2017

This is the first image of 2018 - into the second month - what rotten weather we had - mainly cloud, but to add insult to injury, when clear a very bright Moon. If you thought SH171 (the last image of 2017) was big, here's a monster! Situated at the top of the main Orion asterism (that's Betelgeuse and Bellatrix at the bottom of the image), Sharpless 264 spans a whopping 6 1/2 degrees. That's the equivalent of 13 full Moons. If one assumes a distance of 1500 light years, that makes it 170 light years across! I started trying to capture this in December 2017, but was constantly foiled by cloud. Eventually I managed to get some data on 21st. January and the rest on 6th February 2018. QSI683 on Canon 70-200L zoom lens at approximately 85 mm focal length. 13 x 20 minutes H-alpha (for luminance and colour) plus 5 x 20 minutes each OIII and SII. But very little colour in the latter two, so I've used H-alpha in the Red channel. Often known as the 'Angel Fish' or 'Alien Face'. Larger image

Holmberg 124 galaxy group in Ursa Major consists of four galaxies - the large magnitude 10.9 NGC 2805, and the three closely grouped, from left to right mag 12.5 NGC 2820, tiny mag 14.5 IC2458 and mag 13.5 NGC 2814 Although 2805 is mag 10.9, it is diffuse with a low surface brightness, and I soon realised that long exposures were required to bring up the faint areas. That also has shown up a number of tiny distant galaxies - you need to look hard in the full size image! Taken over the nights of February 12th, 13th and 15th 2018, the final tally of subs being Luminance 1 x 15 minutes plus 13 x 20 minutes, RGB 5 each x 20 minutes, all binned 2x2. QSI 683wsg on RC10 with SX AO unit. Unfortunately mediocre seeing every night, so not as detailed as it might have been. Full size

 

I first imaged M64 in 2005 with my Artemis 285 and Mirage 8. The 'Blackeye' galaxy in Coma Berenices, and well named! No flat frame then, and I was always a little unhappy with it. So I reckoned it was worth a revisit. And after all the snow, ice and clouds the weather relented on March 7th 2018, so before the Moon rose too high I squeezed in just enough data to be worth processing when added to a few frames collected on 16th February. QSI 683 on RC10 at f8 with SX AO unit. Luminance 11 x 10 minutes unbinned, RGB each 4 x 5 minutes binned 2x2. Cropped a little from the original to show North up - the camera was rotated 90 deg. to get a suitable guide star. Larger size

 

NGC4535 is a beautiful barred spiral galaxy in the Virgo cluster. Quite bright at mag. 9.8, but with very faint outlying areas, not so easy. Coincidentally featured in April 2018 Astronomy Now Sky Tour section, but they used an ESO image! I say coincidentally because I started this project on 8th March 2018 with some mono data. Then more mono on 20th March, a smidgen of colour on 24th March, the rest of it on 14th April. Shows what a dreadful Spring season it was that it took me over five weeks for one image!! Anyway, this is the result. Luminance 27 x 10 minutes, RGB each 7 x 10 minutes, all binned 2x2. QSI683wsg and SX AO unit on 10" RC Truss. Even with all that Luminance data, still a bit lacking in detail, but hardly surprising - the seeing was dreadful for several weeks with the Jet Stream practically overhead. Some patchy colour noise as well - IF I get another chance I might try for more colour. But my dark skies are rapidly disappearing for this season. This image appeared in the June 2018 Astronomy Now magazine Gallery and the Deep Sky section of April 2021 Astronomy Now Full size

 

This fairly small mag 10.8 galaxy, NGC 3642, nestles in the bowl of the Plough/Big Dipper. I saw an image of it by Adam Block, here and thought it would be an interesting target. But WHY do I let myself get sucked in by images with a 24 inch (and later 32 inch) telescope 9000 feet above sea level in Arizona, when I am using a 10" telescope 680 feet above sea level in North East England? Generally doomed to failure. Because of the onset of twilight nights, it was going to be my last galaxy image of the season, at least faint ones anyway, so I bashed on under the few clear moonless nights remaining. At least the weather was kind that week. Needed a lot of data for the faint outlying areas, and with generally moderate to poor seeing - the jet stream had been right over us for some time, the finest detail was not to be. But lots of tiny distant galaxies also captured. QSI 683 on RC10 Truss telescope with Lodestar X2 and SX AO unit. Luminance 39 x 10 minutes captured on 14th, 17th and 18th April 2018, RGB each 7 x 10 minutes on the 20th. All binned 2x2. Full size. I guess we UK imagers must do what we can when we can!

 

 

At my 55 degree latitude, as Summer approaches and twilight nights are here, I have to give up on galaxies. To be fair in early May I still have an hour or so of full dark, but not for much longer - astronomical twilight rules, and that only for a few more weeks. So until the narrow band Milky Way targets get cracking in July/August, I'm rather limited for choice. But on 6th May 2018 I spotted a pretty and quite bright (mag 7.8 ) open cluster NGC6939 in Cepheus which I first imaged in 2007, and then only monochrome. So decided it deserved a revisit. Not worried about bringing up very faint fuzzy areas, so relatively easy to process and no problems with sky glow noise. QSI 683 with SX AO unit on RC10 Truss. Luminance 8 x 5 minutes, RGB each 4 x 5 minutes, all binned 2x2. This image appeared in the July 2018 Astronomy Now magazine Gallery Full size There is a remarkable coincidence in the positioning of the brighter stars around the edge of the cluster. They remind me of the main constellation stars in Auriga. So I set them up in Skymap and removed everything but the brightest stars. And click here for the result - Skymap star locations superimposed on my image. Mouse over the image to see the Skymap image. Absolutely no fiddling with the spacing of the stars other than getting the Skymap image to the same scale. Five out of the six brightest Skymap stars are in almost identical positions, and a slightly fainter star for the sixth. Indeed without the accurate overlay of Skymap you would think the relative spacings were identical!

   

The night of May 13th was nicely clear, but only a small handful of targets were bright enough to visit in twilight. I decided to revisit the globular cluster Messier 53, previously imaged in 2005, but not very 'deep'. Seeing could have been better, but still a reasonable image so worth including here. Wider field image here. QSI683 on RC10 with SX AO. Luminance 9 x 5 minutes, RGB each 4 x 5 minutes, all binned 2x2 Full Size

As the Summer moved on into early August 2018, I started casting around for an object to image which could be captured in the short periods of full darkness. And settled on the relatively faint (mag 9.5) dense open cluster NGC 6791, riding high in Lyra. Unfortunately a long period of high pressure and attendant heatwave and clear nights had ended, replaced by a succession of cloudy nights. I managed to capture a small amount of data on the night of 10th while also trying for Perseid meteors, but had to wait until 21st to finish off - by then hampered by a bright gibbous Moon. But managed to collect sufficient subs that night before the clouds returned. So this result consists of Luminance 11 x 5 minutes, RGB each 6 by 5 minutes, all binned 2x2, QSI 683 on RC10 with SX AO unit. The cluster is much studied because although considered to be perhaps one of the oldest in our galaxy at around 8 billion years old, it is also surprisingly rich in 'metals'. This image appeared in the November 2018 Astronomy Now magazine Gallery and in the June 2019 issue article on Lyra. Full Size

  

LDN 1235 is a dusty area in Cepheus. I hoped to capture it earlier in September 2018 at Kelling Heath, alas conditions did not play fair at all. But unexpectedly on the night of 17th September at home the sky cleared well for a few hours after midnight and I was able to collect a reasonable amount (tho' not enough - there's never enough!) of data before the sky started to lighten. I still wasn't entirely happy with the result, and when a clear night came along on 6th October I collected a completely fresh set of data over a longer period, and processed it without using any of the earlier data where I suspected a slightly misaligned camera. The popular name of the Dark Shark is pretty obvious! QSI 683 on TS 65 quad. Luminance 16 x 10 minutes, RGB each 6 x 10 minutes, all binned 2x2 Full Size

  

I first imaged the globular cluster M15 in Pegasus in 2008. But decided to revisit it in October 2018. The nights of 9th and 10th were forecast to be clear, and indeed they were, although a bit hazy. But the seeing on 9th was the worst I have ever seen from home, so that was a no go. Still pretty poor on 10th, but just good enough to try for the bright cluster. I would have liked better seeing and more exposures before the haze worsened, but this will have to do for now, certainly a considerable improvement on the 2008 effort. QSI 683 on RC10 wth SX AO unit. Luminance 11 x 5 minutes, RGB each 4 x 5 minutes, all binned 2x2. This image appeared in the December 2018 Astronomy Now magazine Gallery and in the September 2020 issue Full size

NGC 488 in Pisces is an unusual galaxy, mag 10.4 and quite small at 5.4'x3.9' with very tightly wound spiral arms. I'd seen an image by Adam Block, which as usual is excellent, and prompted me to have a go. But relatively low from NE England and proved difficult in mediocre seeing on the night of 17th October 2018 to tease out detail. Anyway, QSI 683wsg on RC10 with SX AO unit. Luminance 12 x 10 minutes, RGB each 4 x 10 minutes all binned 2x2. Lots of distant background galaxies. Rotated 90 degrees to give correct orientation and cropped from the original. Full size.

NGC 7640 is an almost edge on spiral galaxy in Andromeda. Reasonably large, but faint at magnitude 11.1 Interesting in that although there are no nearby galaxies, it appears somewhat distorted. If there has been interaction it must have happened a long time ago. Although the night of 1st November 2018 was forecast to be clear, I had another engagement, and would not be home until later on so would not be able to collect much data (full dark was at 6.35 pm with Moonrise at 11.55). But I decided to take a chance on leaving the system running with the dome motor in action, and it paid off - I set it away at 6.10 and when I returned 4 hours later all was well with the telescope only slightly off centre in the dome slot. I kept imaging until an hour after Moonrise - the 34% illuminated Moon was on the other side of the sky. In the end I only had to scrap one sub frame - the very first luminance which was taken when there were remnants of clearing clouds. So I ended up with 15 x 10 minutes luminance and 8 x 10 minutes each RGB, all binned 2x2. QSI 683 wsg on RC10 truss with SX AO unit. Full size This image appeared in the October 2020 issue of Astronomy Now, Night Sky section, page 78. Fortunately AN notified me that it had been used, but wrongly attributed to Frank Colosimo.

This image of the NGC691 galaxy group in Aries has proved a real struggle and a bit of a disappointment. Those who live in the North of the UK know what lousy weather we were experiencing towards the end of 2018. For me, only 3 opportunities for imaging over a month. Anyway I first attempted this on 14th November 2018. Started out beautifully clear only to cloud over after a couple of hours. Made a fresh start on 3rd December when I managed 6 Luminance and 3 each RGB subs before the clouds arrived. Then the night of 10th it was forecast to be clear all night. Turned out not to be. But I started as soon as it was dark and did get a similar batch of subs before the clouds arrived around 10.30 pm. Cleared for a little while and I started another target, but it clouded over again. So I packed it in and started processing. Sod's law it cleared again around 1.30 am, but I'd had enough by then ! Luminance 13 x 20 minutes unbinned, RGB each 6 x 10 minutes binned 2x2. QSI683 on Meade 127 (950mm fl) with TSFlat2 and SX AO unit. With that much data I'd hoped to get good detail and colour, but the seeing was never that good and there was always thin high haze. So a bit lacking in contrast etc. Enough precious time spent on a tricky subject - I've got something brighter and easier for the next opportunity! 'Mouse over' the medium sized image for identification of several objects, courtesy of Skymap Pro. The full size image is here, numerous unidentified faint small galaxies can also be seen.

NGCs 1817 and 1807 (lower right) open clusters in Taurus are named as 'The Poor Man's Double Cluster' in the Stellarium planetarium program. Quite appropriate! December 2018 was plagued with bad weather, and a couple of attempts were thwarted by cloud or very bad seeing. But Christmas Eve was crisp and clear, and despite a bright gibbous waning Moon (94% illuminated!) I was able to obtain sufficient subs to produce an acceptable image. So this is the result of 21 x 5 minutes Luminance and 11 x 5 minutes each RGB. QSI 683 on Meade 127 refractor with SX AO unit. Look for tiny 15th magnitude galaxy PGC 16865 buried near the middle of NGC 1807. Larger image

2019