Some of the most beautiful objects in the sky are barely there. I’m talking about nebulae, the areas of gas and dust that decorate the sky and reward the patient observer and astrophotographer with images of startling beauty. If you’ve ever seen the fuzzy patch in the sword of Orion, then you’ve seen a nebula. I say “barely there” because the density of an average nebula would rival the best vacuum we could produce on earth, but those atoms and molecules and specks of dust make up the birthplaces of stars — and tell of their demise.
Dick Locke is a Houston area amateur astronomer and imager who’s devoted many years to this avocation. His work is a prime example of what the dedicated observer can do.
There’s an example. This is the North American and Pelican nebula in the constellation of Cygnus, the Swan. This is the result of 6.25 hours of exposure through various filters, onto a SBIG CCD camera, using an 85mm Takahashi telescope on an Astro-Physics 900 mount.
Dick writes about what ignited his interest into astronomy:
I’ve always been interested in the night sky, though growing up in Lansing, Michigan (one of the cloudiest areas of the country) I didn’t get to see much of it. Later, living in Florida, there was a particularly memorable event. My wife and I were driving east in South Florida across “Alligator Alley”, a sparsely populated area, late on a clear summer night. We noticed a huge cloud to the south, and thought perhaps there was a fire somewhere. It dawned on my that perhaps it was the Milky Way, which I really had never seen before. We found a safe place to pull off the road, and sure enough we had a chance to see the summer Milky Way from a very dark location in all its splendor.
What really got me serious about astronomy, though, started with a planned trip to the Grand Canyon. My wife casually mentioned that she had seen some pictures of the moon rising over the canyon, and that I should plan to try to get a shot like that while we were there. I little research revealed that, by chance, we would be visiting during a new moon time. I knew that was the best time to see the skies, and that really set the gears in motion. I ended up subscribing to the astronomy magazines, borrowing a friend’s telescope, and getting into binocular astronomy. By the time of our trip to the canyon, I knew how to find bright messier objects, and we really enjoyed the ranger-led night sky tours offered there. In fact, we attended the night sky tours two nights in a row.
It wasn’t long after that I visited Land Sea and Sky, got hooked up with a 4″ Takahashi scope and a Losmandy mount. I started experimenting by hooking up my Pentax cameras and seeing what I could do with the moon and some of the brighter targets like the Orion Nebula. Over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to acquire improved equipment, and I’ve also invested time in learning how to use it and learning how to make the most of the images I capture.
And that effort has been well-rewarded. Here’s another one of Dick’s images:
That’s a beautiful example of the Horsehead Nebula in Orion. What we see here is a dark nebula lying between us and the brighter emission nebula behind it.
Dick has an extensive website where you can view a good many more of his images in high-resolution. If you’re at all interested in how one of our best astro-imagers does it, or even if you just want to see some lovely pictures, please visit it. For those getting into the hobby, it’s also a great guide to what’s involved.
Again, this is part of a series of posts showcasing the work of Houston area astro-imagers. If you would like your work to be featured, drop me an email at sclayworth99 at gmail dot com.