2006

For all these images, click on the thumbnail for a medium size image (normally 800x600) and on the link in each description for the full size (around1390 x 1040) image.

NGC2359 - 'Thor's Helmet' or 'Duck Nebula' bright nebula in Canis Major is a faint and difficult target, particularly as it never rises above 21 degrees altitude for me. But between 2nd and 5th. February I was able to capture it, with good clarity but poor seeing, so blurry stars. The full size image is not worth posting. All narrowband filters, luminance 8 x 10 mins Ha, RGB each 5 x 10 mins Ha, OII, S2. Artemis 285 and Mirage 8 at f6.3 This image appeared in the October-December 2010 issue of Popular Astronomy magazine.

NGC5907 in Draco is an interesting target. Near to M 102, but obviously not worthy of Messier's attention! An edge on spiral with any central bulge hidden by the dust lane, but a relatively high surface brightness makes it a nice visual target as well. The early hours of 6th. February 2007 were well spent! Artemis 285, Mirage 8 at f6.3. L 10 x 5 mins, RGB each 4 x 5 mins. Seeing was disappointingly poor - I hope to revisit this target and improve detail.  Full Size

Jones-Emberson1 (the 'Headphone' nebula) is a faint but quite large (6.7 arc-minutes diameter) Planetary Nebula in Lynx. It is circumpolar from my latitude, but the best time to catch it near the zenith is during the winter months. With continued bad weather there were very few opportunities, but the nights of 6/7 February gave me a couple of windows. A lot of luminance frames were required, and the sky was unkind when I tried to collect colour information. Hopefully I will get that another time. 16 x 6 minute flattened subs, Artemis 285 and Mirage 8 at f6.3. Postscript. I was able to obtain colour information on a good night on 12th. March 2007. Full Size

Saturday 17th February 2007 promised to be a beautiful night, and some friends had booked a cabin at Calvert Trust, Kielder. So I landed on them complete with my newly acquired EQ6 Pro mount. The night was a stunner, but earlier on I was trying to get to grips with the mount. The Witch Head nebula, NGC 1909 in Eridanus is a faint and difficult target, and although it reaches an altitude of 27 degrees, I was trying for it nearer 20. But while I was aligning the system, I noticed a streak of light on a 21 second test frame. So took a number of frames with this result. It would appear that the object was a Geostationary satellite, though I have been unable to identify it.
Then I started imaging in earnest. Unfortunately I was picking up some low light glow, possibly from cabin or street lights. Despite being classed as a bright nebula, illuminated by the nearby bright star Psi Eridani, I found it necessary to bin the individual frames. Rather disappointing, maybe I will try again with narrowband filters. The image is displayed upside down to better show the 'witch' profile, so the light glow is at the top. Artemis 285 with 135 mm camera lens, 8 x 8 mins. binned 2x2. But many years later (2019) at last!
After the disappointment with the Witchhead, I went for a much higher target, the trio in Leo of M65, M66 and NGC 3628. MUCH more satisfying! I was guiding the EQ6 mount with my long exposure webcam and a 300 mm lens, and this proved very successful at the imaging focal length of 650 mm on my TMB 105 refractor. The night was very cold and frosty, and unfortunately started to mist over before I obtained all the colour information. So monochrome (for now!) Artemis 285, 12 x 5 minute frames. I imaged this group shortly after getting my Artemis in 2005, but this is a better one!! Post Script. The night of 20th. March cleared beautifully after a period of northerly gales and snow showers, and I was able at last to obtain the colour information at Hexham. RGB each 4 x 6 minutes. Full size

Following my return from a ski holiday in Zermatt where I saw the Lunar Eclipse of 3rd. March 2007, the night of Monday 12th. March cleared nicely. NGC 4490 and its smaller companion NGC 4485 in Canes Venatici show the gross disturbances occasioned by the close encounter. I feel that the larger galaxy has the appearance of a water flea about to devour a smaller morsel! I would like to name it the Water Flea Galaxy! This image featured in The Sky at Night BBC TV programme, August 2012, and appeared in the March 2014 issue of Astronomy Now. Also (cropped) in the Deep Sky section of the May 2020 Astronomy Now. Artemis 285, Mirage 8 at f6.3. Luminance 12 x 6 minutes, RGB each 4 x 6 minutes. Full size

A period of late wintry weather with northerly gales and snow showers settled on the night of 20th March 2007 to a good clear sky. I was late in starting imaging due to other committments, but was able to capture the colour information for the Leo Trio previously imaged in February. I then turned my attention to the barred spiral galaxy, NGC 4725 in Coma Berenices. A rather low contrast subject really requiring exceeding ly dark skies, but I was able to tease out some detail. This galaxy is particularly unusual in having only one spiral arm. The small neighbouring galaxy is NGC 4712. Artemis 285 and Mirage 8 at f6.3. Luminance 11 x 6 minutes, RGB each 4 x 5 minutes. Full size

I first imaged the relatively small spiral galaxy Messier 61 in Virgo with its strangely kinked spiral arms with my modified Vesta Pro webcam in April 2002. But my equipment is somewhat improved since those days (!) so I reckoned a re-visit was overdue. The nights of April 4th and 5th 2007 gave me the opportunity. But the galaxy proved to be a tricky one! A bit lacking in crispness. It might be due to poor seeing on both nights, or the thin high haze or maybe my Mirage collimation needed a tiny tweak. Anyway, here it is. Art285, Mirage 8 at f6.3, L 14 x 5 mins, RGB each 4 x 5 mins. Full Size

From time to time I add to my Messier collection. A few were imaged some time ago and needed replacing, like the M61 above. Others have never been tackled, or were part of a larger view, such as M66 in Leo, previously only captured as part of the 'Leo Trio'. Now on its own, Luminance 14 x 5 minutes on 8th. April 2007, RGB each 4 x 5 minutes on 14th. April. Artemis 285 and Mirage 8 at f6.3. Full Size
M63 in Canes Venatici was previously imaged in April 2005, but I decided to try for a better image in 2007. Luminance 11 x 5 minutes on 6th. April 2007, RGB each 4 x 5 minutes on 14th. April. The luminance frames were affected by high haze, so I attempted more luminance frames on 14th. April but was experiencing some guiding problems. In the end the final image shows little improvement over the 2005 one. However, the very first of the 14th. April luminance frames showed a satellite trail right across the core of the galaxy. The satellite turned out to be Cosmos 1058, and was just leaving the Earth's shadow as seen from the brightening of the trail as it moved from lower right to upper left. Artemis 285, Mirage 8 at f6.3. These images appeared in the August 2007 issue of Practical Astronomer Full Size colour
M98 in Coma Berenices is a new target for me , and was imaged on the night of 16/17th. April 2007. Slightly hazy skies and poor seeing, robbing the image of some detail , nevertheless the spiral structure is clearly seen. Luminance 12 x 5 minutes, RGB each 4 x 5 minutes, Artemis 285 and Mirage 8 at f6.3 Full size
M99 in Coma Berenices also was due a first time visit. This galaxy has a smaller apparent size, so I imaged it at f10. I'd acquired the target following M98, but the cloud thickened, and I had to abandon the attempt. But I left the main and guide cameras in their configuration, so was able quickly to take advantage of a clear spell the following night (17th). Again haze and poor seeing affected the quality, but enough data was present to obtain this image. The 'slower' configuration required longer exposures, so Luminance was 10 x 8 minute frames. With the weather deteriorating, to save time RGB data was captured binned 2x2, each 4 x 4 minutes. Full size

This is Abell 39, a mag 12.9 Planetary Nebula in Hercules. Also known as PK 47+42.1 A tricky one, particularly on the night of April 30th. 2007 with the Moon only two days from full ! I only managed to get OIII data in the early hours of 1st May before clouds rolled in from the North Sea. And the Artemis 285 cover glass was mucky although I didn't realise it until afterwards. A flat took care of that, and a bit of twiddling in Photoshop did the rest. 7 x 10 minute frames, Mirage 8 at 2030 mm fl (f10) Art285 binned 2x2. And even then it was faint. See APOD for real detail. But there's a hint of the background galaxies in mine. A little bit of full dark at the end of this week before I'm doomed until August, so if the sky is kind.....

Most of May was either moonlit , cloudy or too bright with Summer twilight.

Then in June I travelled to La Palma.....

After waiting an unconscionable time for a new specialist telescope which seemed never to be coming, I eventually gave up and ordered a Meade 12" LX200R OTA. It arrived very quickly, courtesy of Ian King Imaging, but of course the weather was very poor, (and I had to wait a couple of weeks for tube rings) so I didn't get first light until June 30th. 2007. The telescope needed the collimation tweaking, but eventually I was satisfied with it and pressed the Artemis 285 into service at full 3 metre focal length. Just 20 second images to minimise guiding errors, and no colour (the clouds returned), but a satisfactory monochrome image of the open cluster NGC6939 in Cepheus. Full Size

 

On 23rd September 2007 I imaged thePolar Ring Galaxy NGC660 in Pisces. But didn't finally process it until January 2010. Major oversight - oops! Artemis 285, binned 2x2 on Mirage at f6.3. Luminance 8 x 3 minutes, RGB each 3 x 3 minutes. This deserves much closer attention and will be revisited. Eventually!

A clear night on 20th Oct. 2007, but I was out for the evening and didn't get started until midnight. Anyway the Moon was only just setting, so I couldn't have gone for the first target any sooner - the large but faint diffuse galaxy IC1613 in Cetus. There was thin mist, so rather a lot of background noise. Might be worth another visit in November given suitable conditions. More difficult than I expected given the 9.2 magnitude. Maybe the mag 15 surface brightness had something to do with it! Art 285 and TMB 105, Luminance 7 x 10 minutes, RGB each 5 x 5 minutes binned 2x2. Full Size

Comet 17P/Holmes dominated my imaging efforts in early November, but on 16th I got my daily comet fix quite early in the evening, so decided to do a bit of deep sky for a change. And as I already had my Artemis 285 camera and 135 mm lens on my mount, I picked as a target the emission nebula NGC 7822 in Cepheus. From the diagram in Skymap I was expecting to see two separate nebulosities, but in fact both sections are part of a larger cloud, which barely fitted the field of view. 4 x 10 minutes and 7 x 15 minute subs with Ha filter. Then the clouds rolled in, so I'll have to wait a while for the colour information. Full size