Very near the Heart Nebula is this interesting structure, captured here in H-alpha and OIII. It is sometimes called the Baby Nebula because of its shape, but the proximity to the Heart makes it irresistible to pair them as “Heart and Soul”. Like the Heart, it is about 7,500 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Cassiopeia. Scope: AT111EDT at f/5.6 Mount: AP Mach1 Camera: QSI 583 at –20C
This was one of the first of my astro-photos that I was happy with – about 3 years after I started – and it is still my favorite target. It was captured in late September of 2008, very late at night. The problem with Orion (for those of us living in the northern parts of Earth) is that it is never visible in the summer nights. In late summer it comes up in the east just before sunrise and by spring it sets in the west shortly after sunset. So it’s a great sight in the winter night sky and […]
This was one of my first successful targets and this version was captured in late 2012 to get the benefit of the better equipment (and maybe skills) I have acquired since the early days. This was captured at a dark sky site, but using a narrowband hydrogen-alpha filter for the red channel. The Horsehead is a “dark nebula”, meaning that the shape we see is formed by clouds of dust blocking light from behind it. It is located in the constellation Orion. The brightest star seen here (Alnitak) is the left side of Orion’s belt. The nebula is about 1,500 […]
The Rosette is a large area of hydrogen in the Monoceros region. This is a 2×1 mosaic of H-alpha (red) and O-3 (green & blue) exposures because the target is so big that it doesn’t fit in one frame – even with my fairly short telescope. I had intended to add some RGB data to this image, but that will have to wait until I can get to a dark sky site. Or at least until near the new moon! This version is just H-alpha for red and O-3 for green and blue. Scope: AT111EDT at f/5.6 Mount: AP Mach1 […]