Orion Nebula

Lots of new "toys" to try out. Some worked some didn't. I now have a "game pad" that will control the telescope. I makes doing my star alignments much easier. Now using EQMOD and Stellarium / Stellarium scope exclusively to operate the mount. I attempt to make my own Auto guider using the 9x50 viewfinder and an old LPI imager however that didn't work out. So after messing around for an hour or so I was able to get some 10 second images. Anything more developed "star trails" So I opted for shooting Orion since it is now prevalent in the sky and bright enough. Here's last nights attempt. (40 each 10 second images stacked).

M71 & M92 Globular Clusters

I'm starting to use Nebulosity software for my capture process. The moon was full tonight so couldn't capture any nebulas so went for clusters instead. Here's my 1st attempts for both (20 ea 30 second images stacked).



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Messier 71 (also known as M71 or NGC 6838) is a globular cluster in the constellation Sagitta. It was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1746 and included by Charles Messier in his catalog of comet-like objects in 1780. It was also noted by Koehler at Dresden around 1775.

M71 is at a distance of about 12,000 light years away from Earth and spans some 27 light years across. The irregular variable star Z Sagittae is a member of this cluster.

M71 was long thought (until the 1970s) to be a densely packed open cluster and was classified as such by leading astronomers in the field of star cluster research due to its lacking a dense central compression , its stars having more "metals" than is usual for an ancient globular cluster, and further its lacking the RR Lyrae "cluster" variable stars that are common in most globulars. However, modern photometric photometry has detected a short "horizontal branch" in the H-R diagram of M71, which is characteristic of a globular cluster. The shortness of the branch explains the lacking of the RR Lyrae variables and is due to the globular's relatively young age of 9-10 billion years. The relative youth of this globular also explains the abundance of "metals" in its stars. Hence today, M71 is designated as a very loosely concentrated globular cluster, much like M68 in Hydra. M71 has a luminosity of around 13,200 suns.



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Messier 92 (also known as M92 or NGC 6341) is a globular cluster in the constellation Hercules. It was discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1777 and independently rediscovered by Charles Messier on March 18, 1781. M92 is at a distance of about 26,000 light-years away from Earth.

M92 is one of the brighter globular clusters in the northern hemisphere, but it is often overlooked by amateur astronomers because of its proximity to the even more spectacular Messier 13. It is visible to the naked eye under very good conditions. [2]

Trifid Nebula M20

Well I splurged and bought Nebulosity V2.03. A astronomy photo stacking / editing program. I had taken photos of the Trifid Nebula last Sunday when we were in Borrego Springs and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't get the photos to come out. After about 1/2 hour of work with Nebulosity here's the result.

M17 Omega Nebula

We drove out to a great "Dark Sky" location in Borrego Springs, CA on Sunday and spent the night under a clear sky. Stayed at a great "Amateur Astronomer Friendly" Hotel / RV park called the "Palm Canyon Resort" http://www.palmcanyonresort.com/. I was only able to capture a few photos as we were busy showing others at the resort our telescope and the sites of the evening. However I was finally able to spot a few new objects that had evaded me from our home viewing site. (Omega Nebula M17, Trifid Nebula M20, Crab Nebula M1). Telescope worked well however I still keep having problems with my use of Stellarium as a main program. I'm sure it is "user error" so just have to keep working at it.

Special thanks to Shirley the resort manager for making our stay a very enjoyable one.

Here's one of the photos I have finished processing:
M17 Omega Nebula

M27 Dumb Bell Nebula after mount repairs.

Had a really good night! I did a complete disassembly and rebuild of my EQ5 pro mount. Cleaned and re-greased all surfaces and adjusted motors and worm gears. It made a significant difference in the operation of the mount. Set up tonight and was able to get 30 second images. Pointed to M27 (dumbbell nebula) and took 20 exposures. Here's the result with very minor tweaks in "GIMP". (11-4-09) I updated this photo by removing some of the images that had "star trails" and re-stacking with final processing in Nebulosity. Here's the new version.

LCROSS attempt

Attempted to photograph LCROSS the other night. But had a few things working against me. I got to late of a start and it seems that non of the ground based amature telescopes had much luck catching it. Soooo.. Here's a photo of the moon from that night. (Note the is the north pole "Mare Friguris" region the moon not the location for the LCROSS impact.) Starting to get the hang of lunar imaging with the DSI IIc camera.

Wild Duck Cluster M 11

This is another photo I took last nite:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Wild Duck Cluster (also known as Messier 11, or NGC 6705) is an open cluster in the constellation Scutum. It was discovered by Gottfried Kirch in 1681. Charles Messier included it in his catalogue in 1764.

The Wild Duck Cluster is one of the richest and most compact of the known open clusters, containing about 2900 stars. Its age has been estimated to about 220 million years. Its name derives from the brighter stars forming a triangle which could represent a flying flock of ducks.