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Antoine & Dalia Grelin
- Dec 23, 2019
- 5 min
NGC 2264 - The Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Cluster
This is probably the most festive deep sky object out there! NGC 2264 refers to two objects: The Christmas Tree cluster and the Cone Nebula. It is also home to a third and fourth target, the Fox Fur Nebula and the Stellar Snowflake Cluster. NGC 2264 is best photographed in late Fall and throughout Winter. Try to image it just in time for Christmas! The Cone Nebula is visible near the top right of our own image attached below. On the right is the object taken by the Hubble Spa
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Antoine & Dalia Grelin
- Dec 9, 2019
- 5 min
Cygnus - Wide field Astrophotography of the Northern Cross Constellation
Cygnus is one of the largest constellations in the night sky, and is very easy to find due to the brightness of its main stars. The brightest one, Deneb, is one of the three stars known for making the "Summer Triangle", the two other ones being Altair (from the constellation Aquila) and Vega (from Lyra). Cygnus represents a swan, but is often known as the Northern Cross. We decided to image Cygnus randomly while trying out the Omegon Mini Track LX2 as a star tracker. We were
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Antoine & Dalia Grelin
- Nov 30, 2019
- 4 min
M36 - The Pinwheel Cluster in Auriga
Messier 36, just like M38, is located in Auriga at a distance of about 4,100 light years away, making it one of the farthest open cluster in the Messier Catalog. M36 can be seen near two other open clusters, Messier 37 and Messier 38. With an apparent magnitude of 6.3, the cluster can be seen with binoculars or any small telescope. Messier 36 is also called the "Pinwheel Cluster" although we're having some trouble seeing the shape of a pinwheel in our image. We imaged M36 as
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Antoine & Dalia Grelin
- Nov 25, 2019
- 4 min
M38 - The Starfish Cluster
Messier 38 is an open cluster of stars located 4,200 light-years away in the constellation Auriga. M38 lies very close to two other open clusters, Messier 36 and Messier 37. At a magnitude of 7.4, It can be spotted with binoculars or any small telescope although it is the faintest of the three objects. Messier 38 is also known as the "Starfish Cluster" as it may look like a starfish when photographed. It is a little bit difficult to make out, but it indeed makes sense. We ima
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Antoine & Dalia Grelin
- Nov 14, 2019
- 5 min
M71 - Globular Cluster in Sagitta
Messier 71 is a rather strange star cluster located about 12,000 light-years away in the small constellation Sagitta. It is best photographed in the Summer season. The image on the left was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. When looking at it, what do you see? If you're like us, you will say that at first glance, you would think this is an open cluster. There is plenty of space between all the stars, there is no apparent core and it is overall not dense! Well, you would be
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Antoine & Dalia Grelin
- Nov 4, 2019
- 5 min
NGC 7380 - The Wizard Nebula
NGC 7380 is an open cluster located about 8,000 light-years away in Cepheus. It rises high in the sky and can be imaged during the Summer and Fall seasons. The cluster is surrounded by nebulous gas, giving the nebula the shape of a medieval wizard. Spanning over 5 full moons, NGC 7380 was captured by NASA in 2020 with WISE, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission. What you can see on the right is a mosaic of infrared images taken by WISE. The cluster within the nebulo
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Antoine & Dalia Grelin
- Oct 22, 2019
- 6 min
NGC 7635 - The Bubble Nebula
The Bubble Nebula is a beautiful emission nebula discovered by William Herschel in 1787. It lies about 10,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. Obviously, NGC 7635 got its nickname from the shape of its expelling gas forming what appears to be a bubble in space. The visible gas is escaping from the center of the nebula, where a star 45 times more massive than our sun lights up its surrounding area. The photo on the right was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope
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Antoine & Dalia Grelin
- May 20, 2019
- 5 min
Messier 109 - Astrophotography with the asi 1600mm Pro in LRGB
Messier 109 is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation of the big bear, Ursa Major. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in the year 1781. Messier 109 occupies the second to last entry in Messier's famous catalog of deep sky objects, in between M108 (seen edge-on and photographed during Episode 12 with M97) and M31's satellite galaxy M110 photographed in Episode 4 of Galactic Hunter. M109 looks small and is not super bright at magnitude 11. It is part of the M109 g
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Antoine & Dalia Grelin
- May 4, 2019
- 4 min
The Owl Nebula (M97) AND THE SURFBOARD GALAXY (M108)
Messier 97 and Messier 108 were both discovered in February 1781 by Pierre Méchain. He first spotted the small, dim, and unimpressive M97 nebula, and just three days later saw M108 through his telescope, just near the Owl. Messier 108 is seen almost edge-on, giving it the look of a surfboard. It is classified as a barred spiral galaxy with loose arms. The nickname of Messier 97, the Owl, was given by William Parson in 1848 after the drawing he made of the nebula, where two bi
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Antoine & Dalia Grelin
- Mar 10, 2019
- 5 min
Messier 106 - INTERMEDIATE SPIRAL GALAXY IN CANES VENATICI
M106 is often overlooked as "just another object in the Messier catalog", most likely because it doesn't have a cool nickname like most of the impressive Messier objects. M106 really IS impressive though, and has a very unique shape! This is due to it being considered as in-between a normal spiral galaxy (like M31, M33, or M81) and a barred galaxy (like M95, or M109). M106 also has a companion galaxy, NGC 4217 which can be seen from its edge, so challenge yourself to capture
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