Sky this Week

Image below is of NGC 2392, the Eskimo Nebula in constellation Gemini. The one from the Hubble is admittedly just a tad bit better.

Image from last night, Feb 5 after 11 pm, 12 deg. F, no wind, transparency was good, and turbulence was better than usual, about 6/10. All images from Nexstar11, F3.3 focal reducer, and Stellacam II video camera, (4 second integration, 9/14 gain). 30 frames aligned, dark subtracted, flat field corrected, aligned, stacked, and enhanced with Registax4.

NGC 2371 and 2372, the double-bubble nebula in constellation Gemini. A couple teardrops with 14.8 magnitude star in between.

Images acquired from Louisville, CO. Temperature was 12 deg. F, no wind, transparency was good, and turbulence about 6/10. All images from Nexstar11, F3.3 focal reducer, and Stellacam II video camera, (4 second integration, 9/14 gain). 30 frames aligned, dark subtracted, flat field corrected, aligned, stacked, and enhanced with Registax4.

Located in constellation Cygnus at RA 21° 14′ 09″ and Dec +47° 46′ 24″ is a faint (vmag 14.5), oblong-shaped planetary nebula known as the “Moth Nebula”. I only picked up the middle part of the “moth” with the Stellacam which may be seen at the center in the image below.  The Stsci Digitized Sky Survey image shows faint “wings” extending to the upper left and to the lower right.

Image above taken from “Cactus Flats North” in the Pawnee National Grasslands near Briggsdale, CO on Saturday morning, Sept. 8, 2007 around 2:33 am MDT. Celestron Nexstar 11 telescope with F3.3 focal reducer and Stellacam II video camera used to capture 30 images. Camera set at full gain (14/14), medium gamma, and 256 frame integration (8 sec).  Registax4 used to flat field adjust, dark frame subtract, align, and stack images. Cropped and brightness enhanced with PhotoShop Elements 2.

Sky was clear, 2-3 mph wind, transparency very good, turbulence about 6/10, temperature 51°.F.

Messier 57, the Ring Nebula, is fairly high up in the sky around midnight in late May. It is one of the summer objects that nearly everyone takes a look at if they have a scope and a clear sky. M57 is beautiful to look at and is also one of our best examples of a planetary nebula. The star in the center has expelled envelopes of gas and dust and has collapsed to a white dwarf. Intense radiation causes gases surrounding the star to ionize and glow. The ionized oxygen glows a greenish color and the ionized hydrogen a redish color.

The image above was taken early Sunday morning May 27, 2007, with a Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, a F6.3 focal reducer, and a Canon Xti camera. Camera was set to ISO 800 and a 25 second exposure. Registax4 was used to align and stack 16 images. Sky was mostly clear, temperature 58° F, turbulence between 5 and 6/10, and no wind. Transparency was quite good although the humidity was high and dew was on about everything. Location was Louisville, CO.

Here is above M57 in desktop wallpaper or screen saver size (1280×1024). Send me a note if you would like another size.