Gregg's Astronomy Page
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Welcome to

Gregg's Astronomy Page

Albert L. Ruppel Observatory

Updated:  Sunday, January 31, 2010

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Image of the Week (1/31/2010) 

Click for higher resolution

NGC 2175 & 2174 Emission nebula and cluster in Orion.  The winter constellation Orion is crowded with some of the most picturesque emission nebulae in the sky.  Besides the Great Nebula, the Horsehead, and the Flame are numerous smaller aggregations of dust and gas.  NCG 2174 is one such region, giving rise to the central cluster NGC 2175.  It bears a striking resemblence to Lower's Nebula (Sh2-261).  For some additional views of this area see the APOD of 12/8/06 and Brian Lula's image.
My image was made on January 11and 13, 2010 using an STL11000 camera with an ASA 10N at f/3.7 on an AP900 mount using Hα and  RGB data. The data frames were acquired and stacked in MaximDL.  Final processing was done in  Photoshop.   Click thumbnails below for the Hα view and a wide field view.
 
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 1998-2010.