Starship Asterisk*

CTB1 - ”Supernova Remnant” Copyright: Mark Hanson CTB1-Apodsmall2.jpg Description by “Sakib Rasool” Spanning an area of 35 arcminutes on the sky towards the constellation of Cassiopeia, this enigmatic loop of ionized nebulosity is a supernova remnant catalogued as CTB 1. This name denotes it as a ra...

NGC 6992: The Network Nebula Mosaic Copyright: Mark Hanson NGC6692-NetworkNebula-2apodsmall.jpg Telescope: Planewave 17" f6.7 on a Planewave HD Mount. Camera: SBIG 16803 Location: Stellar Winds Observatory at DSNM, Animas, New Mexico Exposure: 180 min Luminance, 180 of each RGB, 450 HA, 300 O3 ...

Cats Eye Nebula NGC 6543 Copyright: Mark Hanson Cats Eye Nebula APOD-2small.jpg Cats Eye Nebula Crop.jpg Explanation Via APOD: The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae in the sky. Its more familiar outlines are seen in the brighter central region of the nebula in th...

NGC 4725 Copyright: Mark Hanson NGC4725ApodSmall.jpg This is a Re-Process of this objects data. The first night I shot the luminance for this object I knew it was going to be a fun image. The resolution was just so noticeable(SBIG AOx Adaptive optics unit was used), I could not wait to download the ...

NGC 3166 and 3169 Copyright: Mark Hanson Bright spiral galaxy NGC 3169 appears to be unraveling in this cosmic scene, played out some 70 million light-years away just below bright star Regulus toward the faint constellation Sextans. Its beautiful spiral arms are distorted into sweeping tidal tails a...

NGC 3628 The Hamburger Galaxy Taken from Great Basin Observatory in Great Basin National Park, Nevada and processed by me. http://www.greatbasinobservatory.org This sharp telescopic view of magnificent edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3628 show a puffy galactic disk divided by dark dust lanes. The tantaliz...

Copyright: Mark Hanson, S. Mazlin, R. Parker ,W. Keller, T. Tse, P. Proulx, R. Vanderbei, M. Elvov; SSRO/PROMPT/CTIO Here is my Rendition of NGC 6164 in Norma from Star Shadows Remote in CTiO, Chile taken in May and June of this year. NGC6164Apodsmall.jpg A Beautiful emission nebula NGC 6164 was cre...

Summer night in Animas New Mexico
Copyright: Mark Hanson

This is a first light image taken from my new Canon 6D, single image 20sec, ISO 3200 on a tripod. Super impressed with the results. I haven't done any DSLR shots for over 10 years!
Thanks for looking,

Mark Hanson

M86 Group Interaction Copyright: Mark Hanson M86LRGBHAsmall.jpg This image was another experiment using deep Ha exposures of known galaxy interactions, All the exposures in Ha were taken with 3nm filter, no moon and were 1 hour long. "This stunning image depicts the dynamic and dramatic center ...

Copyright: Mark Hanson NGC 4449 in Canes Venatici NGC 4449Apodsmall.jpg "Belonging to the class of Magellanic type irregular galaxy, NGC 4449 is a small but lovely cosmic denizen of the constellation Canes Venatici. It is very close (in astronomical terms) at 12.5 million light years. Blazing a...

Ann,

Thanks, I'm not really sure about the NGC 4492, I spend some time to make sure i didn't blow out this galaxy. I worked hard on keeping it true and bringing out the detail. Here is a closer view.
Thank you,

Mark

Messier 49 in Virgo Copyright: Mark Hanson M49Aopdsmall.jpg "M49 is a large elliptical galaxy with a tenuous diffuse tidal shell structure. With a magnitude of 9, it is easily observable by visual observers. It is located 56 million light years away and forms a magnificent if unappreciated gala...

Messier 16, Eagle Nebula or "Pillars of Creation" Copyright: Mark Hanson, S. Mazlin, R. Parker ,W. Keller, T. Tse, P. Proulx, R. Vanderbei, M. Elvov; SSRO/PROMPT/CTIO Messier 16 (M16), the famous Eagle Nebula, is a star-forming nebula with a young open star cluster located in the constella...

NGC 4236 or Caldwell 3 Copyright: Mark Hanson NGC 4236 (also known as Caldwell 3) is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Draco. The galaxy is a member of the M81 Group, a group of galaxies located at a distance of approximately 11.7 million light years from Earth. The group also cont...

Messier 85 Copyright: Mark Hanson M85Apodsmall.jpg Here is an image of Messier 85 (also known as M85 or NGC 4382 ) which is a lenticular galaxy, or elliptical galaxy, in the Coma Berenices constellation. It is 60 million light-years away, and it is estimated to be 125,000 light-years across. M85 is...

SH2-278 in the constellation Orion Copyright: Mark Hanson SH2-278APODsmall.jpg Taken at "Stellar Winds Observatory" a/k/a Stan Watson Observatory at Dark Sky New Mexico "Billowing crimson waves of hydrogen gas cascade in an ocean of tranquility in this uncommon view of the rarely pho...

NGC 4365 Galaxy Cluster Copyright: Mark Hanson Here is my latest image taken at "Stellar Winds Observatory" a/k/a Stan Watson Observatory at Dark Sky New Mexico. I believe this is one of the first color amateur images of this galaxy group. NGC 4365APOD-3small.jpg "NGC 4365 is an elli...

M90 and 89 Mosaic Copyright: Mark Hanson This dramatic deep two frame mosaic depicts a rarely photographed region of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. Both galaxies were included by Charles Messier in his 18th century collection of objects that are not comets. The one on the right is M89 and the one o...

M90 and 89 Mosaic Copyright: Mark Hanson This dramatic deep two frame mosaic depicts a rarely photographed region of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. Both galaxies were included by Charles Messier in his 18th century collection of objects that are not comets. The one on the right is M89 and the one on...

Copyright: M.Hanson, S. Mazlin, R. Parker ,W. Keller, T. Tse, P. Proulx, R. Vanderbei, M. Elvov; SSRO/PROMPT/CTIO NGC 2467 "Skull and Crossbones Nebula" This image of the very colorful star forming region, NGC 2467 in Puppis, aka the "Skull and Crossbones Nebula", was acquired fr...

NGC 4410 Galaxy Group Copyright: Mark Hanson NGC4410GroupAPOD.jpg This rarely photographed region of Virgo contains a vast variety of galaxies. Near the centre is a relatively serene spiral galaxy pair that is collectively known as NGC 4411. Much more striking is the connected system of interacting ...

NGC 1999 Copyright: Mark Hanson Here is an image of NGC 1999 with over 2600 minutes of exposure time using HA, L,R,G,B filters. Taken with a 17" Planewave telescope. So many great Herbig-Haro objects in this image, its really fun to look around at the full resolution image of this one. NGC 1999...

PuWe1 (PNG 158.9 + 17.8), in Lynx Copyright: Mark Hanson PuWe1Apodfluxsmall.jpg Here is a new image of Planetary Nebula PuWe1 (PNG 158.9 + 17.8), in Lynx , this is one of the highest resolution images of this object to date from an amateur. Is one of the largest PN, that has an apparent diameter of ...

M77 and NGC 1055 with Geminid meteor Copyright: Mark Hanson Here is a 2 pane mosaic with 44.75 total hours of exposure using a 24" planewave telescope. This is a wonderful pair of large spiral galaxies that have a nice contrast with each other. M77 has a nice face on view with a very bright cor...

"The Lost Pillar of Creation" Copyright: Mark Hanson IC1805PillarAPOD.jpg Most know of the "Pillars of Creation,” which is a famous image from the Hubble Space Telescope, but few know of this hidden pillar. What a gem! This “no name” pillar is all alone in the dark shadows of the Hear...