NGC 253 Sculptor Galaxy

Sculptor Galaxy is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. It is a mere 10 million light years away and spans about 70 thousand lights year. NGC 253 was discovered by Caroline Herschel in the 1783.

Imaged at Zodiac Ranch, Fort Davis, TX on September 24, 2011 under excellent seeing conditions with an 11" Celestron HD (hyperstar)

5 min exposure X 15 images (total time of 75min exposure time). Captured using Nebulosity software and stacked with darks for the final result.

M45, Pleiades cluster

The Pleiades. The cluster is also called The Seven Sisters, where the sisters are seven of the brightest stars in the cluster. The two bright stars to the left in the cluster are the parents, Atlas and Pleione, hence also the more common name Pleiades (the children of Pleione). The seven sisters are Alcyone, Merope, Electra, Maia, Celaeno, Taygeta and Asterope (Messier45.com)

Several Pleiads appear surrounded by intricate blue filaments of light. This nebulosity is the result of starlight scattering (reflecting) off minute grains of interstellar dust in the vicinity. The dust particles are inside a cloud of mostly hydrogen gas that the cluster seems to be plowing into (Steven Gibson, www.naic.edu/~gibson/pleiades/)

This was a 20 minute exposure, guided and captured in the early morning of September 25, 2011 from Zodiac Ranch in Fort Davis, TX.

The sky was perfectly still with excellent transparency and great seeing.