More Herschel hunting and random observations

[aparker]

Out again tonight after the list - poking around Cetus, Perseus, Triangulum mostly.

Started out by looking at some nebulae, however, since the winter approaches and Cygnus is not going to be with us much longer.  Here's the eastern Veil.  Everything tonight, BTW, uses 15sec subs @1000 mm EFL.

Two of the Herschel galaxies in Cetus, NGC 545 and 547, are part of Abell 194.  They are the very bright pair of ellipticals right in the center.  A number of edge-on spirals to the upper right.

NGC 1060 and 1066 are the brightest elliptical gx in this shot, lots of faint background galaxies too.

NGC 7589 was the last Herschel object I needed in Pegasus.  It's part of Abell 2589.  This is one of those great fields where you look closely and realize there are more galaxies than stars...

At the end of the session Orion was just starting to climb out of the haze so I had to do a gratuitous Horsehead - still only 20 degrees above the horizon, so pretty washed out...

[aparker]

Also, NGC1193 in Perseus, a distant open cluster (3400 parsec).  The finer pixel pitch of the Ultrastar helps this one out.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice collection! A few there that are withing range of my scope, but I haven't seen yet (NGC 545 and 547 in particular). Should give them a go some time.

[RobertI]

Very nice set of captures, the detail in the Veil is amazing, that Ultrastar is working out nicely! It must have be great to see that appear on the screen real time. I have a 32" TV which i sometime use connected to the laptop to view images from the Lodestar, but it does not always give a much better experience than my 15" laptop TBH, but I imagine higer res images from the Ultrastar would look great on a larger TV/monitor.

Can I ask what make/model reducer you are using?

Rob

[laudropb]

Very nice set of images. You obviously had a very productive session.

[Martin Meredith]

I agree with Rob, the detail you've pulled out of the Veil fragment is excellent. I also enjoyed seeing the open cluster, rarely visited I imagine. Just wondering what that line of dots in the lower left of the Horsehead is? Looks like it is regularly-spaced but only illuminated for a fraction of the exposure length (rotating geostationary satellite?).

Martin

[aparker]

I agree with Rob, the detail you've pulled out of the Veil fragment is excellent. I also enjoyed seeing the open cluster, rarely visited I imagine. Just wondering what that line of dots in the lower left of the Horsehead is? Looks like it is regularly-spaced but only illuminated for a fraction of the exposure length (rotating geostationary satellite?).

Martin

Good eye Martin - in my bleary 11 PM post I didn't even notice - but I think you are right, it has to be a satellite of some sort.  I guess that's a hazard in 21st century imaging.  Especially in urban areas - my first sequence on the Veil was ruined when an airliner flew right through the field after I'd already stacked 8 or 9 subs.   

[aparker]

 I also enjoyed seeing the open cluster, rarely visited I imagine.

Martin

The great thing about doing the Herschel 2500 (really about 2390 when you take out the duplicates and false positives) is that it makes you look at things you probably never would have bothered to go after otherwise - and some of them turn out to be pretty cool.  Like NGC6255 the other night - I will definitely go back to that one day and see if I can get even more detail on that textbook barred spiral GX.

Early on in the Herschel quest I looked at many of the OC in the "400" list of the easiest objects using my big Newtonian, and really enjoyed it.  I do like star clusters best through the eyepiece, no doubt about it.  Nebulae are far more enjoyable as EAA subjects, however...

[Astrojedi]

Great captures Alex. I also prefer to do OCs visually. Probably the only objects I can do visually from my LP backyard.