The Andromeda Galaxy - My First Deep Space Object Picture

So in my last post I had implied that I was going to try and image Messier 34 (The Spiral Cluster) once I got hold a T Ring and a friend's DSLR. Unfortunately I managed to fail quite hugely at trying to find that cluster when I had a camera attached to the telescope. However, one DSO I always know how to find is Messier 31 (The Andromeda Galaxy) as it is pretty clear in my finder scope even if I couldn't see it on my laptop screen and so it turned out that the first DSO I would ever image was that instead.

However, I am probably getting a little bit ahead of myself here and should probably try and explain to you what equipment I was using to get the photograph. Basically, I had a Canon EOS 1100d DSLR which I borrowed from a friend, I then used an EOS-T2 Adapter which enabled me to attach the DSLR to the back of my telescope. To control the camera I used the laptop and some software called "APT - Astro Photography Tool" which let me alter the exposure times, view the camera image via the laptop screen, conduct focus calculations on the image to ensure I had the focus as tight as possible and finally it allowed me to take a photograph without touching the camera itself.

Whilst the above sounds great I was actually using one piece of equipment which not suited at all to astrophotography. Namely my Alt-Az mount which isn't the most stable, doesn't have the smoothest tracking and doesn't track the movement of the skies exactly so you can get field rotation. So this is my excuse for why the images I am going to show below aren't the best!

Now it is time for me to actually show the pictures, the first is basically a single 25 second sub which has had 10 Dark Frames and 20 Bias Frames applied to try and help the noise issues.

As you can see all I have gotten here is a rather small patch of fuzzy light in the center although I also managed to get the satellite galaxy Messier 32 in the bottom right of the frame as well which was unexpected. My next step was therefore to try and stack a few subs together and whilst some of the images I took weren't very good due to mount movement etc. I did manage to at least get enough shots to enable me to stack 4 off 25 second subs together which I then processed with 10 Dark Frames and 20 Bias Frames which is shown below.

I got a much brighter and larger object here because the improvement in signal to noise ratio from stacking enabled me to pull out more data without increasing the noise as much. I think Messier 32 is even clearer here as well and obviously looks different to the stars that in the field which should be expected as it is a small galaxy.

Overall I am actually quite happy with the images and suspect that I could get some nicer images in the future even with this limited set up once I get better at using the equipment and processing software.

Clear Skies Keep on Coming

So another clear night meant I was out again in the back garden but this time I had a work colleague with me who at one point actually went in and made us both a cup of tea which was greatly appreciated. Although looking at the kitchen floor afterwards it appears that trying to make tea with just a red light isn’t the cleanest process.

Anyway on the whole I covered a lot of the same targets I seen the previous night with me once again enjoying the views of objects such as the Double Cluster (C14), the Owl Cluster (C13), Eta Cassiopeiae, Albiero, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) & its satellite (M32). I also enjoyed looking at my old favourites the Cigar Galaxy (M82) & Bode’s Galaxy (M81) which fitted wonderfully together in the 32mm Eyepiece and were reasonably visible even though they were sitting in a fair amount of light pollution.

However, I am pleased say that for some other objects I managed to improve on what I had seen previously. The first of these objects was the Ring Nebula (M57) which I had seen the previous night but I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t really make out any darker central region which would have given it a ring shape. However, this time I spent a fair amount of time looking over the nebula in both my 32mm and 25mm Eyepieces and actually managed to see a darker centre which resulted in the famous ring like shape being visible. I still think a UHC filter might enhance the view a bit more but I think that can wait until next Summer’s buying spree!

The next object that I managed to improve on was Iota Cassiopeiae which is a multiple star system that I only managed to spot 3 out of 4 components when I last looked at it. This time however I sat staring at this little point of light for ages in the 8mm Eyepiece and at this magnification I managed to finally spot the B component which has about 2.8” of separation from the A component. It was a struggle to see initially but once I located it sitting within the primary’s glare I then managed to find a viewing angle that clearly showed it. I can now happily say that I have seen all 4 components of the Iota Cassiopeiae system. An interesting titbit to mention here is that 2.8” was the lowest separation I had actually managed to split at that point although I was about to beat it later on that night.

So after this success I decided to try and look at a few other items in the night sky that I hadn’t seen before which I have detailed in the image below:

Messier 29 / The Cooling Tower
RA: 20 24  Dec: +38 31
Type: Open Cluster
Magnitude: 7.1

Messier 29 is an open cluster in the Cygnus constellation that I had actually tried to find it previously but had failed in the attempt. Basically, at the time my alignment wasn’t good enough and that part of the sky is so crowded that I struggled to confirm its location. This time however I had some good alignment and I had looked up the area of Stellarium to make sure I knew where to adjust the telescope if I was out by a little bit.

The name of the cluster is derived by the fact that the brightest stars form a shape which resembles a hyperboloid-shaped cooling tower. This shape was actually pretty clear to me and I do wonder how I managed to miss it last time. As with nearly all open clusters that I look at from my back garden I didn’t really notice any background light from other stars in the cluster and it was only really the bright stars that I saw.


Epsilon Lyrae / The Double Double / STF 2382 + 2383 (HIP 91919 / SAO 67310)
RA: 18 44  Dec: +39 40
Magnitudes: 5.15, 6.1, 5.25, 5.38
Separation: 2.3”, 207.9”, 208.7”
Position Angle: 346, 171, 172

So I had previously heard about The Double Double but had never actually seen it so I decided that tonight would be the night. The system itself was pretty obvious to locate as the AB & CD elements were nice and clear in the finderscope and had a good deal of separation between them. The real challenge though was in trying to separate A from B and C from D and as the distances were 2.3” and 2.4” respectively which was closer than anything else I had managed previously.

I therefore pulled out the trusty 8mm Eyepiece which gives me about 188x magnification and sat staring at these two bright points of light for a fair amount of time. I could feel my eyes watering as I sat staring through the eyepiece but in amongst the glare I managed to split both the AB and CD components. The fact it was a double double actually made it easier to do as I could concentrate on the space between the two doubles and let averted vision do the rest. I didn’t see any colour in the stars but that didn’t matter as it was still a brilliant sight to see and I felt pretty chuffed I had managed to split stars that had separation as low as 2.3”.

Messier 56 
RA: 19 17  Dec: +30 11
Type: Globular Cluster
Magnitude: 8.3

Messier 56 is a globular cluster in the constellation Lyra and is about 32,900 light years from Earth with a width of approx. 84 light years. With the brightest stars in the cluster only being of 13th Magnitude it was no surprise to me that I really struggled to see it. With my telescope in my back garden it was a very faint fuzzy patch that I had to employ averted vision to see consistently. It was actually a bit disappointing when I compare it to the much brighter Messier 3 globular cluster in the constellation of Canes Venatici.

Messier 13 / The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules
RA: 16 42  Dec: +36 28
Type: Globular Cluster
Magnitude: 5.8

So after the disappointment of Messier 56 I decided that I would try and find a more impressive Globular Cluster and as Messier 13 is called The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules I was sure that it would fit the bill.

Messier 13 is about 145 light-years in diameter and is approximately 25,100 light-years away from Earth and when I looked at it through my telescope it appeared exactly as I expected it to. I saw a lovely bright patch of light that was clearly a circular shaped cluster of stars. I didn’t managed to resolve any individual stars as I looked at the cluster but I wasn’t expecting to as I have gotten used to that from looking at other Globular Clusters.

Messier 34 / The Spiral Cluster
RA: 02 42  Dec: +42 46
Type: Open Cluster
Magnitude: 5.5

My final target of the night was Messier 34 which is an open cluster in the constellation Perseus.and is sometimes known as the Spiral Cluster due to stellar arcs visible under low power. Personally, I couldn’t really see the reasoning for the name but I may as well mention it.

Anyway, the cluster is located approximately 1,500 light years away, contains an estimated 400 stars and is 7 light years wide. To be honest, for it containing so many stars I can’t see I saw that many more than some of the clusters than contain only 100 or so stars. Then again, I am becoming a bit wary about the “facts” I dredge up about these various cluster as many of them have disagreeing comments in regards to aspects like the distance from Earth or the quantity of stars that are members. Despite all this, what I did see was actually quite an attractive cluster. Most of the bright stars in the cluster almost appeared to be paired off so it looks like a collection of double stars. For someone that enjoys hunting double stars it was really nice to see and it is possible that some of them really were doubles, I just need to do some more research into it.

As a final note, I am hoping to get a T ring in the next day or so which will enable me to borrow a friend’s DSLR and attach it to my telescope. This Cluster is going to be my target mainly because it is currently low down in the East, reasonably bright and should hopefully fit in the image frame. This means I may have at least a small chance of getting an okay image out of my Azimuth Mount. So hopefully in a few weeks or so I might be able to show my first DSO astroimaging attempt even if I am not using the best equipment for the job.

Dark Skies Have Arrived

So I have been waiting quite a bit but on the 23rd August 2014 the sky was clear and the skies actually looked dark and so I decided to take my telescope out into the back garden and explore the night sky. Part of the fun was getting to use all my new toys of course and straight away I was using my new illuminated reticle eyepiece to get the alignment more exact and had my laptop plugged in to the handset so I could use Stellarium to control the Telescope which is a bit quicker to use than the handset itself. After setting up though I still had to decide what to look at which was a tough choice as I had been suffering from night sky withdrawal.

In the end my first target of the night was actually an obvious one, it was the comet named "C/2014 E2 (Jacques)" that people had been discussing recently on the astronomy forums. I had never actually looked at a comet yet through my telescope so I was a bit excited about it. To be honest it was actually a bit of a letdown as there was no tail present and it was lacking in colour, it basically just looked like a small smudge similar to how distant galaxies can appear in my scope. I have seen pictures so I do know that it is a green colour but that doesn't come up when looking at it visually which was a shame. It was still nice to see but it wasn't as wonderful as I was hoping for.

So after this I decided to spent a little time exploring the area of the sky that the comet was sitting in, namely Cassiopeia and the various sights I ended up looking at are highlighted in the image below.

Caldwell 14 / The Double Cluster
RA: 02 20 Dec: +57 08
Type: Open Star Clusters
Magnitude: 3.7 and 3.8

The Double Cluster is the common name for the two naked-eye open clusters NGC 869 and NGC 884. NGC 869 is about 7,500 Light Years away and is comprised of about 350 stars in a region 75 light years wide. NGC 884 is very similar in both size and distance with it also being about 7,500 Light Years away and comprised of about 300 stars in a region 70 light years wide. Although I have noted a few comments around the internet and in books that imply some measurements show there may actually be almost 1,000 light years of difference in the two cluster's distance from Earth.

I have seen the double cluster before but this is the first time in my own telescope and it was lovely sight. My new 32mm Eyepiece managed to fit both clusters in the FoV without any issues at all. One day I may need to try and put a sketch together but it would probably take me hours to do and I am not sure my back can take being hunched over the eyepiece that long.

Messier 103
RA: 01 33 Dec: +60 42
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 7.4

M103 is an Open Cluster about 8,000 Light Years away and is comprised of about 50 stars in a region 15 light years wide and to be honest it took me quite a while to find. The problem was I was looking for something that really appeared like a cluster with at least 10 stars and the odd dim background light.

When I found it, what I saw with 4 small stars with a center one showing a clear orange colour which was actually the reason I realised I had actually found it plus checking Stellarium on the laptop to confirm the star pattern.

It isn't the most exciting of clusters at all and as with all the clusters I checked this night I didn't notice any dim background light like I supposedly should do. I suspect this may be related to the fact it isn't the darkest site I am using.

Caldwell 10
RA: 01 46 Dec: +61 15
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 7.1

Caldwell 10 or NGC 663 as it is also known is an Open Cluster about 5,000 Light Years away and is comprised of about 100 stars in a region 35 light years wide. It is quite a nice little open cluster which is much more notable that the nearby Messier 103 or the other clusters around it. Supposedly I should have been able to see a hazy light background due to the other stars in the cluster but I have to admit that I didn't notice this.

NGC 659
RA: 01 44 Dec: +60 40
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 7.9

NGC 659 is an Open Cluster about 7,000 Light Years away and is comprised of about 30 stars in a region 10 light years wide. It is a very uninspiring cluster with about three stars actually visible and none of them showing any sort interesting colours. From a darker site I may have been able to see some background light from other stars in the cluster but even then I doubt it would have been that exciting.

One thing I was able to do was get it into the same FoV as Caldwell 10 which did at least make the view a bit more impressive.

Caldwell 13 / The Owl Cluster
RA: 01 20 Dec: +58 17
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 6.4

NGC 457 is an Open Cluster about 9,000 Light Years away and is comprised of about 200 stars in a region 30 light years wide. This is my favourite cluster of the night as it is cluster with a very clear and beautiful shape, I could easily find myself staring at it for hours I suspect in an attempt to explore every star. It does have various names but I prefer the Owl Cluster as that it what it was first introduced to me as and I can see that shape clearly. I have to be honest and say I still don't see the shape of ET in it which I believe is a popular name of the cluster in the US.

On thing I noted is that the star Phi Cassiopeiae is fairly obvious in the eyepiece as it is by far the brightest star there. Interesting enough though, it has never actually been confirmed if it is actually part of the clsuter or if it just happens to lie along the same line of sight. If it really is part of the cluster then this would probably make Phi Cassiopeiae the brightest star in the galaxy.

Eta Cassiopeiae / Achird / STF 60 (HIP 3821 / SAO 21732)
RA: 00 49 05.1 Dec: +57 38 59.4
Magnitudes: 3.52, 7.36
Separation: 13.2"
Position Angle: 323°

Eta Cassiopeiae is a lovely double star comprised of G0 V primary star and a smaller K7 V secondary star. I could actually see the colours of the stars within the eyepiece with the primary appearing white whilst the secondary had a pale orange colour. The secondary actually has a ghostly appearance but was still clearly visible against the glare from the brighter primary component. It is actually quite a mesmerising sight and I could probably stare at this double for quite a long time if I let myself. I was actually a bit saddened that I hadn’t brought my sketching materials out with me as I would have loved to try and capture what I was seeing.

An interesting piece of information I found out about this star is that some of the double star catalogues list further dimmer components. However, it appears that these are actually more distant stars and are not related to the Eta Cassiopeiae system at all. I may at some point try and see all of these optical companions but that is something I will need to do at a darker site as they do have quite low magnitudes.

Iota Cassiopeiae / STF 262 (HIP 11569 / SAO 12298)
RA: 02 29 04.0 Dec: +67 24 09
Magnitudes: 4.63, 6.92, 9.05, 8.48
Separation: 2.8", 7.2", 212"
Position Angle: 42°, 230°, 116°

This was a fun little multiple star to look at due to the high quantity of components that comprise the system. I have to admit however that I didn’t realise it had 4 components that I should have been able to see and so I concentrated on trying to see only 3. I blame the various webpages around which only seem to concentrate on 3 components and myself for not realising I wasn’t even concentrating on the 3 that most people notice. I basically only noticed the A, C & D Components and completely missed the B Component which was the closest one to the main star. So my initial happiness at having managed to see three components in both my 32mm and 8mm Eyepiece has since been dulled now that I know I missed something although I doubt I would have picked it up in my 32mm anyway. Next time I look at this star I am determined I will get a glance at all 4 components!

These doubles were my last targets in Cassiopeia for the night as I knew it was getting late and I wanted to grab a quick look at some other targets in the night sky. The first of these was everyone’s old friend Messier 31 otherwise known as the Andromeda Galaxy. The view I got of this galaxy in my new 32mm Eyepiece was superb and it really was the best view I have had. The core was clearly visible alongside some dimmer outer regions, this was the first time I have managed to see real structure in a galaxy beyond it just being a fuzzy patch of light. I got an additional bonus in that I also managed to pick up the small fuzzy shape of Messier 32, which is one of Andromeda’s satellite galaxies. It was completely unexpected but I had a huge grin on my face when I saw it sitting there quite clearly below Andromeda.

After getting this unexpected first sight of Messier 32 I decided I wanted to explore some more objects that I hadn’t seen before and settled on the two targets highlighted in the following image:

Messier 57 / Ring Nebula
RA: 18 53 35 Dec: +33 01 45
Type: Planetary Nebula
Magnitude: 8.8

The Ring Nebula is a planetary nebula which sits within the constellation Lyra. Such objects are formed when a shell of ionized gas is expelled into the surrounding interstellar medium by a red giant star, which was passing through the last stage in its evolution before becoming a white dwarf.

I was actually a little bit disappointed with my viewing of this nebula as I had been hoping to see something that looking like a grey smoke ring but that didn’t happen. What I did see was a very clear small and circular shape when using my 32mm eyepiece but I couldn’t make out any dimmer central region. This is probably due to a mix of light pollution and low magnification but when I tried to increase the magnification via the 8mm eyepiece the nebula became very dim and hard to resolve so I had to revert back to the 32mm. Next time I think I may attempt to use my 25mm Eyepiece which I didn’t think to try this time. In addition, I am going to consider getting a UHC filter or something similar to help when viewing nebulas.

Beta Cygni / Albireo / STFA 43 (HIP 95947 / SAO 87301)
RA: 19 30 43.3 Dec: +27 57 34.6
Magnitudes: 3.19, 4.68
Separation: 34.7"
Position Angle: 55°

My final target of the night was this beautiful double star which form part of the Cygnus constellation. It is comprised of a lovely yellow primary and a blue secondary which I saw very clearly from the moment I had it in the eyepiece. It really is very striking and reminded me of the similarly coloured and equally impressive double star of Almach. I found myself switching between multiple eyepieces whilst studying this star but I think I preferred the 32mm which still easily split the star but also showed the surrounding stars. These less colourful stars helped to really showcase the wonderful colours that are present in Albireo.

Overall this was a wonderful night; I saw so many new things, many of which were quite impressive. My new equipment all performed well and I found using the laptop outside helped me select target quicker and it helped me verify where I was when the slewing didn’t hit the target exactly. It was so good to be out again and I am already looking forward to getting back out there soon.

I Can't Stop Buying Things!

So after buying a couple of new eyepieces which I detailed in the last post I thought that I would stop buying any more equipment for a bit. Unfortunately I didn't count on the Sky at Night magazine which mentioned the fact that it was almost the best time of the year to try and spot Uranus.

The problem I have is that Uranus would look rather tiny if I image it without a barlow and my current stock skywatcher 2x barlow is quite simply rubbish. I always struggle to get any colours to show up and the less said about my attempts to focus with it the better.

I decided therefore that if I wanted to have at least some chance at imaging the planet at a size which isn't a tiny point of light I was going to need a new barlow. A fair bit of checking online showed that there were some superb ones at high cost but with my current webcam I would rather just buy something that was good but wouldn't break the bank. I was therefore attracted to the Revelation 2.5x barlow which has a higher magnification than my current barlow and there seemed to be a lot of happy folks who use it.

And so I am now the proud owner of a new barlow and I just hope it will actually prove to be better than my previous one.

Summer Equipment Buying

It has been a long Summer meaning I haven't been able to get out and explore the night skies so instead I have been buying more equipment in preparation for when I can get back outside.

My first purchase is a 32mm GSO Eyepiece which should enable me to get a wider field of view through my telescope. Hopefully this new eyepiece will enable me to really appreciate some of the open clusters etc. a bit more.

The eyepiece was a bargain as I got it 2nd hand through AstroBuySell for £18 when they would normally be around £34 if bought new. 

This wasn't the only eyepiece I bought however as I also got myself a 12.5mm illuminated reticle eyepiece to help with GOTO alignment and webcam targeting. Basically this eyepiece will ensure I can put alignment stars dead center in the eyepiece and when conducting webcam imaging I should again be able to make sure it is again centered so it will be visible on the camera sensor.

This is a non branded eyepiece but this meant I could get it for £20 from Ebay. The optics are probably not that great but that shouldn't matter as I won't be using it for actually viewing targets. I would rather have had an eyepiece with a larger field of view but the prices were getting quite high when you get up to 20mm eyepieces.