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).
Happy New Year 2024!
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M42 The Orion Nebula and Astrophotography Learning Curve
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 The Crone with Galaxies in Her Hair
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
- 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 12, 2023
- Run 1
- 57 2 minute lights
- 30 0.01 second flats
- 30 0.01 second flat darks
- 35 2 minute darks
- Run 1
Processing geek info:
- PixInsight
- BlurXterminator
- NoiseXterminator
- StarXTerminator
- Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch
M27 Dumbbell Nebula
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
- 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 11, 2023
- Run 1
- 54 2 minute lights
- 30 0.01 second flats
- 30 0.01 second flat darks
- 35 2 minute darks
- Run 1
Processing geek info:
- PixInsight
- BlurXterminator
- NoiseXterminator
- StarXTerminator
- Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch
Sh2-188 Dolphin Nebula or Shrimp Nebula
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
- 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 9, 2023
- Run 1
- 59 3 minute lights
- 30 0.01 second flats
- 30 0.01 second flat darks
- Run 2
- 76 3 minute lights
- 30 1/400 second flats
- 30 1/400 second flat darks
- 17 3 minute darks
- Run 1
Processing geek info:
- PixInsight
- BlurXterminator
- NoiseXterminator
- StarXTerminator
- Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch
NGC 7293 Helix Nebula 2023
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
- 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
- Run 1
- 10 3 minute lights
- Run 1
- October 11, 2023
- Run 2
- 17 3 minute lights
- 30 0.01 second flats
- 30 0.01 second flat darks
- Run 2
Processing geek info:
- PixInsight
- BlurXterminator
- NoiseXterminator
- StarXTerminator
- Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch
October 14, 2023 Annular Solar Eclipse
The Ring of Fire!!
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
The Eastern Veil Nebula: A Giant Space Comma and a Space Cow
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
- 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:
- August 17, 2023
- Run 1
- 194 1 minute lights
- 30 0.03 second flats
- 30 0.03 second flat darks
- Run 1
- August 18, 2023
- Run 2
- 86 1 minute lights
- 30 0.03 second flats
- 30 0.03 second flat darks
- Run 3
- 167 1 minute lights
- 30 0.03 second flats
- 31 0.03 second flat darks
- Run 2
- August 26, 2023
- Run 4
- 278 1 minute lights
- 30 0.03 second flats
- 30 0.03 second flat darks
- Run 4
- August 30, 2023
- Run 5
- 103 1 minute lights
- 32 0.03 second flats
- 30 0.03 second flat darks
- Run 6
- 137 1 minute lights
- 30 0.03 second flats
- 30 0.03 second flat darks
- Run 5
Processing geek info:
- PixInsight
- BlurXterminator
- NoiseXterminator
- StarXTerminator
- Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch
IC1318 Gamma Cygni Nebula – Butterfly Nebula
This is a portion of IC1318 the Gamma Cygni Nebula nicknamed the Butterfly Nebula. It’s in the constellation Cygnus beyond the star Gamma Cygni from which it gets its name. IC1318 is an emission nebula and consists of three bright areas labeled A, B, and C – the butterfly is formed by B and C (A is not in this picture). It is 3700 light years away from us and has apparent dimensions of 50 (B) and 40 (C) arcmin.
In the lower right corner of the picture is NGC6910, a cluster of stars made in this nebula. The cluster is 13 million years old.
This is 13.7 hours of data take over three nights.
As you may note from my run numbers starting at 3, my first two runs did not align well with the rest or with the nebula, so I ended up not using them. This is a tricky bit about imaging objects that are large compared to the total imaging area – the orientation of the camera and how well the imaging runs align with one another makes a difference.
For this particular image, I tried processing the nebula and stars separately, but I was not happy with the results, so I ended up processing them together.
I think the Butterfly Nebula really looks like a butterfly. How about you? But I also think I see … a dark chicken? What do you think?
Camera geek info:
- Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 1 minute exposure, ISO 800
- 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:
- September 21, 2023
- Run 3
- 320 1 minute lights
- 30 0.03 second flats
- 30 0.03 second flat darks
- Run 3
- September 22, 2023
- Run 4
- 240 1 minute lights
- 30 0.03 second flats
- 30 0.03 second flat darks
- Run 4
- September 23, 2023
- Run 5
- 28 1 minute lights
- 30 0.03 second flats
- 30 0.03 second flat darks
- Run 6
- 235 1 minute lights
- 29 0.03 second flats
- 30 0.03 second flat darks
- Run 5
- 30 1 minute darks
Processing geek info:
- PixInsight
- BlurXterminator
- NoiseXterminator
- Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch
Solar Photography and Preparing for the Eclipse
In preparation for the upcoming solar eclipse, I’ve gotten some new tools (toys). I got a solar tracking mount that tracks the sun so I don’t have to try to set up my tracking mount (which needs a view of the stars to align) in the daytime. And I got a solar filter for my telescope (this is not optional – eyeballs and optics can be destroyed without a proper solar filter). Solar filters have been hard to come by – I’ve had one the correct size on order for months – and this one was too big. But my awesome husband and his 3D printer came to the rescue! He made me a spacer to go between the solar filter and the telescope. It worked perfectly!
I tried a variety of settings for ISO and exposure length. This particular shot at ISO 800 with a 1/400 second exposure had the best sun spots on this particular day. It seemed like settings where ISO * exposure >= 1 worked the best.
Camera geek info:
- Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 1/400 second exposure, ISO 800
- 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
Space&Aliens 