M82 Nova Wide field.

For 2 nights in a row we have been treated to clear skies. I have treated my camera again to the amazing supernova in the nearby galaxy of M82. I wanted a wide field shot of the area. Here is the result of 2 hours of exposure in 10 minute sub frames.

 

I am very happy with the dust lanes in M81. Dark dust visible circling the galaxy core.

 

Unfortunatly astronomy for the next week will take a back seat. I am working a set of nights from Monday bad timing with the moon out of the way.

 

 

M103

M103 (Ngc581) is one of the more remote open clusters in Messier's catalog, at about 8,000 light years distant in one of the most recognised constellations of Cassiopeia the queen. Visible in my binoculars against a rich star field it was the last entry to his original catalogue without him actually observing it. Well Mr Messier I have seen it. and I have ticked it off my list. The bright star also visible at the top is Ruchbah or(δ) Delta Cassiopeiae  Cassiopeiae. See finder chart. To me this star is a little more interesting than the cluster. It is an eclipsing binary star system consisting of a pair of stars that orbit about each other over a period of 759 days.


The primary a white sub giant has a stellar classification of A5III-IV, with the luminosity class of IV indicating that it has exhausted the hydrogen at its core and has begun to evolve through the subgiant phase into a giant star. It has expanded to about 3.9 times the Sun's radius. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 43.9 km/s relative to the Sun.