IC 5146 - Cocoon Nebula

 

IC 5146 (also Caldwell 19, Sh 2-125, and the Cocoon Nebula) is a reflection/emission nebula and Caldwell object in the constellation Cygnus. The NGC description refers to IC 5146 as a cluster of 9.5 mag stars involved in a bright and dark nebula. The cluster is also known as Collinder 470.  It shines at magnitude +10.0/+9.3/+7.2.  Its celestial coordinates are RA 21^h 53.5^m , dec +47° 16′. It is located near the naked-eye star Pi Cygni, the open cluster NGC 7209 in Lacerta, and the bright open cluster M39. The cluster is about 4,000 ly away, and the central star that lights it formed about 100,000 years ago; the nebula is about 12 arcmins across, which is equivalent to a span of 15 light years.

When viewing IC 5146, dark nebula Barnard 168 (B168) is an inseparable part of the experience, forming a dark lane that surrounds the cluster and projects westward forming the appearance of a trail behind the Cocoon.

The above images is made up of 24 subframes 5 minutes each (2 hours) stacked and processed in AstroArt 7 and tweaked using Photoshop 5.  The subframes were captured using a AT6RC scope mounted on an AP900 mount with a Starlight Express SXVR-M25C.  The AP900 was autoguided using a Meade DSI Pro camera and an 80mm f7 refractor scope.  The image data was captured while at Rusty's RV Ranch near Rodeo, AZ in October of 2020.

IC 1396 - Elephant's Trunk Nebula

 

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396 located in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light years away from Earth. The piece of the nebula shown here is the dark, dense globule IC 1396A; it is commonly called the Elephant's Trunk nebula because of its appearance at visible light wavelengths, where there is a dark patch with a bright, sinuous rim. The bright rim is the surface of the dense cloud that is being illuminated and ionized by a very bright, massive star (HD 206267) that is just to the east of IC 1396A. (In the Spitzer Space Telescope view shown, the massive star is just to the left of the edge of the image.) The entire IC 1396 region is ionized by the massive star, except for dense globules that can protect themselves from the star's harsh ultraviolet rays.

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is now thought to be a site of star formation, containing several very young (less than 100,000 yr) stars that were discovered in infrared images in 2003. Two older (but still young, a couple of million years, by the standards of stars, which live for billions of years) stars are present in a small, circular cavity in the head of the globule. Winds from these young stars may have emptied the cavity.

The combined action of the light from the massive star ionizing and compressing the rim of the cloud, and the wind from the young stars shifting gas from the center outward lead to very high compression in the Elephant's Trunk Nebula. This pressure has triggered the current generation of protostars.

The above images is made up of 24 subframes 10 minutes each ( 4 hours) stacked and processed in AstroArt 7 and tweaked using Photoshop 5.  The subframes were captured using a AT6RC scope mounted on an AP900 mount with a Starlight Express SXVR-M25C.  The AP900 was autoguided using a Meade DSI Pro camera and an 80mm f7 refractor scope.  The image data was captured while at Rusty's RV Ranch near Rodeo, AZ in October of 2020.

B33 - Horsehead Nebula

 The Horsehead Nebula (also known as Barnard 33) is a small dark nebula in the constellation Orion. 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. It appears within the southern region of the dense dust cloud known as Lynds 1630, along the edge of the much larger, active star-forming H II region called IC 434.

The Horsehead Nebula is approximately 422 parsecs or 1,375 light-years from Earth. It is one of the most identifiable nebulae because of its resemblance to a horse's head. 

The nebula was first recorded in 1888 by Scottish astronomer Williamina Fleming on a photographic plate taken at the Harvard College Observatory. One of the first descriptions was made by E. E. Barnard, describing it as: "Dark mass, diam. 4′, on nebulous strip extending south from ζ Orionis", cataloguing the dark nebula as Barnard 33.

The above images is made up of 6 subframes 5 minutes each (30 minutes) stacked and processed in AstroArt 7 and tweaked using Photoshop 5.  The subframes were captured using a AT6RC scope mounted on an AP900 mount with a Starlight Express SXVR-M25C.  The AP900 was autoguided using a Meade DSI Pro camera and an 80mm f7 refractor scope.  The image data was captured while at Rusty's RV Ranch near Rodeo, AZ in October of 2020.

NGC 253 - Sculptor Galaxy

 The Sculptor Galaxy (also known as the Silver Coin, Silver Dollar Galaxy, NGC 253, or Caldwell 65) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. The Sculptor Galaxy is a starburst galaxy, which means that it is currently undergoing a period of intense star formation.

The galaxy was discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1783 during one of her systematic comet searches. About half a century later, John Herschel observed it using his 18-inch metallic mirror reflector at the Cape of Good Hope. He wrote: "very bright and large (24′ in length); a superb object.... Its light is somewhat streaky, but I see no stars in it except 4 large and one very small one, and these seem not to belong to it, there being many near..."

The above images is made up of 19 subframes 5 minutes each (95 minutes) stacked and processed in AstroArt 7 and tweaked using Photoshop 5.  The subframes were captured using a AT6RC scope mounted on an AP900 mount with a Starlight Express SXVR-M25C.  The AP900 was autoguided using a Meade DSI Pro camera and an 80mm f7 refractor scope.  The image data was captured while at Rusty's RV Ranch near Rodeo, AZ in October of 2020.

NGC 896 - Heart Nebula

The Heart Nebula, IC 1805, Sharpless 2-190, lies some 7500 light years away from Earth and is located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was discovered by William Herschel on 3 November 1787.  It is an emission nebula showing glowing ionized hydrogen gas and darker dust lanes.

The brightest part of the nebula (a knot at its western edge) is separately classified as NGC 896, because it was the first part of the nebula to be discovered. The nebula's intense red output and its morphology are driven by the radiation emanating from a small group of stars near the nebula's center. This open cluster of stars, known as Collinder 26 or Melotte 15, contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of our Sun, and many more dim stars that are only a fraction of our Sun's mass.

The above images is made up of 16 subframes 10 minutes each (2 2/3 hours) stacked and processed in AstroArt 7 and tweaked using Photoshop 5.  The subframes were captured using a AT6RC scope mounted on an AP900 mount with a Starlight Express SXVR-M25C.  The AP900 was autoguided using a Meade DSI Pro camera and an 80mm f7 refractor scope.  The image data was captured while at Rusty's RV Ranch near Rodeo, AZ in October of 2020.

 

M74 - Spiral Galaxy

 

Messier 74 (also known as NGC 628 and Phantom Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces. It is at a distance of about 32 million light-years away from Earth. The galaxy contains two clearly defined spiral arms and is therefore used as an archetypal example of a grand design spiral galaxy. The galaxy's low surface brightness makes it the most difficult Messier object for amateur astronomers to observe. However, the relatively large angular size of the galaxy and the galaxy's face-on orientation make it an ideal object for professional astronomers who want to study spiral arm structure and spiral density waves. It is estimated that M74 is home to about 100 billion stars.  M74 was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780 then communicated his discovery to Charles Messier, who listed the galaxy in his catalog.

The above images is made up of 28 subframes 5 minutes each (2 1/2 hours) stacked and processed in AstroArt 7 and tweaked using Photoshop 5.  The subframes were captured using a AT6RC scope mounted on an AP900 mount with a Starlight Express SXVR-M25C.  The AP900 was autoguided using a Meade DSI Pro camera and an 80mm f7 refractor scope.  The image data was captured while at Rusty's RV Ranch near Rodeo, AZ in October of 2020.