deep space wonders from negev desert

Deep Space Wonders from Negev Desert

by

Michael Kalika

(Israel)

What is Astrophotography?

People photograph different things – kids, vehicles, sport events,

nature, special moments… Astrophotographers capture past.

Astrophotography is simply taking a photograph of an object in space,

whether it's with a point-and-shoot camera, NASA telescopes or any

other type of equipment and camera. Although speed of light is very

fast - it still takes tens, hundreds, thousands and million of years for the

light of distant deep space objects to travel to Earth. Therefore,

whatever we capture from the deep space is not as we see it now. It is

a picture of the past as it was many years ago…

What is Needed?

To make something special you do not need to work in

observatory or spend fortune on expensive equipment.

Very often a simple 6” telescope, a low end equatorial

mount and 2nd hand DSLR camera and laptop is all what

is needed to start with.

But... it requires dedication, some technical and

astronomy knowledge, constant learning, willingness to

drive hundreds of kilometers to dark sites, passion and

love.

My remote observatory equipment: Skywatcher 6” Telescope, NEQ6 Mount,

Power Battery & Laptop

The Imaging Equipment:Canon DSLR 550D, Lodestar X2

CCD AutoGuider, Off Axis Guider

The Capturing Process

The light of deep space object is very weak. Therefore, to eliminate

light pollution effects in the urban area we must drive hundreds of

kilometers to the dark site in Israel desert and grab with us heavy

equipment.

To capture image we open camera shutter for long exposures,

usually between 2 to 15 minutes (depends on the subject). We do

many long exposures frames so we could stack them together and

receive better image - more image signal and less noise. For

achieving long exposures without objects being blurred, some form

of tracking mount is employed to compensate for the Earth's

rotation.

Image Processing

Now that we captured image data during a

sleepless and cold night in the desert and

returned home the image processing begins…

In short, image processing involves noise

cleaning, aligning, stacking, sharpening and

stretching images. One of the marvelous and

powerful tools that we use is called PixInsight.

The Great Orion NebulaThe Orion Nebula also known as M42 is an enormous cloud of gas and dust, one of many in our Milky Way galaxy. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 lies roughly 1,300 light-years from Earth. At some 30 to 40 light-years in diameter, this great huge gas cloud is giving birth to perhaps a thousand stars. A young open star cluster, whose stars were born at the same time from a portion of the nebula and are still loosely bound by gravity, can be seen within the nebula. It is sometimes called the Orion Nebula Star Cluster. In 2012, an international team of astronomers suggested this cluster in the Orion Nebula might have a black hole at its heart.

Imaged by me on November 3rd, in Negev desert in Israel.

Tech Details Tech details:35 x 10sec ISO800 frames34 x 30sec ISO800 frames35 x 60sec ISO800 frames14 x 300sec ISO800 framesOverall, 2 hours and 7 minutes of imaging time

Equipment Scope: Skywatcher F5 150/750 reflectorMount: NEQ6Imaging camera: Canon 550DGuiding camera: ZWO ASI130MMGuider: Orion Thin Off-Axis Guider

Software Sequence Generator Pro, Stark Labs PHD 2.6, PixInsight 1.8

The Sculpture GalaxyThe Sculptor Galaxy, also known as the Silver Coin or Silver Dollar Galaxy, NGC 253, is a beautiful island galaxy located in the constellation of Sculptor, some 11.4 million light-years from Earth. It's size is 70 light years across. The Sculptor Galaxy is a starburst galaxy, which means that it is currently undergoing a period of intense star formation. Recent research suggests the presence in the center of this galaxy of a supermassive black hole, with a mass estimated to be 5 million times that of our Sun.

Imaged by me on November 3rd, in Negev desert in Israel.

Tech Details Tech details:17 x 600sec ISO1600 framesOverall, 2 hours and 50 minutes of imaging time



The Triangulum GalaxyThe Triangulum Galaxy also referred as M33 is a spiral galaxy approximately 3 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. M33 is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, which includes our galaxy Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy and about 44 other smaller galaxies. M33's diameter is 60,000 light-years and it is home to 40 billion stars, compared to 400 billion for the Milky Way, and 1 trillion stars for Andromeda.

Imaged by me on September 1st 2016, in Negev desert in Israel.

Tech Details Tech details:31 x 600sec ISO1600 framesOverall, 5 hours and 10 minutes of imaging time



The Witch's Broom NebulaThe Witch's Broom Nebula, also known as NGC 6960 or Veil Nebula.

A long time ago, five or maybe eight thousand years ago, before the dawn of recorded human history, a new light would have suddenly have appeared in the night sky and faded after a few weeks. Today we know this light was from a supernova - an exploding star at least 8 times bigger than our Sun. Blasted out in the cataclysmic explosion, the interstellar shock wave plows through space sweeping up and exciting interstellar material. The expanding cloud of gas and dust that we see in this image is a remnant of that violent event. Who knows, how many civilizations did not survive at that time...?

The glowing filaments are like long ripples in a sheet seen almost edge on, remarkably well separated into atomic hydrogen (red) and oxygen (blue-green) gas. The complete supernova remnant lies about 1400 light-years away towards the constellation Cygnus. This Witch's Broom actually spans about 35 light-years. The bright star in the frame is 52 Cygni, visible with the unaided eye from a dark location but unrelated to the ancient supernova remnant.

Imaged by me on June 2nd 2016, from Negev Desert in Israel.

Tech Details 27 x 600sec ISO1600 frames31 x 120sec ISO800 frames45 x 30sec ISO800 framesOverall, 5 hours and 54 minutes of imaging time

Equipment Scope: Skywatcher F5 150/750 reflectorMount: NEQ6Imaging camera: Canon 550D full spectrum moddedGuiding camera: Starlight Xpress Lodestar x2 Guider: Orion Thin Off-Axis GuiderFocuser: Moonlite Crayford Focuser with step motorOther: QHY PoleMaster


The Helix NebulaThe Helix Nebula [NGC 7293], also known as The Eye of God, is a large planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius. It's one of the most iconic celestial images in astronomy. This nebula formed at the end of a star's evolution and it consist of an expanding glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from an old red giant star late in it's live. The core becomes a hot white dwarf pouring out ultraviolet radiation into its surroundings.

The Helix Nebula lies about 700 light-years away from Earth, spanning about 2.5 light-years.

Imaged by me on July 9th 2016, from Negev Desert in Israel.

Tech Details 23 x 300sec ISO1600 framesOverall, 1 hour and 55 minutes of imaging time



The Eagle NebulaAlso known as M16, the Eagle Nebula is a 5.5 million-year-old cloud of molecular hydrogen gas and dust stretching approximately 70 light years by 55 light years. Inside the nebula, gravity pulls clouds of gas together to collapse inward. If enough gas is present, nuclear fusion is ignited in the center, and the compact cloud becomes a shining star. The Eagle Nebula is thought to have several star-forming regions within it. The gas and dust that ultimately collapsed into our Sun four billion years ago likely resided in a structure similar to the Eagle Nebula. The Eagle Nebula lies 6,500 light-years away in the inner spiral arm of the Milky Way, next to our own.

In the middle of the image there a small structure called "Pillars of Creation", imaged using the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995. Those images greatly improved scientific understanding of processes inside the nebula. The "Pillars of Creation" were probably destroyed 6000 years ago and due to the distance, we won't be able to see the destruction from Earth for another 1000 years.

Imaged by me on July 9th 2016, from Negev Desert in Israel.

Tech Details 33 x 420sec ISO800 framesOverall, 3 hours and 51 minutes of imaging time



The Crescent NebulaNGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula or The Brain Nebula, is a cosmic bubble about 25 light-years across, blown by winds from its central, bright, massive star. This object is an emission nebula located in the constellation Cygnus, about 5000 light-years away from Earth. It was discovered by Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel in 1792. It is formed by the fast stellar wind from the Wolf-Rayet star colliding with and energizing the slower moving wind ejected by the star when it became a red giant around 250,000 to 400,000 years ago. The result of the collision is a shell and two shock waves, one moving outward and one moving inward. The inward moving shock wave heats the stellar wind to X-ray-emitting temperatures.

Imaged by me on July 1st 2016, from Negev Desert in Israel.




The Trifid NebulaThe beautiful Trifid Nebula, also known as Messier 20, is an easy to find object with a small telescope or binoculars in the constellation of Sagittarius. The object is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars, an emission nebula (the lower, red portion), a reflection nebula (the upper, blue portion) and a dark nebula (the apparent 'gaps' within the emission nebula that cause the trifurcated appearance).

Tifid Nebula located about 5,000 light-years away from Earth, it's size is about 40 light-years across and a mere 300,000 years old. That makes it one of the youngest star forming regions in our sky, with newborn and embryonic stars embedded in its natal dust and gas clouds.

Imaged by me on June 3rd 2016, from Negev Desert in Israel.




The Great Globular Cluster in HerculesThe Great Globular Cluster in Hercules also known as M13 is one of the brightest globular star clusters in the northern sky in the constellation of Hercules. M13 is about 145 light-years in diameter, and it is composed of over 300,000 stars. M13 is 25,100 light-years away from Earth.

Imaged by me on June 2nd 2016, in Negev desert in Israel.

Tech Details 19 x 180sec ISO1600 frames25 x 30sec ISO1600 framesOverall, 1 hour and 9 minutes of imaging time



Messier 106 GalaxyMessier 106 (M106) is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth. It is also a Seyfert II galaxy. Due to x-rays and unusual emission lines detected, it is suspected that part of the galaxy is falling into a supermassive black hole in the center. Its size is 135,000 light years.

NGC 4217 is a possible companion galaxy of Messier 106. A Type II supernova was observed in this galaxy in May 2014.

Imaged by me on April 8th 2016, from Negev Desert in Israel.

Tech Details 20 x 900sec ISO800 framesOverall, 5 hours of imaging time

Equipment Scope: Skywatcher F5 150/750 reflectorMount: NEQ6Imaging camera: Canon 550D full spectrum moddedGuiding camera: ZWO ASI130MMGuider: Orion Thin Off-Axis GuiderOther: QHY PoleMaster


The Rosette NebulaThe Rosette nebula is a not only a cloud of gas and cosmic dust in the form of beatiful flower. It is also a cradle of young stars and a symbol of Valentine's day. The beautiful Rose located 5,000 light-years from Earth and aproximately 50 light years in diameter.

Imaged by me on February 13th 2016, from Negev Desert in Israel.




The Markarian ChainGalaxies are smiling us :-)... Who knows...? Maybe someone smart lives there, in these worlds...

Across the heart of the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies lies a striking string of galaxies known as Markarian's Chain. It is called a chain because, when viewed from Earth, the galaxies lie along a smoothly curved line. It was named after the Armenian astrophysicist, B. E. Markarian, who discovered their common motion in the early 1960s.

Imaged by me on February 13th 2016, from Negev Desert in Israel.




The Horsehead NebulaHorses in the space... Does anyone want to take a ride? :) The Horsehead Nebula (also known as Barnard 33 ) is a dark nebula in the constellation of Orion. This dark cloud of interstellar dust and gas is a region where star formation is taking place. The dust cloud is so dense that it obscures the light from objects behind it, such as background stars and emission or reflection nebulae red. The Horsehead Nebula is approximately 1500 light years from Earth and its size is approximately 3.5 x 2.5 light years.

Another interesting object from the left side of the horse is The Flame Nebula, also known as NGC 2024. It is an emission nebula. The bright star Alnitak, the easternmost star in the Belt of Orion [the brightest strong star above both nebulas], shines energetic ultraviolet light into the Flame and this knocks electrons away from the great clouds of hydrogen gas that reside there.

Imaged by me on December 11th 2015, from Negev Desert in Israel.


Equipment Scope: Skywatcher F5 150/750 reflectorMount: NEQ6Imaging camera: Canon 550D full spectrum moddedGuiding camera: ZWO ASI130MMGuider: Orion Thin Off-Axis Guider


PleiadesHave you ever heard the story of Pleiades? According to the ancient Greeks, the Pleiades were seven sisters. Their parents were Pleione and Atlas who was condemned by Zeus to support the Heavens on his shoulders. One day, the Pleiades were traveling with their mother and met the hunter Orion. Orion fell in love with Pleione and her charming daughters. He spent a great deal of time chasing after them, trying to win their affection. After several years, Zeus intervened and transformed the women into doves to help them escape. They flew into the sky to become the cluster of stars that today has their name. The constellation of Orion is said to still pursue them across the night sky. However, only six stars are visible in the sky without a telescope. The ancient Greeks explained the absence of a seventh star with several different stories. According to one story, one of the Pleiades, Merope deserted her sisters because she was ashamed of having a mortal husband, who also happened to be a criminal.

Pleiades [M45] is an open star cluster containing middle-aged hot B-type stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and it is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. The cluster is dominated by hot blue and extremely luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. These stars have from 2 to 16 times the mass of the Sun. The Pleiades contain few thousand stars, is about 400 light years away, and only 13 light years across. Dust that forms a faint reflection nebulosity around the brightest stars was thought at first to be left over from the formation of the cluster, but is now known to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium, through which the stars are currently passing.

Imaged by me on November 13th 2015, from Negev Desert in Israel.

Tech Details 25 x 600sec ISO800 frames21 x 300sec ISO800 frames21 x 120sec ISO800 frames21 x 30sec ISO800 framesOverall, 6 hours and 47 minutes of imaging time

Equipment Scope: Skywatcher F5 150/750 reflectorMount: NEQ6Imaging camera: Canon 550D Guiding camera: ZWO ASI130MMGuider: Orion Thin Off-Axis Guider


The Andromeda GalaxyThe Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31 or M31 is a spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth. It is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way and was often referred to as the Great Andromeda Nebula in older texts. It is so bright that it is easily seen by naked eye as a faint fuzzy patch of light in the northern part of Andromeda constellation named after the mythological princess Andromeda. Being approximately 220,000 light years across, it is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which also contains the Milky Way, the Triangulum Galaxy, and about 44 other smaller galaxies. Our galaxy, The Milky Way and Andromeda are expected to collide in 3.75 billion years, eventually merging to form a giant spiral or disk form galaxy.

Imaged by me on October 16th 2015, from Negev Desert in Israel.




The Dumbbell NebulaThe Dumbbell Nebula also known M27. Imaged by me on July 17th in Negev desert.

This is what our Sun will become ~7 billion years in the future. In about 5 billion years from now, the core of Sun will run out of hydrogen, then helium... and our home star will begin to die. The outer Sun layers will expand, cool, and become less bright. It will become a red giant star and after this phase, the outer layers of the Sun will continue to expand and form Planetary Nebula like M27. The core of the Sun will shrink into few thousand miles cold star - "The White Dwarf".

M27 is located in the constellation Vulpecula and it takes light about 1000 years to reach us from there. The diameter of M27 is ~1.5 light years.

Imaged by me on July 17th 2015, in Negev desert in Israel.

Tech Details 22 x 330sec ISO800 framesOverall, 2 hours of imaging time.


Software BackyardEOS 3, Stark Labs PHD 2.5, PixInsight 1.8

The Leo TripletThe Leo Triplet, also known as the M66 Group is a small group of galaxies about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo.

Imaged by me on May 15th 2015, in Negev desert in Israel.



Software BackyardEOS 3, Stark Labs PHD 2.5, PixInsight 1.8

The Imaging Site

The imaging site is located near Mitzpeh

Ramon in Negev Desert, Israel.

This is one of the darkest and highest

places in our small country.

About me

My name is Michael Kalika. Since I was a kid, I remember myself watching

at the night sky and stars, reading science fiction and dreaming about

traveling in space. When I grew up, I fulfilled my dream… No, I did not

travel in space… .

I bought telescope which allows me to catch those small particles that

pass millions of light years and capture information that they carry with

them – the photons.

I am Software Engineer in my background. I live in Rishon Le-Tzion, Israel

and I am father of 3 boys. I hope one day they will follow my path and

capture marvelous space images. And who knows what will they

discover…?

Email: [email protected] Gallery: http://www.astrobin.com/users/mkalikaLinkedIn: https://il.linkedin.com/in/michaelkalikaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.kalika.3

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.astrobin.com/users/mkalika

https://il.linkedin.com/in/michaelkalika

https://www.facebook.com/michael.kalika.3

deep space wonders from negev desert

Documents