the art of astronomy
the art of astronomy
Astrophotographer: Mike Wiles
Astrophotographer: Sheldon Faworski
M42 — The Orion Nebula
NGC 6995
“Not long ago, my daughter had surgery to remove her tonsils and
was laid up at home recovering for several days. This necessitated
the cancellation of an astrophotography trip I had planned to the
desert. Instead, I setup the equipment in my backyard and shot an
image of M42 through narrowband Hydrogen Alpha, Oxygen III and
Sulfur II filters. One of the advantages of these filters is that they’re
much less affected by light pollution and moonlight than broadband
filters. I selected M42 because it’s my daughter’s favorite object and
thought she might appreciate seeing it take shape as she recovered.
Additionally, I hadn’t seen an image of M42 shot in what is known as
the Hubble Palette. I was very pleased with the result.”
This image was acquired using an Explore Scientific ED127 f/7.5
refractor telescope, an SBIG ST-8300M camera and a total of 19
hours of exposure time.
Faworski captured this wonderful image of the wispy
NGC 6995 that lies in the Cygnus constellation. The
nebula is a small part of the Veil Nebula, which is a vast
and complex supernova remnant that is divided into
three main parts – the Eastern Veil, the Western Veil
and Pickering’s Triangle. The image was taken using an
Explore Scientific ED127 f/7.5 refractor telescope, a QSI
583wsg camera, a Baader filter and a Paramount 1100S
robotic telescope mount.
VdB 152
This image by Faworski showcases the reflection
nebula VdB 152, which lies atop the trailing Barnard 175
Bok Globule in the Cepheus constellation. The image
was taken using an Explore Scientific 208mm f/3.9
Newtonian telescope, a QSI 583wsg camera, a Baader
filter and a Paramount 1100S robotic telescope mount.
The Rosette Nebula
“I wanted to attempt a very high resolution mosaic image with
my Explore Scientific ED152 so I took on the very large field of
the Rosette Nebula. The final image is composed of 100 hours of
exposure time in a 4 panel mosaic. It captures the entire nebula at
better than 1 arc second of resolution.”
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