| Random files - Coolrocketdude's Gallery |
M33 -Triangulum Galaxy1206 viewsThe Triangulum Galaxy (Messier 33 or NGC 598) is a spiral galaxy approximately 3 million light-years away. It is the third largest galaxy in the Local Group, a group of galaxies that also contains the Milky Way. M33 is about 60,000 light years across and contains 10-40 billion solar masses. Celestron 6" SCT, unguided on GC-5. Stock Canon Rebel XSi, 21 minutes (needs more time-but forgot to charge battery). Taken at Dog Canyon State Park on the 11/22/08 public star party.
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NGC 1499 California Nebula1344 viewsThe California Nebula (NGC 1499) is an emission nebula located in the constellation Perseus. It is so named because it appears to resemble the outline of the state of California on long exposure photographs. It is almost 2.5° long on the sky and, because of its very low surface brightness, it is extremely difficult to observe visually. It lies at a distance of about 1,000 light years from Earth. This is a Ha, G, B exposure.
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Mercury Transit 2016828 viewsThe Mercury transit was well underway when this image was taken at 8:17 AM MT on 5/9/2016 from the AAG outreach event at Imago Dei Academy in Alamogordo, NM. The image was taken using a Stellaruve 80ED refractor with a Lunt B1200 Calcium-K module and Imaging Source 41AU02 camera. The Calcium K-line (393.4 nm) shows supergranulation in the lower chromosphere (~1200 km) along with lighter regions indicating magnetic activity. Sunspot AR2542 along with the small disk of Mercury are also visible.
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Heart Nebula1489 viewsThe Heart Nebula, IC 1805, Sh2-190, lies some 7500 light years away from Earth and is located in the Perseus arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. This is an emission nebula showing glowing gas and darker dust lanes. The open cluster of stars near the center known as Melotte 15 illuminates the nebula. This is a single 7min exposure thru an FSQ106/Ha filter from Tzec Maun Observatory in Mayhill NM.
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What a diiference a filter makes!1358 viewsHere is the Sun taken on 10/3/11 at 11:15 AM first in White light (left) and Calcium K (right) using a Stellarvue 80ED. The white light image shows a few sunspot groups while the CaK image shows much more detail and areas of increased magnetic activity. AR1302 is on the far right, nearly rotating out of view. The white light image was taken using an Orion glass filter and single snapshot from a Canon T2i. The CaK image was taken with an Imaging Source camera and Lunt B1200 CaK filter.
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Trifid Nebula (M20) in Living Color!1511 viewsHere is another summertime favorite, the Trifid Nebula (Messier 20) done with a Takahashi Epsilon 180 (f2.8) with SBIG 2000 single shot color camera using the Tzec Maun scopes in Australia. This is a single 10-minute exposure.
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Milky Way Over Alamogordo2035 viewsThis is a widefield image of the Milky Way taken on 4/29/11 from within the city limits of Alamogordo using a Canon T2i Rebel DSLR on a CGE mount. Visible near the center of the image is Messier 8 (M8, or the Lagoon Nebula), M20 (Trifid Nebula), rich star region M24, open clusters M21, M23 and M25. Globular cluster M22 is visible near the bottom center. To see these objects and more for yourself - come out to our events at Oliver Lee State Park !
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The Hale 200-inch telescope1533 viewsThis summer we took a tour of Mt. Palomar Observatory. The 200-inch (5.08 m) telescope is named after astronomer George Ellery Hale. It was built by Caltech with a $6M grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, using a Pyrex blank manufactured by Corning Glass Works. The telescope (the largest in the world at that time) saw first light January 26, 1949.
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| Last additions - Coolrocketdude's Gallery |
Jan 2019 lunar eclipse636 viewsJanuary 20, 2019 lunar eclipse taken with Borg 71FL refractor and Canon 1000D DSLR on a Vixen alt-az mount. Single exposure 0.8 sec, ISO 400Jan 22, 2019
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Mercury Transit 2016828 viewsThe Mercury transit was well underway when this image was taken at 8:17 AM MT on 5/9/2016 from the AAG outreach event at Imago Dei Academy in Alamogordo, NM. The image was taken using a Stellaruve 80ED refractor with a Lunt B1200 Calcium-K module and Imaging Source 41AU02 camera. The Calcium K-line (393.4 nm) shows supergranulation in the lower chromosphere (~1200 km) along with lighter regions indicating magnetic activity. Sunspot AR2542 along with the small disk of Mercury are also visible.May 12, 2016
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M76 - The Little Dumbbell909 viewsMessier 76 was discovered in 1780 by Pierre Méchain and cataloged by Charles Messier that same year. It wasn't until 1918 that M76's true nature as a planetary nebula was discovered by Herber Curtis. Located some 2,500 light years away in the constellation Perseus, M76 it is one of the faintest objects in the Messier catalog at magnitude 10.1. This image was taken from Alamogordo NM using an Astro-tech 130EDT f7 refractor and Atik 314L+ monochrome camera (130 min) using Ha, Hb and OIII signals.Feb 14, 2016
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Massive Filament on the Sun931 viewsA dark filament of magnetism in the sun's southern hemisphere has curled upon itself to form a circle of gargantuan proportions. The circumference of the ring is almost a million kilometers (600,000 miles)! Magnetic filaments are very often unstable, and have a tendency to collapse. Filaments crashing to the surface of the sun can cause of a type of explosion called a Hyder flare. Any flare from this filament could be extra-energetic as it releases the tension stored in its million-km coil. Image taken from Alamogordo, NM on 11/13/15 at 10:14 AM MST (1714 UTC) using a Meade Instruments Coronado 90mm SolarMax II telescope and Imaging Source 41AU02 camera.
Nov 13, 2015
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The Sadr Region in Cygnus1177 viewsThe Sadr Region is a region around Gamma Cygni in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan. This area hangs high overhead in the northern hemisphere during the summer. Contained within this region is defuse nebula IC 1318, an emission nebula with several dark nebulas intermixed. Image was taken with a 100mm f7.2 refractor and Hap Griffin modified Canon 1000D with an Astrodon filter from Alamogordo, NM on 9/26/2014. Stack of 15 ea 4 min exposures processed using Nebulosity 2.5 and PS V7.01 using Carboni tools.Sep 07, 2015
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White Light Sun843 viewsSunspot AR2403 is almost 200,000 km long and is easily visible in this image taken from Maryland on 8/25/2015 using an Orion ED80T Triplet refractor and a color Atik 414ex camera. The telescope was equipped with a white light filter and the exposure was set to 0.001 sec. Light was further reduced by using a Moon filter in fromt of the camera. Great shot Chuck!Aug 25, 2015
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The Sun930 viewsThis image was taken from Alamogordo, NM on 8/8/2015 at 10:49AM MT using a Coronado 90mm SolarMax II telescope and Imaging Source 41AU02 monochrome camera. 688 images were stacked using Registax and a light LR deconvolution was performed before color added using Photoshop. Sunspot AR2396 is seen in the image and has grown by 50% in the last day.Aug 08, 2015
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Saturn: The Bringer of Old Age1044 viewsIn the ancient Roman myths Saturn was the god of agriculture, Greeks called Saturn Cronus - this is where we get the idea of Father Time. Saturn takes 29.5 years to orbit the Sun - thereby making it the slowest moving of the visible planets in the night sky. Saturn was 8.976 AU (~830 million miles) distant in this image. Image taken from Alamogordo NM with a Celestron C9.25 at f30 using an Imaging Source 21AU618 color camera and stacked with Registax 5.1 (3206 images) and L-R deconvolution using Astra Image 3.0 SI.May 31, 2015
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