Jul 162022
 

AP130GTX with QHY268M CMOS Camera on AP1200GTO Mount. Total Exposure time of ~17.5 hours comprised of 105 x 5 minute sub frames. Images captured from Clinton, TN.

Located roughly 5,000 light years from earth, the Rosette Nebula is approximately 130 light years in diameter and is home to about 2,500 new born stars in this star forming complex. For a more down to earth factoid, the Rosette Nebula is the official astronomical object of the State of Oklahoma as passed by the Legislature in 2019.

Jul 042021
 

I put a QHY268M CMOS camera into the Observatory to replace the significantly larger pixel sized Apogee U8300 that has been hanging around since the very early days and is starting to hiccup. These were all test images with 3 minute exposures from my fairly light polluted suburban back yard observatory. (SQM is 20.0 to 20.4 depending on season and quality of the night.) Most images are 2-3 hours total exposure in LRGB. Some images were a total loss due to filter wheel problems and filter shift causing incompatible flat frame corrections. Corrective actions have been taken to secure the filters and ensure proper indexing. As it is, none of these images are great but I can’t bring myself to throw them out so think of this as a first light post of sorts for the QHY268M.

M95

A barred spiral galaxy approximately 33 million light years away.

M95
M95 – Annotated

M108

M108 is a barred spiral in Ursa Major and contains about 125 billion solar masses.

M108
M108 – Annotated

M13

M13 is a globular cluster of several hundred thousand stars in the constellation Hercules.

M13
M13 Annotated

M106

M106 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici with a detected supermassive black hole at it’s core. It resides approximately 22-25 million light years away. It’s one of the largest and brightest nearby galaxies.

M106
M106 – Annotated

The Leo Triplet

The Leo Triplet, also known as the M66 group, contains M65, M66, and NGC 3628 commonly called the Hamburger Galaxy. The galaxy group resides approximately 35 million light years away.

The Leo Triplet
The Leo Triplet – Annotated
Feb 142021
 
IC 1795 – A star forming region in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia. Hubble Pallet Emission line imaging from Clinton, TN. Poor seeing conditions over several nights in Nov 2020 but almost 33 hours of total exposure time. AP130GTX with Apogee U8300 camera riding on AP1200GTO in backyard observatory.

Apr 042020
 

We’ve had far too many rainy days followed by isolation and the closure of astronomy parks and related facilities. Even if it cleared, we have nowhere to go. So here’s a quick reminder of the winter nebula that are leaving now not to be seen until next year. I wish I had time to do a mosaic and capture the whole nebula but I didn’t. It truly is a LARGE nebula. This image is 2.4 degrees across and could hold more than 18 full moons. (The moon varies between about 29′20″ – 34′6″ in size)

NGC 1499
AP130GTX, Apogee U16M, 14x20min HA
Clinton, TN