NGC 2237 - The Rosette Nebula (Skull Orientation)

This target was way too close to the nearly Full Moon ...

The night of February 20th was just a few days before The Full Moon (2/24). Even worse, this bright Moon was in the Constellation Gemini. This meant the Moon was very close to that night's target, The Rosette Nebula. Well, I wanted to see just how well the Optolong L-eXtreme Dual Narrowband filter would perform under these unfair circumstances. Spoiler alert, it wasn't great, but it wasn't a total loss.

I got home from work and setup my rig. As we are approaching spring, it is staying light noticeably later. This takes a little pressure off when getting setup (nothing worse than setting up under a clear dark sky). It still gets dark early enough to get a decent amount of imaging before it is too late. This will change as Spring turns towards Summer. I started collecting subs (short for sub-exposures) at 7:11 PM and stopped at 10:00 PM due to clouds. Exposure time was 180 sec each at Gin 100 / Offset 50 / -10 deg C. Ended up using 44 subs (2.2 hours total exposure) to produce the image. I oriented the object to show the Skull. Please note, there is a separate deep sky object called the Skull Nebula. My daughter is a Radiology Technician and has always had a fascination with bones, skeletons, and skulls. So, I guess this is in her honor.

NGC 2237 - The Rosette Nebula. Do you see the skull?

So, what about that Moon thing? Well, it was an issue. The image below is a single exposure (sub) with Boosted Auto Stretch applied. Thankfully we have many capable tools to deal with Gradients. No doubt this gradient impacted the processing of the image, but I'm pleased with how it ended up after processing. 

Single exposure showing Gradient from the Moon.

Processing:

I did all pre and post processing in PixInsight. Pre-processing: Blink & WBPP. Linear Post-processing: Dynamic Background Extraction (DBE - see next paragraph), BlurXTerminator (correct only), Spectrophotometric Color Calibration, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, and Histogram Transformation. Non-Linear Post-processing: StarXTerminator. Starless: Narrowband Normalization (simulated SHO), 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 two different methods of Gradient removal. Specifically, DBE, GraXpert, and the new Gradient correction process. To my eye DBE gave me the best result. GraXpert removed too much nebula and the new Gradient Correction Tool did not seem to work well with this image. Note: This is a new tool so it could also be that I did not apply it in the optimal manner.

What is it?

The Rosette Nebula contains multiple deep sky objects, including bright nebulosity and a star cluster (NGC 2244). NGC 2237 usually denotes the whole nebula. Other objects contained in the area include NGC 2238, NGC 2239, & NGC 2246. The nebula is in the constellation Monoceros. The Nebula has a circular pattern that resembles a flower. However, it can be oriented (as shown in my images) in a way that resembles a Skull. As indicated above there is an entirely separate deep sky object known as the Skull Nebula (NGC 246).

This object is an emission nebula. Stellar winds from the hot, large, and young stars in the star cluster have carved out the central area. These stellar winds also exert pressure on the remaining gas and dust. This leads to star formation, which is actively occurring in the nebula. 

How Big is it?

This object has an apparent size of 80 by 60 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky. It is 128 light-years (ly) in diameter.

How Far is it?

It is located about 5,500 light-years (ly) from Earth in the Constellation Monoceros.

How to find it?

This object is easier to photograph than visually observe. To visually observe you will need requires dark skies and good seeing conditions, specifically transparency. A wide field telescope with a large field of view is required to see the entire object, as it is 5 times the size of the Full Moon in the sky. Large telescopes (over 8 inches) can reveal the dark nebulosity contained with the object.

Even though the constellation Monoceros is relatively dim, this object is relatively easy to locate. It is roughly halfway between the bright stars Betelgeuse (in Orion) and Procyon (in Canis Minor) as indicated in the finder chart below.

Image Details:

Capture Date: 02/20/2024

Location: Eden, NY

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

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro

Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme

Mount: Sky-Watcher USA EQ6-R Pro

Exposure: 44 exposures at 180 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 50 / -10°C each for a total exposure of 2 hour and 12 minutes.

Software: NINA, SharpCap Pro, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie

M45 - The Pleiades

 The last in a recent string of clear nights ... but 1st a quick story:

A few years back my family was driving home from a family event on beautiful clear night. Someone remarked how beautiful the stars looked and my mother-in-law said, "oh yes, and you can really see the little Dipper!". I'm driving and trying to contain my inner Sheldon Cooper, we are driving south, there is no way she's talking about the Little Dipper. When we got home and parked the car, I asked her to show me. She pointed directly to the Pleiades. I realized it does in fact look like a min dipper. I politely explained what she was actually looking at and showed her how to find the actual Little Dipper. She was un-impressed. I don't think I ever consciously realized that M45 looks like a mini-dipper before (even though I have observed it for years). Now I often describe it in this way when describing it. Now back to your regularly scheduled blog post.

From Saturday 2/3/2024 through Tuesday 2/6/2024, we had a string of 4 clear nights. Skies weren't amazing, the transparency was not great, but the best opportunity for any astronomy related activity in 2 months or so. i got out to the observatory to image on 2/3/2024. Family and work obligations prevented me from imaging Sunday night or Monday night. Tuesday night was my last chance. The forecast was for clear skies early with the transparency turning poor/clouds around 11. Good news, it gets dark early enough to make imaging under worthwhile. Our Tuesday night imaging group was also in session. I joined from home via Zoom. 

After work, I quickly set up my scope. I had not used my home setup since October 3rd! I started collecting exposures at 7:04 PM. Since we were so close to New Moon, I decided on a broadband target, M45 (a.k.a. The Pleiades or Seven Sisters). Looking to improve on my initial result of this image from 2021. By 9:00 PM the transparency was starting to degrade. I kept imaging until 10:32 but had discard quite a most subs collected after 9:41 PM due to haze/thin clouds. Here's the resulting image. I'm pleased with result but hope to add data to this in the future, hope to pull out more of the faint background dust. 

M45, The Pleiades - from my backyard on 02/02/2024.

Showing the mini-dipper asterism. 

Processing:

All pre and post processing was performed in PixInsight. Pre-processing: Blink & WBPP (2x drizzle integration). Linear Post-Processing: GraXpert, BXT (correct only), SPCC, BXT, NXT, and HT. Non-linear Post-processing: StarXT. Stars: Curves (saturation) and SCNR. Starless: Curves (multiple for brightening, contrast, and saturation), SCNR, LHE (3 kernel sizes), Unsharp Mask, MMT, & PixelMath (to screen stars back in). Integer Resample was used to down sample the image. 

What is it?

Messier 45 is probably the most famous Open Star Cluster in the night sky. It is easily visible to the naked eye. The brightest 6 stars form a distinctive mini-dipper pattern not far from Orion. It is known by many names by different cultures around the world. If you drive a Subaru, look at the logo. Subaru ids the name for M45 in Japan. The cluster contains over 1,000 confirmed stars. The reflection nebula that surrounds the cluster is not associated with the cluster. The cluster is just passing through it and the starlight from the cluster is reflecting it, in the same way our atmosphere scatters the light from the Sun making our sky appear blue. 

Annotated version of the image of M45.

How big is it?

This object has an apparent size of 12 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky. It is 16 light-years (ly) in diameter.

How far is it?

It is located about 440 light-years (ly) from Earth in the Constellation Taurus.

How to find it?

This object is easily visible to the naked eye. You won't see the beautiful reflection nebula, but the 6 brightest stars are quite bright and form a very recognizable mini-dipper pattern (asterism). It is not far from the V-shaped Hyades in Taurus. Start with the belt stars in Orion. Starting from the lowest star (Alnitak), extend through the highest star (Mintaka) for about 35 degrees (about 3-1/2 fists). Refer to the finder charts below.

How to use Orion's Belt to find M45.

A finder chart for M45 with a tighter field of view.

Image Details:

Capture Date: 02/06/2024

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: 66 exposures at 120 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 50 / -10°C each for a total exposure of 2 hour and 12 minutes.

Software: NINA, SharpCap Pro, 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

Experimenting at the Club's Observatory

 First off, it's been a while ... 

The last clear night that I was able to image was on October 3rd. So, apologies for taking so long between posts. The weather has been horrendous and travel for work forced me to miss the one clear night we had in November. I was super excited to see a clear forecast for Thursday night (December 14th). Our astronomy club has an imaging group, we're called the Tuesday Night Imagers. the leader of our group posted on the forum of our website that Tuesday would be Thursday this week. One advantage of winter is I can make it out to the observatory after work and get a few hours of imaging in and still get home at a reasonable time. 

We made our plans ahead of time. The plan was to try my personal camera, the ZWO ASI2600MC-Pro on the club's Celestron 14" Edge D Telescope. Our club has the 14" and a Tele Vue NP-101is mounted on an Astro Physics AP-1200 mount. We have an Atik 383L+ Color camera for the 14". A great camera, but it is an older CCD camera and is starting to show it's age. We are actively discussing what camera to get to replace it. We wish to stick with a One-Shot Color (OSC) camera for simplicity and convivence. Technically, my camera is a great match for the NP-101is but not for the 14". Even with the 0.7x focal reducer, the 14" has focal length of 2,738 mm. Therefore, my camera's small pixels result in a very over-sampled image scale with the 14". This is typically not desirable. However, we have seen some great results from similar setups and decided to give this a try. 

I got to the observatory around 5:30 pm. The observatory director, the leader of our imaging group, was unable to make it out to the observatory due to a last minute issue. Typically, the observatory director and another member of our group are the main operators of the telescope. The other telescope operator and I got the telescopes going. My camera on the 14" and the other telescope operator put his ZWO ASI1600MC-Pro on the NP-101. The observatory director and a couple of other members of our imaging group joined us via Zoom. 

The skies were not great. lots of high/thin clouds or haze especially towards the western horizon. Of course, that's exactly where we wanted to image. We wanted to get data on Comet 12/P Pons-Brooks which is near the bright star Vega. We tried for about an hour, but the data was not looking good. Autofocus was struggling and there was little signal from the comet. I have not tried to process the data from the 14" yet but the other telescope operator managed to get a nice image (especially considering the conditions). 

As it was also the peak of the Geminids meteor shower, we did try to get outside and see if we could see meteors. We saw about four or five. We also noticed skies were better towards the Southeast, where the constellation Orion was rising. We decided to give up on the comet and slew to the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33). We slewed to B33 and got both telescopes framed as best as we could. We were feeling the pressure to get imaging quickly, so we didn't rotate the camera or refine (manually) the relative pointing of the telescopes to one another, a disadvantage of two scopes on one mount. We dialed in our exposure settings, 120 sec subs at Gain 100 with an Offset of 50 for me and started collecting exposures. The results looked really good. The stars were nice and round. We imaged for little over an hour. It was a work night, skies weren't the best, and both of us had a pretty good drive home. This is the resulting image from the night's work. Pretty encouraging results!

The Horsehead Nebula (B33) from the BAA's Beaver Meadow Observatory on 12/14/2023.

Processing

There was a lot of conversation in our club's forum leading up to Thursday night and again afterwards regarding how to capture and process images with this scope/camera combination. We are lucky to have some talented imagers in the group, one in particular who is both very talented and technically knowledgeable. This person was a key participant in those discussions and I'm personally very grateful for his mentoring.

All pre and post processing was performed in PixInsight. Pre-processing: All 34 images were examined in Blink, 2 were rejected. The remaining 32 images were calibrated, registered, and stacked in WBPP with 1X Drizzle integration, astrometric solution, and auto-crop enabled. 

Linear Post-processing: Gradient was removed with the GraXpert script (AI mode), initial deconvolution with BlurXT in Correct Only mode, color calibration SPCC, second deconvolution with BlurXT, noise reduction NoiseXT, and the image was made non-linear with HT. Non-linear Post processing: Stars were removed with StarXT. Stars: Saturation curve applied with CT and green noise removed with SCNR. Starless: Multiple iterations of CT were applied to increase brightness and contrast, Saturation was added with CT, green noise was removed with SCNR, and noise reduction was further reduced with NoiseXT. The image was sharpened with LHE at 3 different kernel sizes and MMT. Dark structure was enhanced with the DSE script and stars were screened back in with Pixel Math. No down sampling was performed. 

What is it?

The Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) is a small dark nebula silhouetted against the emission nebula IC434. B33 resembles the profile of the head of a horse. It is a concentration of dust and non-luminous gas that blocks light of the nebula behind it. 

Annotated image of the Horsehead Nebula

How big is it?

This object has an angular distance of 6.0 x 4.0 arcminutes on the night sky. The object is 2.8 light-years (ly) across. 

How far is it?

It is located about 1,600 light-years (ly) from Earth in the Constellation of Orion.

How to find it?

It is located close to Alnitak, one of the 3 belt stars in Orion. This makes it easy to find. However, it is much easier to photograph than visually observe. To give you the best chance of success in visually observing it, use a large aperture telescope, use an H-beta nebula filter, and get to dark skies. It is tiny and it is essentially like trying to find a black fingerprint on a black tablecloth. Try to find the emission nebula IC 434 and look for the absence of the nebula. Photographically, this target shows up relatively easily and can be captured with and without the use of filters. 

Finder Chart for B33

Image Details:

Capture Date: 12/14/2023

Location: North Java, NY (BAA's Beaver Meadow Observatory

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

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro

Filter: N/A

Mount: Astro Physics AP-1200

Exposure: 32 exposures at 120 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 50 / -10°C each for a total exposure of 1 hour and 4 minutes.

Software: NINA, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie

NGC 6888 -The Crescent Nebula

 Attack of The Floating Space Brain!!!

Tuesday October 3rd was forecast to be our last clear night for about 2 weeks. Even though it was a work night, decided I had to get out and image something. Fortunately, the Sun is setting earlier, which means we can get some time on targets before it gets too late. Unfortunately, the 82% illuminated Moon would rise around 9 PM. Therefore, I decided to image a bright narrowband target using my L-eXtreme Dual Narrowband filter. The target selected was NGC 6888, The Crescent Nebula. I see a floating space brain. Perhaps I've watched too much sci-fi.

NG6888 - The Crescent Nebula captured on 10/3/2023. Can you spot the Soap Bubble Nebula?

As soon as I got home from work, I set up the telescope. Once it was dark enough, the scope was polar aligned and PHD2 was calibrated. The sequence, created ahead of time, was initiated and the first sub was taken at 8:19 PM. Tuesday night also happened to be the night our astronomy club's (Buffalo Astronomical Association) imaging group was in session. We are called the Tuesday Night imagers (even though we don't always meet on Tuesday). I was imaging from my backyard, so I joined the group at the observatory via Zoom. One of our members advised that I don't need to calibrate PHD2 every time I setup once I have a good calibration. will have to give this a try next time. Will save a little time setting up. May only need to redo calibration if my setup changes. 

I imaged until just a few minutes past midnight, as I would be losing the target to the trees. The Sequence was timed nearly perfectly, the last sub showed a small shadow from the tree. I was already asleep, NINA parked my mount and warmed up the camera. I got up early to retrieve my laptop and put my telescope in the shed. A total of 65 subs were captured at 180 seconds each (Gain 100 / Offset 50).

Processing:

All pre and post processing was performed in PixInsight. Images were reviewed with Blink and the Subframe Selector Process, with a total of 10 images rejected. The 55 remaining subs were loaded in WBPP. Astrometric solution, Autocrop, & 2X Drizzle integration were enabled. Linear: The background was removed with ABE and color calibration was performed with SPCC. The image was deconvolved with BlurXT, noise was reduced with NoiseXT, and the image was stretched with HT. 

Non-linear: The stars were removed with StarXT and here's where things get a little interesting. As a result of a conversation on the Zoom, I decided to try the Narrowband Normalization Process (Cosmic Photons) from Bill Blanshan and Mike Cranfield. Specifically, I used the HOO palate (no choice as i was using a dual narrowband filter with an OSC camera) in Blend 2 mode. This process is amazing (as my friend had indicated in our conversation). The Realtime Preview, sliders, and various selections make it easy to get the best results for your image! Stars: Applied saturation with CT, removed green noise with SCNR, and ran the Correct Magenta Stars script. Starless: Applied multiple iterations of CT to add saturation, increase brightness, and contrast. Applied LHE at 3 different kernel sizes. Applied MMT and DSE. I screened the stars back in with Pixel Math and did some star reduction with Bill Blanshan and Mike Cranfield's Star Reduction process. Finally, the image was down samples to a more manageable size.

What is it?

The Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888) is an emission nebula located in the constellation Cygnus. This object is formed by the strong stelar wind from a Wolf-Rayet star (WR 136). This star is losing its outer layers at the rate of the mass of our Sun every 10,000 years. This massive star is likely to go Supernova some day in a million or so years.

Annotated image of NGC 6888.

How big is it?

This object has an angular distance of 20 x 10 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky. The object is 25 light-years (ly) across. 

How far is it?

It is located about 4,700 light-years (ly) from Earth in the Constellation Cygnus.

How to find it?

This object is relatively easy to find. It's very close to the bright star Sadr in the constellation Cygnus. Refer to the finder chart below. 

Finder Chart

Image Details:

Capture Date: 10/03/2023

Location: Eden, NY

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

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro

Filter: Optolong l-eXtreme 

Mount: Sky-Watcher USA EQ6-R Pro

Exposure: 55 exposures at 180 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 50 / -10°C each for a total exposure of 2.75 hours.

Software: NINA, SharpCap Pro, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie

LDN 1235 - The Dark Shark Nebula

 Smile you Son of a ...

LDN 1235 - The Dark Shark Nebula captured on 9/14/2023 & 9/15/2023

This never happens!!! Two clear nights in a row at New Moon!!! Thursday (9/14) and Friday (9/15) were predicted to be clear, with no Moon. Therefore, wanted to go after something that was a challenge or stretch target for me and my Bortle 4/5 location, The Dark Shark Nebula. This target is very faint and requires dark skies and lots of exposure. I have pretty good skies, around Bortle 4 or 5, darker skies would be better, but figured I would give it a go. 

Wednesday, I framed up the image using Telescopius (telescopius.com) because I wasn't able to find this object in the NINA Sky Atlas. One advantage of Telescopius is that it allows you to adjust the brightness of the image being displayed. Increasing the brightness made the Shark visible, an advantage when framing the image. I imported the coordinates into the NINA Framing Assistant and then created a Sequence so I would be ready to go Thursday night. I still use the Legacy Sequencer, although I'm preparing to give the Advanced Sequencer a try. Will use a night with a bright Moon to experiment (not risking clear nights at New Moon). 

Thursday, after getting home from work, I quickly set up my imaging rig. Things went smoothly. Polar aligned with SharpCap Pro and calibrated the guiding software (PHD2) once skies were dark enough. Started collecting subs at 8:43 PM. Individual 2-minute sub exposures (subs) did not show any hint of the Shark, even with a screen stretch. I decided to keep collecting exposures without a change because I was shooting to the North, there's lots of light pollution to my North. Examining the subs and looking at the histogram led me to the decision to keep exposure as is. My hope was by getting enough exposures, I would be able to get the Shark. I stopped imaging at 2:23 AM, when the target would be lost to the trees. Was able to collect 130 subs on night 1. NINA parked my scope and warmed the camera. I got up earlier the next morning to bring in my laptop and cover my rig with a tarp. 

A single 2-minute exposure (calibrated and debayered) with an unlinked auto stretch applied (no other processing). Do you see the Shark? 

I got a later start on Friday night as I tried (unsuccessfully) to catch Comet C/2023 P1 Nishimura at sunset. Started capturing exposures at 8:54 PM. Conditions were very good again and the imaging session went smoothly. The session ended at 2:31 AM. A total of 139 exposures were captured. NINA parked the scope and warmed the camera. Retrieved my laptop in the morning and waited until late morning to put my equipment away, as everything was covered in dew. Saturday was forecast to be cloudy. Even if it was clear, I would not have been able to image due to family a commitment. 

Image Processing

All pre and post processing was done in PixInsight. All 269 sub exposures were evaluated with Blink and the Subframe Selector process. After this evaluation, 36 sub exposures were discarded. The remaining 233 subs were loaded into the Weighted Batch Pre-Processing Script (WBPP) along with the associated calibration (Darks, Flats, & Flat Darks) frames. This represents a total of 7 hours and 46 minutes of total exposure. I enabled 2X Drizzle Integration. This is the resulting Master Light unlinked auto stretch applied (no other processing). 

Master Light from WBPP. Can you start to see the Shark now?

Linear Processing: Automatic Background Extraction (ABE), Sprectrophotometric Color Calibration (SPCC), RC-Astro's BlurXTerminator (BXT), RC-Astro's NoiseXTerminator (NXT), and the image was made non-linear with Histogram Transformation (HT). 

Non-Linear Processing: RC-Astro's StarXTerminator (SXT). Stars: Saturation was enhanced with Curves Transformation (CT) and Green Noise was removed with SCNR. Starless: Another application of NXT, the Image was brightened, and contrast was enhanced with multiple applications of CT. A mask was applied, and Saturation was enhanced with CT. Mask was removed and SCNR was applied. Local Histogram Equalization (LHE) was applied at 3 different Kernel sizes followed by Multiscale Median Transform (MMT). Dark Structure Enhance script (DSE) was used and the Stars were screened back in with pixel Math. The image was resampled down by 50% with the Resample process (making the file size a little more manageable). The image was processed 6 different times using the above process/scripts with slightly different setting each time, until the final (for now) image at the beginning of this post was obtained.  

What is it?

The Dark Shark is located in a section of the Milky Way that contains a lot of interstellar Dust and Gas. This object is comprised of interstellar dust and gas. Powerful winds radiating from massive stars create the "structure" or shape of this object. 

An annotated version of the image

How big is it?

This Shark is about 15 light-years (ly) from head to tail.

How far is it?

It is located about 650 light-years (ly) from Earth in the Constellation Cepheus.

How to find it?

I'm honestly not sure if this object can be observed visually, if it can be observed, assuming this would be a very challenging target. My gut says this can't be visually observed. This object is located in the Constellation Cepheus. To me, it looks like a house. The Dark Shark Nebula is location is indicted by the red rectangle in the finder chart below. 

Finder Chart for Dark Shark Nebula

Image Details:

Capture Date:09/14/2023 and 09/15/2023

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: 9/14: 104 exposures at 120 sec each; 9/15: 129 exposures at 120 sec each for a total exposure of 7 hours 46 minutes. Gain 100 / Offset 50 / -10°C for both nights.

Software: NINA, SharpCap Pro, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie

M27 with a Dual Narrowband Filter

A return to M27

Friday September 1st was a clear night, a clear night with a very bright (nearly full) Moon. I decided to use my Optolong L-eXtreme dual narrowband filter on M27. I imaged M27 without a filter under moonless skies back in May (click here for the related post). The L-eXtreme has 7 nm band passes in both Ha and Oiii. It would be interesting to see how it would perform with an almost full Moon. This is the resulting image.

M27 imaged with a dual narrowband filter on 9/1/2023.

Setup went relatively smoothly. Started collecting images at 9:14 PM and stopped at 1:56 PM when clouds started to roll in (I wouldn't have been long until I lost the target to the trees anyways). I collected a total of 52 subs at 300 sec each. All pre and post processing was performed in PixInsight. A total of 45 subs were used after inspecting the frames with blink and using the Subframe Selector process. Processes used: Blink, Subframe Selector, WBPP (enabled2x Drizzle Integration and Autocrop), DBE, SPCC, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, HT, and StarXterminator (unscreen stars). Stars: Curve Transformation (saturation), SCNR, and Correct Magenta Stars Script. Starless: Curve Transformation with mask (RGB/K), Curves Transformation with mask (saturation), SCNR, LHE, MMT, and Pixel Math to Screen stars back in. Finally, the image is significantly cropped in as this object is very small in my setup.

What is it?

Messier 27 (M270, also known as the Dumbbell Nebula, is a form of Emission Nebulae known as a Planetary Nebula. It has the distinction of being the first planetary Nebula ever discovered.  A Planetary Nebula is the remnant of a star, like our Sun, that is too small to end its life as a Supernova. Instead, as the star reaches the end of its life, no longer capable of fusion, the star will lose its outer shells. A hot and very dense remnant known as a White Dwarf is left behind. Even though it is no longer capable of fusion, it is hot enough to ionize the expelled shells of gas.

How big is it?

This object has an angular distance of 8.0 x 5.7 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky.

How far is it?

It is located about 1,400 light-years (ly) from Earth in the Constellation Vulpecula.

How to find it?

This object is relatively easy to find in a pair of binoculars, optical finder scope, or telescope with a wide field of view. It is located in the Constellation Vulpecula which is a dim constellation located within the Summer Triangle. A nebula filter (like UHC or Oiii) filter can help improve contrast and make the nebula stand out more from the background sky. Use the finder chart below to help you locate it.

1. Find the Summer Triangle (Vega, Deneb, & Altair).
2. Method 1: 
1. Find Albireo (a beautiful visual target itself) which is the head of Cygnus the Swan or the base of the Northern Cross. 
2. Find Altair. 
3. M27 is the vertex of a imaginary triangle with Albireo and Altair as the other two vertices.
3. Method 2: (Darker skies may be required)
1. Find 13 Vulpeculae.
2. Find Gamma Sagittae.
3. M27 is the vertex of a imaginary triangle with 13 Vulpeculae and Gamma Sagittae as the other two vertices.

Finder Chart for M27

Image Details:

Capture Date:09/01/2023

Location: Eden, NY

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

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro

Filter: Optolong l-eXtreme 

Mount: Sky-Watcher USA EQ6-R Pro

Exposure: 45 exposures at 300 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 50 / -10°C each for a total exposure of 3.75 hours.

Software: NINA, SharpCap Pro, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie

The Coathanger Asterism - A Great Target for Binoculars

 

Things have been a little crazy

It's been a while since I've posted. In addition to poor weather and smoke, the last couple of months have been crazy (both at work and at home). Catching up on the few opportunities I had to image since July.

The Coathanger - captured on 8/19/20232 with the open star cluster NGC 6802 just to the left of the horizontal portion of the Coathanger.

The Coathanger is one of my favorite visual targets, especially for binoculars (this isn't the first target or the last that I will describe in that way). I love to observe with binoculars. I have a pair of 8 x 40 and a pair of 10 x 50. The 8 x 40's are perfect handheld and the 10 x50's are best on a tripod. The Coathanger is located in the Summer Triangle, so it is almost directly overhead at dark. If you're interested in astronomy and don't have a telescope (or even if you do), but have a pair of binoculars, grab them at dark and try finder this object. 

August 19th was a Saturday night. Although clear, the transparency was poor and clouds were predicted later in the night. Only a brief window to image. Knowing the window would be short, figured I would go after The Coathanger as lots of integration time would not be needed. Ended up with 92 subs at 30 secs each. I started collecting subs at 9:55 PM and stopped at 11:23 PM when the clouds became more frequent. I collected 119 subs but had to discard a large number due to passing clouds / poor sky conditions. Given the circumstances, the resulting image isn't that bad. 

What is it?

The Coathanger is known as Collinder 399 (Cr 399) or Brocchi's Cluster. This object is an Asterism (a prominent or recognizable pattern of stars). It is not a true open star cluster, it is a chance alignment of 10 bright stars. There are about 30 more stars that some consider to be a part of the asterism. 

An annotated version of the image of The Coathanger.

How big is it?

This object has an angular distance of 89 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky.

How far is it?

It is located about 4,200 light-years (ly) from Earth in the Constellation Vulpecula.

How to find it?

This is object is relatively easy to find in a pair of binoculars, optical finder scope, or telescope with a wide field of view. It is located in the Constellation Vulpecula which is a dim constellation located within the Summer Triangle.  Use the finder chart below to help you locate it.

1. Find the Summer Triangle (Vega, Deneb, & Altair).
2. Method 1: 
1. Find Albireo (a beautiful visual target itself) which is the head of Cygnus the Swan or the base of the Northern Cross. 
2. Find the star Alpha Vulpecula and draw an imaginary line from Albireo through Alpha Vulpecula. The Coathanger is roughly the same distance from Alpha Vulpecula as Alpha Vulpecula is from Albireo. 
3. Method 2:
1. Find Vega and Altair and draw an imaginary line between them.
2. The Coathanger is roughly between both stars (it's a little closer to Altair).

A finder Chart for The Coathanger

Image Details:

Capture Date:08/19/2023

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: 92 exposures at 30 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 50 / -10°C each for a total exposure of 46 minutes.

Software: NINA, SharpCap Pro, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie

IC 1396 - The Elephant Trunk Nebula - 07/07/2023

 It was an unexpected clear night and a Friday night too!

Clear skies on a Friday night and daylight savings time actually working to my advantage. Noticed potential for clear skies that morning of July 7th but didn't get my hopes up too high. Got home from work, went to dinner, ran a few errands, and got home in plenty of time to setup before dark. Since the Moon was going to rise at midnight, figured it would be good to after an emission nebula so I could try out my L-eXtreme Dual Narrowband filter out with my ZWO ASI2600MC Pro for the first time. Got great results with the filter last year with my DSLR. I decided to shoot IC 1396, The Elephant Nebula in the constellation Cepheus. 

Started capturing 180 sec subs at 10:18 PM and kept going until 4:06AM, when I went outside to take flat frames. Ended up using 79 subs, resulting in a total exposure of 3.95 hours. The image was processed in PixInsight using a Dual Narrowband "SHO" method that was provided to me by a mentor from the Buffalo Astronomical Association. This method approximates the SHO or Hubble Palette color map scheme with data from dual Narrowband filters and one-shot color (OSC) cameras like mine. 

This is the resulting image. 

IC1396 - The Elephant Trunk Nebula from 07/07/2023

What is it?

IC 1396 is a region of ionized interstellar gas and dust that contains smaller regions of concentrated gas and dust that appear as dark knots or globules in visible light images. The gas in the entire region is being ionized by the bright star HD 206267 in the center of the image. The Elephant Trunk Nebula is one of those concentrations of gas and dust. It can be seen rising from the bottom of the image. These areas of concentrated gas and dust, including The Elephant Trunk, are star forming regions. Young stars within The Elephant Trunk were discovered in 2003 using infrared telescopes.

An annotated image of IC 1396, The Elephant Trunk Nebula.

How big is it?

The entire region is hundreds of light years across and spans over 3 degrees on the night sky.

How far is it?

IC 1396 is located about 2,400 light-years (ly) in the Constellation Cepheus.

How to find it?

The constellation Cepheus is located near the bright signpost constellation Cassiopeia. Cepheus is a circumpolar constellation for observers at mid-northern latitudes and above. This means the constellation never sets. It is visible all night, appearing to circle the north celestial pole currently located near the North star, Polaris. to me, this constellation looks like a house with disproportionately large roof. IC 1396 is indicated in the chart by the red rectangle just off what would be the ground floor of the house. 

Finding Chart for IC 1396 (the red rectangle in the center of the chart).

Image Details:

Capture Date:07/07/2023

Location: Eden, NY

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

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro

Filter: Optolong l-eXtreme 

Mount: Sky-Watcher USA EQ6-R Pro

Exposure: 79 exposures at 180 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 50 / -10°C each for a total exposure of 3.95 hours.

Software: NINA, SharpCap Pro, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie