Observations

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Observations

Images and interesting observations taken with Gx series of astronomical cameras

Here we present only a few examples of images and scientific observations taken with Gx cameras. More complete lists of images acquired with respective camera series are attached to the end of each page describing particular series. These lists contain also authors, used telescopes, exposure details etc.

There is also a slide-show of the best images of deep-sky wonders taken with Gx cameras available in the Gallery section.

NGC 7023 “Iris” nebula	29.8.2019

NGC 7023 “Iris” nebula in Cepheus is a popular target for astro-photographers. Its blue-green color is caused by reflection of a light from a 7th magnitude star in its center. But the nebula itself is much greater than the shining part around the bright star, only the majority of its gaseous clouds remains hidden in shadows.

Not only pretty pictures...	29.8.2019

CCD cameras caused revolution in astronomical research, similar to introduction of telescope and more recently to the usage of photographic plates, capable to accumulate light during long exposures. We very well understand that the beautiful pictures of the deep-space objects, out of the reach of human eye regardless of telescope used, are very attractive and majority of our users enjoy them. But still, astronomy is a science and scientific research is very important application for our cooled CCD (and CMOS) cameras. The image presented here shows so-called light curve of recently discovered double-eclipsing quadruple star system.

Omega Centauri	12.8.2019

It is always a pleasure to present an “easy” object, but “done like a tough one”, because results are usually stunning. Omega Centauri is the biggest and brightest globular cluster of both hemispheres (but visible from the southern hemisphere only, we northern-hemisphere astronomers, must be content with M13 in Hercules, which is beautiful, too).

M101 “Pinwheel Galaxy”	12.8.2019

M101 “Pinwheel Galaxy” in Ursa Major is angularly large object, but its surface brightness is rather low. This is why it is sometimes used by visual observers to judge sky brightness — if you can see M101, background sky is quite dark. But if you point you telescope exactly where M101 is located and cannot see any trace of it, the light pollution on your site is probably high and also the weather may not be cooperating.

Orion Nebulae	12.8.2019

If you go really deep, the only way to advance is to go even deeper. This is apparently a trend in astro-photography and the latest image from Paolo Moroni clearly demonstrates it. Capturing the Great Orion nebula or the Horse-head dark silhouette is no longer enough regardless of details in the image. Astro-photographers want to show that also areas, simply considered dark in the not so distant past, are in fact also filled with inter-stellar gas clouds, only much darker.

Large Magellanic Cloud	12.8.2019

Continuous pushing of amateur astro-photography limits seems to be a new norm these days. This time the CielAustral group of astro-photographers, operating their observatory in Chile, broke the accumulated exposure time record with 1060 hours long exposure of Large Magellan Cloud. Image size 14400 by 14200 pixels is maybe a good candidate for image resolution record?

CG 4 nebula	29.4.2019

The CG 4 nebula in the constellation Puppis is sometimes nicknamed as “God’s hand”. But we believe the nebula shape would probably resemble a giant worm from desert planet Arrakis to all Sci-Fi fans (what's more, the worm just tries to swallow entire galaxy :).

“Horse Head Nebula”	6.5.2019

The horse-head-shaped dark nebula silhouette against the deep-red glow of the background hydrogen cloud definitely become the iconic deep-sky object. There is hardly any popular astronomy book missing its image and Horse Head Nebula many times occurred on front pages of all popular astronomy magazines.

LBN 777 “Baby Eagle Nebula”	29.4.2019

Bright and shiny bluish nebulosity around stars belonging to the Pleiades open cluster shows us how interstellar gas and dust clouds look like when illuminated by nearby stars. But how about other parts of the Taurus molecular cloud (to which Pleiades belong), far from bright star cluster? The LBN 777 nebula is a good example how such cloud may look.

M16 “Eagle Nebula”	8.1.2019

The stream of amazing images from CielBoreal and CielAustral groups apparently never dries. The latest one shows the M16 star cluster and nebula, nicknamed the “Eagle Nebula”. This object become particularly famous when the detailed Hubble Space Telescope image of the nebula center, called “Pillars of Creation”, was published.

M31 Great Andromeda Galaxy	8.1.2019

Southern skies are probably richer than our northern ones. Northern hemisphere astronomers cannot see Magellan Clouds, Omega Centauri and other famous objects. But at last we at northern hemisphere can see the Great Andromeda galaxy. M31 galaxy in Andromeda is our own Milky Way galaxy sibling and both galaxies comprise a dominant, most massive pair of the local galaxy group. But the M31 holds another record – it is the most distant object, which light can be spotted by naked eye.

CTB-1 supernova remnant	8.1.2019

We have another rare “cosmic bubble” to show, but this time it is a remnant of ancient supernova explosion. The nebula is designated CTB-1 and is located in the constellation Cassiopeia. We not only never seen this bubble before, we were even not aware of its existence until Martin Myslivec send us this image, despite the object appears as big as full Moon on the sky.

SH2 308 nebula	6.5.2019

SH2 308 nebula (also known as Sharpless 308 or LBN 1052) in the constellation Canis Major is an example of “space bubble”, created by intense radiation of bright, hot Wolf-Rayet central star (another such object is for instance NGC7635 “Bubble nebula” in the constellation Cassiopeia).

NGC6995 “Veil Nebula”	30.10.2018

Thomas Lelu needed four sets of exposures, tiled to each other, to be able to assembly this wide field, yet very detailed mosaic of the NGC6995 nebula in the constellation Cygnus with his G2-4000 CCD camera.

NGC5128 “Centaurus A” galaxy	14.11.2018

This unique image of the NGC5128 galaxy, better known under the name “Centaurs A”, combines several unique qualities.

NGC7000 “North America” and NGC6888 “Crescent Nebula” in narrow band	25.9.2018

Thomas Lelu sent us another wonderful examples of great images captured with small camera. Thomas uses his G2-4000 camera on 10" Newtonian telescope (and also G1-0301 guiding camera) to capture very long exposures through filters, passing only very small interval of wavelengths.

ρ Ophiuchi	19.7.2018

Surroundings of the star ρ Ophiuchi is really photogenic. Only rarely offers any area on the sky such rich set of colors, despite these colors can be acquired only on photograph, they are too dim for human eye to recognize. What’s more, yellow hue is really unusual on the sky (do not be confused by narrow-band images, which are false-colored and thus often full of yellow nebulosity, we are talking about true colors now).

M83 “Southern Pinwheel” galaxy through 50 cm telescope	1.10.2018

Telescope with 50 cm diameter definitely belongs among big ones, at last for amateur astronomer. When combined with incredibly dark Chilean sky, exceptionally skilled and experienced group of amateur astronomers and last but not least the G4-16000 CCD camera, results are really stunning. Judge for yourselves.

NGC5128 “Centaurus A” and M83 “Southern Pinwheel” galaxies	30.7.2018

Images of two southern-hemisphere galaxies by Roger Gifkins clearly prove that even small camera can provide great images, of course when in the hands of highly skilled astro-photographer. Roger uses his G2-4000 camera on TOA 150 telescope. But exposure time, needed to capture such deep and detailed images, is counted in tens of hours.

NGC2237 “Rosette” in Monoceros	8.6.2018

We have already seen the NGC 2237 “Rosette” nebula imaged by Martin Myslivec in real colors. Well, almost real colors, as this image was acquired through two narrow-band filers, passing only very small portions of the visible spectrum (deep-red Hα line and blue-green OIII line). But because the nebula shines mainly in these two colors, its appearance is close to how human’s eye could see it. Now Martin added another exposure, taken in near infra-red SII line, which is even redder that Hα line and human eye cannot see it. So, it is not possible present such images in real colors and so-called “false colors” are used instead.

NGC4631 “Whale Galaxy” and NGC4656 “Hockey Stick Galaxy” in Canes Venatici	18.5.2018

Enjoy the exceptionally detailed view of the NGC4631 and NGC4656 pair of galaxies in the constellation Canes Venatici. Martin Myslivec needed 26 hours of exposures in red, green and blue filters to get color information as well as exposures without filter to obtain luminance image. Martin used his G3-16200 camera on a custom 30cm f/3.8 Newtonian astrograph.

M77 barred spiral galaxy in Cetus	18.4.2018

M77 in the constellation Cetus is a nice example of barred spiral galaxy, luckily oriented that we can see it almost directly from the direction of its rotation axis. As opposite to normal spiral galaxies, spiral arms do not originate in the galaxy central bulge. A straight bar of stars extends from the bulge instead, and arms start to develop into a characteristic spiral only from the end of the bar.

NGC 2237 “Rosette”	23.2.2018

Martin Myslivec used just two narrow-band filters to capture this stunning image of the Rosette nebula in Monoceros. These filters pass only red light emitted by hydrogen (called Hα line) and blue-green light emitted by oxygen (called OIII line). Because all other light sources are suppressed, fine details in the nebulosity, shining especially in these two colors, are much better visible.

IC2944	1.2.2018

Nebulosity complex IC2944 is a beautiful example of “star nursery”, where new stars are born from condensations of interstellar gas clouds. But young, bright stars are not good siblings for close proto-stars, still awaiting their birth. Intense radiation from newborns stars blows away gas from globules, which gravity is not yet strong enough to keep them together. For gaseous bulges it is a run for life — either they shrink soon enough so the gravity prevails and new star can be born, or their gas globule is torn apart by intense stellar wind.

False colors vs. real colors	9.2.2016

What are real colors of deep sky objects? Philippe Bernhard's unique images of the same nebula acquired through various filters allow to explain what are “false color” images and why are they used to visualize details in the emission nebulae, which shine also in wavelengths invisible to human eye.

Cave Nebula, Sharpless 155 and Herbig-Haro 168	23.7.2015

A wide-field image of the portion the constellation Cepheus, spanning three full Moons of sky area, was published as the Astronomy Picture of the Day on June 11, 2015. Its' author Herbert Walter needed more than 12 hours of exposure time with G2-8300 camera on FSQ106ED telescope to capture this image.

FRAM robotic telescope captures comet Lovejoy	23.6.2015

Remotely operated robotic telescope FRAM, located at the Pierre Auger observatory at Los Leones, Argentina, captured the comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy). Telescope operators used wide-field setup (G4-16000 camera with 300 mm, f/2.8 Nikkor lens), piggybacked on the main telescope, to acquire multiple images through photometric BVR filters and combine them into resulting color image.

Early observations of asteroid 2012 DA14 by FRAM robotic telescope	28.3.2013

FRAM robotic telescope of Pierre Auger observatory at Los Leones, Argentina, is operated by Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The telescope, equipped with Gx CCD cameras, was among the first optical telescopes, which captured approaching asteroid 2012 DA14.

CzeV343: unique quadruple star discovered in Auriga	7.1.2013

Despite growing number of large telescopes and fully robotic surveys automatically scanning the heavens, there are still rare objects that remain to be discovered. So there is still room for small telescopes, regardless if operated by amateur or professional astronomers, to discover something new and interesting. CzeV343 is apparently a hierarchical quadruple star system, consisting of two eclipsing binary stars. Only a handful of such systems are known to astronomers and only three of them exhibit eclipses of both double stars—BV Dra and BW Dra, V994 Her and KIC 4247791, the later one discovered using the Kepler planet-hunting space telescope. CzeV343 is apparently a fourth example, unique is several respects. And it was discovered with G4 camera on an affordable 25 cm commercial telescope.

Venus Transit 2012	24.7.2012

Martin Myslivec used his G1-2000 CCD camera on Lunt LS T Ha 60 solar telescope to capture transit of Venus across the Sun. Enjoy images of this rare event, next opportunity will be no earlier than on December 2117.

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