Veil Nebula SNR, Witches Broom, and Pickering’s Triangle with a RASA 8″
Looking through the Pea soup in Dayton Last night, I could only see about 9 stars visible, between light Pollution, fire smoke haze, and the poor transparency, I was pleasantly surprised to have gotten this nice image while testing my 8 inch scope out on the Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant Region. NGC6960 Veil Nebula, Witches Broom, and Pickering’s Triangle. 2,100 light years away from Earth.
Celestron RASA 8 inch diameter scope , ZWO 294MC cooled Cmos Camera, Starizona Filter drawer, IDAS NBZ Filter, 60 x 1 minute, no Auto-guiding, 60 min total, using Pro-track on Software Bisque MyT Robotic Mount. captured on 06-17-2023 from my (bortle8) backyard in Dayton, Ohio.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
The Planet Venus on 06-10-2023 UV & IR Light
My latest shot of Venus
I captured the Planet Venus in UV(ultra-violet 320-380nm) & IR(infrared 850nm) & Green wavelengths,
showing the clouds tops structure of Sulfuric Acid Clouds in the Venusian atmosphere.
Venus is the second planet from the Sun and Earth’s closest planetary neighbor.
It’s distance is currently ~ 61 Million miles from Earth,
or 98,955,797 kilometers, equivalent to 0.661479 Astronomical Units.
Even though Mercury is closer to the Sun,
Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system. Its thick atmosphere is full of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, and it has clouds of sulfuric acid.
The Surface temperatures on Venus are about 900 degrees Fahrenheit (475 degrees Celsius) – hot enough to melt lead. The surface is a rusty color and it’s peppered with intensely crunched mountains and thousands of large volcanoes.
Captured on 06-10-2023 @ 01:38 UT from Dayton, Ohio. I was imaging at dusk, sky still blue, but needed to capture it before my neighbors trees covered it up. C-11 SCT telescope, F20 via a 2x Barlow, (5600mm), Software Bisque MyT Mount, QHY 290M uncooled Cmos Camera, ZWO 5 position filter wheel, Baader IR RGB UV filters, Fire_Capture Software, saved as SER video File, Stacked in Autostakkert, Wavelets in Regitaxs6, combined UV, IR & Green channels in Maxim DL., final in Adobe Raw CC 2023.
I captured 2000 frames for each channel in IR, UV, and standard RGB files, I then processed them all,
choosing the best filter channel combinations that best displayed the most cloud tops details visible during my imaging session.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
Waxing Gibbous Moon on 05-03-2023
Here is a shot of the Waxing Gibbous Moon from last night….95% lit, as it heads for Full Moon on Friday.
Waxing Gibbous Lunar Phase:
This phase occurs between the first quarter and full Moon and describes the Moon when it is more than half lit, but not yet fully. At the beginning of this stage in the Northern Hemisphere, we see the right half of the Moon illuminated plus a tiny fraction more extending into the left side. As the days pass, the light creeps farther left, covering more and more of the Moon’s surface until the full Moon phase, when the entire disk is illuminated. In the Southern Hemisphere, the same happens, only from left to right.
“Gibbous” comes from a Latin word meaning “humpbacked,” referring to the curved lit area on the Moon’s surface.
The average composition of the lunar surface by weight is roughly 43% oxygen, 20% silicon, 19% magnesium, 10% iron, 3% calcium, 3% aluminum, 0.42% chromium, 0.18% titanium and 0.12% manganese. Orbiting spacecraft have found traces of water on the lunar surface that may have originated from deep underground or just below the surface inside shadowed craters.
Some rare elements have also been detected, the Moon may also have ores of rare elements such as beryllium, lithium, zirconium, niobium, tantalum, and so forth.
I captured this shot from my backyard observatory in Dayton, Ohio on 05-03-2023, using my 6 inch diameter F5 Newtonian reflector telescope, on a Bisque MyT Robotic Tracking Mount, and a ZWO 294MC Cooled Color Cmos Camera, for a single 3ms exposure.
On Friday the Moon will be Full once again.
You can look for the Full “Flower Moon” on Friday evening May 5th 2023,
The Flower Moon is named after the abundant flowers that grow in the Earth’s Northern Hemisphere in May.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
Fantastic Coronal Aurora – Venus Fly Trap Aurora
I know we just had another KP-8 Aurora seen over the USA and Ohio recently, unfortunately it was cloudy all night for us here in Dayton, Ohio.
So I’m sharing this image that I captured last Month in Alaska.
Here is an amazing Coronal Aurora display that I captured with a Fish-eye lens and cropped slightly to create a vertical view.
It reminds me of a carnivores plant like a giant Venus Fly Trap,
Looks like a big mouth that is ready to eat anything on the Earth.
It was centered on the bowl of the Big Dipper,
I love how the magnetic field lines can create incredible art and watching this Coronal Aurora was spectacular!
Canon 6D DSLR, 8mm Fish-eye Lens, F3.5, ISO 3200, 10 second exposure.
On 03-25-2023, The Chena River State Recreational Area in Alaska.
Yes, I’m back in the lower 48, and I’m looking forward to imaging deep space once again.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
A Stunning and Colorful Aurora Curtain on 03-23-2023
I’m still going through all my Aurora shot taken this past March,
and this has to be my most breathtakingly beautiful one captured so far.
The Aurora display was absolutely stunning!
A wide colorful Curtain of Aurora taken on 03-23-2023 north of Fairbanks, Alaska.
As the wide colorful curtain lowers between two higher altitude Green/Red Aurora Walls.
You can see some thin clouds floating through, as well as some of my crew shooting further down the road.
Canon 6D DSLR Camera, 16mm F2.8lens, ISO 3200, 8 second exposure.
Its a keeper for sure!
I’m definitely printing this one on Metal to 30″ x 45″.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
Aurora Borealis “The Piano Keys” on 03-25-2023
The Aurora Borealis “The Piano Keys” often seen up here in Alaska, it reminds me of Piano Keys playing, as the magnetic field lines shift & pulse colors and shapes across the Aurora wall from one end of the sky to the other.
The constellation Leo is visible in the upper left, and Open Star Cluster M44 (Praesepe) The Beehive Cluster is at the top Center,
and between the two tall trees on the right is Orion’s Belt, above that is the Red Giant star Betelgeuse & the Red planet Mars is also above the trees. Finally in the lower center is city light pollution glow from Fairbanks, 60 miles away, and the lower far right is the orange glow from the waxing Crescent Moon setting behind clouds.(Sorry not a Sunset)
Canon 6D DSLR Camera, 16mm F2.8 lens, ISO 3200, 10 seconds exp. on 03-25-2023
Location : Chena River State Recreation Area/White Mountains of Alaska.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
Solar Activity on 04-09-2023
Here is the reason we have been getting great Aurora’s – I Shot these images Easter Sunday.
The Sun is getting much more active as we get closer to Solar Maximum(11 year cycle) in July 2025
Here is my shot of Active Sunspots /AR3272 in Hydrogen Alpha Light.
NASA’s Space-weather & NOAA stated that there is a 30% chance of M-class solar flares today, April 9th – 10th.
Almost certainly, the source would be sunspot group/ AR3272, which has an unstable ‘beta-gamma’ magnetic field. Any explosions will be Geo-effective as the sunspot is turning to face Earth.
Meaning any release of this energy is going to head toward Earth and could spark northern lights up north again.
Attached you can see my shot of the Sunspot group/AR3272 Region as it just came around the South Eastern Limb of the Sun. I capture these images yesterday from my backyard observatory in Dayton, Ohio with my Lunt 60mm/50F Hydrogen Alpha Solar telescope & QHY290 Cmos Camera, Software Bisque MyT Robotic Mount.
Close-up Shot:
QHY290 Cmos camera, Fire-Capture software, SER video File, 1200 frames stacked in Registax6. Adobe Raw 2023.
Capture Date & Time 04-09-2023 at 16:50 U.T.
Full Solar Disk Shot:
I used a QHY5IIL Cmos Camera , Fire-Capture software, SER video File, stacked 700 frames in Registax6, Adobe Raw 2023.
Capture Date and Time 04-09-2023 at 16:38 U.T.
best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
Wonderful Green all sky Aurora on St. Patrick’s Day…03-17-2023
Nothing wrong with getting a little Green color in the Wee hours of the Morn on St. Patti’s Day!
We got up to the top of the Dome with the Snow Caterpillar, and our 2023 Aurora Crew enjoyed a nice Aurora display covering the entire sky that night,
although the slight breeze was making it much feel much colder, that we had to occasionally hit the heated Yurts for some hot beverages.
The constellations Perseus & Cassiopeia are both visible on the left side of the image.
I captured this image just outside the Chena River State Recreational Area, at 3,000 ft. Elevation in the White Mountains of Alaska on 03-17-2023
Canon 6D DSLR Camera, 16mm F2.8 Lens, ISO 5000, 5 second exposure.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
