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Night - Fifty two - The Owl Nebula (M 97

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The Owl Nebula (also known as Messier 97, M97) is a planetary nebula approximately 2,030 light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Estimated to be about 8,000 years old, it is approximately circular in cross-section with a faint internal structure. Planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets. They simply appeared kinda like planets in telescopes long ago, their glowing disks suggesting a name that linked them to actual planetary disks. The summer sky is filled with planetary nebulae, and these objects give us a look at our solar system’s future. Some 6 billion years from now our Sun will transform into a white dwarf star and a planetary nebulae envelope, long after life on Earth is gone. The Owl Nebula, lying in our sky below the bowl of the Big Dipper, is a great example. Catalogued as Messier 97, the Owl is a bright planetary named for its two dark “eyes,” and it consists of three distinct shells. The asymmetry of the inner shell, with a barrel-like structure tipped...
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Night - Fifty one - The Hercules Cluster

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Messier 13, or M13 (sometimes called the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, the Hercules Globular Cluster, or the Great Hercules Cluster), is a globular cluster of several hundred thousand stars in the constellation of Hercules. Single stars in this globular cluster were first resolved in 1779. Compared to the stars in the neighborhood of the Sun, the stars of the M13 population are more than a hundred times more densely packed. They are so close together that they sometimes collide and produce new stars. The newly formed, young stars, known as "blue stragglers", are particularly interesting to astronomers. This photo is the result of of the telscope taking 137 individual photos of 60 seconds each, then stacking them on top of each other to create additional detail. This is the second time I have imaged this cluster. The two images are considerably different quality though. Here is the first image from March of 2025, certainly disappointing. And here is last night...
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Night - Fifty - Gibbous Moon

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Night - Fortynine - Return to the scene of the crime Comet PanSTARRS

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Comet Pan STARRS 2025 R3   This is a repeat of the previous morning's work. Basically to see if the telescope was still functioning as I hoped. All went well at a little after 4 AM. The telescope has a ding or two where it hit the gravel but all is functioning well. I thought the threads on the tripod shoe might have been plastic but they are definitely metal. So the failure was just in setting down the tripod too hard without giving the telescope any support and the scope simply ripped itself off the threads and fell to the ground. In the future, all movement of the tripod will happen with support for the telescope.   The first imaging still caught some trees as the comet was remaining a bit low on the horizon. But the second capture gave me this image (and a cropped version) which was clean without too many satellites criss crossing the image.   .
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Night - Fortyeight - Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) Disaster strikes

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I went out at 4 AM to try and capture a new comet on the Eastern horizon. It was coming into view just ahead of the rising Sun. In my first image, the telescope had not been correctly aligned and the stars were trailing somewhat. When I moved the tripod to a diiferent location in order realigfn it and to avoid a tree, the telescope fell off of the tripod to the gravel pad I was standing on. A drop of about 5 feet and a horrible noise to hear. The telescope has a few dings on the base where it contacted the gravel but it remained on and after reconnecting it to the tripod I was able to continue and capture a second cleaner image of the comet without any stars trailing. The scope as of now, appears to be AOK which is a great relief. Kudoes to the design team for a tough machine. Here is one additional image with the stars removed.
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Night - Fortyseven The Croc's Eye Galaxy, M 94

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Hubble image of M94
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Night Fortysix - Caldwell 36 The Koi Galaxy

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This galaxy was suggested to me by the telescope and I don't really understand why. It is a nondescript galaxy that has little to learn about in its Wikipedia page. NGC 4559 (also known as Caldwell 36) is an intermediate spiral galaxy with a weak inner ring structure in the constellation Coma Berenices.
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