November Highlights

The weather has not been especially kind to stargazing so far this month, but I have managed to spend a few clear nights imaging.

NGC 2264 - The Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Cluster

The constellation Monoceros - the Unicorn - to the east of Orion has a number of interesting objects within its borders. The Rosette Nebula (NGC 2244) is one, the below complex is another.

NGC 2264 refers to both the Cone Nebula (the dark conical projection toward the lower middle of the image) and the Christmas Tree cluster (which looks like the outline, in blue-white stars, of an upside down Christmas tree, in the middle-to lover part of the image). Also apparent in the image is the Fur Nebula, which appear as undulating waves of red toward the upper middle of the image.

This image, taken with the ASI1600 is composed of 17, 360-second images taken through the Ha filter and 10, 300-second images, taken through the R, G and B filters, using the 72mm telescope. Total exposure time is four hours and 12 minutes.  The image has been cropped to concentrate on the objects at the center. I will take the time to image these objects with the higher-magnification 127mm next month.

M42 - The Great Orion Nebula

This massive stellar nursery is so bright that is one of the few nebula visible to the naked eye. When you look at Orion, the nebula appears as the fuzzy area south of the three-star belt. sometimes called the sword of Orion.

The above image is RGB only -- true color. The image comprises 10, 180-second images taken through the R, G and B filters, using the 72mm refractor. Total exposure time is two and one half hours. The ASI1600 did a nice job capturing detail in both the Orion Nebula and the Running Man Nebula (Sh2-279) which appears to the right of Orion Nebula and appears mostly in blue.

This is the same RGB image as above, but with 50 minutes of Ha (10 x 180 seconds) added in. The Ha data enhances the nebula and shows the sweeping waves of hydrogen gas that surround the entire nebula complex.

IC 1805 - The Heart Nebula

Appearing in Perseus, the Heart Nebula is an extended emission nebula with an unmistakable shape. It was first recorded by William Herschel in 1787 and is located about 7,500 light years from Earth.

The above image comprises two hours of Ha data (20x300s) and 2.5 hours of RGB (10x300s, per channel), for a total exposure time of 4.5 hours. It was taken with the ASI1600 through the 72mm refractor.

IC 434 - The Horsehead Nebula

It is always impossible to resist this object. I had produced an excellent image last month, but decided to go back this month to get better color data.

The above image combines two hours of Ha data (20x360 seconds) taken in September, with three hours of RGB color data (12x300 seconds, per channel), taken this month. Total exposure time is five hours.