Spider & Fly Nebula IC417 & NGC 1931)

 Well these two kind of look like their title - a spider and closing in a fly... This photo is a culmination of 242 sub exposures of which 186 panned out for 77% which is not bad seeing conditions (60 Flats and 60 Darks make up the rest of the stack you see below.  Not my favorite but this is my first attempt on this nebula pair. The magnitude of the two are both about 10 (10 and higher numbers are actually dimmer and smaller and negative numbers are brighter).

The spider is 2,707.5 lights years from my telescope, while the fly is actually 8,155 light years from earth so it is only perspective that appear close to each other and that spider has quite a trip in front of it to catch that fly...

Monkey Head NGC 2174

 So last night I was just searching around and stumbled on this gem of a nebula, perfect composition for my light train and enough of a light emitter that it only took two hours of exposure. Trouble is I did not start on this until midnight... I ended up with 234 sub-exposures (lights) and 153 keepers of them were keepers. I thought I would be able to keep more than 63% but oh well.

So NGC 2174 the Monkey Head Nebula is shining through a star cluster, NGC 2175 which crowds the nebula with a lot of stars. I had to be careful not to over crowd the nebula and still be authentic to the massive star count. The nebula is thought to be 6,400 light years from my telescope. BTW I have no idea how they came up with monkey head (well if you go sideways maybe just maybe)...

Mars Occulted by the Moon

 Stack of the Moon passing in front of Mars (occultation) Starting the first stack at 1:46 UTC (6:46 PM MST) and the final stack at 3:06 UTC (8:06 PM MST) The Moon was in front of Mars from my location for approximately 59 minutes and 20 seconds. You can see there are 8 layers and each layer is comprised of 50 stacks (400 photos stacked on top of each other to diminish blurriness from temperature waves in the atmosphere).

Christmas Tree Nebula (NGC 2264 & my new Favorite)

The Christmas Tree Nebula is very aptly named. NGC 2264 is the location where the Cone Nebula, the Stellar Snowflake Cluster and the Christmas Tree Cluster have formed in this emission nebula. The Snowflake Cluster was granted its name due to its unmistakable pinwheel-like shape and its assortment of bright colors. The Christmas Tree star formation consists of young stars obscured by heavy layers of dust clouds. These dust clouds, along with hydrogen and helium are producing luminous new stars. The combination of dense clouds and an array of colors creates a color map filled with varying wavelengths. Of course I have to reveal it's distance from my telescope and camera, 2,350 light years. 228 FITS (RAW) and 189 stacked with 60 FLATS for photo below.

 

Soul Nebula (IC1848)

The Soul nebula (IC 1848)The Soul Nebula is approximately 6,500 light-years away and spans about 100 light-years in size. It is a star-forming region containing several small open clusters. I took 82 photos each of 30 second duration and kept 73 for stacking (105 Gain, 60 Flats for imperfection elimination and zero darks).

 

Seagull Nebula (Seagull's Head)

This interesting reflection nebula is under 2000 light years from my camera. The worm like dust lane kind of outlines a gull winged bird. If I had gotten the entire nebula you could barely see a head and set of wings. 2025-01-03 I captured 206 frames and kept 156 for the stack, with 60 flat frames and zero darks at 30 seconds each and a gain of 105 at 12 bits