Andromeda Galaxy

Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy
Click here for full size.

Exposure: 18x90+8x45+8x20+8x10@ISO1600
Telescope: AT72EDII
FF/Reducer:  ATR8 (f/4.8)
Mount: Vixen Super Polaris
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3
Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop CS6

As I've noted before, sometimes imaging sessions don't work out as planned. Technical problems, the limitations of the equipment, and sometimes just plain incompetence cause problems that create useless or sub-par data.

I had one of those cases a few nights ago.

My intended target was Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy. It was a little east of zenith when I started. As usual, my imaging time was short. That, and the fact that I cannot perform a reliable meridian flip with my rig (and I don't have software that can fix the image rotation), led me to decide to attempt to point the scope for imaging on the western half of the sky.

The scope barely cleared the side of the mount.

My first test image had some star trailing, but I assumed that it was the normal periodic error. Alignment seemed to have gone well, so I had no reason to suspect any problems.

The next several images had star trailing, too. Maybe it's the balance in this position, I thought. No problem, I tested the balance when it's pointed further west, so it will eventually settle itself out.

But the images never improved.

Time was running out. I decided that the best way to salvage the session was to shorten the exposure time. That yielded enough usable subs to produce the image above.

Still, I think it is my best image of the Andromeda Galaxy, yet. Did I mention that I'm really impressed with this little scope?

Reprocessed Images

What do amateur astronomers do when the weather is lousy and they can't get out with their scopes? Well, sometimes they reprocess old data. I have learned a lot about image processing over the few years that I've been in this hobby. Sometimes it is fun to see if I can do a better job using my new skills and tools. Some of these were very challenging as I did not have all of the components necessary for producing clean images (darks, flats, and bias frames).

These are some of the images that I selected as candidates for a slide show that a friend of mine is working on for the Sam Houston State University Planetarium.

Messier 8, the Lagoon Nebula, in the constellation Sagittarius.

Messier 8, the Lagoon Nebula, on the right. Messier 20, the Trifid nebula, in the upper-left. Both nebulae are in Sagittarius. This is a composite of two images taken with my Orion ShortTube 80.

Messier 35, in the upper-left half of the image, and NGC 2158 in the lower-right. Both clusters are in Gemini.

Messier 38, in the right half of the image, and NGC 1907 on the left, in Auriga.

Messier 45, the Pleiades, located in Taurus. This is only a portion of the cluster.

Messier 83, the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, in the constellation Hydra. It is the southernmost galaxy in the Messier catalog.

Leo Triplet. Also called the M66 group. Messier 65 is on the lower left, Messier 66 is on the middle left. NGC 3628 is located on the right. It is sometimes called the "Hamburger Galaxy."

Messier 37, in the constellation Auriga.

Comet C/2012 K1 (PANSTARRS)

Comets are in the news lately as C/2012 K1 PANSTARRS is now bright enough for viewing in small telescopes, and a new meteor shower is predicted for the night of May 23/24 as Earth passes through the debris trail of Comet 209P/LINEAR. I caught a break in the weather on May 18, 2014 before the Moon rose to capture a few images of C/2012 K1 PANSTARRS. This is not the same PANSTARRS comet that reached naked-eye visibility in 2013.

Comet C/2012 K1 PANSTARRS; ST80 on Vixen SP; Canon EOS Rebel T3; 8x120 @ ISO-1600

The bright star in the upper-right is Chi Ursae Majoris, located near the bowl of the Big Dipper. The edge-on spiral galaxy at top center is NGC 3877.

This image is a composite of two separate sets of images. I stacked one set of the original subs with the comet digitally removed to get a clear image of the background stars and galaxy. Then, I stacked the same subs centered on the comet to get a clearer image of it. Finally, the two images were combined in Photoshop CS6.

Also, I used a trial copy of BackyardEOS during this session. Normally, I would use the Canon EOS Utilities that came with my camera to control it from the computer, but my laptop recently suffered a hard drive failure and I haven't been able to locate the install disk. I've heard and read about BackyardEOS for some time, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. So far, I'm very impressed. It has a lot of great features and is, of course, custom-made for astronomical imaging. Maybe this will be my Father's Day present. :)

The Fireworks Galaxy and NGC 6939

I like finding objects that are close to one another in the sky like this interesting pair. Of course, they are many millions of light years apart from one another, but from our perspective they are neighbors. The spiral galaxy to the lower-left is cataloged as NGC 6946, but is more commonly known as the Fireworks Galaxy due to the unusually large number of supernovae recorded there in the past century. The Fireworks Galaxy is located along the border of the constellations Cepheus and Cygnus.  Distance estimates vary between 10 and a little over 20 million light years away.

Open cluster NGC 6939 is considerably closer, at about 4000 light years, in the constellation Cepheus.

Fireworks Galaxy and NGC 6939; Canon EOS Rebel T3 (1100D); ST80 on Vixen SP mount; 16x120 @ ISO-3200

The Andromeda Galaxy

With good eyes at a dark location, you might see a faint smudge of light located about halfway between the Milky Way and the Great Square of Pegasus. This is our nearest galactic neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31. It spans an area in the sky several times the angular size of the Full Moon, but most people don't notice it. Regardless of this lack of notoriety among the general public, the Andromeda Galaxy is at least twice the size of our own galaxy, and appears to be heading straight toward us!

This is a difficult object to image due to its size. A patient person with enough time on his or her hands would do it in sections and build a mosaic. Not being particularly patient or possessing much time, I chose to do it in one series of shots. It barely fits within the field of view of my camera on the ST80; and since I do not have a field flattener there is a noticeable distortion on the edges. Still, I think this is my best one so far.

Messier 31; Canon EOS Rebel T3 (1100D); ST80 on Vixen SP mount; 20x120 @ ISO-3200

The Milky Way

This is a wide-angle image of the Milky Way that roughly encompasses the area between the constellations Aquila (lower-left) to Scorpius (upper-right), taken during the night of the 2013 Perseid Meteor Shower from the SHSU observatory.

Milky Way; Canon EOS Rebel T3 (1100D), 18-55mm zoom lens at 18mm; Vixen SP mount; 15x120 @ ISO-1600, f/3.5

Here is a close-up centered on the area around Sagittarius. Several prominent features are visible, including the Sagittarius Star Cloud (M24), the Eagle Nebula (M16), the Swan Nebula (M17), the Lagoon Nebula (M8), the Trifid Nebula (M20) and Messier 21, Ptolemy's Cluster (M7), the Wild Duck Cluster (M11), and Messier 22.

Wide-Angle Shots

I've been experimenting with taking wide-angle long exposures with the camera mounted on the Vixen SP. Here is an image made in September 2012 of the Milky Way, with the constellation Cygnus on the left, and the constellation Aquila on the right. Prominent features include:

• The North America Nebula, on the left.
• The Great Rift (the dark lane that stretches across the middle of the image from left to right).
• The Cygnus Star Cloud (the bright region just above the middle, from about the center of the image and extending to the left)

This image also encompasses part of the area that is being studied by the Kepler mission.

Note, too, that the Great Rift appears less dark on the right. This is due to light pollution from town.

Milky Way from Cygnus to Aquila; Canon EOS Rebel XS on Vixen SP mount; 15x240; click here for full size

The following was a test image made after focusing the camera on Jupiter during a brief imaging session in early November 2012. Jupiter is the bright star near the center of the image. The reddish star to the upper-right of Jupiter is Aldebaran, in the constellation Taurus. Also visible are star clusters NGC 1746 (which is actually an asterism partially composed of two open clusters), NGC 1647 and the Hyades cluster. The vertical streak is the light trail made by an airplane.

Jupiter; Canon EOS Rebels XS on Vixen SP mount; 1x30

After focusing the camera, I pointed it at Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy:

Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy; Canon EOS Rebel XS on Vixen SP mount; 6x150

My primary goal was to image the area surrounding the constellation Perseus. My time was running short and Perseus had just cleared the trees, so I pointed the camera in that direction and got enough subs for the image below. Some of the items visible here are the Double Cluster (above and right of center), and the Heart and Soul nebulae (the faint red patches below and left of center):

Perseus Region; Canon EOS Rebel XS on Vixen SP mount; 11x150; click here for full size

Supernova in Messier 95

Messier 95 is a barred spiral galaxy 38 million light years away in the constellation Leo. A supernova was discovered in the galaxy's outskirts on March 16, 2012. Despite its great distance, astronomers may have found the pre-nova star in a Hubble image that was made a few years ago. Here is an image of M95 that I made early in the morning on March 24, 2012:

Messier 95 with Supernova 2012aw; ST80 on Vixen SP; 12x120

Messier 95 is a member of the Messier 96 Group of galaxies. This group also includes galaxies Messier 105, NGC 3373 and NGC 3384.

Messier 96 Group in Leo; ST80 on Vixen SP; 12x120

With labels:

My astronomy pal, Polaris B, made a very nice image of M95: M95 & SN 2012aw

Supernova 2011dh

On May 31, 2011, amateur astronomer Amédée Riou of France discovered a supernova in Messier 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. It was independently discovered by other astronomers shortly afterward, and is currently being observed by professional and amateur astronomers world-wide.

Below is an image that I took of M51 on June 8, 2011. A first-quarter moon was up and the sky was hazy, so the detail isn't that great. The supernova, now designated SN 2011dh, is as bright as many of the foreground stars in this image. Considering that M51 is 23 million light years away, that's pretty bright!

SN 2011dh in M51; ST80 on Vixen SP; 14x180

For comparison, here is a shot of M51 that I took with the Epsilon-200 on April 24, 2010, reduced and rotated to approximately the same size and orientation as the image above.

Below is the full-size version of the Epsilon-200 image. The moon was about 85% full that night, but the sky was much clearer than the other night.

Messier 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy; Epsilon-200 on NJP; 25x120

SN 2011dh is expected to remain visible for the next few months. It has been determined to be a Type II supernova, which means that it was caused by giant star that collapsed in upon itself. The debris from this star will be scattered into interstellar space and may end up becoming the raw material for new stars and planets. The core of the star likely collapsed into either a neutron star or a black hole.

SN 2011dh is the third supernova observed in M51 in the past 17 years, which is a remarkably high frequency considering that our own galaxy averages only one supernova every 50 years!

M81, M82 and friends

Sometimes things don't work out as planned. For example, a couple of months ago I wanted to see how M81/M82 would look in my ST80. I took a test shot and it looked promising; so, I started an imaging series and went inside the house.

Later, a check on the series revealed that things were not going well.  The alignment was off. Perhaps I had bumped the mount without realizing it. For whatever reason, only the test image turned out halfway decent. The rest had significant star trailing.

I recently took a closer look at the series, salvaged the best ones, and applied a star rounding filter to them. The results weren't spectacular, by any means, but with a little more processing and a few tricks I managed to throw together a wide-angle view of the area around M81/M82:

Messiers 81 and 82 and friends; ST80 on Vixen SP; 8x180

This version labels the brighter galaxies, as well as a few of the dimmer ones that I was able to find:

Messier 13, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules

Messier 13, also known as the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, is the brightest globular cluster in the northern hemisphere. It is a little over 25,000 light years away, about 145 light years in diameter, and contains hundreds of thousands of stars. M13 is visible to the naked eye on dark, clear nights away from city lights.

Messier 13; ST80 on Vixen SP; 16x120

Spiral galaxy NGC 6207 is visible near the lower-left corner of the image. Also visible in this image (barely) is spiral galaxy IC 4617. It is located about halfway between the center of M13 and NGC 6207, next to a pair of stars.

Messier 13 was chosen as the target for the Arecibo message of 1974. The message was a single (non-repeated) transmission of binary data that, when decoded, provided various details about Earth and humankind. It was not meant to be a serious attempt at contacting extraterrestrial life, though. Instead, the message was intended to demonstrate the capabilities of the newly refurbished Arecibo radio telescope. I am sure that we can all take comfort in that fact when some alien civilization intercepts the message and sends a fleet of warships to exterminate humanity.

This image is dedicated to Jeff the (Former) Programmer. I'm gonna miss working with ya!

Addendum: Jeff isn't dead or anything. He recently resigned from where I work.

M104, the Sombrero Galaxy

Messier 104 is an unusual galaxy in the constellation Virgo. The prominent dust lane, along with its bright central bulge, have earned it the nickname, the Sombrero Galaxy.

The dust lane is actually a ring. Most of the galaxy's star formation occurs there.

Messier 104, the Sombrero Galaxy; Epsilon-200 on NJP Mount; 7x120

The Hubble Space Telescope was used to take a fantastically detailed image of Messier 104.

Messier 81 and Messier 82

These two galaxies, Messier 81 and Messier 82, are considered the finest "showpiece" galaxies in the northern hemisphere. Located in the constellation Ursa Major, both galaxies were discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1774. The larger galaxy, Messier 81, is a spiral galaxy and is often referred to as "Bode's Galaxy," or "Bode's Nebula." Messier cataloged both objects in 1781.

Messier 82 is an unusual cigar-shaped galaxy. It is usually classified as an irregular galaxy, but a study in 2005 discovered evidence of spiral arms. Tidal forces from Messier 81 have compressed gas and dust in Messier 81's core, which has triggered a large amount of star formation. As a result, it is classified as a starburst galaxy. Messier 81 and Messier 82 are moving toward each other and will eventually merge into a single galaxy.

Messier 81 and Messier 82, Epsilon-200 on NJP mount, 14x240

This image was the first that I've taken with the Epsilon-200 in several months. The tracking issues on the NJP have been largely resolved, so I am able to take longer exposures. Longer exposures generate more noise in the images, though, and the improved tracking means that objects in the field of view move very little from one exposure to the next. As a result, the stacking software tends to see hot pixels (stuck sub-pixels) as "signal" instead of "noise."

Messier 101, the Northern Pinwheel

Messier 101 is a large galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. It is about 25 million light years distant, and about 170,000 light years across. Despite being fairly large in our sky (about 2/3 the size of the full moon), it is extremely faint. Small telescopes only reveal the brighter, central portion in dark skies. Either a telescope with a large aperture or a long-exposure image is required to discern the spiral structure.

Messier 101, ST80 on Vixen SP, 31x180

Also called the Northern Pinwheel, M101 is a grand design spiral, which means that it has clearly defined spiral arms radiating from its center.

The galaxy's distorted shape is likely due to gravitational interaction with its companion galaxies, particularly NGC 5474, seen to the lower right in this image. NGC 5474 is a dwarf spiral galaxy, which is a relatively rare galaxy type. Its core is offset in the direction of M101.

The Leo Triplet

About 35 million light years away in the Leo constellation lie three galaxies--Messier 65, Messier 66 and NGC 3628. This group is called the Leo Triplet, or the Leo Trio. Each is a spiral galaxy, and each is gravitationally influenced by the other two.

Here is Messier 65. It has a high ratio of old to new stars due to its relatively low quantity of gas and dust. Note the prominent dust lane in the foreground. The star in the middle of the dust lane resides in our own galaxy.

Messier 65

Messier 66 has an unusual shape.  Its spiral arms appear to be bent above the plane of the galaxy, and the nucleus is off-center. This is likely due to its gravitational interaction with its neighbors. Messier 66 is about 95 light years across, which makes it slightly smaller than the Milky Way.

Messier 66

The faintest of the three galaxies is NGC 3628. It is seen edge-on. The outer edges are distorted as a result of the gravitational influences of Messier 65 and Messier 66.

NGC 3628

The Leo Triplet can be easily viewed in a 6-inch telescope (and in some smaller scopes) in clear, dark skies. It is likely that Charles Messier's equipment was not sensitive enough to detect NGC 3628, which explains why it was not cataloged along with its neighbors.

Messier 33

Messier 33, also called the "Triangulum Galaxy" or "Triangulum Pinwheel," is located in the Triangulum constellation. It is barely visible to the naked eye in clear, dark skies. It appears as a circular fuzzy patch in a small telescope.

M33 is part of the Local Group, which is the group of at least 30 or so galaxies that include our Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy. It is located about 3 million light years away, which is relatively close in a galactic sense. It's proximity makes it an ideal target for study by astronomers.

This image is composed of 21 2-minute sub-frames taken by a Canon EOS Rebel XS with the ST80 on a Vixen SP mount.

Messier 33, The Triangulum Galaxy

Auction Photos

My employer participates in the State Employee Charitable Campaign every year. Our Big Event is a silent auction that contains items donated by employees and local businesses. This year's auction is on October 1st and will be held at the Windham School District Headquarters building in Huntsville, TX.

A coworker suggested that I submit 8x10 prints of some of my astroimages to the auction. I selected four images that I thought would have wide appeal.  Some have been reprocessed so that they would be more suitable for large prints. The images here have been reduced for screen display.

Sword of Orion

This is one of my all-time favorite images, and one of my favorite targets. The large nebula in the center, The Great Orion Nebula (Messier 42), is a complex structure of emission, reflection and dark nebulae. The nebula on the left, The Running Man, is composed of three separately cataloged reflection nebulae: NGC 1973, NGC 1975, and NGC 1977.

The Pleiades

This image of The Pleiades looks great on the screen, but some of the fainter details didn't show up very well in the print. Still, it's made a beautiful photo.

Andromeda Galaxy

This is a new image of the Andromeda Galaxy that I have not posted on the blog before. I took it with my ST80 on the Vixen GP mount. I wasn't impressed with the subs that I was getting, so I cut the session short and moved to another target. Later, when I stacked and processed the image, I realized that it didn't turn out half bad. It has been heavily processed to remove noise and chromatic aberration. I intend to go back and reshoot the Andromeda Galaxy at the next opportunity that I have for imaging.

Flame and Horsehead Nebulae

This image of the Flame and Horsehead nebulae is my favorite of the prints. It is also a new post to the blog, and a reprocess of an older image.

In addition to the prints, I am submitting a certificate for a private screening at the Sam Houston State University planetarium, hosted by planetarium director Mike Prokosch.

If anyone is interested in attending the auction, drop me a line and I'll give you directions to the building.

Sky Shots

The limiting magnitude here is about 5, which is not bad considering our proximity to Houston, Huntsville and so many prisons. (Prisons are lit up by dozens of sodium lights, most of which illuminate the sky as well as the ground.)

The light dome of Huntsville dominates the southern view from my house, but even so it is still possible to see quite a lot. The view from the Sam Houston State University observatory is even better.

My EQ-1 mount is not well-suited for taking images through a telescope, but it is adequate for making wide-angle shots. One of the rings that came with my telescope has a set screw for mounting a camera. Here are a couple of shots of the sky from my house.

Milky Way in the region of Cygnus

The Sun and Earth reside in a "spur" arm of the Milky Way Galaxy call the Orion-Cygnus arm. It is a relatively small arm located between two larger spiral arms that probably radiate out from the galactic center. When you look up at the constellation Cygnus, the Swan, you are looking up through the Orion-Cygnus arm. Here is a labeled version:

The center of galaxy is located in the constellation Sagittarius. Sagittarius is a very rich star field. It contains a number of bright, easily identifiable deep sky objects, including the Eagle Nebula, the Lagoon Nebula, Ptolemy's Cluster, and the Sagittarius Star Cloud. The Sagittarius Star Cloud, also known as Messier 24, is a portion of the Sagittarius spiral arm that is relatively free of the dust clouds that normally obscure our view of the galactic plane.

Milky Way, including Galactic Center, in Sagittarius

This image above was shot through the light dome of Huntsville. Here is a labeled version: