THE PLEIADES

November 16, 2024March 17, 2025

THE PLEIADES

He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name;
Amos 5:8

The Pleiades (Messier 45), also known as the “Seven Sisters” is an open star cluster near the constellation Taurus. At 444 light years, it is one of the closest star cluster to our solar system. It is easily visible with the naked eye, even in light polluted skies. The blue color comes from the hot temperature of the stars in the cluser that formed within the last 100 million years.

Within the star cluster is the nebula NGC 1432. A reflection type nebula, which has been identified as a HII region. Reflection nebula are clouds of dust and gas that are not ionized like emission nebula, and therefore do not emit light. They can only be seen by the light reflecting off of them from nearby stars, requiring longer exposure times to see them and reveal their details. This reflection nebula is not locked into the cluster and is estimated to be moving at 18 km/s relative to the cluster.

The Pleiades has been recognized as a point of interest by many people groups throughout history. The Holy Bible mentions the Pleiades by name three times, once in the book of Amos and twice in the book of Job, which are both among the oldest books in the Bible. Some other interesting history bits from Wikipedia, In Mesopotamia, the MUL.APIN compendium, the first known Mesopotamian astronomy treatise, discovered at Nineveh in the library of Assurbanipal and dating from no later than 627 BC, presents a list of deities [holders of stars] who stand on “the path of the Moon” which includes the Pleiades. In some Turkish communities, the year was divided into two seasons based on the visibility and invisibility of the Pleiades in the night sky, which is between November and May.

Equipment used:
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT60ED + 1.0x field flattener (f6)
Mount: ZWO AM3
Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro
Autoguider: 30mm svbony scope + asi120mm mini
Filter: Optolong UV/IR cut filter

This image consists of over 1100 90 second exposures stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and processed in Siril and Photoshop. GraxPert was used for denoising.

November 16, 2024March 17, 2025

M16 & THE PILLARS OF CREATION

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable Isaiah 40:28

At the heart of M16 The Eagle Nebula lie a structure of interstellar gas and dust called the Pillars of Creation. First discovered by John Charles Duncan in 1920 at Mount Wilson Observatory using their 60 inch telescope. The structure is named so because the gas and dust are in the process of creating new stars, while also being eroded by the light from nearby stars that have recently formed. It was made famous by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995 when we got our first close up view of it.

My image was taken this last summer with my 60mm telescope. It’s about 3.5 hours of exposure time. At first you see a starless version so you can see all of the fine detail in the nebula.

Next summer I’d like to shoot this object again but with my longer focal length Schmidt Cassegrain telescope to pickup more detail in the core.

Image was stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, processed in Siril, denoised using GraxPert, and finishing touches and adjustments done in Photoshop.

Equipment used:
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT60ED + 1.0x field flattener (f6)
Mount: ZWO AM3
Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro
Autoguider: 30mm svbony scope + asi120mm mini
Filter: Optolong L-Extreme

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November 5, 2024March 17, 2025

Classifieds find and AT130EDT First Light

As I’ve been going deeper down the rabbit hole and learning more advance astrophotography techniques, I’ve found myself wanting more focal length in my imaging train than my 60mm 360mm focal length AT60ED.

In my browsing the classifieds on the web I came across an Astro-Tech AT130EDT at a decent price. After chatting a bit with the owner and some bartering, I went home with the Astro-Tech but also a C8, a 6 inch Classical Cassegrain from GSO, a planetary and DSLR cameras and a box of spare parts and finders. I’ve always wanted to try planetary and lunar imaging, but didn’t have the right scope/camera combo for it. Now I am all equipped to give it a go once the weather clears.

Astro-Tech AT130EDT on ZWO AM3 with ASI533MC Pro

The jewel of the lot, the AT130EDT, was the first to get a first light. I pointed it at M27, the Dumbbell Nebula, which is my favorite planetary nebula in the sky. A quick 4 hours of integration and a quick edit the next morning created this image:

4 hours of M27 with AT130EDT, ASI533MC Pro at 101 gain and -10° C, and Optolong L-Extreme Duoband filter

I am happy with the image that came out. I think for a quick session and processing the result is good. I think it is a bit soft due to some dew that build up on the objective lens. I did put a dew heater on but I forgot to turn on the DC port on my ASIAIR to send power to the dew heater, so towards the end of the session, there was a very slight amount of dew forming on the objective.

For comparison here is M27 taken with my 60mm refractor from a bortle 1 sky this last summer:

50% crop of M27 taken with AT60ED, ASI533MC Pro at 101 gain and -10° C, and Optolong L-Extreme Duoband filter

I’d like to try this object again through the AT130EDT as well as trying it with the Celestron C8 I picked up in the lot.

I know the AT130EDT is slightly over mounted on the ZWO AM3, but with a counterweight and putting the mount in “Heavy Duty Mode” I was guiding at 0.7” arc seconds. I am planning on mounting it on a SkyWatcher EQ6r-Pro in the future, once the funds for it are available.

November 2, 2024November 16, 2024