Messier 41 (2021)
- Constellation: Canis Major
- Right Ascension: 06h 46.0m
- Declination: −20° 46′
- Distance: 2,300 ly
Messier 41 is an open cluster located in Canis Major near Sirius. The cluster contains some 100 members in a diameter of 25 light years. Estimated age of the cluster is around 200 million years. It is expected to remain as a cluster for 500 million years before dispersing. Brightest of the stars is an orange giant near the cent of the cluster. K3 type star, it has a magnitude of 6.3 and is 700 times more luminous than our Sun.
- Details
- Category: Open Clusters
- Telescope: Explore Scientific 127 Refractor
- Camera: ZWO 2600 MM
Messier 45 (2021)
- Constellation: Taurus
- Right Ascension: 03h 47m 24s
- Declination: +24° 07′ 00″
- Distance: 444 ly
Messier 45, one of the more famous open clusters. Often called the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters, with the name Pleiades coming from Greek mythology. The cluster has been known since ancient times, and can be seen as a grouping of 6-7 stars, so it was interesting that Charles Messier included it in his catalog of objects that are not a comet, but could be mistaken for one.
The cluster is surrounded by a reflection nebula that the group is currently passing through, and not related to its original birth in a compact nebula. The cluster consist of at least 1,000 stars located in a radius of 8 light years. The cluster is dominated by hot blue luminous stars, but also contains many brown dwarfs that are not massive enough to initiate nuclear fusion. The estimated age of the cluster is around 100 million years, and its expected to take 250 million years to disperse due to gravitational interactions.
- Details
- Category: Open Clusters
- Telescope: Explore Scientific 127 Refractor
- Camera: ZWO 2600 MM
NGC 457 - Owl Cluster (2021)
- Constellation: Cassiopeia
- Right Ascension: 01h 19m 32.6s
- Declination: +58° 17′ 27″
- Distance: 7,900
NGC 457 is an open cluster located in Cassiopeia, often called the Owl cluster, or a more recently the E.T. cluster with the two brightest stars forming eyes. I tend to see it more as an Owl. The cluster contains some 150 members and has an estimated age of around 21 million years. Less than idea weather for imaging, with a thin cirrus clouds, but a good bright target for commissioning the RC 10 scope and the ZWO 2600 mono camera.
- Details
- Category: Open Clusters
- Telescope: GSO RC10
- Camera: ZWO 2600 MM
NGC 157
- Constellation: Cetus
- Right Ascension: 00h 34m 46.751s
- Declination: −08° 23′ 47.36″
- Distance: 76 million
NGC 157 is a spiral galaxy with somewhat distorted arms located in the constellation of Cetus. Discovered by William Herschel in 1783. Many other distant galaxies are visible in this area notated by PGC numbers.
- Details
- Category: Galaxies
- Telescope: Explore Scientific 127 Refractor
- Camera: ZWO 2600 MM
Messier 2 (2021)
- Constellation: Aquarius
- Right Ascension: 21h 33m 27.02s
- Declination: –00° 49′ 23.7″
- Distance: 37,500 - 55,000 ly
Messier 2 is a globular cluster located in Aquarius. Containing around 150,000 stars. it is also one of the older and largest of the Milky Way globular clusters. Esimated age is 13 billion years and spans 175 light years in diameter.
Was using it as a test object for my new to me camera.
- Details
- Category: Globular Clusters
- Telescope: Explore Scientific 127 Refractor
- Camera: ZWO 2600 MM
NGC 2261 Hubble's Variable Nebula (2021)
- Constellation: Monoceros
- Right Ascension: 6h 39m 10s
- Declination: +8° 45′
- Distance: 2,500 ly
So named because of its changing light and dark patterns on the nebula is though to be caused by dust clouds near the illuminating source by the star R Monocerotis casting shadows on the nebula. The star itself a T Tauri variable, is encased dense clouds of dust.
The patterns are know to change over weeks and months. Discovered by William Herschel and studied by Edin Hubble.
- Details
- Category: Nebulas
- Telescope: Explore Scientific 127 Refractor
- Camera: ZWO 1600 MM
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