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RASC - St. John's Centre |
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| Image of NGC7023 the Iris Nebula and NGC7293 the Helix Nebula
taken from Mt. Pearl, Newfoundland. Photographed by Dave Newbury - October 5 & 8, 2015 |
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Iris Nebula NGC7023 Taken October 8, 2015 @ Mount Pearl, Newfoundland. Equipment - C11 on EQ8, Canon 6D (modified) and LPS-P2 filter. Autoguiding using ED80, QHY5LII-mono and PHD2. Images captured with assistance of BackYardEOS, stacked and processed in PixInsight. Stack of 18, 240-second subs @ 3200iso (72min total integration time). This is a "reflection" nebula. Light is reflecting off a molecular dust cloud surrounding a bright central star. The blue colour comes from a combination of the stars natural colour as well as absorption of other colours as it reflects off the surrounding dust particles (similar to why our sky is blue). Click on image for larger photo. |
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Helix Nebula NGC7293. Images taken over two nights October 5 and 8, 2015 @ Mount Pearl, Newfoundland. Equipment - C11 on EQ8, Canon 6D (modified) and LPS-P2 filter. Autoguided using ED80, QHY5LII-mono and PHD2. Images captured with assistance of BackYardEOS, stacked and processed in PixInsight. Stack of 25, 240-second subs @ 3200iso (100min total integration time). This one was a challenge as it is relatively low for our northern latitude sky. This nebula is commonly known as the "Eye of God" or more recently the "Eye of Sauron". It is a "planetary nebula" (PN). PN's are the result of a red giant star collapsing on itself and then exploding. This expels an expanding glowing shell of ionized gas - which is often quite colourful. Planetary nebula have nothing to do with planets - perhaps named that way because in early telescopes many looked like planets (small, round but not pin-point like a star) Click on image for larger photo. |