Nebulas - Deep Sky Wonders - Post Yours

Jeff WX1USN

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Deep Sky Nebula's
From the Wiki:
A nebula (Latin for 'cloud, fog'; pl. nebulae or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral, or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regions, such as the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula. In these regions, the formations of gas, dust, and other materials "clump" together to form denser regions, which attract further matter and eventually become dense enough to form stars. The remaining material is then thought to form planets and other planetary system objects.

Most nebulae are of vast size; some are hundreds of light-years in diameter. A nebula that is visible to the human eye from Earth would appear larger, but no brighter, from close by. The Orion Nebula, the brightest nebula in the sky and occupying an area twice the angular diameter of the full Moon, can be viewed with the naked eye but was missed by early astronomers. Although denser than the space surrounding them, most nebulae are far less dense than any vacuum created on Earth (105 to 107 molecules per cubic centimeter) – a nebular cloud the size of the Earth would have a total mass of only a few kilograms. Earth's air has a density of approximately 1019 molecules per cubic centimeter; by contrast, the densest nebulae can have densities of 104 molecules per cubic centimeter. Many nebulae are visible due to fluorescence caused by embedded hot stars, while others are so diffused that they can be detected only with long exposures and special filters. Some nebulae are variably illuminated by T Tauri variable stars.

Originally, the term "nebula" was used to describe any diffused astronomical object, including galaxies beyond the Milky Way. The Andromeda Galaxy, for instance, was once referred to as the Andromeda Nebula (and spiral galaxies in general as "spiral nebulae") before the true nature of galaxies was confirmed in the early 20th century by Vesto Slipher, Edwin Hubble, and others. Edwin Hubble discovered that most nebulae are associated with stars and illuminated by starlight. He also helped categorize nebulae based on the type of light spectra they produced

Being an avid astro photographer I am starting several astro photo threads to showcase everyones images. They don't have to be anything special and can be taken with any type of equipment.

This is the Nebula thread where we will showcase nebulas and nebulosity

The Orion Nebula M42
from the Wiki
"The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, being south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion, and is known as the middle "star" in the "sword" of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky with apparent magnitude 4.0. It is 1,344 ± 20 light-years (412.1 ± 6.1 pc) away and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. The M42 nebula is estimated to be 24 light-years across (so its apparent size from Earth is approximately 1 degree). It has a mass of about 2,000 times that of the Sun. Older texts frequently refer to the Orion Nebula as the Great Nebula in Orion or the Great Orion Nebula"

I took this using the Slooh telescopes and cameras. processed in Pixisight and LR

M42 BW tif pscc-1.webp
 
This is the only nebula I ever managed to photograph. Of course my image is put to shame by what Jeff is presenting here.:oops;
 
Awesome photos! Is the "63min" portion of the photos how long it took to capture that image?

Second question, is there a lens or anything you need to go with that camera to make it work, or does it take these photos out of the box? I think I could probably pay the $350 to buy one of these! 😲
 
63 min is the number of sub exposures were used to stack for the image, it rejects any with star trails, usually 1 of 4 get rejected depending on wind etc. The Seestars S30 and S50 will "live stack" give you a finished image that can be tweaked in the scopes software or in Lightroom or PS.
The scopes are ready to go out of the box, they are "beginner" scopes that are good for 12 year olds who are comfortable with smart phones and tablets. The difference between the two is price and field of views. The S30 is 30mm aperature with 150mm FL and $350, the S50 is 50mm aperature and 250mm FL and $500. The S30 will be best on large objects like those pictured here while the S50 is better for the smaller objects like galaxies and small nebulas and globular clusters. I have both just like I have multiple lenses for my Canon's.
Yes you can get small objects in the S30 but they are better in the S50.
 
Thank you for the info! I just think it'd be neat to be able to get those kinds of photos, like those you posted here. You've got me running down a rabbit hole of photos taken with this thing now and, for the money, this thing looks amazing!
 
All great images, Jeff.

Love the running man.
I tried a bit of astro photography many years ago and did manage a few acceptable images of the Orion nebula but the running man proved to be impossible.
 
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