NGC7009 - Saturn nebula

Authors: Jakob Selbing
Object: NGC7009, Saturn nebula in Aquarius
Exposure: 30 x 20 s(= 10 min), unguided
Equipment: MX5-C through Meade LX200 at f/10.
Image scale: 0.45"/pixel
Date: July 28, 2002

Comment: On August 28, 1999, me and some other enthusiasts tried CCD imaging for the first time ever at Landeryd Observatory. That night we made images of Jupiter, Saturn, M15 and the Moon. The equipment was far from optimized, and none of us had any experience in CCD imaging. Maybe I don't need to mention that the quality of our images wasn't very high. However, the mere sight of all of the celestial bodies on the small laptop screen was enough to fill us with excitement and awe. Suddenly, all the objects that we had seen in magazines and books were in reach of us. I can only describe that night as "magic".

About three years later, I made this image of the famous planetary nebula in Aquarius. This time, the telescope was in equatorial mode, the RA drive used PEC to compensate for mechanical imperfections and the camera had a new, more sensitive, chip. Also, I believe I had aquired a great deal of experience after producing a couple of thousand raw CCD images. But still I get that same "high" from watching all the beautiful objects emerging from a seemingly empty sky, knowing that the distance that separate us from them is in most cases so extreme that we will probably never be able to physically reach these other worlds. And although the images we produced back in those days are blurred and noisy, watching them still makes me feel a sensation of magic. There is nothing I'd rather do.