Tag: nebulae

The Soul Nebula – Westerhout 5

Westerhout 5 (Sharpless 2-199, LBN 667, Soul Nebula) is an emission nebula located in Cassiopeia. Several small open clusters are embedded in the nebula: CR 34, 632, and 634 (in the head) and IC 1848 (in the body). The object is more commonly called by the cluster designation IC 1848. Image: Equipment/Software: Modified Nikon D90 Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Sky-Watcher Tripod Sigma 500mm F4 with Lens Collar Intervalometer Bahintov Mask Intervalomter DIY lens hood Pixinsight Sharpcap All Sky Plate Solver Stellarium Acquisition: ISO 1600, 500mm, F/4.0 91 x […]

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The Cocoon nebula – IC 5146

IC 5146 (also Caldwell 19, Sh 2-125, and the Cocoon Nebula) is a reflection/emission nebula and Caldwell object in the constellation Cygnus. The NGC description refers to IC 5146 as a cluster of 9.5 mag stars involved in a bright and dark nebula. The cluster is also known as Collinder 470. It shines at magnitude +10.0/+9.3/+7.2. Its celestial coordinates are RA 21h 53.5m , Dec +47° 16′. It is located near the naked-eye star Pi Cygni, the open cluster NGC 7209 in Lacerta, and the bright open […]

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The Lagoon Nebula – M8

Commonly known as the Lagoon Nebula, M8 was discovered in 1654 by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Hodierna, who, like Charles Messier, sought to catalog nebulous objects in the night sky so they would not be mistaken for comets. This star-forming cloud of interstellar gas is located in the constellation Sagittarius and its apparent magnitude of 6 makes it faintly visible to the naked eye in dark skies. The best time to observe M8 is during August. Located 5,200 light-years from Earth, M8 is home to its […]

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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.

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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, […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 2/21/2021

Next Week’s Night Sky: With the full moon nearly completely gone from Friday’s night sky, this is a great time to get some stargazing in! Bring your favorite pair of binoculars, and feast you eyes on the many beautiful objects in the night sky. My Own Research I found eight blue E+A galaxies in a galactic filament in the Coma cluster of galaxies. An E+A galaxy is a galaxy that has just transformed from its “young” stage to its “old stage.” A galactic filament is simply a […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 2/7/2021

Next Week’s Night Sky: When the moon completes the first quarter of its orbit around Earth at 1:47 p.m. EST (or 18:47 GMT) on Friday, Feb. 19, the relative positions of the Earth, sun, and moon will cause us to see it half-illuminated — on its eastern side. In the first quarter, the moon always rises around noon and sets around midnight, so it is also visible in the afternoon daytime sky. The evenings surrounding the first quarter are the best for seeing the lunar terrain when […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 12/20/2020

Next week’s night sky: The December full moon, traditionally known as the Oak Moon, Cold Moon, and Long Nights Moon, always shines in or near the stars of Gemini. Since it’s opposite the sun on this day of the lunar month, the moon is fully illuminated and rises at sunset and sets at sunrise. Full moons during the winter months reach as high in the sky as the summer noonday sun, and cast similar shadows. This is a great time to get a good look at the […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 10/4/2020

Next week’s night sky: Friday is the new moon. This means that the stars will be extra bright Friday evening, giving stargazers a great chance to look at the stars. This is also a great time to take photos of the stars because the moon will not ruin your photos. On Saturday, there is a rare double shadow transit of Jupiter, with the great red spot visible! A shadow transit happens when the shadows of moons cross a planet’s surface. The transit starts at 5:25 EDT and […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 9/6/2020

Next week’s night sky: On Monday, September 14, an extremely rare double transit of Jupiter will happen. What makes this transit special is that not only are there two transits happening at once, the great red spot will also be visible! To find Jupiter, go to stellarium-web.org.  Thursday is the new moon. This is a great time to go stargazing because the moon doesn’t blot out any stars. The butterfly nebula VLT captured a new image of the butterfly nebula!. But this cosmic bubble of gas, isn’t […]

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