Astrophotography

Was extremely clear Friday evening and a decision to take images rather than going north to Livingston which would have been an hour and a half up, three hours there, hour and half back home .   The image Bubble Nebula (NGC7635) is located in Cassiopeia, sometimes classified as a planetary nebula, actually closer to a ancient nova remnant.

Caldwell 23

103P Hartley caught on the border between Perseus and Auriga. The comet is getting brighter and the detectable coma is now almost full moon sized in my CCD. It is really picking up speed. You can see it in these sixty second shots in white, red green and blue light. The different images (taken last night) were stacked using the comet as the registration point. The spacing and direction between the misaligned stars (resulting in a trail of Red Green Blue and white dots) betrays the direction of motion and the reckless speed of this interplanetary visitor.

A shot of NGC 7479 from Whiting NJ. Gene just fell a tree that was blocking a large part of his Eastern sky. The tree was sacrificed in the name of astrophotograpy, even though Gene claims otherwise. This image was taken from a nearby patch of grass.   The image is an LRGB composite for a total of 1/2 hour exposure through a 5" f7 refractor.This galaxy is also known as Herschel 55-1.

Edge-on Spiral Galaxy c23 is located between Constellation Triangulum and star Mirfax in Pegasus in the Constellation Andromeda at RA 2h23'  Dec +42 degrees and 20'.  This is a combined 12x5min image for a total of one hour.  Saturday evening in Whiting..

Saturday evening I spent the night with Joe Marzullo shooting images in the newly opened space along side of my residence in Whiting.  During the time from setup to closing around 1:30 I had imaged the Andromeda Galaxy thru Astrotech 111edt, 3- 20 minute images 1x1 (1390x1040) combined for color, RGB.  (By the way, the Milky Way can be seen from this site) I combined this image using MaxIm DL/CCD, slight processing, needs some sharpening.  We had a GREAT!

LRGB composite of Comet 103P Hartley as it was moving last night located about 2 degrees south east of Alpha Cassiopeae. Even during this short exposure totaling 25 minutes (10 mins for luminance and 5 minutes each for RGB) the comet managed to move almost 2 arc minutes. This can be seen in the elongated shape of the comet inner coma which is due to its motion. The comet sports no apparent tail. The outer coma in this picture is about 15 arc minutes in diameter or half the size of the moon.

combined over 30 one minute images which were used to make the video.  some images removed when the comet approach a bright star.  false color added.

I hate to be repetitious but I had to go back to the Elephant Trunk in darker
skies. Here is a latest attempt at IC1396 from a dark sky site.

It was only about 48 minutes of Hyperstar with the Meade 14 and QHY8 before the
rains came. I auto guided 24 subs at 2 minutes each.

Clear Skies,
Dave

color combined, 12 min each RGB