astroblog

Mars

2012-02-09T19:30:00.001Z

Viewing Mars at its best still involves staying awake until the early hours of the morning; not always compatible with an early start for those of us who have to work for a living!

This is my first attempt at an image of the Red Planet this year. The disk is still just under 12 arcseconds in diameter so capturing any detail is a challenge with and f5 Newtonian, involving a 4x barlow and extension tubes. All said and done I'm quite happy with this image, the north polar cap being clearly visible and just the faintest hint of surface detail.

Jupiter, Io and Europa

2012-02-09T19:24:00.003Z

Jupiter is still nicely positioned in the early evening and is always a fascinating subject to view and image. The dance of the moons, their occultations, transits and shadows and the ever changing festoons, barges and storms on the surface are a constant fascination.

Some Narrowband Horsing Around

2012-02-02T08:39:00.003Z

I obtained some additional narrowband filters to compliment the Ha filter I've been using for a while now. The new filters are OIII, which admits light around the the 501nm wavelength only and and SII which admits light around the 672mm wavelength only.

Whilst these filters do not render "photo-realistic" colours that the eye might perceive (if the human eye was sensitive enough to discern the colour of deep sky objects), it's fun to experiment with different colour combinations by assigning various colours to the Ha, OIII and SII channels.

My first attempt at this is illustrated below, though cloud and haze severely degraded both the OIII and SII sub frames.

The images below were produced by assigning RGB channel colours to Ha, OIII and SII respectively in the first image, then SII, Ha, OIII in the second (the "hubble palette").

A Jupiter Transit

2011-11-07T20:58:00.000Z

It's a great time to be observing Jupiter, the planet being high in the south west during the latter part of the evening. The planet is just past opposition but presents a large disk with a wealth of detail available both visually and for imaging. A transit of Io and some clear weather combined to inspire this image, with the shadow of the moon about to transit the Great red Spot.

Saturn

2011-05-03T22:22:00.001+01:00

A storm has been raging in Saturn's northern hemisphere for about a year now. If you look closely, this storm can just be seen as a faint, white mark on the upper left "limb" of the disk in this recent, stacked web-cam image.

The Pinwheel Galaxy

2011-04-24T21:45:00.003+01:00

M101 is about 170,000 light years away in the constellation of Ursa Major. A bright spiral, clearly visible in binoculars from a dark site, it is nearly twice the size of our own Milky Way. This image is about 30 mins each of RGB.

The Cone Nebula

2011-03-07T19:12:00.010Z

The Cone Nebula, or NGC 2264, is located about 2700 light years away in the constellation of Monocerous. The "Cone" part of the overall nebula (image centre), is part of a larger structure which includes the Fox Fur nebula (just out of shot to the top right) and Christmas Tree star cluster. The Cone itself is a pillar of star forming dust and gas, where new stars are in the process of creation. The structure has also been referred to as the "Mother and Child" nebula, giving the whole composition something of a festive feel, which is appropriate as it was taken during the Christmas holiday period over 2010/11.
The image is a combination of 10 and 15 minute subs taken through an H-alpha filter, amounting to 2 hours of imaging in total.

Sometimes, completely fortuitously, the process of imaging an object captures something unintended. Such was the case here, when an unexpected artifact apparantly "spoiled" the image by moving across the field of view at a rate that is difficult to spot on individual sub frames and only becomes apparant in the final stack. The video below shows the object moving across the frame. (look closely at the bottom right hand side). It transpires that the object moving across the field is an asteroid named 640 Brambilla, which was apparantly discovered in 1907 by August Kopff. Neat!

The Pac-man

2010-11-08T21:35:00.005Z

This star forming region of the sky lies 9500 light years away in the constellation of Cassiopoeia. The hot, young stars at the centre of the gas and dust lanes that make up the nebula cause it to shine by emission, particularly at the wavelength of ionized hydrogen in which this image was taken. The nebula also features "Bok globules", columns of gas being eroded by the intense ultraviolet radiation from the massive blue stars in the nebula. If they survive this onslaught, they might well go on to form stars, and eventually even other solar systems.

M27

2010-10-18T07:58:00.005+01:00

The autumn observing season is now well underway, heralded by the ever darkening evenings and chillier air.

This is Messier object 27, a planetary nebula some 1,360 light years from earth in the constellation of vulpecula; the first planetary nebula to be discovered. The colourful shells of gas that form the nebula are created by ultra-violet emissions from the white dwarf remains of the progenitor star that created it, causing the gases to glow according to their chemical composition.

A New Season Begins

2010-08-25T22:03:00.005+01:00

Late August marks the start of the 2010/2011 observing season, and some spedtacular clear skies around the time of the Perseid meteor shower brought the opportunity to brush the dust off the equipment and head for dark skies. This image of globular cluster M13 in Hercules is a luminance only (B&W) image of about an hours duration.

Here is the same image with some RGB frames added

Jupiter Nearing Opposition

2010-08-25T21:54:00.006+01:00

The planet Jupiter is favourably placed for viewing and imaging in the early hours of the morning, from my location. Opposition occurs during September, so the best opportunities have still to come. This image was taken through my 8" Newtonian with the web cam attached to a 4X barlow plus extension tubes, and is a stack of 2000 frames, processed in Registax. Seeing was not ideal.

A Black Eyed Galaxy

2010-04-03T12:09:00.008+01:00

One of the classic "Spring galaxies", located 19 million light years distant in the constellation of Coma Berenices, the Black Eye galaxy has the designation M64. It has a contra-rotating dusty outer ring which gives it the black eye appearance, probably the result of a merger with another galaxy.

Whirlpool

2010-03-22T22:08:00.005Z

Another shot of showpiece galaxy M51, taken through a 127mm Maksutov, at f12.

The Horse Head Nebula

2010-03-20T16:02:00.004Z

A giant molecular cloud in the constellation of Orion is sillhoutted against a background emission nebula in the shape of a horse's head. Catalogued as IC 4592, it is 1500 light years distant.

This image represents about an hours worth of exposure collected in 5 minute subs through a Hydrogen Alpha filter.

Mars with slightly steadier seeing conditions

2010-02-04T19:53:00.004Z

This image, taken on the 2nd February has slightly more detail than the last posted image. The battle between the warm and cold fronts over the country at the moment can present very transparrant skies, but the "seeing" conditions are less than favourable due to the turbulent atmosphere. However, there are clearly identifiable albedo features to be seen.

Mars at opposition

2010-02-01T21:14:00.004Z

.....Well almost; this image was taken On Sunday 30th January. Opposition actually occurred the previous evening. However, this is about as large a disk as Mars will present for quite a while. The image was taken with the nearly full moon close bye, so the colour saturation has suffered a bit, and the seeing conditions were less than ideal. However, Syrtis Major is clearly visible, as are some high level clouds on the limb.

Mars

2010-01-01T18:22:00.007Z

As we move into 2010, Mars is steadily growing in size in the eyepiece, and is now a respectable 13 arc seconds in angular size. Some of the more readily identifiable surface features are quite visible in this image.

A further image taken on the 3rd January. This image shows the triangular form of Syrtis Major, though the seeing was not so good.

Mars

2009-12-14T17:07:00.004Z

Mars is now a prominant site in the early morning sky, hanging just below the sickle of Leo. Whilst it is shining at magnitude -0.34, it is still quite a small disk (11 arc seconds) in the telescope eyepiece. These two images are the first of hopefully many that I intend to take over the coming weeks, as the disk gradually grows to 15 arc seconds by January.

2009-09-12T15:53:00.005+01:00

September marks the start of new observing season for those of us in the south west of Scotland, and by about 9:00pm it's getting dark enough to consider imaging.
A spell of unusually fine weather is all the cue I need to get out to a dark sky site and grab that first image.
What better place to start than Jupiter, now well placed for observation, if a little too low to produce a really good quality image (at least for me).
This image is a stack of about 1500 frames captured through the 8" Newtonian on a web-cam, (with a variety of extension tubes to get a reasonably sized image) and processed in Registax. The image was taken at 22:50pm on Friday 11th September.

Seeing was not particularly good, so I hope to produce better if the weather holds.

Edge On Spiral

2009-04-15T18:41:00.003+01:00

NGC 4565 in Monoceros would be seen as a classic spiral shape, were it not edge-on to our line of site.

This is a combination of 30min exposures through each of red, green and blue filters to produce the final image.

On the Terminator

2009-04-04T20:23:00.006+01:00

The first quarter moon has some fascinating terrain on the terminator that can provide a lifetime's worth of exploration, in even a modest telescope. This is a stacked web-cam image taken to the north of the crater Archimedes and is centred on Aristillus, with Cassini just to the north, below the Montes Alpes.

Vanishing Rings

2009-04-04T13:54:00.007+01:00

This stacked, web-cam image of Saturn was taken on the evening of the 2nd April using a 4X barlow on an 8" f5 Newtonian. A little sharper than the last image taken in February due to the planet's greater altitude in the sky, from my observing site.

A Cosmic Whirlpool

2009-03-25T19:08:00.008Z

This image of M51 in Ursa Major is combination of about 30mins each of RG &B through the WO Megrez 72 refractor. The background has suffered due to a build up of dew on the lens towards the end of the imaging session, as a result of a dodgy dew heater connection.

Edge On Rings

2009-02-09T21:58:00.005Z

At last a clear spell at 3:00am! Despite poor seeing conditions, my first image of Saturn this season, showing the near edge on rings. Contrst this with the image taken last year.

Pushing the magnification

2009-02-07T15:38:00.006Z

I recently tried to image Saturn, which is not currently visible from my garden until about 3:00am due to the tree cover. In preparation, I set up the scope during the evening and used the waxing moon as a target to focus the web-cam. As usual, the weather frustrated any hope of imaging Saturn as by 3:00am, the clouds had rolled in.

All I was left with was about 30seconds worth of sub frames of two of the craters on the moons southern hemisphere.

So instead of Saturn, here are a couple of high magnification shots of both Gassendi and Marsenius.

Waxing Moon

2009-01-05T21:26:00.003Z

The waxing gibbous moon as photographed on the evening of 5th January 2009. A stack of 10 images taken with a Canon 350D at the prime focus of an 8" Newtonian.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-04T15:15:00.012Z

A New Years visit to a dark sky site in Oban allows imaging to the north, not normally possible at my normal location due to light pollution.
This is an LRGB image of M81, a classic spiral galaxy in Ursa Major comprising about 60 mins of Ha with 30 mins. each of RGB.

M42

2008-12-30T22:00:00.007Z

A spell of cold, crisp weather at this time of year means a shot of the seasonal highlight, the Orion nebula.

This LRGB Image combines about 30mins through a Hydrogen alpha filter with 20mins each of RGB.

This is basically the same image but with a shorter exposure of the core superimposed

Moonshot!

2008-12-11T19:45:00.004Z

The waxing gibbous moon presents an opportunity to use the Opticstar PL-130Mcamera.

These shots are an assembly of wide field images and details taken during the evening of the 9th December, 2008.

All images are a stack of 1500 avi frames processsed in Registax and photoshop.

Messier's First Supernova Remnant

2008-11-25T15:25:00.010Z

This image of M1, the crab nebula is a total exposure of 36 mins with an H-alpha filter, through the Megrez 72. The exposure comprises 6 Individual sub frames each of 6 minutes, registered, stacked and combined then processed in photoshop. An improvement on the post of 12th January '08.(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_k5CYIqtneug/SCbjaccFLmI/AAAAAAAAAM8/cdgebw4KXM4/s16 ) If only the weather would hold out I could add some colour!

An updated image using some RGB data obtained from an earlier session.

A Nearly Full Moon

2008-10-15T16:51:00.002+01:00

Taken at prime focus of the W.O. 72 through a Canon 350D, this image shows the very nearly (99%) full moon.

A Spiral Galaxy in Triangulum

2008-10-06T22:41:00.010+01:00

This LRGB image of M33 was taken in Oban through intermittent cloud. It is a combination of 15mins of luminance with 10 mins each of RGB, taken through the WO Megrez 72 refractor.

A re-visit of this image with perhaps a better colour balance?

2008-09-25T22:48:00.004+01:00

This is the first light of my latest purchase, a William Optics Megrez 72.

The image is a total of 10 mins each of RGB and a luminance layer through an Ha filter.

Saturn

2008-04-17T19:41:00.003+01:00

A web cam image of the season's premier planet.

This was imaged through high altitude cloud that drifted bearly visibly through the field of view. Together with a close-by 80% moon, this resulted in a less sharp contrasty image than I would have liked. (compare with the post on 20th march)

Clavius

2008-04-16T22:06:00.009+01:00

Named after German Jesuit astronomer and mathematician Christopher Clavius, the 225 km diameter crater at the centre of this photograph of the moon's Southern limb is a striking and distinctive sight.

The crater is visible to the bottom right of the image below

Mine's a double!

2008-04-13T14:21:00.004+01:00

This wide field image in the Cassiopeia / Perseus region of the sky features the Double Cluster, NGC 869 and 884. The clusters are about 7000 light years distant.

The image is a stack of four, 4-minute exposures taken through a Canon 350D digital camera on an RA driven mini-equatorial mount.

Saturn

2008-03-20T19:06:00.005Z

At a little over 8.37 astronomical units from earth and an altitude of 49 degrees at culmination, Saturn is currently well placed for observing. Whilst it is now past opposition, which took place on February 24th, it is still a stunning sight. This image was captured on a web cam and is a stack of the best 900+ frames out of a total of over 1200 exposures, processed in Registax.

M42 Again

2008-02-23T09:34:00.003Z

This image is a wider view of the Orion Nebula taken through an 80mm achromat refractor in LRGB. The central core area has been processd separately and composited to avoid "burn out".

Orion the Hunter

2008-02-06T16:57:00.000Z

The recent prolonged period of cloudy, wet weather is making life miserable for us amateur astronomers. All the more important to make the most of what little sky we have seen!

This is a (hastily grabbed) shot of the central region of the Hunter's sword handle, the Orion nebula, M42.

This is the same image with a luminance frame added

Saturns Rings Close

2008-01-19T17:40:00.001Z

As Mars headlines this Winter, it's still worthwhile staying up to grab a view of the ringed planet. The rings are starting to close to our line of sight but it still looks beautiful.

Mars Slowly Receeds

2008-01-12T23:32:00.001Z

As Mars gets smaller in angular diameter week by week through January and December, I'm taking every opportunity to grab a snapshot . It reached an angular diameter of about 15.5 arc seconds in December but is receeding fast, making it more difficult to resolve the surface features.

This following are web-cam stacks of about 240 sub frames, stretched and sharpened with K3CCD Tools and finally processsd in photoshop.

My new ATIK 16i has now had it's first light, all be it very briefly due to cloud and rain!

Not a great image of supernova remnant M1, but hopefully the start of better things to come.

The Jodcast

2008-01-04T20:08:00.000Z

The Jodcast

Mars approaches oppsition

2007-12-08T21:42:00.000Z

As Mars approaches opposition it is now reaching an altitude that is favourable for imaging at a reasonable hour.

This latest post is a stack of approximately 2000 web cam frames, stacked in K3CCD Tools and post processed in Photoshop.

The f-ratio of the telescope is less than ideal for planetary imaging but I continue to persevere!

Adding Some Colour

2007-11-07T22:04:00.001Z

The experiment with RGB images is now well under way, commencing with an earlier image of galaxy M51 taken earlier this year through some "standard" Wratten RGB filters

The next image is Messier 57, the "Dumbell nebula", a planetary nebula in Vulpecula, taken with an Astronomik LRGB filter set

Much in the astro news pages at the moment, comet Holmes, now bright and visible to the naked eye in the constellation of Perseus.

And finally for the moment, a shot of M27 taken from Muirshiel Park, Renfrewshire.

Last Season's Images

2007-08-26T22:15:00.000+01:00

This is one of the first images taken from my back garden in Eaglesham, with an ATIK 2HS modified web cam CCD camera. M42, or the Great Orion Nebula, is a region of new star birth and is one of my favourite objects. It is an obvious first target but I make no excuses.

I use an 8" Newtonian telescope on an Pro-upgraded HEQ5 equatorial mount. At the moment I am trying to get the equipment set-up to autoguide via an Opticstar PL 130C video camera through a Shoestring Astronomy GPUSB autoguiding kit. All of this, unfortunately, is defeating my (t)rusty old Dell laptop, so the family is currently living on dog food whilst I save for an upgrade.

The Flame nebula, NGC 2024 lies to the north of M42, still in the constellation of Orion. The bright star in the image is the left most star in Orion's belt, Alnilam.

Galaxies come in a zoo of shapes and sizes ranging from eliptical through spiral to irregular. This is M51, the whirlpool galaxy in Ursa Major. It is significant as it was the first galaxy to be seen in detail through the 72" reflecting telescope at Birr Castle, Ireland in 1850, hinting at the true nature of its spiral form.

This is M101 in the constellation of Coma Berenices, a classic face on spiral. The image captures something of the dusty spiral arms and concentrations of star burst regions where new stars are forming.

NGC 4565 is also a spiral but this time seen edge on. A dark dust lane can be seen bisecting the spiral arms and the central core. The faint distant galaxy NGC 4562 can just be seen to the upper left.

This image captures two galaxies, M65 & M66, part of a group of three known as the Leo triplet. It highlights one of the limitations of the current set up which is the limited field of view available. This was taken using a 0.5x focal reducer, giving a total field of view of about 25x33 arc seconds.

Globular cluster M13 lies in the constellation of Hercules at a distacce of 250,000 light years and is 150,000 light years in diameter. It is one of the brightest globulars in the Northern sky.

The lunar eclipse of 2007 was an opportunity to capture the event from start to finish, as shown in this series ofimages.