New Forest Observatory» CCD Images

The Cocoon nebula in widefield

Greg Parker — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:24:56 +0000

Recent clear night a few days back so I grabbed some more Hyperstar III data on the Cocoon and its associated dark nebulosity and added it to some data taken last year. I will try and get another frame off to the right of this one just to see if there’s anything there – if not it should still give us some nice Milky Way stars

Galaxies in the Milky Way

Greg Parker — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:25:35 +0000

In a pathetic attempt at trying to keep imaging with nights that are like a sunrise, here is a globular cluster in the Milky Way – M56 in the constellation Lyra. I really like globulars with a Milky Way background – and fortunately there are a few of these. What I didn’t know was that you could see galaxies through the Milky Way – there are 2 small ones top-left, there’s also a planetary nebula in there (towards the middle) as well.

First light for the modified Hyperstar III – the “Wall” region of NGC7000

Greg Parker — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:43:53 +0000

Last night I successfully collimated the modified Hyperstar III lens assembly and took a “first light” image with the new setup. Full Moon (or close to) low down on the southern horizon, and a sky that doesn’t really get dark. Imaged from midnight until 1:00 a.m. once I had collimated the system using CCDInspector (this is a great program!). To remind you – the Hyperstar III modification was to take the whole lens assembly apart, then blacken all the lens edges using a matt black paint, and then to flock the internal lens spacer tube. First time I re-assembled the Hyperstar I managed to put the lenses back the wrong way round (what a twit!) – but thankfully Dean of Starizona came to the rescue YET AGAIN and second time around I got it right. So – lenses back in correctly, wires all fixed to the connector rods at 90 degrees to one another – final job, get the collimation sorted. Took me just over an hour to sort this out using CCDInspector – and the result? – errors of -0.0 in x and -0.1 in y – the best I’ve EVER seen to date using the Hyperstar III, so I now have a highly-collimated system to play with Having completed the collimation I set up on the “Wall” region of NGC7000 for a quick practical test of the optics. Noel dropped everything and kindly processed this one in ultra double-quick time. WOW!! Those stars are nice and round across the whole FOV and the result is about the best I’ve seen in using the Hyperstar III for over a year – great! You can now expect a large quality-jump in the images coming out from the New Forest Observatory from today onwards.

An extremely scary upgrade

Greg Parker — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:24:54 +0000

I have just half-completed a very scary summer project! The Hyperstar III lens assembly is a fantastic technological achievement which turns an ultra-slow f#10 Schmidt-Cassegrain into an ultra-fast f#2 Schmidt-Camera. There is a slight problem though with all that glass in the Hyperstar – thick lenses – and the edges of the lenses are frosted, not blackened. This means that if you wish to image a bright constellation star, you will unfortunately get some lens flaring. For non-bright constellation stars I rarely get any problem.

So – just as I did with the Hyperstar I, I took the whole lens assembly apart (scary) and then painted the edges of the lenses matt black (VERY scary!) they are now all sitting on my desk in the sunshine for the paint to thoroughly dry off. I use Revell colour Black Matt 9 – this is the paint used on Airfix kits. It is probably not the best paint to use – there is a proprietary paint you can get from the States that is made especially to paint the edges of lenses.

I will keep you informed of how things progress (or not) when I rebuild the Hyperstar III and take my first image with the modified lenses. Keep everything crossed for me

Galaxy wall mega poster – the NFO Spring mega-project of 2010

Greg Parker — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 20:11:31 +0000

Noel Carboni is currently assembling the NFO Spring mega project of 2010.

This is a massive mosaic of the Virgo/Coma galaxy cluster region centred on the famous Markarian Chain of galaxies. This mosaic is created from a number of frames taken with both the Sky 90 and Hyperstar III telescopes both using the SXVF-M25C one-shot colour camera, and the image reveals many hundreds of galaxies.

I shall be creating just a very few HUGE prints measuring some 5 feet in height and 6-7 feet in length which will be available for purchase. These will be extremely expensive to acquire (sorry), but they are totally unique high-resolution prints specifically designed for the corporate environment and with an extremely limited print run of just 25 prints!

Stay tuned to the New Forest Observatory blog to keep up to date with this, our most ambitious project to-date. If you would like to pre-order your massive “Galaxy Wall” print for your institution then please mail sales@newforestobservatory.com for more information – but please be quick, with only 25 prints in total, they will soon be snapped up!

Markarian central – the central frame of a Coma/Virgo mega-mosaic

Greg Parker — Sun, 16 May 2010 10:16:04 +0000

This is the central frame of a large mosaic being constructed of the galaxy-rich region at the Virgo/Coma border – hot off the press from Noel Carboni. We see Markarian Chain central and at the bottom M87 in this Hyperstar III image. This is just one of seven (yes 7!) Hyperstar III frames taken in this general area during April – I am surprised we had so many clear nights in the one month. The mega-mosaic will also incorporate 3 frames taken 2 years ago with the Sky 90/M25C system with its 3.33 x 2.22 degree field of view per frame. I will cover the region up to (Northwards) M100 and its surroundings, and Southwards to well below M87 where plenty more small galaxies are to be found. I’m not sure what the final size of the mosaic will be, but I estimate it somewhere in the region of 6 degrees by 4 degrees – high-resolution and good depth :) Another Parker-Carboni mega-imaging-project in the same league as the Veil nebula, the Andromeda galaxy, and of course the Belt and Horsehead region of Orion.

Print of the Month – April 2010

Greg Parker — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 19:42:52 +0000

After 3 weeks of brisk sales of the “Belt of Orion” things have settled down again so it’s time to introduce the second “Print of the Month” offer from the New Forest Observatory.

This Month’s full colour A3 print using HP Glossy 250g/m2 Advanced Photo Paper and the 6-colour HP Designjet 130 printer is Comet Lulin in the constellation Leo taken on February 28th 2009. The print will be signed and dated and will come in a protective polypropylene punched pouch. Your print will then be packed in a robust cardboard poster packaging tube for shipping. The Special Offer price for the Comet Lulin print is still only £25 which includes postage and packing! This offer is only open to U.K. residents.

If you would like to order your April 2010 “Print of the Month” of Comet Lulin – please e-mail sales@newforestobservatory.com to arrange your delivery.

M100 – left hand frame

Greg Parker — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 14:09:52 +0000

I took the frame to the left of M100 last night using a bit of dead-reckoning – and unbelievably I scored a perfect hit So the top two frames on the Markarian Chain mega-mosaic are now complete! The bottom mosaic around M87 is also done – so the last bit of work I am going to do on this one, having had a word with Noel, is to get some nice deep high-resolution data using the Hyperstar III, on the Chain itself. I daren’t say this half way through the day – but it actually looks like another clear night tonight – so you know what I’ll be doing. If it is clear, that’ll be something like 7 clear Moonless nights this month so far – I think that must be a record from when I started in September 2004. If I get any more clear nights this month (yes I’m now getting greedy) I will probably just try to add more and more good data to the Chain. Virgo is now making its way West and soon it will be too far over into the trees for me to get a good imaging session on it during a single evening – time to move onto something new, probably the goodies in the Ursa Major/Canes Venatici region.

M100 region now

Greg Parker — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:37:28 +0000

So last night was another unexpectedly clear night and I imaged the M100 region. I did not expect that this frame would fit onto the ultra-mega-Markarian Chain mosaic, but of course it does – perfectly – at the top. I now need to get the frame off to the left to complete the top part of the mosaic now – I can see this is going to be a never-ending job at this rate and poor old Noel will be adding frames to this tapestry for ever and a day.

Just to the right of M87 in Virgo

Greg Parker — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:56:00 +0000

This is another frame to add to the mega-mosaic that is the Markarian Chain region on the Coma/Virgo border. Just processed by Noel this is the region just to the right (West) of M87 and will make up one of three new frames taken to add to the bottom (South) of the already large Markarian Chain mosaic. With the M87 region added to the mosaic I will call it a day on this one – until I get the mini-WASP array up and running