Atacama BackYard Observatory - Established March 27, 2019

Comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko

SH2-284

SH2-280

Nebula in Monoceros 20 x LUM and Ha 600s bin 1x 20 x RGB 300s bin 2x PIX PSCC

SH2-278

Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

I finally have a contribution to the flood of Comet Leonard images. I hope you don't mind 🙄 On Dec 30 I remotely pointed my scope at comet Leonard for the first time. Its been a combination of either poor weather or internet problems but this is my only data so far from the southern hemisphere. And its thin data. Barely got it in before losing the comet behind an obstruction on the horizon, which cuts about the last good 45 minutes from my shooting time. This is an LRGB 10X 30s LUM bin 1x 5X 30s RGB bin 2x TEC 140APO Moravian G4 CCD FOV is about 1.4 degrees square.

the James Webb Space Telescope

That dash moving across the screen is the JWST. I captured Images of JWST in Orion last night, just after passing the orbit of the moon, and the deployment of the sunshield pallet. FOV is about 1 x .5 degrees Remote capture from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Fornax Dwarf Galaxy

The Fornax Dwarf Spheroidal (formerly known as the Fornax System) is an elliptical dwarf galaxy in the constellation Fornax that was discovered in 1938 by Harlow Shapley. He discovered it while he was in South Africa on photographic plates taken by the 24 inch (61 cm) Bruce refractor at Boyden Observatory, shortly after he discovered the Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy. The galaxy is a satellite of the Milky Way and contains six globular clusters; the largest, NGC 1049, was discovered before the galaxy itself. The galaxy is also receding from the Milky Way at 53 km/s. It mostly contains population II stars. Remote capture, SPA Chile. 25 x 600s LUM 1X 20 x 300s RGB 2X PIX/PSCC

LBN 917, 906, 909

Constellation Eridanus 50 x LUM 600s 1x bin 40 x RGB 300s 2x bin PIX, PSCC

LBN 917, 906, 909 annotated

Pluto in motion

M74

Messier 74 is a large spiral galaxy in the equatorial constellation Pisces. It is about 32 million light-years away from Earth. The galaxy contains two clearly defined spiral arms and is therefore used as an archetypal example of a grand design spiral galaxy. - Wikipedia

Dwarf Galaxy IC 1613

IC 1613 is an irregular dwarf galaxy, visible in the constellation Cetus near the star 26 Ceti. It was discovered in 1906 by Max Wolf, and is approaching Earth at 234 km/s. IC 1613 is a member of the Local Group. - Wikipedia

M77

Messier 77 or M77, also known as NGC 1068, is a barred spiral galaxy about 47 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus. Messier 77 was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780, who originally described it as a nebula. - Wikipedia

NGC55

NGC 55, also occasionally referred to as The Whale Galaxy, is a Magellanic type barred spiral galaxy located about 6.5 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor. Along with its neighbor NGC 300, it is one of the closest galaxies to the Local Group, probably lying between the Milky Way and the Sculptor Group. It has an estimated mass of (2.0 ± 0.4) × 1010 M☉. 30X600s LUM 1X1 20 X300s RGB 2X2 PIX/PS

IC 1459 region

IC 1459 is an elliptical galaxy located in the constellation Grus. It is located at a distance of circa 85 million light years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that IC 1459 is about 130,000 light years across. It was discovered by Edward Emerson Barnard in 1892. - Wikipedia

IC 1459 region annotated

NGC 300

NGC 300 (also known as Caldwell 70) is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. It is one of the closest galaxies to the Local Group, and probably lies between the latter and the Sculptor Group. It is the brightest of the five main spirals in the direction of the Sculptor Group. It is inclined at an angle of 42° when viewed from Earth and shares many characteristics of the Triangulum Galaxy. It is 94,000 light-years in diameter, somewhat smaller than the Milky Way, and has an estimated mass of (2.9 ± 0.2) × 1010 M☉. -wikipedia 40 X 600s LUM 1X, 40 X 300S RGB 2X

NGC 253

The Sculptor Galaxy is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. The Sculptor Galaxy is a starburst galaxy, which means that it is currently undergoing a period of intense star formation. - Wikipedia

47 Tucanae

47 Tucanae, or 47 Tuc is a globular cluster located in the constellation Tucana. It is about 4.0 ± 0.35 kpc away from Earth, and 120 light years in diameter. 47 Tuc can be seen with the naked eye, with an apparent magnitude of 4.1. It appears about 50 arcminutes across. - Wikipedia

Barnard 72/The Snake Nebula

The Snake Nebula (also known as Barnard 72) is a dark nebula in the Ophiuchus constellation. It is a small but readily apparent SP-shaped dust lane that snakes out in front of the Milky Way star clouds from the north-north-west edge of the bowl of the Pipe Nebula. Its thickness runs between 2′ and 3′ and runs around 6′ in the north-west / south-east orientation. A good view in a 4" to 6" telescope requires clear dark skies. It is part of the much larger Dark Horse Nebula. To the right side of the Snake Nebula is found Barnard 68. Below it are found Barnard 69, Barnard 70, and Barnard 74.

M23

Messier 23, also known as NGC 6494, is an open cluster of stars in the northwest of the southern constellation of Sagittarius. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764. It can be found in good conditions with binoculars or a modestly sized telescope. It is in front of "an extensive gas and dust network", which there may be no inter-association. It is within 5° the sun's position (namely in mid-December) so can be occulted by the moon. The cluster is centered about 2,050 light years away. Estimates for the number of its members range from 169 up to 414, with a directly-counted mass of 1,206 M☉; 1,332 M☉ by application of the virial theorem. The cluster is around 330 million years old with a near-solar metallicity of [Fe/H] = −0.04. The brightest component (lucida) is of magnitude 9.3. Five of the cluster members are candidate red giants, while orange variable VV Sgr in the far south, is a candidate asymptotic giant branch star. A 6th-magnitude star, shown in the top-right corner, figures in the far north-west as a foreground star – HD 163245 (HR 6679). Its parallax shift is 9.8912±0.0518 mas, having taken into account proper motion, which means it is about 101 parsecs (330 ly) away. 30X600s LUM, 20 X 300S RGB