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Mysterious "rays" in the Flame Nebula

3/26/2017

I have had very helpful feedback concerning the mysterious "rays" in my image of the Flame Nebula in my 3/21/2017 post. Here is the rest of the story. It appears the "rays" are not associated with any nearby astronomer using a laser as an artificial star image in the atmosphere for their adaptive optics system to correct for atmospheric distortion. Nothing as complicated as that. I learned it was probably just a lens flare effect from the bright nearby star, Alnitak. Oh.

To check out the idea that it is lens flaring from Alnitak just outside the FOV, I looked at the Flame Nebula again last night. Yep, the mystery rays were still there as shown in the left image below. Then I began to slightly move the telescope in the direction of Alnitak and guess what... that is where they were coming from. Once Alnitak was in the field of view they went away as you can see in this series of three images

Sometimes when you are observing you find something you don't expect and you go down a rabbit trail. That's when I like to "follow the rabbit through the ditches" as we say in the South to find out more. As another test, I tried a different combination of focal reduction and was able to eliminate the flaring effect with just the Flame Nebula in the Field of View.

I remember the first time I saw groups of short lines appear to pass through the Field of View of the Orion Nebula. Alien ships flying in formation? Nope. Later I learned it was from geosynchronous satellites. Even though those satellites remain in a fixed position above the earth, they appear to pass through your field of view due to the tracking movement of your mount as the Earth turns. For an example of this, see my 12/13/2014 Blog at ...

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Xtreme Fun with my XT-828-II

3/21/2017

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Video Astronomy fills the area between visual observing through an eyepiece and impressive images produced by Astrophotography. Each of these three areas are important, and each fulfill the needs of Amateur Astronomers in different ways. To me, Video Astronomy extends the visual observing experience to a new level allowing you to see things from your backyard well beyond what you can see through an eyepiece. It is different from Astrophotography since you are not trying to produce picture perfect images – you are simply looking to see what you can see. You can experience the thrill of finding and seeing several galaxies, clusters and other deep sky objects in a single evening.

In November 2015 I had my MallinCam Xtreme (X2) upgraded with a new XT828 sensor in a sealed CCD chamber containing Argon gas plus other additions that effectively converted it to an MC Xterminator. Recently I had the new electronics and Aerogel Insulation added like is in the Xterminator-II. The Aerogel simplifies setup since it eliminates the need to use cooling fans. The first upgrade which added the XT828 sensor greatly increased the sensitivity, and the latest upgrade increased it even more. What this all means is you can see Deep Sky Objects from your light polluted back yard using the shortest exposures for real time video observing than with any other camera.

I typically use 3-15 sec exposure update intervals (and occasionally 20-30 seconds) with no filter. I use the Miloslick Mallincam Control application to control the camera settings, perform real time processing adjustments and view the image on my laptop. All images shown here are screen captures with no further post processing or touch up. My laptop has a really good LCD screen and displays the live images well, but the web images will give you a good feel of what a viewing session can be like.

I had my first chance to use my XT-828-II with the recent electronics and Aerogel upgrade a couple of nights ago. I was using my Celestron 8" on a CG-5 mount with a MFR-5 on my XT-828-II. I used one 5mm spacer in the middle of the MFR-5 which makes this a F/4.1 setup. I was eager to try out a target with stars to see how the new electronics affected them, so I chose M103. Its Visual Magnitude is 7.4 and it is 7200 light years away. The stars definitely are a more natural round shape. I left the APC H&V set to 0. This image of M103 was at 3 seconds.

Last night I had fun looking at a lot of Deep Sky Objects - 18 objects in about a 2.5 hour viewing session. The temperature was around 68 degrees and the sky quality meter showed 19.04 at the beginning and got a little better to 19.45 at the end. This is in my backyard with streetlights in the neighborhood and a city to the South. These are not dark skies!

I started with the Orion Nebula, M42, at 3 seconds. Its Visual Magnitude is 4.0 and it is 1400 light years away.

Even at this low setting, the core was fairly bright. With the new electronics, some of the brighter stars have a slightly darker center, but that does not bother me at all, and I like seeing the much more natural look of the rounder stars. Even with the core being so bright, this effect allows you to see the Trapezium stars within the core.

I then tried the nearby Flame Nebula, NCG 2024, at 10 seconds. Its Visual Magnitude is 10.0 and it is 820 light years away.

Can you see the two “death rays” coming out of the Flame at the lower left? My telescope was pointed to the South over the city, so I surmised they may be lasers pointed at the sky. This is the first time I have ever seen this. I came back to the Flame an hour later and observed the two “rays” in the same position relative to the Flame, even though it was now lower in the sky, so they are tracking with the Earth’s rotation. Perhaps they are lasers being used for astronomy purposes.

Here is M1, the Crab Nebula, at 5 second updates using 3 stacked frames. Its Visual Magnitude is 8.39 and it is 6200 light years away.

Below is M100 using 6 second updates stacking 4 frames. Its Visual Magnitude is 9.31 and it is 52 Million light years away.

Here I saw M108 using 10 second updates stacking 4 frames. Its Visual Magnitude is 10.03 and it is 32 Million light years away.

Next up was an open cluster, M37, at 5 second update intervals. Its Visual Magnitude is 5.59 and it is 4500 light years away.

At the lower center of the next image is a spiral galaxy, M61, at 10 second exposure. Its Visual Magnitude is 9.63 and it is 40 Million light years away.

Here is a galaxy, M60, at 15 second exposure & averaging 6 frames. Its Visual Magnitude is 8.81 and it is 56 Million light years away. Its faint companion is NGC 4647 at Magnitude 10.93. There is also a galaxy at the upper right, NGC 4667, at Magnitude 11.11.

Here is another spiral galaxy, M66. I used 10 second exposure updates. Its Visual Magnitude is 9.00 and it is 37 Million light years away.

I like using the SkySafari Ap to pick a target on my iPhone and slew my telescope to it. I noticed that M65 was nearby in the sky and used SkySafari to slew from M66 to M65. Here is M65, at 10 second updates with 3 stacked frames. Its Visual Magnitude is 9.22 and it is 42 Million light years away.

I decided it was time to move my viewing session inside, so I ran a USB extension cable from the telescope through the garage into my living room. I also moved my MS Surface laptop from outside to inside and used its Windows 10 Project function to view my targets on my 55” TV. I continued to control the camera on the telescope from the Laptop over the USB extension cable and slew the mount from my iPhone while inside.

Next up was M88, Visual Magnitude 9.51 and 36 Million light years away. These are 8 second updates using 4 stacked frames.

Here is another spiral galaxy, M90, at 15 second updates with 2 stacked frames. Its Visual Magnitude is 9.46 and it is 39 Million light years away.

Here is an interesting shaped spiral galaxy, M95, at 15 second updates with 3 averaged frames. Its Visual Magnitude is 9.77 and it is 32 Million light years away.

Nearby in the night sky is M96, also at 15 second updates with 3 averaged frames. Its Visual Magnitude is 9.22 and it is 32 Million light years away.

The lower elliptical galaxy in the image below is M105. I used 15 second updates averaging 3 frames. Its Visual Magnitude is 9.27 and is 37 Million light years away. You can also see NGC 3371 up and to the center, which is 31 Million light years out. Faintly near the top is NGC 3373 at 12.03 magnitude and 63 Million light years away.

M97 is a fun Planetary Nebula, called the Owl Nebula. It is at 10 second updates with 5 averaged frames. Its Visual Magnitude is 9.8 and it is 1700 light years away.

Back to spiral galaxies we see M98, at 10 second updates with 3 averaged frames. Its Visual Magnitude is 10.01 and it is 41 Million light years away.

Last but not least, a little further over is M99, the Coma Pinwheel Galaxy. I used 10 second updates averaging 5 frames. Its Visual Magnitude is 9.82 and it is 42 Million light years away.

So there you have it, 18 Deep Sky Objects in a 2.5 hour Video Astronomy viewing session, including the time taken in the middle to move from outside to inside.

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Mysterious "rays" in the Flame Nebula

Xtreme Fun with my XT-828-II

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