Picture of the Month for 2014

• December 2014 - Picture of the Month

  NGC 1566 ("Spanish Dancer" galaxy) in Dorado

  

  Image Courtesy of Steve Crouch, Canberra, Australia. Please click on the image for the high resolution version.

  Steve's Observation Notes:

  This magnitude 9.4 Seyfert galaxy is roughly 8.3' x 6.6' in size. It is the second brightest Seyfert galaxy after NGC 1068 (M77) and the brightest member of the Dorado galaxy group. The distance is not very accurately known and given as 38.4 million light years with an error of 18.6 million light years.

  This image shows a supernova (discovered in September 2014) just to the right of the central nucleus. The luminance data (with the supernova) was taken on 12 November 2014 when it had started to fade. The discovery visual magnitude was given as 14.6.

  Camera and Telescope

  STL6303, STXL6303, 31.75cm and 36.8cm Ritchey Chretiens Focal Ratio F9

  Exposure Details

  RGB 100:100:100 all 1x1 with Astrodon filters using 31.75cm RC. Luminance 150 minutes with 36.8cm RC.

  For more images from Steve please visit his CCD Astronomical Images from Canberra website.

• November 2014 - Picture of the Month

  NGC 1333 in Perseus

  This image is provided with the kind permission of Warren A. Keller and Jimmy Walker. Please click on the image to be taken to Warren's website for a higher resolution version.

  

  In Warren's words

  NGC 1333 is the bright nebular complex at center. A mere 1,000 ly from Earth, it consists of blue reflection nebulosity and many firey-red, Herbig-Haro objects which indicate active star forming regions. As such, NGC 1333 contains hundreds of stars less than one million years old- mere babies in astronomical terms. The associated Perseus OB2 molecular dust cloud complex seems to go on forever! Two other blue reflection nebulae can be seen near bottom and at 3 o'clock. Another lovely area of interest is the yellowish nebula surrounding the star HD 21110 above 7 o'clock.

  This is the first collaboration with my friend and imager extraordinaire Jimmy Walker whom I am extremely grateful to for data acquisition.

• October 2014 - Picture of the Month

  NGC 6946 The Fireworks Galaxy in Cepheus

  

  Image Courtesy of David Davies, Cambridge, UK. Please click on the image for the high resolution version.

  For more images from David please visit his Flickr Photostream.

  Last Thursday, 2 October, was a particular clear, cold night with reasonable transparency. A bright first quarter moon did, however, restrict what one could see.

  I had a short-list of objects I could attempt to image in Cephus and Cygnus and settled on NGC 6946, The Fireworks Galaxy, Arp 29, Caldwell 12. This is my first view of this galaxy. We view it through plane of our own galaxy and it is significantly dimmed by the intervening stars and dust.

  The data defining the spiral arms were only a few hundred ADUs above the bright sky background given by the moon. For a while I wondered if I would achieve a presentable image, especially when I discovered that the 100 minutes of luminance data I had gathered were spoiled by a finger print on the luminance filter. I must have been really clumsy when I changed the filter wheel in the camera.

  So this image is essentially RGB only, comprising 45 minutes each of RGB in 5 minute subs. I constructed a luminance layer from the composite RGB image and separately processed that to make a final LRGB image.

  • Telescope is a Skywatcher Quattro 254 mm F/4 Newtonian with a Tele Vue Parcorr.
  • Camera is a QSI 583 with a Lodestar off axis guide camera guiding via PHD2.
  • Mount is a Skywatcher NEQ6 controlled via EQMOD.
  • Image capture was with Nebulosity.
  • Automatic focussing was with Scopefocus working with Nebulosity. Image stacking was with Deep Sky Stacker and processing with Pixinsight and Photoshop.

  This is a crop from the final image.

• September 2014 - Picture of the Month

  NGC 6888 The Crescent Nebula in Cygnus

  

  Image Courtesy of David Davies, Cambridge, UK. Please click on the image for the high resolution version.

  For more images from David please visit his Flickr Photostream.

  It's been a little while since I've shared anything from the deep sky. I managed to be away during several of the clear nights we've had recently.

  My observatory was completed just over one year ago and the first object I observed from it was the Crescent Nebula. It seemed fitting to return to it this year and see if I could do any better.

  So I've spent several nights during August (17, 28 and 31) gathering narrow band data on the Crescent Nebula and further time learning how to process narrow band images. The attached is the result.

  I now have the benefit of automatic focussing which is helping I think by enabling me to refocus by remote control during the night. I'm using a Lakeside focus motor and the Scopefocus application from Kevin Sipprell in the US that works with my image capture software, Nebulosity.

  Viewing conditions were almost universally poor with poor transparency and high thin cloud. This image comprises 100 minutes of H-alpha and 200 minutes of OIII data in 20 minute subs, five hours in total, captured with a 254mm Newtonian and QSI 583 camera equipped with 3nm Astrodon filters.

  Processing was done in Pixinsight where H-alpha was assigned to red, OIII to blue and a synthetic green was generated using 85% blue and 15% red. I did try to combine the H-alpha and OIII with a normal green image and the result was just awful.

  I'm fascinated by this object. The great bubbles of OIII extend well beyond the normally visible object and are also evident throughout its internal structure.

  I'm continuing to capture RGB data and it would be interesting to see if I can combine the RGB and narrow band data in the future.

• June 2014 - Picture of the Month

  NGC 6188 & NGC 6193 in the Constellation of Ara

  

  Image Courtesy of Steve Crouch, Canberra, Australia. Please click on the image for the high resolution version.

  Steve's Observation Notes:

  A combination of faint emission nebulosity and a bright but scattered open cluster. The complex is about 4000 light years distant.

  Catalogue and Alternative Designations

  NGC 6188 and NGC 6193

  Type

  Emission nebula and open cluster

  Position

  16 40 05, -48 47

  Constellation

  Ara

  Camera and Telescope

  STXL6303 and 36.8cm RCOS Ritchey Chretien Focal Ratio F9

  Exposure Details

  HaRGB 345:110:110:125 with Astrodon series 2 filters

  For more images from Steve please visit his CCD Astronomical Images from Canberra website.