Imaging Projects
In this blog, I will share the results of all of my imaging projects. The newest will be at the top and the oldest will be further down the stack. Going back in time here is interesting - some of my early stuff was pretty rough - but I did not see it that way at the time - I was thrilled to get anything back that looked like an image! Hopefully, you will see how my work has progressed with time!
NGC 5981, NGC 5982, & NGC 5985: The Draco Triplet
The Draco Group of Galaxies are a string of three primary galaxies that can be seen in a common field of view in the constellation Draco. The largest and roundest one seen at the bottom of the frame is NGC 5985. This has a barred spiral structure, and the arms are clearly visible in this shot. NGC 5981 can be seen at the top of the frame. This is also a barred spiral galaxy, but it is seen almost edge-on. The galaxy in the center is NGC 5982. It is an elliptical galaxy - which is typically seen as nebulous without any obvious structure. These galaxies are approximately 100 Million light-years from earth.
Messier 20 - The Trifid Nebula
The first imaging attempt on Messier 20, commonly known as the Trifid Nebula, is a Hydrogen II region in Sagittarius located about 5000 light-years from earth. The name "Trifid" means "divided into three lobes," This describes the impression when seen visually in a Telescope. This object combines an open cluster of stars, an emission nebula (the red portion), and a reflection nebula (the blue portion), making it a rich target for astrophotography. The dark lanes are concentrations of dust and gas that form nurseries for the formation of new stars
Messier 13 - The Great Globular Cluster
Messier 13 - The Great Hercules Cluster is about 22-25 thousand light-years away and is about 145 light-years in diameter. This consists of a ball of several hundred stars packed together. This and other globular clusters are distributed around the outer plane of the galaxy and seem to be made of ancient stars.
This is the second time I shot this target with the WO132mm Platform. The first was in 2019.
M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy 2020 version
Messier 51, also know as NGC 5194 is more famously known as the Whirlpool Galaxy. It can be found in the constellation Canes Venatici and is estimated to be about 31 Million Light Years from Earth. M51 was the first galaxy to be classified as having a Spiral and is know o have a Seyfert 2 active galactic core.
This is the second project with this target - captured on the William Optics 132mm Platform.
Messier 106 - A Galaxy in Canes Venatici
M106, also known as NGC 7353, is a galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs), which is located between 22 and 25 million light-years away. M106 is a massive galaxy with a very active core region that is home to a supermassive black hole. The core is extremely bright relative to the galaxy and in my image, the core is a little over-saturated because of this.
Messier 63 - The Sunflower Galaxy - 2020 version
Messier 63, also known as NGC 5055, M63 is located in the constellation Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs) and has the common name of the Sunflower Galaxy. M63 is a spiral form galaxy with loosely wound arms with relatively poor definition in visible light. The arms are visible when observed by radio at the 21-cm Hydrogen line wavelengths. Located about 29 million light-years from Earth, M63 is a part of the M51 Group, which includes the famous Whirlpool Galaxy.
This is the second project with this target - captured on the William Optics 132mm Platform.
Messier 64 - The Black-Eye Galaxy
Messier 64 is also known as the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy or the Evil Eye Galaxy and is designated as M64, or NGC 4826. It is located 17 million light-years away in the northern constellation of Coma Berenices. It measures about 54,000 light-years in diameter, making it about half the size of our own Milky Way. It has a swirling central disk of dark dust, which gives it a unique look that inspires its name.
This was captured on the William Optics 132mm Platform.
Messier 101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy - 2020 Version
Located in the constellation Ursa Major (the Big Dipper), M101 is a large face-on spiral galaxy located 21 Million light-years from Earth. It is almost twice the size of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, about 170,000 light-years across and containing about a trillion stars. M101 is asymmetrical - it has been distorted by the tidal forces from other galaxies in its local group. This was captured on the William Optics 132mm Platform.
The Moon - 04-03-20 version
VI don't usually shoot planets or the Moon, but I was out last night with my Sony A7iii shooting with the Sony 100mm-400mm GM Zoom with the 1.4 Extender on it - all mounted on a heavy carbon fiber tripod, so I decided to take a shot at it...
Messier 45: The Pleiades and Venus - A Conjunction
Venus approaches M45 - the Pleiades star cluster. It's not very often that you can see a planet so close to a well-known star cluster, and since it was marginally clear last night, I decided to try capturing it. This was shot with my Sony A7iii shooting with the Sony 100mm-400mm GM Zoom with the 1.4 Extender on it. The entire rig was mounted on a heavy carbon fiber tripod. This is 30 x 1-second exposure at F/8, stacked in Deepsky Stacker and processed with Pixinsight and Photoshop.
NGC 2264 - The Christmas Tree Nebula and the Cone Nebula - Runner up for the worst image in the collection!
NGC2264 - Known as the Christmas Tree Nebula and the Cone nebula. This complex is in the constellation Monoceros and is about 2600 light-years away. Bad conditions, with way too few subs, way over processed. Yuck. It’s clearly a runner-up for the worst image in the collection. There is little to like here…
NGC 2174 - The Monkey Head Nebula
NGC 2174- Known as the Monkey Head Nebula. This object is located in the constellation Orion and is associated with NGC 2175 - an Open Cluster embedded in the nebula. This is only 6400 light-years away, so it's in the galactic neighborhood, so to speak.
Surprisingly short 36-minute exposure image
Messier 95 & Messier 96
hese twin Barred-Spiral Galaxies, M95 and M96, can be found in the constellation Leo. M95 is in the lower-left corner and is 33 Million Light years away. M96 in the upper right corner is 30 Million light-years away.
B33: The Horsehead and NGC 2024: The Flame Nebula
The Horsehead Nebula is a small dark nebula located just to the south of the bright star Alnitak - the left-most star on Orions Belt. It is located some 1300 light-year from the earth. On the other side of Alnitak is the Flame Nebula. This region is rich in dust and molecular clouds that are ionized by the radiation coming from Alnitak. This is a rich area for star formation. This image was the result of 90 minutes of exposure.
Messier 45 - The Pleiades Star Cluster
Messier 45, better known as the Pleides Star cluster or the Seven Sisters, is a large star group easily seen with the naked eye in the constellation Taurus - the Bull. Wow, Rochester weather in the late fall really sucks. It has been almost 9 weeks since I have had a clear night! Finally, we had a nice clear sky last evening, and the temperature was not too brutal - about 37 degrees F. My first shot of the night was M45, the Pleiades star cluster. Also known as the Seven Sisters, this open cluster is visible to the naked eye in the constellation Taurus. The framing is a bit tight here for my scope focal length, but I was just able to fit them into the field of view. These are a grouping of middle-aged blue stars, and on longer exposures, you can see local dust clouds illuminated by these blue stars. This was the result of 20 three-minute exposures.
Messier 42 - The Great Orion Nebula
Messier 42 - The Great Orion Nebula. Also known as NGC 1976. Everybody that does astrophotography shoots this very famous object at some point or another. This is my very first shot at it. This bright nebula is located 1300 light-years away in the constellation Orion. It can be seen as part of the sword in Orion's belt and is visible to the naked eye. The Orion Nebula is a large cloud of gas and dust that is an area of new star formation and is a known stellar nursery. Located in the core is the famous tight star cluster known as the Trapezium. This is located in the brightest part of the nebula.
NGC 7023 -The Iris Nebula
NGC 7023, also known as the Iris Nebula, is located in the constellation Cepheus and is only 1300 light-years away. NGC 7023 is actually the small cluster of stars in the nebula center - these stars are surrounded by both emission and dark nebulae.
I like the effect you get with this nebula as there are many dark clouds as dark clouds, and in some cases, these clouds are back-illuminated. I was surprised that we had a clear night last night - it was originally forecasted to be cloudy. This is a key week for Astrophotography as the moon is new, so I could not miss an opportunity to go after this object. The plan was to capture 65 x 180-second exposures. Alas, I was hit by some high-level clouds at exposure 35, and I had to shut down.
Messier 74 - The Phantom Galaxy - 2019 version
M74 is a two-armed spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces that is located 32 million light-years away. With its prominent two arms, M74 is considered a classic spiral galaxy form. However, having the second-lowest surface brightness of all of the objects in the Messier list (M101 being the lowest), this guy is tough to observe visually.
It proved to be a challenge for me as well. Skies were pretty dark last night, and this image was the result of 64 frames of 180 seconds each - for a total integration time of 3.2 hours - the longest integration I have done yet. This is also the first image for a new scope configuration. I added a top plate to the tube assembly and moved the guide scope to that. This allowed me to add a Pegasus Astro Systems Pocket Powerbox then - this provides power to all devices as well as to two heater straps which are now wrapped around the objectives of the main and guide scopes to prevent dew formation.
Messier 33 - The Triangulum Galaxy - 2019 Version
M33, also known as NGC 598, or more commonly known as either the Triangulum Galaxy, is located 2.73 Million Light Years away in the constellation Triangulum. It is the third-largest member of the local group of galaxies, including M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, and our own Milky Way. Furthermore, it is a spiral form galaxy - once the first spiral galaxies were identified back in 1850. Thus, it is one of the most distant objects that can be seen with the unaided eye.
First attempt at this target.
NGC 7331 - The Deer Lick Group - 2019 Version
NGC7331 and a small cluster of galaxies are located in the constellation Pegasus - about 40 million light-years away. The group is known as the NGC7331 group or as the Deer Lick Group, and the small galaxies around it are known as the fleas.