Mike's Astro Photos » Star Clusters

Messier 5 – First Color CCD Photo Ever

Mike Hankey — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 02:50:23 +0000

I had a good run on globular clusters during last month’s new moon phase that culminated with this color shot of M5. Note the faint green trail of a satellite in the upper left. The only reason its green is because I was shooting through a green filter when the satellite crossed the field of view.

Messier 5 - June 7th, 2011

I have been transitioning from DSLR astrophotography to CCD photography. The CCD cameras are way better and the quality and overall ease of things is much better, but there is a bit of a learning curve. I’m still working out some issues with the optics and guiding combos. This photo guided perfectly with the MOAG, but due to the way things are connected, I can’t use the field flattener / corrector when I’m using the MOAG. As a result, there is distortion and stretching at the outer corners. I have since setup a guide-scope, so I can use the corrector and I’m getting worse guide results now. So there’s still work to be done… All this aside, M5 turned out pretty good for the first attempt at a color shot and July is starting out nicely too.

Photo Details
30x30x30 RGB
Camera SBIG ST8300
Guiding off-axis with a 402 mounted using a MOAG.
Paramount ME Mount
William Optics FLT98
CCDSoft / The Sky X / CCDStack

Messier 10

Mike Hankey — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:26:37 +0000

Here’s a photo of Messier 10, a globular cluster in the constellation of Ophiuchus.

Messier 10 - June 3rd, 2011

Photo Details
4×10 Clear Filter / Total Exposure Time 40 minutes
Camera SBIG ST8300
Guiding off-axis with a 402 mounted using a MOAG.
Paramount ME Mount
William Optics FLT98
CCDSoft / The Sky X / CCDStack

Globular Star Cluster – Messier 15

Mike Hankey — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 20:57:20 +0000

Here’s a photo of the Globular Star Cluster Messier 15 located in the constellation Pegasus. Estimated to be 13.2 billion years old, M15 is one of the oldest known star clusters.

Messier 15 - June 2nd, 2011

Photo Details
18×10 Clear Filter / Total Exposure Time 180 minutes
Camera SBIG ST8300
Guiding off-axis with a 402 mounted using a MOAG.
Paramount ME Mount
William Optics FLT98
CCDSoft / The Sky X / CCDStack

Star Cluster Messier 13

Mike Hankey — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 16:51:22 +0000

Globular star clusters are one of the many fascinating things you can image in the night sky. These clusters are the place where stars are born by the 100s of 1000s. M13 also known as Great Globular Cluster in Hercules boasts over 300,000 stars.

I have been setting up / testing / learning some new equipment and software the last few months and this is the first image I have created from the new rig. I still have some things to work on, but we’re getting there.

Messier 13 - May 30th, 2011

Photo Details
LRGB 60x40x40x40 / Total Exposure Time 3 Hours
Camera SBIG ST8300
Guiding with 402 & Piggy back guide scope
Paramount ME Mount
William Optics FLT98
CCDSoft / The Sky X / CCDStack

Double Cluster

Mike Hankey — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 02:08:34 +0000

Here’s a photo of the Double Cluster in Perseus aka NGC 884 & 869. This is one of the most spectacular visual objects you can look at — its so big and covers so much space you can actually see it with the naked eye. In powerful telescopes you have to move the scope to view the entire object. Both of these clusters are thought to be 7000 light years away from us and only a few hundred light years away from each other. They are infants in the stellar sense, both less than 6 million years old. Considering our solar system is 4.5 billion years old, that’s pretty young. The Double Cluster is a great object to showcase at a star party or to show first time astronomers.

Double Cluster - December 9th, 2010

Photo Details
26×4 minute iso 400 exposures
Canon 20DA Camera
CGEM Mount
William Optics FLT98
SBIG STV Auto Guider

Pleiades

Mike Hankey — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 18:41:22 +0000

Here’s a photo of the Pleiades also known as the Seven Sisters. This open star cluster is one of the closest to Earth and clearly visible to the naked eye in the constellation Taurus. The prominent dust cloud surrounding the stars was once thought to be a nebula left over from the star formation, but is now believed to be just a dust cloud within the interstellar medium.

Pleiades - September 6th, 2010

Photo Details
William Optics FLT 98
Canon 20Da Camera
13×3 minute ISO 400
SBIG STV Auto Guider

M37 Jan 8, 2010

Mike Hankey — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 02:00:21 +0000

Here’s a shot of the open star cluster M37 from January 8th, 2010.

Messier 37 - January 8th, 2009

NGC 2244

Mike Hankey — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:51:10 +0000

Here is a photo of NGC 2244 an open cluster within the Rosetta Nebula discovered by John Flamsteed in 1690. The Rosetta Nebula is a giant molecular cloud and the stars inside this cluster were formed from the nebula’s matter. You can see bits of the nebula cloud in the picture below.

NGC 2244 - December 23rd, 2009

M103

Mike Hankey — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:39:04 +0000

Here’s a photo of Messier 103 an open cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia. This image is comprised of approximately 20×2 minute exposures stacked with flats and darks using Deep Sky Stacker.

Messier 103 - November 28th, 2009

M15 – Globular Star Cluster

Mike Hankey — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:03:42 +0000

Sunday night was a great clear night. The crescent moon set early and the clouds stayed away until about 1:00 AM. I used my auto-guider for the first time since setting up the new observatory and it worked out pretty well. I was able to guide an object and keep it centered for well over an hour. I was averaging a little less than a two arc second error rate which should be improved when I perfect my polar alignment.

Here is my first picture of Messier 15, a globular star cluster hidden in the constellation Pegasus. This image is the result of 3×5 minute exposures and 1×1 minute exposure. I manually stacked the frames in Photoshop.

M15 - November 23rd 2009

For comparison sake, here is a picture of M15 from the Hubble telescope. Its a little nicer than my first attempt, but considering my rig didn’t cost $1,500,000,000 to setup, I think I did alright.