Astro Benn

21/08/2023

The Andromeda Galaxy! Our nearest Neighbour.

Imagine, there are probably other solar systems there, just like ours! We could be looking right at them!

This Galaxy is 2.5 million light years. Which means what you are seeing is what Andromeda Galaxy looked like 2.5 million years ago.

If anyone within the Andromeda Galaxy had a telescope powerful enough to see planet earth, they would be observing the Ice Ages!

I captured this image using a 16 year old Canon DSLR camera! It goes to show you do not need the best imaging equipment. I was really pleased with how the result turned out.

🔭Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED & EQM-35 Mount
Starizona EVO-FF Field Flattener
📷 Canon EOS 40D
Guiding: 30mm guidescope & Atik GP camera
Controlled via Mini PC
⏳2 Hour exposure. 60 second subs.
💻APT, Siril & Adobe Photoshop
Filters: n/a
Moon 🌚

18/08/2023

15/08/2023

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cv-JTSqsWg7/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

24/07/2023

27/06/2023

Sadr Region IC1318 is a large nebula in the Cygnus constellation, about 4,000 lightyears away. This is just a small section of the region as my camera is not big enough to image the whole area. Its glow comes as a result of nearby stars releasing charged particles known as stellar winds, which ionise the gasses, causing them to emit light.

🔭Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED & EQM35 Mount
Starizona EVO-FF Field Flattener
📷 Altair 178C Uncooled camera
Guiding: 30mm guidescope & GP camera
Controlled via Mini PC
⏳2 hour exposure. 150 second subs taken over 2 nights
💻APT, Siril & Adobe Photoshop
Filters: CLS & UV/IR Cut filter
Moon 🌑

18/06/2023

Messier 16 - The eagle Nebula

An active star forming region of very hot young stars approx 7,000 light years away.

This Nebula is famously known thanks to the Hubble Telescopes 'Pillars of Creation' image first taken in 1995. The fact we can now image the same target with a cheap telescope from Earth is just crazy!

This target is close to the Horizon and only reaches about 25 degrees altitude from my location, this means I only get about thirty to forty minutes each night to image as it goes behind one of my neighbours houses. It is also very close to a street lamp which means I had to battle the light pollution in my post processing.
Overall I am pleased with the result. Quite a sharp image for a small telescope and camera!

🔭Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED & EQM35 Mount
Starizona EVO-FF Field Flattener
📷 Altair 178C Uncooled camera
Guiding: 30mm guidescope & GP camera
Controlled via Mini PC
⏳3 hour exposure. 120 & 150 second subs taken over 5 nights
💻APT, Siril & Adobe Photoshop
Filters: CLS & UV/IR Cut filter
Moon 🌑

26/05/2023

I captured a supernova with a short 25 minute exposure, 21 million light years away.

The SN2023ixf Supernova recently appeared in the Pinwheel Galaxy M101. 21 Million light years away from us.

The dying star would have exploded millions of years ago, however given the distance from us, the light has only just reached us and the Supernova was first spotted on the 19th May 2023

This is a type 2 supernova, which is a type of stellar explosion that occurs when a massive star runs out of nuclear fuel and collapses.

To put the distance into context, this galaxy is approx 123451136366216610000 miles away!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CstPOLyOBuT/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

23/05/2023

22/04/2023

Messier 51, The Whirlpool Galaxy. 31 Million Light years away.

This beautiful Interacting Spiral Galaxy is in the Constellation Ursa Major and one of the most popular Galaxies to observe.

Every time I see The Whirpool Galaxy in my live view, I think of a Cinnamon swirl!

However M51 is not the only galaxy in this image. The yellow tail is an interacting galaxy NGC5195 which has been passing behind M51 for hundreds of millions of years.

There are also some faint galaxies in the distance. The most noticeable are on the right hand side. IC4263 and NGC5169.

I photographed this galaxy across 3 nights. The first night it was very windy and I had to throw away most of my frames. The second night i did not realise until after an hour of shooting, that I was photographing through high cloud 🤦 third night lucky, it was clear with little wind so managed to get some good data to stack onto my rubbish data. Total data captured was just under 5 hours. After throwing away some frames, the total exposure was 4 hours.

I first imaged this galaxy in 2021. I have managed to get a lot more detail this time!

https://linktr.ee/astrobenn

🔭Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED & AZ-GTI
Starizona EVO-FF Field Flattener
📷 GPCAM3 178C Altair Astro
Guiding: 30mm guidescope & Atik GP camera
Controlled via Mini PC
⏳4 hour exposure 90 second subs
💻APT, Siril & Adobe Photoshop
Filters: N/A
Moon 🌑

12/04/2023

The Leo Triplet M65 M66 & NGC3628
A small group of galaxies 35 million light years away.

These three galaxies are gravitationally bound together. Located in the constellation Leo. (Hence the name)

🔭Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED & AZ-GTI
Starizona EVO-FF Field Flattener
📷 GPCAM3 178C
Guiding: 30mm guidescope & Atik GP camera
Controlled via Mini PC
⏳3 hour exposure 130 second subs
💻APT, Siril & PS
Filters: N/A
📍Newbury, West Berkshire UK
🖼️ Back Garden Bortle 6
Moon 🌝

06/04/2023

M3, A Globular Cluster within our galaxy and 34,000 light years away from earth. Over 500,000 stars gravitationally bound together. This cluster is older than our solar system!

When Stars are born, they are born in clusters. Our Sun was once part of a cluster. (Over 4 billion years ago!)

With 90% Moon illumination, It is hard to pull detail out of nebula and Galaxies, but Star clusters are not affected as much.
It was a good opportunity to test some new equipment.

Can you spot the very small smudge in at the bottom left of the image? That is NGC5263, a galaxy approximately 180 million light years away from us! The light from that galaxy started its journey to my camera sensor 180 million years ago...let that sink in!

🔭Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED & AZ-GTI
Starizona EVO-FF Field Flattener
📷 GPCAM3 178C
Guiding: 30mm guidescope & Atik GP camera
Controlled via Mini PC
⏳2 hour exposure 120 second subs
💻APT, Siril & Adobe Photoshop
Filters: N/A
📍Newbury, West Berkshire UK
🖼️ Back Garden Bortle 6
Moon 🌝