Astro Session - November 10, 2017
M33 Triangulum Galaxy, about 3 million lightyears away, so... not that far. M33 is a relatively small spiral galaxy with only 40 billion stars. I'm having some trouble with my guide camera (ZWO ASI120MM), so this is all unguided. I took 80 LRGB exposures--120 seconds each, 10 Ha frames at 120 secs, 20 dark calibration frames, stacked in DSS).
Posted November 10, 2017
Astro Session - October 18, 2017
The three central and brightest (low magnitude) stars in the open star cluster M45, called The Pleiades or The Seven Sisters: Alcyone (upper middle), Maia (right), and Merope (left). The light of the stars in the Pleiades pass through and illuminate a cloud of dust in the interstellar medium. (8 x 5 minute exposures, 18 dark frames - William Optics GT-81 478mm FL, Atik 414EX Monochrome CCD, Baader luminance filter, CEM25P EQ mount).
Posted October 18, 2017
Astro Session - October 17, 2017
Color version of M81 (Bode's Galaxy) in the constellation Ursa Major (Big Dipper). From another set of subs I shot at 4am--this time with the color QHY CMOS camera, QHY5III178. Info: 21 x 300 sec. with 20 dark frames, QHY5III178 color CMOS, William Optics GT-81, CEM25P EQ mount, WO 50mm guidescope with ZWO ASI120S-MM guide cam, INDI/KStars/Ekos observatory control.
Posted October 17, 2017
Astro Session - October 13, 2017
IC 405--"Flaming Star Nebula" in the constellation Auriga, centered on the mag. +6 star AE Aurigae. It's relatively close to us, at about 1,500 light-years. This set of subframes covers the center of the fairly large nebula, which measures 37 x 19 arcminutes. (6 x 1200 second subs in Ha, O3, S2, taken with my current main setup: Atik414Ex mono CCD, William Optics GT-81, CEM25P EQ mount, WO 50mm guidescope with ZWO ASI120S-MM guide cam, INDI/KStars/Ekos observatory control).
Posted October 13, 2017
Astro Session - October 12, 2017
NGC 281 (IC 11, Sh2-184) "Pacman Nebula" in the constellation Cassiopeia. More narrowband imaging, although the moon is waning, and didn't even make into the sky until the early morning hours. I completed the subs for NGC 281 by 1am, and scheduled some narrowband exposures of IC 405, Flaming Star Nebula. (subframe info: 6 x 1200 second exposures in Ha, 5 x 1200 sec OIII & SII with 16 dark frames, Atik414Ex mono CCD, Astronomik 6nm Ha, OIII, SII, William Optics GT-81, CEM25P EQ mount, WO 50mm guidescope with ZWO ASI120S-MM guide cam, INDI/KStars/Ekos observatory control).
Posted October 12, 2017
Astro Session - October 12, 2017
M81 (Bode's Galaxy) and M82 (Cigar Galaxy) in the constellation Ursa Major (Big Dipper). I was up at 4am, and there's the big dipper swinging around and climbing into the sky. Bode's and the cigar galaxy were just waiting to be captured. Info: 15 x 120 sec. with 10 dark frames, Atik414Ex mono CCD, William Optics GT-81, CEM25P EQ mount, WO 50mm guidescope with ZWO ASI120S-MM guide cam, INDI/KStars/Ekos observatory control.
Posted October 12, 2017
Astro Session - October 5, 2017
NGC 6888 - Crescent Nebula in Ha (4 x 1200 second subs + 15 dark frames stacked in DSS). I continued my hydrogen alpha campaign tonight, with a couple more targets, including the Crescent. My goal over the next month or two is to continue capturing these nebulae in O3 and S2, and use those results with these Ha shots to produce color images. I may also test out some Ha+RGB image processing on a couple of the brighter ones like IC 1369a, the Elephant Trunk Nebula.
Posted October 5, 2017
Astro Session - October 5, 2017
I finally made some time to process one of the image sets I shot on October 2, and here's one result: narrowband of the central region of the emission nebula IC 1805, the Heart Nebula, which is only 7500 lightyears away in the constellation Cassiopeia. (It's almost in our backyard!) I used the "Hubble Palette", mapping the separate hydrogen alpha, oxygen, and sulfur image channels to RGB channels (SII = Red, Ha = Green, OIII = Blue) in the final. (subframe info: 4 x 1200 second Ha, 4 x 600 sec OIII & SII with 2x2 binning, Atik414Ex mono CCD, William Optics GT-81). I'm not entirely happy with this one, but good enough to post.
