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’.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Leo Triplet_reprocessed


The Leo Triplet (also known as the M66 Group) is a small group of galaxies about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. This galaxy group consists of the spiral galaxies M65, the M66, and the NGC 3628

Instruments and exposure data

W.O FLT110 with dedicated TMB field flattener
FeatherTouch 3'' focuser
Starizona MicroTouch autofocuser
W.O ZS80 ED
SBIG ST10XME CFW9
Meade DSI
Filters: LRGB Baader Planetarium, IDAS LPS
Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro

Lum(LPS):30*10min(bin1x1)_51*10min(bin1x1)
Red:36*5(18bin1x1_18bin2x2)
Green:36*5(18bin1x1_18bin2x2)
Blue:44*5(24bin1x1_20bin2x2)
Total exposure time:23h10min

Astrobin Image of the Day 31 Mar 2014

Sunday, March 16, 2014

NGC 7635: THE BUBBLE NEBULA


NGC 7635, also called the Bubble Nebula and Sharpless 162, is a H II region[2] emission nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia. It lies close to the direction of the open cluster Messier 52. The "bubble" is created by the stellar wind from a massive hot, 8.7[2] magnitude young central star, the 15 ± 5 M☉[4] SAO 20575 (BD+60 2522).[7] The nebula is near a giant molecular cloud which contains the expansion of the bubble nebula while itself being excited by the hot central star, causing it to glow.[7] It was discovered in 1787 by Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel.[6] The star SAO 20575 or BD+602522 is thought to have a mass of 10-40 Solar masses.

Tricolor Emission Line Image


Instruments and exposure data:

W.O FLT110 with dedicated TMB field flattener
FeatherTouch 3'' focuser
Starizona MicroTouch autofocuser
W.O ZS80 ED
SBIG ST10XME CFW9
Meade DSI
Filters:
SII 8nm Baader Planetarium
Ha 5nm Astrodon
OIII 8.5nm Baader Planetarium

Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro

SII :26*10min bin1x1
Ha :20*10min bin1x1
OIII:24*10min bin1x1

Total exposure time:11h40min

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Saturday, March 8, 2014

SH 2 171 modified Hubble palette _ reworked


Cosmic pillars of cold molecular gas and clouds of dark dust lie within Sharpless 171, a star-forming region some 3,000 light-years away in the royal constellation Cepheus. This tantalizing false-color skyscape spans about 20 light-years across the nebula's bright central region. It also highlights the pervasive glow of emission from atomic gas using narrowband filters and a color palette made popular in Hubble Space Telescope images. Powering the nebular glow are the young, hot stars of a newly formed cluster, Berkeley 59. Of course, this star-forming region is entry number 171 in the famous 1959 catalog of emission nebulae compiled by astronomer Stewart Sharpless.

explanation from : NASA apod 2008 October

Tricolor Emission Line Image

Instruments and exposure data:

W.O FLT110 with dedicated TMB field flattener
FeatherTouch 3'' focuser
Starizona MicroTouch autofocuser
W.O ZS80 ED
SBIG ST10XME CFW9
Meade DSI
Filters:
SII 8nm Baader Planetarium
Ha 5nm Astrodon
OIII 8.5nm Baader Planetarium

Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro

SII :30*15min bin1x1
Ha :30*15min bin1x1
OIII:30*15min bin1x1

Total exposure time:22h30min
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