This month four section members produced twenty-seven digital images of deep sky objects:
Richard Lewis, using a Takahashi FSQ 106mm refractor and ZWO ASI 294 MC Pro colour camera and Quadband filter, imaged NGC 7635 the Bubble emission nebula in the constellation of Cassiopeia (with added RGB data) and IC 5146 the Cocoon reflection/emission nebula in Cygnus:
IC 5146 is an active region of new star formation, with hundreds of proto stars identified. The most massive star is BD+46 3474, which is a B class star of around 14 solar masses situated at the centre of the emission nebulosity.
John Fathers attended the Kelling Heath winter star party in Norfolk where he imaged a variety of objects. The first two are dark nebulae, Barnard 10 (B10) in the constellation of Taurus and B33 the Horsehead nebula in Orion:
Below are IC 443 the Jellyfish supernova remnant in Gemini, M45 the Pleiades open cluster in Taurus and NGC 7293 the Helix planetary nebula in Aquarius:
IC 443 has an angular diameter of 50 arc minutes, which at a distance of about 5,000 light years equates to 70 light years across. The age of this object is in question: estimates range from 3,000 to 30,000 years.
Next are NGC 2244 the Rosette emission nebula in Taurus, NGC 1499 the California emission nebula in Perseus, IC 405 the Flaming Star emission/reflection nebula in Auriga and IC 2118 the Witches Head reflection nebula (possible ancient supernova remnant) in Orion:
The remaining two images are the Leo triplet of galaxies M65, M66 and NGC 3628 and M81 Bodes galaxy with M82 in Ursa Major:
John used a f2 Celestron RASA 8″ astrograph with either a ZWO ASI071 camera or ZWO ASI533 camera, and a dual narrow band filter where appropriate.
Mark Beveridge used a Celestron C11 SCT with 0.63 focal reducer and ZWO ASI294 MC Pro colour camera to image IC 417 the Spider emission nebula in the constellation of Auriga, IC 1454 planetary nebula in Cepheus, galaxy NGC 6951 also in Cepheus, galaxy NGC 13 in Andromeda and the PGC 7686/PGC 7715 galaxy group also in Andromeda:
NGC 6951 is a barred spiral type 2 Seyfert galaxy, it has an active core containing a supermassive black hole, believed to be between 6 and 14 million solar masses.
Steve Norrie sent in nine images, the three below are galaxy IC 342 in the constellation of Camelopardalis, Bode’s Galaxy M81 in Ursa Major and The Veil Nebula, a supernova remnant in Cygnus:
IC 342 is an intermediate spiral galaxy situated around 10 million light years from the Earth. It was thought at one time to be a member of our Local Group of galaxies. It is however part of a small group of galaxies nearest to but not part of the Local Group.
Steve’s remaining images are of emission nebulae, NGC 2264 the Christmas Tree in Monoceros, NGC 2244 the Rosette also in Monoceros , NGC 7822 in Cepheus, Sh2-101 in Cygnus, NGC 1499 the California nebula in Perseus and Melotte 15 (the open cluster within the Heart nebula):
Dave Finnigan