The Running Man NGC 1977) and Orion Nebula (Messier 42) are visible to the naked eye about 1,400 light years away in the constellation Orion. They are the closest region of active massive star formation to Earth. Color images are created by taking individual images with a monochrome camera through separate luminance, red, green and blue filters. Since the objects have very low brightness, multiple long exposures are used to create the final image. A tracking mount that compensates for the earth's rotation prevents star trailing during the long exposures. Camera Santa Barbara Instuments Group STL11000M Telescope Astro-Physics 130mm EDFS f6 Focal Length 780mm Aperture f6 Exposure Time Luminance 9 x 5 min (total 1.75 hr) Red 4 X 5 min Green 4 x 5 min Blue 4 x 5 min Taken 2/26/2009 Image by Tom Auchter
The Eyes Galaxies (NGC 4435 and NGC 4438) are gravitationally interacting lenticular galaxies about 52 million light years away in the constellation Virgo. Also in the image are a near edge-on spiral galaxy (NGC 4402), an elliptical galaxy (Messier 86) and other faint galaxies. All are members of the Virgo Cluster of up to 2,000 galaxies. Color images are created by taking individual images with a monochrome camera through separate luminance, red, green and blue filters. Since the objects have very low brightness, multiple long exposures are used to create the final image. A tracking mount that compensates for the earth's rotation prevents star trailing during the long exposures. Camera Santa Barbara Instuments Group STL11000M Telescope RC Optical Systems 12.5in f9 Focal Length 2858mm Aperture f9 Exposure Time Luminance 11 x 15 min (total 6.5 hr) Red 5 x 15 min Green 5 x 15 min Blue 5 x 15 min Date taken 4/15/2009 - 4/16/2009 Image by Tom Auchter
Colorful sunset viewed through bur oak branches in winter. Image by Les Eastwood
