Every day our eyes catch the light of our memories – time spent with family, the journey to work, a special holiday, a beautiful sunset or a dark starlit night. Each image captured is a picture drawn in light – a photograph: only to be lost in our minds or forever forgotten. Nearly two hundred years ago a small group of amateur scientists achieved what had eluded mankind for centuries – the ability to capture a permanent record of an image seen by their own eyes – a moment in time frozen onto a surface. They had discovered Photography. They were the ‘Catchers of the Light’.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

M15 Globular Cluster

60% of the original size


full resolution


Messier 15 or M15 (also designated NGC 7078) is a globular cluster in the constellation Pegasus. It was discovered by Jean-Dominique Maraldi in 1746 and included in Charles Messier's catalogue of comet-like objects in 1764. At an estimated 13.2 billion years old, it is one of the oldest known globular clusters.

M15 is about 33,600 light-years from Earth. It has an absolute magnitude of -9.2 which translates to a total luminosity of 360,000 times that of the Sun. Messier 15 is one of the most densely packed globulars known in the Milky Way galaxy. Its core has undergone a contraction known as 'core collapse' and it has a central density cusp with an enormous number of stars surrounding what may be a central black hole.[citation needed]

Messier 15 contains 112 variable stars, a rather high number. It also contains at least 8 pulsars, including one double neutron star system, M15 C. Moreover, M15 houses Pease 1, one of only four planetary nebulae known to reside within a globular cluster, which was discovered in 1928.[1]

To the amateur astronomer Messier 15 appears as a fuzzy star in the smallest of telescopes. Mid to large size telescopes (at least 6 in./150 mm diameter) will start to reveal individual stars, the brightest of which are of magnitude +12.6.




To the upper left corner of the image it's also visible a very faint Spiral Galaxy IC5115

FLT110
EQ6 Pro
ST10XME

13*3min Blue
9*3min Green
11*3min Red

Total exposure 1h39min
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Monday, August 10, 2009

NGC 281 in Mapped Color

57% of the original size


full resolution


NGC 281 is an H II region in the constellation of Cassiopeia and part of the Perseus Spiral Arm. It includes or is near the open cluster IC 1590, the double star HD 5005, and several Bok globules. It is visible in amateur telescopes from dark sky locations. It is sometimes unofficially referred to as the Pacman Nebula owing to its fancied resemblance to the eponymous hero of the arcade game Pac-Man.

[SII], H-alpha, and [OIII] mapped to red, green, and blue, respectively. H-alpha data also used as luminance.
Ha_SIIHaOIII
Ha: 7x10min
SII: 8x10min
OIII: 7x10min

Total exposure only 3h40min under full moon from Kallithea Athens Greece.





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