Skip to main content

A night imaging the Cocoon Nebula

This is the first blog entry since August. The weather hasn't been brilliant for astronomy, and imaging has suffered. But I did manage to save some photons last week. When I together with hundreds of other keen astronomers. Attended the Norfolk Equinox Sky Camp at Kelling Heath.

The skies there are very dark when compared to my milky suburban sky. One night we had m+5.6 skies. 

If you have never been to the EQSP. I would strongly recommend it.

This evening. I am sitting in the Whirlpool Comand Centre imaging the Cocoon Nebula.

IC5146 is an object that, I have wanted to image since last week. When I took a CCD image of it from Kelling Heath.

I am imaging this large reflection nebula using the Atik 428 and my new Atik EWF2. I have a Baader 7nm Ha filter selected to show the Ha emission. The telescope is of cause - my lovely Altair Wave 115 EDT. Which is now my only imaging telescope.

IC 5146 is a large nebula that is visible between the Summer constellations of Cygnus, and the king of Autumn. Cepheus.

IC 5146 is a reflection/emission nebula. The NGC description refers to IC 5146 as a cluster of 9.5 mag stars involved in a bright and dark nebula. The cluster is also known as Collinder 470. It shines at magnitude +10.0. 
Its celestial coordinates are RA 21h 53.5m, DEC+47° 16′. It is located near the naked-eye star Pi Cygni, the open cluster NGC 7209 in Lacerta, and the bright open cluster M39. The cluster is about 4,000 ly away, and the central star that lights it formed about 100,000 years ago; the nebula is about 12 arcmin across, which is equivalent to a span of 15 light years.

When viewing IC 5146, dark nebula Barnard 168 (B168) is an inseparable part of the experience, forming a dark lane that surrounds the cluster and projects westward forming the appearance of a trail behind the Cocoon. Sadly the field of view that my CCD camera has will not show this.

Watch this space, and keep looking up.

Saturday 30th.

I wasn't able to get enough data on this target than I was hoping for. But here is a 30 min process.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NGC 383 Galaxy chain in Pisces

We had a cold frosty, and very clear. Early Winter sky on 2017- 12 -11 It was very welcome too. I was itching to finally capture some more ancient light, from the Whirlpool control room here in   Cheshire. Because of the poor weather. I have not been outside since my last post. When I imaged the Cocoon nebula. How long ago was that! It seems the British Weather is not getting better. I well remember times when, as a kid. We had cold frosty day's that lasted all day and into the night. That was the 1970s and 1980s. How I long for a cold front to pass, with a lovely "High" that can bring frosty nights. For CCD imaging. Onto NGC 383 Here is a picture of a very unfamiliar (to me) chain of Galaxies. This is a chain of 12.5 magnitude galaxies in the constellation of the Northern Fish or "Pisces" I made a mental note to image this small group. After seeing other pictures, and finding reference to t...
2 comments
Read more

IC 1805

The skies on Thursday evening were for the second time. Very clear. This allowed me to use my Canon 1000D and 200mm telephoto lens, on the Heart Nebula. I shot 24 x 5-minute exposures for this nebula, through an Optilong UHC filter. The Heart Nebula (IC 1805) is an emission nebula located at an approximate distance of about 7,500 light years from Earth, in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is also known as Sharpless 2-190 (Sh2-190) or the Running Dog Nebula because, when seen through a telescope, it looks a bit like a running dog.  I have not seen or heard this name before. The nebula has an apparent magnitude of 18.3 and an absolute magnitude of 6.5. It is 150 arcminutes in size and known for its intensely red glowing gas and dark dust lanes forming a shape that resembles a heart symbol. The Heart Nebula forms a famous complex known as the Heart and Soul with its smaller neighbour Westerhout 5, also known as the Soul Nebula, which lies just 2.5 degrees to the southeast. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Weather.

You have to be, very thick skinned, to be an amateur astronomer in this country. I haven't done any visual astronomy or astro imaging, since the beginning of the month. We had a few clear spells at the end of  January, and into early February. But since that time. I have not seen a totally cloud free sky. This evening was supposed to have been, our society observing, session on Teggs Nose. That has been called off, or I should say rained off. Because of the wind and rain. It's driving me mad. Strom Doris, whizzed by last week. Sadly she took one young victim's life, who was in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Very sad indeed. Thankfully. Where I work and live. We had no damage. Although there were, at times. When I wondered. Should be working under all that glass at Stocks Lane. The environmental computer, recorded  a gust of 56 mph at one point. I hope the Lovell telescope wasn't damaged during the storms! On Wednesday we move into Meteorological Spring. ...
Post a Comment
Read more