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.

“ Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,”
W.B.Yeats



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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.
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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.
Taken by Lynn Hilborn, WhistleStop Obs, Grafton, Ontario. Picture featured full page SkyNews July/August 2013.
The Horsehead (Barnard 33) Distance: 1500 Light Years
Right Ascension: 05 : 41.6 (hours : minutes)
Declination: -02 : 14 (degrees : minutes)
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.
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.
NGC 2023 Distance: 1530 Light Years
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.
Text by Robert Gendler.

  • "Jacques leaves the Cave"<br /> Comet Jacques with M52, Bubble nebula and the Cave Nebula<br /> 1x 10m Lum, RGB 2min each.<br /> Canon 200mm f2.8 at f3.5 and FLI ML8300 camera.Taken by Lynn Hilborn, WhistleStop Obs, Grafton,Ontario<br /> August 27, 2014
  • Colourful Cassiopeia in Reflection<br /> modified Canon 6D with Canon 24mm f2.8 lens at f3.5, 25 seconds at ISO1600.<br /> 24 hours after attending a wonderful lecture at Astrocats given by Wally Pacholka...I bought a used 24mm lens and went to a local pond.<br /> Picture by Lynn Hilborn, Grafton, Ontario. May 4, 2014.
  • Cave nebula to the Bubble and M52
  • Scorpius rising over Arikok National Park, Aruba.<br /> Canon 6d modified with Canon 50mm f1.4 lens @f2.8. 6 x 1 minute exposures tracked on a iOptron ZEQ25 mount.<br /> Taken by Lynn Hilborn, February 04, 2014. Cover picture "Journal" magazine Royal Astronomical Association of Canada, August 2014.
  • Abell 1656 Coma Cluster of galaxies surrounded by IFN (intergalactic flux nebula). Taken by Lynn Hilborn, WhistleStop Obs,Grafton, Ontario on April 23,24,26,2014.<br /> TEC 140 @f5.3 and FLI ML8300 camera with Baader filters on Takahashi NJP Temma2 mount.<br /> Lum 1x1 23x10m, RGB each 2x2 9x5m. An inverted view ( next image ) shows a 21.0 mag quasar, QSO HB89 1256+280, some 11 Billion light years away.<br /> <br /> This picture was subject of an article "Pushing The Frontiers of Backyard Astronomy" by Terence Dickinson in Sept/Oct 2014 edition of SkyNews magazine<br /> <br /> The Coma Cluster (Abell 1656) is a large cluster of galaxies that contains over 1,000 identified galaxies. Along with the Leo Cluster (Abell 1367), it is one of the two major clusters comprising the Coma Supercluster.] It is located in and takes its name from the constellation Coma Berenices.<br /> <br /> The cluster's mean distance from Earth is 99 Mpc (321 million light years). Its ten brightest spiral galaxies have apparent magnitudes of 12–14 . The central region is dominated by two giant elliptical galaxies: NGC 4874 and NGC 4889. The cluster is within a few degrees of the north galactic pole on the sky. Most of the galaxies that inhabit the central portion of the Coma Cluster are ellipticals. Both dwarf, as well as giant ellipticals, are found in abundance in the Coma Cluster.<br /> <br /> As is usual for clusters of this richness, the galaxies are overwhelmingly elliptical and S0 galaxies, with only a few spirals of younger age, and many of them probably near the outskirts of the cluster.<br /> <br /> The full extent of the cluster was not understood until it was more thoroughly studied in the 1950s by astronomers at Mount Palomar Observatory, although many of the individual galaxies in the cluster had been identified previously.<br /> <br /> An extended X-ray source centered at 1300+28 in the direction of the Coma cluster of galaxies was reported before August 1966. This X-ray observation was performed by balloon, but the source was not detected in the sounding rocket flight launched by the X-ray astronomy group at the Naval Research Laboratory on November 25, 1964. A strong X-ray source was observed by the X-ray observatory satellite Uhuru close to the center of the Coma cluster and this source was suggested be designated Coma X-1.<br /> <br /> The Coma cluster contains about 800 galaxies within a 100 x 100 arc-min area of the celestial sphere.<br /> <br /> Text from Nasa
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  • 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.
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