This site presents color CCD images of astronomical objects taken by the author. Most have been taken with an SBIG ST2000XM camera and either a homebuilt 10-inch Newtonian, Astro-Tech AT66ED, or Meade 2045D telescope There are a few other possible camera/telescope combinations described on the Equipment page but rarely used. Images taken with the 10-inch will always be from my observatory at West Point, TX. Those taken with the AT66ED will frequently be from my home in The Woodlands, TX, but it is portable and I take it to dark sky sites when possible. The same applies to the Meade 2045D. Except for images with the 10-inch, the location will be identified. The most recent dozen or so images will be shown on this page and others can be found by selecting an object type from the buttons on the left. All the images will be displayed as large thumbnails, accompanied by descriptions of the object, equipment used, exposure times, etc. Under each thumbnail, you will generally have the option of linking to a full size or half size image. Use your browser's Back button to return. Experiment with each size a few times to see which you prefer. The half-size images are usually more attractive but the full-size images obviously show more detail. Occasionally, I might include a few monochrome images but not many.
I began my color imaging in September, 2008 -- not counting a couple of years of CMY imaging with my Cookbook camera back in the previous century. For those of you interested in the technical details of the images, the lengths of the luminosity, red, green, and blue exposures are listed as L:R:G:B minutes. If the field size is something other than 21.7' x 28.9', the size will be listed. Also, unless otherwise noted, the images are oriented North up and East to the left. Details about the telescopes, cameras, filters, software, etc. can be found on the Equipment page. In late 2009, I acquired a set of narrowband filters and am starting to take some NB images. When the images are moved off this page, they will be put on both the page for the object type and on a new Narrowband page. On the Narrowband page, there is a short description of the palettes used to convert the exposure sets to color images
Prior to September, 2008, I spent
several years accumulating monochrome images of all 338 Arp Peculiar
Galaxies. These can be seen at my other web site,
www.338arps.com. This
challenging project sharpened my general imaging skills but
color is a new challenge. The Arp Galaxies that I have imaged
in color will appear on both sites.
Recent Images
The images below will not show up on the other pages until they are replaced on this one. You won't see any repeats when you go to one of the links on the left.
M20 (Trifid, NGC 6514)10-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 32:32:32
M20, the Trifid, is a beautiful combination of pink emission nebulosity and a blue reflection nebula. The name comes from its visual appearance in small telescopes which shows the division of the lower nebula into three sections -- in the image, four sections are seen. This is a pure RGB image, which I feel produces richer colors than LRGB with bright objects. The colors of the nebulosity are the most obvious feature of this object, but the range of star colors in and around the nebula are very attractive.
The half size image is shown with a little less stretching to deemphasize the surrounding nebulosity and make the appearance more like older film images you may have seen. In fact, all of the images are presented with very mild stretch -- the field is filled with nebulosity from edge to edge. On the Diffuse Nebula page, there is a wide field image of which includes both M20 and M21, taken with a smaller telescope. It does not show the extent and detail that this one does.
NGC 590710-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 48:16:16:16
NGC 5907 is a nice example of an edge-on galaxy. It is bright and easily imaged. Megastar lists the dimensions as 12.9' x 1.3'. There is a lot of texture and detail in the dust lanes, and a full range of colors from dark brown through yellow and white to the blue of the outer arms. We appear to be looking at this galaxy from just above its galactic plane. The core is peaking out on the east side while fully obscured on the west.
I was pleased with this image and consider it one of my better ones. However, to see a truly spectacular image of NGC 5907, check this link: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080619.html. It shows an Astronomy Picture Of the Day with an 11.35 hours of total exposure through a 20-inch telescope. The galaxy is encircled with streams believed to be the remains of a tidally disrupted previous companion. There is evidence that our Milky Way has some similar remains but they are obscured from our location; the evidence is based on careful star counts and proper motion measurements.
The only obvious galaxy nearby is KUG 1513+566, toward the upper right corner. There are, however, a huge number of tiny background galaxies in the image. In one arbitrary square area about 2 arc minutes on a side, I counted 6 stars and 36 galaxies. I believe that ratio is fairly typical throughout the image. I've included a negative monochrome image if you want to make your own counts.
NGC 638410-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 120:36:36:36
NGC 6384 is a barred spiral, with a fairly short and diffuse bar, probably not unlike our Milky Way in appearance. Among the large, bright galaxies, it is one of the closest to the plane of the Milky Way. Because of this, our galaxy would look very similar to NGC 5907 (above) if viewed by an observer in NGC 6384.
Because of its proximity to the Milky Way, NGC 6384 has a very rich complement of foreground stars but, unlike the NGC 5907 field above, it is very hard to find any background galaxies.
This image was made under marginal conditions and does not have the crispness of the two images above. The sky was very moist and hazy, and the wind was very brisk.
M83 (NGC 5236)10-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 48:16:16:16
This large, bright barred spiral is a beautiful object. The intricate dust lanes add to the interest, and there are a few pink hydrogen alpha regions visible. The exposures should have been longer but it is such a bright object that it still shows well. Conditions were also marginal, with poor transparency, and the sky was completely clouded out within 5 minutes after I finished the last blue sub-exposure.
The largest of the small pair of galaxies East (left) of M83 is ESO 444-85. Somewhat surprisingly, there are not a lot of background galaxies in this area.
NGC 4236Meade 2045D, ST2000XM, 130:40:40:40, 40' x 29'
This was my one and only image from the 2010 Texas Star Party. I spent three nights determining that I had a broken wire inside a 9-pin connector, which was preventing me from guiding, and there were a couple of "iffy" weather nights.
NGC 4236 is a huge galaxy, 22' x 7.2', with a magnitude of 10.1, and has a very low surface brightness. In three different catalogs, S.B. is listed as 15.0, 16.0, and 23.5 mag./sq. arc sec. The last one is obviously an error, but it is dim. I was imaging at f/10, which didn't help, but there was no hint of the galaxy in 10-minute color sub-exposures until I turned on log scaling.
It is a barred spiral and has some interesting features, especially the bright blue "hook" just above and to the left of the core.
NGC 3193 Group (Arp 316)10-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 120:30:30:30
NGC 3193 is the elliptical galaxy above the center of the field. With NGC 3190, the nearly edge-on spiral, and NGC 3187, the blue dog-leg galaxy, it completes Arp 316. NGC 3185, the spiral in the lower right corner, is not part of the Arp group but is an interesting galaxy. It has an extremely faint yellowish halo twice the diameter of the bright part of the galaxy. Both 3190 and 3187 show obvious evidence of interaction. On close inspection, this image shows a wide band of material connecting 3193 and 3190, and a narrower U-shaped band from the SW end of 3187 to the S side of 3190.
There are many more galaxies in the field. Four of the more interesting are the clumpy irregular SDSS_J101832.71+215236.4 about 2' SE of 3193, the tiny edge-on 2MASXJ10181187+2151294 between 3193 and 3190, 2MASXJ10174317+2150588 on the SW tip of 3187, and LSBC D500-05 about 20% of the way up from the bottom and just E (left) of center.
M102 (NGC 5866)10-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 50:25:25:25
I'm identifying NGC 5866 as M102 at some risk. For many years, M102 was considered a "missing" Messier object -- never correctly cataloged -- but in recent years there seems to be fairly wide agreement that it is really NGC 5866. However, the debate continues.
The extremely narrow dark lane (galactic disk) bisecting the galaxy is its most interesting feature, but the bright flares at both ends of the dark lane are also unusual. This image is shorter and not as deep as the Arp 316 image above, and does not show nearly as many background galaxies. The ones seen aren't especially interesting.
M102 was placed off-center in the field so I could find a suitable guide star.
IC 443 (Jellyfish)10-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 110:50:70
This is a narrowband image of a very faint object. Its common name (to the extent it has one) is the Jellyfish but I might have named it the Brain. It did not quite fit into my field but not much is cut off. The color palette is a custom one as I did not like the results using any of the traditional palettes. Red is a blend of SII and H-alpha, green a blend of H-alpha and OIII, and blue is all OIII. IC 443 is a supernova remnant interacting with surrounding molecular clouds.
I've only included half size images because the full sized ones are very grainy. The H-alpha monochrome image is, for me, more attractive than the color image.
NGC 2237 (Rosette) and NGC 2244
Astro-Tech AT66ED, ST2000XM, 230:62(+70 H-a):58:58minutes, 61' x 94'
The Rosette nebula itself is generally assigned the designation NGC 2237, but over the years some of the brighter parts were cataloged separately as NGC 2238, 2239, and 2246. The bright open cluster essentially at the center of the nebula is NGC 2244. This image was acquired at three locations: the luminance at my home, observatory, and Fort McKavett, TX, and the color (including H-alpha) at Fort McKavett. The H-alpha enhanced version is shown in this thumbnail. Al Kelly helped with the processing of this image. In addition to this version, there are buttons below that link to a pure H-alpha monochrome.
Although bright, the Rosette can be a very difficult object visually because the light is spread out over more than a degree. A little light pollution washes it out, but in very dark skies it can be seen with binoculars. Don't expect to see any color, though.
H-alpha:
