Objects

NGC 6543

The Cat's Eye Nebula or NGC 6543, is a relatively bright planetary nebula in the northern constellation of Draco, discovered by William Herschel on February 15, 1786. It was the first planetary nebula whose spectrum was investigated by the English amateur astronomer William Huggins, demonstrating that planetary nebulae were gaseous and not stellar in nature.

NGC 6543 is a high northern declination deep-sky object. It has the combined magnitude of 8.1, with high surface brightness. Its small bright inner nebula subtends an average of 16.1 arcsec, with the outer prominent condensations about 25 arcsec. Deep images reveal an extended halo about 300 arcsec or 5 arcmin across, that was once ejected by the central progenitor star during its red giant phase.

L = 20 * 1800 sec. bin1, RGB = 12 * 900 sec. bin2, Ha = 13 * 1800 sec. bin1, OIII = 12 * 1800 sec. bin1

Total - 31.5 hours.

Pixinsight 1.8, Photoshop.

july-august 2018, march-april 2019

NGC 6543

M 95

Messier 95, also known as M95 or NGC 3351, is a barred spiral galaxy located about 33 million light-years away in the zodiac constellation Leo. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781, and catalogued by fellow French astronomer Charles Messier four days later.

L = 30 * 1200 sec. bin1, Ha = 10 * 1800 sec. bin1, R = 11 * 1000 sec. bin2, G = 11 * 1100 sec. bin2, B = 11 * 1200 sec. bin2.

Total - 25 hours.

Processing - Pixinsight 1.8 and Photoshop.

M 95

Arp 273

Arp 273 is a pair of interacting galaxies, lying 300 million light years away in the constellation Andromeda. It was first described in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, compiled by Halton Arp in 1966. The larger of the spiral galaxies, known as UGC 1810, is about five times more massive than the smaller galaxy. It has a disc that is tidally distorted into a rose-like shape by the gravitational pull of the companion galaxy below it, known as UGC 1813. The smaller galaxy shows distinct signs of active star formation at its nucleus, and "it is thought that the smaller galaxy has actually passed through the larger one.

L = 29 * 600 sec. bin1, R = 12 * 600 sec. bin1, G = 12 * 600 sec. bin1, B = 12 * 600 sec. bin1.

Total - 10.8 hours.

Processing - Pixinsight 1.8 and Photoshop.

Arp 273