Oh, would it not be absurd if there was no objective state?
What if the unobserved always waits, insubstantial,
till our eyes give it shape?

— Peter Hammill

deep sky

M51 on a clear night

M51 on a clear night

Another night of perfect skies, just before the muggy weather comes in this weekend.  Tuesday evening I took M51 combined one hour exposure.  Orion 80ed on Vixen mount.  There is another galaxy lower left hand corner, 14 mag I.C.4263, highlighted in dim circle.

Next Time

 Next Time

Thursday evening was extremely clear, 10 our of 10, and I always take advantage of a clear night.  Having chosen the object to image I proceeded to take a one hour image of M63 (NGC5055) magnitude 8.5 .  And as usual another galaxie PGC45992 (Principal Galaxies Catalogue) an 14.8 magnitude galaxy located in the image lower right. 

M109+

M109+

Constellation Canes Venatici

Constellation Canes Venatici

While attempting to image M106 this hour long exposure also shows NGC4220 and NGC4111. I was'nt sure if NGC4111 was an actual object until I found another image of the same area which had shown the same object in the same location.   Next attempt to image M106 will be a guided image thru my CPC11.

Wide Field image shows more

 

M101

M101

119 minutes combined 1 min images taken with Orion 80ed on Friday May 10 9:30 - 11:40 pm from Whiting NJ .

M81

M81

Having so many features to operate the telescope, I decided not to take the CPC
11 out on Thursday evening. Instead I took the Orion 80ED and the Vixen mount
out to do some imaging. Not having used it since November of 07, I initially
left out one of the setup procedures. (Hehehe). Realizing that every object I
went to did not fit in the eyepiece, I did the setup all over again with the
weight and telescope attached (normally a no-no). But after redoing the
alignment the mount and scope worked flawlessly, all objects near the center of the

The Heart of The Heart

 The Heart of The Heart

The Heart Nebula, IC 1805, an emission nebula, lies some 7500 light years away from Earth. It is located in the Perseus arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. This nebula is formed by plasma of ionized hydrogen (HII) and free electrons.

Dumbbell Nebula

 Dumbbell Nebula

The Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 27 (M27), is a bright, large planetary planetary nebula located in Vulpecula constellation, at a distance of 1,360 light years from Earth. It is sometimes also called the Apple Core Nebula or Diablo Nebula. The nebula has the designation NGC 6853 in the New General Catalogue. It was the first planetary nebula to be discovered. Charles Messier included it as M27 in his catalogue in 1764.
Source: http://www.constellation-guide.com/dumbbell-nebula-messier-27/
Ha -12hr as R OIII -06hr as G and B

Still in the Dark

 Still in the Dark

Oh, brighter than a thousand suns,
the march towards the stars
on the wheel, on the car,
off the plane, off the planet
and on in the search.
Yes, we pray in the dark in the Sciences' church.

Upon the tree of knowledge
the fruit is bitter-sweet;
to the man in the street
all its myriad benefits Science confers
but we're still in the dark, much as we always were.

Run your mind down the Sciences;
none of them lay claim to show more than a part
but still we shout out what we know
the silence is enough to break the mortal heart.

Naming The Rose

Naming The Rose

What is a Youth?

What is a youth? Impetuous fire.
What is a maid? Ice and desire.
The world wags on,
a rose will bloom....
It then will fade:
so does a youth,
so does the fairest maid.
Comes a time when one sweet smile
has a season for a while....
Then love's in love with me.
Some they think only to marry,
others will tease and tarry.
Mine is the very best parry.
Cupid he rules us all.
Caper the cape, but sing me the song,