Starbase Subscription Rates Reduced!

Insight Observatory has significantly reduced its subscription rates for Starbase, Insight Observatory's image set repository. ALL image sets regardless of what imaging system was used are now ONLY $0.05 USD (cents) per imaging minute for Standard subscribers and $0.04 USD (cents) per imaging minute for Educational subscribers.

IC 434 - The Horsehead Nebula in Orion processed with free image data available for download on Insight Observatory's image set repository, Starbase. Imaged on ATEO-1 and processed by Daniel Nobre.

Starbase subscription proceeds go toward funding Insight Observatory's educational outreach efforts. Log into Starbase now with your ATEO Portal credentials and you will be able to download an image set of IC 434, The Horsehead Nebula imaged on Insight Observatory's Astronomical Telescope for Educational Outreach, ATEO-1.

ATEO-1 with processed image data of M81 and M2 Galaxies in Ursa Major processed by Daniel Nobre and M63 - The Sunflower Galaxy in Canes Venatici processed by Utkarsh Mishra.

ATEO-1 is Insight's 16" f/3.75 Dream Aerospace Systems astrograph reflector remote telescope hosted at SkyPi Remote Observatory in the dark skies of New Mexico, USA.

ATEO-2A with processed image data of M17 - The Omega Nebula in Sagittarius, and M33 - The Triangulum Galaxy in Triangulum. Image data processed by Utkarsh Mishra. 

Other image sets available in Starbase were imaged on our affiliate remote systems, ATEO-2A, a 5" f/5.8 Williams Optics APO refractor located in New Mexico along with image sets acquired from ATEO-3, our affiliate remote telescope hosted at Deep Sky Chile located in the Rio Hurtado Valley, Chile.

ATEO-3 with processed image data of NGC 2070 - The Tarantula Nebula in Dorado (Large Magellanic Cloud) processed by Daniel Nobre, and NGC 253 - The Sculptor Galaxy in Sculptor processed by Utkarsh Mishra.

Learn more about Starbase or access Starbase here with your ATEO Portal login credentials to download your free IC 434 - Horsehead Nebula image set. New image sets are added to Starbase monthly and include calibration files.

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The Pleiades and Triangulum Galaxy

Fall is the time of year when a few deep-sky gems make their way into the night sky once again. The Pleiades, Messier 45, and the Triangulum Galaxy, Messier 33, are on the long list. The Pleiades are also well known to the unaided eye as the Seven Sisters. That is how many stars can only be seen in this open star cluster under dark skies. The image below taken on Insight Observatory's Astronomical Telescope for Educational Outreach (ATEO-1) displays many many more stars in the cluster.

M45 - The Pleiades imaged at LRGB 600 sec, 2x2 bin on ATEO-1 by Insight Observatory. 

The cluster is dominated by hot blue and luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. A faint reflection nebulosity around the brightest stars was thought at first to be leftover from the formation of the cluster (hence the alternative name Maia Nebula after the star Maia), but is now likely an unrelated foreground dust cloud in the interstellar medium, through which the stars are currently passing.

Computer simulations have shown that the Pleiades were probably formed from a compact configuration that resembled the Orion Nebula. Astronomers estimate that the cluster will survive for about another 250 million years, after which it will disperse due to gravitational interactions with its galactic neighborhood.

M33 - The Triangulum Galaxy imaged on ATEO-1 at LRGB 600 sec, 2x2 bin by Insight Observatory.

The Triangulum Galaxy (also known as M33) is about 3 million light-years away from Earth. While its mass is not well understood, one estimate puts it between 10 billion and 40 billion times the sun's mass, what is known is it's the third-largest member of the Local Group or the galaxies that are near the Milky Way. Triangulum also has a small satellite galaxy of its own, called the Pisces Dwarf Galaxy.

Under dark sky conditions, M33 is just barely visible with the naked eye in the constellation Triangulum, just west of Andromeda and Pisces.

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Featured Deep-Sky Object - M33 - Triangulum Galaxy

It has been a while since we published a post covering featured deep-sky objects. In the past, we have been posting articles regarding objects in the night sky such as galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters complemented with images taken by the staff of Insight Observatory using a remote robotic telescope on the iTelescope network. Due to our recent projects such as automating a 32" Dobsonian telescope, assisting the W. Russell Blake Planetarium with its newly installed digital imaging theater, and implementing our Astronomical Telescope for Educational Outreach (ATEO-1), we simply haven't had the time or resources to do so (which is actually not a bad problem to have).

M33 - Triangulum Galaxy imaged on the Astronomical Telescope for Educational Outreach by Insight Observatory.

Well, it's about time we started again. In recent weeks we have been performing tests on the ATEO remote telescope, preparing it for educational and public use. As numerous images of deep-sky objects during testing were acquired, we figured why not post them on our blog as a "Featured Deep-sky Object". The first deep-sky object to feature is M33, the Triangulum Galaxy imaged by Insight Observatory Managing Member / System Engineer, Muir Evenden. Muir imaged the Galaxy with our 16" f/3.75 Dream Aerospace Systems astrograph remote imaging telescope with a 5-minute exposure with the luminance filter, stacked with 2 minutes of red, green, and blue filter exposures. These images were then stacked and processed using PixInsight. Post-processing was then done in Adobe Photoshop by Insight Observatory Managing Member / Project Developer, Michael Petrasko. The result of the image detail is surprisingly impressive considering there are not many exposures comprising the final image.

The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 3 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is cataloged as Messier 33 or NGC 598 and is sometimes referred to as the "Pinwheel Galaxy", a nickname it shares with Messier 101. The Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, behind the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy. It is one of the most distant permanent objects that can be viewed with the naked eye.  Using a small pair of binoculars with a wide field of view, the galaxy is easily detectable. Being a diffuse object, its visibility is strongly affected by small amounts of light pollution. It ranges from easily visible by direct vision in dark skies to a difficult averted vision object in rural or suburban skies.

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