Photographer

Stephan Bock

Location

Furtwangen, Black Forest, Germany

Date

01 October 2011

Equipment

Canon 1000d (modified), Sigma telephoto lens @135mm, f3.5, ISO 1600 mounted on a home made motorized barn-door. Stacked from 56 exposures à 60s = 56 minutes total exposure.

Description

Visible is the area around "Herschel's Garnet Star" (Mu Cephei) with its emmision nebula dust bands and star cluster IC 1396. Mu Cephei is a variable red supergiant in the constellation of Cepheus and is visible in the center of the picture.

Photographer

Alson Wong

Location

United States

Date

Dec. 17-18, 2011

Equipment

Nikkor 85mm/2 lens STL-11000M Astrodon LRGB filters Paramount ME

Description

This image is of the Hyades and Pleiades star clusters. Dust and dark nebulae are also visible in the image.

Photographer

Eitel Monaco

E-mail

monaco.e@pg.com

Location

Geneva Switzerland

Date

17 november 2011

Equipment

Meade RCX400 16', with Sony digital camera and spectroscopy glass

Description

Is it possible to do spectroscopy with 5$? Buy on line a 5$ filter for night illumination analysis, apply to the front of a digtal camera connected to the tescope, tilt it by 30 degreeand make a 10 seconds drift exposure, and you get great spectum of the stars' light. In Vega, a young star still burning H, it is possible to see the lines of HBeta, HGamma and HDelta in the blue part, and also the Ha in the red part, at the limit of the red sensitivity on my camera sensor. In the other older stas spectrum, where the H is now fused into heavvier elements, it is possible to see several other lines for elements like CH, CO,CN, MgH, ...etc. A lot of fun for 5 $!

Photographer

Marco Angelini

E-mail

fabio.tagliani@cardanet.it

Location

Brallo di Pregola (ITALY)

Date

11-11-2011 1:00am

Equipment

Telescope: Dall-Kirkham Astrograph 12" F/7.8 Mount: Fork mount Gemini MOFOD + Pulsar2 CCD: SBIG STX16803 Filters: Baader Planetarium LRGB

Description

M45-PLEIADES LRGB Image of M45 - Open Cluster in Taurus. Acquisition by M. Angelini and F. Tagliani Image Processing by F. Antonucci L:R:G:B 90:40:40:40

Photographer

Toby Dingle

Location

Lake Elsinore, CA

Date

10/22/2011 19:39:12

Equipment

This image was captured using a Sony A580 DSLR piggyback mounted onto a Celestron Advanced GT Series C6-S Telescope on a Go To German Equatorial Mount. Camera settings were as follows: Focal Length - 75mm Shutter Speed - 24 sec. F Number - 2.5 ISO - 1600

Description

I entered Albireo into the Go To feature on the telescope with the Sony A580 DSLR piggyback mounted. At 75mm focal length, I was able to image a large section of the Milky Way.

Photographer

Eitel Monaco

E-mail

monaco.e@pg.com

Location

Geneva Switzerland

Date

July 2011

Equipment

Meade RCX 400 16", SBIG 8Xme with AOL, ALT AZ mount with derotator

Description

The HR diagrams for globular clusters M13, M5 and M3 shows stars distribution out of the main sequence, with few blue bright stars, proving the age above 10 billion years of these clusters. M3 appears specifically low in numbers of hot blue stars, one of the oldest cluster. I was inspired by your article in S&T of December 2010, from R.J.Vanderbei, "Sequencing the Stars", so I started pointing my scope to GCs and calculating their HR diagrams. All cluster's pictures were taken in the same night, with the same exposure (LRGB 30MIN total) and same elaboration, to allow comparison. Maxim DL for elaboration, Astroart for star identification and PS for final display. Plenty of fun...

Photographer

Enrico Africa

Location

Rancho Hidalgo, New Mexico

Date

April 2011

Equipment

Takahashi TOA-130F with flattener on an Astro-Physics 1200GTO mount. SBIG STL-6303 camera with STL-FW8 filter wheel and Astrodon LRGB filters. Self-guided using the STL-6303's built-in guide chip, positioned via an Astrodon Takometer camera rotator.

Description

M53 and NGC 5053 in Coma Berenices come closest to being a double-globular cluster counterpart to the glorious Double Cluster in Perseus. I managed to snag this pair last April from my remote site at Rancho Hidalgo in New Mexico. Exposure Details: L: 9 x 10 minutes Binned 1x1 R: 5 x 10 minutes Binned 1x1 G: 5 x 10 minutes Binned 1x1 B: 5 x 10 minutes Binned 1x1

Photographer

Henry Mendt

Location

Maracaibo, Venezuela

Date

June 11, 2011

Equipment

Globular cluster M22 C11 (f/10) SCT + tracking with Orion Atlas EQ6 Mount (without guiding) Sony DSRL A290 camera, ISO-800 , prime focus. Manually registered and stacked in Photoshop No calibration was made (no darks, no flats) Levels and curves adjusted in Photoshop. 5 stacked frames (30 sec. each) Maracaibo, Venezuela June 11th, 2011

Description

Globular cluster M22 in Sagittarius

Photographer

Maurizio Cabibbo

E-mail

mau.cab@libero.it

Location

Italia

Date

Via delle Querce 33

Equipment

Takahashi FSQ106EDXIII guided with Orion SSA on Takahashi TOA130. Losmandy G11 mount. Canon 1000D modified Baader Planetarium. 11x5min. Petriolo (SI) Italy

Description

The "Seven sisters" open cluster located in the constellation Taurus.

Photographer

Scott Gauer

E-mail

13scoga@gmail.com

Location

Danville, PA

Date

11 August 2011 @ 9:15 AM

Equipment

Celestron Nexstar 6 SCT w/ afocal mount 25mm plossl single 8 second exposure Canon PowerShot A 630

Description

Albireo is a double star consisting of a red giant (Albireo A) and a blue dwarf (Albireo B). Their different colors make the system one of the best double stars observable.