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Object images listed by constellation

Andromeda

M31 – The Great Spiral, M32 and M110

Andromeda is 2.5 million light years from Earth and visible with the naked eye. A favourite amongst astrophotographers you will often see it over exposed as in the images above due to the intense brightness of the galactic core. This can be overcome by taking shorter exposures and merging them. There are two elliptical galaxies in the image – M32 and M110. Interestingly Andromeda is destined to collide with our galaxy in around 4.5 billion years at which time our Sun will be dying and the human race will, almost certainly have ceased to exist.

Cassiopeia

NGC 281 – Pacman Nebula

NGC 281 > Pacman Nebula > Constellation: Cassiopeia > Emission Nebula > 10,000 light years / Scope: Orion ED80 80mm refractor / Camera: QHY8 cooled CCD

Cygnus

IC5146 “The Cocoon Nebula”

IC 5146 Coccoon Nebula > Constellation: Cygnus > reflection nebula in the star cluster IC 5146 > 4,000 light years > dark lane that surrounds the nebula is called Barnard 168 / Scope: Orion ED80 / Camera: QHY8

NGC 6888 Crescent Nebula

I think this looks more like a jelly-fish. A true battle of wind between two stars - the image shows the shell of these shockwaves colliding together. NGC 6888 is 5,000 light years away, so no worries there then…..

NGC 6960 Witches Broom Nebula

NGC 6960 The Witch’s Broom Nebula - this nebula is the visual portion of a supernova remnant which exploded about 7,000 years ago. It's probably about 1400 light years away in the constellation of Cygnus.

NGC 6992 Veil Nebula

NGC 6992 Veil Nebula is part of the same supernova remnant as the Witches Broom Nebula above – originally this object would’ve looked like the M57 - Ring Nebula in Lyra.

NGC 7000 The North America Nebula

Called the North America Nebula due to its resemblance to the lower half of that continent this target lies in a rich region of nebulosity in Cygnus. Nearby there is another target called the Pelican nebula which I intend to image soon. The image on the right is a zoom of the lower half of the nebula – there appears to be billowing clouds of nebulosity here.

Hercules

M13 – The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules

Globular clusters contain hundreds of thousands very ancient stars tightly bound by gravity. M13 is estimated to contain c.300k. In the image on the right you can also make out the “edge on” spiral galaxy NGC 6207, I was really pleased with this added bonus as I didn’t know it was there until I processed the images. Back to M13 – the cluster is about 145 light years in diameter and about 25,000 light years away.

M92 – yet another globular cluster in Hercules

Wiki: Messier 92 (also known as M92 or NGC 6341) is a globular cluster in the constellation Hercules. It was discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1777 and independently rediscovered by Charles Messier on March 18, 1781. M92 is at a distance of about 26,700ly away from Earth.

Orion

Orion

B33 Horeshead Nebula and NGC 2244 Flame Nebula

The Great Nebula in Orion

M42 The Great Nebula in Orion 35min exsposure > QHY8 ccd > Orion ED-80 scope > This object is visible to the naked in just South of Orion's belt. It is the closest area of star formation to us at about 1400ly. It's a diffuse nebula with massive regions of star birth.

When I saw this detail of the image it reminded me of clouds passing in front of our Moon.

Another detail of the image - Running Man nebula > imagine him running from right to left with his right arm outstretched.

Pegasus

Stephans’ Quintet and NGC 7331 Spiral Galaxy

The Moon was rising as I took this image (1x20min and 2x10min exposures) so I’ll need to re-visit this area on a better night – however, it was interesting to see these galaxies grouped together in this way. The spiral galaxy in the upper right is quite impressive and I think I’ll image this with the C8-N shortly as the field of view is too great in the Orion ED-80.

Lyra

M57 – The Ring Nebula

This is a planetary nebula (so called because early observers thought it looked like a planet) that is the remains of a red giant star that has shed its outer layers leaving behind a white dwarf in the centre. These images are quite poor as the telescope I was using is for wide field imaging – I will return to this object when I have the 254mm scope (narrow field) set up.

Monoceros

NGC 2244 –The Rosetta Nebula - - discovered by James Flamsteed in 1690 CE

Located in the constellation Monoceros this is a large area of nebulosity with stars being created at the centre. The nebulosity you see in the images is 130 light years across and equal (roughly of course) to 10,000 solar masses. You can see the nebula with a small telescope but imaging it provides vast, screen filling clouds of red nebulosity. An awesome sight when you consider the events occuring at its centre!

Taurus

M1 – Crab Nebula – supernova remnant of 1054 CE

M45 – The Seven Sisters or The Pleaides

This object is an open star cluster that is easily seen with the naked eye in the constellation of Taurus – The Bull. The conditions were less than ideal when I took these but I will revisit it on a better night. I’m hoping to catch a more intense blue to the nebulosity that I’ve seen in other images – but my camera is not particularly sensitive to that wave length so I may have no luck. Sadly, this cluster will one day (250 million years from now) disperse so I’m hoping for clear skies before that happens…. The third of these of pictures is my favourite as it shows a wide range of stars of different colours and includes nebulosity.

Triangulum

M33 – sometimes called the Pinwheel Galaxy

I can honestly say I’ve not been more disappointed by a final image as I am with this – I had high hopes of galactic arms spiralling across the picture to coincide with the name of this object (well amateurs like myself seem to erroneously refer to it as the Pinwheel). However once I read about it and it’s many fascinating properties I looked at the image understanding quite a bit more about what was going on in this galaxy – which is really – far, far away at 3 million light years distant. I thought that Andromeda was the most distant object you could see with the naked eye – but it turns out you can see M33 in dark sites in Britain. Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulum_Galaxy

Vulpecula

Brocchi’s Cluster and Comet C2009/P1 Garradd

An element of “blink and you’ll miss it on this one – Brocchi’s cluster is an asterism (originally it was thought to be a cluster of stars loosely bound by gravity) that resembles a coathanger. On the night I imaged it a comet happen to be passing and the images I took resolved its movement over a period of about 20min. Open the second of the two images to view this.

M27 – Dumbbell Nebula

M27, like M57 above, is a planetary nebula that is capable of providing some fantastic colours and detail. I’ll be re-visiting this one to spend more time getting as much data as possible – this example was only about 20min worth.