Messier 97, the “Owl Nebula” is in constellation Ursa Major
A Stellacam II video camera used for capture at 128 integration (4 sec), medium gamma setting, and 9/14 gain. Sky was mostly cloudless, 0-5 mph wind, temperature 53°F, transparency was good though some haze was apparent, and turbulence 5/10. Location was light polluted Louisville, CO.
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.
Messier 27 (NGC 6853) in the constellation Vulpecula is a show piece object that always is worth the visit on summer and fall evenings. It is relative bright so it makes a great target for astrophotographers as well. Below is my best effort to date, though I think I missed focus just a tad. I had lots of problems taking these. I took 30 images and only came up with about 16 that were usable. Set screws in the T-ring were probably loose as tracking and north alignment were quite good.
Image taken with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, Meade F6.3 focal reducer, and Canon 300D Rebel at cassegrain focus. Camera was set at ASA 400 with 3 minute exposures. Manually tracked with A1010 telescope, Televue 2.5X Powermate, and Stellcam2 video camera. Temperature was 64 to 58°F, 40% humidity, mostly clear sky, absolutely no wind, and turbulence varied between 6 and 5/10.
I created some wallpaper size images as well 1600×1200, 1280×1024, and 1024×768.
After imaging the little dumbbell nebula I couldn’t resist taking a look at the “real” dumbbell nebula, Messier 27, in constellation Vulpecula. Two triangular lobes can be seen in the northeast and southwest which give it its “dumbbell” appearance in smaller scopes. Observing in a larger scope or stretching the brightness a bit, reveals a more circular faint halo farther out.
Image taken from Louisville, CO June 27, 2006 at 0:45 MDT with Celestron Nexstar11, F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam II video camera. Camera settings: integrate 128, gain 9/14, medium gamma. Images were dark subtracted, flat field and bias corrected with ImagePlus. Aligned and stacked 150 images with Registax3. Brightness enhanced with ImagePlus, cropped with Photoshop Elements. Sky was clear, temperature 55°F, 46% humidity, transparency very good, turbulence 6/10.
