This is an update on some of the photos I’ve taken in July with my telescope here in Custer, South Dakota.
Here is this month’s line-up:
Saturn: Seem’s like it’s almost everyone’s favorite planet. I was able to take images of Saturn last fall, but this is the most detailed one yet. If you expand the photo, you’ll see a band going around the body of Saturn and part of the black Cassini Division can be seen on part of the ring—a first for me!
NGC 7000 & IC 5070: I was taking photos of IC 5070, the Pelican Nebula, when I realized that it was right next to the North American Nebula. These are pretty large images and they have a lot of Hydrogen light, so I used the wide field of view HyperStar lens and the Ha filter to bring out the images. It took two photos to get it all, and I put them together in Photoshop to make the mosaic.
Galaxies NGC 4605, M 109 and M 102. Love those galaxies. I especially like M 102, which is seen edge on, with a dust lane going up the middle that you can see by enlarging the image. All have a magnitude of about my limit of 10, but if you look at their distances being millions of light years away, it’s pretty amazing I can even see them! The most distant galaxies NASA has spotted are about 13 billion light years away—I don’t think Marianne’s budget has enough in it to get me even close….
M 55: Globular Cluster
M 20 & M 8: While I had my HyperStar lens on with the Ha filter, I saw that these two nebula were fairly close to each other and got them together in one shot.
M 17 Omega Nebula
Jupiter: This was taken the same night I took the Saturn photo. I also think this is my best image of Jupiter. The skies were clear and still that night!
4 Moons of Jupiter: I was trying to image Jupiter again a few nights later and noticed that all four of Jupiter’s largest moons could been seen if I over-exposed the image. It wasn’t a good night for Jupiter, but it was great seeing all 4 moons!
With the smoke from the fires and some summer traveling, I’m not sure if I’ll be looking through the telescope much in August. But if I do, you’ll be the first to see what I find.
Clear Skies to all.
Hank
