Monday, February 25, 2019

The "37" Cluster

NGC 2169 or The "37" Cluster is an open star cluster located at a distance of 3600 light years from us.


Sunday, February 24, 2019

Flame Nebula NGC2024

East from the belt of constellation Orion you can see the Flame Nebula or NGC2024. This emission nebula is located at a distance of 1350 light years from Earth.
The nebula was exposed for 9 minutes and all pictures stacked (DNG) with DeepskySkacker. Final editing using CS4. The bright star on the picture is Alnitak.


Whirlpool Galaxy M51


An 18 minutes exposure of the Whirlpool Galaxy or Messier M51 located in the constellation Canes Venatici. This distance is about 23million light years.
The picture was taken with Nikon D7500 on TAL200K f/8.5. Deepskystacker is used to stack the pictures including darks. Final editing with CS4. No moon and temperature -1°C.



Moon Waning Gibbous (80%)



The moon (waning gibbous 80%) was low above the horizon right after midnight. So time to finish my observation of deep sky objects as the moon will overshine the sky.


Saturday, February 23, 2019

Sun in H-Alpha


This afternoon I took some time to observe the Sun in H-Alpha. No sunspots but some huge filaments could be observed. When comparing the two pictures below you can see how dynamic the filaments are and changing geometry. Both pictures taken with Nikon D7500 on SolarMaxIII 70/400 f/5.7 double stacked. Pictures are converted into DNG and edited using CS4.



Filament, Airplane with Sun in H-Alpha

Some luck... airplane with Filament with Sun in H-Alpha.


Filament on the Sun

This afternoon a huge filament is covering the Sun. This can be seen in H-Alpha. Picture is taken with Nikon D7500 on SolarMax3 d70/400 f/5.7. The insert is taken from the Gong H-Alpha network.