Observations of Deep-Sky Objects

These are the observations made by amateur astronomers from around the globe. I'm keen to present the work of an observer (members or not) to further the aims of the Webb Deep-Sky Society. Images, sketches or even your observing notes are of interest.

If you have any observations of your own that you'd like to submit I'd be delighted to hear from you. Please try to include as much detail about the object (after all that's why we observe them) as possible. Time, date, location and observing conditions are useful.

We have observations of these Objects

Which fall into these classes

And these Constellations

Or if you'd just like to browse through our most recent observations

• M56 in Lyra

  I'm continuing my observations of globular clusters so this is Messier 56 in Lyra.

  Charles Messier found M56 on the 19th March 1779, on the same night he also discovered a comet. He reobserved M56 on the 23rd March and noted that it was a nebula without a star and little light close to a 10th magnitude star. Five years later, John Herschel succeeded in resolving this globular cluster into individual stars. He described M56 as a fine compressed cluster, inclining to a triangular form, brighter towards the middle, with stars of 12th to 14th magnitude.

  

  M56 has a very eccentric orbit around the galactic centre taking it from a few thousand light-years of the galactic centre out to 40,000 light years from the centre. M56 is currently 27,000 light-years from us as it traverses the outer half of its orbit. It has around 200,000 solar masses and is just one third the size of M13. The 25 brightest stars have an average magnitude of 15.3. Notable is the 10th magnitude blue-white star to the west (right side) which was noted by Messier.

  Image Details

  • Telescope: 8" Ritchey-Chretien at F/8.2
  • Camera: QSI 583 wsg and Lodestar guide camera
  • Mount: Skywatcher EQ6

  This is an RGB image with five 5-minute exposures per colour captured on 5-6 August 2018.

  David Davies - (17 September 2018).

• June's Galaxy of the Month: M101

  This is a image of M101 with data captured over the 13th, 16th and 20th of March 2018 for a total of 4h10m (25x600s) of luminance and 20m (2x600s) each of Red, Green and Blue.

  I used an Altair Astro GSO 10" F8 scope with a Starlight Xpress H694 camera and Astronomik filters from Mileaway Observatory in East Sussex.

  

  Paul Whitmarsh - 5 June 2018

• Winter Open Clusters

  Recent months have given us the worst run of observing weather I can remember and during this time I've been using what clear spells we've had to do some telescope testing. This has meant that I've been out grabbing a few test images when conditions would otherwise have kept me indoors. So looking back, I can now see that some of these test images are quite presentable so I thought I'd share them with you. So these are a small collection of Winter open clusters looking south from my observatory in Cambridge.

  Messier 46, NGC 2437 and the planetary nebula NGC 2438 in Puppis

  M46 is one of the richest open clusters with over 500 stars, over 180 of them brighter than magnitude 13 and the brightest being around magnitude 9. M46 is around 4480 light years away. There are a few red giant stars indicating a cluster age of around 500 million years. The planetary nebula NGC 2438 lies in the northern region of M46 and it is still debated whether it is part of M46 or is a foreground object. M46 was imaged on 10 February 2018.

  

  Messier 50, NGC 2323 in Monoceros

  M50 is a much sparser open cluster with around 100 stars at 2900 light years distant. Noteworthy is the magnitude 7.8 red giant star to the south of the cluster and the double stars on the northeast edge. M50 was imaged on 24 February 2018.

  

  Messier 67, NGC 2662 in Cancer

  M67 is 3000 light years away, is one of the oldest open clusters known and is thought to be 3.7 billion years old, almost the age of the Solar System. It contains highly evolved stars, including around 20 red giant stars. M67 was imaged on 8 March 2018.

  

  Messier 44, NGC 2632 in Cancer, Praesepe or The Beehive Cluster

  This image is of the central region of M44, the field of view was too small to capture the whole cluster. At just 610 light years distant, M44 is one of the nearest open clusters. It contains over 200 stars with the brightest at magnitude 6.8 and over 20 brighter than magnitude 8. The cluster contains a large number of double and triple stars and over 100 variable stars. Despite the short exposures, there are several faint galaxies visible in the image. M44 was imaged on 8 March 2018.

  

  Image Details

  • Telescope: 8" Ritchey-Chretien plus 0.7X reducer at F/5.3
  • Camera: QSI 583 plus Astrodon RGB filters and a Lodestar guide camera

  All images are typically six subs of each RGB colour and of two or three minutes exposure each.

  David Davies - (11 April 2018). To see more of David's work please visit his Flickr Photostream.

• NGC 4314 in Coma Berenices

  A single sketch of a wonderful face on barred spiral in Coma B NGC 4314 from April 4th. Starlightxpress Ultrastar digital video camera and 505mm mirror used.

  

  Dale Holt - (8 April 2018).

  As ever you can keep up with Dale's observations on his Blog.

• A new camera: going digital

  Here are my first sketches with my new Starlightxpress Ultrastar digital video camera on 25 February 2018. At the time of writing I'm undecided as to whether it has an advantage over my old analogue Watec camera?

  The images are certainly sharper and cleaner but do I see more and deeper? There is still much to learn about the cameras control, I'am certainly not getting the best out of it at this early stage.

  Arp 49 in Bootes

  

  Located in Bootes, apparently single galaxy visually with interesting faint arms bearing a tiny HSB companion (5665A) visible only in deep images. Magnitude 12.7 and 1.9' x 1.3' in size.

  This is my first Arp sketch made using the Ultra Star digital video camera. 10 second exposure with 505mm mirror.

  NGC 5746 in Virgo

  

  A beautiful edge on in Virgo. Like a 'little Sombrero'. Fantastic dark lane. Magnitude 11.3, 8.0' x 1.3' in size and at a distance of 77 Mly.

  This image was the first sketch that I made with the Starlightxpress Ultrastar digital video camera, 10 second exposure in a poor pre-dawn sky.

  Dale Holt - (7 March 2018).

  As ever you can keep up with Dale's observations on his Blog.

• NGC457 in Cassiopeia

  NGC 457 is the brightest open cluster in Cassiopeia and one of the finest objects of its type in the northern sky.

  At magnitude +6.4, it's just beyond naked-eye visibility but I viewed it visually last weekend through my 107mm APO and I was struck by its beauty. The eyes of the Owl - or ET- are formed by the bright double star Psi Cassiopeia and are not part of the cluster itself, but are older foreground stars and are yellow-white in colour. The 10th-12th magnitude stars of the cluster, proper, are blue-white and arranged in prominent lines and curves lines and resemble the body and wings of an Owl, hence the popular name "the Owl Cluster".

  I really enjoyed the view through the telescope and appreciated the tiny, bright points of light making up the body and wings of the Owl. The experience confirmed to me that an image is only a representation of the visual view; you might make a visual observer of me yet.

  I have also enjoyed inspecting this image of NGC 457, especially the contrast between the blue-white and yellow-white stars in the cluster.

  

  Under the left wing of the Owl is the striking magnitude 8.7 red star, HD 236697, with colour index 2.1. Under the right wing, we find another, fainter deep red star.

  The lower part of the image is sprinkled with very faint galaxies, which are reddened in colour by the intervening dust of our Milky Way galaxy.

  This RGB image was captured on 26, 27 and 28 November with 20 x two-minute subs per colour. It is presented North down to give an upright Owl.

  I've also attached an inverted greyscale image of the region in the lower part of the image for galaxy hunters.

  

  Image Details

  • Telescope: 8" Ritchey-Chretien with an Astrophysics CCDT67 reducer.
  • Camera: QSI 583 plus Astrodon filters

  The main image is 30 minutes each of RGB in two-minute subs.

  David Davies - (13 December 2017).

• STF 163 in Cassiopeia

  

  Roberto Chiericoni (13 November 2017)

• A Month of Arps in Pegasus

  I got out in the observatory last night and made a sketch. I had not researched a target, just went for Pegasus galaxies. I sketched NGC 7549 which is a 13th magnitude stunner.

  

  Researching it this morning I see it forms part of Arp 99 and Hickson 93 so I had observed and sketched it before! Although not as a standalone object. Should research before observing!!

  Still avery nice object and I pulled out some good detail.

  Continuing with my renewed vigour I grabbed a small break in cloud last night to grab an observation and sketch.

  NGC 7448 isn't the most exciting galaxy so I won't post this on social media, but as I'm working through the Arp's I can't just pick the cherries 😉

  

  Located in Pegasus, very close to alpha Pegasi. Quite bright magnitude 11.6, elongate N-S. Described as a spiral with detached segments. I noted a bright nucleus, and a brighter region on the northern tip, down in my drawing. I saw the galaxy as having a slightly curved nature.

  I got out again and I was straight onto a rather attractive Arp, 65, a pair of NGC galaxies, just to the mid left of the square of Pegasus.

  

  NGC 90 is the attractive central spiral in my sketch (magnitude 13.6) with NGC 93 to the left (magnitude 13.3).

  Tiny companion galaxies lie off projected ends of both spiral arms. I got some of the companions, but not all of them I'm sure, a good observation though and another Arp tick for me 😃

  Dale Holt - (28 October 2017).

  Keep up to date with Dale's observations from Chippingdale Observatory by reading his Blog.

• STF 2840 in Cepheus

  September 11th saw a clear spell following the band of rain. The air was crystal clear (NELM 5.5) after the rain so I needed no encouragement to set up the gear.

  STF 2840 was last observed in 2016 and I recorded that I thought component A might have a hint of blue about it. Using x133, this time I could not decide if it had a blue hue or not, so I stuck with white.

  Interestingly so when I defocused the pair I noticed the companion was definitely darker in colour and had a hint of yellow to it. At x220 the companion was definitely darker but no hint of blue for the main star.

  Using AV at x220, I was just able to detect the mag 13 component. At x133 there is a nice collection of two brighter stars with several faint ones in attendance – delightful.

  

  Mike Wood - 13 September 2017

• STF 2525 in Vulpecula

  I look forward to the Double Star of the Month and this month was no exception.

  On the evening of 10th August I geared up (OMC 200) just as the moon was rising behind cloud (and it stayed covered for my delightful 2 hour doubles session).

  Using the Tak LE 30mm I sent the scope to STF 2525 and when I glanced into the eyepiece there was no sign of the double, although the view was a delightful show of pinprick stars.

  Then as my eyes adjusted (such a pain getting old) there it was, just split at x133 and in the centre of the field of view – wonderful, to see this tight pair surrounded by many points of light. I marvelled for a few minutes before increasing the magnification to x267.

  

  Both stars had a hint of colour. I plumped for orange/pale yellow. The colour remained at x333 and broken diffraction rings were in evidence.

  Mike Wood - 11 August 2017