Sky this Week

It was slightly after 4 am and the eastern horizon was brightening when I turned the scope and Stellacam II to take a look at the Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula. I’m always amazed by this incredible object. It looked great in Gary’s 30″ dob. Visually through the eyepeice we were able to trace the outer ring in the 30 which the below image doesn’t pick up very well.

Image taken Sunday May 20, 2007 at the Cactus Flats North site in the Pawnee National Grasslands, 8 miles east of Briggsdale, CO. Sky was clear, transparency was good, no wind, temperature around 46°F, and turbulence about 5/10. Telescope was Celestron Nexstar11, F3.3 focal reducer, and Stellacam II video camera. Registax used to dark subtract, flat field correct, align, and stack about 8 minutes of video. Stellacam II set 10/14 gain, medium gamma, and 256 integration (8 seconds).

Messier 97, the “Owl Nebula” is in constellation Ursa Major

A Stellacam II video camera used for capture at 128 integration (4 sec), medium gamma setting, and 9/14 gain. Sky was mostly cloudless, 0-5 mph wind, temperature 53°F, transparency was good though some haze was apparent, and turbulence 5/10. Location was light polluted Louisville, CO.

The Orion nebula is the brightest nebula visible from Earth and is always a treat to visit in a scope of any size or binoculars.  In this image, M42 is the bright butterfly shape surrounding the trapezium. Messier 43 is directly above M42. It appears as roundish neblosity surrounding star NU Orionis. Dark lanes can be seen extending southward toward M42.  Toward the top center of the image, the shape of the running man can just barely be distinguished above 3 bright stars.  With the naked eye these stars appear as a single star just above the Orion Nebua.

Images were taken with Stellarvue A1010 80mm refractor and Canon Xti camera. Camera was set at ASA 400 with separate exposures of 30 seconds and 120 seconds.  The Stellarvue A1010 was mounted on a Losmandy rail on top of a Celestron Nexstar11.  The Nexstar11 was guided using a Stellacam II video camera and PHD Guiding software.  Sky was clear, no clouds, temperature was 37°F, transparency was very good, and turbulence  was around 5/10 though sometimes a bit better.

An image of the open cluster M45 in the constellation Taurus from last evening after moonrise.

Images taken from light polluted Louisville, CO with Stellarvue A1010 80mm refractor telescope and Canon Xti camera at direct focus. Nine 4 minute exposures were dark subtracted and flat field corrected, stacked, aligned and enhanced with ImagePlus. 

This was a guiding experiment using “PhdGuiding” software available from Stark Labs. Overall, the software did  a good job of guiding.  I have the Stellarvue mounted on a Losmandy rail on the Nexstar11.  A Stellacam II was used as a guide camera and the Nexstar11 as a guide scope. The Stellacam II is excellent as a guide cam due to its low light sensitivity.  No problem finding guide stars with the Stellacam!  The “Phd Guiding” user interface is quite good, far better than most packages. Setup up is simple and the price is right (free).  Only problem I had was the serial interface used to connect to the Celestron locked up after I exited the “Phd Guiding” program.  A logout corrected the problem. It only happened once fortunately. Automated guiding is certainly more fun than tweaking buttons.