Monthly Archives: March 2015

IC 1871, IC 1848: Soul and Heart

Soul and Heart Nebulas as usual together here:

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Sky-Watcher Equinox 120/900 ED APO

Imaging cameras: QHY CCD ALCCD 8L

Mounts: Skywatcher NEQ 6 PRO

Guiding telescopes or lenses: Lacerta Off-Axis-Guider (extra short) T2 Guide-Cam connector

Guiding cameras: Lacerta M-Gen MGEN II

Focal reducers: Skywatcher .85x Focal Reducer & Corrector

Software: Adobe Photoshop CC 14, MSB AstroArt 5

Filters: Baader Planetarium HA 36mm 7nm Filter, Baader Planetarium OIII 36mm 8,5nm Filter

Accessories: LACERTA MGEN Autoguider, V 2.21, Filterschublade T2-T2 36mm

Resolution: 2402×1650

Dates: Feb. 12, 2015

Frames: 30×900″ -15C bin 1×1

Integration: 7.5 hours

Darks: ~20

Flats: ~20

Flat darks: ~20

Bias: ~20

Avg. Moon age: 22.01 days

Avg. Moon phase: 51.48%

Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 4.00

RA center: 43.737 degrees

DEC center: 60.440 degrees

Orientation: 124.835 degrees

Field radius: 1.045 degrees

Locations: NEUSTADT, HANNOVER, GERMANY, NEUSTADT AM RÜBENBERGE, NIEDERSACHSEN, Germany

Author: Burkhard

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Witch Head Nebula

IC 2118 (also known as Witch Head Nebula due to its shape), is an extremely faint reflection nebula believed to be an ancient supernova remnant or gas cloud illuminated by nearby supergiant star Rigel in Orion. It lies in the Eridanusconstellation, about 900 light-years from Earth. The nature of the dust particles, reflecting blue light better than red, is a factor in giving the Witch Head its blue color. Radio observations show substantial carbon monoxide emission throughout parts of IC 2118 an indicator of the presence of molecular clouds and star formation in the nebula. In fact candidates for pre-main sequence stars and some classic T-Tauri stars have been found deep within the nebula.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: William Optics Star 71

Imaging cameras: QHYCCD QHY8

Mounts: Orion Atlas EQ-G + EQDIR

Guiding cameras: QHYCCD Q5L-II-M

Software: PixInsight 1.8, Photoshop CC, AstroTortilla Plate Solver, Cartes du Ciel Planitarium, Nebulosity 3.1 Nebulosity und PHD

Accessories: Orion Thin OAG

Resolution: 1972×3037

Dates: Feb. 14, 2015, Feb. 25, 2015

Frames: 30×600″

Integration: 5.0 hours

Avg. Moon age: 15.32 days

Avg. Moon phase: 36.70%

RA center: 76.123 degrees

DEC center: -7.171 degrees

Orientation: 3.755 degrees

Field radius: 2.314 degrees

Author: Josh Smith

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Galaxy Messier 110

Messier 110 (also known as ‘The Edward Young Star’ and NGC 205) is a dwarf elliptical galaxy that is a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy. M110 contains some dust and hints of recent star formation, which is unusual for dwarf elliptical galaxies in general. Although Charles Messier never included the galaxy in his famous list, it was depicted by him, together with M32, on a drawing of the Andromeda galaxy; a label on the drawing indicates that Messier first observed NGC 205 on August 10, 1773. The galaxy was independently discovered by Caroline Herschel on August 27, 1783; her brother William Herschel described her discovery in 1785. The suggestion to assign the galaxy a Messier number was made by Kenneth Glyn Jones in 1967.

Author: Louis Mamakos

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Lambda Cen Nebula – Minimal colour data

IC 2944, also known as the Running Chicken Nebula or the Lambda Cen Nebula, is an open cluster with an associated emission nebula found in the constellation Centaurus, near the star Lambda Centauri. It features Bok globules, which are frequently a site of active star formation. However, no evidence for star formation has been found in any of the globules in IC 2944.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Teleskop Service TS PHOTOLINE – 102mm f/7 ED

Imaging cameras: QSI690

Mounts: Skywatcher AZ-EQ6

Guiding telescopes or lenses: Orion 50mm GuideScope

Guiding cameras: ORION StarShoot AutoGuider

Software: Pixinsight 1.8, EQMOD, Cartes du Ciel Sky Charts, Stark Labs Nebulosity 3, PHD Guiding

Filters: Astrodon Ha 3nm, Astronomik OIII 12nm 1.25″

Accessories: Orion Nautilus 7 x 1.25″ Filter Wheel, Moonlite CF 2,5″ focuser with high resolution stepper, Teleskop-Service TS 2″ PHOTOLINE 0.8x reducer / flattener

Resolution: 3322×2222

Dates: March 14, 2015

Frames:
Astrodon Ha 3nm: 25×300″ bin 1×1
Astronomik OIII 12nm 1.25″: 15×100″ bin 2×2

Integration: 2.5 hours

Avg. Moon age: 22.41 days

Avg. Moon phase: 47.17%

Locations: Balcony in Brisbane, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Author: Slawomir

SPONLI is a project about astrophotography, for amateur astronomers.

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Testing telescopes of observatory SPONLI

SPONLI provides free access to the observatory telescopes

Conditions of equipment testing :

✓ skills at using MaximDL;
✓ your own portfolio of astrophotography;
✓ at the end of the test you should publish the results in a personal blog from SPONLI;
✓ object for observation – it is up to you;
✓ processed image will be published on the site sponli.com and take part in the competition;

Astrophotografer-winner will receive 5 h of access to telescopes.

Under the terms of testing, we provide:

• two hours of work on the 12-inch telescope (control via TeamViewer).
Opening hours observatory telescopes SPONLI: from 4.00 to 10.00 UT.

• free astroblog named ****. sponli.com (for example ernie.sponli.com)

Send a request to participate in the testing info@sponli.com or mari@sponli.com

Support amateur astronomy with SPONLI

Star Trails over Natural Bridges

The iconic rock stack at Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz, CA poses serenely under a dome of star trails captured in 27 60-second exposures and combined in Photoshop.

The air was super misty and by the end of the exposure run the bulbous Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 lens glass was fogged with moisture, so I wasn’t expecting the shots to even be usable, but they seem no worse for wear. This is a preliminary processing; I still need to clean up many airplane light trails that litter the image, though they may not be too prominent at this low resolution.

That black “fringe” on top of the rock formation is seabirds hunkered down for the night!

Equipment: Canon EOS 6D, ISO 800, 20mm, f/2.8.

Author (image and text) – Steve Peters

SPONLI is a project about astrophotography, for amateur astronomers.

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Jones-Emberson 1 (PK 164+31.1)

Jones-Emberson 1 (PK 164+31.1) is a 14th magnitude planetary nebula in the constellation Lynx at a distance of 1600 light years. It is a larger planetary with low surface brightness. The 16.8-magnitude central star is very blue white dwarf. Discovered in 1939 by R. Jones and R. Emberson, it’s “PK” designation comes from the names of Czechoslovakian astronomers Luboš Perek and Luboš Kohoutek, who in 1967 created an extensive catalog of all of the planetary nebulae known in the Milky Way as of 1964. The numbers indicate the position of the object on the sky. (“PK 164+31.1” basically represents the planetary nebula that when using the galactic coordinate system has a galactic longitude of 164 degrees, a galactic latitude of +31 degrees, and is the first such object in the Perek-Kohoutek catalog to occupy that particular one square degree area of sky).

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Orion Optics UK Newton 200mm f/4.5

Imaging cameras: QHYCCD QHY22

Mounts: Losmandy G11

Focal reducers: TeleVue Universal Paracorr

Software: DeepSkyStacker, Nebulosity

Filters: Baader Planetarium RGB 2″, Baader Planetarium Baader L 2″, Baader Planetarium H-Alpha Filter

Resolution: 2687×2082

Dates: March 11, 2015

Frames: 20×1200″

Integration: 6.7 hours

Avg. Moon age: 19.51 days

Avg. Moon phase: 76.63%

RA center: 119.416 degrees

DEC center: 53.418 degrees

Orientation: -175.541 degrees

Field radius: 0.441 degrees

Locations: Observatoire personnel, Fourmies, None

Author: Niamor

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Partial Sun Eclipse in Rome

This composed image represents the demonstration of the Sun Eclipse in the Rome skies and the Angel with lance, lat. Vulnerasti con meum, (sculptor Domenico Guidi) one of the Saint Angel Bridge’s Angels. The shadow of the lance marks the Sun disk, which isn’t eclipsed yet. The sequence of eclipse itself was made using a telescope and than attached to a photograph of the Angel. The shots of the solar disk are made with Eos 5DMK 3 set with 1/500 and 800 Iso and optics – Toa130 telescope, focal 1000 f / 7.7 with 2X multiplier; as a sunscreen – Baader Herschel wedge. Obviously the pictures of solar discs were resampled before being placed in the setting.

Translation from Italian: SPONLI team

Author (Text and Picture): Marco Meniero

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M8, Lagoon Nebula

The Lagoon Nebula is a giant interstellar cloud in the constellation Sagittarius. It is classified as an emission nebula and as a H II region.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: GSO Newtonian 10″ f/5

Imaging cameras: QHYCCD QHY8 Pro

Mounts: EQ6

Guiding telescopes or lenses: Stellarvue F80M

Guiding cameras: Meade DSI II Pro

Focal reducers: TeleVue Universal Paracorr

Software: Nebulosity

Resolution: 2895×1972

Dates: Sept. 30, 2011

Frames: 52×120″ bin 1×1

Integration: 1.7 hours

Avg. Moon age: 2.94 days

Avg. Moon phase: 9.48%

RA center: 270.907 degrees

DEC center: -24.377 degrees

Pixel scale: 1.119 arcsec/pixel

Orientation: -178.589 degrees

Field radius: 0.544 degrees

Locations: Brisbane, None

Author: peter_4059

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Rho Ophiuchi Region Mosaic

The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is a dark nebula of gas and dust that is located 1° south of the star ρ Ophiuchi of the constellation Ophiuchus. At an estimated distance of 131 ± 3 parsecs, this cloud is one of the closest star-formingregions to the Solar System.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: William Optics Star 71

Imaging cameras: QHYCCD QHY8

Mounts: Orion Atlas EQ-G + EQDIR

Guiding cameras: QHYCCD Q5L-II-M

Software: AstroTortilla Plate Solver, Cartes du Ciel Planitarium, Nebulosity 3.1 Nebulosity und PHD

Resolution: 3705×3071

Dates: Feb. 18, 2015, Feb. 19, 2015

Frames: 30×360″

Integration: 3.0 hours

Avg. Moon age: 28.94 days

Avg. Moon phase: 0.77%

RA center: 247.593 degrees

DEC center: -25.142 degrees

Orientation: 178.794 degrees

Field radius: 3.067 degrees

Author: Josh Smith

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