Tag Archives: Scorpius

M6: The Butterfly Cluster

Image Credit & Copyright: Marco Lorenzi

To some, the outline of the open cluster of stars M6 resembles a butterfly. M6, also known as NGC 6405, spans about 20 light-years and lies about 2,000 light years distant. M6, pictured above, can best be seen in a dark sky with binoculars towards the constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius), coving about as much of the sky as the full moon. Like other open clusters, M6 is composed predominantly of young blue stars, although the brightest star is nearly orange. M6 is estimated to be about 100 million years old. Determining the distance to clusters like M6 helps astronomers calibrate the distance scale of the universe.

APOD NASA 03-Sep-14

NGC 6357: War and Peace Nebula

NGC 6357 is a diffuse nebula near NGC 6334 in the constellation Scorpius. The nebula contains many proto-stars shielded by dark disks of gas, and young stars wrapped in expanding “cocoons”.
This nebula was given the name War and Peace Nebula by the Midcourse Space Experiment scientists because of its appearance. They said that in infrared images the bright, western part resembles a dove, while the eastern part looks like a skull.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Astro-Physics 152mm f/7.5 Starfire EDF
Imaging cameras: FLI ProLine Proline 16803
Mounts: Software Bisque Paramount MX
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Takahashi FS-60C
Guiding cameras: Starlight Xpress Superstar
Focal reducers: Astro-Physics AP 4.0″ Field Flattener
Software: PixInsight 1.8, FocusMax, Maxim DL Pro 5, Software Bisque TheSky6 Professional, Photoshop CS Photo Shop CS5, CCD Autopilot 5
Filters: Astrodon E-series LRGB Ha 5nm
HA: 13×30 min sub
O: 13×30
S: 11×30
Accessories: Sirius Dome
Dates: July 8, 2014
Locations: Sydney Australia
Frames: 37×1800″
Integration: 18.5 hours

Author: David Nguyen
AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI 9 Aug 2014

Prawn Nebula

Prawn Nebula, IC 4628, is an emission nebula located around 6000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Scorpius.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: GSO Newton 12″ f/4
Imaging cameras: ATIK 11000m
Mounts: Skywatcher EQ8
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Orion 50 mm mini guider
Guiding cameras: Orion Star Shoot Planetary Imager & Autoguider
Focal reducers: ASA Wynne 3″ Corrector 0.95x
Software: photoshop, Startools 1.3.5, CCDStack, Maxim DL
Filters: Orion 2” LRGB filter set, Baader Ha 2″
Dates: April 29, 2014
Frames:
Orion 2” LRGB filter set: 6×300″ -15C bin 2×2
Baader Ha 2″: 5×600″ -15C bin 1×1
Integration: 1.3 hours

Author: Paul Storey
AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI 19 July 2014

Rho Ophiuchi

The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is a large star-forming region in the constellation Scorpius. The bright red supergiant star, Antares, is a prominent feature in the area, and reflects its light off the nearby clouds of gas.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8 L2 at 135mm, f/3.2
Mounts: CELESTRON CG5-GT
Software: PixInsight, BinaryRivers BackyardEOS, Calibration, reduction, and integration with PixInsight
Post-processing with PixInsight
Imaging cameras: Canon 60Da
Frames:
17x 5min ISO800
Calibrated with darks, flats, bias

Author: Cory Schmitz
AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI
19 June 2014

NGC 6334: The Cat’s Paw Nebula

Image Credit & Copyright: Roberto Colombari and SONEAR Obs.; Color data: Robert Gendler & Ryan Hannahoe

Nebulas are perhaps as famous for being identified with familiar shapes as perhaps cats are for getting into trouble. Still, no known cat could have created the vast Cat’s Paw Nebula visible in Scorpius. At 5,500 light years distant, Cat’s Paw is an emission nebula with a red color that originates from an abundance of ionized hydrogen atoms. Alternatively known as the Bear Claw Nebula or NGC 6334, stars nearly ten times the mass of our Sun have been born there in only the past few million years. Pictured above is a deep field image of the Cat’s Paw nebula.

NASA APOD 18-Jun-14

The Blue Horse Head Nebula

The main part of this imaged molecular cloud complex is a reflection nebula cataloged as IC 4592 located in the constellation of Scorpius. Reflection nebulas are actually made up of very fine dust that normally appears dark but can look quite blue when reflecting the light of energetic nearby stars. In this case, the source of much of the reflected light is a star at the eye of the horse. That star is part of Nu Scorpii, one of the brighter star systems toward the constellation of the Scorpion Scorpius. A second reflection nebula dubbed IC 4601 is visible surrounding two stars on the upper right of the image center.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: TeleVue Tele Vue-101
Imaging cameras: QSI 683 ws
Mounts: Astro-Physics AP1200
Software: PixInsight, photoshop
Filters: Astrodon E-series Lum
Dates: May 30, 2014
Frames: 100×300″
Integration: 8.3 hours

Author: Mark / Scott Rosen
AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI 03 June 2014

Prawn Nebula in Scorpius

Prawn Nebula, IC 4628, is an emission nebula located around 6000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Scorpius. The Prawn Nebula is around 250 light-years across, covering an area of sky equivalent to four times that of the full Moon. Despite this huge size it has been often overlooked by observers due to its faintness and because most of its light is emitted at wavelengths where the human eye is not sensitive.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Orion USA 102ED F7.0
Imaging cameras: Atik 314L+
Mounts: Skywatcher HEQ5 SynScan
Guiding cameras: Imaging Source DBK41AU02.AS
Dates: April 30, 2014
Frames: 24×300″
Integration: 2.0 hours

Author: Rodrigo Andolfato

AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI 13 May 2014

A Scorpius Sky Spectacular

Image Credit & Copyright: Stéphane Guisard, TWAN

If Scorpius looked this good to the unaided eye, humans might remember it better. Scorpius more typically appears as a few bright stars in a well-known but rarely pointed out zodiacal constellation. To get a spectacular image like this, though, one needs a good camera, color filters, and a digital image processor. To bring out detail, the above image not only involved long duration exposures taken in several colors, but one exposure in a very specific red color emitted by hydrogen. The resulting image shows many breathtaking features. Vertically across the image left is part of the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Visible there are vast clouds of bright stars and long filaments of dark dust. Jutting out diagonally from the Milky Way in the image center are dark dust bands known as the Dark River. This river connects to several bright stars on the right that are part of Scorpius’ head and claws, and include the bright star Antares. Above and right of Antares is an even brighter planet Jupiter. Numerous red emission nebulas and blue reflection nebulas are visible throughout the image. Scorpius appears prominently in southern skies after sunset during the middle of the year.

NASA APOD 04-May-14 scorpio_guisard_1328

Reflection nebula IC 4605

IC 4605 is the small reflection nebula located near Antares in the constellation Scorpius. IC 4605 is a part of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud of gas that is illuminated by the radiation of the star Scorpii , also known as HD 148605.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: SkyWatcher Equinox 80/500
Imaging cameras: Canon EOS 300D / Digital Rebel Cooled mod
Mounts: Sky-Watcher NEQ6
Guiding cameras: QHYCCD IMG0H
Focal reducers: TeleVue 0.8x Photo Reducer/Flattener TRF-2008
Software: Pixinsight 1.8
Accessories: Teleskop-Service OAG 9mm
Dates: July 13, 2013
Frames: 8×900″
Integration: 2.0 hours

Author: grizli21

AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI
04 May 2014

The Cat’s Paw Nebula in Scorpius

At 5,500 light years distant, Cat’s Paw is an emission nebula with a red color that originates from an abundance of ionized hydrogen atoms. Alternatively known as the Bear Claw Nebula or NGC 6334, stars nearly ten times the mass of our Sun have been born there in only the past few million years.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Astro-Physics 152mm f/7.5 Starfire EDF
Imaging cameras: FLI ProLine Proline 16803
Mounts: Software Bisque Paramount MX
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Takahashi FS-60C
Guiding cameras: Starlight Xpress Superstar
Focal reducers: Astro-Physics AP 4.0″ Field Flattener
Software: PixInsight 1.8, Software Bisque TheSky6 Professional, FocusMax, Cyanogen Maxim DL Pro 5, Photoshop CS Photo Shop CS5, CCD Autopilot 5
Filters: Astrodon E-series LRGB Ha 5nm
Accessories: Sirius Dome
Dates: March 18, 2014
Frames: 29×1200″
Integration: 9.7 hours

Author: David Nguyen

AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI
23 April 2014

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