NGC 7497 with molecular clouds
Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2023 8:13 pm
In the post to my seahorse I've been complaining about the disappointing summer weather. But this new moon phase has been quite pleasant and I was able to image a dusty region in Pegasus:
The galaxy NGC 7497 appears to be the sidekick in this image. The dust clouds are the stars (pun not intended) in my eyes. The cloud above NGC 7497 is called MBM 54 as far as I have understood what I've read. MBM 54 is accompanied by MBM 53 and MBM 55. I am not sure if these are present in the image since I haven't found an annotated image of the FOV anywhere.
This is about 14+ hrs of broadband data. The clouds and the galaxy are quite faint. Actually at the start of night 1 I was almost sure that my plate solve was completely wrong since the galaxy wasn't visible in the 5 sec plate solve shot. This isn't usually the case for the galaxies I image... After 300 sec it was clearly there but no sign of a molecular cloud. Therefore I am pretty happy with the result and not willing to dedicate more clear sky time to it. I won't be able to match the quality of a 24'' hypergraph from a remote observatory anyway (https://www.spektrum.de/alias/wunder-de ... 54/2097738), so that's it.
By the way, I got reminded to not trust the forecast. And neither a clear sky. While I was sleeping and waiting to wake up for the meridian flip, I woke up from the noise of (unforecasted!) rain hitting the window...
Fortunately it was only beginning to rain and the gear was brought inside pretty fast. Everything still works 
See https://www.astrobin.com/lq8t2b/ for details.
Clear skies!
Stefan
The galaxy NGC 7497 appears to be the sidekick in this image. The dust clouds are the stars (pun not intended) in my eyes. The cloud above NGC 7497 is called MBM 54 as far as I have understood what I've read. MBM 54 is accompanied by MBM 53 and MBM 55. I am not sure if these are present in the image since I haven't found an annotated image of the FOV anywhere.
This is about 14+ hrs of broadband data. The clouds and the galaxy are quite faint. Actually at the start of night 1 I was almost sure that my plate solve was completely wrong since the galaxy wasn't visible in the 5 sec plate solve shot. This isn't usually the case for the galaxies I image... After 300 sec it was clearly there but no sign of a molecular cloud. Therefore I am pretty happy with the result and not willing to dedicate more clear sky time to it. I won't be able to match the quality of a 24'' hypergraph from a remote observatory anyway (https://www.spektrum.de/alias/wunder-de ... 54/2097738), so that's it.
By the way, I got reminded to not trust the forecast. And neither a clear sky. While I was sleeping and waiting to wake up for the meridian flip, I woke up from the noise of (unforecasted!) rain hitting the window...
Fortunately it was only beginning to rain and the gear was brought inside pretty fast. Everything still works See https://www.astrobin.com/lq8t2b/ for details.
Clear skies!
Stefan