Discovered by Antoine Darquier de Pellepoix in 1779, the famous ring nebula Messier 57 (M57, NGC 6720) is often regarded as the prototype of a planetary nebula, and a showpiece in the northern hemisphere summer sky.

Peter Schluck, an imager from Germany has been gracious enough to send us his capture of the stunning planet sized, white dwarf, star and surrounding hydrogen mix. Recorded with his DMK 21AU04.AS from The Imaging Source and a 17.5 inch f4.5 Newtonian reflector, Mr. Schluck stacked 300 images to complete his final picture.

Exquisite Peter! Please keep them coming!

profjohn

Following the recent solar eclipse, we have started receiving a good number of photos. For example, the one below was submitted by Bernhard Christ.

He writes (translated from German):

The following image was captured with a PST (Personal Solar Telescope) on August 01, 2008 at 11:40 CET, using a DMK 31AF03.AS astronomy camera. 300 images were stacked, using RegiStax. The solar flare was captured separately and added to the final image.

Below is the partial eclipse (click for the original):

If you have a solar photo, captured with one of The Imaging Source astronomy cameras, please send it to us! The best ones will be displayed here in the blog.

UPDATED August 25, 2008: Take a look at this post for more links of images, showing the eclipse.

Many inquires hit my desk regarding the magnification using a specific telescope with The Imaging Source astronomy cameras. I generally rephrase these questions for the client, but instead, answer with the angular fields of view corresponding to The Imaging Source cameras.

Unfortunately, this is not such an easy question to answer even when all of the scope parts are included in the system.

As a good reference article, below is a “conversation” between me and Tommy Hartline, a long time user of The Imaging Source cameras, regarding his DMK 31AF03.AS.

Tommy:

Hi John, took a good shot of Jupiter last friday showing the GRS and a oval below it! maybe it can be added to the blog. I used the DBK 31AF03.AS, thanks in advance.

Me:

Send me the pic or the link…I’d like to take a look!

Tommy:

This is one I took Friday night John [see above]. I can send you the full tiff image if you like this one. Thanks, if this one doesn’t open for you (I’m at work) I’ll send you one from home.

Me:

Not necessary. This is good. I have another customer that just inquired about the field of view vs telescope. Could you supply me with the parts [including the DBK 31AF03.AS] you used to get the images and the processing for the finished product [...]

Tommy:

Sure John, here ya go:
Scope: celestron CPC800 XLT / GPS
Camera: The Imaging Source DBK 31AF03.AS High res color
Barlow : 2x barlow / IR Filter
2200 frames @ 15 fps
Processed : Registax 4 / Photoshop CS2
Burleson Texas U.S.A. / 23:00 Hrs - 08/01/2008
Seeing conditions where just above average.

Thanks Again John!!

It’s always good to give credit where credit is do! Great job Tommy!

profjohn

Joel Warren from Amarillo, TX, USA wrote in recently:

Jupiter has been a tough target for imagers in the N. Hemisphere, but I’ve still managed some decent results with my DBK 21AF04.AS. These animations were made with an 8 inch scope and 2x barlow. Here is [an animation] showing the entire transit of Europa across Jupiter on 08-01-2008:

And here [an animation] 08-02-2008 showing 1 hours worth of rotation

Efrain Morales has been hard at work again, capturing some of the best Jupiter images that we receive on a regular basis.

He writes:

I’m sending you these animations (my first) of Jupiter taken recently and a photo of one of the still sequences that i created one of the images. [..] The GIF animation degrades the images due to colors going from millions to only 256. Hope you like it. Clear Skies

Below the composite image and annotation: