Mobile-Astronomy Blog

NGC 7822 is a young star forming complex in the constellation of Cepheus. The Object is a composite of the deep red H-alpha line and the O3 line. RGB pictures were taken to keep the natural looking of the stars.

Exposure times: RGB 16x30sec each, O3 21x2min, Ha 21x2min,total: 108 min only.

Kit: Takahashi FSQ106, Astrodon 3nm filters, QHY268M, 10Micron GM1000

This crop of the center shows similarities to the "Pillars of Creation" in Messier 16 which became famous when they got imaged by Hubble

The Crescent Nebula, also known as NGC 6888 is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, about 5000 light-years away from Earth. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1792.

It is formed by the fast stellar wind from the Wolf-Rayet star WR 136 (HD 192163) colliding with and energizing the slower moving wind ejected by the star when it became a red giant 250,000 - 400,000 years ago. The result of the collision is a shell and two shock waves, one moving outward and one moving inward. The inward moving shock wave heats the stellar wind to X-ray-emitting temperatures. 

It is a faint object located about 2 degrees SW of Sadr. To image the outer (blue-ish) shell, a OIII filter was used to allow the ultra-narrow, 3nm, Oxygen-III line to pass through only. 

8x60sec were taken for each color, Red, Green, Blue and used for the star colors only.

30x120sec were used for the H-Alpha line and

40x120sec were used for the O-III line.

Exposure times: RGB 8x1min each, O3 40x2min, Ha 30x2min,total: 3hrs, 14min

Kit: TS-Optics PHOTOLINE 152 mm f/8 Triplet APO, Astrodon 3nm filters, QHY268M, 10Micron GM1000

The photo of IC5068 was taken last week at full moon using a Hα-Filter to block light pollution, block some of the moonlight and enhance contrast.

Only a very thin line in the deep-red spectrum passes through a Hα-Filter. Therefore, there is no color here.

Exposure times: Ha 24x5min, total: 2hrs

Kit: Takahashi FSQ106, Astrodon 3nm filters, QHY268M, 10Micron GM1000

IC 5068 is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus. The object, which represents a section of the Pelican Nebula (IC 5070), was discovered by Thomas Espin in 1899.

A solar eclipse happens when the Moon moves between the Sun and Earth, casting a shadow on Earth, fully or partially blocking the Sun’s light in some areas. People in  Canada, Greenland, and northern Russia can see the the full disc to be covered. In Germany, the sun was covered 7-15% only as you can see in the picture. Nevertheless, these partial solar eclipses are very rare and the next one visible from western europe will be end of 2022, the next full solar eclipse in 2081.

The picture shows the partial eclipse in Hydrogen Alpha, so a very thin line of the visible deep-red light spectrum of 0.5Å, that is five hundred-billionth of a meter. Taken from my garden, 200 pictures at 0.05sec each, only the best 50% were stacked.

Telescope is a Lunt LS60MT+Coronado SM60, QHYIII178M camera.

Please bear with me, i take one solar pic a year so am not experienced in this at all. But this might change ...

This crop of the picture above and shows a filament, which is the thin line and can erupt into space. Such events are sources of coronal mass ejections that can produce disturbed geomagnetic and auroral activity at the Earth several days later (if the filament that was ejected is directed toward the Earth)

Right of that is a small plage region. These regions of higher-temperature hydrogen gas are often the sites of dead or dying sunspot regions. 

!! As a general note, never look at the sun unprotected or through a telescope without proper filters in place !!

This image was taken at our site in Sonsbeck/Germany beginning of November 2020.  To me it shows impressive results taking into account light-pollution, half-moon and <3hrs of exposure time.

IC1396 is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust located in the constellation Cepheus, about 2,400 light years away from Earth. 

Exposure times: RGB 12x1min each, L 20x1min, Ha 34x2min, O3 13x2min, S2 10x2min, total 2hrs 50min

Kit: Takahashi FSQ106, ZWO ASI6200, 10Micron GM1000

This is a crop of IC 1396 showing  the  Elephants Trunk Nebula. 

The piece of the nebula shown here is a crop and is the dark, dense globule IC 1396A; it is commonly called the Elephant's Trunk nebula because of its appearance at visible light wavelengths, where there is a dark patch with a bright, sinuous rim. It is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396.

The bright rim is the surface of the dense cloud that is being illuminated and ionized by a very bright, massive star (HD 206267) that is just to the east of IC 1396A. The entire IC 1396 region is ionized by the massive star, except for dense globules that can protect themselves from the star's harsh ultraviolet rays.

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is now thought to be a site of star formation, containing several very young (less than 100,000 yr) stars that were discovered in infrared images in 2003. Two older (but still young, a couple of million years, by the standards of stars, which live for billions of years) stars are present in a small, circular cavity in the head of the globule. Winds from these young stars may have emptied the cavity.

The combined action of the light from the massive star ionizing and compressing the rim of the cloud, and the wind from the young stars shifting gas from the center outward lead to very high compression in the Elephant's Trunk Nebula. This pressure has triggered the current generation of protostars.(from: Wikipedia)

Taken at our Site in Sonsbeck/Germany at half-moon beginning of November 2020. The moon was close to the object so a little of RGB information could be captioned only.  

Exposure times: RGB 12x1min each, Ha 43x2min, O3 5x2min, total: 2hrs 12min

Kit: Takahashi FSQ106, ZWO ASI6200, 10Micron GM1000

The picture shows three emission nebulas: IC405, IC410 and IC 417 in the constellation Auriga.

Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IC_405&oldid=931935122

Unfortunately, due to the Covid situation, all german "Star-Parties" got cancelled. However, the ITT in Kärnten/Austria took place. 

I went there with my Takahashi FSQ106 and the Lunt. The weather was superb over daytime but super wet/dew during night and it became cloudy in the 2nd half of the nights.  Stayed from Mon-Wed with the actual gathering starting on Wednesday - so missed most of it unfortunately.

Anyway, had some good discussions over these two days and it was good to get out!