Color Images
The initial color images of the Messier Objects were obtained
with the original 24-inch f/5 reflector at the Grasslands Observatory. From 1998 to early 2000, they were taken with an Apogee AP7 CCD
camera.
The Apogee AP7 contains a SITe 24 micron 512 x 512 CCD
chip that has excellent quantum efficiency throughout the
visible spectrum and into the near-infrared portion of the
spectrum. The AP7 images were used for Sky &
Telescope's Messier Objects in Color Poster. Because the
images have the same relative exposures for each object type and
the same camera orientation and image size, they can be used to
compare one Messier object with another.
Beginning in late 2000, color images of the Messier Objects
were taken with a Finger Lakes
Instrumentation Dream Machine CCD camera. Since 2015, the Grasslands Observatory has been significally improved and enlarged with the addition of three new 14 x 14 foot roll-off roof buildings containing telescopes for remote operations.
At the present time all imaging is done remotely using a PlaneWave CDK24 24-inch f/6.5 telescope and FLI Proline 9000 CCD, an ASA 20-inch f/3.5 astrograph and FLI Proline 9000 CCD, or a Takahasi Epsilon 180 f/2.8 telescope with a Canon 60Da camera. See our Operations for more details.
Almost all of the images on this website are displayed with the north to the top
and east to the left, standard astronomical orientation. This is to provide consistency in image display and orientation from object to object and from year to year.
tbh 1 March 2014; revised 27 April 2017; revised Sunday, March 25, 2018; revised Tuesday May 21, 2019. |
