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CCD Images - Session 53 (2003-10-17)

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Bullet Notes from CCD Session
 
Bullet M76 - Planetary Nebula (Little Dumbbell)
Bullet M103 - Open Cluster
Bullet NGC 281 - Cluster & Nebulosity
Bullet M33 - Spiral Galaxy (Pinwheel Galaxy)
Bullet NGC 708 - Galaxy Cluster (The Fath)
Bullet NGC 7320 - Galaxy Cluster (Stephan's Quintet)
Bullet NGC 7331 - Spiral Galaxy (Deer Lick Group)
Bullet IC 1392 - Lenticular Galaxy
Bullet M32 - Elliptical Galaxy
Bullet NGC 206 - Emission Knot in M31
Bullet M15 Globular Cluster
Bullet NGC 659 - Open Cluster
Bullet More Galaxies (NGC 7217, NGC 691, NGC 7678, 
NGC 507, M74, NGC 1058)
Bullet Sky Brightness Survey

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

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M103 - Open Cluster

M103 (Cassiopeia)
Image
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)
Image
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
Image as above
Smoothed and Contrast Adjusted  

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M33 - Spiral Galaxy (Pinwheel Galaxy)

M33 (Triangulum)
Image
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) 
Image
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)
Image
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)
Image
CCD Image, 5 x 20s (median)
2003-10-17  22:08 to 22:10 h UT (#53125-29)
 
Image
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)
Image
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)
Image
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)
Image

Image
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)
Image
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)
Image
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 (Pegasus)
 (catalog mag +11.1)
Image
CCD Image, 6 x 20 sec exposure (median)
2003-10-17  22:21 to 22:24h UT (#53142-47)
  
NGC 691 - Spiral Galaxy (Aries)
Image
CCD Image, 6 x 20 sec exposure (median)
2003-10-17  23:14 to 23:17h UT (#53198-203)
 
NGC 7678 - Spiral Galaxy (Pegasus)
Image
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)
Image
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)
Image
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)
Image
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.

Image
Image

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This Web Page: CCD Images - Session 53 (2003-10-17)
Last Updated : 2015-05-16
Site Owner : David Richards
Home Page : David's Astronomy Web Site