Bluespeck.ca - Remote Telescope Images

deep space astrophotography

"Every now and then I enjoy reaching beyond my basic equipment and the limited field of view from my urban backyard."

Using remote telescope access provides a wide range of location and equipment. It opens the window to additional observing and imaging experiences well beyond what I could access with my own gear and from my own urban backyard. From both an educational and artistic perspective, this provides exciting new challenges and opportunities to practice and expand my observational and astro-image processing skills. It is also just plain fun!

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M13 • Great Globular Cluster in Hercules

SBIG STX16803 camera | Ritchey-Chrétien 16" telescope (3550mm focal length) | 5.5 hour exposure
Raw data acquisition (April 2022) courtesy of RASC Robotic Telescope (Sierra Remote Observatory, Auberry, California) | RGB image processing by Bluespeck.ca (May 2022)

M13 (NGC 6205) or the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules is a large cluster containing several hundred thousand stars. Located in the constellation of Hercules it is about 25,000 light-years from Earth

Astrometric annotations show some of the surrounding stars and galaxies.

M8 • Lagoon Nebula

SBIG STX16803 camera | Ritchey-Chrétien 16" telescope (3550mm focal length) | 12 hr hour exposure

Raw data acquisition (2021) courtesy of RASC Robotic Telescope (Sierra Remote Observatory, Auberry, California) | HaLRGB image processing by Bluespeck.ca (2022)

Apogee U8300 Camera | Takahashi FSQ-106N Telescope | 7hr hour exposure
Raw data acquisition courtesy of Remoteskies.net | HaLRGB image processing by Bluespeck.ca (2021)

The Lagoon Nebula (M8, NGC 6523) is an emission nebula and ionized hydrogen (HII) region in the constellation Sagittarius. It is located about 4,000 light years away from us and measures almost 200 trillion miles across.

Astrometric annotations show some of the surrounding deep space objects (DSOs).

M33 • Triangulum Galaxy

SBIG STL-11000 3 CCD camera | Takahashi 150mm Refractortelescope | AstroCamp Observatory (Nerpio, Spain) | 44 minute exposure | Image data acquisition courtesy of Douglas Gardner (www.remote-astrophotography.com) | LRGB and Ha image processing by Bluespeck.ca (2021)

The Triangulum Galaxy (M33) is a spiral galaxy is located 2.73 million light-years (ly) from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. The Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, behind the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way. It is one of the most distant permanent objects that can be viewed with the naked eye (under the right dark sky conditions).

Astrometric annotations for above image courtesy of Astrometry.net

The Cygnus Wall

The Cygnus Wall is a part of the North American Nebula (NGC 7000) in the constellation Cygnus. Located roughly 1900 light years (~11 quadrillion miles) away from Earth, the Wall portion of the nebula spans roughly 120 trillion miles across and exhibits the most concentrated star formations in the nebula. This emission nebula is made up of interstellar clouds of ionized hydrogen (HII) along with some ionized sulfur (SII) and oxygen (OIII).

NGC 7293 • Helix Nebula

Apogee U8300 Camera | Takahashi FSQ-106N Telescope | 5.1 hour exposure
Raw data acquisition courtesy of Remoteskies.net | LRGB image processing by Bluespeck.ca (2021)

Resembling a three dimensional flower, the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293 or Caldwell 63) is an expanding shell made up of dust, ionized material and molecular gas. This complex planetary nebula surrounds a dying white dwarf star. Located the constellation Aquarius, NGC 7293 is about 650 light years away and measures about 2.9 light years (about 17 trillion miles) across.