Spring 2021 – Daysprings Observatory

 AP1200GTO, AP130GTX, Astronomical, Cluster, Daysprings Observatory, Galaxy, Globular Cluster, Observatory, QHY268M  Comments Off on Spring 2021 – Daysprings Observatory
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

Calhoun County Park Oct 2020

 AP900GTO, Astronomical, Calhoun County Park, Canon 6D, Dark Nebula, Emission Nebula, FSQ-106ED, Galaxy, Nebula, Orion Atlas EQ-G, Reflection Nebula, Star Parties, SVQ100, SX-46, ZWO ASI533MC  No Responses »
Nov 082020
 
View of the barn and new stage under construction from the ridge where we typically setup for astronomy.
Looking SW’ish where most of the informal star party group was setup.
Looking NE on the ridge
Sh2-155 The Cave Nebula
SVQ-100 with ASI533MC OSC CMOS on Orion Atlas EQ-G Mount
IC 342
SVQ-100 with ASI533MC OSC CMOS on Orion Atlas EQ-G Mount
Galaxy NGC 891
SVQ-100 with ASI533MC OSC CMOS on Orion Atlas EQ-G Mount
Sh2-136
SVQ-100 with ASI533MC OSC CMOS on Orion Atlas EQ-G Mount
Sh2-150
FSQ-106ED with SX-46 Mono CCD on AP900GTO

Informal Calhoun County Park Fall Star Party 2019

 AP130EDT, Astronomical, Galaxy, Star Parties, SX-46  No Responses »
Oct 272019
 
Road to the Observing Ridge at Dawn Thursday Morning

After missing the BFSP at Cherry Springs State Park, PA last new moon we were anxious to get out for one last hurah for the year. Weather looked great initially from midweek into the weekend but rapidly went downhill as we got closer to the weekend. We did however have an amazingly clear Weds night and clear until 3:00am or so on Thursday.

Observers on the Ridge on Thursday Morning

 

Friday morning arrived with clouds and slightly warmer temps (no frost) than Thursday morning. The sunrise was spectacular.

I am not a galaxy imager. I’m at home with short refractors imaging large nebula in our own galaxy. Spring and Fall are more or less galaxy season though if you want to be able to image the same object the majority of these longer nights. So I picked out a decent size bright galaxy and dusted off the long f/ratio 5″ refractor and gave it a try. It’s not without it’s problems but nice to see a 28 year old refractor still collecting photons!

Crop of Galaxy NGC 891
Click image for full size
NGC 891 – Full Frame (minor crop)
5.3 hours of Lum, 5.5 hours RGB
AP130EDT f/8 with SX-46 CCD on AP900GTO
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Annotated NGC 891
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Calhoun County Park – 5/30/2019 through 6/4/2019

 AP900GTO, Astronomical, Dark Nebula, Emission Nebula, FSQ-106ED, Galaxy, Nebula, Orion Atlas EQ-G, Rokinon 85mm Lens, Star Parties, SX-46, Widefield  No Responses »
Jul 072019
 

With weather looking wet and wild for the 2019 Cherry Springs Star Party and things looking slightly less soggy at Calhoun we decided to cancel on Cherry Springs and gamble on Calhoun. Good thing we were setup on the top of a ridge so we never had to deal with muddy conditions considering all the rain we didn’t know was coming.

The first couple days were all clouded out.
Night time conditions were very soupy
Couple nights later things were improving but still very humid and hazy. The Milky Way was at least starting to pull out of the haze.
Cloudy rainy days
Equipment setup and hoping for clearing
Frank and the Astro Tent
Finally some stars poking through the clouds. Look at that new bright light in the East / NE; it’s really projecting up!
M101 – LRGB with FSQ-106ED and SX-46 CCD on AP900GTO Mount. 6 hours total exposure in hazy conditions. Best SQM 21.8 mag/arcsec^2.
M101 Annotated – Check out all those background galaxies!
Widefield of Scutum, Serpens, Sagittarius, and Ophiucus. Canon 6D with Rokinon 85mm f/4 tracking on an Atlas EQ-G. 14x3min shots stacked, no calibration.
Widefield of Scutum, Serpens, Sagittarius, and Ophiucus annotated. You can see this very busy area is really a crossroads of constellations.
Some VERY ominous clouds started moving in…
Hail Storm
M17 LRGB – FSQ-106ED with SX-46 CCD on AP900GTO Mount. Total Exposure almost 2 hours of hazy low to the horizon 5 minute subs.
From Jupiter to the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. Canon 6D with Rokinon 85mm @f4. 6x3min frames stacked, no calibration.

M106 – LRGB from Home

 AP1200GTO, AP130GTX, Apogee U8300, Astronomical, Daysprings Observatory, Galaxy, Observatory  No Responses »
May 072019
 

Due to a moisture breach of my camera causing frosting issues which caused me to throw out all but 4.5 hours of data out of 18 I figured I might as well post this as it’s not going to get much better. Image scale was 1.31 arcsec/pixel which seems to give fairly decent sampling for the average seeing here in East Tennessee. Imaging location just outside Clinton, TN with average SQM measurements ranging from 20.1 to 20.4 mag/arcsec^2.

M106 – 4.5 hours AP130GTX, Apogee U8300, AP1200GTO

Star Cloud NGC 206 in the Arms of the Andromeda Galaxy

 Apogee A694, Astronomical, Cluster, Galaxy, Open Cluster, Orion Atlas EQ-G, SVQ100  1 Response »
Apr 022017
 

 

NGC 206 is the brightest star cloud in the arms of the Andromeda Galaxy visible to us here on Earth.  You often see M31 imaged wide field but there is a wealth of detail to be found in the star clouds and dust lanes that start to pop out with a little more focal length.  Taken late last year from my back yard.

NGC 206 in Andromeda
SVQ100, Atlas EQ-G, Apogee A694 CCD

M81 & M82 – Bodes Nebula and the Cigar

 AP1200GTO, AP130GTX, Apogee A694, Astronomical, Daysprings Observatory, Galaxy  No Responses »
Mar 262017
 

We’re in Galaxy Season and without the 10″ RC I’ve instead focused on the 5″ refractor with a small pixel size camera to squeeze out some detail.  Imaged from the backyard observatory in ~20.5 mag/arcsec^2 skies.

M81 – Bodes Nebula ~8 hours of exposure time. LRGB with AP130GTX, AP1200GTO, Apogee Ascent A694, Baader LRGB Filters, SX-OAG, Lodestar Guider.

 

M82 – The Cigar Approximately 7.5 Hours of exposure time. AP130GTX, AP1200GTO, Apogee Ascent A694, Baader LRGB, SX-OAG, Lodestar Audoguider

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