Astronomy and DSLR Astrophotography Blog

Dark nebula is a nebula in the galaxy which absorbs the light from the background. There are two types of them in general – one can be seen because they block the light of the emission nebulas in the background. One of the most spectalular of them is Horsehead nebula in Orion. The others block the light which comes from the stars behind them and those are best seen where the density of the stars is the highest – in the Milky Way. Dark nebulas consist of cold materia in the space, which is not hot enough to transmit the light.

In the night from 23th to 24th August I have gone to Bohor to take some photos of Elephant’s trunk, but I had to end taking photos about at midnight because the object passed the meridian and I couldn’t track it anymore. I had to make quick decision which object to capture the rest of the night and I choose the dark nebulas B334, 336-7 in Aquila, near Altair. I had no internet and I hadn’t a clue how this nebula looks like. Some of dark nebulas are really breath-taking and impressive (who doesn’t know Horsehead). Well, mine isn’t so spectacular, but I am pretty satisfied with the result. The next day I have checked the google image search for this nebula and found nothing, which means that I am one of the first who decided to “burn” his CMOS sensor on this object for some hours After all, that counts as well …

Here you go:

Dark Nebulas B334, B336, B337 @ photo: Primož Cigler

Some technical data about the exposure, equipment and so on:

Object: B334
Date and Location: 23. 8. 2009, Oslica, Bohor
Exposition: 26 x 5min
Camera: Canon 350D, Baader mod., ISO 800, RAW
Optics: Orion Optics Europa 20cm f/4.5
Mount: Vixen GP-DX SS2K
Autoguiding: SW 80/400 with QHY5
Processed in: Iris, Ps

astrophotography astrophotography, camera, canon, constellation, dark nebula, deep-sky, galaxy, milky way, nebula, stars

In the nights from 20th to 21st and 21st to 22nd August I have been capturing the Great Galaxy in Andromeda. I used my 8″ f/4.5 Newton which means 900mm of focal length and too small FOV to get the entire galaxy into one frame so I decided to make a mosaic. I spend the first night for the right part and second for the left part of the image. I combined them in Photoshop. All other data about image are:

Object: M31 and M32 (Andromeda Galaxy)
Date and Location: 20. and 21. 8. 2009, Mali Orehek, Slovenia
Exposition: 2×1 mosaic: 30 x 5min and 36 x 5min
Camera: Canon 350D, Baader mod., ISO 800, RAW
Optics: Orion Optics Europa 20cm f/4.5
Mount: Vixen GP-DX SS2K
Autoguiding: SW 80/400 with QHY5
Processed in: Iris, Ps

M31 and M32 @ photo: Primož Cigler

I hope you like it, I am very satisfied with the result. More is coming soon…

astrophotography astrophotography, constellation, deep-sky, galaxy, images, messier, stars

M51 is a spiral galaxy in constellation of Canes Venatici. It’s other name is Whirlpool Galaxy. In fact there is not a single galaxy but it’s two of them: one larger and another smaller. They are located in a distant approximately 23 million ly from us. M51 is one of the object which can be found in Messier’s catalogue of deep-sky objects. It’s frequent target of amateur astrophotographers on the northern hemisphere. The object is 9.0 magnitude and can be seen with binoculars and smaller telescopes.

M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy) @ Primož Cigler

The picture was taken on 8th of April 2007 with Orion Optics Europa 8″ f/4.5 on Vixen GP-DX mount, auto-guided. The exposure was 36 times 3 min, all the images combined with Iris and post-processed with Photoshop. The camera was unmodified Canon 350D at ISO800, RAW.

astrophotography constellation, deep-sky, galaxy, images, messier, spiral, stars

Yesterday I haven’t written a post because I was travelling. I am on holidays now, so I’ll publish just one deep-sky astrophotography:

M42 (Orion nebula) @ Primož Cigler

Orion nebula is reflection nebula in constellation Orion (the hunter). It is located approximately 1300 ly from us. It’s just the brightest part of very large nebula complex which stretches between almost all the brightest Orion’s stars and consists of Barnard’s Loop, Horse-head nebula, Flaming-tree nebula and M42, M43 and NGC1977:

Orion Complex (M42, M43, NGC1977, Horse-head, Flaming-tree nebulas @ Primož Cigler

The first picture was taken with a telescope Orion Optics Europa 8″ @ f/4.5 with Vixen GP-DX mount and auto-guided. The conditions were bad (light pollution on the South, half of moon, bad transparency and seeing). The camera was unmodified Canon 350D. The picture was taken on 18th of December 2007 and it’s the combination of 39 times 3 min exposures and 10 times 20 s exposures (for core details).

The second picture was taken with a lens Canon EF 70-200L IS USM f/4.0 at 200mm and f/4.5 with modified Canon 350D piggy-backed on Vixen GP-DX without auto-guiding. The exposition was 25 times 3 min. The picture was taken on 8th of January 2008.

That’s all for today, thank you for reading and watching!

astrophotography astrophotography, constellation, deep-sky, images, milky way, nebula, Orion, stars