Dick Miller's CCD Images     

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   10-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 40:24:24:24

   The larger galaxy is NGC 3227 and the companion is NGC 3226.  The pair is nearly surrounded by faint loops, although these are extremely faint at the south end.  This could be gas but I think it is probably a halo of stars thrown out of the galaxies by their interaction.  Notice the dark brown, almost black, area slightly above and right of the NGC 3227 core.  This in normally indicative of thick dust.

There is a pair of apparently interacting galaxies at the right edge of the field, just below Arp 94.  This is CGCG 94-22 and is classified as a galactic pair.  There are a number of other small galaxies found only in the 2MASX or SDSS catalogs, without any particularly interesting information.  For me, the most interesting object other than Arp 94 itself is the intensely blue object (star?) at the top edge of the field, directly above 94.  I don't think I've ever captured anything this blue. 

I only shot 40 minutes of luminosity because I already had an equal amount which I shot in 2008.  However, the new data was so much better that the final image would have been degraded by including the old data.  Fortunately, this is a fairly bright object so it shows fairly well even with the short exposure.

   10-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 72:24:24:24

   Arp 184 could easily be called "The Ear".  Notice the wispy tendrils sweeping off to the north (top) side of the galaxy.  These are likely the result of an interaction but the other galaxy is not apparent.  It could have been largely absorbed and now shows only as one of the "lumps" in 184, or it could be on the opposite side from our viewpoint.  The color is surprisingly yellow if it has, in fact, undergone a recent interaction.

This field is full of background galaxies.  Three of the brightest are UGC 3342, at the left edge, CGCG 329-9, about halfway to the bottom of the field from Arp 184, and CGCG 329-11, a little above and halfway to the left edge from 184.  Also, there is a little Irregular just over 2' left and down from CGCG 329-11.

   10-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 80:28:28:28

   Since I've started naming objects, I'll call Arp 279 the "Crab Galaxy".  I think it looks more like a crab than the far better known Crab Nebula.  The primary galaxy is NGC 1253 and the secondary is 1253A.  The secondary is a particularly unusual object.

There is another apparently interacting pair right at the left edge near the bottom of the field.  As near as I can tell, the lower member is cataloged as KUG 0312-31, while the upper member is a 2MASX object.

   10-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 36:12:12:12

   Your first reaction is probably that this is not an impressive cluster.  It certainly isn't bright.  But if you look past the foreground stars, preferably on the Half or Full size images, you will find a rich cluster of faint stars.  They are mostly yellow, which implies that there is a lot of dust and distance between us and the cluster.  This cluster is listed as including 100 stars in a 13' diameter, which makes it richer than M35, 41, or 67, clusters which we think of as fairly rich.  The members are just so faint.  This cluster currently holds the record as the oldest cluster in our Milky Way.

The Berkeley clusters consist of 103 open clusters (and one globular) cataloged in 1962 by two astronomers from University of California, Berkley.  They are generally faint, many small and sparse, but others are very rich and interesting.  This one, and Berkley 18 below, are certainly rarely imaged.  A Google search turned up only two images of this one, and none of Berkeley 18.

   10-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 36:12:12:12

   This cluster is more obvious than Berkeley 17 above, mostly because it is brighter.  It is only slightly richer with its 255 stars spread over a diameter of 20'.  The members also tend to be yellow, although to my eye a little less yellow than Berkeley 18.  While I have found no distances for either cluster, this one is probably a bit closer.  I have not found any other amateur images of this object.

Many of the Berkeley clusters are shown in Megastar and Uranometria, but not all.  There are plenty, however, to keep a dedicated imager or visual observer with a large scope busy for a long time.

   10-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 44(pseudo):32:32:32

   Sh2-297 is a very pretty combination of reflection and emission nebulosity, and it shows some interesting structure.  Surprisingly, it is very rarely imaged.  I found one image which included it as a tiny part of a wide field of the Seagull, and two other close-ups including a spectacular one by Adam Block.  Both of the latter listed it under the one of its alternate designations, Cederblad 90, Gum 3, or LBN 1049.

This is almost a pure RGB but I did accumulate 12 minutes of luminosity and merged that with the 32 minutes of blue to make a pseudoluminosity.

   10-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 72:24:24:24

   NGC 672 is the brighter galaxy closer to the center and IC 1727 is in the lower right part of the field.  They are offset so I could find an adequately bright guide star.  Both show a lot of interesting structure.  While there is some debate about whether they are interacting, I believe that the majority opinion is that they are.  Both are very blue, especially IC 1727, and show a very granular texture.  NGC 672 is class SB(s)cd and IC 1727 is SB(s)m.  The little edge-on galaxy near the center bottom of the field is 2MFGC 012344.  The pair of tiny galaxies just barely inside the edge of the field, above and left of NGC 672, is CGCG 482-17.  They are cataloged as a galactic pair, with a single designation, the southernmost being NED01 and the more northerly NED02.

   10-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 30:10:10:10

   This is a pretty open cluster of approximately 80 stars.  They generally range from white to very pale orange.  The two bright, deep orange stars in the lower right are outside the accepted boundary of the cluster.  The cluster is 16' in diameter.

Previously, this cluster has been included in a wide-field image made with my AT66.  That image can be seen here with NGC 663 in the lower right corner, and NGC 654, IC 166, Czernik 5, and Berkley 6 also in the field.

   10-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 24:10:10:10

   NGC 2423 is a very sparse cluster with only 40 stars in a 19' diameter.  The cluster hardly stands out against the background.  NGC 663, above, is much richer and more striking.  NGC 2423's major claims to fame are that M47 is very nearby and can often be placed in the same view with a wide-field eyepiece, and that there is an exoplanet orbiting the star 2423-3.

   Astro-Tech AT66ED, ST2000XM, 80:32:32:32, 76' x 99'

   I've shot the Cocoon before, but just a a detail of the "head" with my 10-inch.  This image shows almost the whole object, and the rich Milky Way field behind it.  It was made at a JSCAS star party at Fort McKavett, TX during great (but very cold) conditions.  This field spans over 1 1/2 degrees and almost another 1/2 degree of dark tail extends beyond the right edge.  The dark nebulosity is cataloged as Barnard 168.  It's a very large object, and very difficult for visual observers. 

The combination of cold and clouds limited me to this one image at the star party, but it a very enjoyable event anyway.  Lots of good conversation.

   10-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 60:28:28:28

   The Tulip is the dark cup-shaped nebula just below and right of the yellow and blue pair of stars.  This is a very good narrowband target and I hope to make a NB image someday.  I had planned to include H-alpha in this image but, on my last two luminance exposures, the wind started to blast me.  We were having gusts around 20-25 mph.  I managed to collect usable RGB images by using Sigma Clip stacking.  The next night was even worse, and then I had to leave for home.

   Astro-Tech AT66ED, ST2000XM, 28(+28 H-a):12:12:12, 74' x 99'

   Images of both these objects made with my 10-inch can be seen elsewhere on this site.  They, of course, show much more detail.  I made this image while I was checking out my equipment for an upcoming star party and decided to include it primarily to show a perspective of the whole field.  Discussions of M52 (on the Open Clusters page) and NGC 7635 (next object down) can be found with the more detailed images.  Objects which don't show on those images include Czernik 43, a sparse cluster of 15 stars just below and left of M52, and Sharpless 2-159, a faint tuft of emission nebulosity near the lower right corner of the field.  Also, some dark nebulosity weaves around the objects.

This image was made from my back yard in The Woodlands, TX.  While it does not compare with the dark sky images through the 10-inch, it does show that quite a bit can be captured with a tiny scope in light-polluted conditions.   

   10-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 48(+48 H-a):24:24:24

   This beautiful object is one that every imager feels the need to capture sooner or later.  It's usually classified as a planetary nebula, but is not really typical of that group.  The red emission nebulosity throughout the field is a cloud of gas, and a little dust, and the Bubble is a shell of that gas that has been pushed away by the stellar wind from the bright star SAO 20575.

It is an excellent target for narrowband imaging.  I used H-alpha to supplement my luminosity image, and it shows a lot of detail.  The monochrome H-alpha image can be seen using the button below.  In the future, I hope to add Oxygen-III and Sulfur-II exposures.

   10-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 30:10:10:10

   This cluster has been given a number of common names -- ET cluster, Owl cluster, Kachina Doll cluster, and others.  It is easier to see why these names have been given if you look at the cluster "upside down", which is how it would be seen in an inverting telescope.  Imagine the two brightest stars, Phi-1 and Phi-2 Cassiopeia, as the "eyes".  These stars show an interesting color contrast, with Phi-1 having a creamy color and Phi-2 white or bluish-white.

The cluster has a diameter of 13.0' and contains about 80 stars. The very red-orange star a few minutes above the Phi-1, Phi-2 pair is SAO 22188.  It is spectral class M2, which means that it a very cool star, about half the surface temperature of our Sun.

   10-inch Newtonian, ST2000XM, 104:32:32:32

   Comparing this image with the Bubble image above really emphasizes the difference between emission and reflection nebulae.  Emission nebulae are predominately red, because hydrogen in the nebulae is being stimulated to emit in the H-alpha line.  Reflection nebulae are primarily blue, for the same reason that our sky is blue.  The dust particles reflect blue wavelengths most efficiently.  The Iris shows some slight emission in the outer fringes but is mostly reflection.  Where the reflection has been filtered by dust, it shifts from blue to brown.  Forgetting the technical stuff, this is an attractive object.

The central star is magnitude 7.43 and is spectral class B2V, which puts it in the second hottest class.  There is a tiny open cluster Collinder 427, consisting of 6 stars in a 4' diameter area, in the heart shaped region about 5.5' right of the central star.  Also note the dark nebulosity completely obscuring objects across the top part of the nebula.