My personal restart of Moon observation and photography after more than ten years of almost exclusive deep-sky photography. Seeing was fair this night so I took some random test shots.
NGC 2023/2024, IC434, vdB 50/51
The horsehead nebula (IC 434) is probably among the most famous deep-sky objects. Visible to the aided eye only in the biggest telescopes, it is rather easy to photograph. This picture also shows some famous nebulae in vicinity: NGC 2023 and NGC 2024, aka the „flame nebula“ for obvious reasons.
NGC 2261 (Hubble’s Variable)
NGC 2261 (also called Hubble’s Variable Nebula) is a reflection nebula located in the constellation Monoceros. The nebula is illuminated by the giant B0 star R Monocerotis (R Mon). This star cannot be seen directly but is hidden in the nebula.
vdB 137 / IC 5076
This galactic nebula is listed both in the catalogue of van den Bergh (vdB) as number 137 and in the IC catalogue as object 5076. The blue color indicates this is reflected starlight rather than luminescence of the interstellar matter itself (which would be red). To the East (right hand) we see „bays“ of interstellar dust projected against the bright nebula. VdB 137 is located closely north of the North America Nebula NGC 7000 but is only rarely imaged.
NGC 4559
Coma Berenices is home to numerous impressive galaxies. Nonetheless, given the vicinity to some of the most prominent supergalaxies like M87, M100 and friends, NGC 4559 might not get the attention it deserves.
NGC 6210
NGC 6210 is a tiny Planetary in Hercules called the „Turtle“ for obvious reasons. A visual diameter of as little as 30 arc seconds challenges the avid photographer. Only under the best seeing detailed pictures of this blue gem may reveal the impressive complex interior structure of the nebula. Two jets expand to opposite sides. The blue color is caused by the dominant spectral lines of simple and double ionized oxygen.
NGC 281 – Pacman Nebula
NGC 281 – also known as the Pacman Nebula – is the most famous star forming area located in Cassiopeia. Embedded in dust and faintly illuminated hydrogen clouds, the bright parts of the cloud consist of ionized hydrogen, gleaming as stimulated by the ultra-hot blueish stars forming the core region of the Pac Man Nebula. To the left, some blue reflection nebulae can be spotted as well. Extremely deep images reveal that the Pac Man is only the core part of a hydrogen cloud easily extending beyond the boundaries of this picture.
M 45 – Pleiades
The Pleiades or „seven sisters“ are certainly the most popular star cluster in the norther hemisphere. Easily spotted by naked eye even under light polluted skies, deep photographs reveal remnants of the interstellar matter from which the young hot stars formed no more than some 125 million years ago.
NGC 206
NGC 206 is a giant open star cluster located in our neighbour galaxie M 31, also known as the Great Andromeda Nebula. M 31, and hence NGC 206, are approximately 2.3 million lightyears from Earth. It is amazing that today’s amateur technology allows us to resolve single stars within the spiral arms of M 31, while no more that some 100 years ago the biggest telescopes available were necessary to identify those brightest stars.
The image also contains plenty of tiny detail like a number of globular clusters of M 31 and several background galaxies. Make sure to see the annotated image.
NGC 6503
NGC 6503 in the constellation of Draco is a small spiral galaxy classified as Dwarf. Being in a distance of about 18 million lightyears from Earth, is at the edge of an empty patch of space called the Local Void. The main disk reveals plenty of detail. There are lots of HII-regions indicating zones of star creation. Also, a number of associations of blue young, hot stars can be spotted.
The picture is the revision of an older image taken 11 years ago with a Vixen VMC 260L. As time has passed, more detail could be revealed hence this image replaces the earlier. Make sure to also view the full resolution crop linked beneath the main picture.