Another Oldie I don't Remember Posting...

This time it is the Cocoon Nebula, Caldwell 19, shot with my DSI Pro and the Stellarvue Nighthawk II. No color this time.

Another windy image...

I took this shortly after the image of the Crescent Nebula. It is the Crab Nebula, the remnant of an exploded star. At it's core lies a spinning pulsar, belching out x-rays and gamma rays. It is not visible in this image though.

Image shot through my SC6 SCT using my Orion DSCI 1.

A not so clear Crescent Nebula

It was exceeding windy when I did this image the other night. This is a very hard object to image anyway, I will just have to try again.

The Crescent Nebula, NGC 6888, is a shell of gas created by the star near the center. This star is known as a Wolf-Rayet star, a very unusual object and not related to the visually similar planetary nebulas.

Imaged with my SC6 SCT and my Orion DSCI 1. Twenty five 2 and 1/2 minute images median stacked.

An Older Image I Can't Remember Posting...

Here is an older image of M94 I took this summer with my Orion DSCI1 and my SN10. Can't remember if I posted it or not. I don't think I did. Maybe I did, who knows....

The Experiments Continue...

It was a full moon, so I decided to see what my Omega OIII filter would do on my Orion DSCI. This is a one-shot color camera, and should show if there was any leaks of any other color frequencies besides the teal color of Triple Ionized Oxygen (OIII) which it was designed to pass. I shot this image through my new Celestron SC-6 at F5, guided by my ST-80. It is 19 ninety second images median combined.

It is a very interesting result, and shows a bit more detail than I expected. It also shows some red leaking through at the Hydrogen Alpha (HA) range, but not a lot. I wonder what several hours worth of images would look like using this filter set-up.

NGC 7331 with SC-6 scope

I shot this image of the Deer Lick Galaxy several nights back to compare with the shot I posted below with the larger scope. The stats are similar, though it was shot guided. My guider was not cooperating well, and as a result, the stars look sort of the same. I guess I will have to try again later. Image shot through my Orion DSCI 1.

More Fun with the New Scope

It is really cold up here in the mountains, like about 14 degrees, so I tried to do a quick imaging session. I am still working the bugs out of my new C6 sct scope, so I picked a few easy targets. I picked M27, because it makes a good target to judge against other scopes, and the galaxy NGC 253, basically because it was there and I was freezing. Both of these shots are done with my Orion DSCI 1 and were guided with my ST80. The guiding was not perfect, because numb fingers don't like to play with guider settings.

The M27 image is about 1 hour worth of composite images. The NGC 253 Image is about 15 minutes worth.
NGC 253 is an interesting object. It is called the "Silver Coin Galaxy" because it looks like a coin on it's side. It is quite large and bright, and can be spotted in binoculars, or if you are really good, youe naked eyeballs. It is found low on the southern sky this time of year. It is amazing that Charles Messier did not discover it back in the 1700-1800's. It is really hard to miss. It was actually discovered much later, around the turn of the century if I remember correctly.