Vern's Weblog » Planetary Nebula

NGC 2392 Eskimo Nebula in constellation Gemini

Vern — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 04:50:37 +0000

Image below is of NGC 2392, the Eskimo Nebula in constellation Gemini. The one from the Hubble is admittedly just a tad bit better.

Image from last night, Feb 5 after 11 pm, 12 deg. F, no wind, transparency was good, and turbulence was better than usual, about 6/10. All images from Nexstar11, F3.3 focal reducer, and Stellacam II video camera, (4 second integration, 9/14 gain). 30 frames aligned, dark subtracted, flat field corrected, aligned, stacked, and enhanced with Registax4.

NGC 2371 and NGC 2372

Vern — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 04:43:16 +0000

NGC 2371 and 2372, the double-bubble nebula in constellation Gemini. A couple teardrops with 14.8 magnitude star in between.

Images acquired from Louisville, CO. Temperature was 12 deg. F, no wind, transparency was good, and turbulence about 6/10. All images from Nexstar11, F3.3 focal reducer, and Stellacam II video camera, (4 second integration, 9/14 gain). 30 frames aligned, dark subtracted, flat field corrected, aligned, stacked, and enhanced with Registax4.

Sharpless 1 - 89 in Cygnus

Vern — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:02:35 +0000

Located in constellation Cygnus at RA 21° 14′ 09″ and Dec +47° 46′ 24″ is a faint (vmag 14.5), oblong-shaped planetary nebula known as the “Moth Nebula”. I only picked up the middle part of the “moth” with the Stellacam which may be seen at the center in the image below. The Stsci Digitized Sky Survey image shows faint “wings” extending to the upper left and to the lower right.

Image above taken from “Cactus Flats North” in the Pawnee National Grasslands near Briggsdale, CO on Saturday morning, Sept. 8, 2007 around 2:33 am MDT. Celestron Nexstar 11 telescope with F3.3 focal reducer and Stellacam II video camera used to capture 30 images. Camera set at full gain (14/14), medium gamma, and 256 frame integration (8 sec). Registax4 used to flat field adjust, dark frame subtract, align, and stack images. Cropped and brightness enhanced with PhotoShop Elements 2.

Sky was clear, 2-3 mph wind, transparency very good, turbulence about 6/10, temperature 51°.F.