Omega Centauri

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NGC 5139 – Omega Centauri Globular Cluster – OSC v1

And one more. ;-) Of course, Omega Centauri aka NGC 5139 is a jewel in the southern sky and a go-to-target. So Omega Centauri’s photons were the “first light” for the ASI 2600 MC Duo on the AK3 astrograph, but I messed up focussing and had to redo it later.

All three globular clusters here in the blog were processed in PixInsight and Lightroom with the same color calibration and processing steps. Interestingly enough, their appearance varies quite a bit!

Also compare this with be previous image of Omega Centauri.

More details at Astrobin.

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Flickering Globular Cluster

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Messier 62 – Flickering Globular Cluster in Ophiuchus – OSC v2

Another globular cluster, only about 9 degrees from M4 towards the constellation Ophiuchus, Messier 62 or NGC 6266 against the dense background star field of the Milky Way.

More details at Astrobin.

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Spider Globular Cluster

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Messier 4 – Spider Globular Cluster in Scorpius – OSC v3

More processed OSC data with the ASI 2600 MC Duo and the IAS 20″ telescope AK3, featuring the globular cluster Messier 4 aka NGC 6121.

Notable change to my previously shown OSC workflow: I used “K2V star” as the white reference for SpectrophotometricColorCalibration. Standard “Average spiral galaxy” yielded stars, which were too “golden” for my taste, thus this bluer/colder rendition.

See also at Astrobin.

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Dellbrückentag – Mehr Impressionen

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Dellbrückentag 2025 – Doppel im Viertel

Dellbrückentag – Doppel im Viertel – Von Schaufenster zu Schaufenster

Ausstellungsrundgang zu Fotos von Rebecca Peetz mit „Kulturpaaren“ aus Architektur, Bildung, Fotografie, Literatur und Medien sowie (viel) Musik. Fand am Freitag, 30. Mai 2025 statt.

Die komplette kleine Serie findet sich hier unter Gallery > Photography > Köln > Dellbrückentag 2025.

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Dellbrückentag – Doppel im Viertel

DE, DE-NW, K, NRW, cologne, dellbrück, dellbrückentag, deutschland, ereignisse, events, germany, köln, nordrhein-westfalen, northrhine-westfalia, stadtbezirk 9 - mülheim, world
Dellbrückentag 2025 – Doppel im Viertel

Dellbrückentag – Doppel im Viertel

Ausstellungsrundgang zu Fotos von Rebecca Peetz mit „Kulturpaaren“ aus Architektur, Bildung, Fotografie, Literatur und Medien sowie (viel) Musik. Fand am Freitag, 30. Mai 2025 statt.

Die komplette kleine Serie findet sich hier unter Gallery > Photography > Köln > Dellbrückentag 2025.

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Cometary Globules CG 8 and 9

astrofotografie, astronomie, astronomy, astrophotography, cg8, cg9, cometary globule, deep sky, emission nebula, emissionsnebel, puppis, star, stars, stern, sterne
CG 8 and 9 – Cometary Globules in Puppis – OSC v1

Continuing with the cometary globules, CG 8 and 9 were captured on-site at the IAS observatory Hakos with the 20″ Newtonian Astrograph AK3 and a new ASI 2600 MC Duo camera, which works quite nicely with this scope.

One more step on the long way to complete the CG catalog here. Most of the CGs are in Puppis, which meanwhile sets quite early in the southern hemisphere night.

Details at Astrobin.

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Supernova SN 2024abfo Final Data

Lightcurve of SN 2024abfo from 17 Nov to 11 Apr 2025
Lightcurve of SN 2024abfo from 17 Nov to 11 Apr 2025

Supernova SN 2024abfo‘s brightness increased steadily from our first measurement at 16.91 mag on 17 Nov 2024 until peak brightness was reached during the night 06 Dec 2024, at 13.81 mag, more than fifteenfold. Meanwhile, brightness is back at 16.73 mag on 11 Apr 2025 (all values median mag of the dataset).

Discovery by ATLAS (ATLAS-STH_ATLAS-03) on 15 Nov 2024 reported a brightness of 16.79 mag with filter “orange-ATLAS”, measurements by Pan-STARRS (PS1_GPC1) two days later on 17 Nov 2024 reported 16.63 mag with filter “i-P1”.

Our amateur measurement with 137 datasets in total now cover a period of 146 days, quite an achievement I’d say. ;-)

Due to using an L filter (Baader UV/IR cut) and not a V band filter, the measurements here overestimate the brightness by approx. 0.2 mag. With almost full moon and low altitude (meanwhile NGC 1493 is setting quite early), the last two measurement have a higher uncertainty, up to 0.08 mag.

IAS – Internationale Amateursternwarte e.V. – Hakos Observatory, Namibia
IAS remote telescope “Dieter”
Data aquisition by Martin Junius and Stephan Messner.
Technical details see previous post. Photometry measurements with L filter.

Partial Solar Eclipse 2025-03-29

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Partial Solar Eclipse 2025-03-29 11:14 UT

Scattered clouds, but good views of the partial solar eclipse in-between at home in Cologne, Germany.

Telescope: Skywatcher Esprit 100/550 ED, Televue 2x
Camera: ASI2600MC Duo
Filter: Baader ASTF 100
Mount: Skywatcher AZ EQ6 GT
Image acquisition: SharpCap, 25 of 250 frames, 7 ms exposure at gain 0
Image processing: PixInsight, Lightroom