Lagoon Nebula

Description

The Lagoon Nebula (catalogued as Messier 8 or M8, NGC 6523, Sharpless 25, RCW 146, and Gum 72) is a giant interstellar cloud in the constellation Sagittarius. It is classified as an emission nebula and as an H II region. The Lagoon Nebula was discovered by Giovanni Hodierna before 1654 and is one of only two star-forming nebulae faintly visible to the eye from mid-northern latitudes. Seen with binoculars, it appears as a distinct oval cloudlike patch with a definite core. In the foreground is the open cluster NGC 6530.

Equipment and processing

Telescope: AT72ED

Mount: Meade LXD75

Camera: ST 8300M

Filters: Baader RGB

Guiding: PHD

Processing: PixInsight

Capture software: Maxim

Exposures: RGB: bin1 8x300

Location: Roscoe,NY

Swan Nebula

Description

The Omega Nebula, also known as the Swan Nebula, Checkmark Nebula, and the Horseshoe Nebula (catalogued as Messier 17 or M17) is an H II region in the constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745. Charles Messier catalogued it in 1764. It is located in the rich starfields of the Sagittarius area of the Milky Way.

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 65x600 OIII: bin2 37x600 SII: bin2 35x600

Location: Parsippany,NJ

Tadpoles

Description

This telescopic close-up shows off the otherwise faint emission nebula IC 410. It also features two remarkable inhabitants of the cosmic pond of gas and dust below and right of center, the tadpoles of IC 410. Partly obscured by foreground dust, the nebula itself surrounds NGC 1893, a young galactic cluster of stars. Formed in the interstellar cloud a mere 4 million years ago, the intensely hot, bright cluster stars energize the glowing gas. Composed of denser cooler gas and dust, the tadpoles are around 10 light-years long and are likely sites of ongoing star formation. Sculpted by winds and radiation from the cluster stars, their heads are outlined by bright ridges of ionized gas while their tails trail away from the cluster's central region. IC 410 lies some 10,000 light-years away, toward the nebula-rich constellation Auriga.

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 30x600 OIII: bin2 47x600 SII: 38x600

Location: Parsippany,NJ

Veil Nebula

Description

The Veil Nebula is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus. It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop (radio source W78, or Sharpless 103), a large but relatively faint supernova remnant. The source supernova exploded circa 3,000 BC to 6,000 BC, and the remnants have since expanded to cover an area roughly 3 degrees in diameter (about 6 times the diameter, or 36 times the area, of the full moon). The distance to the nebula is not precisely known, but Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) data supports a distance of about 1,470 light-years.

Equipment and processing

Telescope: Orion 8 inch F5

Mount: Orion Atlas

Camera: ST 8300M

Filters: Baader Ha,OIII 7nm

Guiding: PHD

Processing: PixInsight

Capture software: Maxim

Exposures: Ha: bin1 47x600 OIII: bin1 41x600

Location: Parsippany,NJ

Leo Triplet

Description

"The Leo Triplet (also known as the M66 Group) is a small group of galaxies about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. This galaxy group consists of the spiral galaxies M65, M66, and NGC 3628.

M65 was discovered by Charles Messier and included in his Messier Objects list. However, William Henry Smyth accidentally attributed the discovery to Pierre Méchain in his popular 19th century astronomical work A Cycle of Celestial Objects (stating ""They [M65 and M66] were pointed out by Méchain to Messier in 1780""). This error was in turn picked up by Kenneth Glyn Jones in Messier's Nebulae and Star Clusters. This has since ramified into a number of other books by a variety of authors.

Messier 66 (also known as NGC 3627) is an intermediate spiral galaxy. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1780. M66 is about 95 thousand light-years across with striking dust lanes and bright star clusters along sweeping spiral arms.

NGC 3628, also known as the Hamburger Galaxy or Sarah's Galaxy is an unbarred spiral galaxy. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. It has an approximately 300,000 light-years long tidal tail. Its most conspicuous feature is the broad and obscuring band of dust located along the outer edge of its spiral arms, effectively transecting the galaxy to our view."

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: L: Bin1 80x300, RGB: Bin2 40x300

Location: Parsippany,NJ

Monkey Head Nebula

Description

NGC 2174 (also known as Monkey Head Nebula) is an H II emission nebula located in the constellation Orion and is associated with the open star cluster NGC 2175. It is thought to be located about 6,400 light-years away from Earth. The nebula may have formed through hierarchical collapse.

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 27x600 OIII: bin2 22x600 SII: bin2 8x600

Location: Parsippany,NJ

Rozette Nebula

Description

The Rosette Nebula (also known as Caldwell 49) is a large, spherical (circular in appearance), HII region located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy. The open cluster NGC 2244 (Caldwell 50) is closely associated with the nebulosity, the stars of the cluster having been formed from the nebula's matter. The cluster and nebula lie at a distance of some 5,000 light-years from Earth and measure roughly 50 light years in diameter. The radiation from the young stars excites the atoms in the nebula, causing them to emit radiation themselves producing the emission nebula we see. The mass of the nebula is estimated to be around 10,000 solar masses.

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 46x600 OIII: bin2 38x600 SII: bin1 41x600

Location: Parsippany,NJ

Heart and Soul Nebulas

Description

Located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy, the Heart nebula (left) and the Soul nebula (right) are two bright nebulae (although a telescope is needed to see them) in a region of the Galaxy where a lot of stars are forming. IC 1805 (the Heart nebula) is also sometimes called the 'Running Dog nebula' because it is said to resemble a running dog when viewed through a telescope. The distance to these two nebulae are well determined, mainly because they have star clusters at the centre of them. (It is much easier to determine the distance to a nebula if it has star clusters in it). The Heart and Soul nebulae are located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy 6000 and 6500 light years away. This part of the Perseus Arm has a lot of star formation regions and there are many young star clusters in this region.

Equipment and processing

Telescope: 135mm F2.8 lens

Mount: Meade LXD75

Camera: ST 8300M

Filters: Baader Ha,SII,OIII 7nm

Guiding: PHD

Processing: PixInsight

Capture software: Maxim

Exposures: Ha: bin1 20x600 OIII: bin1 20x600 SII: bin1 20x600

Location: Parsippany,NJ

Fish Head Nebula

Description

IC 1795 is also known as a Fish Head Nebula. It's a star forming region in the northern constellation Cassiopeia at distance of about 6000 light years. IC 1795 is a part of the large nebula complex known as IC 1805, the Heart Nebula.

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 60x600 OIII: bin1 60x600 SII: bin2 50x600

Location: Parsippany,NJ

Pacman Nebula

Description

"NGC 281 is an HII region in the constellation of Cassiopeia and part of the Perseus Spiral Arm. It includes the open cluster IC 1590, the multiple star HD 5005, and several Bok globules. Colloquially, NGC 281 is also known as the Pacman Nebula for its resemblance to the video game character.

The nebula was discovered in August 1883 by E. E. Barnard, who described it as ""a large faint nebula, very diffuse."" The multiple star HD 5005, also called beta1, was discovered by S. W. Burnham. It consists of an 8th-magnitude primary with four companions at distances between 1.4 and 15.7 seconds of arc. There has been no appreciable change in this quintuple system since the first measurements were made in 1875."

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 25x600 OIII: bin2 50x600 SII: bin2 50x600

Location: Parsippany,NJ