NGC 891 - Looking Good!

Lately my CCD has been doing so well, and the sky has been cooperating in such a manner I haven't wanted to touch anything, lest I fudge it up. So I have just been shooting monochrome images. I hope you guys like BW images.

Here is NGC 891, off center a little, but not too bad. It is about a dozen 13 minute images binned 1x1, shot with my trusty little c6 using an ST7 and .63 reducer.

I will add it to the growing list of Luminance images needing color data.

Does anybody else do this? Things get on a roll and working great, and I don't really want to mess with it too much so I just go with the mono because I can get more imaging time in.

Also, after about a year of ownership, I have found the little C6 sct to be one heck of a sleeper scope for imaging. It pairs up almost perfectly with my ST7.

A New M74 for 2009

I re-shot M74 to see if I could improve upon last years image. Here is 8 thirteen minute images stacked. All shot with the ST7 using the C6 and .63 reducer, with simple UV/IR filtration.

I seem to have picked up some fainter details but got more overall noise.

Back on Track - Here's M77...

After a break of several weeks of snow, I have finally gotten a chance to image again. My C6 seems to work the best with my ST7, so I mounted it up and aimed it at Messier 77, a fairly bright Seyfert galaxy with a very violent nucleus. It has a very faint, S-shaped spiral halo around the main center portion. I have brightened the contrast in this image to bring it out. You can faintly see it amongst the skyglow, along with a lot of very tiny, fuzzy galaxies (If you look hard!).

This image is eight 13 minute shots stacked Sigma Clipped, all taken with the ST7 using a .63 reducer. The scope was my C6 sct.

NGC 7217 - An Unusual Spiral

This is NGC 7217, a rather strange spiral galaxy located near NGC 7331. It has a dusty yellow core surrounded by compact blue-ish arms. They don't really look like arms though, and are really more like a ring. These rings are filled with young, blue stars. This image is nearly 2 hours worth of imaging. It is 20 ten minute images shot through the C9.25 at F5. I did it with the old Starshoot DSCI CCD.

Crab Nebula - with C 9.25 scope

I shot this picture of M1, the Crab Nebula last night. It has been really windy, so I have not had much chance to get out and image. I am also still adjusting the focus on this scope and finding a ccd set-up that works for me. This seems to be about the best, though it is an old camera; the Starshoot I.

This is about a dozen 8 minute images shot at F5'ish guided on my LXD75 with a separate guidescope. Focus was slightly off, but a good deconvolution corrected it.

Stephan's Quintet

Here is another C9.25 image shot under VERY windy conditions. I am shocked it actually came out. The seeing conditions were also atrocious, with the stars furiously twinkling.

This is a stack of 6 ten minute images shot with the old Orion Starshoot at F6.3

This is a colliding galaxy cluster, with a slightly controversial nature. All of the galaxies have a similar red-shift except for one. This one seems to be interacting with the others, and seems to be part of the same group, but the red-shift says it is not. The astronomy world is divided as to whether this disproves the use of red shifts as a measure for distance. This cluster is also near to NGC 7331, and it shows signs of being connected to this group as well. This group also has a different red-shift, however.

Need to get some new targets...

Here is another small image of NGC 891. I did this with the C 9.25 but used the ST7. I shot this binned to save some imaging time, but the image did not hold up well when I drizzled it up in size. It is about 4 six minute images stacked, shot at F5 under VERY windy conditions.

I really like my ST7, but it is so heavy, especially with the filter wheel, that it causes drag on the scope when guiding. The cables are a real problem too. I think I will take it off for the time being.