80 Million Light years away.

My first night outside in nearly a month. Keeping an eye on the forecast, looked like Norwich would cloud over around midnight. I wanted a galaxy group in Virgo that were still low on the horizon unfortunatly they would be up too late to get a couple of hours worth of photons. So I spun the mouse over stellarium and it settled near a couple of little round hoops in Leo. A quick goto and I had settled upon a trio of fuzzies. Beyond reach optically on my 90mm refractor, but a minute test image at 3200 Iso revealed a mist in the centre of the frame. I set up a run of 2 minute guided exposures and returned inside. -10 in the garden was a little to harsh to want to stay outside.

This just over 1degree image shows you a galactic trio of NGC2964(Upper right), NGC2968(centre) and NGC 2970 (Lower Left) with an interval of 6 arc minutes at the northern part of Leo's head. A righthand spiral is NGC2964, has a long axis of about 3 arc minutes and 12th magnitude in brightness at a distance of 72 Million Light Years. And to its left is the irregular galaxy of NGC2968. You can just make out the eliptical galaxy to its left again Mag 14.5 NGC 2970 Both galaxies are about 80 millions light years away and have interacted in the distant past.

Runaway Horses

I remembered I had about 35 minutes worth of data from the UHC filter. I have combined them to the original hour, I think the improvement is noticable.

Horsehead Nebula

Stargazing Live from my own back garden this evening. My telescope & camera pointing towards the heavens to image the amazing Horsehead Nebula.

The red glow originates from hydrogen gas predominantly behind the nebula, ionized by the nearby bright star Sigma Orionis. The darkness of the Horsehead is caused mostly by thick dust, although the lower part of the Horsehead's neck casts a shadow to the left. Streams of gas leaving the nebula are funneled by a strong magnetic field. Bright spots in the Horsehead Nebula's base are young stars just in the process of forming.

1 hour only of exposure Approx 40 mins @ Iso 3200 and 20 Mins @Iso 1600 using 2 minute guided sub frames. My collection of darks are proving useful with a dark frame subtraction. DDP and levels adjustment and aquisition provided from images plus and Deep sky stacker combining the frames.

M42

The last week or so has left us all a bit battered by the winds.
The moons phase equally annoying for a deep sky imager. I wanted to just test everything was still working as it has been over a month since rolling back the dome roof. Last year I was able to test my UHC filter on ngc7000 on a series with and without. So last night I pointed towards Orion and done a series of 3 minute images at Iso 800. I love the colour rendition that the filter gives. A more natural look from unfiltered. M42  I think. Just wish we were a few light years closer!!!!!!!

M38

Sunday night saw a few hours free from the winds thats been hounding us Brits.

So I took the opportunity to look East. M38 (NGC 1912) is a lovely target with plenty to fill the field of view.

M38 (left of centre) as you know lies approx 4200 light years away in the constellation of Auriga the Charioteer.
                       Dead centre in my image is NGC1907 about 4700 light years distant. Above and to the right is IC 417 a faint patch of Hydrogen gas spawning a new cluster. Down and right towards the right corner of the image is another fuzzy NGC1931 also known as the small Orion nebula, again a region of starbirth illuminating the surrounding dust and gasses.
The image was taken last sunday approx 60 x 1 minute unguided exposures at ISO1600  No darks or flats taken. The library is steadily building, and stacked in deep sky stacker. A little DDP stretch later and a few pretty star spikes has produced I think a pleasing wide field image to add to the collection.

Orions Belt

I am happy I was able to capture all 3 stars of Orions belt.

On the left ζ Ori (Alnitak) 800 light years away and 100,000 brighter than our sun.
In the centre ε Ori (Alnilam) 1340 light years and 375,000 times brighter than our sun.
On the right lies Mintaka a mere 915 light years away and just 90,000 times brighter than the sun. 

Mintaka is also a double star and takes less than 6 days to orbit around each other.
This is a 45 minute exposure at Iso 800 on my Canon 40d

 

Thank you Visitor 5000

Have a glance to the right and check if you are visitor 5000 to my Astro blog. If it's you say hello and tell me where you are blogging from.

Thank you to all my visitors and I look foward to posting lots of new pics

Malcolm

La Luna

At a mere 241,390 miles our nearest neighbour cast's it light onto a cold November evening. 1/13th Sec at Iso 100 has captured some lovely detail. Despite being only a few degrees above the horizon. I have removed the atmospheric colouring and returned the image to black and white. I have just had a thought here is the original pic too. I think it takes a more romantic quality in B&W. Which one do you prefer?.

First Light M1

It has been a long time waiting. But here it is first light from the new Hills Observatory. I thought I would pay homage to Messier's no 1 in his collection of fuzzies to avoid the great Crab Nebula M1. The last two nights have been clear if somewhat damp. A good test or the new home of my scopes. Water has been dripping off the outside of the dome and the grass is soaked you can feel the damp in the air. But I still wanted to have a play. The observatory has worked incredibly well no damp on the internal walls or inner dome. Now moisture build up on the mount or Pier. The optics remained clear too. I didn't even power up the dew heaters. So here is the pic. A wide field shot of M1 in all its glory. A 3 hour guided exposure over 2 nights of 2.5 minute subs at ISO 800 Dark's subtracted. I will do a series of flats over the weekend and re post if I get an improvement. Let me know what you think.

"Ordo Ab Chao"

Well folks the time has arrived the observatory is complete. It has taken four and a half months of hard work. Sorry about the delay in posting I have been a little greedy on the overtime at work managed to do over 120 hours in the last few weeks. Katie is surprised I even know where I live. The kids only recognise me from the family pictures on the wall!!!!!
    A few friends have asked was it a tough project. Answer no not really the only difficult part has been not having a workshop to allow me to continue working when the weather changed which it did frequently. Covering and unplugging power tools packing them away wasted time. I have learnt numerous new skills including routing, fibreglassing. Oh and the Maths required to work out all the dome sections I thought I had long since forgotten.
My club www.brecklandastro.org.uk 
has asked me to do a membership talk on the construction I am looking forward to presenting in January.

I has been a really great experience and the title of this post says I think I have achieved Order From Chaos If anyone has any questions please feel free to message me and I will be glad to offer any assistance.

I hope you have enjoyed following the build and I am looking foward to posting first light.

Just a few more things to do

I have the skirt in place. I used 4mm ply to give a good strenth and supported also by two layers of fibreglass, I will give at least one gel coat tomorrow and get a picture done.

I also continued work on the main shutter, I have added a bit of weight with 2 coats of fibreglass aswell as overlapping seams to go around the corners. I also have fiitted the roller wheels. An ingenious idea that was made possible by a local company. I have also fitted the front and backstops for the main shutter and a long hook allows and simple opening mechanism without too much fuss. Today also allowed me to add a few security features for which I wont go into detail but it does stop the shutter being removed from the outside as well as stooping gusts of wind to ripping it off. Bolts are also positioned to stop unwanted rotation when not in use. And the inside of the dome got a coat of black paint. My daughter has a few of those glow in the dark stars on her ceiling and has donated some for me to add to my ceiling when complete.
       I took a pile of scrap wood to the dump today and a chap next to me was dumping the cut off carpet he had spare he kindly let me have it and that was laid this afternoon along wit a good quality underlay. Now the shutters are in place I have installed the scopes, balanced and realigned them. Numerous power supplies and leads have been cable tidied.