David's Astronomy Pages CCD Images - Session 53 (2003-10-17) Images (S52)   Images (Main)   Home Page   Images (S55)

Notes (S00053)

This was my first viewing session at my new site in Aberdeenshire, and the first time I've used my ST7 CCD camera on a temporarily mounted  telescope.  My 8" SCT was set up on a tripod and roughly aligned on the Pole Star.  This was sufficient for getting unguided exposures of 20 secs, but not any longer.  My optical setup was slightly different to normal and at 2x2 binning the resulting image scale was 1.82 arc sec/pixel, compared to normal figure 1.78.

The session was also the first opportunity to use a newly purchased copy of TPoint Telescope Pointing Software (Software Bisque). This proved useful for locating a series of faint galaxies in and around Pegasus, which might have been difficult to locate with just a rough polar alignment.  (TPoint indicated that the scope's polar alignment had been out by 1.1 deg in azimuth and out by 0.6 deg in altitude).  

A sky brightness survey was conducted which demonstrated that the sky at my new observing site in Aberdeenshire was definitely darker than my previous observing site in Dorset, confirming visual observations.

Goto Notes from Session S00054 (2003-11-21)

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M76 - Planetary Nebula (Little Dumbbell)

M76 (Perseus)

CCD Image,  6 x 20s exposures (median) 2003-10-17  21:40 to 21:43h UT (#53092-97)  11.6 x 7.8 arc sec

M76 taken with increasing exposure

CCD Image,  Various Exposures 2003-10-17 (1.82 arc sec/pixel)

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M103 - Open Cluster

M103 (Cassiopeia)

CCD Image, 10 sec exposure  2003-10-17  21:57h UT (#53112) 11.6 x 7.8 arc sec

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NGC 281 - Cluster & Nebulosity

NGC 281 (Cassiopeia)

CCD Image, 6 x 20 sec exposure (summed) 2003-10-17  21:49 to 21:51h UT (#53104-09) 11.6 x 7.8 arc sec

Image as above Smoothed and Contrast Adjusted

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M33 - Spiral Galaxy (Pinwheel Galaxy)

M33 (Triangulum)

CCD Image composite, 2 images, 5 x 20 sec exposure (median) Smoothed and Contrast Adjusted 2003-10-17  23:02 to 23:10 h UT (#53184-88 & #53191-96)

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NGC 708 - Galaxy Cluster (The Fath)

NGC 708 (Andromeda) NGC 708 (catalog mag +13.7), NGC 703 (catalog mag +14.2), NGC 705 (catalog mag +14.6),  NGC 704 (catalog mag +14.1), CGCG 522-33 (catalog mag +15.5)

CCD Image, 10 x 20 sec exposure (median) 2003-10-17  21:19 to 21:25h UT (#53070-80)

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NGC 7320 - Galaxy Cluster (Stephan's Quintet)

NGC 7320 (Andromeda)

CCD Image, 10 x 20 sec exposure (median) 2003-10-17  22:12 to 22:17h UT (#53131-40)

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NGC 7331 - Spiral Galaxy (Deer Lick Group)

NGC 7331 (Pegasus) Other members of Deer Lick Group : NGC 7335 (catalog mag +14.5), NGC 7337 (catalog mag +15.2)

CCD Image, 5 x 20s (median) 2003-10-17  22:08 to 22:10 h UT (#53125-29)

CCD Image, 5 x 20s (summed) 2003-10-17  22:08 to 22:10 h UT (#53125-29)

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IC 1392 - Lenticular Galaxy

IC 1392, (catalog mag +12.5) ,  UGC 11775 (catalog mag +14.1 ) (Cygnus)

CCD Image,  5 x 20s exposures (median) 2003-10-17 22:33 to 22:35h UT (#52154-58)  11.3 x 7.5 arc sec

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M32 - Elliptical Galaxy

M32 (Andromeda)

CCD Image,  20s exposure 2003-10-17 21:04h UT (#53048)  11.6 x 7.8 arc sec

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NGC 206 - Emission Knot (in M31)

NGC 206, Emission Knot in M31 (Andromeda)

CCD Image, 6 x 20 sec exposure (summed) Smoothed and Sharpened 2003-10-17  21:05 to 21:09 h UT (#53049-58) 11.6 x 7.8 arc sec

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M15 - Globular Cluster

M15 (Pegasus)

CCD Image, 20s exposure 2003-10-17 22:40 h UT  (#53162) cropped and sharpened

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NGC 659 - Open Cluster

NGC 659 (Cassiopeia)

CCD Image, 5s exposure 2003-10-17  21:58h UT (#53114)

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More Galaxies (NGC 7217, NGC 691,  NGC 7678, NGC 507, M74, NGC 1058)

NGC 7217 - Spiral Galaxy (Andromeda)  (catalog mag +11.1)

CCD Image, 6 x 20 sec exposure (median) 2003-10-17  22:21 to 22:24h UT (#53142-47)

NGC 691 - Spiral Galaxy (Aries)

CCD Image, 6 x 20 sec exposure (median) 2003-10-17  23:14 to 23:17h UT (#53198-203)

NGC 7678 - Spiral Galaxy (Pegasus)

CCD Image composite, 2 images, 6 x 20 sec exposure (median) 2003-10-17  22:54 to 22:57 h UT (#53175-80)

NGC 507 (catalog mag +12.5), NGC 508 (catalog mag +14.1)  NGC 504 (catalog mag +14.0), PGC 05100 (catalog mag ??), (Pisces)

CCD Image, 20 sec exposure  2003-10-17  23:02h UT (#53183) 11.6 x 7.8 arc sec

M74 - Spiral Galaxy (Pegasus) (Catalog Mag +13.1)

CCD Image,  20s exposure 2003-10-17 23:12h UT (#53197)  11.6 x 7.8 arc sec

NGC 1058 - Spiral Galaxy (Andromeda) NGC 1058 (catalog mag +11.8)

CCD Image, 6 x 20 sec exposure (median) 2003-10-17  23:20 to 23:23h UT (#53206-11)

Sky Brightness Survey

A sky brightness survey was conducted which demonstrated that the sky at my new observing site in Aberdeenshire was definitely darker than my previous observing site in Dorset, confirming visual observations.   A preliminary assessment is that sky is nearly 1 mag per sq. arc sec darker at the new site.

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