Vern’s Weblog

Below is an image of comet C/2006 M4 (Swan) taken this morning between 5:39 and 5:54 MDT. Image was shot through varying layers of clouds. The coma surrounding the center nucleus appears about 3+ arc-min  across though its difficult to judge because of the clouds.  A faint tail was seen extending 10+ arc minutes to the NNW.  Hopefully, I’ll get some clearer skies this weekend and get a better image.

Equipment used Celestron Nexstar C11 telescope, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, Astrovid Stellacam II video camera.  Approximately 15 minutes of images taken with 4 sec integration (128 frames), medium gamma, and 7/14 gain.  Images aligned and stacked with Registax3.  Location was Louisville, CO, temperature was 44°F, no wind, 53% humidity, poor transparency, thin clouds, partly cloudy sky (70% cover), and turbulence 6/10.

Messier 15 located in the constellation Pegasus is one of the densest planetaries known. Located northeast of the center of the globular is a challenging object to find, planetary nebula Pease-1. This was the first nebula discovered within a globular by Francis Pease in 1928.  

Follow the directions by Doug Snyder to locate this planetary which very near the core of M15 — you’ll need a high power eyepiece, an O3 filter, dark skies, and large scope to observe it directly.

Image taken on Sept 5, 2006 around 07:25 UT with a Celestron Nexstar11, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam II. Temperature was 51°F, 75% humidity, sky was clear, transparency was very good, and turbulence about 6/10, in bright moonlight.  Stellacam II set at 9/14 gain, integrate 128 frames (4 sec exposure), medium gamma. The 15 minutes of video was dark subtracted; flat field and bias corrected with ImagePlus; aligned and stacked with with Registrax3; enhanced  and cropped with Photoshop Elements2.

NGC 7635, the Bubble Nebula, in the constellation Cassiopeia is a bubble of gas that has been pushed outward from star BD+60 2522 (the bright star towards the north, ie top, of the bubble).  The gas is ionized by the starlight and gives off a glow which may be seen in a large scope, though it is quite faint.

Celestron Nexstar11, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam II was used to take the image from Louisville, CO on Sept 5, 2006 around 04:38 UT. Temperature was 57°F, 72% humidity, sky was clear, transparency was very good, and turbulence about 6/10, bright moonlight.  Stellacam II set at 9/14 gain, integrate 128 frames (4 sec exposure), medium gamma. The 15 minutes of video was dark subtracted and  aligned with Registrax3, enhanced with ImagePlus, and cropped with Photoshop Elements2.

NGC 891 in the constellation Andromeda is thought to be very similar to our own Milky Way galaxy. It appears as a long thin needle as our view of it is edge on. Dust lanes appear to bisect the disk through its entire length. 

Celestron Nexstar11, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam II was used to take the image from Louisville, CO on Sept 3, 2006 around 05:34 UT. Temperature was 42°F, 77% humidity, sky was clear, transparency was good, and turbulence about 5/10.

About a degree north and west of the brightest star in Pegasus, Markab, is a nice galaxy triplet of NGC 7463, 7464, and 7465. NGC 7465 appears to be the brightest of the three and has a bright central core.

Celestron Nexstar11, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam II was used to take the image from Louisville, CO on Sept 3, 2006 around 05:57 UT (just before midnight Sept 2). Temperature was 42°F, 77% humidity, sky was clear, transparency was good, and turbulence about 5/10.