The Winter Milky Way

 

The Milky Way running through Auriga, Gemini and Taurus- Canon 600d DSLR with a clip in Altair Triband Filter and a Sigma EX 10-20 zoom lens on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount.18x5 minute Lights and Bias frames at f/13, f=14mm and ISO1600 and ISO800 stacked and cropped using Affinity Photo software. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

"Pip Stakkert has been reading the guides and help pages for the software packages GradientXTerminator and Affinity Photo. It is amazing how well reading the instructions works!

The Winter Milky Way is much harder to see and image than the Summer Milky Way. This is because in summer we are looking along the disc of our home galaxy towards galactic centre, where the number of stars and dust densities are high. In winter when we view the galactic disc, we are looking out of our galaxy into deep space, the number of stars becomes less and they are further spread out with the dark void of inter-galactic space beyond. Pip's image shows the bright stars of the constellations Auriga the Charioteer, Taurus the Bull and Gemini the twins. The vey blue Pleiades open star cluster is clearly visible. Almost directly above the Pleiades and in the constellation Perseus, is the emission nebula - the California Nebula, glowing red with the excited atoms of hydrogen gas. All the areas glowing red in the image are indicative of ionised hydrogen atoms within enormous rarefied gas clouds. The darkest areas indicate the presence of vast amounts of dust which act to extinguish the light from stars behind them. The dust has been created by the life and final demise of countless generations of stars as they fuse and use up their hydrogen and helium reserves. Our Milky Way galaxy home is a very dusty place and it is just as well as our planet and we are made from it". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

"This is my favorourite rendering of the dust clouds in the Winter Milky Way - I think Pip captured the best of it in this version of his image". Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Interstellar Dust

Auriga, Gemini, Stars and Dust - Canon 600d DSLR with a clip in Altair Triband Filter and a Sigma EX 10-20 zoom lens on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount. 12x5 minute Lights and Bias frames at f/13, f=14mm and ISO800 stacked and cropped using Affinity Photo software. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

On the 4th of February the weather in Lowestoft took a turn for the better so we decided to try out our new Triband filter. We set up the mini-imaging rig whilst the street lights were on and began an hour long run of five minute exposures. We thought that imaging the winter Milky Way, where it runs through the constellations Auriga and  Gemini, would provide a stiff test of how well the Triband filter deals with light pollution from full spectrum LED street lighting. We are pleased with the results but recognise that including the filter in the light train requires long exposure times which in turn puts greater pressure on the accuracy of polar alignment and the equatorial drive. The manipulation of the resulting data also requires a slightly different approach and skills which we hope to develop over the year." - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Orion's Belt with the Flame and Horsehead Nebulae - Canon 600d DSLR with a clip in Altair Triband Filter and Canon 90-300mm zoom lens on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount. 4x5 minute Lights and Bias frames at f/6.3, f=220mm and ISO800 stacked and cropped using Affinity Photo software. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

 

The Veil Nebula and Open Cluster NGC6940

 

"Pip Stakkert has been using the new Affinity Photo software to bring out the detail in the Veil Nebula and the open star cluster NGC6940 located  in the constellations Cygnus and Vulpecula. These astronomical delights are hidden in the summer Milky Way where stars and dark dust clouds abound" -  Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.