NGC6888
Category Archives: deepsky
Sternennacht am Kristberg 2025
Every year the Vorarlberger Amateur Astronomen have a night of stargazing and Astrophotography at the Panoramagasthof Kristberg, in 2025 the weather was especially fine and I was able to capture a variety of deep sky objects
M16 – The pillars of creation
M8 – the Lagoon Nebula
A short exposure of the lagoon nebula in the constellation Sagittarius.
M104 – The sombrero Galaxy
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 – the Pinwheel Galaxy
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 MoreRosette Nebula
I 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.
H-II nebulosity in central Orion
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
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
Read MoreRegion around the cone nebula
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.
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