Since about 30 years ago, when an astronomy club colleague showed me M104 the sombrero galaxy in a 20×60 binocular it was one of my favourite deep sky objects.
A night after the great Aurora Display of 2024 I joined a friend who was imaging the Leo triplet, and had a go at M104 using the Starfire 127mm on the G-11 mount. We had a fun evening, saw some faint meteors, watched the milky way slowly rising.
M101 is a slightly disturbed spiral galaxy we see face on, it is located in the constellation Ursa Major, the big bear. This is the first image I have taken since I updated the G-11 mount with the rectascension extension, which also allows separating the RA and DEC units for portability. I also switched out the original tripod for a Meade Field tripod, which is lighter and packs smaller.
Read MoreI chose the Rosette nebula again as my target of choice when I wanted to test if I can improve on the image quality when using the 0,7x reducer.
The Rosette nebula is a large and relatively bright emission nebula in the constellation Monoceros. Various parts of the nebula have separate NGC numbers and the embedded star cluster itself is NGC2244
This wider view was taken with the Takahashi FS-60CB and shows the surrounding area of the sky.
Later I discovered that the reducer only provides a 10% reduction in focal length, while introducing quite a bit of vignetting.
Orion is not only home to the famous Orion and Horsehead nebula but it is also filled with lots of dust and faintly glowing hydrogen. The bright newborn stars of the area illuminate the interstellar gas and dust, creating a smoky, glowing background.
The Rosette nebula is a large and relatively bright emission nebula in the constellation Monoceros. Various parts of the nebula have separate NGC numbers and the embedded star cluster itself is NGC2244
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During the last weeks southerly winds brought warm weather and Sahara dust to our skies. On Thursday the dust had settled enough to make the night clear enough to set up the small refractor again.
Read MoreSurprisingly tonight the sky was reasonably clear, so I set up the Vixen Polarie with the Takahashi FS-60CB on top.
With the Z6 now my main camera for general photography I sent of my trusty Nikon D750 to modify it by filter removal. The camera is now still fully functional, but he color temperature settings are off, and red response has changed significantly. With the ongoing bad weather I was happy to have an evening with reasonably clear skies and set up the Baby Tak on the Vixen Polarie with the D750a using an L-enhance filter. While the camera capturing 30s exposures I used another scope on the big mount to photograph Mars.
M16 has become famous with the famous image of the Hubble telescope showing the pillars of creation. They are also visible in the center of the image below.
This was a first, quick test with the 0,75x reducer (27TVPH) – but I think focus was not good, so my judgement about the quality of the image the focuser delivers is not final yet.
I find edge-on galaxies especially pleasing, I guess this is the reason while I return to NGC4565 so often.
While the images were captured, the Starlink satellites which launched yesterday passed almost through the Zenith. They were still very closely grouped, and changed dramatically in brightness when the culminated almost in the Zenith. Here are some images of that pass:
Soon after reaching their highest point in the sky, they entered Earth’s shadow and became unobservable.