2. Astronomy

NIGHT OVER ONTARIO

These photos were taken by Lynn Hilborn of Grafton, Ontario.
Pictures have appeared on the cover and inside editions of SkyNews magazine and in Sky & Telescope and Astronomy magazine, and as NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day.

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Barnard's Merope Nebula IC 349 in M45<br /> Image taken by Lynn Hilborn, WhistleStop Obs,Grafton, Ontario. on November 7, 2013. TEC 140 @f5.3 and ML8300 camera with Baader filters. LRGB L 16x45s, RGB 15x30s all binned 1x1.<br /> In 1890, American astronomer E. E. Barnard, observing visually with the Lick Observatory 36-inch telescope in California, discovered an exceptionally bright nebulosity adjacent to the bright Pleiades star Merope. IC349 is a very small object, about 20 arc seconds across. "Barnard's Merope Nebula." IC 349 is so bright because it lies extremely close to Merope -- only about 3,500 times the separation of the Earth from the Sun, or about 0.06 light-year -- and thus is strongly illuminated by the star's light.<br /> <br /> NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught the eerie, wispy tendrils of this dark interstellar cloud being destroyed by the passage of one of the brightest stars in the Pleiades star cluster. Like a flashlight beam shining off the wall of a cave, the star is reflecting light off the surface of pitch black clouds of cold gas laced with dust - these are called reflection nebulae.
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Barnard's Merope Nebula IC 349 in M45
Image taken by Lynn Hilborn, WhistleStop Obs,Grafton, Ontario. on November 7, 2013. TEC 140 @f5.3 and ML8300 camera with Baader filters. LRGB L 16x45s, RGB 15x30s all binned 1x1.
In 1890, American astronomer E. E. Barnard, observing visually with the Lick Observatory 36-inch telescope in California, discovered an exceptionally bright nebulosity adjacent to the bright Pleiades star Merope. IC349 is a very small object, about 20 arc seconds across. "Barnard's Merope Nebula." IC 349 is so bright because it lies extremely close to Merope -- only about 3,500 times the separation of the Earth from the Sun, or about 0.06 light-year -- and thus is strongly illuminated by the star's light.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught the eerie, wispy tendrils of this dark interstellar cloud being destroyed by the passage of one of the brightest stars in the Pleiades star cluster. Like a flashlight beam shining off the wall of a cave, the star is reflecting light off the surface of pitch black clouds of cold gas laced with dust - these are called reflection nebulae.

  • Sharpless Sh2-86 (far right), Sh2-87, Sh2-88 (middle), Sh2-89 and Sh2-90 (bottom left).<br /> Canon 200 mm f2.8 lens and ML8300 camera. Taken by Lynn Hilborn, WhistleStop Obs,Grafton,Ontario<br /> on July 04,05 and 15,2014.<br /> All binned 1x1, RGB 12x 5m each, Lum 16x10m, Ha 5x15m.
  • NGC 188... One of the most ancient open clusters, NGC 188 in the constellation Cepheus,is masked by galactic cirrus less than 5 degrees from Polaris. It was discovered by John Herschel in 1825. Unlike most open clusters that drift apart after a few million years because of the gravitational interaction of our galaxy, NGC 188 lies far above the plane of the galaxy and is one of the most ancient of open clusters known, at approximately 5 billion years old.<br /> <br /> Astronomy Magazine, Picture of the Day, January 7,2015.<br /> <br /> Image taken by Lynn Hilborn, WhistleStop Obs,Grafton, Ontario on May 24,2014. TEC 140 @f5.3 and ML8300 camera.<br /> Lum 7x10m bin 1x1, RGB 12x5m each.
  • Andromeda Core
  • Globular Clusters and a small PN. Astronomy Magazine Picture of the Day Nov7 2014.<br /> M11 Wild Duck cluster (center right), M26 (lower left), NGC 6712 (upper left) with small green Planetary Nebula IC1295 just above NGC 6712.<br /> 200mm f2.8 lens and FLI ML8300 camera with Baader filters, taken by Lynn Hilborn, WhistleStop Obs, Grafton, Ontario.<br /> July 22,23 25 and August 04,2014.<br /> Lum bin 1x1 12x10m, RGB bin 1x1 each 8x5m, OIII bin 1x1 2x10m.
  • Sadr (Gamma Cygni) and the Crescent nebula.<br /> Astronomy Magazine Picture of the Day Nov 30, 2016.<br /> Canon 200mm f2.8 lens at f3.5, ML8300 camera. Image taken by Lynn Hilborn,WhistleStop Obs, Grafton,Ontario<br /> September 6,16,18,2014. RGB 18x5m each 1x1, Ha 7x30m 1x1.
  • Lovejoy visits the Sisters<br /> Comet Lovejoy passes by the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters. Note how much the tail has changed from the previous picture 9 days earlier.<br /> Taken by Lynn Hilborn, January 16,2015, New Smyrna Beach, Florida.<br /> Canon 6D modified, Canon 135mm f2 @ f2.8, modified Polarie mount 5x2minutes.
  • Markarian's Chain with galactic cirrus.... TEC140 @f5.3, FLI ML8300 camera with Baader filters on Tak NJP mount. Taken by Lynn Hilborn, WhistleStop Obs, Grafton, Ontario on April 1 and April 2, 2014.<br /> 4 hours of luminance with 10m exposures binned 1x1, and 3 hours RGB, one hour each 5 min exposures bin 2x2.
  • CTB1,Sh2-173,Sh2-168,Sh2-169,NGC7788, NGC7790 area in Caph<br /> Canon 200mm f2.8 at f 3.5, ML8300 camera. Data taken Sept 23,24,2014 by Lynn Hilborn,WhistleStop Obs,Grafton,Ontario.<br /> RGB 18x5m 1x1, Ha 5x30m 1x1
  • Crescent Nebula NGC6888. TEC140 @f7 ML8300 camera. Ha and OIII with RGB stars.<br /> RGB 12x5m each bin 2x2, Ha 9x30m bin 1x1, OIII 6x30m bin 1x1. <br /> Imaged and processed by Lynn Hilborn, WhistleStop Obs, Grafton,Ontario.<br /> <br /> Discovered in 1792 by Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel, the Crescent Nebula (NGC6888, Caldwell 27, LBN 203, Sharpless 105), also known as "Van Gogh's Ear" is a magnitude 7.40 emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus (The Swan). It is formed by the violently fast stellar winds emanating from a Wolf-Rayet star (WR 136, HD192163) colliding with the slower gases that were shed by the same star many thousands of years ago when it was a red giant. The gaseous shell is approximately 25 light-years across and 5,000 light-years distant. It is predicted that the central Wolf-Rayet star will eventually explode into a supernova in approximately 100,000 years.
  • Supernova Remnant Abell 85, CTB-1. TEC 140 @ f 5.3 and FLI ML8300 camera. Ha 15 x 30 minutes bin 1x1, OIII 8 x 30 minutes bin 2x2. Taken by Lynn Hilborn, WhistleStop Obs, Grafton,Ontario on August 4,5,10,2013. Astronomy Magazine Photo of the Day . Reprocessed July 2014.<br /> Abell 85, aka CTB 1, or LBN576, is a large supernova remnant (SNR) located in Cassiopeia. Originally catalogued by George Abell as a planetary nebula, it soon became evident that it was actually a SNR. It was also recognized as a radio source and acquired the alternative designation CTB 1. Abell 85 has relatively weak [OIII] and H-Beta emission compared to the "traditional" supernova-remnant lines of H-alpha, [NII], and [SII]. For visual observers, the gain in contrast using [O III] and H-Beta filters appears to be minimal. In fact, this object is often considered as one of the most challenging for visual observation [Ultimate challenges] and remains a good test for CCD photography.
  • Horsehead and Flame nebula. All shot in one night, February 06,2013 RGB binned 2x2 8x5min each plus Ha binned 1x1 6x 20m. TEC 140 @ f7, ML8300 camera with baader filters and Tak NJP Temma2 mount.<br /> Taken by Lynn Hilborn, WhistleStop Obs, Grafton, Ontario. Picture featured full page SkyNews July/August 2013.<br /> The Horsehead (Barnard 33) Distance: 1500 Light Years<br /> Right Ascension: 05 : 41.6 (hours : minutes)<br /> Declination: -02 : 14 (degrees : minutes)<br /> Earthly dust may seem insignificant and trivial but the cosmic kind is an all important constituent of matter in the universe and is essential to the star making process. The famous Horsehead Nebula represents a dark cloud of dust and non-luminous gas which obscures and silhouettes the emitted light of IC 434 behind it. IC 434 has in turn received all its energy from the bright star Sigma Orionis. Protruding from its parental cloud, the horsehead is really a dynamic structure and a fascinating laboratory of complex physics. As it expands into the surrounding environment areas of the cloud sustain stresses which trigger the formation of low mass stars. One infant star is visible as a partly shrouded glow in horse's brow. Small reddish objects glowing through the dust represent Herbig-Haro objects, light emission of material ejected from invisible protostars.<br /> The surrounding region also contains a multitude of different objects all unique in their own right. The bright emission nebula in the lower left is NGC 2024 (the flame nebula). Infrared studies have revealed a huge cluster of infant stars hidden behind the dust and gas of NGC 2024. The bright blue reflection nebula to the lower left of the Horsehead is NGC 2023. Interstellar dust reveals its presence by blocking light emitted from stars or nebulae behind it. Dust is composed mostly of carbon, silicon, oxygen and some heavier elements. Even organic compounds have been detected.<br /> NGC 2023 Distance: 1530 Light Years<br /> NGC 2023 is one of the brightest reflection nebulae in the sky and is located just east of the Horsehead nebula forming a thin blister at the edge of the molecular cloud L1630. The B type star HD37903, with a surface temperature of 22,000 degrees, is responsible for most of the excitation of gas and dust within NGC 2023 and lies in front of the molecular cloud. A unique feature of NGC 2023 is the presence of a shell of neutral hydrogen (H2) surrounding HD37903 out to a radius of about 0.65 light years. The shell amazingly emits light not by photoionization of hydrogen but by a unique process called vibrational fluorescence. It is the first reflection nebula known to exhibit this type of phenomenon. In addition to the reflection component, a number of Herbig-Haro objects (HH) which are associated with pre-main-sequence stars exist in the surrounding dust clouds. Two HH objects, HH4 and HH5 in the southeastern part of the nebula are illuminated by a star designated star C. Star C is thought to be a T-Tauri star. NGC 2023 is evidently an active region of star formation.<br /> Text by Robert Gendler.
  • Rho Ophiuchi ... Antares, M4 globular cluster with both emission and reflection nebula . Taken in Aruba with modified Canon 6d and Canon 135mm f2 lens @f2.8. 20 exposures x 60seconds each shot at 800 ISO. Object tracked with iOpton ZEQ25 mount. Taken by Lynn Hilborn, February 04, 2014 in Arikok National Park, Aruba.<br /> <br /> Cover Picture SkyNews magazine, May/June 2014.
  • NGC2207 and IC2163 interacting galaxies....Hubble Space Telescope data from the Hubble Legacy Archive - a mosaic processed by Lynn Hilborn, April 10,2013.<br /> <br /> In the direction of the constellation Canis Major, two spiral galaxies pass by each other like majestic ships in the night. The near-collision has been caught in images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and its Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.<br /> <br /> The larger and more massive galaxy is cataloged as NGC 2207 (on the left in the Hubble Heritage image), and the smaller one on the right is IC 2163. Strong tidal forces from NGC 2207 have distorted the shape of IC 2163, flinging out stars and gas into long streamers stretching out a hundred thousand light-years toward the right-hand edge of the image.<br /> <br /> The calculations indicate that IC 2163 is swinging past NGC 2207 in a counterclockwise direction, having made its closest approach 40 million years ago. However, IC 2163 does not have sufficient energy to escape from the gravitational pull of NGC 2207, and is destined to be pulled back and swing past the larger galaxy again in the future.<br /> <br /> The high resolution of the Hubble telescope image reveals dust lanes in the spiral arms of NGC 2207, clearly silhouetted against IC 2163, which is in the background. Hubble also reveals a series of parallel dust filaments extending like fine brush strokes along the tidally stretched material on the right-hand side. The large concentrations of gas and dust in both galaxies may well erupt into regions of active star formation in the near future.<br /> <br /> Trapped in their mutual orbit around each other, these two galaxies will continue to distort and disrupt each other. Eventually, billions of years from now, they will merge into a single, more massive galaxy. It is believed that many present-day galaxies, including the Milky Way, were assembled from a similar process of coalescence of smaller galaxies occurring over billions of years. Text from NASA. Data from the Hubble Legacy Archive established by the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre.
  • Orion Christmas Wreath over Lake ONtario<br /> M78 to HorseHead and Flame to M42... Canon 135mm f2.8 with Canon 6D, 7x180 seconds, 5x5 seconds for core. 1600 ISO.<br /> Taken by Lynn Hilborn, WhistleStop Obs,Grafton,Ontario on December 12.2014.
  • Bubble Nebula in natural colours. Data gathered in July 2011 and reprocessed December 2013. 9.5 hours of data 3.5 hours Ha, 3 hours each of OIII and SII, all 30 minute subs binned 1x1.<br /> Image taken by Lynn Hilborn, WhistleStopObs, Grafton, Ontario. TEC 140 @f7 and FLI ML8300 with Baader filters.<br /> The Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635) (S162)<br /> Distance: 7800 Light Years<br /> Right Ascension: 23 : 20.7 (hours : minutes)<br /> Declination: +61 : 12 (degrees : minutes)<br /> <br /> Imagine a star 40 times as massive and several hundred thousand times more luminous than our sun? Well, BD +60°2522 is such a star. Its enormous energy output and powerful stellar winds have blown a titanic bubble of ionized gas measuring 6 light years in diameter. Popularly known as the Bubble Nebula, the strange symmetrically round nebula is the outcome of the prodigious energy output and fierce stellar winds of an unusually powerful star known as a Wolf-Rayet star. Named after the French astronomers Charles Wolf and Georges Rayet, who first described the unusual stars in 1867, less than 300 Wolf-Rayet stars (WR) have been identified in our own galaxy and some have even been identified in other galaxies. These extremely powerful stars mark the end stage of rare O type stars that begin their lives with at least 25 times the mass of our sun. Their hot surface temperatures range between 30,000 and 60,000 degrees Kelvin and their stellar winds can exceed 1500 kilometers per second, capable of rapidly depleting the stars outer layers. WR stars can lose two thirds of their mass during this final stage of their stellar life. A star entering the WR stage with 35 solar masses can end up as a 10 solar mass star before it explodes as a supernova.<br /> <br /> Wind blown bubbles, concentric rings and filamentary shaped nebulae are common outcomes of Wolf Rayet driven winds on surrounding gas clouds. The peculiar shape of the Bubble nebula marks the leading edge of the Wolf-Rayet wind front as it plows into the denser stationary material of the interstellar medium. The prodigious winds of this WR star travel at 9 million kilometers per hour. The asymmetry of the bubble in relation to BD +60°2522 is believed due to subtle differences in the density of the surrounding gaseous material. Also the bright arcs and small condensations which characterize the bubble's surface are also related to density variations in the swept up material forming the bubble wall. The prominent inner bright knot projected along the western wall of the bubble is actually the ionized edge of a larger cloud that physically lies outside the bubble itself.<br /> <br /> The Bubble Nebula, NGC 7635 is imbedded in the surrounding HII region Sharpless 162 (S162). The entire complex is located in the Perseus arm of the Milky Way. BD +60°2522 the sole exciting star of the nebula is a type O6.5 giant with a surface temperature of 34,000 degrees. It is considered a member of the Cas OB2 stellar association.<br /> Text with permission of Robert Gendler
  • Reprocessing of an image taken 3 years earlier...Giant Molecular Cloud with IC348 on the left and NGC 1333 on the right. Original image taken by Lynn Hilborn, Oct/Nov 2010.<br /> Giant molecular cloud and dust lanes in Perseus. On the left is IC348 a bright young cluster settled in the reflection nebula of this giant cloud. On the right side of this 2 frame mosaic is NGC 1333 and area of star birth surrounded by dark lanes of cosmic dust. This is a two panel mosaic with a total 18 hours of exposure. Taken by Lynn Hilborn at WhistleStop Observatory, Grafton, Ontario.<br /> The actual imaging was done Oct 10, 12, 31 and Nov 1,2, 2010. The scope was a NP101is @ f4.3 and FLI ML8300 camera.<br /> The image is LRGB plus Ha.<br /> Original image was Editor's Choice ,Photo Gallery- Sky and Telescope magazine; published in Sky and Telescope magazine, May 2011 edition; published as back cover RASC Journal April 2011; Astronomy Magazine 'Picture of the Day'
  • Barnard's Merope Nebula IC 349 in M45<br /> Image taken by Lynn Hilborn, WhistleStop Obs,Grafton, Ontario. on November 7, 2013. TEC 140 @f5.3 and ML8300 camera with Baader filters. LRGB L 16x45s, RGB 15x30s all binned 1x1.<br /> In 1890, American astronomer E. E. Barnard, observing visually with the Lick Observatory 36-inch telescope in California, discovered an exceptionally bright nebulosity adjacent to the bright Pleiades star Merope. IC349 is a very small object, about 20 arc seconds across. "Barnard's Merope Nebula." IC 349 is so bright because it lies extremely close to Merope -- only about 3,500 times the separation of the Earth from the Sun, or about 0.06 light-year -- and thus is strongly illuminated by the star's light.<br /> <br /> NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught the eerie, wispy tendrils of this dark interstellar cloud being destroyed by the passage of one of the brightest stars in the Pleiades star cluster. Like a flashlight beam shining off the wall of a cave, the star is reflecting light off the surface of pitch black clouds of cold gas laced with dust - these are called reflection nebulae.
  • Core of Andromeda Galaxy M31.<br /> TEC 140@f5.3 and FLI ML8300 camera with Baader filters. Lum 1x1 18x10m, Ha 1x1 12x15m,RGB each 2x2 9x5m. Taken by Lynn Hilborn, WhistleStop Obs,Grafton, Ontario on October 14 and 28, 2013.
  • Sh2 -187 is a diffuse nebula visible in the constellation of Cassiopeia ( Astronomy Magazine Picture of the Day November 14,2013).<br /> Taken by Lynn Hilborn, WhistleStop Obs,Grafton,Ontario on September 05 and 08,2013.<br /> TEC 140 @f5.3 and ML8300 camera with Baader filters. LRGB image L bin 1x1 12 x 10m, RGB bin 2x2 12x 5m.<br /> This is an H II region located on the outermost edge of the Orion Arm , visually appears surrounded by dark nebula LDN 1317. The distance was estimated through studies spectrophotometric in about 1440 parsecs (4700 light years ) from the observation of stars exciters gas this and other surrounding clouds, its position coincides with that of the source 2MASS 01230704 + J 6151527. The cloud belongs to a large molecular complex at the center of which is located a molecular jet at high speed, originated from a source of infrared radiation cataloged as S 187 IRS, located very close to another strong source, IRAS 01202 +6133. The visible part of the cloud is surrounded by an extended envelope of neutral hydrogen , detectable at wavelengths other than visible, whose mass total can be estimated at about 7600 M ☉ . Its age can be estimated instead around to 100-200000 years. <br /> The evidence of the presence of phenomena of star formation may be identified in numerous infrared sources discoveries in the nebula, like those just mentioned including the molecular jet; in particular, one of the most powerful sources is IRAS 01 202 +6133, inserted deep into a dense cocoon easily identifiable bright infrared (S 187 IRS), whose counterpart in visible light is known as S187Hα: it would be a star Ae / Be Herbig .
  • Van Den Bergh 14 and 15 in Camelopardalis. ( Astronomy Magazine Picture of the Day, Oct 16,2013.)<br /> This beautiful pair of reflection nebulae are a small part of a large dust cloud in Camelopardalis. They contain both reflection (blue) and emission (red) components, although the emission component is subtle and can be seen as the peripheral pale red regions in the above LRGB image. VDB 15 is the large nebula on the left, surrounding the magnitude 5 central star C Cam, while VDB14 is the sickle-shaped nebula on the lower right.<br /> LRGB image Lum bin 1x1 26x10m, R and G bin 2x2 18x5m, B bin 2x2 24x5m. TEC 140 @f5.3 and FLI ML8300 camera, Baader LRGB filters, Tak NJP Temma2 mount. Taken by Lynn Hilborn, WhistleStop Obs, Grafton, Ontario on October 08/11, 2013.
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