05 Οκτωβρίου 2024

IC 1805 in SHO(Heart nebula)

Telescope : SW Esprit 100ED
Mount : SW EQ6-ri 
Camera : ZWO 533 mc pro
Guiding : 8x50 SW finder with QHY 5IIL
Filters:   Total exposure time :6 hours (72x300sec) with L-enchance 1.25
Programs I have used : Nina 3.0 _ PixInsight 1.8.9-3

The Heart Nebula (also known as the Running Dog Nebula, Sharpless 2-190) is an emission nebula, 7500 light years away from Earth and located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was discovered by William Herschel on 3 November 1787. It displays glowing ionized hydrogen gas and darker dust lanes.

The brightest part of the nebula (a knot at its western edge) is separately classified as NGC 896, because it was the first part of the nebula to be discovered. The nebula's intense red output and its morphology are driven by the radiation emanating from a small group of stars near the nebula's center. This open cluster of stars, known as Collinder 26, Melotte 15, or IC 1805, contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of the Sun, and many more dim stars that are only a fraction of the Sun's mass.

The Heart Nebula is also made up of ionised oxygen and sulfur gasses, responsible for the rich blue and orange colours seen in narrowband images. The shape of the nebula is driven by stellar winds from the hot stars in its core. The nebula also spans almost 2 degrees in the sky, covering an area four times that of the diameter of the full moon.

13 Αυγούστου 2024

IC 5070 Pelican nebula -Hubble palette-

This is the RGB version from 533mc pro

 
Telescope : SW Esprit 100ED
Mount : SW EQ6-ri 
Camera : ZWO 533 mc pro
Guiding : 8x50 SW finder with QHY 5IIL
Filters:   Total exposure time :5 hours (60x300sec) with L-enchance 1.25
Programs I have used : Nina 3.0 _ PixInsight 1.8.9-3
 

The Pelican Nebula (also known as IC 5070 and IC 5067) is an H II region associated with the North America Nebula in the constellation Cygnus. The gaseous contortions of this emission nebula bear a resemblance to a pelican, giving rise to its name.The Pelican Nebula is located nearby first magnitude star Deneb, and is divided from its more prominent neighbour, the North America Nebula, by a foreground molecular cloud filled with dark dust. Both are part of the larger H II region of Westerhout 40.

The Pelican is much studied because it has a particularly active mix of star formation and evolving gas clouds. The light from young energetic stars is slowly transforming cold gas to hot and causing an ionization front gradually to advance outward. Particularly dense filaments of cold gas are seen to still remain, and among these are found two jets emitted from the Herbig–Haro object 555. Millions of years from now this nebula might no longer be known as the Pelican, as the balance and placement of stars and gas will leave something that appears completely different.


04 Αυγούστου 2024

The Cygnus Wall of the North America Nebula(Hubble palette)

Update : 2 new versions

This is the narrowband version_2

This is the RGB version

This is the bicolor version
Telescope : SW Esprit 100ED
Mount : SW EQ6-ri 
Camera : ZWO 533 mc pro
Guiding : 8x50 SW finder with QHY 5IIL
Filters:   Total exposure time :4:05 hours (49x300sec)
Programs I have used : Nina 3.0 _ PixInsight 1.8.9-3

Location: Grammatiko, Attiki 

The North America Nebula covers a region more than ten times the area of the full moon, but its surface brightness is low, so normally it cannot be seen with the unaided eye. Binoculars and telescopes with large fields of view (approximately 3°) will show it as a foggy patch of light under sufficiently dark skies. However, using a UHC filter, which filters out some unwanted wavelengths of light, it can be seen without magnification under dark skies. Its shape and reddish color (from the hydrogenemission line) show up only in photographs of the area.

The portion of the nebula resembling Mexico and Central America is known as the Cygnus Wall. This region exhibits the most concentrated star formation.



07 Ιουλίου 2024

The Cocoon Nebula(IC 5146)


Telescope : SW Esprit 100ED
Mount : SW EQ6-ri 
Camera : ZWO 533 mc pro
Guiding : 8x50 SW finder with QHY 5IIL
Filters:   Total exposure time :8hours & 3min(161*180") from 2 nights
Programs I have used : Nina 3.0 _ PixInsight 1.8.9-3

Location: Grammatiko, Attiki 

IC 5146 (also Caldwell 19, Sh 2-125, Barnard 168, 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 shines at magnitude +10.0/+9.3/+7.2. Its celestial coordinates are RA 21h 53.5m , dec +47° 16′. 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.

When viewing IC 5146, dark nebula Barnard 168 (B168) is an inseparable part of the experience, forming a dark lane that surrounds the cluster and projects westward forming the appearance of a trail behind the Cocoon.


 

08 Ιουνίου 2024

Great Star Cluster in Hercules(M 13)


Telescope : SW Esprit 100ED
Mount : SW EQ6-ri 
Camera : ZWO 533 mc pro
Guiding : 8x50 SW finder with QHY 5IIL
Filters:   Total exposure time :2 hours from 2 nights
Programs I have used : Nina 3.0 _ PixInsight 1.8.9-2

Location: Grammatiko, Attiki 

Messier 13 (M13), also designated NGC 6205 and sometimes called the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules or the Hercules Globular Cluster, is a globular cluster of about 300,000 stars in the constellation of Hercules.

M13 was discovered by Edmond Halley in 1714, and catalogued by Charles Messier on June 1, 1764. It is located at right ascension 16h 41.7m and declination +36° 28'. With an apparent magnitude of 5.8, it is barely visible with the naked eye on a very clear night. Its diameter is about 23 arc minutes and it is readily viewable in small telescopes. Nearby is NGC 6207, a 12th magnitude edge-on galaxy that lies 28 arc minutes directly north east. A small galaxy, IC 4617, lies halfway between NGC 6207 and M13, north-northeast of the large globular cluster's center.

M13 is about 145 light-years in diameter, and it is composed of several hundred thousand stars, the brightest of which is the variable star V11 with an apparent magnitude of 11.95. M13 is 25,100 light-years away from Earth.

02 Ιουνίου 2024

Cygnus Star Cloud(Tulip Nebula or Sh2-101)


 
Telescope : SW Esprit 100ED
Mount : SW EQ6-ri 
Camera : ZWO 533 mc pro
Guiding : 8x50 SW finder with QHY 5IIL
Filters:   Total exposure time : 5 hours and 35 minutes (31-05-2024)
Programs I have used : Nina 2.3 _ PixInsight 1.8.9-2
Location: Grammatiko, Attiki

Sharpless 101 (Sh2-101) is a H II region emission nebula located in the constellation Cygnus. It is sometimes also called the Tulip Nebula because it appears to resemble the outline of a tulip when imaged photographically. It was catalogued by astronomer Stewart Sharpless in his 1959 catalog of nebulae. It lies at a distance of about 6,000 light-years (5.7×1016 km; 3.5×1016 mi) from Earth.

Sh2-101, at least in the field seen from Earth, is in close proximity to microquasar Cygnus X-1, site of one of the first suspected black holes. Cygnus X-1 is located about 15 west of Sh2-101. The companion star of Cygnus X-1 is a spectral class O9.7 Iab supergiant with a mass of 21 solar masses and 20 times the radius of the Sun. The period of the binary system is 5.8 days and the pair is separated by 0.2 astronomical units. The black hole has a mass of 15 solar masses and a Schwarzschild radius of 45 km. A bowshock is created by a jet of energetic particles from the black hole as they interact with the interstellar medium. It can be seen as an arc at the top of the photo on the left.

 


13 Απριλίου 2024

M 94 Croc's Eye Galaxy



Telescope : SW Esprit 100ED
Mount : SW EQ6-ri 
Camera : ZWO 533 mc pro
Guiding : 8x50 SW finder with QHY 5IIL
Filters:   Total exposure time : 105*180min  5hours 15min 12/06/2024
Programs I have used : Nina 2.3 _ PixInsight 1.8.9-2
Location: Grammatiko, Attiki

Messier 94 (also known as NGC 4736, Cat's Eye Galaxy, Crocodile Eye Galaxy, or Croc's Eye Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy in the mid-northern constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781, and catalogued by Charles Messier two days later. Although some references describe M94 as a barred spiral galaxy, the "bar" structure appears to be more oval-shaped. The galaxy has two ring structures.

M94 is classified as having a low ionization nuclear emission region (LINER) nucleus.[11] LINERs in general are characterized by optical spectra that reveal that ionized gas is present but the gas is only weakly ionized (i.e. the atoms are missing relatively few electrons).

07 Απριλίου 2024

M 63 Sunflower with 533mc pro


A new edition I believe with better color rendering


Telescope : SW Esprit 100ED
Mount : SW EQ6-ri 
Camera : ZWO 533 mc pro
Guiding : 8x50 SW finder with QHY 5IIL
Filters:   Total exposure time : 100*180min  5hours 05/06/2024
Programs I have used : Nina 2.3 _ PixInsight 1.8.9-2
Location: Grammatiko, Attiki 

Messier 63 or M63, also known as NGC 5055 or the seldom-used Sunflower Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici with approximately 400 billion stars. M63 was first discovered by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain, then later verified by his colleague Charles Messier on June 14, 1779. The galaxy became listed as object 63 in the Messier Catalogue. In the mid-19th century, Anglo-Irish astronomer Lord Rosse identified spiral structures within the galaxy, making this one of the first galaxies in which such structure was identified.


 

12 Φεβρουαρίου 2024

NGC 1333 Embryo nebula

 

This is a new version 2024

Telescope : SW Esprit 100ED
Mount : SW EQ6-ri 
Camera : ZWO 533 mc pro
Guiding : 8x50 SW finder with QHY 5IIL
Filters:   Total exposure time : 185 x 3min from 3 different nights(23/9 - 13/10 & 14/10/2023)
Programs I have used : Nina 2.3 _ PixInsight 1.8.9-2
Location: Grammatiko, Attiki

NGC 1333 is a reflection nebula located in the northern constellation Perseus, positioned next to the southern constellation border with Taurus and Aries.It was first discovered by German astronomer Eduard Schönfeld in 1855. The nebula is visible as a hazy patch in a small telescope, while a larger aperture will show a pair of dark nebulae designated Barnard 1 and Barnard 2. It is associated with a dark cloud L1450 (Barnard 205). Estimates of the distance to this nebula range from 980–1,140 ly (300–350 pc).

This nebula is in the western part of the Perseus molecular cloud and is a young region of very active star formation, being one of the best-studied objects of its type. It contains a fairly typical hierarchy of star clusters that are still embedded in the molecular cloud in which they formed, which are split into two main sub-groups to the north and south. Most of the infrared emission is happening in the southern part of the nebula. A significant portion of the stars seen in the infrared are in the pre-main sequence stage of their evolution.

31 Ιανουαρίου 2024

Rosette Nebula (NGC 2244) in Ha filter

 

Telescope : SW Esprit 100ED
Mount : SW EQ6-ri 
Camera : Atik 460 mono
Guiding : 8x50 SW finder with QHY 5IIL
Filters:   Astrodon Ha 5nm(1.25)  28*600sec (26-01-24)
Programs I have used : Nina 2.3 _ PixInsight 1.8.9-2
Location: Grammatiko, Attiki   

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 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.