Hunter Wilson: Recently Added Galleries and Collections

Galaxies

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Galaxies are seperate star systems like our Milky Way and contain hundreds of millions/billions of stars. The distances to them are incredible and humbling. If distances within our own galaxy are measured in hundreds or thousands of light years (which in and of itself is mind boggling), how about hundreds of millions of light years to some of these? There are probably around 100 billion galaxies in the universe. Big enough neighborhood for you?

Before Edwin Hubble postulated in 1923 that "Spiral Nebulae" were actually seperate galaxies at vast distances, they were thought to be structures within our own Milky Way and the Milky Way was our entire Universe.

Galaxies are classified by shape - Spiral (with subtypes), Elliptical, and Irregular.

Galaxies,with the exception of a few like the great Andromeda Galaxy, M31, are small and dim. You are lucky to have one at magnitude 8 or 9 to image, and most are far fainter.

Recognized and Published Images

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Images of mine that have been selected to be published or honored in other ways.

While competition is not my main reason for imaging, it is nice to know where you stand among other imagers and have your work recognized once in a while.

While I try to keep up with the links to other websites from this collection, I have no control over the other sites and sometimes either the links go inactive or change without notice. I apologize for any dead links that you may find here as time goes on.

Planetary Nebulae

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Planetary Nebulae are shells of gas thrown off by stars at the end of their lives. The resulting shell is excited to illumination by intense radiation from the star of origin.

Galaxies

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Emission, Reflection, and Absorption Nebulae

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

An emission nebula is a cloud of ionized gas. The most common source for ionizations are high energy photons emitted from a nearby star. These can be among some of the most colorful objects in the sky.

Reflection Nebulae are clouds of dust which are simply reflecting the light of a nearby star or stars. The nearby star or stars are not hot enough to cause ionization in the gas of the nebula like in emission nebulae but are bright enough to give sufficient scattering to make the dust visible.

Besides the luminous bright nebulae, there are dark or absorption nebulae which can be seen because they obscure, or absorb, the light coming from stars or bright nebulae behind them. A famous example is the Horsehead Nebula.

These images will frequently be taken with a widefield scope like my Orion ED80, and almost always with some type of enhancing filter like my Astronomik CLS in order to allow these wonderful objects to show their best.

Nebulae

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The Messier Objects

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

As I image the Messier objects, I will add them to this collection. Some of the objects will not be the featured object in the image and will simply be found there along with something else - like the Bubble Nebula image.

During the years from 1758 to 1782 Charles Messier, a French astronomer (1730 - 1817), compiled a list of approximately 100 diffuse objects that were difficult to distinguish from comets through the telescopes of the day. Discovering comets was the way to make a name for yourself in astronomy in the 18th century -- Messier's first aim was to catalog the objects that were often mistaken for comets.

Fortunately for us, the Messier Catalog became well known for a much higher purpose, as a collection of the most beautiful objects in the sky including nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies. It was one of the first major milestones in the history of the discovery of Deep Sky objects, as it was the first more comprehensive and more reliable list: Only four or five objects were initially missing because of data reduction errors, which could be figured out later though. Today's versions of the catalog usually include also later additions of objects observed by Charles Messier and his collegial friend, Pierre Méchain, but not included in his original list. The study of these objects by astronomers has led, and continues to lead, to important, incredible discoveries such as the life cycles of stars, the reality of galaxies as separate 'island universes,' and the possible age of the universe.

(From SEDS)

10-30-09 Ashland at Lexington

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:47:06 GMT

Links Elsewhere

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

JV 10-3-09 Madison at Lexington

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:17:08 GMT

10-2-09 Lexington at Madison

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 18:36:49 GMT

Globular Clusters

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Globular clusters are very tighly bound, spherical collections of stars that orbit the galactic core in a satellite relationship. Globular clusters, which are found in the halo of a galaxy, contain many more stars and are much older than the less dense open cluster, which are found within the substance proper of the galaxy.

According to some sources, the Milky Way contains about 150 globular clusters. Larger galaxies like M31 in Andromeda may contain as many as 500, and some giant elliptical galaxies like M87 may contain 10,000 of these tightly bound clots of stars.

Globuar clusters contain, generally, the oldest stars in the galaxy.

Earlier images are taken on an Atlas EQ-G mount with EQMOD software and an EQDIR adapter using PHD guiding.

9-25-09 Clearfork at Lexington

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 13:21:07 GMT

9-18-09 Lexington at Orrville

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:02:46 GMT

God Bless you Shaq. We'll all be cheering for you as you get better.

Experimental

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

9-11-09 North Canton Hoover at Lexington

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:49:20 GMT

9-10-09 Madison at Lexington

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 13:09:46 GMT

9-10-09 Orrville at Lexington

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 03:46:25 GMT

9-08-09 Madison at Lexington

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:57:05 GMT

JV 9-08-09 Madison at Lexington

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 03:16:51 GMT