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Stephen Kirk

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M39 is an open cluster, about 1100 light years distant, in the constellation of Cygnus, The Swan. M39 is about 30 arc minutes in diameter, about the width of the full moon. The Cygnus constellation abounds in interesting objects and The Milky Way galaxy flows straight through it. M39 Open Cluster in Cygnus ImageTechnical Data Imaged from my backyard in Nottingham, UK on the 16th October 2019 when it was high overhead from my location. I used my TEC 140 refractor and Atik 460 cooled CCD camera with Astrodon RGB E Series Generation 2 filters. I used my MESU 200 mount guided with an off-Axis guider. All exposures binned 1×1: Red > 15 x 120s ; Green > 12 x 120s ; Blue > 15 x 120s M39 Annotated M39 Inverted I hope you like it! 🙂

NGC6946 – The Fireworks Galaxy NGC6946 is located on the border between Cygnus and Cepheus and is a fairly bright galaxy about 25 million light years away. It is dubbed the “The Fireworks Galaxy” due to the unusually high number of supernovae that have occured here – ten – that have been observed during the last century. Typically a galaxy would normally have one per century and it is not known why this galaxy has had ten times the average. The galaxy is quite heavily obscured by dust within our own galaxy and this is probably the reason why it was not accorded the honour of a Messier catalogue number. Image Technical Details Imaged from my back yard in Nottingham, UK, during September 2020 whilst high overhead. I used my TEC140 refractor with Atik 460 CCD camera and Astrodon LRGB Generation 2 E series filters and a Ha (3nm) filter. …

Introduction And Rationale For Purchase QHY268C on Takahashi FSQ85. Note the totem pole of adapters to the right of the QHYOAG-M in order to get a screw fit onto the FSQ85 focuser I am already a very happy owner and user of two CCD mono cameras and associated filter wheels; an Atik 460 CCD with EFW2 and a Moravian Instruments G2-8300 CCD camera.  I have been very pleased with the performance of both, I enjoy using them and will continue to do so.  I have connected my Moravian CCD for use exclusively on my Samyang 135mm lens and it is semi-permanently attached to it.  I have my Atik460 semi-permanently attached to my TEC140 scope.   I do not want to disturb these two hardware arrangements.  However, this leaves me without a camera for my excellent Takahashi FSQ85.  So with this in mind I needed to acquire a third, cooled, astro-imaging camera.I…

M37 is one of the three Messier Open Clusters in the Constellation of Auriga – the other two being M36 and M38.  It is about 4500 light years away and contains several red giant stars, visible in this image, making it the richest of the three Auriga Messier Open Clusters. M37 appears high overhead from my 53 degree norther location during the winter months making it an ideal target for visual observations and imaging.  It makes a fine site in a telescope and appears as a fuzzy ball in a pair of binoculars. M37 Image Technical Data Imaged from my backyard in Nottingham, UK on the 9th February 2018.  I used my Takahashi FSQ85 refractor and Moravian G2-8300 cooled CCD camera with Astrodon RGB filters.  All expsoures are binned 1×1.Red > 12 x 120s ; Green > 12 x 120s ; Blue > 12 x 120s M37 Annotated Version M37…

M44 or “Praesepe” as it is called, is a famous open cluster visible in the late winter/ springtime in the constellation of Cancer – The Crab. It is often nicknamed The Beehive cluster since it resembles a swarm of bees when viewed in a wide-field telescope or binoculars. Along with M45 it is one of the most immediately breathtaking sights in the deep sky. At about 510 light years it is one of the closer Open Cluster to the Earth and is about 12 light years across and contains about 1000 stars. Note the tiny, distant galaxy in the bottom of the cluster PGC24400. M44 (“Praesepe”), The Beehive Cluster Image Technical Data Imaged over two evenings, the 22 and 23 February 2019 from my backyard in Nottingham, UK. Conditions were far from ideal with a high, hazy mist that made transparency poor and subsequent processing difficult. Captured with Takahashi FSQ85…