Pictured on a typical sub zero winters night in Maine, I pursue my favorite pastime, viewing the heavens and taking images of the various objects that it holds.  My interest in this activity didn't come until a few years ago and I place most of the blame on this character, WAYNE,  my friend and aspiring astrophotographer. For  more astrophotos you  can visit his web site.   Pictures and list of my equipment will be added at a later time. If you have any questions or comments e-mail me here.  Click on any picture to enlarge.


MOST RECENT IMAGE


Adjust your monitor  so that each square is a distinct shade. This is  necessary to ensure that  many of the details will be seen.



What is a light year? It is the distance in miles that light travels in 1 year in a vacuum such as space. The speed of light is approximately 186,280 miles per second. So in a year light travels approximately 5,874,526,080,000 miles or 5.88 trillion.

Personal note; One the things that fascinates me about taking these images is considering the distance the light has traveled and for the time it has traveled I am actually taking a picture of the past. These objects are constantly changing and who knows what they actually look like today.


Comet C2001 Q4 NEAT   Comets are large masses of frozen gas (ice balls) combined with dust and rock. It's possible that this may be the first time this comet has ever visited our solar system.  First discovered in 2001 it passed within 30 million miles of earth during May 2004. At it's brightest it was visible to the unaided eye for anyone knowing where to look.  As a comet get closer to the sun radiation causes the gases to heat up and shed material creating the tail. This 2 minute image was taken on  5/17/2004 using a TEC 140, CG11 and Waynes ST2000 CCD camera.




M42 Great Orion Nebula.  Located 1,500 light years away in the constellation of Orion.  Nebulae are regions of space where there are very large clouds of dust and gas. Light from nearby stars is reflected on the dust (reflection). In other nebulae the radiation and heat from the stars, cause the gases in the space around them to emit their own ionized glow (emission). Some, like M42 are visible to the unaided eye. When a nebula exhibits both types of nebulosity it is known as a, diffuse nebula. The red areas are attributed to emission and blue to reflection. Many nebulae are birthing regions for new stars but not all are star forming.  This three minute image was taken on 01/10/04 using  a TEC 140 scope, CG11 mount and a Nikon 4500 camera with a William Optics 24mm EP.



Jupitor  Image taken on 12/27/03 using the TEC 140 , CG11, and Nikon Coolpix 995 with a 14mm Scopetronics EP.  The image is made from 11 x 1/8th  second images.






Saturn  Image was taken on 12/20/03 using the TEC 140, CG11 mount, Nikon Coolpix 995 with a 18mm Scopetronics EP. The image is made from 12 X 1/2 second images. I had some processing assistance from another backyarder, Forrest Egan.  Thanks Forrest.





M51 Whirlpool Galaxy   So named for it's famous spiral arms and interaction with a smaller companion galaxy.  This face on galaxy is located in the constellation of Canes Venatici and is approximately 37 million lights years distant. If you were to look at the Big Dipper this galaxy is situated near the last star on the handle.  In the future I plan to expand with more galaxy images. This 2 minute image was taken on 05/11/04 using a TEC 140 , CG11 and a SBIG ST237 camera. This was my very first  RGB and LRGB image ever with my new used camera.



M13 The great cluster in Hercules. In some areas of space there are groups or clusters of stars . M13 has over 100,000 stars in its cluster. It is located in the constellation of Hercules and is over 20,000 light years distant. In 1974 a radio message was sent towards this cluster in hopes that there would be someone to hear it. Even if it works, it will take 50,000 years to hear the reply.   This 1 minute LRGB image was taken on  05/19/04 using the TEC 140, CG11 and ST2000 camera.




M57 The Ring Nebula. This is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Lyra. This type of nebula is formed when a red giant star blows off (explodes) it outer layers into space. These expelled layers can become visible and often will have a round or ring shape although other shapes may form.  This 1 minute image was taken on 05/19/04.  As can be seen from the image there are areas of  reflection and emission  nebulosity in this type of nebula.




M20 Trifid Nebula    Located  approximately 5,000 light years away in the constellation of  Sagittarius. Named because the dark dust lanes that cause the  nebula to  be broken into three separate parts.   The 5 minute image was re-taken on 8/20/04.   Image taken with TEC 140,  CG11,  and ST237.




M8 Hourglass Nebula    Also called the Lagoon Nebula, was first discovered in 1680 and latter cataloged by Charles Messier in 1764.  This is a faint, extremely large nebula that, with a longer exposure, would show that it is in fact much larger than the frame of the picture.  This image also taken on 6/13/04 was actually a fluke of the night. I happened across it as I was panning the sky with a wide field, lower power  magnification.  When I took the image I had no idea on what it was I was imaging and had to later research and  identify the new object.  Image taken with TEC 140, CG11 and ST237.



M27 Dumbbell Nebula    This object is located 1,200 light years distant in the constellation of Vulpecula. It was first discovered by Messier in 1764. Another example of planetary  nebula  similar to M57 except, instead of a ring shape, this has formed a dumbbell shape. I have wondered if the dumbbell shape is due to an edge on view  instead of face on. Image taken with TEC 140, CG11 and ST237.  Image taken 6/23/04




NGC7635 Bubble Nebula   This emission nebula is approximately 11,000 light years distant in the constellation of Cassiopeia. The bubble of glowing red hydrogen gas is caused by stellar winds generated by the intensity of the hot stars in the center of the bubble.
This is another object that I will be going back to. There is much more nebulosity  that can captured  with a longer image. This LRGB image of 25x15x15x15 was taken using the TEC 140 and ST237. All images are 5 minute exposures processed with CCD soft.  Image taken 8/2/04.


M17 This nebula has been given a number of common names over the years such as Omega, Horseshoe, Lobster and Swan. It resides in the constellation of Sagittarius about 5,000 light years away. This hydrogen emission nebula is estimated to be several million degrees hot. The intensity is caused by  young massive stars that reside inside the extreme dust region. The dust being so thick and dark that it hides the objects that cause it to glow.  Image taken 8/9/04 using the ST237, TEC 140 and CG11.  



IC 5146 This beautiful nebula is commonly known as the Cocoon. It's located in the constellation of Cygnus about 4,000 light years away.  Much of the nebulosity is generated by the large central star.  This star is thought to be about 100,000 years old compared to our sun which is believed  to be about 5 billion years old.  The image is my first taken with my newly acquired ST2000XM and is a LRGB of 30x10x10x10 minute exposures.  Taken on 8/22/04.



M45 popularly known as The Seven Sisters or " Pleiades".  This bright star cluster can be seen with the unaided eye during the winter months.  This image captures three of the Sisters,  Alcyone top left, Merope bottom left and Maia bottom right.  The object is surrounded in Greek mythology with some of the sisters being involved with Zeus and Posiedon. Pleiades is located in the constellation of Taurus and is about 400 light years distant.  I plan to re-shoot this in a wider field and attempt to get all seven sisters.  Taken on 09/24/04.


M33 This spiral galaxy also known as the Pinwheel is located in the Constellation of Triangulum . It's about  3 million light years distant and spans 50,000 light years.  It is part of a group of galaxies known as the Local Group. Included in this group is our  own Milky way,  Andromeda  and  about 25 other galaxies. Many areas of nebulosity can be seen as a red glow and some emission  nebula areas can be seen in blue. Other areas are rich in star clusters.   Image is a 200 minute LRGB taken on 09/24/04..



M74 This galaxy resides towards the constellation of Pisces and is approximately 30 million light years away. Some consider this the perfect spiral galaxy and a better image would show why.  The significant difference between this image and  M33 is the atmospheric conditions of the evening.  Haze, humidity and air turbulence can dramatically affect the clarity of even a well focused system.  I will of course redo this at a latter date.