Astrophotography
A few of my images to date.
Given this journey only started in the early Summer of 2024, I know I have some way to go. That being said, I am happy with what I have so far.
Some are better than others, sometimes I have very short time frames in which to take them. This is particularly true of Orion.
As I progress and the objects become visible for longer, I will take better images and update the less than optimal ones and of course, adding new ones along the way.
Nigel
Rosette Nebula
The Rosette Nebula (also known as Caldwell 49) is an H II region located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy.
The cluster and nebula lie at a distance of 5,000 light-years from Earth and measure roughly 130 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 Used:
Williams Optics FLT132
ASI ZWO240MC Pro OSC
Optilong L Extreem Filter
ZWO AM5
Heart Nebula
The Heart Nebula (also known as the Running Dog Nebula, Sharpless 2-190) is an emission nebula, 7,500 light-years away from Earth and located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia.
Equipment Used:
Williams Optics FLT132
ASI ZWO240MC Pro OSC
Optilong L Extreem Filter
ZWO AM5
Christmas Tree Nebula
NGC 2264 is two astronomical objects, the Cone Nebula, and the Christmas Tree Cluster.
Two other objects are within this designation but not officially included, the Snowflake Cluster and the Fox Fur Nebula. All of the objects are located in the Monoceros constellation and are located about 2,300 light-years from Earth.
Equipment Used:
Williams Optics FLT132
ASI ZWO240MC Pro OSC
Optilong L Extreem Filter
ZWO AM5
Bodes Galaxy
Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode’s Galaxy) is a grand design spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.
It has a D25 isophotal diameter of 96,000 light-years.
It harbours a 70 million Mø (Solar Mass) Supermassive black hole.
In late February 2022, astronomers reported that M81 may be the source of FRB 20200120E, a repeating fast radio burst.
This was a challenging image simply due to the short duration is was visible and its massive distance from Earth.
Equipment Used:
Williams Optics FLT132
ASI ZWO240MC Pro OSC
Optilong L Extreem Filter
ZWO AM5
Orion Nebula
The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula in the Milky Way situated south of Orion’s Belt in the constellation of Orion and is known as the middle “star” in the “sword” of Orion.
It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky with an apparent magnitude of 4.0. It is 20 light-years away and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth.
M42 is estimated to be 25 light-years across (so its apparent size from Earth is approximately 1 degree). It has a mass of about 2,000 times that of the Sun. Older texts frequently refer to the Orion Nebula as the Great Nebula in Orion or the Great Orion Nebula.
The objects in Orion do not present a large challenge, the issue I face is the exceptionally short duration it is visible to me.
Equipment Used:
Williams Optics FLT132
ASI ZWO240MC Pro OSC
Optilong L Extreem Filter
ZWO AM5
Jellyfish Nebula
IC 443 (also known as the Jellyfish Nebula) is a galactic supernova remnant (SNR) in the constellation Gemini.
On the plane of the sky, it is located near the star Eta Geminorum. Its distance is roughly 5,000 light years from Earth.
IC 443 may be the remains of a supernova that occurred 30,000 – 35,000 years ago. The same supernova event likely created the neutron star CXOU J061705.3+222127, the collapsed remnant of the stellar core. IC 443 is one of the best-studied cases of supernova remnants interacting with surrounding molecular clouds.
Equipment Used:
Williams Optics FLT132
ASI ZWO240MC Pro OSC
Optilong L Extreem Filter
ZWO AM5
Andromeda Galaxy
The Andromeda Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy and is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way.
Andromeda has a D25 isophotal diameter of about 152,000 light-years and is approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth.
The galaxy’s name stems from the area of Earth’s sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda, which itself is named after the princess who was the wife of Perseus in Greek mythology.
The virial mass of the Andromeda Galaxy is of the same order of magnitude as that of the Milky Way, at 1 trillion solar masses.
The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are expected to collide with each other in around 4–5 billion years merging to potentially form a giant elliptical galaxy.
The Andromeda Galaxy is approaching the Milky Way at about 68.4 miles per second, 246.240 mph.
Equipment Used:
Williams Optics FLT132
ASI ZWO240MC Pro OSC
Optilong L Extreem Filter
ZWO AM5
Soul Nebula
The Soul Nebula is a cloud of cosmic gas and dust 150 lightyears wide that’s being illuminated and carved by powerful streams of charged particles emanating from an open cluster of stars.
Located in Cassiopeia, it is 6,500 lightyears away.
Equipment Used:
Williams Optics FLT132
ASI ZWO240MC Pro OSC
Optilong L Extreem Filter
ZWO AM5
Horse Head Nebula
The Horsehead Nebula is one of the most iconic deep-sky objects there is. Located in Orion, it’s formed by a finger of dark nebulosity projecting in front of bright emission nebula IC 434. The finger resembles the silhouette of a horse’s head, similar to the side-on profile of a classic knight chess piece.
The Horsehead Nebula is approximately 1,375 light-years from Earth.
Equipment Used:
Williams Optics FLT132
ASI ZWO240MC Pro OSC
Optilong L Extreem Filter
ZWO AM5
Veil Nebula
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, a supernova remnant, many portions of which have acquired their own individual names and catalogue identifiers. The source supernova was a star 20 times more massive than the Sun which exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago.
At the time of the explosion, the supernova would have appeared brighter than Venus in the sky, and visible in the daytime.
The remnants have since expanded to cover an area of the sky roughly 3 degrees in diameter about 2400 light-years.
It is 1,470 light-years away from Earth.
Equipment Used:
Williams Optics Redcat 71
ASI ZWO240MC Pro OSC
Dual Narrowband Filter
ZWO AM5
Western Nebula
Located in the Veil Nebula in the constellation Cygnus.
It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant, many portions of which have acquired their own individual names and catalogue identifiers. The source supernova was a star 20 times more massive than the Sun which exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago.
At the time of the explosion, the supernova would have appeared brighter than Venus in the sky, and visible in the daytime.
The remnants have since expanded to cover an area of the sky roughly 3 degrees in diameter about 2400 light-years.
It is 1,470 light-years away from Earth.
Equipment Used:
Williams Optics Redcat 71
ASI ZWO240MC Pro OSC
Dual Narrowband Filter
ZWO AM5
Eastern Nebula
Located in the Veil Nebula in the constellation Cygnus.
It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant, many portions of which have acquired their own individual names and catalogue identifiers. The source supernova was a star 20 times more massive than the Sun which exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago.
At the time of the explosion, the supernova would have appeared brighter than Venus in the sky, and visible in the daytime.
The remnants have since expanded to cover an area of the sky roughly 3 degrees in diameter about 2400 light-years.
It is 1,470 light-years away from Earth.
Equipment Used:
Williams Optics Redcat 71
ASI ZWO240MC Pro OSC
Dual Narrowband Filter
ZWO AM5
Eastern Nebula
Commonly called the Pleiades or Seven Sisters, M45 is known as an open star cluster. It contains over a thousand stars that are loosely bound by gravity, but it is visually dominated by a handful of its brightest members.
One of these stars, Merope, is located just to the upper right. The colorful rays of light at the upper right, emanating from this star are an optical phenomenon produced within the telescope.
The nearly straight, blue-white wisps pointing toward the upper right are streams of large dust particles. As the cloud moves toward Merope, its smaller dust particles are slowed down by the star’s radiation pressure more than the larger particles are. The large dust particles continue on toward the star while the smaller particles are left behind at the lower left of the picture.
M45 is located an estimated distance of 445 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus.
Equipment Used:
Williams Optics Redcat 71
ASI ZWO240MC Pro OSC
Dual Narrowband Filter
ZWO AM5
Equipment Used
Williams Optics Redcat 71
ASI ZWO240MC Pro OSC
Focal Length – 348mm
Dual Narrowband Filter
ZWO AM5
Williams Optics FLT132
ASI ZWO240MC Pro OSC
Focal Length 908mm
Optilong L Extreem Filter
ZWO AM5