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Distance: 970 Light Years
Magnitude: 7.3
Size: 8 Arc Minutes
Age: 1.5 Million Years
Telescope: Borg 71
Camera: QSI 683
Mount: AP 900
Exposure: L 19×420 Bin 1, RGB 30×210 Bin2
IC 348 is an open star cluster surrounded by two small reflection nebula LBN 758 and LBN 601. It is set in a region of both emission and dark nebula that makes for an interesting wide field image. Between us and IC 348 are the Taurus and Perseus dark clouds and this provides some reddening of the field. The star cluster contains about 400 stars at an estimated age of 1.5 million years. The distance of 970 light years is based on three separate studies all results within a few light years of each other.
My field of view shows several other objects in addition to IC 348. Several dark nebula are shown and they are listed in Lynd’s Catalog of Dark Nebula (LDN). LDN 1471 is in the upper left of my image. LDN 1468, LDN 1470, and LDN 1472 are just to the lower right of IC 348. B.T. Lynd’s also created a catalog of bright nebula called Lynd’s catalog of Bright Nebula (LBN). Also in my field of view is LBN 749 and it appears as the reddish emission nebula to the right of IC 348.
This image was captured from a dark site on October 9, 2015. The conditions were clear and dry but there were passing high clouds all night. The field of view for this image is 3.6 x 2.8 degrees.
For a full size image click here.
Distance: 400 Light Years
Magnitude: Not Known
Size: 5 Degrees x 7 Degrees
Age: Not Known
Telescope: Borg 71
Camera: QSI 683
Mount: AP 900
Exposure: 4 panel mosaic each consisting of: L 8×300 Bin 1, RGB 10×150 Bin2
The Rho Ophiuchi cloud is a very large region in the constellation Ophiuchus. This region contains dark nebula, emission nebula, reflection nebula, and star clusters all set against a rich star field. Below is a partial listing of the objects in my image:
IC 4603 (LBN 1109) (VdB 105) is a reflection nebula that also shows partially as an emission nebula. The central star is SAO 184376 which is the illumination source of the area.
IC 4604 (LBN 1111) (VdB 106) is a reflection nebula with three stars at its center.
IC 4605 (LBN 1110) is a reflection nebula. It is illuminated by the star 22 Scorpii (SAO 184429)
IC 4606 (LBN 1107) is an emission nebula partially illuminated by Antares. It is yellow in color and really stands out from the much bluer IC 4603, IC 4604, and IC 4605.
Messier 4 (NGC 6121) is a class IX globular cluster and at a distance of 7000 light years it is one of the closest globular clusters. It contains several thousand stars and to date 43 are variable stars. Estimated age is 12 billion years.
NGC 6144 is a class XI globular cluster at a distance of 29,000 light years.
SH-9 is an emission nebula that is illuminated by the star Sigma Scorpii.
B42 and B45 separate the reflection nebula IC4603 and IC 4604.
B44 is a large dark nebula that spans 10 degrees from the Rho Ophiuchi complex t the Pipe Nebula.
This image was captured in two nights from a dark site. The conditions were very good with no wind and a humidity of 50%. The target is low from 34 degrees latitude so I was imaging through lots of atmosphere. There were some extreme gradients to deal with due to the altitude of the target and also the large area of the area of the sky involved. I was very pleased to capture this object as it has been on my target list for a couple years. I used a total of four images to create this mosaic. Each image is 3.67 x 2.87 degrees so the mosaic covers about 7 x 5 degrees it total.
Here is a two panel image:
Here is another two panel image:
Here is panel one:
Here is panel 2:
For a full size image click here.
Distance: 8,000 Light Years
Magnitude:
Size: 50 Arc Minutes
Age: Not Known
Telescope: Takahashi TOA-130
Camera: QSI 683
Mount: AP 900
Exposure: L 14×480 Bin 1, RGB 20×240 Bin2
NGC 6357, also known as the War and Peace nebula, is an emission nebula in the constellation Scorpius. It is also known as the Lobster nebula and I personally think this is the best description. As with all emission nebula NGC 6357 is home to many young hot stars. It is also home to three large star clusters with Pismis 24 being the largest containing about 800 stars at an age of 1-3 million years. NGC 6357 is illuminated by several large young stars. These stars are also responsible for carving out the many shapes seen throughout the nebula. Most of these shapes appear as knotty or wispy structures but there are also a few elephant trunk structures in the nebula which are thought to contain star forming regions.
This image was captured in one night under good conditions with no wind and about 50% humidity. I am at 34 degrees latitude so this target was really low in the South and I was very excited to be able to capture it. I have had it on my to-do list for three years now and I can finally mark it as done.
For a full size image click here.
Distance: 23 Million Light Years
Magnitude: 7.9
Size: 22 Arc Minutes
Type: Spiral Type Sc
Telescope: Takahashi TOA-130
Camera: QSI 683
Mount: AP 900
Exposure: L 12×900 Bin 1, R 17×450 Bin 2, G 20×450 Bin2, B 30×450 Bin 2
Messier 101, also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. It is about 70% larger than our own galaxy with a diameter of 170,000 light years. It is estimated to contain about one trillion stars with about 100 billion of them similar to our Sun. M101 is a face on spiral galaxy, however the shape of the galaxy is asymmetrical due to gravitational interactions with other galaxies. This is apparent by the offset of the core from the center of the galaxy. M101 also contains over 3,000 HII regions which are gaseous areas illuminated by young bright stars. Most of the HII regions appear on one side of the galaxy and it is thought that the interaction with a neighboring galaxy is the reason. Messier 101 also contains many young star clusters that contain very hot blue stars. This is very apparent in the arms giving the galaxy its bluish color.
This image was captured in two nights. It is very high in the sky at sunset so I was only able to capture about 5 hours per night. I did luminance and red the first night then blue and green on the second night. The image was captured from a dark site with a SQM of 20.69. The conditions were good with clear skies, an average temperature of 60F, and humidity at 50%.
For a full size image click here.
Distance: 16,000 Light Years
Magnitude: 3.68
Size: 36.3 Arc Minutes
Age: 12 Billion Years
Telescope: Takahashi TOA-130
Camera: QSI 683
Mount: AP 900
Exposure: L 20×60 Bin 1, RGB 20×30 Bin2
NGC 5139 is a globular cluster in the constellation Centaurus. It is the largest globular cluster in our galaxy at 36.3 arc minutes in size which converts to 150 light years across. It is also the brightest globular cluster in our Milky Way galaxy and contains about 10 million stars. I was trying to visualize what the sky would look like from a star inside of this cluster and I found a link to a NASA pdf that gave this explanation:
“All of the stars in the image are cozy neighbors. The average distance between any two stars in the cluster’s crowded core is roughly 13 times closer than our sun’s nearest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri. Although the stars are close together, WFC3 can resolve each of them as individual stars. If anyone lived on this globular cluster, they would behold a star-saturated sky that is roughly 100 times brighter than Earth’s sky.”
NGC 5139 contains many types of stars at varying stages of development. This indicates many levels of star formation occurring over a few billion years. One possible explanation for this is that NGC5139 is a captured system from another dwarf galaxy. This is supported by a retrograde motion of the cluster and all stars in the cluster have the same proper motion, rotation, and average radial velocity. Typical of most globular clusters, the Omega cluster contains blue stragglers and variable stars. In addition, there are stars along the main sequence like our own sun and red giants.
This cluster has been a goal of mine for the 3 years that I have been imaging. It sits very low in the sky from 34 degrees latitude and is only visible here for about a month. I was very pleased when I slewed to the target and there was a cluster in my field of view! The only problem was that there was a pipe I use for a wind screen that ran right through the frame. The pipe is permanent and I did not want to cut it to get the shot. I think this is what caused the strange shapes of some of the brighter stars. This cluster was captured in one sitting at a dark sky site with a SQM of 20.69. The conditions were excellent with a clear sky, a temperature of 65F, and humidity at 50%. I was surprised how much was revealed with 60 second exposures.
For a full size image click here.
Distance: 56,700 Light Years
Magnitude: 9.47
Size: 10.5 Arc Minutes
Age: 16 Billion Years
Telescope: RC 10” 2000mm FL
Camera: QSI 683
Mount: AP 1100
Exposure: L 11×180 Bin 1, RGB 20×90 Bin2
NGC 5053 is a globular cluster in the constellation Coma Berenices. NGC 5053 appears like a mix of a globular and open star cluster. It is not densely packed even in the core area so it can be easily resolved by large telescopes. A study in 2001 found that NGC 5053 contains 10 RR Lyrae variable stars. An RR Lyrae variable is a star with a pulsating variation in brightness with a cycle of .2 to 1 day. NGC 5053 also contains 28 blue stragglers at last count in 1995. A blue straggler star is thought to be the result of an interaction with another star that leaves the star stripped of its outer layers. This interaction causes the star to appear hotter than what would be possible in an old globular cluster. Another explanation is that they are binary stars in the process of merging and forming a larger hotter star.
An interesting discovery was made while studying NGC 5053. It was found that the cluster was metal poor and dissimilar to other clusters in the Milky Way. One theory for this was that NGC 5053 did not originate in our galaxy but was captured by an ongoing interaction with the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy. This makes sense given its location in the intermediate halo of our galaxy. NGC 5053 is not the only globular cluster in the Milky Way acquired from the interaction with the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy. Some others are NGC 4147, Palomar 2, Palomar 12, and Whiting 1.
This image was captured from my house in a Bortle 6 zone. It took two nights to capture this image due to the ever present marine layer that is common for May in southern California. The first night I captured all of the RGB data and the second night I was only able to capture 11 frames before the sky fogged over. Conditions were not great with humidity in the 80-90% range.