Astrophotography – Page 3 – Semper Iuvenis Photography

M 82 – The Cigar Galaxy

A bright Starburst galaxy located in the constellation Ursa Major, about 12 million light-years away. It’s also known as the Cigar Galaxy because of its elliptical shape.

M 82 is generally photographed with M 81, Bode’s Galaxy. I pointed the 8″ RC telescope at it to get as much detail as I could on just this galaxy.

M82 is a spiral galaxy that’s undergoing a starburst, a massive burst of star formation in its core. It has a gravitatioonal interaction with its nearby galaxy, M81, which causes it to have an extremely high rate of star formation.

M82 is a prototype starburst galaxy and the second-largest member of the M81 group. It’s bright at infrared wavelength and has over 30 billion stars.

M82 can be found in the northern skies in the direction of Ursa Major, also known as the Great Bear.

LDN 1622 – The Boogeyman Nebula

A molecular cloud within a hydrogen cloud

Astronomers like to name things, based upon resemblance if possible, to make them easier to remember. LDN 1622 is called the “Boogeyman Nebula”.

I chose to image it because of the dense dark molecular cloud structure against the hydrogen rich background. I chose the wider field of the SkyWatcher Esprit 120ED triplet refractor telescope to capture the space behind the huge Barnards Loop hydrogen cloud that is home for the Boogeyman. A cloud within a cloud within a cloud, if you will.

LDN 1622 is close to the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, close to Barnard’s Loop, a large cloud surrounding the Belt and Sword of Orion. It is a fairly dim target, at 1,300 light-years away, requiring long exposure photography to illuminate its beauty. My image consists of 20.5 hours of exposure using an Antlia quadband light pollution filter with a ZWO 2600MC pro camera on a Skywatcher Eq6r Pro mount.

I hope you enjoy this unique image from the Orion Constellation.

C 23 – The Silver Sliver Galaxy

The Silver Sliver Galaxy Caldwell 23, also known as NGC 891, is an edge-on unbarred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Andromeda.

It is about 30 million light-years away from Earth and is best viewed in our fall season. A spindle-shaped galaxy that is viewed almost edge-on, it is also known as the Silver Sliver Galaxy, the Outer Limits Galaxy, and the Silver Needle Galaxy.

C 23 is visible in small to moderate size telescopes as a faint elongated smear of light with a dust lane visible in larger apertures. Its outskirts are populated by multiple low-surface brightness, and vast substructures, like giant streams that loop around the parent galaxy. The bulge and the disk are surrounded by a flat and thick cocoon-like stellar structure.

In popular 1960’s culture, NGC 891 appears alongside M67, the Sombrero Galaxy, the Pinwheel Galaxy, NGC 5128, NGC 1300, M81, and the Andromeda Galaxy in the end credits of the Outer Limits TV series, which is why it is occasionally called the Outer Limits Galaxy.

This image was taken December 19th, 2023 and January 31st 2024 with a RC8 telescope at 1625mm and ASI071MC camera riding an EQ6r Pro mount. I hope you enjoy this galaxy image.

Cheers!

Coddington’s Nebula

Looking up towards the North in my bortle 4 sky reveals bright stars which are somewhat recognizable like Cygnus, Cassiopeia, The Big Dipper, and the rectangle of the big bear (Ursa Major). There doesn’t appear to be much else this time of year, especially with a bright moon, but looks can be deceiving.

When imaging this target with 5 minute exposures (071mc) at a 1625mm focal length (RC8), a faint smudge appears where the galaxy is supposed to be. This is not one of those big bright galaxies we so often see photographed. This image is an integration of 11 hours of exposure. Even then it’s a fairly faint target. A plate-solved version is available here on my Astrobin collection including all of the imaging technical details.

American astronomer Edwin Foster Coddington discovered IC 2574 in 1898. It’s classified as a dwarf irregular galaxy because of its small size and lack of structure. IC 2574 is a member of the M81 group of galaxies (Bode’s, Cigar, Garland galaxies), which is one of the closest groups to our local group. It contains active star-forming regions that show strong H-alpha emissions, especially in the lower left part of the galaxy in my image.

Astronomers consider IC 2574 an irregular dwarf galaxy because it’s small, lacks structure, and is forming stars. Dwarf galaxies are small galaxies made up of a few billion stars. In 1898 it looked like a smear and therefore was called a nebula by Edwin Coddington. Improved resolution of telescopes over time revealed it to be a galaxy. Of course now with the Hubble Telescope, a population census is possible. Cheers!

Cosmic Bat in Orion

Hidden in the outskirts of the Orion constellation, close to the Witchhead Nebula (IC 2118), we can find an area rich in interstellar gas and dust around the reflection nebula NGC 1788. This bright deep sky object attracts our attention among all that faint dust and gas. It is flanked by the dark nebula known as Lynds 1616.

I began imaging NGC 1788 on January 1st and continued on the nights of Jan 4th, 7th, 10th and 11th. I acquired a touch over 200 5 minute exposures. I remember it was bloody cold! This was imaged with the Skywatcher Esprit 120ED telescope at 840mm focal length using a ZWO ASI2600MC camera.

NGC 1788 is about 2,000 light years away from Earth and is sometimes called the “Cosmic Bat” nebula. It is made up of blue reflection regions, lots of dust, and a glowing area of hydrogen gas. It is close to the celestial equator, so it is sometimes visible from both hemispheres at certain times of the year. The brightest star in the nebula is 10th magnitude and is in the northwest sector.

Although this ghostly cloud is rather isolated from Orion’s bright stars, their powerful winds and light have a strong impact on the nebula, forging its shape and making it a home to a multitude of newborn stars.

I’ve enjoyed imaging these reflection nebula showing something a little different in our night sky.

Cheers!

2023 in Review

I produced a short video highlighting my astrophotography in 2023. I was fortunate to have had a good year after the smoke cleared from the Canadian wildfires. Let me know what you think.

I also had the pleasure of photographing the Tosco Music Holiday Party at Charlotte’s Knight Theater in December. It’s always a pleasure!

A galaxy image from 2023.

Caldwell 65 – The Sculptor Galaxy
This target is very low in my southern horizon and is imageable for about 90 minutes per session this time of year. It is considered one of the most easily viewed galaxies in the sky after the Andromeda Galaxy. Caldwell 65, also known as NGC 253, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor, about 10 million light-years from Earth. Caldwell 65 is a starburst galaxy, which means it’s currently undergoing a period of intense star formation. It has a disk-like appearance, since we see it almost edge on, which has led some to nickname it the Silver Coin or Silver Dollar galaxy. Most people, however, call it the Sculptor galaxy after the constellation it resides in. This galaxy is one of the nearest beyond our local neighborhood of galaxies, making it an ideal target for many Astro photographers.

M 31 – Andromeda Galaxy

The Andromeda Galaxy is one of the most distant objects that can be seen with the naked eye. The galaxy is commonly located in the sky in reference to the constellations Cassiopeia and Pegasus.

The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224 and originally the Andromeda Nebula, is a barred spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years (770 kiloparsecs) from Earth and the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. The galaxy’s name stems from the area of Earth’s sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda, which itself is named after the Ethiopian (or Phoenician) princess who was the wife of Perseus in Greek mythology.

Andromeda is best seen during autumn nights in the Northern Hemisphere when it passes high overhead, reaching its highest point around midnight in October, and two hours later each successive month. The 27 subs for this image were captured in Nov 2020 and Jan 2021.

In early evening, it rises in the east in September and sets in the west in February. From the Southern Hemisphere the Andromeda Galaxy is visible between October and December, best viewed from as far north as possible. Binoculars can reveal some larger structures of the galaxy and its two brightest satellite galaxies, M32 and M110.

An amateur telescope can reveal Andromeda’s disk, some of its brightest globular clusters, dark dust lanes and the large star cloud NGC 206.

This image was captured using the ASI071MC camera; WO Z73 telescope; SW EQ6r Pro mount and other bits and pieces. Capture software is APT. Image processed in PixInsight. Jpeg creation/save in Photoshop.

Cheers!

M8 – The Lagoon Nebula

The Lagoon is a large gas cloud and very bright emission Nebula found in our southern skies within the constellation Sagittarius. This image is comprised of 27 3-minute exposures (81 mins). As it sits very low in my southern sky, the trees interfere just after crossing the meridian limiting the amount data captured.

M20, the Trifid Nebula, is seen in the top of this image. IC1275 is the paw looking gas cloud just to the left of the Lagoon Nebula.

The Lagoon Nebula is estimated to be between 4,000-6,000 light-years away from the Earth. In the sky of Earth, it spans 90′ by 40′, which translates to an actual dimension of 110 by 50 light years. In other words, IT’S HUGE!

Like many nebulas, it appears pink in time-exposure color photos but is gray to the eye peering through binoculars or a telescope, human vision having poor color sensitivity at low light levels.

The nebula contains a number of Bok globules (dark, collapsing clouds of protostellar material), the most prominent of which have been catalogued by E. E. Barnard as B88, B89 and B296.

It also includes a funnel-like or tornado-like structure caused by a hot O-type star that emanates ultraviolet light, heating and ionizing gases on the surface of the nebula.

The Lagoon Nebula also contains at its centre a structure known as the Hourglass Nebula (so named by John Herschel), which should not be confused with the better known Engraved Hourglass Nebula in the constellation of Musca. In 2006 the first four Herbig–Haro objects were detected within the Hourglass, also including HH 870. This provides the first direct evidence of active star formation by accretion within it.

Bottom line: The Lagoon Nebula, aka M8, is the largest and brightest of a number of nebulosity’s in and around the famous Teapot asterism in the constellation Sagittarius.

M 16 – Eagle Nebula

Eagle Nebula – “Pillars of Creation” –
(also known as the Star Queen Nebula and The Spire) is a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens.

Both the “Eagle” and the “Star Queen” refer to visual impressions of the dark silhouette near the center of the nebula.

The nebula contains several active star-forming gas and dust regions, including the aforementioned Pillars of Creation. The Eagle Nebula lies in the Sagittarius Arm of our Milky Way.

This image results from 366 subframes (~19 hours of exposure) captured in May, June & July 2021 using a WO Z73 scope & ASI 071MC Pro camera riding the SW EQ6r Pro mount. Supporting cast includes WO 120mm guide scope, ASI 120mm-mini, QHY Polemaster, Pegasus PBA, Senso Sesto focuser & radian ultra quad filter.

Image acquisition using APT & PHD2 on a windows platform ran remotely from inside my home. Image processing Pixinsight.

C 9 – Cave Nebula

The Cave Nebula is 2,400 Light-years from earth in the constellation Cepheus.

Sh2-155 (also designated Caldwell 9) is a very faint diffuse nebula located 2,400 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. It is widely known as the Cave Nebula.

The image consists of subs taken from the hills of Burke County, NC from Nov & Dec ’20 along with subs from Jan, May, June & July of ’21 – 220 subs totaling 19.5 hours of exposure.

Acquisition hardware: EQ6r Pro, WO Z73, ASI071MC Pro, Radian Quad Ultra, Polemaster, Senso Sesto 2, WO 50-200mm guidescope, ASI 120mm, and NUC.

Acquisition software: APT, PHD2, EQMOD, W10 pro.

Processed manually in Pixinsight.

Roughly 2,400 light-years away and lying in the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the Cave Nebula is a diffuse emission nebula, within a larger nebula complex that includes a reflection nebula, and dark nebula. It is formed of gases that emit their own light. The bright arc that forms the mouth of the cave is an active birthplace for stars, known as an H II region, where hot clouds of atomic hydrogen have become ionized.

Having a magnitude of about 8 and a span of roughly 40 light-years, Caldwell 9 is a diffuse and low-contrast object, so it can still be difficult to find in the sky. Caldwell 9 is tantalizing to researchers because, according to radio and near-infrared studies of this nebula, the area is bursting with young, hot stars popping into existence.

The amazing wonders of nature.