Vern’s Weblog

The Orion nebula is the brightest nebula visible from Earth and is always a treat to visit in a scope of any size or binoculars.  In this image, M42 is the bright butterfly shape surrounding the trapezium. Messier 43 is directly above M42. It appears as roundish neblosity surrounding star NU Orionis. Dark lanes can be seen extending southward toward M42.  Toward the top center of the image, the shape of the running man can just barely be distinguished above 3 bright stars.  With the naked eye these stars appear as a single star just above the Orion Nebua.

Images were taken with Stellarvue A1010 80mm refractor and Canon Xti camera. Camera was set at ASA 400 with separate exposures of 30 seconds and 120 seconds.  The Stellarvue A1010 was mounted on a Losmandy rail on top of a Celestron Nexstar11.  The Nexstar11 was guided using a Stellacam II video camera and PHD Guiding software.  Sky was clear, no clouds, temperature was 37°F, transparency was very good, and turbulence  was around 5/10 though sometimes a bit better.

Messier 20 (NGC 6514), known as Trifid Nebula in the constellation Sagittarius is favorite place for many of us to visit on summer evenings.  It is a fun object to photograph because the nice contrast between the blue reflection nebula and the red emission nebula. I created some wallpaper sized versions 1600×1200, 1280×1024, 1024×768, and 800×600.

Image taken early this morning around 2am from Louisville, CO with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, Celestron F6.2 focal reducer, and Canon 300D Rebel camera. ImagePlus used to dark subtract, flat field and bias correct, align, stack, brightness and color enhance 10 images. Two minute exposures used at ASA 400. The sky was mostly clear, transparency varied from fair to good. Temperature was 64 to 62°F, no wind, turbulence was around 6/10.

Summer is getting close and fond remembrances from last summer of the western veil viewed through Gary’s 30 inch dob linger. The view of the veil from a dark, transparent site with a large aperature scope is stunning. Quite obviously a video camera from my light polluted back yard cannot get close, but here it is anyway.

Image taken with Celestron Nexstar11, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellcam2 video camera at 256 integration, 9/14 gain, and medium gamma. Fifteen minutes of video was dark subtracted, flat field and bias corrected, aligned and stacked with Registax3. Sky clear, temperature 67°F, transparency very good, humidity 60%, no wind, and no clouds.

The veil nebula is the remnants of a supernova that occured an estimated 5 to 10 thousand years ago. NGC 6992 is the northern portion of the eastern part of the expanding debris cloud. The veil nebula is quite large (230 x 160 arc-minutes) and has various catalogue designations (6992, 6995, 6960, 6970, etc.) as it was not known that the faint portions were part of one object.

Here is the result of last nights experiment to see if I could guide well enough to take two minute exposures. Also, it was a check to see if any subtle nebulosity could be detected in a two minute exposure. The answer to both questions was, “well sort of”. I clearly need more practice in the back yard before I try at a dark sky site. Equipment was a Stellarvue A1010 and Canon 300D direct focus guided by Toucam 740 hooked up to C11. I intended to auto guide, but couldn’t communicate with the scope. I ended up watching the notebook screen and pressing the keys on the controller. Three 2 minute exposures at ISO 800.