Deep Sky Archives - Page 7 of 37

June 20, 2023June 20, 2023

6/19/2023 First Night with a new Filter

Tomorrow was a work day but it was the first clear night in a while and I wanted to try out a new Antlia Triband RGB Ultra filter. This filter is designed to provide a more color balanced image than other light pollution filters. It is like a dual narrowband, which have two colors, but not quite as narrow perhaps but with a third channel to let blue in.

Monday night was warm but there was no breeze to shake the scope or dew until 3 AM or later. I didn’t plan to but stayed until 4:30 before packing up for the night. I shot five objects but one was disappointing (not the filter’s fault) so here are the other four in the order they were taken. Make sure you go all the way. Click for a larger image.

M20, the Trifid Nebula, and M21 aka Webb’s Cross, the cluster on the right. In Sagittarius.

M4, a globular cluster in Scorpius.

M16, the Eagle Nebula in Serpens with it’s “Pillars of Creation”.

IC 1396, the Elephant Trunk Nebula in Cepheus.

May 28, 2023May 29, 2023

5/28/2023 A Night at the River Ridge Observatory

Saturday was clear and mild but with a just past first quarter Moon. I got there around 7:30 and left around 4AM. I tried for three objects, two were semi-successful though I’ve probably done better on both before. I blame the Moon.

It’s early in the season for the Lagoon Nebula. As far as stellar nurseries go, this is second only to the Orion Nebula for proximity and brightness. It is visible to the naked eye. I shot it through the Little Rock light dome but my dual narrowband filter undoubtedly helped with this. I’ve never noticed that it resembles a lioness head facing right until now.

This the “Witch’s Broom Nebula”, part of the Veil Nebula in Cygnus. This is a remnant of a supernova that occurred about 30,000 years ago. My sleep deprived mind sees the east coast of the U.S. That’s “Maine” in the upper right and “Florida” at the bottom center. The “Appalachians” are obvious but too far west.

March 26, 2023March 26, 2023

3/25/2023 A Night at the Observatory

After waking up at 2:30 AM for no good reason and painting some walls Saturday, I headed to the River Ridge Observatory after dinner to do some imaging. I switched my 11″ SCT to f/1.9 and started with a dual narrowband NBZ filter for a few hours before switching to a broadband light pollution filter.

I started with the Flame and Horsehead nebulas in Orion. As mentioned, this is a dual narrowband view but there was precious little Oxygen III around so it is mostly monochromatic. Something like 80 60-second images stacked together and processed in Photoshop.

Then it was time for the primary target, M81 and M82 in Ursa Major. First, I shot the scene with the dual narrowband for an hour to bring out the red in the smaller M82. Then I switched to the light pollution filter and shot another hour. Two hours is not really enough but by this time I had been up for close to 24 hours and two hours was all I had to give. Processed each separately, then combined and tweaked a little more.

M81 is spiral galaxy, of course, while M82 is a “starburst” galaxy. They are actually close to each other and the larger galaxy’s gravity has caused the starburst activity seen in the other.