Globular Cluster M3

Last night (the 8th May 2026) we had some more clear weather after having had a period of unsettled conditions. These poor conditions coincided with the full Moon, so it wasn't too much of a bother. Today the Moon is at last quarter and it didn't rise until about 02:35 BST, so it didn't interfere with my observations last night. My object for inspection was the globular cluster M3 which lies on the southern border of the constellation of Canes Venatici next to Bootes. We are getting close to the time now when there is no complete darkness all night and so my observations started quite late in the evening. Here is what I obtained after 475x15s (1 hour 58.75 minutes) of observation on the Dwarf 3:-

The first frame was taken at 22:20 BST and the last at 01:01 today. The astro filter was employed and the gain was 60. Auto parameters were used in Stellar Studio. I have increased the saturation of the image in Photoshop and binned it x2. One thing that I did was to restack all the images in Mega Stack because, weirdly, the automated process for this had included a number of frames that had satellite trails and this was ruining the picture. So I went through all the images again and deleted those with noticeable trails before I restacked. The resulting image is quite letter boxy and this is due to field rotation in the alt-az mode. Stellar Studio crops out parts of the image that have been badly affected by field rotation.

M3 is a pretty spectacular cluster as you can see from the image. Here is a cropped version of the unbinned image:-

What is satisfying here is how so many stars have been resolved almost to the centre of the cluster. M3 is a very fine object and only appears to be somewhat fainter than the famous M13 cluster in Hercules because it is further away (it lies at a distance of 10.4 kpc as apposed to M13's 7.4 kpc). Amazingly there are 250,000 stars contained within a radius of 11 light-years of its centre. Compare this with the fact that there are only 12 known stars within 10 light-years from our sun. It would be very interesting to look up at the night sky from a planet orbiting a star in the core of M3! I am sure it would be like looking at a piece of black velvet studded with thousands of diamonds.

Going back to the wide-field image above, there is another interloper to the upper centre right and this is the galaxy NGC 5263. 

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

The Coma Cluster (Caldwell 35)

My final image from last week was taken on the 24th April 2026 using my Dwarf 3. I decided to try a much more difficult and faint object and this was the Coma Cluster of galaxies in Coma Berenices. This cluster appears as number 35 in Patrick Moore's Caldwell Catalogue and the galaxies in it are located 300 million light years from us. On the 24th the Moon was at first quarter and it didn't set until 03:43 BST on the 25th, so light from it was making observation more difficult. Added to this, towards midnight a mist arose which terminated my observing. Here is what I obtained after 368x15s (1 hour 32 minutes) of observation:-

 

The cluster is the faint collection of objects near the centre of the image. The first frame was taken at 22:25 BST and the last at 00:21 on the 25th. The Astro filter was employed and the gain was 60. The image was processed in Stellar Studio using auto settings and binned x2. Here is a more close up version using the unbinned image:-

The cluster is dominated by two supergiant elliptical galaxies, NGC 4889 (left of centre) and NGC 4874 (right of centre). It looks like there is a swarm of stars surrounding these two objects, but these are in fact galaxies (the cluster contains at least 1000 bright ellipticals). Below I have attempted to label some of the brighter galaxies in the full frame image (click to enlarge):-

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

M51 (The Whirlpool Galaxy)

Last Thursday (the 23rd April 2026) the continuing good weather meant that I could observe another classic spiral galaxy, M51 The Whirlpool. Like the Whale and the Hockey Stick and M63 this object is also found in Canes Venatici and is located not far from the end of the tail of the bear, Ursa Major. I observed this object three years ago at about this time of year and also back in 2016. Here is what I obtained after 357x15s (1 hour 29.25 minutes):-

All I can say is wow, what a difference! The first frame was at 22:36 BST and the last at 00:35 on the 24th. The Astro filter was employed and the gain was 60. The image was processed in Stellar Studio using auto settings. The saturation was increased in Photoshop and the image binned x2. Here is a more close up version using the unbinned image:-

The full impact of this impressive galaxy can be seen in detail. M51 consists of two galaxies that are gravitationally interacting. The larger NGC 5194 is the one designated as M51; the smaller one to the left that is literally being pulled apart is NGC 5195. This is very clear in this deeper image where you can see streams of stars and dust that are being thrown into space (see the reddish light above and below NGC 5195). The spewed matter is probably coming from the spiral arms of both galaxies.

Going back to the wide-field image above, there are a number of other galaxies that can be seen within the frame and I have marked them with the following annotated version (click on the image to see the full size version):-

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

NGC 4565 (The Needle Galaxy)

Continuing on with the run of good weather we have been experiencing recently, last Wednesday, the 22nd April I was able to turn my attention to another galaxy in Coma Berenices, NGC 4565 which has been nicknamed the Needle Galaxy. NGC 4565 lies close to the North Galactic Pole, a direction which is perpendicular to the plane of our galaxy and so is free from the obscuration of the galactic disc. This explains why so many more galaxies are clearly visible in this direction. Add to this there is the Virgo Cluster of galaxies that lies along the southern edge of this constellation and into the northern part of Virgo. The Moon was only two days to first quarter, so whilst causing some light interference, it wasn't too much of a worry. Here is what I obtained after 296x15s (1 hour 14 mins) of observation:-

The Needle is in the centre of the frame and, as you can see, its sharp shape comes from the fact that this spiral galaxy is seen edge on. There is another large object seen at the far right of this image and that is NGC 4494 - a large elliptical galaxy. The first frame was taken at 22:41 BST and the last at 00:13 on the 23rd. The Astro filter was employed and the gain was 60. The image was processed in Stellar Studio using auto settings. The saturation was increased in Photoshop and the image binned x2.

A more close up view of this galaxy is shown below (using the unbinned image):- 

I have increased the sharpening in this version. You can see clearly the central bulge of the galaxy and a dark dust lane that traverses it. Interestingly, the disc does not appear to be symmetric about the galaxy's centre. There upper half of the disc extends out further than the lower half. This may be due to interaction with other galaxies. There is another galaxy visible to the right and this NGC 4562.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

M100 and associates

On the same evening I was photographing the four day old Moon (the 21st April 2026), I also had a go at imaging the spiral galaxy M100 in the south-west part of the constellation of Coma Berenices. M100 is one of the largest and brightest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. Here is what I obtained with the Dwarf 3 after 448x15s (1 hour 52 minutes):-

M100 lies at the centre of this frame (click on the image to obtain a better view). The first frame was taken at 22:10 BST and the last at 00:32 on the 22nd. The gain was 60 and the Astro filter was employed. The saturation has been increased in photoshop and the image binned x2. Here is a cropped version of the unbinned image:-

The nice spiral nature of the arms can be seen more clearly, as can a number of other galaxies in the same field (particularly NGC4312 at the lower right). In fact the whole image above has numerous galaxies in it and I have produced an annotated version below:-

I haven't labelled all the galaxies in this image, just some of the brighter ones (again click on the image to get a better view).

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

Crescent Moon

On Tuesday (the 21st April) of this week the clear weather continued and the four day old Moon hung attractively over the western horizon. Before carrying on with my deep sky adventures I thought I would use the Dwarf 3 to photograph it. This is what I obtained at 21:47 BST:-

 

The Dwarf takes 20 frames (in this case with a shutter speed of 1/160s and gain 10) and then stacks them to obtain a better resolution image. I have cropped the original. This is the raw, unprocessed image - I felt that the one obtained in Stellar Studio looked a bit over sharpened. This is actually how the Moon appears to the naked eye with North up and West to the right. Below, I have annotated one or two features of interest:-

January before last I tried drawing the crater Atlas as I saw it though my 4 inch refractor. Vallis Rheita looks like a tectonic valley but is actually formed from an overlapping chain of impact craters.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

NGC 4631 and NGC 4656 (The Whale and the Hockey Stick)

Last Sunday (the 19th April 2026) the weather was dry and clear and the Moon was two days after new. As we get ever closer to May the twilight impinges more and more on our evening sky. On this particular night astronomical twilight ended at about 22:15 BST, so quite late! My target for this evening was the pair of galaxies NGC 4631 and NGC 4656 in Canes Venatici, nicknamed the Whale and the Hockey Stick. Here is what I obtained after 408x15s (1 hour 42 minutes) of observation on my Dwarf 3:-

The first frame was taken at 21:59 BST and the last at 00:10 on the 20th. The Astro filter was employed and the gain was 60. The image was processed in Stellar Studio with auto settings and the saturation and sharpening were increased in Photoshop. The image is binned x2. For obvious reasons, the Whale Galaxy (NGC 4631) is the one in the upper centre of the frame and the Hockey Stick (NGC 4656) is the one below. Here is an unbinned cropped version of this image:-

The two galaxies do look remarkably like their moniker's. The Whale is an edge-on spiral galaxy and it has a smaller elliptical galaxy NGC 4627 floating above its back. The Hockey Stick galaxy is another edge-on barred spiral galaxy that has been distorted by gravitational interaction with the Whale. In fact both galaxies have been affected by this encounter as star formation has been induced in both. If you look closely at the Hockey Stick (click on the image) you can see a faint band of blue stars stretching off to the left of the blade.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

NGC 4361 (The Lawn Sprinkler Nebula)

On the same night I observed M63 (the 7th April 2026) and before I had my meltdown with the BAA, I had another go at the Deep Sky Section's Object of Interest. For April, this was NGC 4361 which is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Corvus (the crow). This is quite a difficult object to observe because Corvus only scrapes the horizon from our latitudes in the UK. For the first part of my observation (77x15s) I used the Astro filter in the Dwarf 3 (first frame was at 23:37 BST and the last at 00:02 on the 8th). Even then, I was looking through the branches of my neighbour's apple tree! For the second part (240x15s) I used the Duo-Band filter (first frame 00:04 BST and the last 01:18). This was more successful as by then Corvus had moved into uncluttered field of view.

To combine the results I used the majority of the second observation. Then for a small section around the nebula I replaced it with the combined results added together 50:50. Here is the result:-

The nebula is the small bluish object in the centre of the frame (click on the image to get a better view). Here is a crop of the image:-

I am quite pleased with the result. I think the nebula gets its name because it looks like an old-fashioned lawn sprinkler - one which had two arms that were rotated by the pressure of the water. If you can imagine looking down on such a sprinkler from above I think the two arms are at the 11 o'clock and 5 o'clock positions (though the one at the 5 o'clock is more obvious). 

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

New observation of M63 (The Sunflower Galaxy)

M63 in the constellation of Canes Venatici (the hunting dogs) is a magnitude 8.6 spiral galaxy that lies somewhat northwest of the brightest star Cor Caroli. It makes an isosceles triangle with this star and beta Cvn (Chara). I have observed this galaxy before back in 2021 when I used my 4 inch refractor to take some images. This time I wanted to have a go with my Dwarf 3 smartscope. Since the beginning of April we have had a good run of dry sunny weather and two and a half weeks ago, on the 7th April 2026, I obtained this image of the galaxy:-

The image is based on 383x15s (1 hour 35.75 minutes) of observation. The first frame was taken at 21:31 BST and the last at 23:33. Midpoint 22:32 BST. During the exposures the gain was set to 60 and the astro filter was used. Subsequently, the image was processed in Stellar Studio with auto settings. Finally, the saturation and sharpening have been increased in Photoshop and the final image binned x2 (click on the image to see the full-sized version). At this time the moon was 3 days until last quarter and wouldn't rise until 02:26 BST on the 8th.

M63 is a fairly large (12x8 arc minutes) object and contains lots of tightly wound spiral arms. Here is a cropped version of the unbinned image:-

Some of the detail in the centre of the galaxy has been lost due to over exposure but an idea of the tight spiral arms in the lower part of the galaxy can be seen.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

Please do not join the British Astronomical Association

This has been very hard for me as I had been a member of the BAA for about four years now but I have had a very unpleasant experience with them just over a week ago and it convinced me that it was no longer worth my being a member. The problem started when I decided, for the first time, to write something for the BAA to be published. This was an article for the Venus section newsletter, the Messenger. I sent this to the director of the section on the 5th December last year. This had taken me quite a bit of effort and I had been assuming that they would only be too pleased to have someone new contribute to their newsletter (I will publish the article here in full, at some point). What went wrong is the following:-

• After I had emailed the director with my article I introduced myself to him, in person, after a meeting in London on December 6th 2025 but I really felt like he gave me the brush off and had no more time for me than to acknowledge who I was (this wasn't the first time I had an uncomfortable encounter with this person - at a Winchester weekend some years before I had been shood away from joining him and some others at a dining table which was very embarrassing).
• The director didn't get back to me about my article until April 10th and then only a six days before he was going to publish Messenger - so very late.
• He then wanted me to make some very large last minute edits which would have meant I would have lost about half the article (the discussion).
• The reason first offered for this major edit was that he thought something was incorrect, without giving any explanation of why he thought it was so. This is very intimidating. Just try to imagine what this would be like for a person who is a new to the subject and an amateur. I didn't believe there was a mistake.
• I had to defend myself by saying that I had a BSc and PhD in astrophysics and he back-tracked and said that he thought the discussion was going over material that was historic. This was true, but I was mainly counter-acting a throw-away comment that the director himself had made in the BAA journal. It felt to me that he was editing this out because he didn't like me contradicting him.

I then went on to tell him that I thought that his approach and that of the BAA wasn't very caring of amateurs who are trying to contribute to the BAA. It felt like I was being treated as if I was a professional astronomer and had to pass their stringent vetting. I admit I was pretty cross about how I was being treated and told him a home truth - I find a lot of the published output of the BAA to be pretty tedious and mind-numbing.

I decided to take my concerns to the BAA president to get their view on all this and I took my time to explain how I felt and how I thought I was being treated. I tried to appeal to her as someone who was finding it hard, as an amateur, to navigate the BAA. I was even more shocked by her response as it seemed, rather than take on board anything I said, the BAA closed ranks on me:-

• I addressed the president using her first name as I have met her at a meeting but she addressed me suddenly as Mr Hale-Sutton as if I had suddenly stepped over some boundary. Not only that, she referred to the Venus section director as Dr. so and so, but having become formal didn't address me as Dr Hale-Sutton even though I had explicitly said I had a PhD. This seemed cold and insulting to me.
• She referred to my article as 'research' and claimed that articles for the journal and section newsletters needed to be refereed as such. I never claimed my article was research. She also said that "In your case I am aware that several other experienced observers in the field also concurred in the opinion that some more work would be necessary." This is incredibly intimidating and shows how they have closed ranks on me.
• She didn't address the issues of how I had been treated in person, but reflected on how the section director had responded to me in his emails, completely missing the point.
• I had the tables turned on me suggesting that I had not been kind for not understanding the personal issues of the director.
• She missed my point that new amateurs to the subject often can't spend a lot of money on equipment as it is very expensive and therefore it is hard for such amateurs to contribute to the BAA. What it means is that it is a barrier to taking part. 
• There was not one bit of trying to see things from my point of view. I had tried to be reasonable and explain how I felt, but the BAA was stiff and formal. They may have thought I was being deliberately insulting but I was telling them the truth.

This all goes to the heart of the matter. As my friend said to me "I was never sure what the BAA were for." On their web title heading they say "Supporting amateur astronomers since 1890". But they aren't supporting amateurs if they think that all their output is for professional publication. There are enough professional bodies to do this - the Royal Astronomical Society for one. Why don't those who want to do this in the BAA go and join the RAS! It makes the BAA elitist and not open to everyone. They can't satisfy the two ideals at the same time - supporting amateurs whilst trying to be a professional organisation. The trouble is they do neither well - they aren't kind to amateurs and the professional stuff they produce is a bit humdrum and unexciting. No wonder they keep losing their members. Well, they have lost this one for sure!

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

 

Galaxy pair NGC 3718 and NGC 3729

Monday night, the 6th April 2026, clear weather returned to our skies with the waning moon (between full and last quarter) not rising until after midnight. I was looking for something to photograph and settled for the pair of galaxies NGC 3718 and NGC3729 in Ursa Major. They sit just below the bowl of the dipper. Here is what I obtained after 327x15s exposures on the Dwarf 3:-

 

NGC 3718 is the larger of the two galaxies in the centre of the image. NGC 3729 is its neighbour. I used a gain of 70 in the Dwarf and the astro filter. The final image was processed in Stellar Studio (auto settings) and has been binned x2. The saturation and sharpening have been increased in Photoshop. The first frame was taken at 21:28 BST and the last at 23:20 BST, midpoint 22:24. There is another prominent galaxy that can be seen at the far left of the frame and this is NGC 3756.

A portion of the full frame around the central pair is shown below:-

 

This shows how NGC 3718 has been distorted by gravitational interaction (possibly with NGC 3729 as they are roughly at a similar distance - 3718 is at 14.7 Mpc and 3729 is at 20.2 Mpc) and the spiral arms have been drawn out into an extended "S" shape. However, note also that there is a dark dust lane running through the centre of the galaxy so we are seeing it edge on with the arms having been drawn out above and below the plane. This galaxy appears in Arp's catalogue of peculiar galaxies as Arp 214. NGC 3729 is a barred spiral galaxy. Strangely enough, just to the right of the tail of stars in NGC 3718 is another group of interacting galaxies and this is Arp 322 or Hickson 56. These galaxies are much farther away at about 130 Mpc.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

The Rosette Nebula

Two days later on 20th March 2026 (one day after new moon) were were continued to be blessed with clear skies and I was able to observe the large Rosette Nebula in Monoceros. This lies a little below (i.e. south) of the Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Cluster I had observed a few days before. This is what I obtained after 272x15s (68 minutes) on the Dwarf 3:-

 

The first frame was taken at 20:58 UT and the last at 22:56 UT (midpoint 21:42 UT). Here the gain was 60 and duo-band filter employed in the Dwarf 3. Processed in Stellar Studio (auto settings). The image has been binned x2 and the gain and saturation have been increased in Photoshop. 

In the centre of the nebula is a young cluster of stars (NGC 2244, also called Caldwell 50) and these bright stars are illuminating the surrounding nebula (NGC 2239, Caldwell 49). UV light from these stars is ionising hydrogen gas in the nebula and causing the atoms to emit a prominent red line (H alpha) on recombination.  Also seen in this image are denser areas of dust and gas silhouetted against the brighter nebula. These are called Bok Globules and these can be sites where new stars are in the process of being formed.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

Hickson 44 (Leo Quartet)

On the same evening I observed M81 and M82 (the 18th March 2026), I had a go at observing the Hickson 44 galaxy group (also known as the Leo Quartet). These galaxies also appear in the Arp catalogue as Arp 316. What I hadn't anticipated was how small a group these galaxies appear as. Here is the result of 237x15s of observation (just short of an hour) with the Dwarf 3:-

 

The group can be just about made out in the centre of this image. The first frame was taken at 20:36 UT and the last at 21:51 UT. The gain was 60 and the astro filter was employed. Auto settings were used in Stellar Studio (you can click on this image to obtain a larger view). The image has been binned x2. Here is a cropped version of the full size image showing the galaxies in more detail:-

 

Here I have increased the colour saturation and sharpened the image in Photoshop. Moving from left to right we have; the elliptical galaxy NGC 3193 which looks rather stellar like; then the larger edge on spiral galaxy NGC 3190 with its warped central dust lane; above this is the smaller NGC 3187 where again gravitational interaction with other galaxies has stretched its spiral arms into tidal tails; and finally at the bottom right is the barred spiral NGC3185.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026

M81 and M82

The fine weather continued on the following day, the 18th March 2026, (now over a week and a half ago) and I wanted to find another target for observation. The book "The 100 Best Astrophotography Targets" by Ruben Kier (Springer 2009) is a very good book for gaining ideas about what to photograph. This time I decided to go for the galaxies M81 and M82 in Ursa Major (see page 82 of this book). These galaxies are found up near the head of the bear and not far from the star 24 Ursae Majoris. This time I took two sets of images on the Dwarf 3. One of 136x15s using the astro filter (first frame 23:01 UT and last 23:42 UT) and one of 201x15s using the duo-band filter (first frame 22:00 UT and last 22:59 UT), both gain 60. The ones with the duo-band filter were to capture the red emission light that can be seen in M82 due to the burst of star formation in that galaxy. Here is my resulting image:-

 

M82 (the Cigar Galaxy) is at the top of this image and M81 (Bode's Galaxy) is at the bottom (to obtain a better view please 'click' on the image). The majority of this image is the set of frames which used the astro filter. Just a small portion of this image around M82 is using the duo band filter. Both sets were processed in Stellar Studio with auto parameters. The combined result has been binned x2 and the saturation and sharpening increased in Photoshop. Here is a close up of M82 at the full resolution of the Dwarf:-

 

The strange shape of this galaxy becomes more apparent. M81 and M82 have gravitationally interacted about 20 million years ago and this has caused the deformation and burst of star formation that you see. In deeper images the red light appears to be exploding outwards either side of the galaxy from the centre. Here is a close up of M81:-

 

This is a very nicely defined spiral galaxy and, interestingly, contains an active galactic nucleus resulting from a black hole of 70 million solar masses. What can also just about be made out in this image is another much fainter satellite galaxy of M81, Holmberg IX or UGC 5336. This is a faint but fairly large dwarf irregular galaxy.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

Venus is back in the evening sky

 

On the same evening that I captured the Leo Triplet of galaxies (March 17th) I also took a picture of Venus in the evening sky about 45 minutes after sunset. This planet was at superior conjunction on the 6th January 2026 and is now moving eastwards from the Sun and will be gaining altitude each night after sunset. It will reach its greatest elongation east on August 14th 2026. Between now and August its phase will go from gibbous to half and it will be increasing in apparent diameter as it approaches the earth. Hopefully I should be able to carry out some further observations of this planet in the evening sky as I did last year.

This picture was taken on a Sony RX100 (1/10s ISO 1600) at 18:54 UT. 

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026  

Leo Triplet of Galaxies

A week ago on March 17, the clear skies continued to be available and I decided to have a go at observing the Leo Triplet of galaxies consisting M 65, M 66 and NGC 3628. I have observed this trio before (see below) but I wanted to try this time with the Dwarf 3. It was two days to new moon at this time and the skies were nice and dark. Here is what I obtained after 459x15s (nearly 2 hours) of observation:-

 

M65 is in the centre of the frame. M66 is to the lower left of it and NCG 3628 (the Hamburger Galaxy) to the upper right. The other prominent galaxy at the far right of the image is NGC 3593. Here the gain was set to 60 and the astro filter was employed in the Dwarf 3. The image was subsequently processed in Stellar Studio using auto settings. Binned x2 and sharpened slightly in Photoshop. The first frame was taken at 20:07 UT and the last at 22:57 UT. Midpoint 21:32 UT. This group of galaxies also appears in Halton Arp's catalogue of peculiar galaxies (Arp 317).

Almost exactly ten years ago I obtained this image using my Celestron NexStar 102 SLT:-

 

This was 11 minutes of exposure (22x30s) using a D90 at prime focus (ISO 3200) and was taken on the 5th April 2016. There is obviously a problem with pink halos around the stars. For comparison I have rotated, scaled and cropped my Dwarf 3 image above to match this and this is the result:-

 

To get the same exposure on the Dwarf as 11 minutes on a 102mm aperture telescope I would need (102/35)²x11 = 93 minutes (around an hour and a half). I have gone a bit deeper than this but currently I think I know which telescope I would rather be using!

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

The Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Cluster

In the constellation of Monoceros (The Unicorn) and not far from the border with Taurus and Orion is a large area of nebulosity that contains the open cluster NGC 2264 which has been dubbed the Christmas Tree Cluster. Just below this is a darker area of gas and dust which is called the Cone Nebula. I have tried a few times to image this with the Dwarf 3 but my most successful attempt came a week ago on the 14th March (one day after looking at M101). Here is what I obtained after 506x15s (just over two hours) of observation (you can 'click' on this image to see it in more detail):-

 

All auto settings were used on the Dwarf (which includes using the duo band filter) and in Stellar Studio. The image has been binned x2 and the gain and saturation increased slightly in Photoshop. The first frame was taken at 20:00 UT and the last at 22:46 UT. Midpoint 21:23 UT. 

The Cone Nebula is quite obvious from its shape at the bottom centre of this picture. The Christmas Tree Cluster is the group of bright blue stars that can be seen above this and are responsible for creating the red emission that covers a lot of this frame. There is also a smaller patch of blue reflection nebula. The shape of the Christmas Tree is not so easy to see in this orientation where north is roughly up. The base of the tree is the near brightest star in the centre of the field and its 'topper' is the blue star just above the tip of the Cone Nebula. I have rotated (through 180 degrees) and cropped the original image so that the shape is more obvious:-

Certainly, it looks to me like the nebula provides the shape of the fir tree and the cluster stars are the shining lights and ornaments. However, the stars do seem to make a tree shape in themselves with the brightest star being the bole of tree.

I like the fact that the full frame image contains patches of dark nebulae against a glowing background of red emission light and this is particularly noticeable in the top right (see the image at the top of this blog).

I said that I had tried to image this cluster before and I just want to refer to this. The first time was on the 11th March where I decided to attempt using the Dwarf in EQ (or equatorial) mode. This was supposed to enable you to take longer exposures than 15s and I attempted frames of 60s. However, out of 120 frames that I took 84 failed for one reason or another and I haven't yet got to the bottom of it. I suspect the longer exposure meant that either more satellites were captured crossing the field of view or the tracking wasn't up to scratch.

Anyway, here is the resulting 36x60s image:-

 

Here I used the duo-band filter and the gain was set to 70. Auto settings were used in Stellar Studio. The first frame was taken at 21:03 UT and the last at 22:54 UT. Again I have increased the gain and saturation somewhat in Photoshop. The image is binned x2. You can see that the red emission has not come out so strongly in this shorter overall exposure. However, what EQ mode does give you is a larger image in the vertical direction. This is because the frames are not suffering from the field rotation you get in Alt-Az mode. Also the star in the centre of the fame has come out a lot bluer in this image. EQ mode is a better way to go provided that the frame rejection rate comes down. Perhaps a 30s exposure would be better.

I also had a go at this cluster on the 13th March but I made the mistake of using the Visual filter (which wouldn't get me any of the red emission light). Here is the resulting 53x15s image:-

 

Here the gain was 60. The first frame was taken at 21:41 UT and the last at 21:58 UT. Again I have increased the gain and saturation somewhat in Photoshop. The image is binned x2.  Notice that the blue reflection nebula does come out quite well.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy

The good weather has continued recently and last Friday, the 13th March, we again had a good clear dark night (the moon was two days past last quarter). I thought I would try another object I haven't imaged before and this was Messier 101 - a face on spiral galaxy in the constellation of Ursa Major. The galaxy makes an equilateral triangle with the two end stars of the bear's tail, Alioth and Mizar. After 472x15s this is what I obtained:-

You can see a larger version of this image if you 'click' on it. You can see the well-displayed spiral arms of this galaxy with its blue patches of newly formed stars. The galaxy is relatively nearby at 21 million light years from us (compare this to the 2.5 million light years distance of the Andromeda galaxy). All auto settings were used on the Dwarf (this includes the astro filter) and in Stellar Studio. The image has been binned x2 and the gain and saturation increased slightly in Photoshop. The first frame was taken at 22:08 UT and the last at 00:28 UT on the 14th. Midpoint 23:18.

There are a number of other smaller galaxies in the same field of view and below I include an annotated version of this image.

 All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026

Galaxies NGC 4460 and NGC 4449

The BAA Deep Sky Section's object of interest for this month is the lenticular galaxy NGC 4460 and it was suggested that if we wanted to try it we could include the irregular galaxy NGC 4449 in the same field of view. I enjoy these challenges as I like to see what I can achieve with my Dwarf 3 smartscope. On the 10th March we had some more clearish weather and the moon was then one day from last quarter. There was some intermittent cloud which caused a few of the images to be rejected. After 466x15s I obtained this image (centred on the point midway between the two galaxies):-

 

NGC 4460 is the lens-shaped object that lies near the bright star in the upper centre of this frame (the star is actually a double). The irregular starburst galaxy NGC4449 (also called the Box Galaxy) is right of centre and the brightest galaxy in this image (you can 'click' on this image to see a larger version of it). The first 15s frame was taken at 20:55 UT and the last at 23:33 UT. Midpoint 22:14 UT. Auto parameters were used in the Dwarf 3 and in processing the final image in Stellar Studio. There are a number of other galaxies that appear in this image and so below I have produced a version where I have labelled them all:-

 All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026

Messier 78 - a reflection nebula in Orion

Since the beginning of March we have had an improving weather prospect with the cloudy wet weather being left behind in January and February. Exactly two weeks ago, on the 3rd March, we had some clear skies to play with, all be it with a full moon that rose at 18:38 UT. Astronomical twilight on this date ended about 19:20 UT. The BAA Journal for February (Vol. 136, No. 1) had a nice picture of M78 and as I haven't imaged this object before I thought I would give it a go. I started observing with my Dwarf 3 at 19:39 UT and finished at 21:46 and this is what I obtained in 364x15s:-

 

This object is in Orion and lies to the north of Orion's belt. It is part of the Orion B Molecular Cloud Complex and it is illuminated by two hot B-type stars (see image below). You can see in this image how there is a dearth of stars running down the middle of the frame. This is because the cloud of dust and gas is blotting out the stars that are behind it. To produce the image auto parameters were used in the Dwarf and in the processing in Stellar Studio. The image has been binned x2 and the gain and the saturation increased slightly in Photoshop.

 

The areas of diffuse nebula around M78 are quite complex and the above image is a crop of the original unbinned image from the Dwarf 3. As well as M78 and its two illuminating B-type stars there are also NGC2071, NGC2067 and NGC 2064. Interestingly there is also a variable patch of illumination called McNeil's Nebula (marked) which at the moment cannot be seen. It was discovered in 2004 by Jay McNeil using a 3 inch telescope.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026