Rho Ophiuchi

More From First Star Party

 in Blog  tagged B150 / Bernard 150 / gradient removal / Rho Ophiuchi / Seahorse Nebula

Here is another image from the recent star party, the “Seahorse Nebula”, also known as Barnard 150.  It is a dark nebula, meaning that the shape is defined by a cloud of dense dust that blocks light from the stars behind it (a silhouette).  It is located in the constellation Cepheus, but I don’t know how far away it is. This was captured with a Stellarvue SVX80T with a focal reducer (for an effective focal length of 355mm and focal ration of f/4.44), and cropped a bit.  Seeing was very good for the 2 nights I captured this target.  I […]

First Star Party of 2022

 in Blog  tagged dark nebula / first star party / old school / reflection nebula / Rho Ophiuchi

Amateur astronomers in the Portland area have had to contend with bad weather for the first half of the year, but it shifted dramatically last weekend, and we were finally able to make a trip to a dark sky location.  For me it was even more special because I hadn’t done any imaging at all this year prior to this.  The object above is the Rho Ophiuchi Nebula, captured from Goldendale, WA.  I’ve shot this before, but this version is definitely better, even though I haven’t yet put a lot of effort into processing it.  I think that a bit […]

Saturn Visits the Edge of the Milky Way

 in Blog  tagged antares / dslr / M4 / Milky Way / Rho Ophiuchi / Saturn

Another photo from last weekend’s star party: You might recognize the area in the lower right corner from earlier photos I’ve posted.  The large yellow/red blob is the star Antares (bloated by its extreme brightness), to its right is the globular cluster M4, and above that, surrounded by blue dust, is the Rho Ophiuchi complex.  But this very wide field image (more than 25 degrees across) shows how this area resides at the edge of the Milky Way.  The dense stars and dust of the Milky Way appear as glowing red and black on the left edge, gradually fading to […]