Messier 3 -Globular Star Cluster in the Constellation Canes Venatici

 

Messier 3 imaged using the Seestar S30 with IR cut filter.
from the Jodrell Plank Observatory. Image credit: Kurt Thrust

" Messier 3 is a globular star cluster which may be viewed from the Northern Hemisphere using binoculars or a small telescope from a dark location. Its foot-print upon the night sky is both small and dim!

In reality, M3 is a spherical gravitational grouping of 500,000 stars. approximately 670 light years in diameter. It is located towards the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy some 34000 light years distant from Earth. Many of the stars are ancient and shine strongly at red wavelengths. The cluster is thought to be over 11 billion years old  which is a large proportion of the estimated existence of the known Universe.

The JPO team were astonished by how well the tiny Seestar S30 with its 30mm aperture lens system was able to resolve stars towards the centre of M3. Quite extraordinary!

Pip Stakkert is currently working upon processing data from last night where we used the Seestar to capture a mosaic multi-pane image of the Markarian Chain of Galaxies in Virgo" - Carl Segin Outreach Coordinator at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Uncropped version of Seestar S30 - M3

Dark Nebula - The Horsehead Nebula Barnard 33 - in the Constellation Orion

 

The Horsehead Nebula - 66mm Altair Lightwave ED refractor. Image Credit: Kurt Thrust.

"The weather in Lowestoft has taken for the better and we have experienced a short run of clear and steady nights. The JPO team has been busy testing the Seestar S30 and Pip Stackert is beginning to get used to the processing adjustments, which better suit the high number of 10 second duration subs that have to be stacked, cropped  and processed.

Whilst all this was going on, our Director, Kurt Thrust, took time out to capture an hour of 'early evening' data whilst the constellation Orion was due South. He used the Observatory Star Adventurer mini-rig, which is reasonably quick to set up and get photon catching. The camera used was an astro-modded Canon 200d DSLR with a clip in Altair Triband filter. 

The Horsehead Nebula is created by an enormous cloud of dense dust that is seen in silhouette against the backdrop of a bright emission nebula, which permeates much of the constellation Orion. The bright multi star system,  Alnitak, many times larger and brighter than our Sun - +30 times more massive, can be seen upper middle left in this image. For the keen eyed, you just might detect that the star shape is slightly deformed to its left by its largest and brightest sibling star. Before we stretched the illumination levels of this image, to bring out the fainter nebulosity, the sibling could be clearly resolved from its larger and brighter brother Alnitak. We were all surprised that such a small aperture telescope could pull this feat off! 

The very bright emission nebula NGC 2024 or The Flame Nebula, may be seen below Alnitak. The dark 'veins', so obvious in our image, are created by dust clouds between us and the bright emission nebula.

Emission nebulae are created by bright hot stars ionising clouds of gas, ie. energising electrons in the gas atoms, and as these atoms return to their initial or ground state, they release photons at specific wavelengths. At the JPO we do our best to 'catch them' as they fly our way!

We hope to post some of the Seestar S30 data in the near future. Fingers-crossed, the weather continues set fair. 

As a future project, we hope to use the Seestar S30 to create a three pane image of the Markarian Chain of Galaxies in the constellation Virgo". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.