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

Starting to share my images through YouTube

 No VLOGs for now

Starting at after Christmas, I will be trying something new. I will be sharing my Astro Photos through YouTube, in addition to the methods of sharing I use now. As of the time of this blog post (late December 2023) I don't have any intention to create VLOG style videos. I will concentrate on slide show type videos, both in long form and the short form portrait videos that all the rage with the kids these days (clearly I watched too much David Letterman in college). 

Let the "Year in Review" retrospectives commence:

The first video will be a slide show of the images captured during 2023. I managed to capture 14 images in 2023. Lots of clouds and smoke. Other than one week in May, when I managed to image five nights in one week, I averaged about one night per month. Happy with the progress I've been making. I've benefited significantly from the experience of members of the Buffalo Astronomical Association, PixInsight classes at Masters of PixInsight, and Astrophotography community at Astroworld. 

A collage of my Astro Photos from 2023

A link to my Youtube Channel (http://www.youtube.com/@Erniej270) has been placed on the home page for this blog. Here's the "First" video: https://youtu.be/s2teiVHLWK0

I will also be releasing each image as "Short". The first one is of Comet c/2022 E3 (ztf). Here's a link to the at video too: https://youtube.com/shorts/CsAdih8ufRw?feature=share

Which images from 2023 do you like the best? Leave a comment and let me know. 

Clear Skies!
Ernie

Reflection in the Dark - The Iris Nebula

 It was a really good week for astrophotography!

Starting on the night of Sunday May 21st through Friday May 26, we had a great stretch of weather for astrophotography, at least as far as Western New York is concerned. Sunday and Monday were impacted by smoke from the wildfires in Alberta, Canada. Even with the smoke, I managed to capture data on SN 2023ixf in M101 (click here). Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday had better conditions. Being able to leave my scope setup all the way through Saturday (extremely rare for our area).

On Wednesday night I started the evening on SN2023ixf in M101 and then moved to another target (post coming soon) as I lose M101 in a tree around 1:30 AM. Not wanting to squander the clear skies I added a sequence for second target to NINA. Technically this was the morning of Thursday May 25th since it was after midnight. However, that's not how I think about it and organize my files. I started the imaging session on the night of Wednesday May 24th and carried that date through sunrise. That's the convention I follow, right or wrong. 

On Thursday, the Moon was setting around 1:30 AM. Thought I would try for the Iris Nebula. This target is something I've wanted to image for a while, but avoided as I considered it more of an "advanced" target. As my skills have been progressing, thanks to experience, mentors in the BAA, and knowledge/skill gained form Masters of PixInsight classes, I decided to give it a shot. glad I took the chance. On Friday I did not image M101, just felt like trying something different. I didn't want to go to the Iris right way because the Moon was brighter and wasn't going to set until 1:52 AM. So imaged another target (post coming soon) until 1:30 am and then switched back to the Iris. I think Thursday night was the best night of the week. 

The image was processed in PixInsight. It took multiple attempts to get this result, but I'm really pleased with it. Still a little unsure (due to inexperience with dust and dark nebulae surrounding the reflection nebula) I posted it on Twitter and asked for feedback. The feedback was very positive. I also shared the image with members of the imaging group within the BAA. Again, the feedback was positive. 

For the first time since I started imaging with this Deep sky setup, the hard drive on my imaging laptop was nearly full by the end of the week. Will need to consider upgrading the storage on the laptop. This was an unusual problem to have as we almost never get that many good nights so close together. It was a really fun week chasing the supernova in m101 and imaging the Iris and the other targets I went after. Very reminiscent of chasing Comet Neowise in 2020. I hope you enjoy the image.

The Iris Nebula (NGC 7023 / LBN 487) captured on 05/25/2023 & 05/26/23.

What is it?

The Iris Nebula is a fairly bright reflection nebula in the constellation of Cepheus. The reflection nebula is surrounded by lots of dust. The Iris Nebula is also known as NGC 7023, Caldwell 4, and LBN 487. Unlike emission nebulae, reflection nebulae do not emit their own light. The color comes from scattered light of its central star. Reflection nebulae are made up of very small particles, much smaller than dust particles on Earth. these particles scatter light giving the nebula its bluish color (similar to our sky).

An annotated image of the Iris Nebula and surrounding dust. 

How big is it?

It has an angular size of 18 x 18 arcminutes on the night sky and is about 6 light-years across. 

How far is it?

The Iris Nebula is within the Milky Way at about 420 parsecs (pc) or 1,400 light-years (ly) from Earth.

How to find it?

This object can be observed visually as well as being a popular photographic target. Dark skies are a must. 

Refer to the finder chart below. 

1. Find Cassiopeia with its distinctive "M" or "W" shape.
2. Find Polaris (the North Star).
3. Find Cygnus or the Northern Cross. 
4. The constellation Cepheus looks like a house and is located between items 1,2, & 3.
5. The Iris Nebula is within the red box on the finder chart (the red box indicates the field of view of the image.

 

A finder chart for the Iris Nebula.

Image Details:

Capture Date:05/25/2023 and 05/26/2023

Location: Eden, NY

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED80 Essential Series Air-Spaced Triplet Refractor

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro

Filter: None

Mount: Sky-Watcher USA EQ6-R Pro

Exposure: 5/25/: 60 exposures at 120 sec each; 5/26: 50 exposures at 120 sec each for a total exposure of 3.67 hours. Gain 100 / Offset 50 / -10°C for both nights.

Software: NINA, SharpCap Pro, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie