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

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