NGC 2175, originally uploaded by ThinkingCamera.
In Orion. A star cluster surrounded by nebulosity (gas and dust). Although it is a little noisy, I was thrilled with this image. This is the kind of thing I was hoping to do when I started playing with astrophotography.
Leo triplet of Galaxies, originally uploaded by ThinkingCamera.
This is the famous and beautiful Leo triplet of Galaxies – Top is NGC 3628, and left to right in the bottom right hand corner are M66 and M65.
This is a genuinely interacting group of Galaxies about 35 million light years away.
20 x 40 second exposures. Atik 320e camera on a CPC800 telescope. Imaged from a suburban back garden in southern England. I was very pleased with this image – I think I am gradually getting the hang of astrophotography.
M42 and NGC1980, originally uploaded by ThinkingCamera.
This was intended to be the beginning of a mosaic of the whole of Orion’s sword, but the cloud came when I only had enough frames to do this much.
Given that there was a lot of moonlight and some mist plus the usual light pollution, this is not too bad. The middle of the great nebula is bleached out, but the dynamic range really requires “HDR” type techniques and the cloud came before I could vary the exposures.
This is a 2-frame mosaic, each frame being 15 x 20seconds on an Atik 320e camera attached to a CPC800 telescope with Hyperstar (f2). Stars down to at least magnitude 18.
NGC7789, originally uploaded by ThinkingCamera.
This is one of my favourite star clusters and this is the best image I have ever made of it. It is a collection of old stars (hence the colour) in the direction of Cassiopeia. The stars have used up much of their hydrogen and bloomed into “red giants”.
15 x 20second frames. CPC800 Hyperstar Telescope. Atik 320e camera. Quite a bright moon and there was thin cirrus cloud.
Alnitak and Flame Nebula, originally uploaded by ThinkingCamera.
The very bright star is Alnitak – the “left end” of the belt of Orion. You can easily see why it is called the “Flame Nebula” (NGC2024) and there is a smaller nebula (NGC2023) also visible. The whole area is awash with dust and gas (though I suspect some of the misty areas are really light pollution!)
15 x 40second exposures. Atik320e camera on a Hyperstar (f2) CPC800 telescope. This was the first image I made with the 320e.
M50, originally uploaded by ThinkingCamera.
I like the image of the star cluster M50, but I also was thrilled to discover by chance that it might have a comet in it. I thought that the object marked with the lines was comet 103P Hartley. The position was right according to software and there was nothing that bright on the charts I have, but the digital sky survey does show a double star, that bright and in the exact position, so it is not the comet. Oh well! “Blinking” between my image and the DSS one, I can see nothing different, so if the comet is in the image, it did not register.
This was made with 15 x 20second exposures on my new Atik320e camera on the 8inch CPC800 telescope.
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