M13 Hercules globular cluster

WIKI: "Messier 13 (M13), also designated NGC 6205 and sometimes called the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules or the Hercules Globular Cluster, is a globular cluster of about 300,000 stars in the constellation of Hercules.
M13 was discovered by Edmond Halley in 1714, and catalogued by Charles Messier on June 1, 1764."


Taken also om 26 Apr 2014 with same equipment as below posts.
17 subs x 45 sec , darks and bias, no flats.

M81, M82 and M51 images processed in PixInsight 1.8

Hello everybody,

Below are the same 2 images of M81/M82 and M51, this time processed in PixInsight 1.8.
The images are also on Astrobin and plate-solved at the following URLs:
M51 image
and
M81/M82 image

More to follow...

M51 Whirlpool Galaxy

Hello again,

Here is another image taken last night of the Whirlpool Galaxy M51.
There are 14x600s subexposures with same equipment as in the previous post.

More to follow :)

M81 and M82

Good evening, Here is a cropped image from last night of M81 and M82.
12 x 300s subexposures ( with QHY8L and 6inch newtonian / PHD and DBK21 for guiding)
(10 darks, 20 flats, 100 bias stacked with DSS and barely edited in PS)

More to follow...

Rosette Nebula

Hello everybody,

Coming back with what i think is the best proper image so far (except for the "hidden" amp glow on lower right) of Rosette Nebula (also classified as Caldwell 49).
The images were taken last night with an QHY8L with an IR/UV filter, on a clear sky with low wind and medium pollution. Guiding went pretty smooth with the DBK21 and PHD Guiding software.
Exposure time was 240 seconds and i managed to get 20 exposures. Also 20 darks, 20 flats and 20 bias were used in calibration/stacking with DeepSkyStacker.

WIKI: "The Rosette Nebula (also known as Caldwell 49) is a large, circular H II region located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy. The open cluster NGC 2244 (Caldwell 50) is closely associated with the nebulosity, the stars of the cluster having been formed from the nebula's matter.

The complex has the following NGC designations:

NGC 2237 – Part of the nebulous region (Also used to denote whole nebula) NGC 2238 – Part of the nebulous region NGC 2239 – Part of the nebulous region (Discovered by John Herschel) NGC 2244 – The open cluster within the nebula (Discovered by John Flamsteed in 1690) NGC 2246 – Part of the nebulous region

The cluster and nebula lie at a distance of some 5,200 light-years from Earth (although estimates of the distance vary considerably, down to 4,900 light-years.[3]) and measure roughly 130 light years in diameter. The radiation from the young stars excite the atoms in the nebula, causing them to emit radiation themselves producing the emission nebula we see. The mass of the nebula is estimated to be around 10,000 solar masses.

It is believed that stellar winds from a group of O and B stars are exerting pressure on interstellar clouds to cause compression, followed by star formation in the nebula. This star formation is currently still ongoing.

A survey of the nebula with the Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2001 has revealed the presence of very hot, young stars at the core of the Rosette Nebula."

So, can't wait to comeback with more images !

Clear skies,
Andrei

Saturn 29.03.2014

Saturn taken with C6-NGT and DBK21.

Supernova in M82

"On January 21st a group of astronomy students spotted Supernova 2014J in M82, the famous nearby irregular galaxy in Ursa Major. It peaked at V magnitude 10.5 during the first week of February, and as of March 5th it was still visible in amateur scopes about magnitude 12."

I took the image below on the 16th of February, with no darks or bias and guiding was pretty poor due to some wind.
Also M81 can be seen but not enough detail unfortunately.

"Spectra showed it to be a Type Ia supernova — an exploded white dwarf — with debris originally expanding at up to 20,000 kilometers per second.

M82 is a near neighbor as galaxies go, at a distance of 11 or 12 million light-years. It's a favorite for amateur astronomers and researchers alike with its thick dust bands, sprays of hydrogen gas, and bright center undergoing massive star formation. The supernova is not in the central star-forming region but off to one side, 58 arcseconds to the west-southwest."

Clear skies,
Andrei

ISON Updated news

Good morning,

It would seem that ISON hasn't survived its encounter with our Sun, although a fragment has emerged it is slowly fading. Below the animated image from LASCO C3, the coronagraph on the SOHO Satellite:

Here is also an excerpt from NBC News (latest):

"Previous reports of Comet ISON's death may have been somewhat exaggerated, but this time it looks like the real thing.
Remnants of the object once touted as the "comet of the century" passed through the viewing field of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory in the wake of Thursday's close encounter with the sun — and as it passed, the bright spot that survived grew dimmer and dimmer.

"I do think that something emerged from the sun, but probably a very small nucleus or 'rubble pile.' and I fear that may have now dissolved," Karl Battams, an astrophysicist at the Naval Research Laboratory who has been studying ISON for months, wrote Saturday in a Twitter update."
See the entire article here