Comet NEOWISE passing by The Big Dipper
Comet NEOWISE c/2020 F3, as it moved past the Big Dipper,
This is probably my last good shot of it., now that the Comet is dimmer and moving into the Twilight glow.
I was pleasantly surprised to see all the little galaxies in the photo with just a 47mm lens. Also Thousands of Stars in this one!
Lots of well known Galaxies can be seen in the background if you know were to look, here are a few Galaxies…M101 Pinwheel, M51 Whirlpool, M63 Sunflower, M106 Water Maser, M108, and even M97 the Owl Nebula.
Also the blue gas ion tail is really long, stretching almost to the handle of the Big Dipper, the dust tail spreads almost into the bowl.
I grab these shots right after dark, just as the comet was reaching the horizon haze, had some really bad light pollution & haze gradients, Overall, I’m happy with the result. I included a Black & white image and a Negative image to help with contrast , so you see the galaxies and Comet tail details.
Canon 6D DSLR Camera & Canon 24mm to 105mm lens,
Camera Lens Set to 47mm @F4.5, IS0 1600, “Star Adventurer” Tracking Mount, Celina, Ohio on 07-24-2020 at 02:32 to 02:45 U.T.,
(07-23-2020 10:32 to 10:45pm EST)
Captured 12 x 60 second exposures and stacked in DSS. 12 minute total exposure.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
Comet NEOWISE and The Big Dipper over an Ohio Cornfield
Last Thursday evening 07-23-2020 I was at my brother in-laws place again, this time not as many clouds, but lots of haze especially down by the Comet and the horizon. I can see the Big Dipper above comet Neowise over the Cornfield, near Celina , Ohio tonight. Yes, there are a few faint satellites in the too…The neighbors lights from across the street illuminated the cornfield just enough to help the composition. Ohio is well known for its cornfields, the old saying of the corn should be “Knee High by the 4th of July”, well this cornfield was over 10ft high.
This was only a 30 second exp. at F2, ISO 1250, Canon 6D DSLR Camera, Rokinon 24mm F1.4 lens, “Star Adventurer” Tracking mount. That glow from that town (10 miles away) is really noticeable when there is haze on the horizon, ..From this point on the Comet is dimming rapidly, as it moves away from both the Sun and Earth, It was at its closest to Earth this night, I estimate the Comet to be about 4th Magnitude at the time. The waxing Moonlight will soon wipe it out even more.
But at least we have a piece of Astronomical history!!! What a nice little display it has put on for us Northern Hemisphere Observers!
I have a few more really nice close-ups coming this week, taken with the Sigma 150mm lens & Canon 49mm lens coming up this week!!! So stay tuned.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
Mars Series, July 4th through July 19th
My first Images of Mars for the season, its was only 11 to 13 arsec across during these dates,
but I managed to pick up some details on the Martian surface. The South Polar Ice cap is very prominent,
and as Mars rotates over the dates that Imaged,
you can see different surface features visible.
I used my C8 & C-11 to take these new images using my QHY5III290M Mono Cmos Camera, LRGB filter wheel,
and on the 17th with the C8 I used a single shot ZWO224 Cmos Color camera.
All images were captured in Fire-capture software as Ser video File, typically about 4800 frames are stacked in Autostakkert, Registax6, Maxim DL, Adobe CS,
from my backyard Observatory in Dayton, Ohio.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
Comet NEOWISE c/2020 F3 on 07-17-2020
The Comet was absolutely beautiful to watch through my Fujinon 10×70 Binoculars last night, the Green Coma was very noticeable. Although it has dimmed a little bit it is still naked because now it sits a bit higher in the western Sky now. We watched from 10:15pm until 11:30pm , until it got too low in the City lights of Fairborn…so I wrapped it up and went home to look at my data..I had lots of city light gradients in my image which made it very difficult to process the light Pollution out..but managed to get something of a keeper out of it.
Comet NEOWISE c/2020 F3 on 07-17-2020, captured with Green Coma around Nucleus, and the white Dust Tail and Blue Ion Gas tail, shot from Enon/Fairborn Area, Ohio, at 10:38pm EST (02:38 U.T.)
Canon 6D DSLR Camera, Sigma 150 -600mm lens, set to 150mm at F5.6, on a AVX tracking Mount 7.5 minutes total exposure ISO 1250, 18 x 25sec stacked in DSS, Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Pixinsight and Adobe CS.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
The Planet Saturn on 07-14-2020
I just couldn’t sleep last night, something was telling me to go look at Jupiter and Saturn…so I decide to do some planetary imaging from my backyard in Dayton, before I went to shoot the Comet again early this am…I was happy to see we had decent seeing for a a little while before the clouds rolled in over Jupiter & Saturn around 2:30am….but not before I got a set of nice LRGB images of Saturn… Seeing was very steady wish I could have had time to get a full set of Jupiter LRGB, but clouds love to mess you whenever things are going good! My old orange tube C-11 Telescope,…my second oldest telescope..but has very good optics, and my QHY5III290M cmos camera, no barlow just prime focus, Bisque MYT Mount,…and decent seeing.for a change. Fire-capture Ser Video capture, LRGB 4800 frames stacked, Autostakkert, Registax6, MaximDL, and Adobe CC 2020. Magnitude: 0.13, Diameter: 18.38, Resolution: 0.22″, CM: CMI=199.2° CMIII=4.8°
Comet NEOWISE Extreme Close-up images
Wow is this Comet Performing well!!!
Here is my extreme close-up of Comet NEOWISE c/2020 F3, The comet is amazing and no one was expecting it to be this bright or a good one, but it Survived its trip near the Sun and no is swinging past the Earth for us to get a good look at it.
In my Vertical image as a reference, you can see its pronounced double dust Tail near the Nucleus(bottom) and its Yellow to Green Dust tail center, and faint Blue ION tail near the top! ….Canon 6D DSLR & a Sigma 150-600mm lens set to 500mm @ F6.3, IS0 2000, 7 x 10s Subs, total 70 second exposure, tracking AVX Mount & Stacking on the Comet’s Nucleus, image slightly cropped.
Captured in Enon , Ohio @ 09:02 U.T. on 07-10-2020 (5:02am EST)
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
Comet NEOWISE Close-up Binocular View
Here is one of my close-up views of Comet NEOWISE and how it looks through binoculars..with my Binocular pattern over-lay. This was 200mm Sigma Lens @F5.6, ISO1250, 4.0 sec exposure. Also here is my Binocular Overlay to show you how it will look in Binoculars…..See my previous post for more details on how to see the Comet with Binoculars.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
Comet NEOWISE in the Morning Sky!
A Beautiful Comet in the Morning sky!!! Comet NEOWISE on 07-08-2020… warning because of how low it is on the Horizon your view may be blocked by trees or other structures..so go find a very low Northeastern Horizon away from the city lights..although it is visible to the human eye, its just barely visible around here, once it cleared the fog on the horizon. Comet NEOWISE looks so much better in Binoculars or small telescope. Even regular camera lens on DSLR cameras can capture it..with exposures as short as 1 to 5 seconds. The color just before Sunrise really makes the Comet Photo, but I found you only have a 30 minute window of color before the comet gets washed out by the brightening sky. I will be posting several images this week, I will include exposure setting for the different lens sizes I used…so you all can go out and try to capture it yourselves!!!…I used my Fujinon 10×70 binoculars to view it, and it was beautiful to look at…but once its high enough off the horizon you can see it through your Camera viewfinder. But you don’t have much time before dawn’s light gets too bright to wash it out..I captured these from Enon, Ohio, went to visit & shoot with my buddy Glenn who found us a good spot in his neck of the woods using google maps. All shots are with my Canon 6D DSLR, most exposures were well under 10 seconds..depends on your Lens, ISO value & Fstop used.
this was set to 97mm lens, F4, ISO 400, 10 sec., Camera on a tripod. Stay tuned I have a several more nice ones coming your way..
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
The Great Hercules Swarm – M13 Globular Cluster
Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s out there! May you all be Hercules for your families!! Put this up full screen!
The Great Hercules Swarm! No worries, no Murder Hornets here!!!
Messier 13 or M13, aka NGC 6205 and is sometimes called the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules or the Hercules Globular Cluster.
M13 is a globular cluster with over 500,000 stars in a tight ball and is located 22, 180 light years from Earth in the constellation Hercules.
The Ball of Stars is about 145 light years in diameter, it is estimated to be 11.66 billion years old.
It shines at magnitude 5.8….barely visible to the unaided eye as a fuzzy patch under dark skies. An easy target in Binoculars or small telescopes.
I often wonder if you were on a planet around a star inside that cluster, how many bright stars you would see in your night sky?
The Little Galaxy above the Hercules Cluster is IC-4617 shining at Magnitude 14.3. Smaller fainter galaxies are in the background as well.
I captured this image from my backyard observatory in Dayton, Ohio on 05-31-2020 for Lum 60 min. and on 06-19-2020 RGB combined for LRGB 2.5 hours.
C6 Newtonian telescope & QHY183M Cooled Cmos Camera, (Lum) for 60 minutes exposure & QHY183C Cooled Cmos Camera(RGB) for 90 minutes. C6 F5 Newtonian Telescope,
Tracking via a Bisque MyT Robotic Tracking Mount.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
NGC 5907 known as Knife Edge Galaxy or Splinter Galaxy
NGC 5907 (also known as Knife Edge Galaxy or Splinter Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy located approximately 50 million light years from Earth in the constellation Draco. It has an anomalously low metallicity and few detectable giant stars, being apparently composed almost entirely of dwarf stars.
QHY183C cooled color Cmos camera & C6 Newt. scope, Bisque MyT Robotic Mount. 63 minute exposure.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com