The Pleiades

The Pleiades (or Messier 45) is an open star cluster of middle-aged 'hot' stars located in the constellation of Taurus. This middle-aged 'hot' astronomer has been wanted to shoot the Pleiades since I purchased my 8" Newtonian telescope 3 years ago. The 'field-of-view' native to my scope nicely frames this beautiful star cluster with all it's blue wisps of star-lit nebulosity. The image below is the sum total of 3 hours exposure.
Other than Orion and the Big Dipper, the Pleiades is the only starry object in the sky that God references in the Bible! My favorite is when he questions Job's doubt in Job 38:31 below (it's a message that seems like it was written specifically for me):  

Job 9:9 - He made all the stars—the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the southern sky.
Job 38:31 - “Can you direct the movement of the stars— binding the cluster of the Pleiades or loosening the cords of Orion?
Amos 5:8 - It is the Lord who created the stars, the Pleiades and Orion. He turns darkness into morning and day into night. He draws up water from the oceans and pours it down as rain on the land. The Lord is his name!

...Consider the size of this star cluster at 16 light years (left to right)... or 160 trillion kilometers! God simply bound (or connected) it's stars together in the palm of His hand! It's another great example of his magnificent art work and power!

 



M45 "The Pleiades" - 60 x 3 minute frames = 3 hours totsl exposure @ 1600 iso

The Andromeda Project (continued):

In September 2013 I posted the first picture from my "Andromeda Project".
 

The Andromeda Galaxy's apparent size is so large in the sky (about 5-6 moon widths across) that I am not able to fit much more than half of it in my telescopes imaging field. 

Last year I shot the "left side" and this September, I have completed the "right side".

I have now processed the two images and joined them together in Photoshop CS2!

The second shooting session was the result of a great weekend spent at the cottage just east of Algonquin Park! My brother and I escaped our normally busy lives to appreciate the best of what God has to offer in northern autumn hikes and undisturbed clear night skies! We had a blast and determined that this is now officially, an annual event! (Belly aches prevailed all weekend, caused by intense laughter and extreme over-eating!)

Note: I still owe this blog one more shot of the Andromeda Galaxy - I would like to shoot a wide field image to include neighboring constellation Cassiopeia (the "w" in the sky). I want to illustrate the position of this galaxy, so readers will look for it and find it. It's an easy object (under a dark sky) using binoculars or even the naked eye. I hope to complete this next fall.  

Hello everyone,  My blog has been getting a lot of traffic from Russia, Germany, USA, UK, France, and other countries. I would love to hear from you folks! Please feel free to comment (in English or your own language... I can use google translate!).
Thank you for your interest!
Greg

Astronomy Retreat:

Near the end of August, I travelled to Cherry Springs State Park, PA. Cherry Springs is a protected dark sky site with an astronomy field specifically for imaging and observing the night sky. http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/findapark/cherrysprings/

I had two amazing nights with great skies and lots of great conversations with fellow imagers and observers.

A skunk visited the field the first night! The people he visited reacted aggressively to his presence… He showed his disapproval by spraying their tent! “Ground-zero” (we’ll call it) was on the opposite end of the field, so I was fortunate to avoid most of the excitement.

The cloud from “Pepe Le Pew” soon dissipated and was replaced by beautiful star clouds. A beautiful cross-section of our galaxy hung straight over head at the beginning of the night and Orion was well up in the eastern sky by 4:30am. The forecast showed average ‘seeing’, but it was the best skies I have ever seen.

I imaged the Helix Nebula, a large planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius. Simply put, this nebula is a large, colorful, egg-shaped sphere of illuminated gases. From our vantage point, we look 30 degrees off its centre axis. This creates a bit of a 3D effect.

The Helix has been nicknamed “The Eye of God” so I entered that name in a bible search and came up with this solid truth: The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the bad and the good. (Proverbs 15:3)



Helix Nebula - 47 x 5min frames = 3 hours 55 minutes total exposure at 1600 iso

 

THE TRIFID NEBULA:

I haven't been able to visit our club's dark-sky-location recently. But... I have managed to take one image from my front yard this summer. M20, the Trifid Nebula. It's such a beautiful combination of an emissions nebula (red), a reflection nebula (blue) and a dark nebula (in front of the red). It rests in a wide-open star cluster situated above the teapot's spout is Sagittarius (forming part of the steam from this boiling teapot). 

I acquired 92 good frames for a total exposure time of 5 hours and 22minutes. These frames were shot over 4 separate nights between the 19th and 28th of June.

I included a picture of my home set-up with Saturn in the background... well, my Saturn! I have the laptop in the camper so I can review the subs and monitor my guiding graph. The kids like the "camp-outs" in the trailer (it's family friendly astronomy)! 

My 10 year old boy helped polar align, 3-star align, focus and frame the Trifid. He first practiced his new astronomy skills by slewing to the Ring Nebula, The Dumbbell Nebula and the Great Hercules Cluster! He snapped 35 second, unguided shots of each... I'm very proud! All three kids are getting to know the night sky pretty well! We may have some budding astronomers!!! Ephesians 6:4 says "Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord". We take this verse very seriously... my astronomy training is an added bonus. We all agree, God is the Author and Artist who created the night sky!  

 

92 frames were stacked @ 3.5 minutes each = 5 hrs, 22mins (1600iso)

Roses are Red!

It was so good to be back under clear skies at the beginning of February! Our weather patterns can be a challenge for an amateur astronomer! A few targets I hoped to shoot this winter have come and gone – but there’s always something on the horizon.

Just east of the Orion constellation lies NGC2244, The Rosette Nebula in the constellation Monoceros. The nebula’s diameter is 130 light years and it just fits into my telescope’s field-of-view @ the distance of 5200 light years from earth.

After the moon set around 10pm I was able to collect almost 3 hours of precious photons! It stayed clear all night and bottomed out at a manageable -12c.

Psalm 33:6  The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word,  and all the stars were born.

NGC2244 The Rosette Nebula: 49 frames @ 3.5 minutes = 2hrs 51.5mins @ 1600iso taken February 3&4, 2014