IC342

Object: IC342 (Caldwell 5)

Type: Galaxy

Distance: 13 million light years

Constellation: Camelopardalis

Date: 31 December 2005
Equipment: SXV-H9, Vixen 114mm f5.3 ED refractor

Subframes: 8 x 300 second, unguided, no darks or flats.

A mediocre effort that shows the limitations of unguided exposures. This dreadfully dim galaxy needs more and longer subs to do it justice, I think, but even the GPDX won't track that well unguided for the lengths of subs probably needed.

Nevertheless, the spiral structure just about shows up through the noise.

Jupiter

Object: Jupiter

Date: 29 December 2001 (21.31 GMT)
Equipment: Casio digital camera, 9mm eyepiece afocal, Vixen VC200L

Subframes: 10 x 0.2 second, no darks or flats.

I've never had a lot of success imaging planets and this effort has been my most successful to date. Registax allowed me to pull out Europa and a transit of Io as well as the GRS.

The Cocoon Nebula

Object: IC5146 (Caldwell 19)

Type: Nebula

Distance: 3300 light years

Constellation: Cygnus

Date: 28 August 2005
Equipment: SXV-H9, Vixen 114mm f5.3 ED refractor

Subframes: 24 x 120 second, unguided, no darks or flats.

This object could do with a wider field, if only to capture the extended dark nebula B168, whose eastern lobe IC5146 sits in, and which is only vaguely indicated in these images.

The lower image is a false colour version of the one above, just because I can, really. Click on either to enlarge.

Comet Ikeya-Zhang

Object: 153P Ikeya-Zhang

Type: Comet
Constellation: Pisces

Date: 21 March 2002
Equipment: Casio digital camera, afocally coupled to 25mm eyepiece, VC200L

Subframes: 6 x 60 second, unguided, no darks or flats.

This beauty was clearly visible to the naked eye even though it was only 9 degrees above the horizon when I caught it. The photograph gives a good impression of what it actually looked like through the eyepiece - the beauty of afocal photography.

The Crescent Nebula

Object: NGC 6888 (Caldwell 27)
Type: Nebula
Distance: 4700 light years
Constellation: Cygnus
Date: 26 August 2005
Equipment: SXV-H9, 114mm f5.6 Vixen refractor
Subframes: 12 x 180 second, unguided, no darks or flats.

Another one to get around to re-doing now I have a bit more experience AND a hydrogen alpha filter. This object just cries out for more and longer subs to do it justice. Still, not bad for an early attempt.

Venus/Moon conjunction

Possibly my first astrophotograph ever, which I recently found in an old photo wallet and scanned in. It's dated 29 December 2000, with a time of 18.00. A quick glance at a SkyMap Pro chart for that time shows Venus with a phase of 60% and the Moon with a phase of 14%, and suggests the two star visible between the overexposed Venus and the Moon are Delta and Gamma Capricorni.

The shot was taken with an Olympus OM2 and a 300mm telephoto lens, 1 second exposure at f5.6 on Kodak Gold 200.

The North America Nebula.

Object: NGC 7000 (Caldwell 32)
Type: Nebula
Distance: 1800 light years
Constellation: Cygnus
Date: 16 August 2005
Equipment: SXV-H9, 135mm Zeiss telephoto lens
Subframes: 30 x 300 second, unguided, no darks or flats.

The SXV-H9 works fine with a telephoto lens, even given the theoretical undersampling. The adjacent Pelican Nebula (IC 5067) can also be made out at the top of the image (click to enlarge).

The Dumb-bell Nebula.

Object: Messier 27 (NGC 6853)
Type: Planetary Nebula
Distance: 815 light years
Constellation: Vulpecula
Date: 17 July 2005
Equipment: SXV-H9, f5.6 refractor
Subframes: 14 x 120 seconds. Unguided, no darks or flats.

Another summer beauty from the evening of 17 July 2005, recently reworked with AstroArt 4. Click on the image to enlarge.

The Great Hercules Globular Cluster.

Object: Messier 13 (NGC 6025)
Type: Globular Cluster
Distance: 23400 light years
Constellation: Hercules
Date: 17 July 2005
Equipment: SXV-H9, Vixen f5.6 refractor
Subframes: 20 x 60 seconds, 20 x 150 seconds, all averaged. Unguided, no darks or flats.

Mixing in the shorter subframes with the longer ones seemed to avoid the "burnt out" core I've seen in some images of this object. M13 really seems to benefit from the use of the digital development tool in AIP4Win, and gives nice tight star images in the main cluster itself.

I highlighted the 16th magnitude galaxy IC 4617 that also showed up on the image (click to enlarge).

Visually, I don't think the "great" M13 globular cluster packs the visual punch of M5 in Serpens, which I hope to get around to imaging one day, but through the 8 inch VC200L it's still one of the few objects that actually gets a "wow" out of my astro-apathetic and long-suffering wife.

NGC 4565.

Object: NGC 4565 (Caldwell 38)
Type: Galaxy
Distance: 32 million light years
Constellation: Coma Berenices
Date: 08 May 2005
Equipment: SXV-H9, VC200L
Subframes: 30 x 30 seconds, 2x2 binned. Unguided, no darks or flats.

A final image from the, by then, gale force evening of May 8th, 2005. I cut the exposures down to 30 seconds to try and get at least some subs that hadn't been blurred by a wind-blown telescope, and I was absolutely amazed to find that AstroArt 4 was able to wring out some detail on what appears to be virtually blank frames. Click to enlarge.

The Blackeye Galaxy.

Object: Messier 64 (NGC 4826)
Type: Galaxy
Distance: 13.5 million light years
Constellation: Coma Berenices
Date: 08 May 2005
Equipment: SXV-H9, VC200L
Subframes: 28 x 60 seconds, 2x2 binned. Unguided, no darks or flats.

Another image from the windy evening of May 8th 2005, that has also benefitted from reworking with AstroArt 4. Click to enlarge.

The Whirlpool Galaxy.

Object: Messier 51 (NGC 5194 & 5195)
Type: Interacting Galaxies
Distance: 15 million light years
Constellation: Canes Venatici
Date: 08 May 2005
Equipment: SXV-H9, VC200L
Subframes: 12 x 60 second, 2x2 binned. Unguided, no darks or flats.

A very windy evening and a long focal length meant shortish exposures to avoid trailing, and lack of experience and only the clunky Starlight Xpress processing software to work with at the time meant no darks or flats. I shot about 50 subs, but only the 12 were usable thanks to the wind blowing the 'scope around and blurring the images. This image is a reprocess using my recently-acquired Astroart 4 software, which allowed me to zap some residual trailing on the final stack with the nifty deconvolution filter, resulting in a half-decent image (click to enlarge).

Definitely one to revisit on a less windy night.

Comet Machholz

Object: Comet Machholz
Date: 02 January 2005
Equipment: SXV-H9, Vixen f5.6 refractor
Subframes: 6 x 1 minute, averaged. No flats or darks.

A fairly crummy image that in hindsight needed more subs of longer exposure and flat field correction. Click to enlarge, which shows up the dust donuts and noise. High cloud rolled in just after I got set up, which is why I didn't take more subs. However, it's unlikely I'll get a chance to have a second go at this one as the next perihelion is due in the year 115470.

I caught this as it was zipping through Taurus. Through the eyepiece it was around magnitude 4 and exhibited a strong greenish colour. The above image just about shows the dust tail curving off to the northeast, whereas the ion tail can just be seen as a straight 'V' pointing away to the east (left).

The image was stacked on the nucleus, hence the trailing stars.

The Crab Nebula.

Object: Messier 1 (NGC 1952)
Type: Supernova remnant
Constellation: Taurus
Distance: 6500 light years

Average of 16 90 second sub-frames acquired on the evening of 30 December 2004 using a Starlight Xpress SXVH9 and the Vixen f5.6 refractor, all stacked and processed in AIP4Win and PSP7. Click on any of the images to enlarge.

Crop and enlargement of the first image. Some of the filamentary structure can be seen despite the relatively low focal length and resolution.

This was a much earlier effort from about two years previous, using a "prosumer" digital camera coupled afocally to a 25mm eyepiece on the VC200L. This is an average of six 1 minute frames, processed in AIP4Win and PSP7.