Sky this Week

Messier 27 (NGC 6853) in the constellation Vulpecula is a show piece object that always is worth the visit on summer and fall evenings. It is relative bright so it makes a great target for astrophotographers as well. Below is my best effort to date, though I think I missed focus just a tad. I had lots of problems taking these. I took 30 images and only came up with about 16 that were usable. Set screws in the T-ring were probably loose as tracking and north alignment were quite good.

Image taken with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, Meade F6.3 focal reducer, and Canon 300D Rebel at cassegrain focus. Camera was set at ASA 400 with 3 minute exposures. Manually tracked with A1010 telescope, Televue 2.5X Powermate, and Stellcam2 video camera. Temperature was 64 to 58°F, 40% humidity, mostly clear sky, absolutely no wind, and turbulence varied between 6 and 5/10.

I created some wallpaper size images as well 1600×1200, 1280×1024, and 1024×768.

After imaging the little dumbbell nebula I couldn’t resist taking a look at the “real” dumbbell nebula, Messier 27, in constellation Vulpecula. Two triangular lobes can be seen in the northeast and southwest which give it its “dumbbell” appearance in smaller scopes. Observing in a larger scope or stretching the brightness a bit, reveals a more circular faint halo farther out. 

Image taken from Louisville, CO June 27, 2006 at 0:45 MDT with Celestron Nexstar11, F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam II video camera. Camera settings: integrate 128, gain 9/14, medium gamma. Images were dark subtracted, flat field and bias corrected with ImagePlus. Aligned and stacked 150 images with Registax3. Brightness enhanced with ImagePlus, cropped with Photoshop Elements. Sky was clear, temperature 55°F, 46% humidity, transparency very good, turbulence 6/10.

NGC 7026, in the constellation Cygnus, is a bright planetary with a darker central disk which gives the appearance of two brighter nodules. Hence its nicknames the “tiny dumbell” nebula or the “cheeseburger” nebula.

Image taken from Louisville, CO June 27, 2006 at 0:31 MDT with Celestron Nexstar11, F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam II video camera. Camera settings: integrate 128, gain 9/14, medium gamma. Images were dark subtracted, flat field and bias corrected with ImagePlus. Aligned and stacked 150 images with Registax3. Brightness enhanced with ImagePlus, cropped with Photoshop Elements. Sky was clear, temperature 55°F, 46% humidity, transparency very good, turbulence 6/10.

NGC 6894 is small (40 arc-sec), fairly dim (vmag 12.3) planetary nebula in the constellation Cygnus. A magnitude 14 star is visible in the northwest. Its central (vmag 17.6) star is just barely visible in the image below.

Image was taken June 20, 2006 at 07:07 UT from Louisville, CO with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, F3.3 focal reducer, and Stellacam II video camera at 9/14 gain, integrate 128, gamma medium.  Aprox 150 images acquired in 10 minutes were dark subtracted, flat field and bias corrected. Aligned and stacked with Registax3. Sky was partly cloudy, temperature was 64°F, 40% humidty, transparency was good, turbulence was 5/10.