Blog - Galactic Images

Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF on 12-29-2022 at 09:53 UT

By John Chumack|2023-01-02T02:58:54+00:00January 2nd, 2023|Tags: #ASIAIR, #c2022e3ztf, #ChumackObservatories, #comet, #Comets, #GalacticImages, #JohnChumack, #natgeo, #skyatnight, #solarsystem, #Universetoday, #ZWO, #ZWO294MC, Astronomy, Space|

Happy New Year Everyone, and hopefully this Beautiful comet will brighten your New Year. You can see the bright Nucleus, the nice Green Coma, the (brown) dust tail, and also the faint Ion tail going off to the right. I only got 24 minutes of data before the clouds kill it for me that early morning. you can see some faint PGC galaxies in the background and in the lower right bright 7th magnitude star (HIP 77721).

Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF on 12-29-2022 09:53 UT
Shining at ~8.2 magnitude in the constellation Corona Borealis
Captured with a TPO 12 inch F4 Newtonian Scope, ZWO 294MC Cooled Cmos Camera, L-Pro filter, Bisque ME Mount, ASI Air via Wi-Fi to I-pad, 12 x 2 minute subs, 24 minute total exposure. DSS, Nebulosity, Pixinsight, Adobe Raw CC 2023. Captured from my observatories at JBSPO in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

The California Nebula (NGC 1499/Sh2-220)

By John Chumack|2022-12-24T21:36:27+00:00December 24th, 2022|Tags: #ASIAIR, #californianebula, #ChumackObservatories, #GalacticImages, #JohnChumack, #natgeo, #NGC1499, #skyatnight, #universe, #Universetoday, #ZWO, #ZWO294MC, Astronomy, Space|

The California Nebula (NGC 1499/Sh2-220) is an emission nebula located in the constellation Perseus.
Its name comes from its resemblance to the outline of the US State of California in long exposure photographs.
The brighter section is almost 2.5° long on the sky and, because of its very low surface brightness, it is extremely difficult to observe visually.
But Photographically it shows up very well in long exposures. In this image I also captured the fainter section near the bottom of the frame showing
it actually covers more than 5 degrees of sky. It lies at a distance of about 1,000 light years from Earth.

The California Nebula fluorescence is due to excitation of the Hβ(486nm) line in the nebula by the nearby energetic(Blue star in the lower right of the nebula) O7 star,
Xi Persei (also known as Menkib). It looks fantastic in the H-alpha(656nm) wavelength as well.

Capture with a Samyang 135mm F2 lens, Bisque MyT mount, ZWO 294mc Cooled Cmos Camera, L-enhance filter,
ASI Air Plus via Wi-Fi to my I-pad, 30 x 2 minute subs, 60 minute total exposure integration time.
From my backyard observatory(bortle8) in Dayton Ohio.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

Comet C/2020 V2 ZTF on 11-26-2022

By John Chumack|2022-12-23T01:12:10+00:00December 23rd, 2022|Tags: #ChumackObservatories, #comet, #comet2020v2ZTF, #GalacticImages, #JohnChumack, #natgeo, #skyatnight, #Universetoday, #ZWO, #ZWO294MC, Astronomy, Space|

Comet C/2020 V2 ZTF on 11-26-2022 @ 04:50 UT

The Comet was estimated to be shining around 11.00 magnitude, you can definitely see its tail and the 2.5 arc-min Green Coma.

There are several faint(16th to 17th mag.) PGC galaxies visible in this image as the comet was moving through Ursa Major.

Unfortunately at the time i was shooting through some thin haze, but it still showed up well enough to post.

TPO 12 inch F4 Newtonian reflector telescope, Baader Coma Corrector, Bisque ME Mount, ZWO 294MC cooled Cmos Camera, L-Pro Filter, ASI Air Plus, via Wi-Fi to my I-pad, 4 x 2 minute sub exposures, 8 minutes total integration time, from my observatories at JBSPO, in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

M81 Bode’s Spiral Galaxy with Holmberg IX

By John Chumack|2022-12-15T13:16:07+00:00December 15th, 2022|Tags: #ASIAIR, #bodesSpiral, #ChumackObservatories, #GalacticImages, #galaxy, #holmbergIX, #JohnChumack, #m81, #messier81, #natgeo, #skyatnight, #spiralgalaxy, #Universetoday, #ursamajor, #ZWO, #ZWO294MC, Astronomy, Space|

M81 Bode’s Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major
Discovered by the German astronomer Johann Elert Bode in 1774. M81 is one of the brightest galaxies in the night sky,
shining at 6.94 magnitude making it easy to see in binoculars or small telescope from a dark location.
It is located 11.74 Million light years from Earth, and spans about 90,000 light years across.

I processed it to show the dark dust lane structure around the bright core of the galaxy, which can be a challenge due to the High dynamic range of the region. The image also shows some of the faint pink nebula visible in the spiral arms of M81.

To the left of the M81 Spiral galaxy is a faint blue patch of Light..Known as Holmberg IX, or PGC 28757 a 14.4 magnitude dwarf irregular galaxy and a satellite galaxy of M81.
The galaxy is named after Erik Holmberg who first described it. Based on the observed age distribution of stars it contains it is thought to have formed within the last
200 Million years, making it the youngest nearby galaxy. It is also home to one of two yellow super-giant eclipsing binary star systems.

If you look carefully you will find at least 9 faint background galaxies in this FOV of M81 as well.

TPO 12 inch F4 Newtonian reflector telescope, Baader Coma Corrector, Bisque ME Mount, ZWO 294MC cooled Cmos Camera, L-Pro Filter,
ASI Air Plus, via Wi-Fi to my I-pad, 60 x 2 minute sub exposures, 2 hour total integration time, from my observatories at JBSPO, in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Captured on 11-26-2022.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

The Moon & Mars Occultation on 11-08-2022 03:18 to 03:58 U.T.

By John Chumack|2022-12-09T00:09:12+00:00December 9th, 2022|Tags: #ChumackObservatories, #GalacticImages, #JohnChumack, #mars2022, #marsoccultation, #natgeo, #occultation, #QHYCCD, #skyatnight, #universe, #Universetoday, Astronomy, Moon, Space|

I guess I was not the only one fighting clouds while the Moon was occulting the Planet Mars.

The occultation of Mars by the Moon 11-08-2022 03:18 to 03:58 U.T.

shot through thick clouds using High Gain and capturing 90 frames per second during thinner transparency moments, which lasted less than 2 – 3 seconds.

C-11 SCT Telescope, QHY462MC, Fire-capture software, I ran 2 to 7 millisecond exposures,

90 FPS, Gain varied from 367 to 525 depending on how thick the clouds were. I only got 8 to 50 usable frames out of the 2000 to 4000 frames from the SER videos I captured.

Autostakkert 3, Registax 6, and Adobe Raw CC 2023. Captured from my backyard observatory in Dayton, Ohio.

I shot these images through the very thick clouds….it never cleared, occasionally thinning enough to see the Moon,

but fast moving clouds, it thinned barely enough to capture a few frames here and there,

Of course I had to try despite our dismal conditions last night. The images are a bit noisy and fuzzy due to looking through clouds,

but at least I recorded this rare event.

Despite Jumping through hoops to get a shot, it was really cool to see Mars get covered up by the Moon, and then reappear later, the last planet I shot that was occulted by the Moon was Saturn back in the 1990’s, which I captured on VHS tape & high 8mm tape.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

Abell 426 – Perseus “A” Galaxy Cluster

By John Chumack|2022-12-06T12:15:28+00:00December 6th, 2022|Tags: #Abell426, #ChumackObservatories, #distantuniverse, #GalacticImages, #galaxycluster, #JohnChumack, #natgeo, #NGC1272, #NGC1275, #perseusA, #PerseusGalaxycluster, #redshift, #skyatnight, #universe, #Universetoday, #ZWO, #ZWO294MC, Astronomy, Galaxies, Space|

Here is my latest image of Abell 426 – Perseus A Galaxy Cluster.

The Perseus cluster (Abell 426) is a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Perseus.

It has a recession speed of 5,366 km/s and a diameter of 863 arc minutes.

It is one of the most massive objects in the known universe, containing thousands of galaxies immersed in a vast cloud of multi-million-degree gas.

The Massive Galaxy cluster is located ~ 240 million light years from Earth and NGC 1275 is a strong radio source Radio (3c 84). Shining at magnitude 12.6, NGC 1275 is the Largest one of the group.

NGC 1275 (also known as Perseus A or Caldwell 24) is a type 1.5 Seyfert galaxy. NGC 1272 is the second largest in the group. Some of the more prominent galaxies in the field are: IC 1907, NGC 1281, 1278, 1279, 1276, 1277, 1274, 1273, 1268, 1270, UGC 2665, and many more PGC galaxies.

Yes, Every little orange fuzzy object is a galaxy, there are well over 100 galaxies visible in this image, but there are many more in the surrounding regions just outside this narrow FOV.

I’m very happy with how this turned out using my 12″ diameter telescope, it is definitely one of my best shots of this Galaxy cluster to date.

TPO 12 inch F4 Newtonian reflector telescope, Baader Coma Corrector, Bisque ME Mount, ZWO 294MC cooled Cmos Camera, L-Pro Filter,

ASI Air Plus, via Wi-Fi to my I-pad, 60 x 2 minute sub exposures, 120 minutes total integration time, from my observatories at JBSPO, in Yellow Springs, Ohio on 11-26-2022.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

NGC 2903 Barred Spiral Galaxy in Leo – A Close-up

By John Chumack|2022-11-30T16:55:06+00:00November 30th, 2022|Tags: #ChumackObservatories, #GalacticImages, #galaxy, #JohnChumack, #leo, #natgeo, #ngc2903, #skyatnight, #universe, #Universetoday, #ZWO, #ZWO294MC, Astronomy, Space|

Here is my latest close-up view of this wonderful Galaxy

NGC 2903 is an isolated barred spiral galaxy in the equatorial constellation of Leo,

located about 1.5° due south of Lambda Leonis.

It was discovered by German-born astronomer William Herschel, who cataloged it on November 16, 1784.

It’s one of my favorite Galaxies to hunt down and take a peek at each year! Shining at 9th magnitude,

and is located about 33 million light years away from Earth. It spans about 100,000 light years across.

Note the several smaller background galaxies in the region as well.

TPO 12 inch F4 Newtonian reflector telescope, Baader Coma Corrector, Bisque ME Mount, ZWO 294MC cooled Cmos Camera, L-Pro Filter,

ASI Air, via Wi-Fi to my I-pad, 37 x 2 minute sub exposures, 74 minutes total integration time, from my observatories at JBSPO,

in Yellow Springs, Ohio on 11-25-2022.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

B33 The Horsehead Nebula in Orion – ZWO 294MC Test

By John Chumack|2022-11-28T21:52:18+00:00November 28th, 2022|Tags: #ASIAIR, #b33, #ChumackObservatories, #GalacticImages, #horsehead, #IC434, #JohnChumack, #natgeo, #nebula, #NGC2023, #NGC2024, #skyatnight, #Universetoday, #ZWO, #ZWO294MC, Astronomy, Orion, Space|

The Horsehead Nebula (also known as Barnard 33) is a small dark nebula in the constellation Orion. One of the most popular Nebula regions in the sky.
The nebula is located just to the south of Alnitak, the easternmost star of Orion’s Belt, and is part of the much larger Orion molecular cloud complex.
The dark Horsehead nebula itself is B33, or Barnard Dark nebula # 33 and red background gas is known as IC434 Emission nebula.
Just below and slightly left is the Blue reflection Nebula NGC2023,
and to the far lower left just below Alnitak(Zeta Orionis) is NGC2024 (Maple Leaf Nebula).
Capture Details:
Celestron C6 F5 Newtonian Reflector Telescope, Celestron Coma Corrector, Software Bisque MyT Mount, ZWO 294mc Cooled Cmos Camera, L-Enhance Filter,
ASI Air Plus via Wi-Fi to my I-pad, 25 x 2 minute subs, 50 minute total integration time from my backyard Observatory(bortle8) in Dayton, Ohio on 09-16-2022.
This image was just a quick test shot from back in September just before clouds rolled in and dawn was brightening up the sky.

Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com

M27 The Dumbbell Nebula with its faint outer wings!!

By John Chumack|2022-11-27T15:49:33+00:00November 27th, 2022|Tags: #ASIAIR, #ChumackObservatories, #dumbbellnebula, #DyingStar, #GalacticImages, #JohnChumack, #m27, #natgeo, #planetarynebula, #skyatnight, #Universetoday, #vulpecula, #whitedwarf, #ZWO, #ZWO294MC|

M27 The Dumbbell Nebula with its faint outer wings!!

This is a dying star in the constellation Vulpecula, it is blowing off its outer atmosphere, and it is located about 900 light years away from Earth.

M27 is a wonderful object to view in any size telescope, as it is easily visible through the telescope from any dark location.

This was a shot I captured back in Sept. 2022, and I just got around to processing the data, my recent image shows the Dumbbell’s faint outer wings, sadly clouds rolled in to kill my imaging session, but was happy with what I did capture data wise from my backyard in Dayton.

C6 F5 Newtonian reflector telescope, Baader Coma Corrector, Bisque MyT Mount, ZWO 294MC cooled Cmos Camera, L-Enhance Filter,

ASI Air, via Wi-Fi to my Ipad, 33 x 2 minute sub exposures, 66 minutes total integration time, from my backyard observatory(bortle8) in Dayton, Ohio.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

Mars on 11-22-2022

By John Chumack|2022-11-23T01:17:31+00:00November 23rd, 2022|Tags: #ChumackObservatories, #GalacticImages, #JohnChumack, #mars2022, #MarsOpposition, #Martiansurface, #natgeo, #QHYCCD, #skyatnight, #Universetoday, Astronomy, Mars, Space|

Mars on 11-22-2022 at 09:23 U.T.
A mere 17 arc-seconds across, and currently located 82.537 million km (51.26 million miles) from Earth.

Mars is getting closer and brighter!
C-11 SCT Telescope, Televue 5x Barlow, Bisque MYT mount, QHY462C Cmos Camera, Fire-capture SER Video File, best 20% of 14,000 frames. Stacked in Autostakkert & Registax6, Adobe Raw CC 2023.
Taken from my Backyard observatory in Dayton, Ohio, seeing was just average 5 out of 10.

Martian Surface details: Valles Marineris: the largest Canyon in the Solar System
Tharsis Montes (volcanoes); Olympus Mons(largest Volcano);
Tempe Terra; Solis Planum, Lunae Planum
North Polar Hood,
Some Blue Limb Clouds

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com