Category: Deep Sky

Technically, I think Melotte 15 is the star cluster here that is carving the nebulosity that you see from the larger Heart Nebula (here) but I think most people think of this nebulosity when they hear the name.

This was taken Saturday night at the River Ridge Observatory under a nearly full moon. The scope was pointed away from the Moon and I used a dual narrowband filter to reduce it’s impact. I had just swapped out my Hyperstar adapter with the secondary mirror and returned to imaging in a more conventional way, albeit with a 0.63 reducer/corrector. F/6.3 and focal length of 1760mm instead of f/1.9 and 530mm. 28 5 minute subs went into this image, stacked with DSS and processed in Photoshop.

I also used the evening to test a new power supply. You’ve heard of Jackery and Bluetti. They have entry level models with about 250 WHrs for about $250. I couldn’t justify that as I almost always have electricity handy. Then I saw an ad from Walmart for their Onn house brand offering a 220 Whr power supply for $99. I got one and after it arrived and I had a chance to check it out, ordered another. One powered the mount, the dew straps, and the camera for four hours using up just over 50% of capacity. I did not include my laptop because I did not yet have a way to run it off of 12V. I think the two will be more than enough to run everything all night if I find myself without electricity like at a dark site.

To be honest, it was a full spectrum modified DSLR with a dual narrowband filter to let hydrogen alpha light through. This image was made from 45 two minute images with a 50mm lens on a Canon T5i. Tracking but not guided.

Barnard’s Loop is part of the Orion molecular cloud complex which includes the Orion Nebula (below center). The bright star in the upper left is Betelgeuse while the one in the lower right is Rigel.

It was a good night at the River Ridge Observatory. Warmer temperatures, no wind, good seeing. My primary target was the Triangulum Galaxy (aka M33) which I’ve never gotten a good image of. This one could be better but is still the best I’ve done with the object. It is three hours of two minute subs using my 11″ SCT at f/1.9 with my ZWO ASI 294MC Pro and an IDAS LPS D3 light pollution filter. After I finished this object, I spent an hour capturing “Caroline’s Rose” (aka NGC 7789).

From Wikipedia:

The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy 2.73 million light-years (ly) from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is catalogued as Messier 33 or NGC (New General Catalogue) 598. With the D25 isophotal diameter of 18.74 kiloparsecs (61,100 light-years), the Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, behind the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way. It is one of the most distant permanent objects that can be viewed with the naked eye.

NGC 7789 (also known as Caroline’s Rose or the White Rose Cluster) is an open cluster in Cassiopeia that was discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1783. Her brother William Herschel included it in his catalog as H VI.30. This cluster is also known as the “White Rose” Cluster or “Caroline’s Rose” Cluster because when seen visually, the loops of stars and dark lanes look like the swirling pattern of rose petals as seen from above.