Tag: cluster

Imaging the black claw of Vulpecula – vdB126

/ Carsten / Leave a comment
vdB126 reflexion nebula - 2015/07/06

vdB 126 is a reflection nebula in constellation Vulpecula. To me it looks like a black claw with at least 4 fingers.

I like the many stars in this region! In this clear night I was able to get 8 good IR frames before the moon rose. For stacking I used DeepSkyStacker 3.3.2 with Kappa-Sigma Clipping. The picture is also available in full resolution here. Finally, I decided to put it into my My Top Astro-Pics gallery.

Date2015/07/08
LocationBöblingen / Germany
ObjectvdB126 (Reflection nebula)
CameraAtik383L+
Guidingyes, QHY5-II Mono via OAG
Telescope8
Barlow lensnone
MountEQ6Syntrek
Cooling-15°C
Luminance8x, 600s, bin: 1x1
Red7x, 150s, bin: 2x2
Green7x, 150s, bin: 2x2
Blue7x, 150s, bin: 2x2
Dark10x
Flat10x
Total exposure~2h12min.

Clear skies!

Last updated: June 16, 2022 at 23:33 pm

Astrohotography of Sh2-88 without H-alpha filter from Böblingen / Germany

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Sh2-88 Nebula

The evening of 24th June 2015 was a warm and nice summer evening. All the clouds vanished and the forecast predicted a clear night 🙂 Since I didn’t image a nebula for quite some time I decided to image one this night. Recently I came across Sh2-88 which is an HII emission nebula in constellation Vulpecula. So this should have been the target for tonight!

I saw some great pictures of Sh2-88 before which have been taken using an H-alpha filter. Since I am not yet having an H-alpha filter I just decided to give it a try without H-alpha. Of course the nebula structures don’t come out as good as when using a such a filter. But I am still satisfied for a picture with just 5 IR frames. The seeing with my f/5 GSO Newton (F=1000mm) was around 2.1″ – so quite good for this region.

Date2015/06/24
LocationBöblingen / Germany
ObjectSh2-88 (Emission nebula)
CameraAtik383L+
Guidingyes, QHY5-II Mono via OAG
Telescope8" GSO Newtonian
Barlow lensnone
MountEQ6Syntrek
Cooling-15°C
Luminance5x, 600s, bin: 1x1
Red5x, 150s, bin: 2x2
Green5x, 150s, bin: 2x2
Blue5x, 150s, bin: 2x2
Dark3x
Flat10x
Total exposure~1h27min.

Clear skies!

Last updated: June 17, 2022 at 6:58 am

Visiting the Tacande Observatory on La Palma

/ Carsten / Leave a comment
Tacande Observatory, La Palma, Spain

Last night I visited the Tacande Observatory on La Palma (link) to do some observations and to exchange about some technical topics. It’s owner is Joan Genebriera who built this observatory back in 2005 – right beside his house 🙂 He worked at the KVA Telescope on La Palma for several years before he retired. His observatory is located close to El Paso at a height of about 765m.

The observatory holds three telescopes on one custom made mount:

  • Cassegrain Relay 400mm f/6.5 = 18′ x 12′ (arcminutes)
  • R120S 120mm f/6.6 = 1.28° x 0.96° (arcdegrees)
  • R80 80mm f/6.0 = 2.65° x 1.76° (arcdegrees)
Inside the Tacande Observatory - the telescopes, La Palma, Spain

Even though I was in Spain communicating in English was no problem. After I got an introduction to the equipment we decided to image the Sombrero galaxy since it was in a quite good position.

Continue reading →

NGC2264 – Cone Nebula & Christmas Tree Cluster

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NGC2264 - Cone Nebula & Christmas Tree Cluster - 2015/03/11

Last night (2015/03/11) I surprisingly had clear sky here 🙂 I had no plan and finally decided to try imaging the region around NGC2264 before moon rise. The seeing was about ~2.5-3″. This is the result.

Date2015/02/19
LocationBöblingen / Germany
ObjectMessier 35 cluster
CameraAtik383L+
Guidingyes, QHY5-II Mono via OAG
Telescope8" GSO Newtonian
Barlow lensnone
MountEQ6Syntrek
Cooling-15°C
Luminance9x, 400s, bin: 1x1
Red8x, 150s, bin: 2x2
Green8x, 150s, bin: 2x2
Blue8x, 150s, bin: 2x2
Dark5x
Flat10x
Total exposure~2h00min.

Clear skies!

Last updated: June 22, 2022 at 20:41 pm