Eagle Nebula Collaboration Project

Insight Observatory's remote telescope was recently involved in a deep-sky imaging collaboration between two experienced astrophotographers. Utkarsh Mishra and Zhuoqun Wu teamed up to combine and process datasets resulting in the image below of Messier 16, The Eagle Nebula. The Luminance, Red, Green, and Blue data was acquired by Utkarsh with Insight Observatory's 16" astrograph reflector (ATEO-1) hosted in Pie Town, New Mexico, and the H-Alpha data was taken from Chilescope by Zhuoqun using a 20" ASA Newtonian astrograph. The data files were stacked using PixInsight and processed in Adobe Photoshop.

Insight Observatory has recently had an increase in deep-sky dataset subscribers that are involved in image collaborations with other astrophotographers using equipment at other locations around the world. Very exciting!

Messier 16, the Eagle Nebula imaged by Utkarsh Mishra and Zhuoqun Wu. 10 300-second Luminance, 14 300-second Red, 11 300-second Green, and 10 300-second Blue frames taken from ATEO-1 along with 50-Minutes of H-Alpha data acquired from Chilescope.

The Eagle Nebula (cataloged as Messier 16 or M16, and as NGC 6611, and also known as the Star Queen Nebula and The Spire) is a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens, discovered by Jean-Philippe de Chéseaux in 1745–46. Both the "Eagle" and the "Star Queen" refer to visual impressions of the dark silhouette near the center of the nebula, an area made famous as the "Pillars of Creation" imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. The nebula contains several active star-forming gas and dust regions, including the aforementioned Pillars of Creation.

The Eagle Nebula is part of a diffuse emission nebula, or H II region, which is cataloged as IC 4703. This region of active current star formation is about 7000 light-years distant. A spire of gas that can be seen coming off the nebula in the northeastern part is approximately 9.5 light-years or about 90 trillion kilometers long.

Source: Wikipedia

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Observing Objects in the Summer Milky Way

On the evening of October 27, 2014, Joe Masi, a Science Teacher at Sacred Heart High School, and I had our first successful observing run at the newly renovated Kohout-Dingley Observatory in Kingston, MA. This observing session was the first since the installation of the new Celestron 11 telescope mounted on a Losmandy Equatorial mount. Due to the unstable weather here in New England this fall, we have been challenged with finding a clear night to start getting acclimated to the new telescope system. 

Observing with the 11" Telescope.

Joe and I figured we could do a dry run of with equipment before having the students present. I arrived at the observatory shortly before sundown. The waxing crescent moon was hanging in the western sky. As I waited for Joe and total darkness to arrive, I thought I would get a glimpse of the moon through the C11 for the first time. The full disk of the moon (due to earthshine) fits nicely in the field of view of the 23 mm Axiom 2" eyepiece. The optics displayed fine detail in the moon's terminator, especially when steady pockets of air passed allowing good seeing. When Joe arrived at the observatory, I still had the moon in the eyepiece which allowed him a chance to get a good look at the moon as well. Joe was just as impressed with the optics performance as I was.

As the sky became darker, we configured the telescope and mounting system so we could utilize the Gemini 2 GOTO system. Once we completed the two-star alignment method with the GOTO system, our goal was to slew our way up through the summer Milky Way. The first targeted object was M8, the Lagoon Nebula. The object was so slow in the sky; the nebulosity was faint due to the murkiness of the horizon. The next object of choice was M11, the "Wild Duck" open star cluster in the constellation of Scutum. We then observed common deep-sky objects in the summer Milky Way such as M57, The "Ring Nebula" in Lyra, and M27, the "Dumbbell Nebula" in Vulpecula.

NGC 869 and 884, "Double Cluster 

in Perseus"Imaged by Tristan and Alek, 

from the Plymouth Community 

Intermediate School

I noticed the constellation of Pegasus was getting higher up in the sky and knew we could get a good view of M15, a nicely condensed globular cluster that rivals M13, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules. Joe very impressed with this deep-sky object commented on how bright the cluster was. As we winded down our observing session, we ended with a nice view of M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the double open clusters NGC 869 and NGC 884 Cluster in Perseus. As Joe sat in the observing chair comfortably, he could detect the difference in the colors of some of the stars.

Content with this successful dry run, Joe and I then closed up the dome and parked the new telescope system. This observing session inspired us to introduce the students in the school's astronomy club and science classes to this newly renovated observatory with its new state-of-the-art instrumentation.

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Telescope Installation for School Completed

Phase two of the telescope and mount installation for Sacred Heart School's observatory in Kingston, MA is now complete. This past week Insight Observatory staff members Harry Hammond and Michael Petrasko completed the tasks of balancing and polar aligning the telescope, as well as configuring the Losmandy Gemini 2 GOTO system that controls the Losmandy G11 equatorial mount. After many attempts at the planning phase, 2 have failed due to the unstable weather conditions during this New England summer, there was finally a nice cool front that pushed through allowing good seeing conditions to align the telescope with the north celestial pole and achieve first light through the Celestron 11 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope that was physically installed a few months ago.

Insight Observatory staff member Harry

 Hammond configuring Gemini 2 GOTO system.

While taking advantage of daylight in the early part of the evening, the IO staff used the opportunity to balance the telescope with the additional counterweight needed to offset the weight of the 2" eyepiece that was provided with the telescope by the manufacturer. Once the telescope was perfectly balanced, the sky started to darken so they could then polar align the telescope. Once Polaris (the North Star) was visible, they were successful with the polar alignment. First light with the new telescope was the red star Arcturus in the constellation of Bootes. It was confirmed that the polar alignment was accurate by viewing Arcturus in the eyepiece over a time period of about five minutes. The star never drifted out of view as the tracking was perfect.

The next and final step was configuring the Gemini 2 GOTO system that would allow observers to slew the telescope to any astronomical object in the system's database of thousands of deep-sky objects. Once the Gemini 2 was configured with the latitude and longitude of the observatory's location and other required information, the IO staff's first GOTO deep-sky target was to be M13, the great globular cluster in the constellation of Hercules. Once the target was entered into the LCD hand controller, the telescope slewed its way directly to the open cluster. The view of this celestial object was amazing! The stars across the plane of the cluster resolved nicely and as Harry commented, the object was "Very defined."

M13 - Globular Cluster in Hercules - Image by Michael Petrasko

The Sacred Heart Observatory is now ready for hands-on observational astronomy education. This new contemporary telescope and the mounting system should provide students with an awe-inspiring portal to the universe.

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