C/2015 ER61
Again, a target I didn’t really care about. A quick shot of C/2015 ER61 in the morning of August 19. More details in this article.
Supernova SN 2017eaw
SN 2017eaw
In the astROmania 2017 camp, I didn’t really care about the nowadays visible supernova in the Fireworks Galaxy. I just tried (and ultimately failed) to collect enough photos for a beautiful picture. However, when I came home and started typing these articles, I realized I have an old post about this galaxy. Back in 2013 my Newton scope + DSLR setup was only a few days old (EQ3 mount, no MPCC, unmodded camera, shot in JPG, unmodded tube), so those pictures qualify as first lights. I also remembered that, due to human error, those pictures might be lost forever, having only the placeholders even in the wayback machine version of the old website that article used to be on, and not the actual pictures. I am lucky (cursed actually), cause I turned out to have a backup of a backup in a very obscure folder of an obscure drive I have actually forgotten about. Noteworthy that other than being my own data, those pictures have close to zero value. (tovább…)
Minor targets – astROmania 2017
C 12 with a supernova
During nights with modest sky, I chose to shoot some objects marked as plan B.
Caroline’s Rose – astROmania 2017
Caroline’s Rose
While in the camp, I imaged NGC 7789 [open cluster in Cas] Caroline’s Rose, Caroline rózsája, Karolina rózsája 6.7m ø25′ [wiki] [simbad] 750mm, 600mm, 1200mm gathering 16 expos from 2 to 5 minutes, ISO 1600 with N 150/750, Baader MPCC Mark III, Canon 1100D mod, HEQ5, autoguided.
Cocoon Nebula – AstROmania 2017
C19 Cocoon Nebula
In the astROmania 2017 camp, one night I imaged the Cocoon Nebula. It is believed to be at about 4000 ly away, and be very young, at about 0.1 Ma (100k years).
C 19, IC 5146 [open cluster+nebula in Cyg] Cocoon nebula, Báb-köd 7.2m ø12′ [wiki] [simbad] 750mm
I used my standard setup N 150/750, Baader MPCC Mark III, Canon 1100D mod, HEQ5 autoguided, to obtain 28×5 min, ISO 1600.
Tulip Nebula – AstROmania 2017
Tulip Nebula
In late august the AstROmania 2017 amateur astronomy camp took place at, well, somewhere far from everything, in the Southern Carpatians, in the Cindrel National Park. About the camp: I find it curious bordering on bullshit to run a generator of kW capacity during the day and early night, only to charge the batteries to be used during the night, and having the stress of running low on power — as it did happen to more people because of the sub zero temperatures and unusual heating needs due to >90% humidity, with visible fog a few meters away, near the stream… I do see some failsafe foolproof logic there, but that again, among highly technical people, who probably know how to plug in electronic stuff, is an insult. Long live logic.
Before the camp, I programmed this astrophotography plannign tool to help me with framing the targets, and printed a few dozen pages with potential subjects, and among those, the Tulip.
NGC 6888 Crescent Nebula – 8 minutes
NGC 6888 (C 27) Crescent Nebula
The main target of the night was the Crescent Nebula. I imaged it with my usual telescope setup, N 150/750, Baader MPCC Mark III, Canon 1100D mod, HEQ5 with the resurrected guiding camera. I took 15×4 min ISO 800, and just for fun, 2×8 min ISO 800. To my surprise, the sky allowed this, having almost no background fill inspite of the long exposure.
C 27, NGC 6888, SH2 105 [nebula in Cyg] Crescent nebula, Sarló-köd, Nebuloasa Semiluna, Sharpless 105, SH2-105 7.4m ø20′ [wiki] [simbad] 750mm (tovább…)
NGC 457 Owl Cluster
NGC 457 Owl Cluster
The Moon was still up when I started imaging the Owl Cluster, on 2017-07-29 from Dângău Mare. I used my usual setup for small objects, the Canon 1100D mod, N 150/750, Baader MPCC Mark III, HEQ5. The autoguiding was done by the recovered camera and a very old netbook with limited battery life, run from 12V plus a DC-DC converter to feed it 19V. I gathered 22×90 sec, at ISO 400 with a few shorter and intentionally blurred frames to verify the color of the stars. It was a bit windy.
C 13, NGC 457, Mel 7, Col 12 [open cluster in Cas] A small cluster in a rich region., Owl Cluster, E.T. Cluster, Bagoly-halmaz, Phi Cassiopeiae Cluster, Dragonfly Cluster, Szitakötő-halmaz 6.4m ø13′ [wiki] [simbad] 750mm
Also visible, but rather faint is the galaxy LEDA 4831 or MCG+10-03-001, see in Simbad.
M57 captured at f/13
M57 Ring Nebula
During the last session, and parenthetically eff Microsoft for its forced Windows updates, I also imaged M 57, NGC 6720 [planetary nebula in Lyr] Ring nebula in Lyra, Gyűrűs-köd, Ring Nebula, Nebuloasa Inel 8.8m ø1.43′ [wiki] [simbad] A very faint galaxy, IC 1296 [galaxy in Lyr] 15.39m ø1′ [wiki] [simbad] also found its way onto the picture, as seen on the annotated frame
, though it took some extra work to highlight it through masking, due to the great dynamic difference between the planetary nebula and the galaxy, as it is visible on the raw frame
.
Canon 1100Da, 10×4 min, ISO 1600, MC 102/1300, HEQ5.
M27 at F/13
M27 Dumbbell – Canon 1100Da @ MC 102/1300
F/13 is not the opening at which one wants to photograph deep sky objects. But I wanted to field test the guiding I recently got. So I set up the HEQ5 with the Canon 1100Da @ MC 102/1300 on it, and let it go for the stars with 4-5-6 minutes exposures. And … it worked. However, there is a big but: effing Microsoft Windows decided it could not wait with the update, so under the starry sky, I was looking at the don’t turn off your computer screen, running on precious battery power. And I paid for Windows. After Africa, this is the second time the effing windows update effed me while on the field. So 6×4 min, ISO 800, Dângău Mare, Cluj.
M 27, NGC 6853 [planetary nebula in Vul] Dumbbell-nebula, Súlyzó-köd, Nebuloasa Dumbbell 7.4m ø8′ [wiki] [simbad]
raw
raw curved
