Deep Sky Archives - Page 17 of 33

April 2, 2021April 2, 2021

4/2/2021 The Christmas Tree Cluster

Thursday night I went up to the River Ridge Observatory to do some narrow band imaging. One of my targets was NGC 2264 also known as The Christmas Tree cluster, the Cone Nebula, and the Fox Fur Nebula. Starting from the right, see that dark cone on its side? that is, not surprisingly, The Cone Nebula. Immediately to it’s left is another cone but this time a cone of stars with it’s peak almost touching the peak of that nebula. From this orientation, the Christmas Tree Cluster is on its side with its base being that brightest star in the middle. Finally, those swirls and stuff on the left make up the Fox Fur Nebula. These are all part of a common molecular cloud where stars are forming in the constellation of Monoceros, the unicorn. This was made with my 11″ SCT at f/1.9 using a dual narrowband filter and my ZWO ASI294MC Pro. A total of sixty minutes integration.

March 5, 2021March 5, 2021

3/4/2021 The Orion and Running Man Nebulae

The Orion and Running Man Nebulae. Click image for larger view.

On Wednesday, March 3, I had my first chance to do astrophotography in about six weeks. Orion and the Orion nebula moved three hours closer to the Sun in those six weeks so I wanted to work on that while I could.

This is a composite image of the Orion Nebula (M42 and M43) and adjacent Running Man Nebula (NGC 1977) taken with my 11″ SCT (Elf) and ZWO ASI 294MC Pro at the River Ridge Observatory. This is a composite made from 15 120 second, 15 60 second, 30 30 second, and 30 8 second images. Capture was done with SharpCap Pro, stacked with Deep Sky Stacker, and processing done with Photoshop CC.

This image is on its side to fit most monitors better. This is normally roughly vertical when you look at it. Tilt your head to the left for a better look at the Running Man but in this orientation the main attraction looks a bit like a turkey I think.

February 3, 2021February 3, 2021

2/3/2021 NGC 2392

In his most recent The Night Sky blog, Darrell Heath talked about NGC 2392 aka The Lion Nebula so I decided to try to image it with the RRT. It’s small (48 arcseconds) so I figured that system which is a 12″ SCT at prime focus which I think is a 3000mm focal length would be a good fit. The RRT has a monochrome camera so I used its filters to create a color composite. The alignment wasn’t perfect, the stars show some chromatic error, but the image shows the major features of this planetary nebula.