IC 63 - Ghost of Cassiopeia

Located 550 light-years away in Cassiopeia IC 63 and the surrounding objects such as IC 59 and Sh2-185 are reflection and emission nebulae composed of gas and dust. Energy in the form of ultraviolet radiation from the nearby but not shown, blue-giant star Gamma Cassiopeiae (a.k.a. Navi), excites the hydrogen gas which inturn causes the red glow. The blue colored regions are from reflected light off the dust.

I like how IC 63 seems to be pointing upwards towards Gamma Cassiopeiae (not shown) wanting to be fed more energy so it can continue to glow. Even though I love stars and imaged it with Gamma Cass in the field of view, I cropped it out for a number of reasons. Also, I captured ~9 hrs of OIII but in hindsight probably would have been better off with more RGB data instead as the natural blue came out much more than the oxygen. IC 59 in the upper left had the most blue signal. I did blend the OIII in as the background was somewhat smoother with it added in. As usual I struggle with how much star reduction to do and I did more than I typically do, however, I am sure most people would be more aggressive.

Dates: 9-15-24, 9-19, 9-20, 9-22, 10-3, 10-5, 10-6, 10-7, 10-8, 10-9, 10-15, 10-20, 10-21, 10-22

Higher Quality:
https://www.astrobin.com/j3n02i/?nc=collection&nce=712

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IC 63 - Ghost of Cassiopeia
Dates: 9-15-24, 9-19, 9-20, 9-22, 10-3, 10-5, 10-6, 10-7, 10-8, 10-9, 10-15, 10-20, 10-21, 10-22
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, OIII; ZWO R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 157 x 300, OIII 109 x 300, R 41 x 90, G 43 x 90, B 41 x 90 (25h 20')
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, GraXpert, Bill Blanshan Color Masks, Bill Blanshan Stretching, Topaz Denoise.

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VdB30 (2024)

VdB30 is a reflection nebula located somewhere between 1600 and 6900 light-years away in the constellation Camelopardalis. It surrounds a central bright blue supergiant star, Alpha Camelopardalis (Alpha Cam, HD 30614). Although the cloud of gas and dust that surrounds the star is very large, it has a low reflectivity making it hardly noticeable. Another interesting thing about Alpha Cam is it is considered a runaway star having a reported speed between 60 and 4200 km/second. Runaway stars have abnormally high speeds relative to the interstellar medium which were set into motion by a supernova explosion of a companion star.

I barely captured the reflection nebula and was not really expecting to catch much of it anyway so the question why I attempted to go after this object is the first place. The answer is that it was a filler. We had several clear nights last month and I was going after other targets which went behind trees after a few hours and wanted to keep imaging. VdB30 may be a reflection nebula but it sits in a region with a faint hydrogen emission nebula. This made the vdB30 a good choice because I could collect data on moonlight nights well. I really like how the Ha arcs around vdB30 and forms a boomerang appearance. I also collected OIII data, however, there was not much signal and the HOO version was very similar to the HaRGB version. I did use it as the background was a bit smoother and I did a small blend of RGB around Alpha Cam.


Dates: 9-3-24, 9-4, 9-5, 9-7, 9-8, 9-9, 9-10, 9-11, 9-12, 9-13, 9-14, 9-15, 10-5

Higher Quality:
https://www.astrobin.com/4qmcqe/?nc=collection&nce=712

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VdB30 (2024)

Dates: 9-3-24, 9-4, 9-5, 9-7, 9-8, 9-9, 9-10, 9-11, 9-12, 9-13, 9-14, 9-15, 10-5

Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, OIII; ZWO R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 213 x 300, OIII 97 x 300, R 53 x 90, G 49 x 90, B 54 x 90 (29h 44')
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, GraXpert, Bill Blanshan Color Masks, Bill Blanshan Stretching, Topaz Denoise.


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SNR G126.2+01.6 - It's Dim!

Supernova remnant SNR G126.2+01.6 is located in the constellation Cassiopeia not very far from other popular objects such as IC 63 - The Ghost of Cassiopeia. I am always looking for uncommon objects to investigate with my camera and saw that Goran Nilson (https://www.astrobin.com/mj605m/) had done a wonderful job on this with his dual RASA setup. There are only a handful of other images of SNR G126 on Astrobin (all of which are better than mine) for a very good reason - this object is faint, especially in OIII. If you do decide to go after this one, give yourself plenty of nights! Processing was really tough, especially trying to 'tease' out the oxygen. Fortunately, PixInsight and Photoshop make it possible. I thought the stars came out well so the only reduction I did was with BlurXTerminator.

Higher Quality:
https://www.astrobin.com/medzn4/?nc=collection&nce=712

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SNR G126.2+01.6

Dates: 9-8-24, 9-9, 9-10, 9-11, 9-12, 9-14, 9-15
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, OIII; ZWO R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 133 x 300, OIII 143 x 300, R 39 x 90, G 37 x 90, B 38 x 90 (25h 51')
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, GraXpert, Bill Blanshan Color Masks, Bill Blanshan Stretching, Bill Blanshan Star Reduction.

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Comet C/2023 A3

This is my quickly acquired image of Comet 2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS taken on the evening of October 16th 2024 around 7pm. It was not visible with the naked eye from the St John's Cemetery but was with my camera. I hoped to get the ground in the image for perspective but I did not have time to wait so I just went to as much of the comet as possible. The tail was enormous at approximately 18 million miles (29 million km).

As reported by Adam Block, the thin part that points towards the horizon is due to previously released dust in its orbit. The comet orbits on a plane and we are seeing the plane edge-on.

Comet 2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS

Date: 10-16-24

Camera: Canon T3i/600D
Telescope: Canon EF 50mm f/2.8L Lens
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 50mm
f/2.8
Focal Reducer: none
Mount: iOptron SkyGuider Pro

Filter: Astronomik OMB Clip-in
Exposure: 40 x 5s
ISO: 800
Temp: 18 C
Processing: PixInsight, Photoshop

vdB 4 & NGC 225 (Sailboat Cluster)

Although there are several objects in this dust rich image, I decided to name it most prominent object first and that is the reflection nebula vdB 4 named after Dutch astronomer Sidney van den Bergh. It has a blue-white tint and is located 2,000 light-years away in Cassiopeia. In addition to being relatively bright, it shows a lot of sharp detail.

NGC 225, also known as the Sailboat Cluster, is an open cluster approximately 2,200 LY away and is approximately 100 to 150 million years old. The cluster is in the center of the image just below vdB 4 and made up of mostly blue stars although there is a fair number of yellow stars. The outline of the Sailboat is hard to see in my image as it is obscured a bit by the dust, however, the 'hull' is oriented about 30 degrees from horizontal and part of vdB 4 making the 'sail'.

Other goodies in this image are the dark nebula LDN 1291 to the left of vdB 4, LBN 1302 just below vdB 4, and the dusty stringers that appear to be raining down from the cluster. I did not crop this image as I also liked the colorful star field. I struggled with how much to enhance the stars vs. star reduction but in this version after doing initial reduction with BXT for both the RGB and Luminosity images, I did a 35% Luminosity blend with the RGB stars.

High Resolution:

https://www.astrobin.com/am39mj/?nc=collection&nce=712

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vdB 4 & NGC 225 (Sailboat Cluster) 
Dates: 9-2, 9-3, 9-4, 9-5
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO R, G, B; Camera L 
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: L 294 x 90, R 84 x 90, G 79 x 90, B 83 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, GraXpert, Bill Blanshan Color Masks, Bill Blanshan Stretching.

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MWP1 with ALV1

MWP1, the highlight of this image, is one of the oldest known bipolar Planetary Nebula (PN) known at 150,000 years. Being so old it has grown to 15 light-years across but has also become very faint. It is located approximately 4500 ly away from us in the constellation Cygnus. It is named after its 1993 discoverers, C. Motch, K. Werner and M. Pakull but it is also known as the Methuselah Nebula. The star responsible for MWP1 happens to be one the hottest known and is the blue star located in the center of the nebula.

ALV1 or PN G79.8-10.2 is an even fainter Planetary Nebula seen below MWP1 on the image. It was discovered in 2009 by Portugese amateur astronomer Filipe Alves.

Both of these objects are exceedingly dim and best done in very dark skies with a fast telescope. So naturally I attempt it with my medium speed telescope and crappy skies, 😏. Nothing was visible in any of my subs except the stars so I was imaging with hope. After lots of processing I was able to bring out the OIII signal along with the Ha. Most of the other images of this object seem to have more OIII signal and less Ha. My data did show a great deal of OIII signal in MWP1 but not in the surrounding area, however, there was a great deal of Ha. I suspect this may be due to less than optimal sky conditions when imaging OIII compared to Ha - also Ha is more forgiving. Whatever the case, I am satisfied with the final product.

Higher Quality:
https://www.astrobin.com/ofm6x6/?nc=collection&nce=712

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MWP1 with ALV1
Dates: 8-10, 8-11, 8-12, 8-13, 8-22, 8-23, 8-24, 8-27, 9-1
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, OIII; ZWO R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 88 x 300, OIII 74 x 300, R 39 x 90, G 31 x 90, B 28 x 90 
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, GraXpert, Bill Blanshan Color Masks, Bill Blanshan Stretching, Bill Blanshan Star Reduction.

Partial Lunar Eclipse 9-17-24

These are some quick pics of the partial Lunar Eclipse on 9-17-24 from my yard taken between 10:30 and 11:00 pm. The closeups were taken with a Canon T3i/600d camera and Canon 200mm lens. The widefield image which shows a partial rainbow in the clouds and Saturn off to the right was with a Canon 50mm lens.