It has been a long time since I posted but I just had a great
The equipment used was a Celestron CPC-800 at F6.3 with an an Altair Astro 294C fan cooled camera. The imaging software was the latest SharpCap 4.1 beta.
All the images below were saved as seen from SharpCap and resized in
I kicked off the session with a look at an amazing face on spiral, M33 The Triangulum Galaxy. This galaxy is big and full of H11 regions and even its own globular clusters.
M33 - 15s x 131 subs, dark, flat, gain 1800, temp 3.3 deg C.
This view of M33 uses SharpCap's Deep Space Annotation tool to label some of the many objects that are part of M33. The Catalogue was created using AstroPlanner and exported in DSA format.
Next up was
15s x 67 frames, dark, flat, gain 1800, temp 3 deg.
Another galaxy
15s x 60 subs, dark, flats, gain 1800, temp 3.1 deg.
15s x 87 frames, gain 1800
M77 Cetus A has a central bright core with some well defined structure. The outer structure is very faint but slowly appeared as the stack formed. It appears as a faint haze on the image.
15s x 63 frames, gain 1800.
The classic, M1 the Crab Nebula. A lovely coloured cloud of exploding gas and dust. Pushed the colour up to reveal the red edges of the cloud.
15s x 101 frames, gain 1800
A great sight, M35 and NGC2158. The
8s x 41 frames, gain 1800.
NGC2158 deserved a look all by itself. This is an amazing tightly packed cluster with a multitude of small stars. The cluster slowly dissipates and ends in fine streamers of stars reaching out into the background star field.
15s x 45 frames, 1800 gain
Another classic object the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33). This object was one of the first I observed when I started
15s x 60 frames, 1800 gain
The high clouds started to roll in during the time I was observing the Horsehead, but I still wanted to get my fix of M42 the Orion Nebula. Even through high cloud it is still an impressive site.
4s x 186 frames, gain 1800
The last object before the clouds finished the session was M37 in Auriga. An open cluster.
15s x 22 frames, 1800 gain.
A really enjoyable session. The conditions were not perfect and the high cloud was determined to spoil the fun. However, watching the various objects building up on the display, revealing more and more structure and colour was amazing!
Have fun and clear skies.
Pete
