs, 8 x darks, no flats) Seeing the spiral arms emerge in the longer subs was a first for me - I'm convinced with 32 subs (maybe pushing out to 3 minute exposures) - I'll get a lot more detail and colour. Any suggestions for my next session? The vignetting was something crazy, so I'm certainly taking flats next time.
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Theres one from the 2nd M64, taken through the mak Newtonian, and an atik 314L plus mono. the stack was 14 x 4 mins.........cloud rolled in and spoiled the show after that.
