NGC 7635 - The Bubble Nebula - from The BMO

 Bubblicious ...

Thursday November 7th & Tuesday November 12th were our club's (Buffalo Astronomical Association) imaging group (The Tuesday Night Imagers) imaging sessions at our club's dark sky observatory, The Beaver Meadow Observatory (BMO). Our club's Observatory Director and Tuesday Night ringleader ran the Celestron 14" Edge HD while another member ran the Tele Vue NP101is with his personal camera attached. I joined via Zoom. Of the two nights, the 12th had better seeing/transparency. The 7th was also plagued with software issues. They were not able to connect to the Pegasus Astro ultimate Power Box after a windows update. After several updates and reboots, the situation was resolved. 

I have (and continue) to take PixInsight classes from Masters of PixInsight. Their most recent Photons to Photos class was on processing Bubble Nebula data from a Celestron 14" Edge. The timing was perfect. I picked up a few techniques that were ultimately used to process this image. Here is the result.

NGC 7635 - The Bubble Nebula from 10/7 & 10/12 at the BMO.

Processing:

All pre and post processing was performed in PixInsight. Pre-Processing: Our club's Observatory Director pre-processed the images in PixInsight (WBPP) and sent me the Master Light image. Linear Post Processing: Background extraction was performed with Auto DBE Script from Seti Astro followed by BXT (correct only). SPCC was used for Color Calibration followed by a full application of BXT. The Stars were removed using StarXT. Starless Linear: Noise was reduced with NXT. The image was made non-linear with HT. Starless Non-linear Post Processing: The CreateHDRImage script was used to compress the Bubble and bright surrounding nebula (a mask was created and used by the script). Narrowband Normalization (Mode 1) was used to create the SHO or Hubble Palette look. Saturation and intensity were increased with CT. Sharpness was improved with ImageBlend script using a High Pass Filter. LHE was applied at 2 Kernel sizes. Additionally, Unsharp mask was applied. Finally, the DarkStructureEnhance script was applied (0.2). Stars Linear: The Stars image was made non-linear with Seti Astro's Star Stretch script. Stars Non-Linear: Saturation was increased with CT. Starless: Intensity, and contrast were adjusted with various applications of CT. The Stars and Starless images were combined with Pixel Math to produce the final image. 

What is it?

NGC 7635 is also known as Sharpless 162, Caldwell 11, and The Bubble Nebula. It is an H II region emission nebula in the constellation of Cassiopeia. The Stellar Wind from a young, massive, and hot central star has created the bubble by blasting it out of the glowing gas against the denser material in the surrounding molecular cloud.

Annotated image of NGC 7635 - The Bubble Nebula.

How Big is it?

NGC 7635 has a size of 15.0 x 8.0 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky. It is about 6.1 light years in diameter (similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy).

How Far is it?

NGC 7635 is located about 11,000 light-years (ly) from Earth.

How to find it?

The NGC 7635 is located about halfway between Cassiopeia and Cepheus, very close to the Open Star cluster Messier 52 (M52).  Dark skies, large aperture, and a nebula filter are helpful in viewing this group.

Finder Chart for NGC 7635, The Bubble Nebula.

Image Details:

Capture Date: 11/7/2024 & 11/12/2024

Location: North Java, NY (Buffalo Astronomical Association's Beaver Meadow Observatory)

Telescope: Celestron 14" Edge HD w/0.7 Reducer

Camera: OGMA AP26CC

Filter: Antlia Alp-T

Mount: Astro Physics AP1200 Mount

Exposure: 11/7: 9 exposures at 600 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 100 / -10° C each for a total exposure of 1.5 hours. 11/12: 22 exposures at 600 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 100 / -10° C each for a total exposure of 3.67 hours. The total combined integration time is 5.167 hours.

Software: NINA, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie

October 2024: An Amazing Month for Astronomy - Part 2

Chasing Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)

Saturday 10/12/2024 - Lakeview, NY

Chasing comets is so much fun. My first experience trying to capture one photographically was Comet Neowise in July of 2020. I was pretty new to astrophotography, so my results were ok, but it was so much fun. Was waiting for a chance for a bright comet now that my skills have improved. The Astronomy community has been excited for Comet C/2023 A (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) almost as soon as it was discovered. Even though predictions for this comet indicated it could be a good one, we all take them with a grain of salt. Comets are like cats; they both have tails and they do what they want. 

Saturday 10/12 would be the first chance for me to catch the comet in the evening sky, as the comet had traveled around the Sun and became an evening object on Friday 10/11. The weather was poor on Friday, but Saturday was clear all day with clouds coming in at twilight. Would the clouds stay away long enough to get a peak at the comet? Next problem, where to observe? I have a fairly decent western horizon if I go to the farm across the street from my house. Looking at planetarium apps, it was close. My son-in-law's parents have a home on Lake Erie. In fact, their backyard is on a cliff above Lake Erie. They were gracious and allowed me to set up my DSLR and tripod in their yard. I also had my binoculars and my son-in-law's father also had a pair of binoculars. We were treated to a beautiful sunset, but there was a heavy bank of clouds on the horizon. I was afraid the comet would be behind the clouds. 

Spoiler alert, my expectation of where the comet would be, specifically how high above the horizon, was significantly off. My expectation of when the comet would be visible was off as well. Their neighbor came outside and asked if we could see anything. We told him we couldn't see anything, so he went back inside to attend to his parental duties. Just as was about to give up, we noticed Venus. It was much higher and further South than I expected. Arcturus became visible as well. The comet was roughly between Venus and Arcturus in azimuth, and it was close to Venus' altitude. We renewed the search, and their neighbor returned. We took turns looking through the binoculars. I kept snapping photos with my camera in hopes the comet would appear to the camera sensor before our eyes could detect it. Lots of false alarms, wispy clouds, jet contrails, but no comet. My son-in-law's mother told us she was seeing something and to her it felt like the comet. We thought it was another airplane contrail. She was pretty adamant; I pointed the camera based on her description relative to the clouds near the horizon. Took a photo at 7:33 pm, there it was!!!

We took turns looking through the binoculars and I kept taking pictures. The comet got brighter, and you could make it out naked eye. We watched it go behind clouds, then reemerge. We lost it to the dense cloud bank on the horizon around 8:07 PM. I was shooting with my Ha modified Canon T6i, fixed tripod, Canon 50 mm lens (The Nifty Fifty), and an intervalometer (used as a shutter release). I was taking pictures at different settings, bracketing exposures, to ensure I captured the comet. 

Here's my best shot of the evening:

Saturday 10/12/204 from Lake View, NY at 7:53 PM. 2.5 sec exposure at f/2.8 and ISO 1600. Processed in Adobe Lightroom Classic and NoiseXTerminator in PixInsight.

Monday 10/14/2024 - Eden, NY

It was very cloudy on Monday 10/14 so there was no expectation of seeing the comet. I had to pick up something from the grocery store and noticed significant breaks in the clouds, especially to the west. After returning home, I ran across the street and snapped a photo with my iPhone. Could definitely make out the comet. Went back home and grabbed the tripod with the iPhone adapter and set up to see if i capture the comet despite the clouds. The comet was visible to the naked eye, and I moved around to try and capture a pleasing composition. Here's my favorite shot from that evening. Cool note: The Planetary Society reposted my photo on their Instagram!

Monday 10/14/2024 from Eden, NY at 7:57 PM. iPhone on a tripod. 

Wednesday 10/16/2024 - Eden, NY

Similar to Monday, patchy clouds and a bright Moon impacting the images and the visual observation. Set up across the street but in a slightly different location. Here are a couple of iPhone shots. 

Wednesday 10/16/2024 from Eden, NY at 7:46 PM. iPhone on a tripod.

Wednesday 10/16/2024 from Eden, NY at 7:46 PM. iPhone on a tripod at 3X Zoom.

Thursday 10/17/2024 - Eden, NY

The skies were clear on Thursday night, but the transparency was not good. The Moon was full and definitely had an impact once it rose above the trees. I had difficulty seeing the comet naked eye, no trouble with binoculars (10x50). I had two imaging set ups going. The first set up was my Ha Modified Canon T6i with Canon 50 mm lens on the iOptron Sky Guider Pro. The other setup was an iPhone on a tripod.

Thursday 10/17/2024 from Eden, NY at 8:35 pm. Ha modified Canon T6i, iOptron Sky Guider Pro, Canon 50 mm lens (Nifty Fifty), and an intervalometer. 5 sec exposure, f/2.8 at ISO 800. Edited in adobe Lightroom classic, Photoshop, and PixInsight.

Thursday 10/17/2024 from Eden, NY at 8:23 pm. iPhone on a Tripod. Edited in Photoshop.

Friday 10/18/2024 - Eden, NY 

No photos (yet) from Friday night. 
Our observatory director came over to my house to observe/image the comet. I had the same set up as Thursday night. Conditions were better. Comet was more visible with the naked eye. The nearly Full Moon definitely impacted views and imaging.  

Saturday 10/19/2024 - North Java, NY

Our local astronomy club, the Buffalo Astronomical Association (BAA), has our dark sky observatory on the grounds of the Buffalo Audubon Society's (BAS) Beaver Meadow Nature Center. We call our observatory the Beaver Meadow Observatory (BMO). The BAS asked us to open the observatory on 10/19 to support their Trick-or-Treat Hike event. We had several members show up with their scopes and we had the Celestron 14" Edge HD with the club's camera. We put my ZWO ASI2600MC pro on the club's Tele Vue NP101is (w/0.8 reducer). Both scopes ride on the Astro Physics AP1200 mount. Another member of our club's imaging subgroup put his dedicated astronomy camera on his 85 mm lens. We mounted this onto the NP101/14" Edge setup. 

The event was from 4 pm to 9 pm so we shared views of the Sun early in the event and then switched to Comet, Saturn, and other Deep Sky Objects. We also have a member (he's one of the hosts of the 7th Magnitude podcast) that gives star/constellation tours with a laser pointer. This was a family-oriented event. Lots of families, with kids (and adults) dressed up in great Halloween costumes. The Comet was the ... STAR ... of the evening. We helped visitors find the comet and helped a few that brought their own camera set ups. People were able to find the comet using their phones, but some were able to see it naked eye (just barely). We had computer monitors and TV screens in the observatory control room displaying the images we were capturing of the comet. This worked out great, as large groups were able to cycle into the control to get a view and ask questions. One of our members did not bring her scope with her so she used my 8' Dob to share views of Saturn. Saturn's rings are almost edge on. It was a great night and the weather was perfect!

I was able to process the data from the NP101 with my camera (see image below). Still working on the data from the 14" Edge HD. I tagged Tele Vue when posting the image of the comet with the NP101 and my camera on social media. They reposted my post on X (formerly Twitter). That really made my day!!

Saturday 10/19 from the BMO. This is a picture of the monitor connected to the NP101is with my camera. This is a single exposure with NINA's unlinked screen stretch applied.

Saturday 10/19/2024 from the BMO at 7:41 PM. Handheld iPhone shot from outside the observatory. 

Saturday 10/19/2024 from the BMO at 8:02 PM. Handheld iPhone shot from inside the observatory (from behind the telescopes). The NP101is is the smaller telescope mounted on top of the 14" EdgeHD.

Saturday 10/19/2024 from the BMO at 9;04 PM. Handheld iPhone shot from outside the observatory. look carefully at the sky, note the Big Dipper skimming the trees.

Saturday 10/19/2024 from the BMO. Tele Vue NP101is telescope w/0.8x Reducer, my ZWO ASI2600MC Pro, and Astro Physics AP1200 mount. 112 exposures at 15 sec each, -10 degrees C, gain 100, & Offset 50. Processed in PixInsight.

I tagged Tele Vue when sharing the image of the Comet on social media. They reposted my post to X (formerly Twitter). How cool is that!!!!

Saturday 10/26/2024 - Eden, NY

The forecast called for skies to clear around 8pm on Saturday 10/26. We had family over for dinner. I snuck out around 7 pm and set up my Ha Modified Canon T6i on the iOptron Sky guider pro. I also had the tripod with iPhone adapter. I captured images with DSLR using both the Canon 50 mm lens (Nifty Fifty) and the Rokinon 14" mm Lens. The comet was near the Milky Way core. I'm not really pleased with how the DSLR shots turned out. Here's an iPhone shot processed in Snapseed.

Saturday 10/26/2024 from Eden, NY 8:14 PM. iPhone on a tripod. Processed in Snapseed on my iPhone.

So that's probably it for now ...

The comet is getting dimmer and there are other targets I'll want to capture with the limited clear skies we get. Now that it gets darker earlier, we might go after the comet at the observatory at the beginning of an imaging session. We'll see. Chasing this comet was so much fun!! So many great experiences! Can't wat for the next one. 

Clear Skies!

Ernie

NGC 7331, The Deerlick Group from the Beaver Meadow Observatory (BMO)

 NGC7331 and The Fleas ...

Monday October 7th was our club's imaging group, the Tuesday Night imagers, imaging session for the week at the club's observatory. I was unable to join in person as I had a work meeting, but joined via Zoom once my work meeting was over. The evening started out cloudy, so we worked on getting flats and worked on some processing in PixInsight. It cleared after 9 pm so we slewed the club's 14" Celestron Edge HD to NGC 7331 per a member's suggestion. We managed to collect 21 subs at 300 seconds each for 1.75 hours total exposure. This is my processing of the data.

NGC 7331, The Deerlick Group captured on 10/7 at the BMO

Processing:

All pre and post processing was performed in PixInsight. Pre-Processing: All subs were visually inspected with Blink and subs with issues were removed. All light Frames, Flats, Darks and Dark flats were loaded into WBPP. Linear Post Processing: Background extraction was performed with Auto DBE Script from Seti Astro followed by BXT (correct only). SPCC was used for Color Calibration followed by a full application of BXT. The Stars were removed using StarXT. Starless Linear: Noise was reduced with NXT. The image was made non-linear with HT. Starless Non-linear Post Processing: HDRMultiScaleTransform was used to compress the core of NGC 7331 (mask was used). Saturation and intensity were increased with CT. LHE was applied at 3 Kernel sizes. Unsharp mask was applied and MMT was used to increase sharpness. Exponential Transformation was used to increase intensity. Stars Linear: The Stars image was made non-linear with Seti Astro's Star Stretch script. Stars Non-Linear: Saturation was increased with CT. Starless: Intensity, and contrast were adjusted with various applications of CT. The Stars and Starless images were combined with Pixel Math to produce the final image. 

What is it?

The NGC 7331 Group is a "visual" grouping of galaxies in the constellation Pegasus. It is also known as the Deerlick Group. The large spiral galaxy is NGC 7331 and the four other galaxies that make up the group are NGC 7335, NGC 7336, NGC 7337, & NGC 7340. The four smaller galaxies are also referred to as The Fleas. NGC is a foreground galaxy; the Fleas are much farther away (see "How far is it?" below).

An annotated image of NGC 7331.

How Big is it?

NGC 7331 has a size of 9.3 x 3.8 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky. It is about 127,800 light years in diameter (similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy).

NGC 7335 has an apparent size of 1.3 x 0.5 arcminutes and is about 113,000 light-years in diameter.

NGC 7336 has an apparent size of 0.6 x 0.5 arcminutes and is about 76,800 light-years in diameter.

NGC 7337 has an apparent size of 1.0 x 0.8 arcminutes and is about 95,400 light-years in diameter.

NGC 7340 has an apparent size of 0.9 x 0.6 arcminutes and is about 78,800 light-years in diameter.

How Far is it?

NGC 7331 is located about 47 million light-years (ly) from Earth.

NGC 7335 is located about 310 million light-years (ly) from Earth.

NGC 7336 is located about 430 million light-years (ly) from Earth.

NGC 7337 is located about 320 million light-years (ly) from Earth.

NGC 7340 is located about 310 million light-years (ly) from Earth.

How to find it?

The NGC 7331 Group is located in the constellation Pegasus as shown by the small red square in the Finder Chart below. Dark skies and large aperture are helpful in viewing this group.

A finder chart for NGC 7331

Image Details:

Capture Date: 10/7/2024

Location: North Java, NY (Buffalo Astronomical Association's Beaver Meadow Observatory)

Telescope: Celestron 14" Edge HD w/0.7 Reducer

Camera: OGMA AP26CC

Filter: OGMA 2" UV/IR Cut

Mount: Astro Physics AP1200 Mount

Exposure: 21 exposures at 300 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 100 / -10° C each for a total exposure of 1.75 hours.

Software: NINA, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie

The Cocoon Nebula from the BMO

 An emission nebula, dark nebula, reflection nebula and a star cluster walk into a bar ...

Maybe they don't walk into a bar, but this combination of deep space objects is common for stellar nurseries such as the Cocoon Nebula. Monday August 26th was forecast to be a clear night and our club's observatory director decided to hold our Tuesday night Imagers session that night. I was unable to attend in person, but did join in via Zoom. We decided to image the Cocoon Nebula, a target that we recently imaged using a Dual Narrowband filter. We were a little disappointed in the result. One of our members pointed out that this target contains significant reflection nebulosity, dark nebula, and faint background dust and might be better suited for no filter, to better captures these broadband elements. Conditions were pretty good and the 47% illuminated Moon was not an issue as it rose just before midnight. We would be done imaging for the night by then. We captured 22 usable subs at 300 seconds each. This is my process of the data.

The Cocoon Nebula (IC 5146) from the BMO on 8/26/2024

Processing:

All pre and post processing was performed in PixInsight. Pre-Processing: All subs were visually inspected with Blink and subs with issues were removed. All light Frames, Flats, Darks and Dark flats were loaded into WBPP. Linear Post Processing: Background extraction was performed with Auto DBE Script from Seti Astro followed by BXT (correct only). SPCC was used for Color Calibration followed by a full application of BXT. Noise was reduced with NXT. The image was made non-linear with HT. Non-linear Post Processing: Stars were removed with StarXT. Stars: Saturation was increased with CT. Starless: Intensity, and contrast were adjusted with various applications of CT. Saturation was increased with CT. LHE was applied at 3 Kernel sizes. Unsharp mask was applied and MMT was used to increase sharpness. The DSE script was used to enhance dark nebula regions. The Stars and Starless images were combined with Pixel Math to produce the final image. I processed several versions. One version was dark and the other was very bright. I ended up blending both together with Pixel Math to get this final version.

What is it?

IC 5146, more commonly known as the Cocoon Nebula, is an emission nebula located in the constellation of Cygnus. Like other stellar nurseries, the Cocoon contains emission nebula, reflection nebula, dark nebula, and a star cluster. 

An annotated image of IC 5146, The Cocoon Nebula

How Big is it?

IC 5146 has a size of 12 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky. It is about 15 light years in diameter.

How Far is it?

IC 5146 is located about 4,000 light-years (ly) from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.

How to find it?

IC 5146 is located between Cygnus and Lacerta, near the open cluster M39. A nebula filter like a UHC or a H-beta filter would likely help visual observers.

Finder chart for IC 5146, The Cocoon Nebula

Image Details:

Capture Date: 08/26/2024

Location: North Java, NY (Buffalo Astronomical Association's Beaver Meadow Observatory)

Telescope: Celestron 14" Edge HD w/0.7 Reducer

Camera: OGMA AP26CC

Filter: OGMA 2" Antlia Alp-T

Mount: Astro Physics AP1200 Mount

Exposure: 22 exposures at 300 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 100 / -10° C each for a total exposure of 1.83 hours.

Software: NINA, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie

M51 from The BMO

 Second night out with the club's new camera ...

We hosted a local girl scout troop at our club's observatory on Saturday 5/18. The troop worked on their Space Science badge in between the clouds. We were able to cover every aspect of the badge, including visual observing, astrophotography, and spectra. Unsurprisingly, the skies completely cleared at the end of the program. We got to show the girl scouts M51 on the club's Celestron 14" Edge HD with our new OGMA AP26CC camera. We live stacked the galaxy in SharpCap for about 10 minutes. 

After the troop left, the observatory director and I stayed and imaged M51 for about an hour or so. We had only cooled the camera to 0 degrees Celsius as the observatory was very warm that day and we had not planned on imaging. This gave us some issues when processing the image. We were worried that there was an issue with the camera. The M3 image from a few days earlier was taken at -10 degrees Celsius and did not exhibit any issues. An image taken after M51 was also taken with the camera cooled to -10 degrees Celsius, again no issues. We managed to gather 13 subs at 3 minutes each for a total of 39 minutes of exposure. Here's the result.

M51 from the BMO

Processing:

All pre and post processing was performed in PixInsight. Pre-Processing: All subs were visually inspected with Blink and subs with issues were removed. All light Frames, Flats, Darks and Dark flats were loaded into WBPP. Linear Post Processing: Background extraction was performed with GraXpert followed by BXT (correct only). SPCC was used for Color Calibration followed by a full application of BXT. Noise was reduced with NXT. The image was made non-linear with HT. Non-linear Post Processing: Stars were removed with StarXT. Stars: Saturation was increased with CT. Starless: Saturation was increased with CT. LHE was applied at 3 Kernel sizes. Unsharp mask was applied and MMT was used to increase sharpness. The Stars and Starless images were combined with Pixel Math to produce the final image.

What is it?

Messier 51 (M51) is also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy. It is actually a pair of galaxies gravitationally interacting, M51 and the smaller NGC 5195. Recent simulations suggest that NGC 5195 actually passed through M51 500 to 600 million years ago, causing M51's distinctive spiral structure.

Annotated image of M51

How Big is it?

This object has an size of 13.7 x 11.7 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky. It is 111.6 thousand light-years (ly) in diameter.

How Far is it?

It is located about 28 million light-years (ly) from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici.

How to find it?

This object is visible in small telescopes and binoculars, and like M3, is best viewed in a large Dobsonian like our club's 20" obsession. Even though M51 is in Canes Venatici, it is found using the Big Dipper asterism in Ursa Major. M51 can be found just of the end of the Big Dipper's handle as indicated in the finder chart below.

Finder chart for M51

Image Details:

Capture Date: 05/18/2024

Location: North Java, NY (Buffalo Astronomical Association's Beaver Meadow Observatory)

Telescope: Celestron 14" Edge HD w/0.7 Reducer

Camera: OGMA AP26CC

Filter: OGMA 2" UV/IR Cut

Mount: Astro Physics AP1200 Mount

Exposure: 13 exposures at 180 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 10 / 0° C each for a total exposure of 39 minutes.

Software: NINA, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie

First Light with the New Camera at the Beaver Meadow Observatory

 And so it begins ...

Our astronomy club recently purchased a new camera for our club's observatory. Our existing line up of cameras were fantastic pieces of equipment but are older technology. The latest CMOS cameras offer higher sensitivity, lower noise, and faster download speeds. We purchased an OGMA AP26CC. OGMA is a new brand of camera. OGMA is located in North Carolina (sales, distribution, & customer support) and the cameras are made in China by Touptek. The AP26CC is based on the SONY IMX571 sensor used in many popular astronomy cameras like the ZWO ASI2600MCPro, QHY268, & Player One Poseidon. we decided to go with the OGMA as it cost a few hundred dollars less, US based support, and the package of accessories it comes with. Note: The AR window is not a UV/IR cut filter like the ZWO camera. However, the OGMA comes with a UV/IR filter and filter holder.

Thursday 5/16 was our imaging group's Tuesday Night session. Clear skies but a bright Moon. Perfect for trying out new gear. I got to the observatory after work, but as is the case this time of year, had to leave. It doesn't get dark enough to image until well after 9 pm. Difficult to stay on a work night. I went home and joined in via Zoom. The team decided to go after M3. This bright globular cluster should have no problem punching through the light pollution from the Moon. We didn't have any issues with connecting the camera to the club's Celestron 14" Edge HD. We used the default backspacing of 55 mm from the Focal Reducer and the results look spot on. No issues connecting to NINA. We used the recommended settings on the online manual for the camera on OGMA's website.

We captured 30 subs but were only able to stack 23 subs. WBPP in PixInsight rejected 7 exposures for some reason. This seems to be a fairly common occurrence when working with long focal length data. Here is the result. 

1st light with the club's new camera. M3 from the BMO.

Processing:

All pre and post processing was performed in PixInsight. Pre-Processing: All subs were visually inspected with Blink and subs with issues were removed. All light Frames, Flats, Darks and Dark flats were loaded into WBPP. Linear Post Processing: Background extraction was performed with GraXpert followed by BXT (correct only). SPCC was used for Color Calibration followed by a full application of BXT. Noise was reduced with NXT. The image was made non-linear with HT. Non-linear Post Processing: Stars were removed with StarXT. Stars: Saturation was increased with CT. Starless: No processing of the starless image was performed. The only reason I removed the stars was to prevent color in the background when increasing saturation of the stars. The Stars and Starless images were combined with Pixel Math to produce the final image.

What is it?

Messier 3 or M3 is a very bright globular cluster in the constellation Canes Venatici. M3 contains about 500,000 stars. This cluster is roughly 8 billion years old.

An annotated image of M3.

How Big is it?

This object has an apparent diameter of 18.0 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky. It is 180 light-years (ly) in diameter.

How Far is it?

It is located about 33,900 light-years (ly) from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici.

How to find it?

This object is visible in small telescopes and binoculars but is best viewed in a large Dobsonian like our club's 20" obsession.  I like to draw an imaginary line between Arcturus and Cor Coroli (the star next to the "s" in Canes Venatici in the finder chart below. I also use the constellation Com Berenices to "triangulate" M3. 

A finder chart for M3.

Image Details:

Capture Date: 05/16/2024

Location: North Java, NY (Buffalo Astronomical Association's Beaver Meadow Observatory)

Telescope: Celestron 14" Edge HD w/0.7 Reducer

Camera: OGMA AP26CC

Filter: OGMA 2" UV/IR Cut

Mount: Astro Physics AP1200 Mount

Exposure: 23 exposures at 120 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 10 / -10° C each for a total exposure of 46 minutes.

Software: NINA, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie

The Needle Galaxy (NGC 4565) from the Beaver Meadow Observatory (BMO)

 A Galactic Needle ...

Thursday May 2nd was Tuesday for that week, the night our club's imaging group, The Tuesday Night Imagers, held our weekly session at the observatory.  Stopped by the Observatory after work to help setup and troubleshoot an issue. We were getting intermittent camera download errors. We didn't resolve the error in this session, it took one more go to fully resolve the issue. however, we were able to collect data that night. Another member put her ZWO ASI533MC Pro on the club's Celestron 14" Edge HD (just like the M104 image from 4/15).  I went home before dark but rejoined the group via Zoom around 9 PM (as it was getting dark enough to image). I signed off around 10:30 PM, imaging at the Observatory on work nights is tough as darkness fall so late. The following image is my process of the data. 

NGC 4565, The Needle Galaxy from the BMO

Processing:

All pre and post processing was performed in PixInsight. Pre-Processing: All subs were visually inspected with Blink and subs with issues were removed. All light Frames, Flats, Darks and Dark flats were loaded into WBPP. Linear Post Processing: Background extraction was performed with GraXpert followed by BXT (correct only). SPCC was used for Color Calibration followed by a full application of BXT. Noise was reduced with NXT. The image was made non-linear with HT. Non-linear Post Processing: Stars were removed with StarXT. Stars: Saturation was increased with CT. Starless: Saturation was increased with CT. LHE was applied at 3 Kernel sizes. Unsharp mask was applied and MMT was used to increase sharpness. The Stars and Starless images were combined with Pixel Math to produce the final image.

What is it?

NGC 4565 is also known as The Needle Galaxy. It is a prominent edge on Spiral Galaxy in the constellation of Coma Berenices. Scientists believe NGC 4565 resembles our own Milky Way Galaxy.  Like M104, it has a prominent dust lane. 

An annotated image of NG 4565, The Needle Galaxy

How Big is it?

This object has an apparent size of 16.8 by 2.9 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky. It is 191,800 light-years (ly) in diameter.

How Far is it?

It is located about 39 million light-years (ly) from Earth in the Constellation Coma Berenices.

How to find it?

This object is visible in small telescopes. A 8" telescope or larger is required to see the dust lane. Refer to the finding chart below.

Finder chart for NCG 4565, The Needle Galaxy

Image Details:

Capture Date: 05/02/2024

Location: North Java, NY (Buffalo Astronomical Association's Beaver Meadow Observatory)

Telescope: Celestron 14" Edge HD w/0.7 Reducer

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro

Filter: None

Mount: Astro Physics AP1200 Mount

Exposure: 32 exposures at 120 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 10 / -10° C each for a total exposure of 64 minutes.

Software: NINA, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie

M104 from the Beaver Meadow Observatory (BMO)

 It's been a while ...

It has been quite some time since my last post. The last few months have been challenging. Life is like that sometimes. I have had some opportunities to do some Astrophotography, mostly at our club's observatory with our imaging group. Just getting around to posting about it. Better late than never. 

Monday April 15th (Tax Day here in the US) was clear. Our club's imaging group assembled at the observatory and via Zoom. I joined via Zoom. We have switched to NINA as our capture software. In our group, I'm the most familiar with NINA as I've used it for about 3 years. Therefore, I like to join via Zoom when I'm unable to attend in person to help get our imaging runs setup. One of our member's put her ZWO ASI533MC Pro on the club's Celestron 14" Edge HD. The sensor on the 533 is similar to my 2600, just a little smaller and square. We decided on M104, The Sombrero Galaxy as our target. We started capturing 60 second subs due to the presence of the Moon in the sky. The subs looked amazing. Skies were not the best. We imaged for well over an hour but only ended up with 34 usable subs. That's 34 minutes of total exposure. The results were absolutely stunning! This is my process of the data.

M104 from the Beaver Meadow Observatory.

Processing:

All pre and post processing was performed in PixInsight. Pre-Processing: All subs were visually inspected with Blink and subs with issues were removed. All light Frames, Flats, Darks and Dark flats were loaded into WBPP. Linear Post Processing: Background extraction was performed with GraXpert followed by BXT (correct only). SPCC was used for Color Calibration followed by a full application of BXT. Noise was reduced with NXT. The image was made non-linear with HT. Non-linear Post Processing: Stars were removed with StarXT. Stars: Saturation was increased with CT. Starless: Saturation was increased with CT. LHE was applied at 3 Kernel sizes. Unsharp mask was applied and MMT was used to increase sharpness. The Stars and Starless images were combined with Pixel Math to produce the final image.

What is it?

Messier 104 (M104) is also known as The Sombrero Galaxy. It is a Spiral Galaxy in the constellation of Virgo. M104 has an active nucleus and has a Supermassive Black Hole with a mass 1 billion times the mass of the Sun at its center. Note the prominent dust lane. 

An annotated im age of M104, The Sombrero Galaxy

How Big is it?

This object has an apparent size of 8.4 by 4.9 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky. It is 130,000 light-years (ly) in diameter.

How Far is it?

It is located about 28 million light-years (ly) from Earth in the Constellation Virgo.

How to find it?

This object is visible in small telescopes. A 10" telescope or larger is required to see the dust lane. It is located between the constellations of Virgo and Corvus as indicated in the finder chart below. Use the Stars Spica in Virgo and Algorab in Corvus to find it.

Finder chart for m104, The Sombrero Galaxy.

Image Details:

Capture Date: 04/15/2024

Location: North Java, NY (Buffalo Astronomical Association's Beaver Meadow Observatory)

Telescope: Celestron 14" Edge HD w/0.7 Reducer

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro

Filter: None

Mount: Astro Physics AP1200 Mount

Exposure: 34 exposures at 60 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 10 / -10° C each for a total exposure of 34 minutes.

Software: NINA, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie

A Tale of Two Supernovae ... Part 2

 Saturday Night Turned into Sunday Morning ...

Picking up where we left off in part 1, we removed the L-eXtreme filter from the imaging train because we planned on imaging a broadband target, and the dual-narrowband filter would detrimentally impact the results. Dual-narrowband filters are effective for emission nebulae like H2 regions, supernovae remnants, and planetary nebulae but are not recommended when imaging targets like galaxies, star clusters, and reflection nebulae. Since we changed the imaging train, we took a second set of flats to be used with this target. It was after midnight at this point, and we agreed to image to 1 am. We opened the roof and slewed the telescope to Virgo, which was rising above the eastern horizon. Our target was a recent supernova that had occurred in the Galaxy NGC 4216. The supernova was discovered on January 4, 2024 by Japanese astronomer Koichi Itagaki, who has discovered 170 supernovae! This supernova has a designation of, SN 2024gy. 

We imaged until the agreed upon time of 1 am. We ended up rejecting the last few subs (short for sub-exposure) as the image quality was degrading due to the poor transparency. Had to be some very high thin cloud or haze, even though the sky looked clear, guiding, focus, and image quality indicated we were losing the skies. We managed to collect 7 subs at 180 sec each. The supernova, the dust lanes in NGC 4216, and many smaller background galaxies were visible in the individual exposures. Here is the resulting image: 

SN 2024gy in NGC 4216 captured on 2/4/2024 from the BMO.

An annotated version of the image indicating the location of supernova SN 2024gy.

An animated GIF of SN 2024gy in NGC 4216

Processing:

All pre and post processing was performed in PixInsight. Pre-processing: Blink & WBPP. Linear Post-processing: GraXpert, BXT (correct only), Color Calibration, BXT, NXT, & Histogram Transformation. Non-linear Post Processing: SXT. Stars: Curves (saturation) and SCNR. Starless: Curves (contrast & saturation), SCNR, LHE (3x's), Unsharp Mask, MMT, and PixelMath (to screen the stars back in).

Magnitude Estimate:

Disclaimer: I'm not an experienced variable star observer. There is a decent probability that the following methodology is flawed.

The BAA had our monthly meeting for February on 2/9/2024. After the meeting, I joined the Astrophotography breakout room, and we discussed estimating the magnitude of the supernova from the images we collected on 2/4/2024. This ended up as a fun activity for the small group of us left in the meeting. Since imaging supernova SN2023ixf in M101 in May of 2023, I've made an effort to try to learn how to estimate the magnitude of the supernova from my images. I recently joined the AAVSO and managed to cobble together and idea on how to estimate the magnitude of the supernova from stars with known magnitudes in the same field of view. The manner in which we captured images was optimized for "pretty pictures" not photometry, but the value we ended up with is pretty close to other reported values of the supernova from the same date. 

One of the other members generated a star chart from the AAVSO website. This chart depicted stars in the field of view, of which several were labeled with known magnitudes. It took some trial and error to the chart correct so it matched the field of view of our image. The first chart was off, we had used RA & Dec coordinates from Sky Safari. When we used RA & Dec coordinates from The Sky X, it finally matched the image. We think the difference may be the epoch used by each software (J2000 vs. Jnow). We visually estimated the brightness to be somewhere between 13 and 15th magnitude. Another member pulled a light curve from the AAVSO website. This light curve was compiled from member reports and indicated that the magnitude was around 13.5. We identified a star in the field with a known magnitude of 13.1. I took one of the calibrated and debayered individual sub exposures and extracted the RGB channels in PixInsight. The image was still linear, only a display or screen stretch was applied. Using the green channel, we measured the flux of the known star and the supernova using PixInsight's Dynamic PSF process. We put the resulting values into this formula:

Mag(supernova) = Mag (star) - 2.5Log(FluxSN/FluxStar)

We came up with a magnitude of 13.4 which closely matches reported values!!!! 

What is it?

SN 2024gy is a Type 1A Supernova in the Galaxy NGC 4216. It was discovered on 1/4/2024 by Japanese astronomer Koichi Itagaki. Type 1A supernovae occur when a White Dwarf syphons material from another star that it is in a binary pair with. Once the White Dwarf reaches 1.4 times the mass of the Sun, it goes Supernova. This type of Supernova is used as a standard candle and is important in determining the distance to objects in the universe.

Annotated image of the field of view.

How far is it?

It is located about 45 million light-years (ly) from Earth in the Constellation Virgo.

How to find it?

SN  2024gy is located in the Galaxy NGC 4216 which is located in the Constellation Virgo. Refer to the Finder Chart below. The tiny red rectangle in the center of the image marks the position of NGC 4216. It is very near M86, in the bowl of Virgo.

Finder Chart for NGC 4216. 

Image Details:

Capture Date: 02/04/2024

Location: Beaver Meadow Observatory (North Java, NY)

Telescope: Celestron 14" Edge HD w/0.7x Reducer

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro

Filter: none

Mount: Astro Physics AP-1200

Exposure: 7 exposures at 180 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 50 / -10°C each for a total exposure of 21 minutes

Software: NINA, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie

A Tale of Two Supernovae ... Part 1

 Saturday Night at the Observatory

It has been several months since we have had a clear night. It was clear Saturday night 2/3/2024 into Sunday morning 2/4/2024. Our Astronomy club’s imaging group assembled at our Dark Sky Observatory. We call ourselves the Tuesday Night Imagers, but Tuesday night can be any night of the week.  We put my camera (ZWO ASI2600MC Pro) on the club’s Celestron 14” Edge HD Telescope which is on an Astro Physics AP-1200 mount. An Optolong L-eXtreme Dual-Narrowband filter was used to target specific wavelengths of light.

The imaging team (for the club's equipment) was our Observatory Director (Dan), a member named Mike, and me. Our target was Messier 1 (M1) a.k.a. The Crab Nebula. M1 is a supernova remnant located in the constellation Taurus. We lost some time at the beginning of the night getting things running. The Observatory had not been used (due to poor weather) since mid-December. Programs and drivers needed to be updated and we needed to fine tune the Acquisition software for this new Telescope/Camera combination. We started to acquire images at 8:40 PM and imaged until 11:30 PM when we lost M1 to the Muck near the horizon and the trees. We closed the roof and took our flat frames. Mike removed his camera from the Tele Vue NP-10is that rides on the mount with the 14" Edge HD. We replaced it with an eyepiece to keep things close to balance so Dan and I could go after one more target. We'll cover that in part 2.

We did encounter an issue with aberrations (spikes) on our stars. We were unable to resolve the issue Saturday night. Dan and Mike returned to the observatory Monday evening, and I joined them via Zoom. After some troubleshooting, we believe the issue is caused by the Celestron Dew Heater Ring. Even with the Star spike issue, we managed to collect 13 usable subs at 600 sec each for a total exposure of 130 minutes. Here is the resulting image:

M1, The Crab Nebula from 2/3/2024, HOO version. BAA Tuesday Night Imagers.

Processing:

I did all pre and post processing in PixInsight. Pre-processing: Blink & WBPP. Linear Post-processing: GraXpert, BlurXTerminator (correct only), Spectrophotometric Color Calibration, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, and Histogram Transformation. Non-Linear Post-processing: StarXTerminator. Starless: Narrowband Normalization (two methods as described below), Curves (Multiple iterations to increase brightness, contrast, and color saturation), SCNR, Local Histogram Equalization, Unsharp Mask, and Multiscale Median Transform. Stars: Curves (to increase color saturation) and SCNR. PixelMath was used to screen the stars back in. 

I tried to different methods in the Narrowband Normalization process. Method 2 which produces an HOO result and Method 1, which produces a result that simulates the Hubble or SHO palette. The image above is the HOO version. I prefer this version. Here is the simulated SHO version:

M1, The Crab Nebula, simulated SHO Version. BAA Tuesday Night Imagers.

What is it?

M1 is a supernova remnant. Humans observed the Supernova when it occurred in 1054. It was recorded by Chinese astronomers, and it appears that the event is also depicted in Petroglyphs in Arizona and New Mexico. The Chinese astronomers referred to it as a "Guest Star". it was visible during the day for 23 days and was visible at night for 653 days. The supernova also left behind a stellar remnant known as a Pulsar. The Crab Pulsar rotates 30.2 times per second. The nebula is expanding at a rate of 1,800 km/sec.

Annotated image of M1, The Crab Nebula. 

How big is it?

This object has an angular distance of 6 x 4 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky. The object is 13 x 11 light-years (ly) across. 

How far is it?

It is located about 6,300 light-years (ly) from Earth in the Constellation Taurus.

How to find it?

This object is relatively easy to find. It's very close to the bright star Zeta Tauri in the constellation Taurus. Refer to the finder chart below. This is a great visual target. It can be seen in binoculars and small telescopes. Dark skies help as it is it can get lost in light polluted skies. Larger aperture helps significantly. Although visible in smaller instruments, I believe it is far more interesting to observe in large aperture scopes. Nebula filters can aid in viewing this object.

Finder Chart for M1.

Image Details:

Capture Date: 02/03/2024

Location: Beaver Meadow Observatory (North Java, NY)

Telescope: Celestron 14" Edge HD w/0.7x Reducer

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro

Filter: Optolong l-eXtreme 

Mount: Astro Physics AP-1200

Exposure: 13 exposures at 600 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 50 / -10°C each for a total exposure of 130 minutes (2.2 hours)

Software: NINA, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie