July 2010

Contents

  1. 1 M16 - Eagle Nebula
  2. 2 NGC 281 - Pacman Nebula
  3. 3 IC 5070 - Pelican Nebula
  4. 4 NGC 7023 - Iris Nebula

M16 - Eagle Nebula

M16 is actually a fairly bright medium sized open cluster. It is embedded in the emission nebula IC 4703[1] . The open cluster was  (most likely) discovered in 1746 by the swiss astronomer P.L. de Cheseaux [1],[2]. Messier saw it as "a cluster of small stars enmeshed in a faint light" [2]. I strongly recommend reading Burnhams rather poetic description of M16 in volume 3 of his Celestial Handbook, who also suggested naming the complex" star queen nebula. But not only Burnham got very emotional when looing at images of pictures of M16. Think of the "pillars of creation" as they star forming regions were called after the famous HST images were taken[3]. And as I still have to learn quite a lot about astro photography, have a look at Wofgang Prompers image.









 Object Name:
 M16
Object Type:
  emission nebula
 Object Position:
 RA 18h19m25s DE -13°46' 43"
 Location/Date/Time:
 St. Pölten, 02.7.2010, 23:14 MESZ (02.7.2010 21:14 UTC)
 Parameters:
 8 x 300 s luminance, 4x 180 s each color channel

References:

[1] Illustrated Guide to Astronmical Wonders, R.B. Thomson et al., O Reilly, 2007
[2] Burnhams Celestial Handbook, vol.3, R Burnham jr., Dover Publications, 1978
[3] www.spacetelscope.org


NGC 281 - Pacman Nebula

The Pacman Nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia is a rather dim emission nebula. It was discovered in 1881 by E.E.Banard [1]. A rather nice picture and description can be found here.





 Object Name:
  NGC 281
 Object Type:
  emission nebula
 Object Position:
 RA 00h 53m 26s DE 56°39' 32"
 Location/Date/Time:
 St. Pölten, 03.7.2010, 01:08 MESZ (02.7.2010 23:08 UTC)
 Parameters:
 4 x 300 s luminance, 2 x 180 s each color channel

References:

[1] http://www.ngcicproject.org/

IC 5070 - Pelican Nebula

The Pelican nebula lies in the constellation Cygnus right beside the the North America nebula (NGC 7000), on the "east coast"[1]. Its diameter is about 1.3 degrees. In the first image below I upped the red channel very strongly. This is also due to the two bright stars in this picture, 56 and 57 Cygni, two mag 5 stars, which made the balancing of that image a little bit difficult. The second one shows a different color balancing, still with a little bit too strong red channel. The third one is different to the others in that way, as the luminance channel was reduced using THELI. The fourth version shows was done with strong emphasis on the low intensity regions of the nebula and dirfferent color balancing.







 Object Name:
  IC 5070
 Object Type:
  emission nebula
 Object Position:
 RA 20h 51m 11s DE 44°23' 27"
 Location/Date/Time:
 St. Pölten, 9.7.2010, 23:47 MESZ (9.7.2010 21:37 UTC)
 Parameters:
 12 x 300 s luminance, 5 x 180 s each color channel


References:

[1] http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061130.html

NGC 7023 - Iris Nebula

A description will be added soon. Look here for some info up front.





 Object Name:
  NGC 7023
 Object Type:
  Reflection Nebula
 Object Position:
 RA 21h 01m 35s DE 68°10' 10"
 Location/Date/Time:
 St. Pölten, 14.7.2010, 23:00 MESZ (14.7.2010 21:00 UTC)
 Parameters:
 9 x 300 s luminance, 3 x 180 s each color channel



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