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 281 - The Pac-Man Nebula

 I wonder how many quarters I spent on Pac Man when I was a kid?

Sunday September 15th was forecast to be clear with poor transparency due to wildfire smoke and a bright Moon. Since I had a vacation day on Monday, I decided to go ahead and image. I setup with the Optolong L-eXtreme dual narrowband filter to help fight against the bright Moon. I started the evening collecting subs on another target that I had collected some data on Friday 9/14. Imaged that target until i lost it to the trees around 12:30 AM and switched to NGC 281. Struggling to get the result I want from the other data, so no post for now. NGC 281 is also known as the Pac-Man nebula as the shape resembles the protagonist of the famous video game from the 80's. I think the resemblance is slightly diminished by deeper exposures like this, as additional details are revealed. 

NGC 281, The Pac-Man Nebula from 9/15.

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: The Narrowband normalization Process was used to get the "SHO" look. Color, 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. 

What is it?

NGC 281 is an HII region in the constellation Cassiopeia. Like most HII regions, it contains emission nebulosity, dark nebulosity, Bok Globules, and an open star cluster (IC 1590). One of the stars in this open cluster, HD 5005, is a multiple star that is helping to ionize the gas, creating the emission nebula.

Annotated image of NGC 281.

How Big is it?

NGC 281 has a size of 35 x 30 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky. It is about 41.5 light years in diameter.

How Far is it?

NGC 281 is located about 4,100 light-years (ly) from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia.

How to find it?

It may be possible to view this object visually (I have never done so). I would suggest a nebula filter (like a UHC or H-beta filter) to improve contrast and make the nebula "pop" in the eyepiece.

NGC 281 is located near the bright star Shedar in Cassiopeia. If you draw an imaginary line connecting Ruchbah and Shedar, NGC 281 would be a little less than 1/4 of the way to Ruchbah, and a bit off the line (towards Andromeda)/

Finder Chart for NGC 281.

Image Details:

Capture Date: 9/15//2024

Location: Eden, NY

Telescope: Askr FRA600 (no reducer)

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro

Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme

Mount: Sky-Watcher USA EQ6-R Pro

Exposure: 51 exposures at 180 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 50 / -10°C each for a total exposure of almost 2.55 hours.

Software: NINA, SharpCap Pro, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie

A Tiptoe Through the Tulip Nebula

 Target Number Two from Friday 7/26

So picking up from where we left off in the last post (click here). After taking flats with no filter to match my B150 exposures, I installed the L-eXtreme filter and took flats. Then slewed the telescope to the Tulip Nebula (SH2-101) in Cygnus. Started collecting subs at 2:40 AM and stopped the sequence at 3:57 AM due to the increasing sky brightness and immanent loss of the target to the trees in the West.  Sky conditions weren't great due to the smoke from the wildfires out west. I've settled on 180 sec as the default exposure time for imaging with the L-eXtreme. Here's the resulting image:

SH2-101, The Tulip Nebula

Something cool in the image:

Any Rush fans out there? Any fans of Black Holes? The star labeled as HD226868 in the annotated image below is the star that orbits the black hole Cygnus X-1! See if you can see a very faint arch starting from the label HD226868 and arcing back towards +35°20’. It is really subtle, but it is the bow shock created by one of the relativistic jets emanating from the black hole interacting a denser area of dense interstellar medium. Cygnus X-1 is one of the strongest X-ray sources detectable from Earth and the first X-ray source to be widely accepted as a black hole. Cygnus X-1's status as black hole was the subject of a friendly bet between Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne.

Crop of the annotated image of SH2-101 highlighting the star (HD226868) that orbits the black hole Cygnus X-1.

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: The Narrowband normalization Process was used to get the "SHO" look. Color, 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. 

What is it?

The Tulip Nebula (SH2-101) is a bright nebula in the constellation Cygnus. This region of gas and dust is an HII region. Unlike the Dark Nebula B150, the gas in the tulip is ionized and is giving off its own light.

Annotated image of SH2-101

How Big is it?

SH2-101 has a size of 16 x 9 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky. It is about 70 light years in diameter.

How Far is it?

SH2-101 is located about 6,000 light-years (ly) from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.

How to find it?

It may be possible to view this object visually (I have never done so). I would suggest a nebula filter (like a UHC filter) to improve contrast and make the nebula "pop" in the eyepiece.

SH2-101 is located in the neck of Cygnus the Swan. About 1/2 way between the head (Albireo) and Sadr.

Finder Chart for SH2-101.

Image Details:

Capture Date: 07/26/2024

Location: Eden, NY

Telescope: Askr FRA600 (no reducer)

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro

Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme

Mount: Sky-Watcher USA EQ6-R Pro

Exposure: 25 exposures at 180 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 50 / -10°C each for a total exposure of almost 1.25 hours.

Software: NINA, SharpCap Pro, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie

A Smoky Sea Horse Nebula

 It was perfectly clear, except for the wildfire smoke!

Friday 7/26 was the second night of what turned out to be a string of 4 clear nights. That was the good news. The bad news was that wildfire smoke from out west had rolled in. It would be the only night I would have any chance of imaging, so when we got home around 10 pm, I set up and was collecting subs by 11 pm. The week before I tore down my setup. I removed the dovetail saddle on my EQ6-R pro and replaced it with an ADM Saddle that was purchased at last year's NEAF. I also replaced my telescope with an Askar FRA600 that is on loan from a friend. He is unable to use the scope for a bit and generously allowed me to borrow it. I did some cleanish skies last Saturday night and was able to get focused and verify everything was working. 

The first target of the evening was Barnard 150, The Sea Horse Nebula. The 61% illuminated Moon rose around 11:38 PM. I continued to image this target until a little after 2 am, when the Moon started to clear the trees and was impacting the image quality. I took flats, popped the L-eXtreme filter in the image train, took flats with that and switched to a second target for the session. That will be another story. I captured a total of 74 exposures at 2 minutes each. Hope to get more time on this object, as I believe this will improve the result. Here's the final image. 

Barnard 150, The Sea Horse Nebula.

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: 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?

B150 is a Dark Nebula in the constellation Cepheus. It is an interstellar cloud and dust so dense that blocks the optical or visible light behind it (from our point of view). 

An Annotated image of B150.

How Big is it?

M8 has a size of 60 x 60 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky. 

How Far is it?

M8 is located about 1,200 light-years (ly) from Earth in the constellation Cepheus.

How to find it?

I'm not going to say this object can't be observed visually because I don't know. I've never attempted to visually observe this. Definitely not a target for beginners. Dark skies with excellent seeing/transparency would be required to have a chance. This object is about 1 degree in angular size, so a fairly wide field of view would be required.

This object is in Cepheus as shown in the finder chart below. B150 is between Cepheus and Cygnus as indicated by the solid red rectangle in the finder chart.

Finding Chart for B150.

Image Details:

Capture Date: 07/26/2024

Location: Eden, NY

Telescope: Askr FRA600 (no reducer)

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro

Filter: none

Mount: Sky-Watcher USA EQ6-R Pro

Exposure: 74 exposures at 120 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 50 / -10°C each for a total exposure of almost 2.5 hours.

Software: NINA, SharpCap Pro, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie

M8, M20, and friends from the farm across the street

 Imaging in the heart of the Milky Way ...

I have not imaged with my home rig for several months. Been imaging with the club's scopes at the observatory and life has been pretty crazy (let's not talk about the weather). Saturday 7/6 was no exception. Our club had a Public Night at our observatory. I couldn't attend due to a family commitment. Fortunately, we got home in time to do some imaging. I live in farm country and have reasonably good skies. Unfortunately, I have a lousy horizon due to the trees. So, I set up across the street in my neighbor's backyard. Their yard borders their farm fields, so the horizon is amazing. This allowed me to go for M8 & M20, something I could never get from my yard.

I got imaging so late; I'm calling this on a Sunday 7/7 image. I had to stop multiple times due to clouds. Ended up with just under 2 hours of data (114 subs at 60 sec each). Really pleased with the result. Especially for a target that is so low in the sky here.

M8, M20, and friends from across the street from my house.

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. I ended up with 2 versions one bright image and a darker version. I liked elements of each, bit was not totally satisfied with either. I ended blending both images (70% dark with 30% bright) to get the final image.  

What is it?

There is a lot going on in this image. The scope was pointed into the heart of the Milky Way. Going to focus on the three Messier objects in the image. 

Messier 8 (M8) The Lagoon Nebula. M8 is a large star forming region, some dark nebula, and a star cluster. This is giant glowing cloud of interstellar dust where stars are forming and have been formed (the star cluster).

Messier 20 (M20) The Trifid Nebula. M20is a unique combination of a star cluster, emission nebula, dark nebula, and a reflection nebula. It is called the Trifid nebula due to the tree lobed appearance.

Messier 21 (M21). M21 is an open star cluster located near M20. This is a relatively young cluster at about 4.6 million years old.

An annotated image of M8 & M20.

How Big is it?

M8 has a size of 9o x 40 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky. It is 113.6 light-years (ly) in diameter.

M20 has a size of 29 x27 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky. It is 43.9 light-years (ly) in diameter.

M21 has a size of 14 arcminutes (1 degree is 60 arcminutes) on the night sky. It is 20 light-years (ly) in diameter.

How Far is it?

M8 is located about 4,300 light-years (ly) from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius.

M20 is located about 5,200 light-years (ly) from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius.

M21 is located about 3,900 light-years (ly) from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius.

How to find it?

The lagoon is naked eye visible in dark sky locations. All three objects are located in the constellation Sagittarius, which is low in the South for Northern Hemisphere stargazers in the summer. Find the Teapot, they are located above (North) of the Spout of the Teapot.

A finder chart for M8 & M20

Image Details:

Capture Date: 07/06/2024 into the morning of 07/07/2024

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: 114 exposures at 60 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 50 / -10°C each for a total exposure of 1.9 hours.

Software: NINA, SharpCap Pro, PHD2, and PixInsight

Clear Skies!

Ernie

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