One of the things that surprised and amazed me during totality of the solar eclipse was a bright pink spot on the lower edge of the Moon that I could see naked eye. At first, I thought maybe it was the diamond ring effect, but it was not – it was a solar prominence! And when I looked at my pictures, I discovered that it was one of several.
Solar prominences are loops of plasma that are anchored to the sun’s surface and extend out into the sun’s corona, following the local magnetic field. The plasma is made of electrically charged hydrogen and helium. Hot hydrogen emits red light, which is why they appear pink.
Since we are close to the maximum of the solar sunspot cycle (solar max is expected to occur within the next year), there happened to be a lot of prominences for this eclipse. So cool!
These pictures show the solar prominences during totality and the diamond ring effect where the sun emerges at the end of totality.
Camera geek info for corona pictures:
Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 1/200 second exposure, ISO 100
Intervalometer
Williams Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope
Williams Optics Flat 73A
Sky-Watcher SolarQuest HelioFind tracking mount and tripod
Back at the end of November, I bought some new astrophotography tools/toys:
ZWO 2” Electronic Filter Wheel
Antila LRGBSHO filters
ZWO ASI183MM-Pro-Mono camera
ZWO ASiair Plus
Of course, as the old astrophotography joke goes, buying new tools meant we had seemingly months of cloudy skies.
Happily, this time of year meant I got to have first light with one of my favorite Deep Space Objects: M42 the Orion Nebula.
I finally got an opportunity for first light with the new equipment December 29, 2023, but the filter wheel was jammed by one of the connecting tubes (I ordered a better one) so I didn’t get any good data.
I got a second opportunity on December 30, 2023 but I had to resort to swapping in the filters by hand, which meant bringing the telescope back inside to change out filters and restarting ASiair every time. The resulting images ended up rotated relative to one another in such a way that I couldn’t crop out all the sections that weren’t covered by all three filters. This wasn’t surprising since I had to unscrew all the parts to swap out filters. I also think I may have mislabeled which set of images was which color since the result came out an odd purple color. Rotating the color assignments seemed to fix that. The experience gave me a real appreciation for the filter wheel!
Here is the processed image:
Camera geek info:
Williams Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope
Williams Optics Flat 73A
Antila RGB filters
ZWO ASI183MM-Pro-Mono camera
ZWO ASiair Plus
iOptron CEM40
Friendswood, Texas Bortle 7-8 suburban skies
Frames:
December 30, 2023
RGB lights
52 60 second Gain 50 R lights
30 60 second Gain 50 G lights
54 60 second Gain 50 B lights
30 0.05 second Gain 50 RGB flats
30 0.05 second Gain 50 flat darks
30 60 second Gain 50 darks
Processing geek info:
PixInsight
BlurXterminator
NoiseXterminator
StarXTerminator
Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch
I got a new ring to connect the filter wheel and got first light on the whole new setup, try 3, on January 20, 2024, and I got data for both M42 the Orion Nebula and M101 the Pinwheel Galaxy which I could compare to previous images taken with my Canon 60D DSLR. I appreciated the ASiair being able to configure a whole run including switching filters and have it automatically run. I also appreciated the ASiair connecting to my iPad so I could see each image on my iPad from inside my house where it was warm! I did still go outside to watch the telescope meridian flip to make sure no wires were caught.
Here is the processed M42 Orion Nebula RGB image (dated 20 January 2024) with a previous DSLR image in the slideshow. The differences are hard to see and may be related to processing.
Camera geek info:
Williams Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope
Williams Optics Flat 73A
ZWO 2” Electronic Filter Wheel
Antila RGB filters
ZWO ASI183MM-Pro-Mono camera
ZWO ASiair Plus
iOptron CEM40
Friendswood, Texas Bortle 7-8 suburban skies
Frames:
January 20, 2024
RGB lights
59 60 second Gain 50 R lights
60 60 second Gain 50 G lights
57 60 second Gain 50 B lights
30 0.0417 second Gain 50 G flats (a setting goof)
30 0.0417 second Gain 50 B flats (a setting goof)
28 0.05 second Gain 50 R flats
30 0.05 second flat darks
6 60 second darks
Processing geek info:
PixInsight
BlurXterminator
NoiseXterminator
StarXTerminator
Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch
Here is the processed M101 the Pinwheel Galaxy RGB image (dated 20 January 2024) with previous DSLR images in the slideshow. Here, the improvement is obvious, with significantly more detail in the galaxy with the new camera. It even compares well to images taken from the much darker Dell City skies (February 2023 and June 2023).
Camera geek info:
Williams Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope
Williams Optics Flat 73A
ZWO 2” Electronic Filter Wheel
Antila RGB filters
ZWO ASI183MM-Pro-Mono camera
ZWO ASiair Plus
iOptron CEM40
Friendswood, Texas Bortle 7-8 suburban skies
Frames:
January 20, 2024
RGB lights
59 60 second Gain 50 R lights
60 60 second Gain 50 G lights
57 60 second Gain 50 B lights
18 0.05 second Gain 50 R flats
24 0.05 second Gain 50 G flats
17 0.05 second Gain 50 B flats
30 0.05 second flat darks
6 60 second darks
Processing geek info:
PixInsight
BlurXterminator
NoiseXterminator
StarXTerminator
Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch
I’m really pleased with this new equipment, and I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do with it!
Happy New Year! We always watch time travel movies on New Year’s Eve. This year’s choice: Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road (time travel a key component of the story).
I’ve bought some new astrophotography gear, so it’s been cloudy for a month (LOL), and I’ve had the opportunity to go back and process some old data of a favorite Deep Space Object (DSO), M42, The Orion Nebula.
The Orion Nebula is an emission nebula of ionized hydrogen gas where star formation is taking place. It’s located in the Milky Way, approximately 1344 light years away, and it’s approximately 24 light years across, giving it an apparent size of 1 degree.
The Orion Nebula is one of my favorite DSOs because it is bright and can be enjoyed so many ways. It is visible to the naked eye as the middle “star” in Orion’s sword. It can be seen to be a fuzzy object with binoculars. The trapezium of stars in the core can be seen even with a small telescope like mine. And astrophotography brings out its full size and color.
The nebula to the left of the Orion Nebula is called the Running Man nebula. Can you see the dark running man? The Running Man nebula is a reflection nebula, reflecting the light of local stars. It is approximately 1500 light years away, and approximately 15 light years across, giving it an apparent size of 34 arc-minutes.
The image above was made from 66 minutes of data (22 3 minute images) from the fabulous dark skies of Dell City, Texas.
Camera geek info:
Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 3 minute exposure, ISO 1600
Intervalometer
Williams Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope
Williams Optics Flat 73A
iOptron CEM40
Dell City, Texas Bortle 2-3 dark skies
Frames:
October 28, 2022
22 3 minute lights (66 minutes total)
10 6 second darks
Processing geek info:
PixInsight
BlurXterminator
NoiseXterminator
StarXTerminator
Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch
The Orion Nebula shows my own astrophotography learning curve. I imaged it in 2019 with just a DSLR, telephoto lens, and a sky tracker. And I processed a single image from the 2022 set used above before I learned how to use PixInsight. This set, you’ll notice, did not include the flat and flat dark calibration frames I use now.
Not having all the calibration frames worked out OK in Dell City … but no such much from my light-polluted skies in suburban Friendswood, Texas. Here is what I get with no flat calibration frames (note all the dark spots not calibrated out), no light pollution filter, and my current knowledge of PixInsight. Yes, I could have lost some of the nebula detail and hidden the dark spots, but that’s a cost to not having good calibration frames. Since it’s fast and easy to take flats, they’re totally worth it.
Camera geek info:
Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 119 second exposure, ISO 200
Intervalometer
Williams Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope
Williams Optics Flat 73A
iOptron CEM40
Friendswood, Texas Bortle 7-8 suburban skies
Frames:
November 26, 2022
27 119 second lights (53.55 minutes total)
6 119 second darks
Processing geek info:
PixInsight
BlurXterminator
NoiseXterminator
StarXTerminator
Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch
A couple of months after I took the previous image, I learned what calibration frames I needed. Here is what I got with data taken from my suburban driveway with calibration frames, a light pollution filter, and my current knowledge of PixInsight.
Camera geek info:
Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 19 second exposure, ISO 800
Intervalometer
Williams Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope
Williams Optics Flat 73A
SkyTech 2” LPRO-MAX CCD Filter
iOptron CEM40
Friendswood, Texas Bortle 7-8 suburban skies
Frames:
January 26, 2023
143 19 second lights (45.3 minutes total)
25 0.02 second flats
21 0.02 second flat darks
47 20 second darks
Processing geek info:
PixInsight
BlurXterminator
NoiseXterminator
StarXTerminator
Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch
These three images had similar total exposure lengths. The Dell City image, with the longest total exposure time, highest ISO, and darkest skies, is the best of the three. The slightly shorter November 2022 image from Friendswood is flawed due to the lack of calibration frames. The even shorter January 2023 image from Friendswood is starting to show noise in the background. But the nebulae themselves are beautiful!
As I said, I’ve recently gotten some new astrophotography gear, and first light on it was the Orion Nebula. Stay tuned for the results!!
IC2118 is one of the dimmer objects I imaged while we were enjoying the dark skies in Dell City, Texas.
This image used only 1.9 hours of data. I’ve started having trouble with my tracking mount glitching, so I had to toss a bunch of data. I’ve been researching how to fix that.
IC2118, also called the Witch Head Nebula, is a reflection nebula – an interstellar cloud of dust that is lit up by a nearby star, in this case Rigel (which is not in this image). It’s located in the Milky Way, approximately 900 light years away, and it’s approximately 50 light years long, giving it an apparent size of 1 degree by 3 degrees (not all in this image).
The ”witch” is facing towards the upper right corner, with her nose around the vertical center of the image.
One thing that surprised me was that I can see multiple galaxies in her hair – NGC1752, PGC16607, and PGC16669. NGC1752 is a spiral galaxy about 143.5 Mega light years away. PGC16607 is a galaxy about 179 Mega light years away. PGC16669 is a galaxy about 500 Mega light years away. I find the idea of being able to image galaxies so far away … awe-inspiring.
I find the idea of a crone with galaxies in her hair … poetic and inspirational. And I think she should have a companion: the man with a galaxy under his hat. Deserving of a story!
Camera geek info:
Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 2 minute exposure, ISO 1600
M27 is one of the brighter objects I imaged while we were enjoying the dark skies in Dell City, Texas. This object was a brilliant blue in a single frame, and it was nice not to have to rely on faith that something was there.
This image used only 1.8 hours of data.
M27, also called the Dumbbell Nebula or Apple Core Nebula, is a planetary nebula – the gases expelled from a star before it becomes a white dwarf, lit up by that star. It’s located in the Milky Way, approximately 1250 light years away, and it’s approximately 2.9 light years across, giving it an apparent size of 8 arcminutes. It’s estimated to be 12,700 years old.
Planetary nebulae do not last long on an astronomy time scale because the expelled gases grow dimmer as they expand away from the central star. I am glad I live in a time when we can observe them and they can be observed!
Isn’t our galaxy beautiful?
Camera geek info:
Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 2 minute exposure, ISO 1600
Sh2-188 is one of the dimmer objects that I imaged during our recent trip to the dark skies at Dell City, Texas.
Sh2-188, also called the Dolphin Nebula or Shrimp Nebula, is a planetary nebula – the gases expelled from a star before it becomes a white dwarf, lit up by that star. It’s located in the Milky Way, approximately 2770 light years away, and it’s approximately 8.2 light-years across, giving it an apparent size of 10 arcminutes. It’s estimated to be 22,500 years old.
The nebula’s bow shape (as opposed to a circular shape) is theorized to be due to its relatively high velocity interaction with the interstellar medium.
The objects in our galaxy never cease to amaze me!
Camera geek info:
Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 3 minute exposure, ISO 2000
On our recent trip to the fabulous dark skies of Dell City, Texas, I mostly tried to image things that would be difficult to capture from my light-polluted driveway at home. However, a couple of those objects weren’t visible at sunset, so I snuck in some brighter objects as well.
NGC 7293 also called the Helix Nebula or Eye of God Nebula is a planetary nebula – the gases expelled from a star before it becomes a white dwarf, lit up by that star. It’s located in the Milky Way, approximately 655 light years away, and it’s approximately 2.5 light-years across. It’s estimated to be 10,600 years old. Its apparent size is 25 arcminutes, and it has an apparent magnitude of 7.6.
I’d imaged NGC 7293 last year, and I’d even posted a single 3 minute shot, but I’d never gone back and really processed it.
I processed the data from this year, and then went back and added in the data from last year. Which version do you like better? I think I actually like the 2023 only version better.
Either way, this shows that less than an hour and a half of data was sufficient time to generate a decent image of this neat object with dark skies.
This is a particularly spectacular planetary nebula, and even last year it made me want to try to image more. Isn’t our galaxy amazing?
Camera geek info:
Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 3 minute exposure, ISO 1600
Time lapse movie of the eclipse, with some extra dwell time for annularity.
When I planned our trip to see the October 14, 2023 annual solar eclipse months ago, I planned to see it from Roswell, New Mexico. As much as I would have liked to have seen it in my home state of Texas, the cloud probabilities were significantly better in Roswell. And, since the last time we tried to see a total solar eclipse it rained on us, having better cloud odds was the dominant factor in my decision making.
But, on Friday October 13, the cloud cover predictions for Roswell were not looking great. I made a spreadsheet of the cloud cover predictions for various cities using Astropheric, and my husband calculated how long it would take to drive to each one, and we decided to get up early and drive to Seminole, Texas instead. We couldn’t find any events planned there, but we did find a nice park.
We got up early and drove to Seminole. Although we did remember to account for the time zone change for driving back into Texas, we ended up running later than planned, and I eventually had to make a decision as to whether I wanted a complete time lapse movie or a good ring of fire picture – the choice was pretty obvious, and we kept driving to Seminole.
Seminole is in oil territory, and there were pumpjacks in the park, and we could smell the oil – giving us the true Texas eclipse viewing experience! Alas, there were no longhorns or bluebonnets to make it more iconic. Maybe in April?
I set up my telescope on my solar tracking mount, set up the intervalometer to take a picture every minute, and let it run. It worked great, which meant I could enjoy the experience with my husband and daughter: looking at cool shadows and viewing the eclipse through our eclipse glasses.
We noticed that it felt cooler than we would have expected on a sunny day – the sun wasn’t warming us like we’d expect. And it was dimmer than we would have expected as well.
It was really cool to see the sun change from a u shape to a c shape.
When we neared annularity, I took a bunch of extra pictures, trying to capture the Baily’s Beads effect where the Moon’s terrain breaks up the light of the sun into segments as the terrain blocks the light in some directions but not others. When we reached annularity, I also tried to get a good ring of fire picture.
With a long time for annularity (over four and a half minutes), I also spent some time looking at cool shadows and just looking (with my eclipse glasses) at the sun as an o shape. An amazing sight!
After annularity, we enjoyed seeing the sun come back out and feeling it get warm.
What a spectacular day!
Did you get to see the eclipse this year? Are you planning on seeing the total eclipse that also crosses Texas next year?
Camera geek info for solar pictures:
Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 1/200 second exposure, ISO 100
Intervalometer
Williams Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope
Williams Optics Flat 73A
Thousand Oaks optical solar filter
Sky-Watcher SolarQuest HelioFind tracking mount and tripod
I call this picture The Giant Space Comma. It’s generally called the Eastern Veil Nebula and cataloged as Caldwell 33. It is one side of a supernova remnant called the Cygnus Loop. The supernova occurred 10,000 – 20,000 years ago, and our distant ancestors would have been able to see it in the daytime. It is 2400 light years away from us, and the whole loop has a radius of 65 light years and is expanding.
Part of the nebula looks like a cow’s head to me. Can you see it? I call it the Space Cow.
The images above show what happened as I added data to the image. The first one is my favorite version, with 3 nights and 12.1 hours of data, followed by the results from 1 night and 3.2 hours of data, the results from 2 nights and 7.45 hours of data, and 4 nights and 16.1 hours of data. Which do you like best?
I think of all the astroimages I have made so far, this one is the most amazing.
I’m looking forward to finding more cool things in the sky!
Camera geek info:
Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 1 minute exposure, ISO 800
Space&Aliens 