Crescent Nebula
This is an image of the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888) in the constellation Cygnus. The bright star at its center is a Wolf-Rayet star driving an incredibly strong stellar wind, and this wind impacts other gas and dust, causing it to glow. This image was taken through my galaxy rig, which poses some interesting problems for nebulae. To bring out the nebula I have to use a pretty harsh filter, but right now I have to put that on the front of the entire camera/guiding setup, which makes it very difficult to find a star bright enough for my telescope to track. That makes long exposures hard, but for faint targets like this long exposures are almost required. I had to push the data here pretty hard, as you can see by the noise around the edges. Compare that with my Bodes' Galaxy image, which has hardly any noise at all - not having to use a harsh filter there gives much better signal on the target. I'm hoping to get a filter drawer soon that will let me keep the guide camera unfiltered, which should make long exposures easier.
Astrotech 8" RC
#ZWO ASI294MC
#Celestron CGEM DX
Processed in DSS, StarTools, and GIMP
#astronomy#astrophotography#crescent#nebula#ngc6888#wolfrayet#star#space#telescope#highpointscientific#OPTeam#agenaastro
Melotte-15 is the star cluster at the heart of the Heart Nebula. It is an OB association of very young hot blue supergiant stars that is only 1.5 million years old. Fierce stellar winds from this cluster have blown the enormous bubble within the parent HII nebula that is the heart nebula. The winds have also sculpted the dust clouds within which other stars are forming into interesting columns and shapes, analogous to the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula.
Imaged with 5 minute subs per narrowband filter and processed in Hubble Pallette SHO.
Total Integration: 5 hours, 25 min
S - 24 x 300 sec
H - 24 x 300 sec
O - 17 x 300 sec
Bortle 6 Backyard
Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro
ZWO ASIAirPro
Explore Scientific ED127 Triplet
ZWO ASI1600mm
ZWO 30mm guidescope
ZWO ASI120mm-s guidecam
DSS,PS,Topaz
#astrophotography#stars#universe#interstellar#cosmos#nightsky#astronomy#astronomia#backyardastrophotography#agenaastro#opteam#deepskyphotography#deepsky#explorescientific#passioneastrofotografia
Sh2-132, also named the Lion nebula is 10,000 to 12,000 light-years away, located in the Perseus arm of our Galaxy, with a size of more than 250 light years. On our sky is located on the border between the constellations of Cepheus and Lacerta. It is interesting that this image contains two Wolf-Rayet stars - WR 153ab near the "wall" structure in the lion's head an WR 152 in the blue dominated part of the nebula. The Wolf-Rayet stars are very big, bight and hot stars with strong solar winds. These winds are so strong that eject huge amount of mass from the stars - something like 10 Sun masses per million years. The extreme nature of the Wolf-Rayet stars always dominate the nearby regions and lightening the surrounding area. In this case there are two of them and they are helped from 5 small open clusters of young stars to show us something very beautiful. -yoddha, stargazerslounge.com
Imaged with 10 minute subs per narrowband filter and processed in Hubble Pallette SHO.
Total Integration: 6.5 hours over 2 nights
S - 15 x 600 sec
H - 12 x 600 sec
O - 12 x 600 sec
Bortle 6 Backyard
HEQ5 Pro
ASIAirPro
ES ED80 Triplet with ZWO ASI1600mm cool (maincam)
ZWO 30mm guidescope with ZWO ASI120mm-s guidecam
Orion 0.8x Flattener/Reducer
Chroma 3nm Narrowband Filters
DSS,PS,Topaz
#astronomy#deepspace#deepsky#deepskyphotography#explorescientific#zwo#astrophotography#astrobackyard#backyardastronomy#backyardastrophotography#passioneastrofotografia#passioneastronomia#lion#nebula#nebulae#astromaniacmag#astromania#highpointscientific#agenaastro#skywatcher#cosmos#interstellarviews#interstellar#universe#astrophoto#pic#universetoday#picoftheday#picofday#space@skywatcherusa@zwoasi@explorescientific
WR134 found in the constellation Cygnus. It highlights the bright edge of a ring-like nebula traced by the glow of ionized hydrogen and oxygen gas. Embedded in the region's interstellar clouds of gas and dust, the complex, glowing arcs are sections of bubbles or shells of material swept up by the wind from Wolf-Rayet star WR 134, brightest star near the center of the frame. Distance estimates put WR 134 about 6,000 light-years away, making the frame over 50 light-years across. Shedding their outer envelopes in powerful stellar winds, massive Wolf-Rayet stars have burned through their nuclear fuel at a prodigious rate and end this final phase of massive star evolution in a spectacular supernova explosion. The stellar winds and final supernovae enrich the interstellar material with heavy elements to be incorporated in future generations of stars. - NASA APOD Description June 21 2012
Imaged with 10 minute subs per narrowband filter and processed in HOO.
Total Integration: 8 hours over 2 nights
H - 24 x 600 sec
O - 24 x 600 sec
Bortle 6 Backyard
Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro
ZWO ASIAirPro
ES ED127 Triplet with ZWO ASI1600mm cool (maincam)
ZWO 30mm guidescope
ZWO ASI120mm-s guidecam
Orion 0.8x Flattener/Reducer
Chroma 3nm Narrowband Filters
DSS,PS, Topaz
#astronomy#deepspace#deepsky#deepskyphotography#explorescientific#stars#astrophotography#astrobackyard#backyardastronomy#backyardastrophotography#passioneastrofotografia#passioneastronomia ##nebula#nebulae#astromaniacmag#astromania#highpointscientific#agenaastro#skywatcher#cosmos#interstellarviews#interstellar#universe#astrophoto#pic#universetoday#picoftheday#picofday#space@skywatcherusa@zwoasi