Blog
For this one, I choose to translate the french title. In english it is better known as Cygnus Loop or Veil Nebula. I thing the french name is more poetic.
The remains of a star that exploded about ten thousand years ago. We call it a supernova remnant.
It’s a great summer classic. I never miss to go to observe it visually. It is a pleasure to stroll along the filaments, from the large lace (on the left) to the small (on the right) via the Volutes of Williamina Fleming. Sometimes when the sky is really good, I can perceive other weaker part.
60 x 1 min
Camera : Nikon Z6 partially unfiltered
Telescope : Takahashi FSQ-106ED refractor.
Mount : Takahashi EM-200 homemade electronics.
Guiding : ZWO ASI290MM Mini on QHY OAG-M
Temperature : 23°C
SQM : 21
Software : auto-guiding with PHD2, acquisition with Astro Photography Tool, processing with PixInsight.
Location : Le Plan, Col du Banchet
In the warm glow of the rising sun. Ecrins National Park.
Yes, they even have their nebula… I’m not telling you where the North America Nebula is or why we call it like that, it’s pretty obvious. It’s identified as NGC 7000. To its right is the Pelican Nebula, IC 5067 and IC 5070. The bird is a little harder to recognize.
These nebulae represent only part of the H-alpha complex found in the Cygnus. Ionized hydrogen is found in a large part of the constellation and even beyond.
90 x 1 min
Camera : Nikon Z6 partially unfiltered
Telescope : Takahashi FSQ-106ED refractor.
Mount : Takahashi EM-200 homemade electronics.
Guiding : ZWO ASI290MM Mini on QHY OAG-M
Temperature : 7°C
Humidity : 84%
SQM : 21.4
Software : auto-guiding with PHD2, acquisition with Astro Photography Tool, processing with PixInsight.
Location : Le Serpaton, Gresse-en-Vercors
After making the comparison last year with the Quirlies glacier 5 years apart, I thought I could do the same with the Arsine glacier this year for the 10 years of my first bivouac in the area.
So here is the Before / After of the Lake and the Arsine Glacier at 10 years, 1 day, 1 hour, 14 minutes and 45 seconds. Si, si!
Well, I tried to find the same pebbles in the foreground but, as I naively thought that pebbles were inert things, it’s not that simple. In 10 years they’ve had time to move! Having said that, if you look carefully towards the centre of the picture, there are some who have remained faithful to the position.
Unsurprisingly, some of the ice has gone. I remembered very well the large wall of ice that almost threw into the water at the bottom of the lake. When I arrived, I immediately saw that it had shrunk. If you compare the photos, you can see that it has almost disappeared. It was as if bulldozers had come and bulldozed the land in anticipation of some infamous construction.
Since most of the glacier is covered with rocks, we don’t notice too many other differences. There’s still a big hole in the ice where a stream of water comes out that didn’t exist 10 years ago. The upper part, where the white snow is visible, doesn’t seem to have changed much. The patches of snow perched in the mountain are more important this year. The melting was obviously more advanced in July 2010 than this year since we haven’t really had a lot of heat yet. But don’t worry, the heat wave is coming. It’s just a bit late this year.
The Rosette Nebula, registred under the number Calwell 49, is an H-II region in the constellation Unicorn. As it is not a very well-known or easily identifiable constellation, so we start from Orion to locate it. It is east of Orion, in the extension of the line formed by Meissa (Lambda Orionis) and Betelgeuse. There are several entries from the NGC catalog:
- NGC 2237: the western part
- NGC 2238: another part of the nebula
- NGC 2244 (= NGC 2239): the cluster open in the center
- NGC 2246: another Rosette emission region
112 x 1 min
Camera : Nikon Z6 partially unfiltered
Telescope : Takahashi FSQ-106ED refractor.
Mount : Takahashi EM-200 homemade electronics.
Guiding : ZWO ASI290MM Mini on QHY OAG-M
Temperature : 2°C
Humidity : 68%
SQM : 21
Software : auto-guiding with PHD2, acquisition with Astro Photography Tool, processing with PixInsight.
Location : Le Plan, Col du Banchet
We are between 1700 and 3500m above sea level and there is very little snow. It is mild. The landscape is very textured between the roughness of the rock and the snow clinging to it desperately.
Aiguille du Plat de la Selle. Ecrins National Park.
A photo of January just after a snowfall. The layer was not very thick for a January month. Less than 5cm at 1200m altitude. And some areas under the trees are almost virgin. It is at 1450m that there are enough to completely cover the ground. Before that, the last serious snowfall was in November. The mild December month had melted everything below 2000m altitude. In 10 years, the snow at these altitudes will probably only be a memory.
Saturday afternoon I went to see the first snows above Allemond. Wintery atmosphere at the top where I got a little frozen feet to enjoy the shades of the sunset.