Category: Deep Sky

This is my first attempt at the “Spaghetti Nebula”, a huge and faint supernova remnant in the winter sky. I used my Samyang 135mm lens with my ASI533MC Pro camera and ASIAIR Plus on my Celestron AVX mount from 7:30PM until 5AM on an absurdly cold Friday night/Saturday morning at the River Ridge Observatory. This is a total of 9 hours and 20 minutes, it would have been 30 but the last two five minute subs showed trees.

From Wikipedia:

Simeis 147, also known as the Spaghetti Nebula, SNR G180.0-01.7 or Sharpless 2-240, is a supernova remnant (SNR) in the Milky Way, straddling the border between the constellations Auriga and Taurus. It was discovered in 1952 at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory by Grigory Shajn and his team using a Schmidt camera and a narrowband filter close to the Hydrogen Alpha transmission line. It is difficult to observe due to its extremely low surface brightness. This discovery was part of a survey conducted between 1945 and 1955, most likely using captured German equipment, as the observatory was practically destroyed during WWII. The Schmidt camera had a field of view of 175′. Many previously unknown hydrogen nebula were discovered this way, as they are not readily visible in regular photographs.

Here is my first image with my new ZWO ASI2600MC Pro camera, the Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405) in Auriga. I used my Samyang 135mm f/2 prime lens on my Celestron AVX mount. That ought to be enough name dropping to get me a corporate sponsor.
IC 405 is an Hydrogen Alpha emission nebula, glowing by its own heat.
It was really windy last night at the River Ridge Observatory but the AVX handled it well. This is 3 hours and 20 minutes of five minute subs stacked together. I had to wait until 2:30 for the Moon to go down so it was nearly 6 AM when it was done. Now to sell some stuff to help pay for it.

Saturday night was another good night at the River Ridge Observatory. I had two rigs running. My C11 with Hyperstar and ZWO ASI533MC Pro camera on CGEM DX mount was one, my Samyang F/2 135mm with ZWO ASI294MC Pro on AVX mount was the other.

Please click the pictures for a full scale view.