Perseus Galaxy cluster

It was  very clear, but also very cold here in East Cheshire on Monday night. I don't know what's up with our weather, I think somebody had better tell the big man, it's still only Autumn.

It was -5 with Snow on the ground!!

Last night, I decided I would concentrate on imaging galaxies in Perseus, so I decided, I would spend a couple of warm hour's (I can image from the comfort of my conservatory now) imaging NGC1275 or Perseus A, together with it's accompanying galaxy cluster.

I feel very humbled when I look at this image, as it shows you I think, just how vast and complex our Universe is. NGC1275 is a staggering 300mly from Earth. It is a radio galaxy and has a radio source at it's core, this is known as 3c84.

This image is a 1hr 44min exposure (cloud's buggered any remaining  exposures) composed from the usual 4min30second subs. Taken through the SPX 200-800 f4 with my Atik16ic. And guided by the QHY5 and PHD. The seeing was very bad Ant 4.

Perseus A is the galaxy just left of centre. You can, if you look closely, see that I was just starting to bring out the filaments that surround this fascinating object. These I think are caused by the galaxy's black hole at it's nucleus.

Here is another image only this time showing the catalogue number for each galaxy.

My other offering, is from Friday night. Again I decided to image galaxies and this time selected NGC1023. This is a beautiful galaxy that is over looked. I suspect the reason is NGC891 and the Andromeda spiral.

A double cluster for the early Winter evenings

I am now beginning to get active again, with imaging DSO's. I've not done any of this for a while, because I was starting to find imaging, stressful.

I was spending more time trying to figure out why my guiding was all to cock, than actually doing any imaging.

I am now feeling better  thanks to an easy fix.

I am now using my old and very small and light weight, 60mm finder scope which I've had for 16 years. The finder allows my guide camera to see considerably more stars because of the very short focal length (200mm) and a very wide field, than my WO ZS66SD could ever do, and this makes for better guiding with less stress, and more fun.

I wish I had done this sooner. Maybe I could have done something with my Vixen GP-DX, who knows.

Yesterday evening and quite by chance, the skies here in Macclesfield cleared suddenly, and I was able to take advantage of this break to try my Nikon D40 dslr.

The subject, because at 8pm it is very high and on the meridian, was NGC 884 and NGC 869. Both of these open cluster's fit nicely on the CCD imaging sensor of the D40, which makes a huge difference over my Atik 16ic.

I was imaging through my fast SPX 200-800 F4 "AG" deluxe, using a Baader MPCC with out a CLS pollution filter. The exposure times were all 0.30 seconds totalling 6 mins. Guiding was done using PHD and my Losmandy G11.

The darks and the subs where then stacked in Deep Sky Stacker with any additional processing done in CS2.

Make mine a Pyms part 2

My self a two other observers decided, yesterday, because the forecast was looking particularly good, we would head UP in to the hills for and hour or two observing.

We arrived shortly after 8pm to find the car park occupied with a mobile camper van, the owner asked politely what we were doing, and we explained that we were hoping to do some gazing and imaging assuming the skies cleared.

The skies were forecast to clear from 9pm, and it was looking hopeful after 21:30 when, large openings appeared all around the sky.

I suspected that the sky would be very transparent because of the amount of rain fall, during the past week. I wasn't disappointed. In the East where the sky was clear, the NELM was a good m+5.6 with the double cluster and messier 31 easy with the unaided eye.

I was able to take some fixed tripod, digital camera image's, using my Nikon D40. The image here shows the area surrounding Perseus and Cassiopeia.

This was really a test to see if my Nikon is suitable for imaging the night skies, and also to prove to myself that I don't need the expense of a Canon 1000D.

Looking at this image, I think my camera shows promise.It is a wide field taken with my 18-55 Nikon AF lens set to 18mm and fully open, f3.5 with an iso of 800 and 1600.

Later, when the camera battery died (I've since bought two new ones) I decided to use the 10" and Mk1 eyeball.

The skies at 22:30 where not fantastic, and I was only able to make one observation.

Using my 24mm Pany with a Baader UHC-S filter, I was fortunate to see the famous Crab Nebula or M1.

Through the eyepiece M1 appeared as a bright, but flattened patch of grey light, in a rich star field.  It has been said that M1 can been seen through 7x50 and 10x50 binoculars, and I have both, but I have never seen it.

The skies were getting worse towards midnight, so we decided to call it a night. It was a shame the weather couldn't have been more cooperative, but at least we did see something. And I was able to use my camera which was a bonus I suppose.

I just wish we could have a break from this persistent trough of low pressure. A cold front would be very welcome.

I'd like to thank Paul C and Ray S for there company last night. Better luck next time lads...

An Evening with the Milky Way

Here is another posting by, guest astronomer, Paul Cannon.

The evening of 10th of October was clear and I decided to venture up to Fernilee reservoir for an imaging session. My main target was Comet Hartley again, but it was so clear and the Milky Way was visible from horizon to horizon so, I decided to image it with the DSlR on a driven equatorial mount. These were 120 second images and no CLS filter was used or darks and flats taken, maybe next time. This means there is a degree of noise in these images, but I thought they were'nt bad for a site no more than ten miles from Stockport and Macclesfield. Comet Hartley as a fuzzy green spot can be located below the double cluster in Perseus. There are many deep sky delights within these images the longer you look  the more you see, take you time to browse.

 

Thank you Paul.