Suburbian Messier hunting with an Atik Infinity ccd in a white zone

Some more suburbian Messier hunting with an Atik Infinity ccd astronomy camera on a 80/600 TMB Triplet Fluorite Apo. I have fought a bit with my secondary mount – an old HEQ5 – which is always ready in my office, and the suburban light pollution.  The drift within an hour ist noticeable, the live stacking deals with it, but over the time I lost some space on the corner. In some pictures, notable M44 I have even with the Skyglow Filter a street light shine. Worse, some high clouds moved in, changing transparency.

Through a new, intuitive, special software, the Infinity brings deep sky to a screen in just seconds for the astronomer – I am able to observe even under really lousy conditions (if I am pointing to the right deep sky object), right out of my window. For me a paradigm shift of semi-visual observing including astrophotography potential. Of course the pictures do not match, those in a dark sky. But it has been fun.

M3 Globular Cluster Canes Venatici

Located in the constellation Canes Venatici, M3 is a tight cluster of almost 500,000 stars. This cluster is located approximately 30,000 light-years from Earth. It contains about 170 faint variable stars and visual magnitude of 6.2.

 Yet another Messier 42, the Orion Nebula

Good reachable from my office window I tried my Atik Infinity ccd one more time.

Spiral Galaxies

This galactic fireworks display is taking place in NGC 4258 (also known as M106), a spiral galaxy like ours. This galaxy is famous, however, for something that our Galaxy doesn’t have – two extra spiral arms that glow in X-ray, optical, and radio light.

Messier 106 is similar in size and luminosity to the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and is one of the brightest, largest nearby galaxies. M106 has a high surface brightness and my small telescopes shows a diffuse patch with a brighter centre, while m< 8-inch telescopes reveal more details of the galaxy’s structure. The Atik Infinity ccd show the galaxy’s spiral arms after 120 seconds light.

Nebulas

The common designation NGC 2244 refers to the cluster of stars at the center of this stellar nursery. The nebulous region is described by the designations NGC 2237, 2238 and 2246. This nebula and star cluster is more than 1 degree across. Star formation is still in progress. This object lies about 5,500 light years away, and is about 130 light years in diameter.

The Messier 81 and Messier 82

This is a galaxy group in the constellations Ursa Major and Camelopardalis that includes the well-known galaxies.

 You can get better picture resolution here:

Atik Infínity TMB80/600 mm Skyglow Filter 2016/03/06

Atik Infínity TMB80/600 mm Skyglow Filter 2016/02/06