Deep Sky Archives - Page 11 of 37

August 27, 2022August 28, 2022

A good night at the River Ridge Observatory – Eagle and Crescent Nebulae

Friday, August 26, 2022 was a good night to observe. I set up my 11″ SCT, Elf, with my ZWO ASI 294 Pro camera at f/6.3. I started with the Eagle Nebula (M16) in Serpens then later I switched to the Crescent Nebula in Cygnus. In both cases, I set up a session of 30 5 minute images at a gain of 300. This means a total of as much as 2.5 hours. The first finished at about 12:30 and the other at 3AM. Around midnight I noticed the Milky Way very bright and that the Pleiades had cleared the trees. Then, I spotted bright orange/red “star” through a gap in the trees that I knew immediately had to be Mars. I had lost track of it and now it was at least two magnitudes brighter than it was the last time I saw it. When I finished and left at 3:40, Orion was just rising.

Both of these images were shot and processed similarly. I used StarNet++ to remove the stars so that I could process the nebula separately.

M16, the Eagle Nebula in Serpens. The nebula contains several active star-forming gas and dust regions, including the “Pillars of Creation”.

NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula in Cygnus. The Crescent Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, about 5000 light-years away from Earth. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1792. It is formed by the fast stellar wind from the Wolf-Rayet star WR 136 (HD 192163) colliding with and energizing the slower moving wind ejected by the star when it became a red giant around 250,000 to 400,000 years ago. The result of the collision is a shell and two shock waves, one moving outward and one moving inward. The inward moving shock wave heats the stellar wind to X-ray-emitting temperatures.

March 3, 2022March 3, 2022

3/3/2022 NGC 2174 The Monkey Head Nebula

NGC 2174 shot with IDAS NBZ UHS filter and 11″ SCT at f/1.9. 24×300 second images

NGC 2174 is an emission nebula in the constellation of Orion. The belt of Orion points (to the left) toward it at about their width. I have it upside down here to make it a little more obvious where the nickname came from.

February 20, 2022February 20, 2022

2/20/2022 The Flaming Star and Thor’s Helmet

Saturday night was a good night at the River Ridge Observatory. Three CAAS members were in attendance. We all experienced technical difficulties but that happens sometimes.

IC 405, the Flaming Star Nebula in Auriga

My first object of the evening was the IC 405, or the Flaming Star Nebula. I used the Hyperstar adapter on my 11″ SCT Elf and a dual narrowband IDAS NBZ UHS filter (I have to think it through every time I type out the name) that lets Hydrogen Alpha and Oxygen III through and not much else. There was little OIII to let through in this object. It is believed that the proper motion of the central star (a little left of center here) can be traced back to the Orion Nebula.

Next and last, I shot NGC 2359 aka Thor’s Helmet in Canis Major. Like the Bubble Nebula and the Dolphin Head Nebula that I shot recently, this is a bubble being blown by a very hot Wolf-Rayet star which you can see inside the main part of the helmet. If you wonder how it came by it’s nickname, tilt your head to the right and you’ll say “oh yeah”. This nebula has plenty of OIII and the wings on the helmet show a little red from H-alpha. This image was shot after the Moon had risen but was more than 90 degrees away and turned out okay. This was just an hour’s worth of 3 minute subs and is a little small for the Hyperstar but I didn’t feel like swapping things out.