2021

The faint molecular clouds MBM (Magnani-Blitz-Mundy) 7 and 8 are situated in Aries, relatively easy to locate because the mag 12.4 galaxy NGC 918 is 'buried' in the lower MBM 8 section. But very faint needing long exposures and dark clear skies. Unfortunately something in very short supply this winter. I need more data - only limited opportunites were available in early December and with passing clouds and haze over two nights of imaging (1st and 6th December 2021) I only managed 9 useable Luminance and 3 each RGB subs, all 15 minutes binned 2x2. So had to get rid of a lot of noise, with consequent loss of fine detail. I still hope to get more data but the weather forecast is extremely unpromising for the next week or so and then the Moon will be back! So this may have to do. As well as NGC 918, clearly visible in the lower section, mag 12.5 NGC 932 is lurking in the top left corner, with Arp 276 (13th mag NGC 0935 and IC1801) about 1/3rd down the left hand side. North is up. QSI683 on TS65 Quad telescope (420mm fl). Several more Luminance files on 5th January 2022 only slightly improved the details - again there was thin background haze, and snow covered ground added to the background brightness. So enough is enough! Full Size

NGC 2276 mag 11.3 small spiral galaxy lies just on the border between Cepheus and Ursa Minor, and indeed is only 4 degrees from Polaris. So from my 55 deg North latitude it never gets lower than 51 degrees altitude. Although there was a 30% waxing Moon on the evening of 7th January 2022, the sky was very clear so I decided to try for some data before clouds arrived around midnight. One or two problems with power and focus, but I managed to get just enough data for this image. QSI683 on RC10 with SX AO, 10 x 10 minutes Luminance, RGB 4 each x 10 minutes all binned 2x2. This galaxy is distorted by the proximity of elliptical galaxy mag 11.1 NGC 2300, more information and a Hubble Space Telescope image here (opens in a new window). Because of the location of the galaxy, I should have an opportunity for a full night's data this season, and will try unbinned, hopefully to improve fine detail under stable conditions. 'Mouse over' the medium size image (click on the thumbnail as usual) for information on the several distant galaxies also in the image. North is up. A session on 27th January gave 13 good unbinned Luminance images which marginally improved the final image. Larger Size

Following the successful launch, deployment and insertion into its L2 orbit of the James Webb Space Telescope, I was looking for coordinates for the telescope's position,and came across this page. So I decided to have a go at imaging this wonderful telescope in the hope that there is enough sunlight reflecting from the heat shield to show up as a star in an image. I was set up to image LDN1357 (below) with my QSI683 camera on my 4" TMB 105 refractor. But while the Moon was up (6th Feb) I had an hour to play (I'd been out earlier). Got 6 x 5 minute images unbinned with 5 minute intervals between each image, and this monochrome gif is the result. Much cropped from the original frame of course. Look for the faint moving dot a little below centre. The upper of the two bright stars is TYC 763-29-1 in Canis Minor, so you will be able to find the location in a planetarium program. As usual click on the thumbnails for (slightly!) larger images.  This image shows the trail with all the frames overlaid and brightness increased. Very faint, around mag 19 or 20, but undoubtedly James Webb - the coordinates match those given on The Sky Live site. I'll certainly have another go with my 10" RC - should get a brighter image with the very faint stars and Webb a bit crisper. Watch this space!

Lynd's Dark Nebula 1357 is in Cassiopeia, and so is well situated from my location. The only image I found of it was beautifully clear, but after starting my own imaging run I realised that it must have been taken in much cleaner and darker skies than mine. It has proved a bit of a beast! But hopefully worth the effort. QSI on TMB105 refractor with TS2 flattener. 4th Nov. 2021, Luminance 9x15 mins. 29th Jan. and 6th Feb. 2022, Luminance 9 x 20 mins, RGB each 6 x 20 mins, all binned 2x2 Full size

A couple of years ago I came across this beautiful image of a large dusty area in Draco. I managed to identify it in Skymap, the small galaxy top centre is NGC 3147, and realised that I would need to use my 200 mm Canon lens with my QSI camera. On April 21st 2020 I managed to obtain 12 sub frames of 15 minutes each binned 2x2. But despite the long exposure time I needed extensive processing to see any detail, and with no colour left it for another time. Indeed forgot about it!

But when I briefly owned the Altair 294C CMOS one-shot colour camera I tried again, this time at the Galloway star party on 28th February 2022. This time despite taking 19 x 10 minute subs I failed to get any useable detail of the nebulosity, but good star colour and a hint of nebula colour was visible. So I managed to combine it with the QSI image with this result. Still not what I was hoping for, but I am at Galloway again in early 2023, and hope then to take further advantage of the very dark sky to revisit the target, this time with my QSI camera. North is to the left. Full Size.

NGC 3198 is a magnitude 10.2 spiral galaxy in Ursa Major, nicely situated for imaging in the early Spring. With some faint scattered areas and unusual dusty patches, although quite small in the sky nevertheless it is a very interesting target with a tight star like core. The night of 6th March 2022 was beautifully steady and clear. Due to testing other equipment I was unable to start imaging this target until after midnight, so was short of time. But more data was obtained on the night of 25th March. Therefore this image consists of 9 x 10 minute and 10 x 15 minute Luminance subs binned 2x2, and RGB each 4 x 15 minute subs binned 2x2. QSI 683 on RC10 with SX AO unit. Full size There are numerous tiny background galaxies in this image. I have identified several of them in this full size image.

I expect most of us marvelled when NASA released the JWST alignment evaluation image. The telescope was really starting to show that it is worth the billions spent on it. There were a couple of good Youtube videos - one from NASA here, and a well presented one about the alignment process here. Worth watching if still available! It identifies the subject star - a relatively nondescript star in Draco. In fact the guy is quite dismissive of it. But as a challenge I looked it up, in Skymap anyway it is listed in the Tycho catalogue as mag 10.96 TYC 4212-1079-1. And yes, pretty unremarkable. Interestingly it is only 50 arc-minutes South of the Cat's Eye nebula, NGC 6543.     So before this little star faded into distant memory, I thought I'd have a go at imaging it on the night of 26th March 2022. A few nearby objects also annotated here. Luminance 9 x 5 minutes, RGB each 4 x 5 minutes all unbinned. QSI 683 on Meade 127 refractor with TSFLAT2 and SX AO unit.. At that 950 mm focal length of course there is no detail possible of the Cat's Eye. But little TYC 4212-1079-1 is not forgotten. North is up. Also interesting and a demonstration of how powerful the JWST is with its massive 6.5 metre mirror by comparing its image with the one from my 0.127 metre refractor. Larger image

On 14th April 2021 I imaged Messier 60 and it's attractive neighbour galaxy NGC 4647. And was fortunate in having the image published in Astronomy Now. April 2022 was pretty well a disaster month - although unseasonably dry, the high pressure systems that kept away the rain also contained considerable cloud, so a very disappointing end to the galaxy season at my latitude. However the night of 27th April promised a few hours of clear sky and I was all set to do some imaging when I was advised of a supernova in NGC 4647. SN 2022hrs, discovered by amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki on April 16. The discovery magnitude was around 15, but continued to brighten. I was able to acquire 8 x 10 minute luminance frames but only 1 each RGB before the clouds returned. And this is the result. I was able to use the colour information from my original image, and the supernova colour from the single RGB frames. QSI 683 on RC10 with SX AO unit. When I examined an individual luminance frame it was apparent that the magnitude of the supernova was in the region of 11.6. When you consider that the listed magnitude for the entire galaxy is 11.4 it is apparent that the supernova almost completely outshone its parent galaxy. Must have been quite a sight for any being living in that galaxy! Full size

And here are full size crops before and after - the supernova is unmissable!

I imaged the ancient globular cluster Messier 56 in 2003 But have never revisited it until now! The night of 4th May 2022 was beautifully clear, but running out of dark sky for the year. Nevertheless although at first there was a 22% crescent Moon it was well separated from M56 and there was plenty of Astronomical twilight either side of full darkness. So I decided to image it. In Lyra, so rising in the East at this time of the year. Because of the clear air the usual light pollution in my Eastern sky was very low, but the 'seeing' was poor, so despite a bright guide star allowing me to operate the SX AO unit at 0.1 second frames, resolution was limited. I will certainly try to revisit the target in early Autumn when it will be much higher in the sky. QSI 683 on RC10. Luminance 14 x 5 minutes, RGB each 5 x 5 minutes, all binned 2x2. To use a suitable guide star, the cluster appeared towards the bottom of the vertical image frame, so it has been cropped accordingly. Full size

NGC 6633 is a bright (mag 4.6) quite large (20 arc-minutes) open cluster in Ophiuchus. At the end of May I chose it to use as a test piece for work I was doing on my Meade 127 refractor which always tends to produce blue halos. As you will see here (towards the bottom of the page) the tests were successful, and here is the resultant image. Data gathered over a number of nights - the weather did not play ball, but eventually completed on the night of June 1st 2022. All in astronomical twilight. Luminance 8 x 5 minutes, RGB each 5 x 5 minutes, all unbinned. QSI 683 with SX AO unit on Meade 127 refractor. Full Size

This open cluster, IC 4756 in Serpens is large (40 arc-min) and bright (mag 4.6) but not often imaged, probably because it's an IC object. But a binocular target as well as suitable for wide-ish field imaging. As it happens on the night of 27th August 2022 I already had my TMB 105 (4", 650 mm fl) refractor on my mount, so took advantage of the first clear night for ages to image this object. Fairly low and past the meridian, so not much time for capture, and I lost 9 subs at the start of the session - wrong spacing for the flattener, and didn't notice the edge distortions when originally focusing - oops! But ended up with 9 x 5 minute luminance and 4 each x 5 minute RGB, all unbinned with my QSI 683 camera. Might go for a bit more data, but I doubt it will make much difference. And the even bigger and brighter IC 4665 is in the same area, so worth a visit before the year progresses much further. IF I get another clear night in time! Larger image

Sharpless 124 is an emission nebula in Cygnus. Although there was a bright (86%) Moon in the sky on 13th September 2022, it was nicely clear and the target was near the zenith, so worth a try with narrow band filters. And my new SharpStar telescope was sitting there asking to be used! The target itself is relatively small, but lying in an area of nebulosity so worth imaging with the larger field of view of the big refractor. There was almost no OIII or SII emission, so this is an SHO palette modified with selective colour adjustments in Photoshop. Luminance 10 x 10 minutes H-alpha, OxygenIII and SulphurII each 5 x 10 minutes. Full size

The emission nebula Sharpless 115 in Cygnus shows an interesting variation of colours with narrow band imaging. This started out as a Hubble Palette (SHO) image and with various colour manipulations nicely differentiates between the main nebula to the left, a broad strip of Hydrogen Alpha emission to the right and the smaller Sharpless 116 to the right, also classified as a planetary nebula PK 85+4.1. The data was captured over a number of nights, initially during the Kelling Heath Autumn Star Party (19th - 25th September 2022) and finished off during a stay at Kielder the following week. The small open cluster towards the top of the main nebula is Berkeley 90. QSI 683 on SharpStar 140 with TS FLAT2 and SX AO unit. Luminance 22 x 10 minutes, OIII and SII each 11 x 10 minutes. All binned 2x2. Full Size

I submitted the above image to Astronomy Now but it was never used. But in the September 2023 issue there was a similar (but larger area) image of the same object as Image of the Month. Nick Szymanek commented that it 'is a little off the beaten track but will be getting much more attention'. So I am somewhat miffed that mine wasn't used. The main difference is that their image hardly showed any stars, the gas clouds being given priority. So I've reworked mine accordingly and here it is a sort of in between version, liked by members of Stargazers Lounge! Well, I agree it's prettier, but for example the open cluster Berkeley 90 is not so clear and many other stars are missing. If any one has an opinion on this, please email me. Full Size

The bright open cluster NGC7789 in Cassiopeia is known by the popular name of 'Caroline's Rose' after its discovery in 1783 by Caroline Herschel. I've already imaged this twice before, here in 2016 and here in 2010, but it seemed a suitable target properly to test my new SharpStar 140 refractor with RGB filters. An attempt while at Kielder was disappointing - I think due to poor seeing and a tricky off axis guide star (2 stars in the guide frame), but on returning home the evening of Friday 30th September was beautifully clear, and I was able to capture images with a better guide star before the clouds returned later. So this is the result of 10 x 2 minutes luminance and 5 x 2 minutes each RGB, all unbinned with my QSI 683 camera, TS FLAT2 and SX AO unit. Full Size

My venerable TMB105 telescope unfortunately got water between the triplet elements in early September (2022). When dried out there were watermarks on the internal surfaces. I didn't know where to start dismantling it, but was very fortunate in meeting the much respected optician Es Reid while at the September Kelling Heath Star Party, and he kindly agreed to look at it. Duly posted to him (I didn't have it with me) and returned a couple of weeks later on 18th October beautifully clean and perfectly collimated. 1000 thanks, Es. The usual cloudy weather prevailed, although the occasional glimpse of stars confirmed the collimation. But the night of 29th October was clear later in the evening long enough for me to image the bright (mag 6.4) open cluster NGC 1647 situated between the 'horns' of the Bull in Taurus. QSI 683 on TMB105 with SX AO and TSFLAT2. Luminance 9 x 5 minutes, RGB each 5 x 5 minutes, all unbinned. North is up, vertically framed to obtain a suitable off-axis guide star. Larger size

2023