NGC 436 – 2018-09-01
NGC 436
From within the city, and with nearby lamps, I tried imaging a modest target, NGC 436 from Cassiopeia. The ASI 224MC was working on the N150/750 mounted on the HEQ5.
NGC 436, Mel 6, Col 11 [open cluster in Cas] A few stars clustering together. Resembles NGC 582, 645, 659. Difficult to decide whether these should not be classed II. All the clusters here resemble one another though differing in extent. 8.8m ø5′ [wiki] [simbad] [photo-planner]
Sirius B – 2018-11-08
Sirius B
I was digging for unprocessed images, and one of my hard drives turned Sirius B up. I don’t wonder I forgot about it, given the clock. The seeing was bad, but out of gigabytes of data, I managed to get a nice picture out. The gear was the HEQ5 mount, the N150/750 tube and the ASI 224 MC camera, with various barlows and tubes.
Messier 76 – urban skies
M76
On 2018-10-06 I wanted to make an experiment with the IDAS LPS D2 light pollution and the Baader UHC filters. From under urban skies, 6 or 7 on the Bortle scale, and from the vicinity of two mercury lamps, I chose to image M76. I used the MC 102/1300 with the DSLR and the N 150/750 with the ASI 120 MM to dig out some meaningful data. The IDAS was in front of the DSLR, the UHC in front of the ASI 120 MM. With the DSLR, at almost F/13, two minute frames came out, at ISO 3200, with reasonable data on it, given the sky.
M 76, NGC 650 [planetary nebula in Per] Little Dumbbell Nebula, Barbell Nebula, Butterfly Nebula, Cork Nebula, Kis Súlyzó-köd 10.1m ø2.7′ [wiki] [simbad] [photo-planner]
Wizard Nebula – 2018-10-05
Wizard Nebula
Although it’s only a few frames, something came out of the Wizard Nebula, with 9×5 min at ISO 3200, with the N 150/750, Baader MPCC Mark III, Canon 1100D mod, HEQ5 and the IDAS filter. The place, as usual, was Dângău, Cluj.
SH2-142 [H II nebula in Cep] Wizard Nebula [bright] from shc 6m ø30′ [simbad] 750mm, 800mm, 1000mm
NGC 7380, Col 452 [open cluster+nebula in Cep] Wizard nebula, SH2-142, Varázsló köd 7.2m ø12′ [wiki] [simbad] 750mm, 800mm, 1000mm
The prominent open cluster at the bottom left is, for some reason, not in any frequently used catalogs, it is C 2250+580
Skull Nebula – 2018-10-05
C56 Skull Nebula
I acquired 19x5min at ISO 3200 of the Skull Nebula. Nothing special, I just imaged it, and it came out fairly nice.
C 56, NGC 246 [planetary nebula in Cet] Skull nebula, Koponya-köd, Nebuloasa Craniu 10.9m ø4.6′ [wiki] [simbad] 750mm, 800mm, 1000mm, 1200mm, 1500mm
The nice galaxy is NGC 255 [galaxy in Cet] 11.7m ø3′ [wiki] [simbad] [photo-planner] The much fainter galaxy, next to a bright star in the bottom is MCG-02-03-009, and another faint galaxy in to top right quarter is MCG-02-03-020
Messier 46 – 2018-10-12
Messier 46
It was a beautiful night, and the first light of my camera battery replacement solution. As a good bye target, as it was already morning, not bothering with guiding, I pointed the telescope towards Messier 46, the famous open cluster that has a planetary nebula superimposed on it, NGC 2438. According to the wikis, the planetary is at around 3k light years away, while the cluster is some 5k. I acquired 18x60s at ISO 3200 with the N 150/750, Baader MPCC Mark III, Canon 1100D mod, HEQ5 setup, with both the Baader UHC and the IDAS LPS D2 filter in place. The filters were not explicitly meant for this target (not even the planetary), but since they were in place and the remaining time was short, I just left the equipment as it was after photographing the nebulae.
