Well, Robin Scagell read it and noticed my image of the Flame nebula.  

I said in the post, the images were unprocessed – just straight downloads from the Canon camera.  So he quickly ran the small image I had shown, through his Photoshop software.  

To my surprise, he pointed out that the Horsehead nebula was discernable in the image, after auto-adjusting the color levels.

I was pleased!  So I thought I should have a try at processing the images myself.  

I don’t have Photoshop, but I do use the excellent and free GIMP image manipulation program.

I picked what appeared to be a decent image from the ten or so, I’d captured.

I used the Color Levels tool, picked a point in the image which should be black using the “eyedropper”, and clicked “Auto”. 

Orion Flame And Horsehead Nebulae

GIMP adjusted the colors and produced this image to the right.

Just compare it to yesterday’s version!

And this is just a crude attempt at image processing.  I’m a beginner and this took all of  2 minutes…  

However.. not only is the Flame nebula MUCH more striking, but you can also clearly see the Horsehead nebula!  (Although the definition of the stars has suffered)

But what it does show, is that the data is present in the camera  image…  It just needs some clever software, to bring it out for us to see.

And I should say, the image published here is a smaller and lower resolution version, to make it load quickly on the web.  The original is better.  But even so, I think you can clearly see what I mean.

Everytime I do some more astro-imaging with my new camera, I feel ever more encouraged!

It produced a lovely astro image of the Orion nebula, earlier this week. But I was told, (quite rightly), the focus was not there.

So I had another go last night, as it was the first clear night since.

Here’s the focussing tip that was pointed-out to me, this week.

If you are imaging a faint object like a nebula, set the Canon into “live view mode” so you can see on the lcd screen what the camera is seeing, then slew to a nearby star (there should be one, not too far away).

Then use the + button on the Canon 1000D to zoom into the star and adjust the focus so it’s sharp. When you are confident about the focus, slew back to the target object.

It’s a good tip. When I had another try at the Orion nebula, l produced this image..

I think it’s a lot better, although produced in close to identical conditions, apart from the camera focus technique I have explained.

Encouraging!

Simulation of a "small" black hole at the center of the Milky Way (credit: Wikimedia)

It’s been suspected for some time..  

The stuff of Einstein, the stuff of  Science Fiction and the stuff of Nothing.. sort of.  It’s a region of empty space, sorta kinda..

German astronomers have spent 16 years, studying the movement of stars near the center of our galaxy (the “Milky Way”).

They have concluded there is indeed, a massive “object” there, perhaps 4 million times more massive than our local star, the Sun.  

Sucking in Space around it, with gravity so strong, not even rays of light can escape.

Heavy and hard mathematics, predicts space itself to be warped around an object like this.

Get too close to something like this and you’re in deep trouble. Luckily, it’s a good distance from us here on Earth.

The head of the team, Prof. Reinhard Genzel, said..

“Undoubtedly the most spectacular aspect of our 16-year study, is that it has delivered what is now considered to be the best empirical evidence that super-massive black holes do really exist” 

Exciting times for Cosmology..

This is about 2.5 million light years away and is visible during autumn and winter as a hazy patch in Andromeda. It’s easy to see from country skies.

Some people with very good skies or very good eyesight, or both, can see an even more distant galaxy called M33, in the nearby constellation of Triangulum.

For example, the Andromeda Galaxy (which is our nearest-neighbour, spiral galaxy and the furthest-away object you can see with the unaided eye) is referred to as M31.

The Messier Catalogue

M33 Triangulum Galaxy

These M numbers come from a catalogue of celestial objects that was created by the French astronomer Charles Messier, in the 1700′s and early 1800′s.

Messier was primarily a comet hunter. He was employed by the French authorities and given the task of finding Halley’s Comet, when it was expected to return to near the Earth in the late 1750′s.

Messier duly detected Halley’s comet as it returned. He also discovered about 20 other comets, during the course of his observing career.

While searching for comets, Messier kept a list of objects in the sky which might confuse a comet hunter. These were fuzzy objects that looked rather like comets, but which did not move across the sky in the way comets do.

Each of these comet-like objects was given a number, hence the Messier (or M) numbers.

Hence, the Messier Catalogue came into being and this is what Messier is remembered for today, not his comet hunting.

We know today that the Messier objects are a collection of star clusters, nebulae and galaxies.

You should be aware that there are other catalogues of similar objects.

Most of the Messier objects also have other classification numbers, from different catalogues. This can be confusing.

In addition to M numbers, there are also the commonly-used “NGC” numbers. These refer to the “New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars”, which was drawn-up by the Danish astronomer Dreyer, in 1888.

So for example, the Andromeda Galaxy M31, is also classified as NGC 224.

Observing the Messier Objects

The Messier objects are some of the most interesting objects for amateur astronomers to search out and observe in the sky.

Messier’s catalogue contains 110 objects.

Some well-known examples are:-

M1, the Crab Nebula, in the constellation of Taurus
M42 and M43, which together make up the great nebula in the constellation of Orion
M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, in the constellation of Canis Venatici
M57, the Ring Nebula, in the constellation of Lyra

The “Messier Marathon”

Nowadays, some observers attempt what is known as the “Messier Marathon”.

This challenge is to observe as many objects from the Messier catalogue as you can, in one night. The target of course, is all of them!

This is just about possible, although only at certain times of the year and from northerly latitudes.

As the Messier catalogue was compiled from the Northern Hemisphere, some of the objects are very difficult from the Southern hemisphere as they are very low in the sky.