These are our observations of Cluster

• In the Region of the Summer Stars: The Coathanger Asterism

  At last, I've had a few clear nights and managed to get out and enjoy the sky again. I decided to forego the forensic probings of my Ritchey-Chretien scope and take in more of the context around some of our summer objects. So, for the first time, I installed the ASI 071MC camera on my APM 107 refractor and included the 0.75x Riccardi reducer. This combination gives a focal length of 530mm and an image scale of 1.8 arcsec per pixel, which is a bit on the big side and gives around two pixels per star. Thus, the expectation was to see some blocky star images, which I have.

  I have observed the Coathanger asterism previously but on this occasion, I deliberately shifted the "Coathanger" to the bottom of the frame so that I could explore the region to its north. The second night was plagued by high, thin clouds, which I did not see while imaging, but they became apparent during processing and produced a blue haze over the image. Rather than lose all the data, I used several tools and processing techniques to reduce the haze, and this image is the result of this work. There are over 19,000 stars in this image, says Pixinsight.

  

  Just for a bit of fun, I've been exploring the image and have identified the following objects of interest.

  NGC6802: a 10th magnitude open cluster forming an extension of the coathanger bar to the east.

  

  IC1299: a very 14th magnitude open cluster to the northwest.

  

  Sharpless 2-83, a 15th magnitude 2x2 arc-minutes HII region.

  

  And three planetary nebulae from the Strasbourg-ESO catalogue of planetary nebulae that were discovered by Henize during the 1960s. These are small, faint objects on this image and took a bit of finding, but I think I have them. You might, of course, disagree, but that is fine.

  

  • He 1-1: an 18.5 magnitude planetary nebula, 5 x 5 arcseconds
  • He 1-2: a 17.2 magnitude planetary nebula, 5 x 5 arcseconds
  • He 2-432: an 18.5 magnitude planetary nebula, 5 x 5 arc seconds

  The images of these planetary nebulae have been copied from the original image and magnified. The nebulae are the pinkish star-like objects in the centre of the frame.

  I'm astonished at the wealth of detail captured by my somewhat neglected refractor. The objects' brightness range is from 5th magnitude in the coathanger to 18th magnitude from the tiny planetary nebulae - that's around 140,000 times. It's time for a rethink on telescopes going forward, perhaps. I should go back to the objects using my RC telescope and see what it delivers.

  Image Details

  Data: 80 x 30s RGB sub-images collected on 27th and 28th July 2024.

  • Telescope: APM 107 refractor with 0.75x Riccardi reducer flattener
  • Camera: ZWO ASI 071 MC Pro
  • Mount: Skywatcher EQ8

  David Davies - (31 July 2024).

• Three in one: NGC 6712, IC 1295 and PK 25-4.1

  The attached image resulted from something of an experiment to explore what quality of image I might get from using the ASI 294MC Pro one-shot-colour camera to try and capture two low-down, planetary nebulae.

  My attention was initially drawn to the globular cluster NGC 6712, but an exploration of that region of the sky with a Cartes du Ciel revealed the planetary nebula IC 1295 close by with the Perek-Kohoutek object, PK 25-4.1 close by. I, therefore, elected to try my RC10 telescope with a 0.7x reducer (finally at its correct spacing) and with the telescope recollimated following some incorrect assumptions concerning the pointing accuracy of my TS_Optics focuser.

  

  NGC 6712 was discovered by William Herschel on June 16th, 1784. It is a relatively small (64 light-years across) and sparse (~1 million stars) globular cluster, which lies 22,500 light-years away.

  A study by the European Southern Observatory concludes that NGC 6712 is only a pale remnant of a once much more massive cluster. It notes that none of NGC 6712’s stars is less massive than our Sun, making it totally unlike any globular cluster. Most likely, NGC 6712 is unique only because no other globular cluster comes as close to the Milky Way’s centre as NGC 6712; it penetrates very deeply into the galactic bulge, venturing to within 1,000 light-years of the galactic centre. The tidal force of the galaxy not only strips low-mass stars from the cluster but also stretches out the cluster like a comet’s tail. The ESO study labels NGC 6712 as a peculiar globular cluster. The Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas labels 6712 as The Weird Globular.

  Above is my 2x2 binned image of the full field which shows the globular cluster in a rich field of stars to the right of the image and IC 1295 to the lower left of the centre. I think I can see streams of stars running east of north and west of south from the globular cluster, as described in the literature.

  Below is a full-resolution image of the region around IC 1295. IC 1295 is slightly left of the centre, and I believe that PK 25-4.1 is the small bright blue object in an arc of four stars to the upper right of the centre.

  

  Image Details

  Data: 60 x 2-minutes exposures from 2nd to 6th October 2022.

  • Telescope: 10-inch Ritchey Chretien with a x0.7 reducer at 1400mm focal length
  • Camera: ASI 294MC Pro (-15C, gain 120, off 13)
  • Mount: Skywatcher EQ8
  • Software: NINA, Pixinsight, Photoshop

  David Davies - (10 October 2022).

• Messier 68 in Hydra

  I keep a list of the Messier objects that I image and M68 is listed as being too low to observe. It reaches around 10.4 degrees of altitude at my location at which point it is skimming just above the branches of the trees at the end of the field behind my observatory. It is visible above the trees for barely an hour. Last night presented an opportunity to try to observe it, but the sky had become very dark with haze and only a few of the brighter stars were visible by eye. Nevertheless, I had a go.

  I've recently rediscovered the power of binned exposures with my QSI camera, giving an effective pixel size of 10.8um and an ideal image scale of 1.3"/pixel on my 8" RC telescope. My previous experiments with binned exposures were mixed and I stopped using the technique.

  Messier 68 is a globular cluster discovered by Charles Messier in 1780. Messier found it to be unresolvable, but William Herschel first resolved it into stars in 1786. M68 is a rich cluster of around 100,000 stars; it lies at a distance of 33,000 light-years and is around 106 light-years across.

  

  This image is the result of just 10 minutes of exposures each of RGB, 5 x two minutes each, binned 2 x2, as M68 cleared the tops of the trees briefly. Despite atmospheric dispersion, poor sky transparency, horrible seeing and a severely attenuated blue component, I am happy to share the image. I suspect that it is rarely observed in the UK.

  Image Details

  • Telescope: 8" Ritchey-Chretien
  • Camera: QSI 683 with Astrodon RGB filters
  • Mount: Skywatcher EQ8.

  David Davies - (24 March 2022).

• NGC 2237 in Monoceros

  I took this last night, but the camera was not cooled, I forgot to set it, think it was the excitement of a clear night!! My observatory is in my back garden in Boughton which is on the edge of Northampton.

  

  Image Details

  It is a 500 second single shot, which has been slightly cropped, taken with a FLI microline colour using sparse configuration in full frame. The result is processed in Maxim.

  • Telescope: AG14 Orion F 3.8
  • Camera: FLI Microline Camera

  Richard Weatherley - (3 January 2022).

• Messier 15 in Pegasus

  Messier 15 is a bright and beautiful globular cluster in the constellation of Pegasus. It was discovered by the French astronomer Jean-Dominique Maraldi on 7th September 1746 and he reported it as a bright nebulous star composed of many stars. Messier observed it on 3rd June 1764 and added it to his list of 'not a comet' objects with the remark that it appeared as a round nebula, without a star. Other early observers included William and John Herschel and they commented on its brightness and unusual beauty.

  

  Image Details

  I captured this image during the short darkness of 28th July as part of testing the imaging software N.I.N.A. It comprises just 10 x two-minute subs of red, green and blue sub-frames. The short exposures have ensured that the core is not over-exposed and the planetary nebula Pease1 can be discerned just north of the centre.

  • Telescope: 8" Ritchey-Chretien with x0.7 reducer.
  • Camera: QSI 683.
  • Mount: Skywatcher EQ8.

  David Davies - (20 August 2020).

• NGC 7789 (Caroline's Rose) in Cassiopeia

  NGC 7789, Caroline's Rose, can be found in Cassiopeia among the rich starfields of the Milky Way. It lies about 8,000 light-years away and is one of the oldest open clusters known. It was discovered in 1783 by Caroline Herschel and was catalogued by brother William.

  The cluster looks like a flower in small telescopes, created by the cluster's nestled complex of stars and voids. It is estimated to be 1.6 billion years old, and many stars have evolved from the main sequence into red giants, thus giving the somewhat yellow cast.

  

  I captured the data in late September 2019 using one hour each of RGB data in five-minute subs. I processed the data in PixInsight and used the photometric colour calibration tool to fix the colours of the stars.

  Image Details

  • Telescope: APM 107 refractor
  • Camera: QSI 583 with a Lodestar as off-axis guider
  • Mount: Skywatcher EQ8

  David Davies - (20 October 2019).

• Two faint globular clusters in Delphinus

  NGC 6934

  The first is NGC 6934, imaged on 16th August 2018 but processed only earlier this year.

  NGC 6934 is a faint globular cluster of magnitude 8.8 and containing 16th magnitude stars and fainter. It is 51,000 light years away.

  

  NGC 7006

  The second is NGC 7006 captured in September 2018.

  NGC 7006 lies on the fringe of the Milky Way's halo at a distance of 135,000 light years. In the 1910s and 20s, studies by Shapley of the stars in NGC 7006 and other globular clusters were used to measure the size of the Milky Way galaxy.

  This cluster lies at a low galactic latitude and its brightness is dimmed by the intervening dust. It has a visual magnitude of 10.6 and stars near the core are around mag 15.6.

  

  Image Details

  • Telescope: 8" Ritchey-Chretien at F/8.2
  • Camera: QSI 583 with a Lodestar as off-axis guider
  • Mount: Skywatcher EQ6

  David Davies - (20 March 2019).

• NGC 188 in Cepheus

  I have upgraded the mount in my observatory from an EQ6 to an EQ8 and have taken the opportunity for a restructuring of the cabling and power supplies.

  Looking for an interesting challenge as a first image, I selected NGC 188. At just 4 degrees from Polaris, it represents a challenge for observers with an equatorial mount due to the awkward geometry and is in a part of the sky that is not often observed.

  First discovered by John Herschel in 1831, NGC 188 is an open cluster of old yellow stars sitting about 1,600 light years above the galactic plane and 5,000 light years from us. It is moderately faint, with a combined magnitude of 8.1 and containing around 200 stars of 10th to 18th magnitude with the 10 brightest stars being yellow giants.

  

  Image Details

  • Telescope: APM 107 Apo refractor
  • Camera: QSI 583 with an SX Lodestar as off-axis guider
  • Mount: Skywatcher EQ8
  • Software: Pixinsight and Photoshop

  David Davies - (22 November 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.

• 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).

• M11 in Scutum

  I ventured out in the nautical twilight of 31 July and explored the region around Messier 11, the Wild Duck Cluster.

  I recall observing this beautiful object, visually with an 80mm ED refractor whilst on holiday under the dark skies of Guernsey and was mesmerised by the sight of this compact cloud of young blue stars against the multitude of older, redder stars close to the core of our galaxy.

  The clear night of 31 July, despite the lack of absolute darkness, gave me the chance to capture an image of this lovely object.

  Messier 11 is considered one of the richest and most compact open clusters in our skies. Around 2900 stars are attributed to the cluster with over 500 of them brighter than 14th magnitude. Its distance of 6120 light years places it in the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way.

  

  The main image shows M11 against the background stars of the Scutum star cloud and the dark nebulae in the vicinity.

  I had noted before going out that the two planetary nebulae Abell 49 (PK 27-3.1) and Vyssotsky 1-4 (PK 27-3.2) were to the east of M11 so I composed the image with M11 to the right of the image to see if I could capture the planetaries using the brief exposures I used.

  The planetary nebulae are just visible and are better shown in the 200% crop image, Abell 49.

  

  Abell 49 itself is a 16th magnitude object, 35 arcsec in diameter, on the right-hand side of the of the image. Vyssotsky 1-4 is 13th magnitude and just 15 arcsec in diameter and is the bright bluish object to the top left.

  Image Details

  • Telescope: APM 107 APO refractor plus flattener.
  • Camera: QSI 583 plus Astrodon filters

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

  David Davies - (6 August 2017).

• Globular Clusters in Coma Berenices

  

  Here is the product of my last successful imaging session before the autumnal rains started.

  M53, NGC 5024, in Coma Berenices is at top right of this image. It is around 60,000 light years from us and in absolute terms is larger than M13, but appears smaller and fainter due to its greater distance; the 25 brightest stars have an average magnitude of 15.

  To the east of M53, at bottom left, is NGC 5053. This is classified as globular cluster but it has a low star density and low metallicity stars; it is around 53,000 light years from us.

  This image was captured in early May under brightening night skies with a 107mm APM refractor and QSI 583 camera. It is a simple RGB image of 30 minutes each colour in 2-minute subs.

  David Davies - (6 June 2017).

• A Morning with Galaxies and a Cluster

  Here are a few observations from the morning of April 27th 2017. My primary aim was to follow up on an observation that I made with Andrew Robertson, Owen Brazell and Callum Potter at Kelling using Andrew's driven 24" Dobsonian of the NGC 5222 group in Virgo.

  My effort was reasonably successful, however the field of view using the Watec camera is small and I couldn't match the field of the eyepiece view.

  

  After this I took the chance of going low into Ophiuchus and getting a sketch of M12 which was missing from my Messier sketch archives. I used the 6" triplet refractor and older uncooled Watec video camera as globulars being very bright tend to saturate the camera using the big mirror.

  

  After I had sketched M12 I moved back to the 20" and searched the cluster finding 3 tiny faint galaxies in the outer fringe, fascinating. Unfortunately I haven't been able to id them. (Ed. This image shows these galaxies nicely on the lower left edge of M12.)

  

  Dale Holt - (2 May 2017).

• An observation of M92 in Hercules

  Here is a sketch of M92 from last night (6th August 2016, 21:39 UT) under a clear sky with no moon during Nautical twilight. Observing with a 12" f/5 Dobsonian with 15 mm lens from Moonfish. Pencil on cartridge paper. North is to the left in the sketch.

  

  Visually M92 seems somewhat elliptical with the major axis roughly north-south. There is a distinct and unresolved core and a visual impression of concentric rings. There seemed to be an extended light source to the west only. I suspect this was some sort of optical illusion rather than anything to do with M92.

  Rob Peeling - (7 August 2016).

• STF 485 and NGC1502 in Camelopardalis

  

  Observed from Rome with a 102mm refractor at 77x magnification by Roberto Chiericoni - (27 September 2013).

• Observing at Teggs Nose with Binoculars

  I was lucky enough to see a clear sky during Friday evening. After the rain had cleared off. The skies were clear although. There was a lot of moisture around. This moisture eventually froze out. Leaving a sharp hoar frost at dawn.

  Tegg's Nose country park was my destination. I travelled up there from my home in Macclesfield. Although this site is not far from the centre of the town. The skies can be quite dark. Normally we can see magnitude 4.6 stars, and on those rare occasions, magnitude 5.

  The Moon was visible during the early evening. But she wasn't a problem. It was a thin crescent hanging majestically in the western sky.

  I was with members from my local astronomical society's observing group. And we had a good time.

  I was up there to take pictures of Orion and the famous nebulae. But I also wanted to use my 20 x 70 observation binoculars.

  M42 was a magnificent sight through my tripod mounted binoculars. I counted all four stars of the trapezium, and I was able see Sigma Orionis and see the companion stars.

  Lepus the Hare was very clear last night. The Alpha and Beta stars were crystal clear. I thought I might see M79. But I failed. I will try again on the next clear, Moonless night we have.

  Messier 41 was very clear, together with Sirius.

  NGC 2237, the open cluster at the centre of the Rosette nebula. Was another easy target. And comet Catalina was a large fuzzy blob just North of Alkaid.

  M42 and the nebula NGC 1973-75-77 are shown in this picture. I used a Canon 1000D with a 200mm Pentacon telephoto lens. This was attached to my Skywatcher Star Adventurer.

  

  Paul Brierley - (16 January 2016).

• NGC 7006 and the surrounding galaxies

  Another of my compilation observations taken from the conversations on our Yahoo! Forum about the Globular Cluster, NGC 7006, and the faint galaxies that share the field of view.

  Dale Holt's observation

  Sketches of faint galaxies, some of them I haven't identified around the small GC NGC 7006 in Delphinus. These video assisted observations were made following inspiration of Ken Hewitt-Whites, going deep in the latest addition of S&T magazine.

  

  Sketch by Dale Holt with video assisted observing.

  John Vickers' observation

  • N7006 GC Del
  • RA-Dec 21 01 29.2, +16 11 15
  • Designation NGC 7006, Cald 42, GCL 119, IAU 2059+160.
  • Brightest star visual magnitude: 16.-m.

  10.6m 2.8' 12.1SB. Extremely faint stars. A very remote loose group of 7 small, extremely faint galaxies is ~5.7' SW. 10.7m reddish star 7.4' SSE.

  Dreyer Bright, pretty large, round, gradually brighter middle.

  Other Globular cluster, mottled. Very difficult to resolve. Contains 71 observed variable stars.

  

  This is a POSSII combined IR-Red-Blue labeled image of N7006 from the BRO database. With those faint galaxies labelled.

• Messier 35 and NGC 2158 in Gemini

  Image Courtesy of David Davies, Cambridge, UK. For more images from David please visit his Flickr Photostream.

  David's Observation Notes.

  Hello everyone,

  I guess many of you have been as frustrated as I am with the poor weather and seeing. I've also been frustrated by a few technical problems.

  I got out on 4 March under a bright moon just one day from full. The plan was to capture some H-alpha on the Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443) but first I could not resist the temptation to have a go at the open cluster M35 in Gemini nearby. I first attempted M35 with a DSLR four years ago, almost to the day, so it was nice to have another go. Here is the result.

  The image is a straightforward RGB capture with 25 minutes of each colour in 5 minute subs. There were some background gradients, caused by the moonlight, to deal with and and sky background was quite noisy. This image is a crop from the original.

  M35 is lower right of centre and is 2800 light years away, the small open cluster of golden stars in the centre is NGC 2158 which is more than 9000 light years further away than M35.

  Image details

  Telescope

  Skywatcher ED80 plus x.8 reducer/ flattener.

  Camera

  QSI 583 plus Lodestar off axis guider./dd>

  Mount

  EQ6 controlled by EQMOD