The Seven Sisters (hubba hubba)

Otherwise known as the Pleiades, or M45, this classic asterism (association of stars) is plowing through a vast cloud of dust, yielding some beautiful blue reflection nebulae.

Why the "Seven Sisters"? Well, first there are obviously more than seven. But I suspect when the lonesome and bleary-eyed Greek shepherds looked up they could only count seven stars. And since they were indeed lonely shepherds, these stars looked like beautiful women. I'm sure they named all kinds of things after women -- piles of rocks, trees, mud puddles, clouds, etc. Did I mention these guys were lonely?

But indeed, this is truly a beautiful object. And in fact, one can easily see it with the naked eye (even in light-polluted Dallas). While it requires a long exposure to pull out the nebulosity, the star asterism itself is easily seen, and even better through binos!

I was really happy with the way this image turned out. It is over 3 hours of exposure, which gives a lot of detail on this bright object.

Again, be sure to click on it for a larger view : )

Electric Richard and LDN1222

How's that for a "trippy" header?

So, I went back to Atoka last Thursday and Friday night. My ol' pal Richard Allen got some much deserved time off work and expressed interest in wandering around in the dark, so he was my astro buddy on this trip.

We had the place to ourselves on Thursday and the skies were great. I was hunting for LDN 1222 -- a small Dark Nebula near Cassiopeia. It is a little "off the beaten path" and a bit of a challenge to find. But it was the "Challenge of the Month" on the Cloudy Nights forum, so I took up the gauntlet and gave it a shot.

This is my wide field image of the area around LDN 1222. The actual target is that small dark patch hugging the upper center border. I was not totally sure I got the right target until checking this image against my charts later the next day.

I composed for the larger Emission Nebula in the lower left, and those cool tiny Dark Nebula "squiggles" in the center of frame.

This is a really interesting area, but very hard for me to process (it took all day in front of Photoshop to pull out the data). While clear, the skies were very humid and hazy and it gave me some light pollution vignettes that corrupted my colors -- took a bunch of time to balance things out (time to invest in some filters). Plus, I had no images to use as reference. I just had to "wing it". But I think I got close to a good "naked eye" version of this area.

LDN 1222 was exposed with 17 x 10 min subs (just under 3 hours of data).

Later that same night, I managed to get a good shot of the Pleiades.

So, that was Thursday night. On Friday we were joined by my pal Max (and briefly by Terry, also from the club). Friday night I shot M33.

Up next: Images of the Pleiades and M33... stay tuned!

Veil Addiction!

Sorry, I just can't leave this object alone -- it fascinates me! I really think it is beautiful.

I re-processed the data and tried some new techniques (and software). I am very pleased at the color and level of detail I extracted this time. This image is a 100% crop of a much larger original frame. Again, I'm happy the detail really seems to hold up well (and with very little noise) at this 1:1 scale.

Be sure to click on the image for a closer look!

Okay, I promise next time I will post a new object : )

Return of the Western Veil

Hello astro fans! You may recall that I imaged the Western Veil a couple of months ago. At that time, I was still using my noisy Nikon camera and was unable to autoguide (for longer exposures).

Well, here is my second attempt at this target. This time I was armed with my QHY8 camera and autoguiding was in full effect. I shot 18 x 10min exposures (3 hours) worth of data.

I also framed differently to include the faint nebulosity just under the main Veil at top. You will notice a subtle "triangle" shape in the lower left nebulosity -- this is called Pickering's Triangle. I never knew it until somebody complimented me for resolving it so well (I just thanked him and acted like I knew what I was doing).

Pickering's Triangle was discovered in 1904 by Williamina Fleming of the Harvard Observatory while examining photographic plates of the region. The object was named in honor of her boss, astronomer Edward Charles Pickering. I think that was overly nice of her. I think it should have been called Williamina's Triangle. I mean come on! Williamina found the damn thing!

Who knows, maybe she was bucking for a raise.

Anyway, it is a very cool big ol' supernova remnant in the Cygnus area.

Here again was my first attempt for comparison...

The Helix

This is NGC 7293, otherwise known as the Helix Nebula.

The Helix is a planetary nebula. No, it has nothing to do with planets but it is called that because of its round and "planetary" shape. These types of nebulae are created as stars die and release material as they collapse. Look closely and you can see the star in the center (the creator of this nebula).

I shot this image from my last Atoka trip on August 2. It is about 3 hours of exposure. I've still got a couple more images in the works, so keep watching!

I'm playing "catch-up" since Kim and I have been out of town for the past week. We went to Colorado (I'll also have a couple of shots from that trip soon). Stay tuned!

Elephants in Space!

This is IC 1396, otherwise known as the Elephant Trunk Nebula. It is a very wide field image of the region, but you can see the "trunk" just to the left of center (it is pointing up). C'mon, use your imagination!

This is another image I took from my recent session at Ranch Venado last week. About half the data was taken through high thin clouds, but I am still pleased. This was about a 2 hour exposure.

IC 1396 is one of the largest emission nebula in the night sky (I've just framed the central region). It is about 1500 light years away in the Cepheus constellation.

I had quite a busy week last week! I also went back to Atoka last Saturday night and have a couple more images in the works -- check back soon!

Gamma Cygni Nebulosity

Gamma Cygni Nebulosity -- that's just fun to say!

Well, guess what I've been doing? Yep, the moon is taking its leave so out to the dark skies I go! I went back to Ranch Venado for a couple of great nights Monday and Tuesday. I tried to go down Sunday, but my new truck took a dump (the on board computer fried) about 70 miles from home in 106 degree heat (loaded with all my gear), and I had to get a pricey tow truck ride back to Dallas -- bummer.

But I am nothing if not stubborn, so I borrowed my folks truck and reloaded and headed back the next day. And it was worth it!

My astro buddy max was working at Fort Hood (about 40 miles away), so he came out both nights. We stayed up until sunshine both nights, taking advantage of the good skies.

While max focused on the Cocoon Nebula, I aimed at the Gamma Cygni Nebula and the Elephant Trunk (coming soon).

Anyway, here is my Gamma Cygni. It is approximately 7000 light years away. The brightest star (Sadr) is not actually part of the nebula, but resides in the foreground about half way between us and the nebula.

This was the first trip I was actually able to use autoguiding (using a second scope and camera attached to the main scope that tracks a "guide star" and allows for VERY precise tracking and longer exposure times). This image is the result 18 x 10 min exposures... 3 hours total.