Gregg's Astronomy Page
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Welcome to

Gregg's Astronomy Page

Albert L. Ruppel Observatory

Updated:  Sunday, March 14, 2010

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Image of the Week (3/14/2010) 

Click for full resolution

The 'Rosette' Nebula in Monoceros.  The winter Milky Way runs directly through the diminutive constellation Monoceros.  One of the showpieces in this area is the large emission nebula (NGC 2237) surrounding the star cluster NGC 2244. These hot young stars (~ 4 million years old) energize the surrounding gas and dust.  The entire structure is about 100 light-years across and lies about 5000 light-years away.  For additional information and images see the Wikipedia entry.
This image was made from February 27 to March 6, 2010 and consisted of almost 10 hours of imaging, most of it for Hα.  The image data was acquired with an STL11000 camera with an ASA 10N at f/3.7 on an AP900 mount. The data frames were acquired and stacked in MaximDL.  Final processing was done in  Photoshop.   Click thumbnail below for a narrow band view of the same area made in 2007.

 

 

 
 
This page illustrates what can be photographed using  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.

Visitor   ida_logo.gif (9871 bytes) International Dark Sky Association 

 

 

                                    All text and images © Gregg L. Ruppel 1998-2010.