M27 lies in the small constellation of Vulpecula, the little fox.  It is a large bright nebula easily seen in binoculars from a moderately dark site, even from suburbia.  From within the metropolitan New York City area, you will need a small to moderate sized telescope depending on exactly where you live.  This is easily found in my 8-inch f/6 Newtonian, and is detectably in smaller scopes even here.

The view here is very minimalistic for two reasons.  First, it’s all I have since the imaging session when I took this was really a shake-down period for the equipment and things did not go very well.  So the amount of data I have simply won’t support a high resolution image.  Second, I wanted to produce something that approximated the visual impression in a modest sized telescope.  While my 8-inch Dobsonian is not large, it’s also not really in the “small” category either.  But the above view is about what I see from here in Brooklyn.  If you live under dark skies, you can expect a view like this with a smaller telescope.

In August of 2005, a nova appeared in the sky near M27.  The nova was quite faint and does not appear here, but Jerry Lodriguss captured it serendipitously on an image he was taking about that time. 

Orion's popularity stems largely from the brightness of his stars and the easy-to-spot three stars of his belt. Orion is easily visible even from urban locations (I can attest to this as a resident of New York City).

Labeled on this picture are the following objects (links take you off-site):

• Constellations (4): Orion (the Hunter), Lepus (the Hare), Monoceros (the Unicorn), and Eridanus (the River). Only Orion is fully pictured, although most of Lepus is visible.
• Stars (12): Betelgeuse (alpha Orionis), Rigel (beta Orionis), Bellatrix (gamma Orionis), Mintaka (delta Orionis), Alnilam (epsilon Orionis), Alnitak (zeta Orionis), Na'ir al Saif (iota Orionis), Saiph (kappa Orionis), Heka or Meissa (lambda Orionis), Thabit (upsilon Orionis), Tabit (pi-3 Orionis), Algiebba (eta Orionis).
• Open Clusters: NGC 2301, NGC 2264, NGC 2238, NGC 2169, NGC 1662, NGC 1807.
• Globular Clusters: M79
• Nebula: M1, M42, M43, M78, NGC 2237.

Dolan's web site lists Thabit as pi-3 Orionis and Tabit as upsilon Orionis (which is how they are labelled on the chart), but Gibson lists Tabit as a name sometimes given to pi or tau. Oh, and in case you are wondering about the "pi-3" designation, start at the top of Orion's bow/shield and count. The topmost is pi-1, the middle one labelled Thabit is pi-3 and the bottom-most one is pi-5. I don't know the history of how they got named that way.

I have found two references to the name Algiebba, one in an old e-mail list and on on a PDF chart at MIT. I'm not clear where I originally found the name, nor it's origin.

The Jordanian Astronomical Society has a page on Arabic star names which lists multiple names for some of the stars in Orion.

The Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237-2239, 2246) is not quite visible in this shot. A close-up of the region where it sits shows just a hint of the red, annular nebula. This 20-minute exposure on Provia 400F was not quite enough. I've labeled the entire thing NGC 2238, but see the this reference on the SEDS web site which explains a little about the multiple NGC assignments.

Resources

• Chris Dolan's informational site on Orion.
• The Rosette Nebula at www.answerz.org.

Imagining Things?

Some of the items marked on the photo are very nearly invisible, especially after the image is downsampled so it fits on your screen. Am I making them up? Here are some enlargements.

Cropped Region around NGC2238

First is this image of the detail around NGC2238. The image has had its gamma adjusted to 1.5 compared to the main image. The nebulosity is there, but faint in the original. This adjustment makes it just a bit more obvious, though this won't win any awards.

And yes, that tiny, nearly invisible dot in the center of the yellow circle labelled 51 Nemausa really is the asteroid and it really is on the film even if you still aren't quite sure while squinting at your screen.

Cropped Region around M1

Here is a closeup of the M1 region. This is just cropped from the original which produced the main image above. The glow at the top is from Saturn. Right in the center of the marker circle is M1. I've never tried to find M1 from a dark site and my attempts from New York City have been fruitless. So this constitutes my first "viewing" of M1!

About the Pictures

I set out to get a picture of Orion on this particular night, but I had naturally expected to take several pictures. Alas, it was not to be. I arrived in Narrowsburg a little later than expected so it was already dark and I had to haul everything 100 meters up and down a hill to the riverbank through 8-inches of snow in the dark. Then I realized this was the first time I had used my CG-5 mount since I had given it a "tune-up." Among the things I had tuned was the tension on the RA drive. It was too tight and the motors couldn't turn it. So I had to take off the motors and adjust the worm tension in the dark, sub-freezing temperatures. I finally got it working and managed to get everything polar aligned. I strung 100 meters of extension cord to make a hair dryer available for frost removal/prevention. I was finally read to go. Into the house, prep the cameras, back out to mount them. The YashicaMAT-124 would not focus. After some poking (in the dark and cold), I determined the focusing mechanism was broken. Set up the remainder and finally go. Orion had already transited the meridian at this point and was getting closer and closer to the light dome thrown up by nearby Honesdale, PA. But, I got my 20- and 40-minute shots. I moved on to a 20-minute shot of Auriga. At this point, it was nearly 4 AM and I couldn't keep my feet warm. I packed everything back in.

After developing everything, I discovered the two 35 mm cameras were set up incorrectly—I forgot to move the shutter to "B" and had left it on 1/1000 second. Somehow I botched the film advance on the last frame for the picture of Auriga and so I had nothing. But I did get Orion. So I guess you could say I accomplished my goal.

I will be trying again. I had loaded Kodak E200 into the YashicaMAT-124 (the one with the broken focusing mechanism), and the Fuji Provia 400F just didn't have the kind of red response I needed for a 40-minute exposure. In the original, you can see a hint of Barnard's Loop and the Rosette Nebula, but after the gradient removal process it is totally gone. I suspect a longer exposure might have had it, but that's questionable with the sky glow.

Technical Notes

This field shows some of the limitations to shooting as fast as possible. First, there is some minor vignetting in the corners. This is not noticeable in daytime photography or even in a lot of astrophotography. It is apparent here in part because of the presence of the Milky which makes this a very rich area. Second, there is some lens distortion at the corners. I'm not sure what this particular aberration is called, but the stars start to look like little crescents. At f/2.8, it is just barely visible (at the larger scales), but it prevents the image from being used in for, say 16×20 prints; 8x10s, maybe.

Resources:

• Chris Dolan's information site on Lyra.

Hercules passes directly overhead on summer nights in the mid-northern latitudes. Still, Hercules possesses none of the extraordinarily bright stars like Lyra or Orion to make it a readily recognizable constellation. The most recognizable feature for locating Hercules in the night sky is the "keystone" shape which forms the body of Hercules.

Hercules enjoys better name recognition than most of the Greek heroes, even among those immortalized in the constellations. In the United States, at least, there is some feedback in keeping him popular from the movie industry, ranging from the 1939 movie Hercules, though the 1990s series "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys," and even the Disney animation. For general information about the myths surrounding Hercules and more links, have a look at this Russian site.

Interestingly, it would appear that although we know the constellation as Hercules, it was originally known to the Greeks as simply "the Kneeling Man" and the origins of this designation seem to have been lost even to the Greeks.

The following objects are labeled in the image:

• Globular Clusters (3): M13, M92, and NGC 6229.
• Planetary Nebula (1): NGC 6210.
• Stars (6): Kornephoros, Rasalgethi, Sarin, Marsik, Maasym, Kajam.

The planetary nebula NGC 6210 is far too small (0.3") to resolve at any scale available to most amateurs, but it is incredibly bright. It's magnitude is nearly the same as M57 in Lyra, but its size means its surface brightness is much higher. In any event, is shows up as a small reddish speck on this image (although unless you are looking at the small version of this image you will not see it).

The globular cluster NGC 6229 is not so close to the edge of visibility in this image, but there two stars about 5 arc-seconds away to the west which makes it difficult to distinguish except at the highest size available here. Of course, none of the globular clusters show any structure at this scale; the film resolution appears to be about 1-3 arc-minutes.

Resources:

• Chris Dolan's information site on Hercules.

Ursa Major, the Great Bear, is the official constellation name, but contained within it is the more well known asterism, the Big Dipper. But's that's not the only name by which it has been known. Other names include "The Plough," and "The Wagon." The full constellation is a bit large to fit into the frame afforded by a 50mm lens, as can be seen in the overlay.

Labeled in both of these pictures are the following objects:

• Galaxies (4): M51 (NGC 5194, NGC 5195, M101, and M108.
• Emission Nebulae (1): M97 (aka the "Owl Nebula")
• Stars (10): Alkaid, Alcor and Mizar, Alioth, Megrez, Phecda, Merak, Dubhe, Giausar, and Thuban. The latter two are in the constellation Draco

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Why the funny shape in the image? Well, the shot was taken at f/4 which is only 1/2-stop slower than having the lens wide open. Consequently, there was some horrible lens distortion. Picture Window Pro has a "Lens Distortion" effect that can be used to undo that, at least partially. But the result is you get an image outline that looks like a barrel. Next time I shot a f/5.6 or slower. It's probably best to go all the way to f/8 for a sharp image, but that will also mean an exposure of at least an hour.

This photo actually stretches from Vulpecula at the top left (not quite fully in the frame), across Sagitta, through Delphinus in the center, and down to Equuleus at the bottom. Also visible in the upper right is Altair and part of Aquila.

Resources:

• Chris Dolan's informational site on Delphinus.

This is my first attempt at film-based sky photography. Well, not exactly my first. I shot on roll of film in New York City just trying for star trails with the goal of finding where the sky fog limit was. However, I couldn't tell the difference in any of the prints which all came out with a nice green sky. I attribute that to using Kodak Gold film and having had it developed someplace that couldn't handle special requests. And then there was the roll of film I shot where I didn't correctly engage the film on the take up roller while loading it in the dark, but let's not discuss that now….

This shot comes with its own set of problems. I used slide film, Kodak Elite Chrome II, ISO 200. My camera, a semi-automatic 35 mm, seems to have developed a dislike for my cable release and would randomly terminate the exposure and start taking a new one. I ended up throwing out one 24-exposure roll and of the second roll I only had 5 shots come out worth keeping; only 3 of those were actually at the exposures I had planned. Additionally, because I failed to take a daytime picture at the start of the roll and because the first couple of frames were severely underexposed, the lab cut the slide right in the middle when mounting the slides.

Still, I was quite pleased with this one shot. Not perfect but good enough to be a big motivator for trying some more. The first picture captures the core of Cygnus along with Vulpecula and Sagitta. The low-resolution scan here makes a few features nearly disappear even though they are clearly visible on the film and print. In particular, the Veil Nebula is quite obvious on the print, but after scanning at low resolution and doing an HSV stretch to provide a darker background, it has pretty much disappeared.

Visible in this image (but unlabelled 'cause I deleted the labelled version, doh!):

• (the Swan), Vulpecula (the Fox), and Sagitta (the Arrows).
• Stars (2): Deneb Adige and Albireo.
• Planetary Nebula (1): M27 — the Dumbell Nebula.
• Supernova Remnant (1): NGC6992 — the Veil Nebula.
• Other Nebula(1): NGC7000 — the North American Nebula, IC5068 — the Pelican Nebula, IC1318A and IC1318B, and IC1311.

Cygnus rises high in the summer sky and it’s brightest member, Deneb, anchors on corner of the “summer triangle” whose other corners are Altair and Vega (not visible in this image).

Resources:

• Chris Dolan’s information site on Cygnus .