Travel – Underwater – Space – Wildlife
NGC 4387
I centered my sensor on this Elliptical Galaxy in the Virgo constellation so I could frame the “Face”. NGC 4387 is situated close to the celestial equator. It is partly visible from both hemispheres at certain times of the year.
It is the nose in the commonly viewed Galactic Face of Virgo. NGC 4388 is the mouth while the eyes are the elliptical galaxies, M 86 and M 84, of Markarians chain.
NGC 4402 is the galaxy to the left and NGC 4413 is to the bottom right.
NGC 4236 – C 3
Caldwell 3 is located just north of the Big Dipper. It is one of at least 34 gravitationally bound galaxies in the Ursa Major galaxy group. This barred spiral galaxy, also known as NGC 4236, sits 11.7 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco and has an apparent magnitude of 9.6. Although faint, Caldwell 3 can be spotted using a small telescope from a dark-sky site. The best views are seen through large telescopes. They show the galaxy as a large, diffuse glow that’s brighter toward the center. It appears highest during the spring in the Northern Hemisphere.
As far as galaxies go, this is by far the faintest I have tried to image. This image consists of 115 5 minute subframes, for a total of 9.5 hours of exposure. Colorful dust lanes did appear. Imaged the evenings of May 12th, 27th and 28th, 2024.
In the foothills of North Carolina, our dark skies began to brighten a little after 9pm. It was a night with little to no moon. I was also beginning to image galaxy NGC 4725 with my RC8. I noticed that my third image had a weird gradient. The next image had a red hue.
I went outside and realized what was happening. I grabbed my DSLR and a tripod. I took a few photos over the course of the next 45 minutes.
They had forecast a slight possibility that we could see this around midnight if we had a view to our north. No one forecast what we saw. It was awesome – at 35 degrees latitude!
These images were taken with my canon 1Ds Mark III and a 28mm lens on a tripod. 3″ timer delay, 4″ exposures.
It’s funny because my astro imaging continued – guiding wasn’t the best but it did continue. The red gradient looked a lot like the sky glow during a full moon
Messier 16 is also known as the Eagle Nebula or the Star Queen Nebula. It is considered an emission nebula in the constellation Serpens. It contains the Pillars of Creation. It’s located in the Milky Way’s Sagittarius Arm, about 7,000 light-years away from Earth. Parts of the Eagle Nebula are emission nebulas. The clouds of gas and dust are so hot they produce their own light. Other parts are dark nebulas. They are made of cold gas. These parts are only visible because of the silhouettes they create against the nebula’s glowing backdrop.
The Pillars of Creation are wispy columns of gas and dust in the nebula’s southern region that hide newborn stars. The Hubble Space Telescope’s 1995 image of the Pillars of Creation made them famous. The nebula’s dark silhouette near its center, which includes the Pillars of Creation, inspired the names “Eagle” and “Star Queen”.
The Eagle Nebula also contains the young star cluster NGC 6611. The nebula has several active star-forming regions. One of these is the Pillars of Creation. Here, gravity pulls gas clumps together to form stars. The wavy lines at the edges of some pillars are ejections from forming stars that collide with clouds of material. These collisions can also create bow shocks, which can form wavy patterns. The crimson glow comes from energetic hydrogen molecules that result from these jets and shocks.
This image was created from 117 240″ exposures captured using APT and calibrated/integrated using PixInsight. APT coordinates all of the technology used in imaging. This includes the cooled astro camera (ASI2600MC). It also includes the Telescope and its focusing (SW Esprit 120ED). Additionally, it includes the Eq6r Pro Mount that tracks with the stars.
A barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Coma Berenices, about 40 million light-years away. It is an intermediate galaxy. It has a prominent ring structure. It is roughly the size of the Milky Way at over 100,000 light-years across. NGC 4725 is unique in that it only has one spiral arm, while most spiral galaxies have two or more. The galaxy’s center has a bar of stars. It is surrounded by a ring of stars. Astronomers call this formation a ringed barred spiral galaxy.
In this sharp color composite image, the solo spira mirabilis seems to wind from a prominent ring of bluish, newborn star clusters. It appears to originate from a distinct ring. The ring consists of bluish, newborn star clusters. It also appears to wind from red tinted star forming regions. The odd galaxy also sports obscuring dust lanes a yellowish central bar structure composed of an older population of stars. Also included in the frame is NGC 4712. It sports a noticeably more traditional spiral galaxy look. NGC 4712 is a more distant background galaxy.
Imaged 5/1, 5/10 and 5/11. The night of 5/10 was our Aurora Borealis event. Imaged from 21:30 to 02:00 each of these evenings. 136 4 minute subs were included, or 9 hours of exposure. Gear includes an f8 GSO RC8 telescope at 1625mm, an ASI071MC astro camera cooled to 15f, and an EQ6r Pro mount.
I continue my efforts in imaging reflection nebula from the vdB catalog. IC 4601, or vdB 103, is a bluish reflection nebula. It is located in the constellation Scorpius, about 420 light-years away from Earth.
It’s part of a larger area called the Blue Horsehead. Reflection nebulae are clouds of gas and dust. They shine by reflecting light from nearby stars. They do not create their own light. vdB 103’s blue color comes from the blue light reflected by the nebula’s gas and dust. This light is from two bright blue giant stars on the right. A double star on the left also contributes. The nebula’s brightness depends on the density and size of the reflecting grains. It also depends on the color and brightness of nearby stars.
Platesolved Astrobin link-
Another of the globular cluster targets on my list, M12 is bright and colorful. This image consists of 137 60 second subs taken with a GSO RC8 and a ZWO ASI071MC Pro camera cooled to 15f, riding an EQ6r Pro munt. Certainly a challenging night for imaging as we experienced a very rare Aurora this night here in the hills of NC. Seeing and transparency were poor and the wind was present so guiding was not the best. Still, I’m happy with it!
Messier 12 (M12), also known as the Gumball Cluster, is a globular cluster of stars in the constellation Ophiuchus. It’s located about 15,700–23,000 light-years from Earth and has a diameter of 75 light-years. M12 is one of the brightest of the seven Messier globulars in Ophiuchus, and it’s approaching our solar system at a speed of 16 kilometers per second.
M12 has fewer low-mass stars than expected, and astronomers believe that gravity has stripped many of them from the cluster as it passed through denser areas of the Milky Way. It’s thought that M12 may have lost up to one million stars in this way.
Messier 15 (M15) is a globular cluster of stars in the constellation Pegasus, located about 32,620 light-years from Earth. It is one of the oldest known globular clusters, estimated to be around 12.5 billion years old. M15 is also one of the densest globular clusters, with most of its mass concentrated at its core.
M15 is part of a halo of nearly 150 globular clusters that surround the Milky Way galaxy. Each cluster is a spherical group of hundreds of thousands of ancient stars, with M15 containing both hot blue stars and cooler golden stars. The brightest stars in M15 have an apparent magnitude of 12.6, an absolute magnitude of -2.8, and a luminosity that is 1,000 times that of the Sun.
