Astropage

Pacman Nebula in narrowband

Marco Verstraaten — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 08:55:36 +0000

Not yet posted on my blog, but certainly one of my best, this image of The Pacman nebula was a long project. Eight nights in 3 months were used for this image. Nineteen hours of exposure revealed these nice colors! Now not being able to image almost 3 months due to bad weather, this seems like ages ago. In March though, there is a astro-vacation to be held in the south of France. I sure hope to get some clear nights there!

Comet 168P/Hergenrother

Marco Verstraaten — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 10:39:52 +0000

Got a grip on 168P/Hergenrother on the Oktober 9th 2012, when a small burst brightened its appearance in that week. 2 photos: one stacked on the comets “head” and one on the stars, showing its rapid movement at the sky. Some images available on the web showed a streamer, but it doesn’t show up on my images. All shot in Luminance only. 30 Images of 100 seconds are used.

Global cluster M92

Marco Verstraaten — Thu, 31 May 2012 14:08:29 +0000

Not imaged that often! Mainly maybe cause eye catcher M13 is not to far away. But long exposures reveal a fair amount of stars in M92, making it a beautiful globular cluster! The dense, bright inner core is not processed to get these stars visible individually. Could have done that, I took the underexposed subs for it, but it takes that snappy look away. I therefor didn’t bother correcting that. I hope you forgive me!

Rescent publications

Marco Verstraaten — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:55:10 +0000

After sending “Zenit” (a Dutch astronomical magazine) some images I made the last couple of months, I was very surprised finding 5 pages with my photos in last months issue.

In “Jaarboek sterrenkunde” 2012, Govert Schilling used my APOD image of the Perseids to show the radiant effect as meteors appear to start from a central point in the sky when entering the earths atmosphere.

And this years issue of “Sterrengids 2012″ shows an image of the Horsehead nebula.

Sunflowers & galaxies

Marco Verstraaten — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 06:32:43 +0000

What do they have in common?

Nothing really, but someone, someday found a similarity in it. Not for me. I see a galaxy!

M97, the Owl nebula.

Marco Verstraaten — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:43:51 +0000

For some reason I never captured this nice nebula (actually a planetary nebula) before. I guess I’m not into those small objects. But extending my focal length with the purchase of my RC gives this nebula a better look from “nearby”. A larger magnification if you like.

Anyway, I’m really impressed with the result, also showing a lot of very faint galaxies in the backdrop. Like : 1 !

Copy paste?

Marco Verstraaten — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 13:22:11 +0000

As you probably know, I totally remodeled my 10″ GSO RC into a truss version. The day the OTA arrived at my place, the saw went into it’s nice spotless white tube. I ended up with this prototype on the 21st of April, 2010:

This is the final version displayed at my observatory section. (photo taken first of June 2010)

I was then surprised to find out that this scope came out at the end 2011:

IKHAROS IK-RC10CFT 10″ F8 CF Truss Tube Ritchey Chretien by astro.phad

or the

Altair GSO RC Truss Tube

I know I shared some pictures of it but……

Do I have to feel honored? I’m not sure……

Monkey head!

Marco Verstraaten — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:41:28 +0000

Nothing personal! It’s actually the nickname of NGC2174, a nebula in Orion. I captured this in two days under a cold and clear night. One of the last opportunities to capture a nebula this season since my equipment is now setup for galaxies. No more narrowband OIII & SII filters in my filterwheel.

It therefore is a LHaGB composite of this beautiful nebula, clearly showing a monkey head in silhouette.

Edge viewed galaxy NGC 4565

Marco Verstraaten — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:44:58 +0000

Viewed from the side NGC 4565 really is a very nice galaxy to image. Not the best circumstances: bad seeing and the moon high up in the sky, but it’s a nice image. I shoot with a clear luminance filter and maybe it’s better to get a lightpollution filter to get more contrast and detail.

Auriga, some open star clusters.

Marco Verstraaten — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:43:32 +0000

While waiting for some of the deeper targets, I captured some open clusters in Auriga to get the rig steamed up! Got a couple of nights for this. Normally not a target for my setup, but they should be in anyones album.