Vern's Weblog » Dark Nebula

M16 - Eagle Nebula

Vern — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 18:53:34 +0000

I decided to revist M16, the Eagle Nebula, in constellation Serpens last evening. We haven’t had any clear sky here in the Denver area for some time now, so it was nice to do some imaging for a change. Image was taken with Canon 300D Rebel with 2 minute exposure at ASA 400. That was not near enough time for this object, the bird just barely shows up in the raw images. I’ll need to use 3 or maybe even 4 minute exposure next time. My previous effort with the Stellacam2 was better. The image was created from a stack of 10 images, I’ll need to increase that to maybe 20 next time to reduce the noise.

Image taken with Celestron Nexstar11, F6.3 focal reducer, and Canon 300D camera. Manually guided with Stellarvue A1010, TV 2.5X Powermate, and Stellacam2 video camera. Sky was clear, turbulence around 6/10, wind between 3 to 5 mph, temperature 64°F, humidity 80-86%, transparency was generally good.

Messier 16 (NGC 6611) The Eagle Nebula

Vern — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 03:51:00 +0000

Located in the constellation Serpens is a dark star forming nebula region that somewhat resembles an eagle in flight. After reading Andews article about this object, I couldn’t resist paying it a visit using the Stellacam II even though it was nearly 2am. I could see the faint dark outline of the bird on the notebook monitor so I tweaked focus a bit, and then took about 150 images before shutting down for the evening.

Image taken from the light polluted skies in Louisville, CO with Celestorn Nexstar11, F3.3 focal reducer, and Stellacam II video camera set at 9/14 gain, medium gamma, and integration at 128 (4 sec). Images were dark subtracted, flat field and bias corrected with ImagePlus. Registax3 used to align and stack the images. ImagePlus and Photoshop used to enhance, crop etc. The sky was clear, no wind, temperature was 55°F, transparency was very good, and turblence was 6/14.

The flame nebula (NGC 2024) and horsehead nebula (Barnard 33)

Vern — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 17:54:41 +0000

Despite yesterdays dire weather predictions of snow and wind here in the Denver area, views from the backyard last night were better than expected. The transparency wasn’t great, lots of high thin clouds visible. Large banks of clouds were moving rapidly across the sky. One of my neighbors was out drawing circles in the clouds with a spot light. Turbulence was only fair, maybe 5/10. I set up the Stellacam2 and F3.3 focal reducer on the Nexstar11. Despite all the negatives, the flame or burning bush nebula was pretty impressive on the notebook screen. I was moved to reflect at how marvelous the Orion region of the sky is. Thankfully, God created such wonders for us to explore.

Encouraged by views of NGC 2024, I decided to give another try at locating the elusive horse head. Armed with an excellent widefield image of the Alnitak region I found on the internet, I moved slowly south from Alnitak, a half screen at a time, comparing the stars on the widefield image with those on the monitor. After I reached the location where it was supposed to be, I adjusted the integration time and gain on the Stellacam2. I was quite amazed to find that the dim outline of the horsehead was easily seen. I’ve been searching for this object since I bought the Stellacam2 over two years ago.