Seestar at Work

Clear Skies Continue

October in southeastern Virginia usually has a good number of cloudless days, but this year has been unusually clear. October 24th was one such clear night. So many annoying neighbor lights surrounded my backyard that I initially hesitated to use Seestar. Eventually, however, the lights were all turned off, and I set Seestar to work in late evening.

The first target was globular cluster M71 in Sagitta which I added to my Messier collection. The following 10-minute exposure shows the globular among a rich Milky Way background star field.

Another addition to my Messier collection was open cluster M35 in Gemini. The next 10-minute exposure shows larger cluster M35 slightly left of center with smaller, more distant open cluster NGC2158 in the same field of view on the right. M35 is about 3,000 light years away and NGC2158 is about 17,000 light years away. 

Just for fun I commanded Seestar to move to the Bubble Nebula, NGC7635, in Cassiopeia. I was astounded to watch the "bubble" slowly emerge during a filtered 45-minute exposure! Unfortunately, after about 30 minutes or so, rotational tracking flaws showed up on edges of the full frame image. I cropped out the flaws and reduced the image size to produce the picture below. The bubble is being blown by a powerful stellar wind from a massive central star 10 or 20 times the Sun's mass.

November 2nd was another fairly clear night with only some scattered hazy clouds drifting around. My late start this evening allowed Orion to rise above the eastern horizon. Next to Orion's belt is white reflection nebula M78 which became visible in the 30-minute exposure below.

Just before hazy clouds moved in I was able to take a 10-minute exposure of globular cluster M79 in Lepus and add it to my growing Messier collection. 

Unprecedented clear sky continued on November 3rd! Just out of curiosity I pointed Seestar toward IC1396, the "Elephant's Trunk" nebula in Cepheus. As the following 32-minute filtered exposure accumulated I was amazed to see the dark Elephant Trunk gradually emerge on my tablet screen. The edge of the dark cloud is illuminated by a nearby massive star.

I waited long enough for the Sculptor Galaxy, NGC253, to rise well above the horizon and approach its meridian crossing in the south. The next 30-minute exposure is one of the best Seestar galaxy images I've made.

This night's final target was open cluster NGC7380 in Cepheus. This pretty cluster is accompanied by some glowing nebulosity as shown in the next 20-minute filtered exposure.

Seestar is amazing! Through more than 50 years of astronomical observing I always thought there was nothing quite like having actual photons enter my eye through a telescope eyepiece, even if the view usually fell far short of photographs. Seestar has changed my mind. Although the images it produces aren't immediate, in just a few minutes Seestar reveals so much more than eyepiece views, especially in light polluted suburban skies. It also compensates for loss of visual acuity due to age. I'm loving roaming around the night sky seeing things I would never think to try observing through an eyepiece.

More than ever before Seestar images have made me aware of how different a given image can look when viewed on different screens. For some reason the image initially obtained on my tablet screen looks great. This same image looks significantly worse when viewed on my newest laptop screen. After processing in Photoshop on the new laptop, I find the processed image requires even more processing to look good on my phone and older laptop. It seems like each screen has a different definition of black.

My Messier collection is building nicely and now contains 76 out of 110 objects.