Gregg's Astronomy Page
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Welcome to

Gregg's Astronomy Page

Albert L. Ruppel Observatory

Updated:  Sunday, June 28, 2009

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Image of the Week (6/28/2009) 

Click for higher resolution

IC 1396 and vdB142 in Cepheus. This cloud of star-forming gas and dust contains a myriad of interesting details. IC 1396 spans an area of the sky in Cepheus that is about 6 times the width of the full moon.  The silhouetted cloud vdB142 is the most prominent feature. For some additional veiws see the Russ Croman's image and the NOAO image.
This image was made on 6/21, 6/22, and 6/24/09 using an STL11000 camera with an ASA 10N at f/3.6, along with Baader narrow band filters (Hα, OIII and SII. The data frames were acquired and stacked in MaximDL.   To simulate 'true' colors, Hα was mapped to red, and OIII was mapped to green with a combination of OIII & SII mapped to blue.  Final processing was done in  Photoshop.  Click the thumbnails below for the Hα  data and a previous image from 2008.
  Hα   SIIHαOIII (2008)
 
This page illustrates what can be photographed using commonly available amateur telescopes and a CCD camera.  I currently use an SBIG STL11000M camera and have previously used a SBIG and Starlight Xpress cameras, as well as a Cookbook 245 camera that I built myself. Most of the images were actually taken from my backyard near a busy street with several street lights. Not only is the CCD camera a great imaging tool, but it allows "real time" observation of objects not normally visible in areas with moderate-severe light pollution.

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                                    All text and images © Gregg L. Ruppel 1998-2009.