Description

"This image shows a region between Cassioeia and Cepheus which contains multiple objects.

One the left and slightly below center located Cave Nebula, Sh2-155 or Caldwell 9, a dim and very diffuse bright nebula within a larger nebula complex containing emission, reflection, and dark nebulosity. It is located in the constellation Cepheus.

Visually it is a difficult object, but with adequate exposure, makes a striking image. The nebula gets its name Cave Nebula from the dark lane at the eastern side abutting the brightest curve of emission nebulosity which gives the appearance of a deep cave when seen through a telescope visually

In the center located NGC 7538 which is about 9,100 light-years from Earth. It is home to the biggest yet discovered protostar which is about 300 times the size of our Solar System. It is located in the Perseus Spiral Arm of the Milky Way and is probably part of the Cassiopeia OB2 complex. It is a region of active star formation including several luminous near-IR and far-IR sources

Slightly to the right of NGC 7538 located famous Bubble nebula, also known as NGC 7635, Sharpless 162, or Caldwell 11, which is a H II region emission nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia. It lies close to the direction of the open cluster Messier 52. The ""bubble"" is created by the stellar wind from a massive hot, 8.7 magnitude young central star, SAO 20575 (BD+60 2522). The nebula is near a giant molecular cloud which contains the expansion of the bubble nebula while itself being excited by the hot central star, causing it to glow. It was discovered in 1787 by William Herschel. The star SAO 20575 or BD+602522 is thought to have a mass of 10-40 Solar masses.

Below Bubble nebula located Messier 52 (also known as M 52 or NGC 7654) which is an open cluster in the Cassiopeia constellation. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1774. M52 can be seen from Earth with binoculars.

Due to interstellar absorption of light, the distance to M 52 is uncertain, with estimates ranging between 3,000 and 7,000 light years. One study identified 193 probable members of the cluster, with the brightest member being magnitude 11. Messier 52 is evaluated at about 35 million years old.

Above Bubble nebula located the Claw Nebula, also known as Sh2 -157, which is an emission nebula. It is located on the arm of Perseus and is directly connected with the largest association OB Cassiopeia OB2 . The northern part of the cloud has a ring shape, caused by the action of stellar wind of several giant stars, while the southern sector seems excited by light of the stars of spectral type O."

Equipment and processing

Telescope: 135mm F2.8 lens

Mount: Meade LXD55

Camera: ST 8300M

Filters: Baader HaRGB

Guiding: PHD

Processing: PixInsight

Capture software: Maxim

Exposures: Ha: Bin1 24x1200, RGB: Bin1 24x120

Location: Hatteras,NC

Description

IC 5146 (also Caldwell 19, Sh 2-125, and the Cocoon Nebula) is a reflection/emission nebula and Caldwell object in the constellation Cygnus. The NGC description refers to IC 5146 as a cluster of 9.5 mag stars involved in a bright and dark nebula. The cluster is also known as Collinder 470. It is located near the naked-eye star Pi Cygni, the open cluster NGC 7209 in Lacerta, and the bright open cluster M39. The cluster is about 4,000 ly away, and the central star that lights it formed about 100,000 years ago; the nebula is about 12 arcmins across, which is equivalent to a span of 15 light years.

Equipment and processing

Telescope: Orion 8 inch F5

Mount: Orion Atlas

Camera: ST 8300M

Filters: Baader LRGB

Guiding: PHD

Processing: PixInsight

Capture software: Maxim

Exposures: L: Bin1 14x300, RGB: Bin2 7x300

Location: Stokes State forest

Description

"NGC 7331 (also known as Caldwell 30) is a spiral galaxy about 40 megalight-years (12 Mpc) away in the constellation Pegasus. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. NGC 7331 is the brightest member of the NGC 7331 Group of galaxies. The galaxy is similar in size and structure to the galaxy we inhabit, and is often referred to as ""the Milky Way's twin"", although recent discoveries regarding the structure of the Milky Way may call this similarity into doubt

Stephan's Quintet in the constellation Pegasus is a visual grouping of five galaxies of which four form the first compact galaxy group ever discovered. The group was discovered by Edouard Stephan in 1877 at Marseille Observatory. The group is the most studied of all the compact galaxy groups. The brightest member of the visual grouping is NGC 7320 that is shown to have extensive H II regions, identified as red blobs, where active star formation is occurring."

Equipment and processing

Telescope: Orion 8 inch F5

Mount: Orion Atlas

Camera: ST 8300M

Filters: Baader LRGB

Guiding: PHD

Processing: PixInsight

Capture software: Maxim

Exposures: L: Bin1 26x300, RGB: Bin1 17x300

Location: UACNJ,Parsippany NJ

Description

NGC 1333 is a reflection nebula located in the constellation Perseus. It belongs to the Perseus molecular cloud.

In 2011 researchers reported finding 30 to 40 brown dwarf objects in the cloud and in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex

Equipment and processing

Telescope: Orion 8 inch F5

Mount: Orion Atlas

Camera: ST 8300M

Filters: Baader LRGB

Guiding: PHD

Processing: PixInsight

Capture software: Maxim

Exposures: L: Bin1 25x300, RGB: Bin2 6x300

Location: UACNJ

Description

The Heart Nebula, IC 1805, Sharpless 2-190, lies some 7500 light years away from Earth and is located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. This is an emission nebula showing glowing gas and darker dust lanes. The nebula is formed by plasma of ionized hydrogen and free electrons.

The nebula's intense red output and its configuration are driven by the radiation emanating from a small group of stars on the left hand side of the image. This open cluster of stars known as Melotte 15 contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of our Sun, and many more dim stars that are only a fraction of our Sun's mass. The cluster used to contain a microquasar that was expelled millions of years ago.

Equipment and processing

Telescope: Orion 8 inch F5

Mount: Orion Atlas

Camera: ST 8300M

Filters: Baader Ha,SII,OIII 7nm

Guiding: PHD

Processing: PixInsight

Capture software: Maxim

Exposures: Ha: bin1 64x600 OIII: bin2 26x600,SII: bin2 20x600

Location: Parsippany,NJ

Description

NGC 891 (also known as Caldwell 23) is an edge-on unbarred spiral galaxy about 30 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. It was discovered by William Herschel on October 6, 1784. The galaxy is a member of the NGC 1023 group of galaxies in the Local Supercluster. It has an H II nucleus.

The object is visible in small to moderate size telescopes as a faint elongated smear of light with a dust lane visible in larger apertures.

In 1999, the Hubble Space Telescope imaged NGC 891 in infrared.

In 2005, due to its attractiveness and scientific interest, NGC 891 was selected to be the first light image of the Large Binocular Telescope. In 2012, it was again used as a first light image of the Discovery Channel Telescope with the Large Monolithic Imager.

Supernova SN 1986J was discovered on August 21, 1986 at apparent magnitude 14.

Equipment and processing

Telescope: Orion 8 inch F5

Mount: Orion Atlas

Camera: ST 8300M

Filters: Baader LRGB

Guiding: PHD

Processing: PixInsight

Capture software: Maxim

Exposures: L: Bin1 18x300, RGB: Bin2 12x300

Location: UACNJ

Description

NGC 247 is an intermediate spiral galaxy (although it is sometimes classified as a dwarf spiral galaxy) about 11.1 Mly away in the constellation Cetus. This distance was confirmed in late February 2011. Previous measurements showed that the galaxy was about 12.2 Mly away, but this was proved to be wrong. NGC 247 is a member of the Sculptor Group.

NGC 247 is marred by an unusually large void on one side of its spiral disk. This void contains some older, redder stars but no younger, bluer stars.

Equipment and processing

Telescope: Orion 8 inch F5

Mount: Orion Atlas

Camera: ST 8300M

Filters: Baader LRGB

Guiding: PHD

Processing: PixInsight

Capture software: Maxim

Exposures: L: Bin1 12x300, RGB: Bin2 7x300

Location: Hatteras,NC

Description

"This image contains a pair of notorious objects - very bright Crescent Nebula (right) and very faint Soap Bubble nebula (top left). You will need to zoom into top left portion of the screen in order to see Soap Bubble nebula.

Discovered in 1792 by Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel, the Crescent Nebula (NGC6888, Caldwell 27, LBN 203, Sharpless 105), also known as ""Van Gogh's Ear"" is a magnitude 7.40 emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus (The Swan). It is formed by the violently fast stellar winds emanating from a Wolf-Rayet star (WR 136, HD192163) colliding with the slower gases that were shed by the same star many thousands of years ago when it was a red giant. The gaseous shell is approximately 25 light-years across and 5,000 light-years distant. It is predicted that the central Wolf-Rayet star will eventually explode into a supernova in approximately 100,000 years.

The Soap Bubble Nebula, or PN G75.5+1.7, is a planetary nebula in the constellation Cygnus, near the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888). It was discovered by amateur astronomer Dave Jurasevich using an Astro-Physics 160 mm refractor telescope who imaged the nebula on June 19, 2007 and on July 6, 2008. The nebula was later independently noted and reported to the International Astronomical Union by Keith. B. Quattrocchi and Mel Helm who imaged PN G75.5+1.7 on July 17, 2008."

Equipment and processing

Telescope: Orion 8 inch F5

Mount: Orion Atlas

Camera: ST 8300M

Filters: Baader Ha,SII,OIII 7nm

Guiding: PHD

Processing: PixInsight

Capture software: Maxim

Exposures: Ha: bin2 52x600 OIII: bin2 43x600 SII: bin2 33x600

Location: Parsippany,NJ

Description

"NGC 7129 is a reflection nebula located 3,300 light years away in the constellation Cepheus. A young open cluster is responsible for illuminating the surrounding nebula.[ A recent survey indicates the cluster contains more than 130 stars less than 1 million years old.[citation needed] NGC 7129 is located just half a degree from nearby cluster NGC 7142.

The nebula is rosebud-shaped; the young stars have blown a large, oddly shaped bubble in the molecular cloud that once surrounded them at their birth. The rosy pink color comes from glowing dust grains on the surface of the bubble being heated by the intense light from the young stars within. The ultra-violet and visible light produced by the young stars is absorbed by the surrounding dust grains. They are heated by this process and release the energy at longer infrared wavelengths as photographed by the Spitzer Space Telescope. The reddish colors in the false-colour infrared image suggest the distribution of hydrocarbon rich molecular material.

The much cooler molecular cloud outside the bubble is mostly invisible to Spitzer. However, three very young stars near the center of the nebula are sending jets of supersonic gas into the cloud. The collision of these jets heats carbon monoxide molecules in the nebula. This produces the complex nebulosity that appears like a stem of a rosebud.

NGC 7142 is located near the reflection nebula NGC 7129, which is a first indication that the cluster may be obscured by an interstellar cloud. Many studies have demonstrated this to be true dating back to the earliest investigations of this cluster. A thorough study of the Cepheus region concluded ""that no part of the field may be considered unobscured.""

Other astronomers have noted that the reddening across the face of this cluster is likely to be uneven. The visibility of several background galaxies in the NW corner of the cluster indicate that the obscuring medium may be lowest here.

Estimates of the amount of reddening range from 0.18 magnitudes, to as high as 0.41 magnitudes."

Equipment and processing

Telescope: Orion 8 inch F5

Mount: Orion Atlas

Camera: ST 8300M

Filters: Baader LRGB

Guiding: PHD

Processing: PixInsight

Capture software: Maxim

Exposures: L: Bin1 25x300, RGB: Bin2 3x300

Location: UACNJ

Description

The Elephant's Trunk nebula is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396 located in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light years away from Earth.[1] The piece of the nebula shown here is the dark, dense globule IC 1396A; it is commonly called the Elephant's Trunk nebula because of its appearance at visible light wavelengths, where there is a dark patch with a bright, sinuous rim. The bright rim is the surface of the dense cloud that is being illuminated and ionized by a very bright, massive star (HD 206267) that is just to the west of IC 1396A. (In the Figure above, the massive star is just to the left of the edge of the image.) The entire IC 1396 region is ionized by the massive star, except for dense globules that can protect themselves from the star's harsh ultraviolet rays.

The Elephant's Trunk nebula is now thought to be a site of star formation, containing several very young (less than 100,000 yr) stars that were discovered in infrared images in 2003. Two older (but still young, a couple of million years, by the standards of stars, which live for billions of years) stars are present in a small, circular cavity in the head of the globule. Winds from these young stars may have emptied the cavity.

The combined action of the light from the massive star ionizing and compressing the rim of the cloud, and the wind from the young stars shifting gas from the center outward lead to very high compression in the Elephant's Trunk nebula. This pressure has triggered the current generation of protostars

Equipment and processing

Telescope: Orion 8 inch F5

Mount: Orion Atlas

Camera: ST 8300M

Filters: Baader Ha,SII,OIII 7nm

Guiding: PHD

Processing: PixInsight

Capture software: Maxim

Exposures: Ha: bin2 132x600 OIII: bin2 138x600, SII: bin2 124x600

Location: Parsippany,NJ