Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 3/28/2021

Next week’s night sky: The moon will officially reach its new phase on Sunday, April 11 at 10:30 p.m. EDT or 7:30 p.m. PDT. That translates to 02:30 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on Monday, April 12. While new, the moon is traveling between Earth and the sun. Since sunlight can only reach the far side of the moon, and the moon is in the same region of the sky as the sun, the moon becomes completely hidden from view from anywhere on Earth for about a day. […]

Read more

Markarian’s chain – A cluster of galaxies

Equipment: Sony Rx10iv Sky watcher star adventurer Star adventurer tripod bahintov mask intervalometer t-shirt for flat frames Acquisition: ISO 800, F/4.0, 300mm equivalent zoom 362 1 minute exposures, 244 stacked (4 hours 20 minutes total exposure time) 50 flats 100 bias Processing: Stacked with siril Processed with pixinsight (stretched, luminance extraction and reapplication, curves transformation) Image with objects:

Read more

Pickett’s Bell – a dark ring around Betelgeuse

Equipment Sony Rx10iv Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Star Adventurer tripod Bahintov Mask Intervalometer Acquisition ISO 800, f4.0 26×2″ exposures – total integration time 52″ 100 bias Processing Background extraction TGV denoise apply luminance layer Image with objects

Read more

M46, M47, and NGC 2438 – Two star clusters and a planetary nebula

Equipment Sony Rx10iv Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Star Adventurer tripod Bahintov Mask Intervalometer Laptop for plate solving Acquisition ISO 800, F4.0, 380mm 123×2′ exposures – total 2 hours 3 mins 100 flats, 100 bias Processing Stacked with siril Deconvolution, TGV denoise, Dynamic background extraction, extracted and reapplied luminance (All in pixinsight) About the image This image contains two star clusters and a planetary nebula. The top star cluster is M46, and within it lies planetary nebula NGC 2438. The bottom cluster is M47.

Read more

Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 3/21/2021

Next week’s night sky: At the end of March we receive another opportunity to view the Zodiacal Light – if you live in a location where the sky is free of light pollution. After the evening twilight has disappeared, you’ll have about half an hour to check the western sky for a broad wedge of faint light extending upwards from the horizon and centered on the ecliptic (i.e., below Mars). The viewing period will end with the new moon on April 11. A new picture of a […]

Read more

M13 – The Great Star Cluster in Hercules

M13 was discovered by Edmond Halley in 1714, and cataloged by Charles Messier on June 1, 1764 into his list of objects not to mistake for comets; Messier’s list, including Messier 13, eventually became known as the Messier Catalog. About one third of the way from Vega to Arcturus, four bright stars in Herculēs form the Keystone asterism, the broad torso of the hero. In this M13 can be seen ​2⁄3 of the way, north (by west) from Zeta to Eta Herculis. Although only telescopes with great […]

Read more

The Pinwheel Galaxy

Equipment: Sony Rx10iv SWSA SW Tripod taken at 600mm with a stock lens Bahintov Mask Acquisition: 240×30″ exposures 50 darks 100 bias 100 flats ISO 1600 F/4.0 Stacking: Stacked in DSS Processing (all in pixinsight): DBE, color calibration, Green SNCR Streched image Applied Luminance image Played around with curves Annotated image with other objects:

Read more

The Heart and Soul Nebula

Equipment: Modded Sony Rx10iv L-enhance filter SWSA SW Tripod taken at 300mm with a stock lens Bahintov Mask Acquisition: 400×1.5min exposures (taken over 4 nights) 100 darks (25 each night) 200 bias (taken one night) 400 flats ( 100 each night) ISO 1600 F/4.0 Stacking: Stacked in Siril Extracted Ha and O3 Processing (all in pixinsight): Individually stretched the b&w images used pixel math R = iif(Ha > .15, Ha, (Ha*.8)+(Oiii*.2)) G = iif(Ha > 0.5, 1-(1-Oiii)*(1-(Ha-0.5)), Oiii *(Ha+0.5)) B = iif(Oiii > .1, Oiii, (Ha*.3)+(Oiii*.2)) DBE, […]

Read more

Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 3/7/2021

Next week’s night sky: At 5:21 a.m. EST, or 10:21 GMT, on Saturday, March 13, the moon will officially reach its new moon phase. While new, the moon is travelling between Earth and the sun. Since sunlight can only reach the far side of the moon, and the moon is in the same region of the sky as the sun, the moon becomes completely hidden from view for about a day. After the new moon phase Earth’s celestial night-light will return to shine in the western evening […]

Read more

The Pleiades up close

This star cluster is one of my favorite objects in the night sky. Equipment Sky-watcher Star Adventurer Sony Rx10iv Sky-watcher tripod Acquisition 59x2min exposures 30 darks 50 flats 50 bias iso 1600 f/4.0 540mm Stacking Stacked in DSS Editing stretched in gimp combined starless, non-starless, and original versions to preserve stars and nebulosity. Did you like this image? Let me know in the comments what I should image next!

Read more