Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) in the constellation of Auriga on the night of Feb 8, 2023. The comet is the small cyan-coloured glow above centre. It was technically in Auriga but heading south into Taurus and in front of the Taurus Dark Clouds here at centre. Mars is the bright orange object right of centre.

 

At right are the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters, the latter with reddish Aldebaran. Other Messier-catalogue star clusters are in the frame: M36, M37 and M38 in Auriga and M35 in Gemini. The red emission nebulas in this part of the Milky Way also stand out, notably the California Nebula, NGC 1499, at top in Perseus, and the Flaming Star Nebula, IC 405, in Auriga at centre. At bottom is the large faint nebula around Lambda Orionis, or Meissa, in Orion. Capella is at top; Castor and Pollux are at left.

 

This is a stack of 4 x 1-minute exposures at ISO 1600 with the red-sensitive AstroGear modified Canon R and with the RF28-70mm lens at f/2.8 and 28mm. This is one segment of a Milky Way panorama taken this night, from Dinosaur Provincial Park, using the Star Adventurer tracker.

A framing of some of the star clusters and nebulas in western Gemini and northern Orion, taken on a partly hazy night adding the star glows to accentutate their colours.

 

At bottom is the nebula NGC 2174, the Monkey Head Nebula, over the border in Orion. At centre near the orange star Propus is the supernova remnant IC 443 in Gemini. The fainter diffuse nebula IC 444 is at left near the star Mu Geminorum, aka Tejat Posterior. The area around IC 444 contains the large star cluster Collinder 89. At top right is the large star cluster Messier 35 with its smaller companion cluster NGC 2158. The field is filled with bright but cool orange giant stars and hot blue stars.

 

This is a stack of 9 x 5-minute exposures taken with the sky relatively free of clouds, blended with a stack of 6 x 5-minute exposures when the sky was hazy (but not too hazy!), to add the star glows. All with the SharpStar 61mm EDPH refractor with its flattener/reducer at f/4.5, and filter-modified (by AstroGear.net) Canon R camera at ISO 800. Autoguided and controlled with the ASIAir Mini, and on the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi small equatorial mount, taken as part of testing this combination of gear. The polar alignment was off slightly but at this scale didn't hurt each sub-frame much. But the field rotated slightly from frame to frame. Each frame was dithered (shifted a few pixels) by the ASIAir to eliminate thermal noise pixels when stacking the images. Taken from home March 15, 2023.

 

Nebulosity brought out with luminosity masks created with Lumenzia, plus with a starless layer created with Star XTerminator, and with a layer created with the Nebula Filter action with PhotoKemi Actions. All stacking and blending in Photoshop.

This is a 270° panorama of the auroral arc seen across the northern sky on January 14, 2023. It is framed between the setting summer Milky Way (at left in the northwest) and the rising winter Milky Way (at right in the southeast).

 

To the west (right) of the winter Milky Way is Orion, with Sirius below, while above is Aldebaran, the Hyades, reddish Mars, and the blue Pleiades at upper right. The Big Dipper and Ursa Major are above the main arc of aurora to the north at centre. Polaris is at top, left of centre. Cygnus (with the star Deneb) and Lyra (with the star Vega) are setting at left above my house.

 

The auroral arc shows the characteristic yellow-green colour but also upper altitude reds, both from oxygen atoms. The Kp index was about 4 this night, though peaking to Kp5 at times. Clouds rolling in later prevented me from catching more of the show later when it apparently got more active.

 

Taken from home in southern Alberta (latitude 51° N) on January 14, 2023, in a 7-section panorama, each section with the Venus Optics 15mm lens at f/2 on the AstroGear filter-modified Canon R at ISO 800, for 20 seconds each. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw. I was testing the Canon R camera this night.

A helmet

A real astronauts suit (waterproof and machine washable!). This one used to belong to a good friend of mine. NOTETOSELF: I need a new nametag.

A real astronauts boot

A widefield view of Orion's Belt and Sword showing the complex of nebulosity in the area.

 

The three Belt stars are at top (L to R): Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka, with the dark Horsehead Nebula (B33) below Alnitak. Above Alnitak is the pinkish Flame Nebula, NGC 2024. At bottom are Messiers 42 and 43, making up the Orion Nebula, with the bluish Running Man Nebula above it, aka NGC 1973-5-7. Above it is the star cluster NGC 1981. Messier 78 is just on frame at upper left.

 

Numerous other bits of emission and reflection nebulas populate the field amid a backdrop of faint emission nebulosity. The stars around the Belt belong to the large star cluster Collinder 70.

 

This is a blend of two stacks of images: 15 x 8 minutes through an IDAS NBX dual narrowband filter to bring out the faint nebulosity, and 15 x 4-minutes with no filter for the more natural star colours and colours of the Orion, Flame and Horsehead (IC 434) Nebulas. So a total of 3 hours of exposure time. I did not take shorter exposures for the Orion Nebula core.

 

All were with the William Optics RedCat 51mm astrograph at f/4.9 and filter-modified (by AstroGear) Canon EOS R at ISO 3200 for the filtered shots and ISO 800 for the unfiltered shots. Taken from home January 22, 2023 on a rare clear winter night. Autoguided and dithered with the Lacerta MGEN3 autoguider. No darks or LENR employed.

 

All stacking, alignment and masking in Photoshop. Luminosity masks with Lumenzia helped bring out the nebulosity, as did a mild application of the Nebula FIlter action in the PhotoKemi StarTools Actions set. Noise reduction with RC-Astro Noise XTerminator. The filtered set has had all the stars removed using RC-Astro Star XTerminator, so it contributed just the nebulosity, Stars come from the unfiltered set for tighter stars with more natural colours.

My favourite target for testing telescopes, the North America Nebula, NGC 7000, in Cygnus, with its companion Pelican Nebula to the right, aka IC 5070. The bright star Deneb is at upper right. An odd little red nebula is to the right of the Pelican, of unknown identity as it is not in Deep Sky Atlas, Millenium Star Atlas, TriAtlas or SkySafari.

 

This is a stack of 15 x 6-minute exposures with the Astronomics Astro-Tech 90CFT apo refractor and its 0.8x Reducer/Flattener for f/4.8, as part of testing, and with the AstroGear modified Canon R camera at ISO 800. On the AP Mach 1 mount and auto-guided with the Lacerta MGENIII stand-alone guider. No filter was employed here, other than the Optolong IR Cut filter installed in the camera itself by AstroGear, replacing the Canon sensor filter.

 

Stacked, aligned and processed in Photoshop. with Lumenzia luminosity masks applied to a starless layer created with RC-Astro Star XTerminator to bring out the nebulosity independently from the rich starfield. Plus layers with PhotoKemi Nebula action and ON1 Effects Dynamic Contrast filter applied to further enhance the nebulosity and contrast.

 

Taken from home on a very fine warm and dry night, May 12/13, 2023, though with few hours of darkness at my latitude of 51° N in mid-May.

This is the rich area of nebulosity in central Cygnus that includes the Crescent Nebula (aka NGC 6888) at left, and the Tulip Nebula (aka Sharpless 2-101) at right near the star Eta Cygni.

 

The small circular red HII nebula at lower left is Sh 2-104, while the faint arc of whitish OxygenIII nebulosity below centre is the Wolf-Rayet nebula WR134. The Crescent Nebula is another Wolf-Rayet object, WR136, made of material expelled by stellar winds from a very hot central star. The long dark nebula above centre is B145, from Edward Emerson Barnard's catalog, while the mass of large dark nebulas of varying densities at right is collectively catalogued by Beverly Lynds as Lynds Dark Nebula LDN 862. The star cluster Messier 29 is just in the field at lower left. Many other minor star cluster dot the field.

 

This is a stack of 8 x 8-minute exposures at ISO 3200 through an IDAS NBX narrowband nebula filter to isolate the Ha and OIII emission lines, blended with a stack of 10 x 8 minute exposures with no filter (to retain natural star colours) at ISO 800, all with the AstroGear filter-modified Canon R, and on the Sharpstar 61 EDPH III refractor at f/4.5 with its Reducer. Autoguided on the Astro-Physics Mach1 mount with the MGENIII autoguider. Taken from home on a very fine night, May 15/16, 2023.

 

Stacked, aligned and blended in Photoshop. A "starless" layer created with RC-Astro Star XTerminator provides most of the nebula content, enhanced with luminosity masks and a Nebula Filter action from PhotoKemi Tools.

✨ Wolf-Rayet 134 – A Cosmic Jewel ✨

Captured WR 134 in stunning RGB, H-alpha, and OIII, revealing its breathtaking nebular structures! 💫 This Wolf-Rayet star, located 6,000 light-years away in Cygnus, shines through intense stellar winds, forming a spectacular bubble-like nebula.

📷 Gear used: 🔭 Telescope: Askar 185 Camera: QHY268M Mount: EQ8-R

Narrowband data enhances the delicate ionized gas surrounding WR 134, showing off its dynamic, turbulent beauty. Every photon traveled thousands of years to reach my sensor—astronomy never ceases to amaze! 🌌

#Astrophotography #WR134 #WolfRayet #Nebula #Space #Cosmos #AstroScience #HubblePalette #AstronomyLover #Astrophotography #CosmicBeauty #DeepSky #SpaceLovers #AstroGear #PixInsight #Astropixelprocessor #QHY268m #Askar185APO #EQ8R #NebulaPhotography

This is a framing of the main area of central Auriga filled with an array of Messier star clusters and faint IC emission nebulas.

 

The nebula at right is the Flaming Star, aka IC 405. The nebula below centre is IC 410 with the star cluster NGC 1893. The nebula above centre is IC 417 with the star cluster Stock 8. The nebula at upper left is Sharpless 2-235; while the large elongated patch of nebulosity at top centre is Sharpless 2-230. The star cluster at top is Messier 38 with the small cluster NGC 1907 below it, while the large cluster left of centre is Messier 36. The group of stars between IC 405 and IC 410 right of centre is Melotte 31, aka the Little Fish or Flying Minnow asterism.

 

This is a stack of: 10 x 6-minute exposures at ISO 3200 through a IDAS NB1 dual narrowband nebula filter in a dark moonless sky, blended with 8 x 4-minute exposures at ISO 800 with an Antlia RGB multi-band filter, with the latter set taken in bright moonlight a week later, with all frames with the filter-modified (by AstroGear.net) Canon R camera. These were all with the SharpStar 61mm EDPH II refractor at f/4.5, on the Sky-Watcher EQM-35 mount autoguided with the ASIAir Mini and ZWO 30mm guidescope, as a test of the combination of entry-level gear, and of the Antlia filter to work under bright skies. However, the moonlit RGB filtered image stack was quite muddy when the blue moonlight was color corrected out, and doesn't contribute a lot to the final image. So most of this scene is from the narrowband filtered image stack, which records the nebulosity well but doesn't provide well-balanced natural star colours. Diffraction spikes added with AstronomyTools actions to add a sparkling effect to the stars to partly counter their off-colour.

 

Taken in late March 2023, late in the season for this area of sky, so it was well over in the west with only a limited time each night to shoot it. Cloudy nights prevented getting a non-filtered set in a dark sky.

A framing of a field in southwestern Gemini rich in star clusters and nebulas. At top right is the rich star cluster Messier 35 and its small more distant companion cluster NGC 2158. At bottom right is the emission nebula NGC 2174 that is over the border in northern Orion. Above centre is the supernova remnant IC 443 arcing to the east of the orange star Propus or Eta Geminorum. The large diffuse nebula at left is IC 444 above the orange star Tejat Posterior or Mu Geminorum. The large, loose cluster Colliner 89 is embedded in IC 444. That region also has some blue reflection nebulosity, as does NGC 2174.

 

This is a combination of exposures taken without a nebula filter blended with exposures taken through an IDAS NB1 dual narrowband filter: 17 x 4 minutes unfiltered at ISO 800 blended with 10 x 6 minutes at ISO 3200 with the filter, all with filter-modified Canon EOS R, on the SharpStar 61mm EDPH at f/4.5, on the Sky-Watcher EQM35 mount autoguided with the ASIAir Mini computer. The Mini performed dithering moves between each exposure to reduce thermal noise hot pixels. The Images were shot over two nights: filtered on March 19 and unfiltered on March 21, as this area of sky was in the southwest and not high enough for more than 1 to 2 hours of shooting. Plus some ice fog and frost intervened.

 

Taken as part of testing this combination of gear as an entry-level setup. Stacking, aligning and processing in Photoshop, using luminosity masks, a starless layer and the nebula filter action in Photokemi actions to bring out the faint nebulosity.

A panorama of the Milky Way on a February winter night over the Badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. The panorama extends from Canis Major low on the horizon to Perseus at top near the zenith. Orion is at right of centre, with Gemini to the left and Taurus and Auriga above Orion. Mars is the bright reddish object in Taurus aboce similarly coloured but dimmer Aldebaran, itself amid the Hyades star cluster. The blue Pleiades is at upper right. Sirius is the bright star at bottom. The image takes in the complete Winter Hexagon (aka the Winter Circle) of bright stars.

 

The Milky Way is peppered with red nebulas, notably the large curving arc of Barnard's Loop, a suspected supernova remnant in Orion. The lowest stretches of the Loop get lost in the bright red airglow. The bright Orion Nebula shines in Orion's Sword, while east (left) of Orion is the round Rosette Nebula in Monoceros. At top is the finger-like California Nebula in Perseus. Several Messier star clusters also show up along the Milky Way.

 

The cyan-tinted Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is above centre amid the Taurus Dark Clouds.

 

Bands of red and yellow-green airglow tint the sky toward the horizon, as well as the glows from distant towns, notably Medicine Hat at centre. Some light haze added natural star glows — I did not use a starglow diffusion filter this night. But I did shoot the sky segments though an URTH broadband light pollution reduction filter, to help make the nebulas pop out more.

 

This is a stitch of 6 segments (using Adobe Camera Raw) for the sky with segments taken at 15° intervals, each 1 minute with the tracker motor on and at ISO 1600. The resulting sky panorama is blended with a stack of 4 untracked images for the ground, each 2 minutes at ISO 800, taken about 40 minutes after the sky segments, when the waning gibbous Moon was rising to light the landscape with a warm side lighting. So this is a time blend. But the camera was not moved between image sets. All were with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at f/2.8 and 28mm, on the filter-modified Canon R camera from AstroGear. This was on the Star Adventurer tracker with an Alyn Wallace V-plate to keep the camera level and aid framing the panorama.

 

Orton glow effects added to the ground with Luminar Neo, and to the sky with Radiant Photo and f/64 Diffusion actions. Star spikes added with AstronomyTools actions.

The Veil Nebula complex in Cygnus, aka the Cygnus Loop or Cirrus Nebula. This is a remnant of a supernova explosion that occured 5000 to 8000 years ago. It features a mix of red hydrogen-alpha and cyan oxygen III emission for a colourful complex of lacy filaments. The components have the catalogue numbers of NGC 6992-5 (eastern component at left) and NGC 6960 (western component at right, through the star 52 Cygni), and NGC 6974 for the middle area at top called Pickering's Triangle.

 

The region is on the boundary of a dark dust cloud obscuring stars to the right of the frame and yellowing the sky background there.

 

This is a blend of 10 x 6-minute exposures at ISO 3200 through an IDAS NBX dual narrowband filter to bring out the nebulosity, with a stack of 14 x 6-minute exposures at ISO 800 with no filter for the natural star colours and sky background, the latter set taken over two nights. All were with the filter-modified Canon R from AstroGear, on the Astronomics Astro-Tech 90CFT apo refractor with its reducer for f/4.8. All stacked, aligned and blended in Photoshop. Luminosity masks, a Nebula filter action with PhotoKemi Tools and a ProContrast filter with Nik Collection 6 ColorEFX helped enhance the nebulosity.

 

Taken from home in mid-May 2023 on the short nights and limited time between when this area reached high enough altitude to be worth shooting and the onset of dawn twilight.

A labelled panorama of the Milky Way on a February winter night over the Badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. The panorama extends from Canis Major low on the horizon to Perseus at top near the zenith. Orion is at right of centre, with Gemini to the left and Taurus and Auriga above Orion. Mars is the bright reddish object in Taurus aboce similarly coloured but dimmer Aldebaran, itself amid the Hyades star cluster. The blue Pleiades is at upper right. Sirius is the bright star at bottom. The image takes in the complete Winter Hexagon (aka the Winter Circle) of bright stars.

 

The Milky Way is peppered with red nebulas, notably the large curving arc of Barnard's Loop, a suspected supernova remnant in Orion. The lowest stretches of the Loop get lost in the bright red airglow. The bright Orion Nebula shines in Orion's Sword, while east (left) of Orion is the round Rosette Nebula in Monoceros. At top is the finger-like California Nebula in Perseus. Several Messier star clusters also show up along the Milky Way.

 

The cyan-tinted Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is above centre amid the Taurus Dark Clouds.

 

Bands of red and yellow-green airglow tint the sky toward the horizon, as well as the glows from distant towns, notably Medicine Hat at centre. Some light haze added natural star glows — I did not use a starglow diffusion filter this night. But I did shoot the sky segments though an URTH broadband light pollution reduction filter, to help make the nebulas pop out more.

 

This is a stitch of 6 segments (using Adobe Camera Raw) for the sky with segments taken at 15° intervals, each 1 minute with the tracker motor on and at ISO 1600. The resulting sky panorama is blended with a stack of 4 untracked images for the ground, each 2 minutes at ISO 800, taken about 40 minutes after the sky segments, when the waning gibbous Moon was rising to light the landscape with a warm side lighting. So this is a time blend. But the camera was not moved between image sets. All were with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at f/2.8 and 28mm, on the filter-modified Canon R camera from AstroGear. This was on the Star Adventurer tracker with an Alyn Wallace V-plate to keep the camera level and aid framing the panorama.

 

Orton glow effects added to the ground with Luminar Neo, and to the sky with Radiant Photo and f/64 Diffusion actions. Star spikes added with AstronomyTools actions. A clean unlabelled version is available.

A framing of the northern winter sky constellations of Gemini (left), Auriga (top) and Taurus (bottom right). The Messier star clusters M35 in Gemini, and the trio of M36, M37 and M38 in Auriga show up well. The large nebula at upper right is NGC 1499, the California Nebula in Perseus. The Flaming Star, IC 405, and other IC nebulas in Auriga are right of centre. The small round nebula at bottom is IC 2174 in northern Orion. The dark lanes of the Taurus Dark Molecular Clouds are right of centre. Mars is just below centre in Taurus, adding an extra star to this already rich area of sky and matching Aldebaran for brightness and tint.

 

This is a stack of 12 x 2-minute exposures with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 35mm and f/3.5 and on the filter-modified (by AstroGear) Canon R camera at ISO 800, on the Star Adventurer tracker. Taken from home March 16, 2023 with this area of sky in the southwest and plagued by some gradients, reduced with masks in Adobe Camera Raw and with Gradient XTerminator. Star glows added in post with Luminar Neo Magic Light extension.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

 

On this very last day of 2022, I published a new article on my website that covers the recent update I made on my Askar FRA400 Imaging Platform - where I have moved to the new ZWO AM5 Harmonic mount!

 

This mount uses an entirely new technology to drive the telescope! Where most equatorial telescopes are driven by a classical worm gear arrangement, the AM5 uses Harmonic or Strain Wave Gear Technology for their mount.

 

This is a new mount on the market, but not the only one using Strain Wave Tech - you can expect to see more in the near future.

 

Strain Wave Technology is currently used extensively in Robotics and the Aerospace industry and is just coming to telescope mounts now!

 

This article covers why I moved from my previous mount, explores the Wave Strain Drive technology that the AM5 uses, and covers my experience moving to this new technology.

 

The full post can be seen here:

cosgrovescosmos.com/astrogear/fpa400-ver2

 

A companion video discussing this topic can be seen on my YouTube Channel here:

youtu.be/Cerd-BcaMW4

(consider Subscribing - you get to watch my flail as I try to learn the video side of things... )

 

Please accept my wishes for a healthy, happy, and fruitful 2023!

Pat

A framing of the northern spring constellations of Leo (at right) and Coma Berenices (at left), the latter marked by the large star cluster Melotte 111. The small and obscure constellation of Leo Minor is at top right.

 

This is a stack of 10 x 2-minute exposures with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 34mm and f/3.5 and on the filter-modified (by AstroGear) Canon R camera at ISO 800, on the Star Adventurer tracker. An additional single 2-minute exposure through a Kase/Alyn Wallace StarGlow filter and layered and blended in Photoshop added the photogenic star glows, to accentutate the constellation patterns and star colours. Taken from home March 16, 2023.

This is a classic Milky Way arch panorama, with the Milky Way, appropriately over the Milk River, as it winds through the sandstone rock formations and cliffs of Writing-on-Stone (Aisinai'pi) Provincial Park in southern Alberta. The Milk River is one of the few rivers in Canada that flow south into the Missouri River watershed and so into the Gulf of Mexico. It is flowing from right to left here, from west to east. It was quite windy this night, so the water was ripply and blurred by the long exposures, with no distinct reflections.

 

Aisinai'pi is a sacred site to the Blackfoot First Nations, and the sandstone cliffs are carved with petroglyphs recording life and historic incidents on the plains. In Blackfoot skylore the Milky Way is "Makoyoohsokoyi," the Wolf Trail, named for the legendary wolves who taught humans to live together in harmony.

 

Adding to the sky colours and the red nebulas (hydrogen gas clouds) along the Milky Way are green bands of natural airglow, particularly bright to the east at centre, and what I think is aurora, not airglow, adding the magenta glow to the northeast at left.

 

The ground is illuminated only by starlight, but the long exposures used bring out details and colours in the ground and sky that the unaided eye would not have seen, but which are nevertheless present. For example, the airglow and aurora was not visible to the eye except as a general brightening of the sky.

 

This was May 25, 2025, between midnight to 12:30 am, when the centre of the Galaxy area in Sagittarius and Scorpius was rising in the southeast at far right down the river, but the Milky Way was still low enough across the sky to be contained within the camera frame for an "arch" panorama. Later this night or later in the summer, while the Galactic Centre would have been higher in the south, the Milky Way would have been too high in the east to frame easily in a panorama. The pano extends over 180° and was shot from the beach area on the east side of the campground.

 

Technical:

This is a blend of two separate panos for the ground and sky:

- 10 segments, untracked, for the ground,

- with 10 segments, tracked, for the sky.

- Each segment is a single exposure: 1 minute at ISO 1600 for the ground, and 30 seconds at ISO 3200 for the sky,

- all at f/2 with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 28mm and f/2 on the astro-modified Canon EOS R, and with an URTH Night broadband light pollution filter on the lens.

The camera was on the Star Adventurer Mini tracker.

 

I shot the ground segments from L to R first, then immediately afterwards shot the sky segments, with the tracker motor now on, from R to L. The segments were spaced 20º apart with the camera in portrait orientation.

 

Segments stitched in Adobe Camera Raw yielding two DNG pans, which were layered and masked in Photoshop. Images processed primarily in ACR with AI-generated Landscape masks.

This frames the entire Small Magellanic Cloud, a member of the Local Group of galaxies and a companion of our Milky Way Galaxy.

 

While not as richly endowed with nebulas and clusters as its nearby companion, the Large Magellanic Cloud, the SMC is still a wonderful region to explore. However, the two most notable objects in this scene do not belong to the SMC, but are closer objects that just happen to lie near it in the sky in the constellation of Tucana. At right is the spectacular globular cluster NGC 104 or 47 Tucanae, perhaps the finest globular in the sky. At top is what is dubbed as the "Mini 47 Tuc," or NGC 362, as through a telescope it looks like a smaller version of 47 Tuc, with a similar compressed core. Above and below 47 Tuc, respectively, is the small globular NGC 121 and large open cluster Kron 3.

 

This portrait was taken with the aid of a dual-narrowband filter to emphasize the red and cyan nebulas embedded in the main body of the SMC but also outlying such as at left.

 

The brightest and largest cyan nebula in the SMC is NGC 362, with the large star cluster NGC 395 to the left but here obscured by a cyan nebula. The smaller star cluster NGC 330 lies below NGC 346. The reddish nebula below and left of the main region of the SMC is NGC 456. Farther out is the odd NGC 602 with a blue appendage to it. In between is a round nebula not labeled on charts I had. Indeed the various atlases I consulted differed in the identities of the objects. At the lower southern end of the SMC is a confusion of small nebulas: NGC 294, 267, 261, 241, 248.

 

The field is 7.5 by 5º.

 

This is a blend of: a stack of 8 x 10-minute exposures at ISO 3200 through an IDAS NBZ narrowband fiter (that passes just H-alpha and Oxygen III wavelengths) and a stack of 12 x 5 minute unfiltered exposures at ISO 800, all with the Sharpstar 61mm EDPH III refractor at f/4.4 and the filter-modified (by AstroGear.net) Canon R, on the Astro-Physics AP400 mount autoguided with the MGEN3 autoguider.

 

Taken March 5, 2024 from the Mirrabook Cottage near Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia, during a successful two-week observing run down under.

This is the Large Magellanic Cloud, the main Local Group member and a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way, some 160,000 light years away, It is visible only from the southern hemisphere. Nowhere else in the sky do we see such a profuse collection of star-forming nebulas as here in this frame the width typical of binocular fields, about 7.5° by 5º.

 

The LMC is a dwarf irregular galaxy though with structures that resemble a barred spiral galaxy. Tidal disruptions caused by its passage near our Galaxy are sparking an intense level of star formation and star death – some of the nebulas are bubbles blown out by exploding or dying stars.

 

The main region of nebulosity is the massive Tarantula Nebula complex (NGC 2070) at left, with its twisted and tortured structure. The other main area is the NGC 1763 complex at upper right. At upper left are the nebulas NGC 2020 and NGC 1955, among many others. At lower right is the NGC 1748 complex. At lower left is NGC 2018.

 

However, the region is so rich it is hard to identify which object is which, especially as most atlases don't agree on the labels. Even amateur photos such as this reveal patches of nebulosity that are not plotted as such on star charts.

 

While many of the nebulas are red or pink from hydrogen alpha emission, many are cyan from predominant oxygen III emission.

 

This is a blend of images taken through a dual-band nebula filter and without any filter. This is a stack of 12 x 10-minute exposures at ISO 3200 through an IDAS NBZ dual-band (OIII and H-a) filter that adds most of the nebulosity, blended with a stack of 20 x 5-minute exposures at ISO 800 with no filter for the main "natural light" background content.

 

The Canon EOS R camera I used was modified by AstroGear.net to be more sensitive to H-a light. It was on the little Sharpstar 61mm EDPH III refractor with its Reducer for f/4.4, and on the Astro-Physics AP400 mount autoguided with the Lacerta MGEN III stand-alone auto-guider. Inter-frame dithering eliminated hot pixels on this warm night. No dark frames were employed.

 

Taken March 4, 2024 on a perfect autumn night at the Mirrabook Cottage near Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia and down the hill, literally, from the Siding Spring Observatory. While the camera was shooting I enjoyed touring the southern Milky Way with binoculars. It was stargazing heaven!

Lunette ASTRO-Professional 130 ED f:6,9 Triplet APO + LUMIX DC-G9 au foyer / Setup léger sur trépied carbone et gimbal carbone.

f 1800 mm equivalent 35 mm.

A framing of the northern winter sky constellations of Gemini (left), Auriga (top) and Taurus (bottom right). The Messier star clusters M35 in Gemini, and the trio of M36, M37 and M38 in Auriga show up well. The large nebula at upper right is NGC 1499, the California Nebula in Perseus. The Flaming Star, IC 405, and other IC nebulas in Auriga are right of centre. The small round nebula at bottom is IC 2174 in northern Orion. The dark lanes of the Taurus Dark Molecular Clouds are right of centre. Mars is just below centre in Taurus, adding an extra star to this already rich area of sky and matching Aldebaran for brightness and tint.

 

This is a stack of 12 x 2-minute exposures with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 35mm and f/3.5 and on the filter-modified (by AstroGear) Canon R camera at ISO 800, on the Star Adventurer tracker. Taken from home March 16, 2023 with this area of sky in the southwest and plagued by some gradients, reduced with masks in Adobe Camera Raw and with Gradient XTerminator. Star glows added in post with Luminar Neo Magic Light extension.

This captures a 180° panorama of the rich and colourful summer Milky Way over the iconic Sweetgrass Hills of Montana, specifically the West Butte, but as seen looking south from Alberta, from the Sunset Point viewpoint at Writing-on-Stone (Aisinai'pi) Provincial Park. From this latitude of 49º N the lower tail of Scorpius never rises above the horizon and the deep sky objects that are visible here appear low.

 

In the valley below winds the Milk River which flows into the Missouri River watershed and into the Gulf of Mexico. The buildings are the restored barracks of the North West Mounted Police, built at the mouth of Police Coulee in the late 1800s to guard against illegal whiskey-trading Americans!

 

An arc of yellow-green airglow tints the sky. Yellow Antares and some of the stars of Scorpius are reflected in the river at right.

 

The bright star at right is the red giant (here looking yellow) Antares. The region around Antares is rich in red/magenta emission and blue reflection nebulas. However, unusually, the nebula around Antares itself looks yellow. Below Antares in the large red nebula RCW 129, from the Rodgers-Campbell-Whiteoak catalogue. Above it is the blue Rho Ophiuchi nebula, aka IC 4604, and the pink Sharpless 2-9. Above them is the Blue Horsehead Nebula, aka IC 4592. At top is the vast red Zeta Ophiuchi Nebula, aka Sharpless 2-27.

 

Above centre is the complex of dark dusty nebulas that make up the Dark Prancing Horse, itself made of many "B" objects from E.E. Barnard's catalogue of dark nebulas. The most prominent is called the Pipe Nebula, at bottom, made of B78 and B59.

 

At centre, the Milky Way is populated by many star clusters and nebulas, most from the 18th century catalogue of Charles Messier. The bright Lagoon (M8) and small Trifid (M20) Nebulas are left of the Pipe Nebula. Above them is the Small Sagittarius Starcloud, aka M24, flanked by the star clusters M23 to the right and M25 to the left.

 

Above them is the pink Swan Nebula (M17) and Eagle Nebula (M16), with a diffuse red nebula Sharpless 2-54 above the Eagle.

 

At upper left is the Scutum Starcloud and the Wild Duck Cluster, M11. At top left is the star Altair in Aquila.

 

At bottom, just above the Hills, is the main Sagittarius Starcloud, in the direction of the Galactic Centre, with the star clusters M6 and M7 in Scorpius just rising above West Butte. Just above the horizon is a suite of three nebulas, from bottom to top: the Cat's Paw (NGC 6334); the Lobster (NGC 6357); and the large RCW 132.

 

It should be emphasized that apart from the bright Lagoon Nebula, none of these nebulas, as colourful as they are here, can be seen with the unaided eye. The long exposures and special filters reveal them, just as the long exposures bring out the landscape details lit only by starlight.

 

Technical:

This is a blend of:

- a stitch of 10 untracked segments for the ground (with generous overlap; I could have shot just 5 segments)

- with a stitch of 5 tracked segments for the sky taken immediately after without changing tripod position, or camera tilt.

 

Segments were stitched with Adobe Camera Raw. All were taken with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 28mm and wide open at f/2 for 2 minutes on the astro-modified Canon EOS R at ISO 800, in portrait orientation. On the Star Adventurer Mini tracker, with an Alyn Wallace V-Plate. The lens had an URTH Night broadband light pollution filter on it to improve contrast.

 

To those base "normal light" ground and sky panoramas I layered in and aligned a panorama of 5 segments taken through a 12nm Astronomik H-Alpha filter (it clips inside the camera in front of the sensor) to pick up just the dim red nebulas. Those exposures were 2 minutes at f/2 but at ISO 1600. I processed that H-a pano as a monochrome image, then colourized it red-pink with a Hue & Saturation layer. I removed the stars from it with RCAstro's Star XTerminator plug-in.

 

The original is 11,100 by 6,500 pixels.

 

Taken on a superb and perfect night, May 24, 2025. I used The Photographer's Ephemeris and TPE3D apps to plan the location and timing for this juxtaposition of land and sky. i.e. the stars and nebulas really were above the Sweetgrass Hills – this is not a composite created by pasting in a Milky Way sky from another time and place. Nor is the foreground from a "blue hour" shot from earlier in the evening. While this is a real scene, it is not as your eyes would have seen it.

This is the supernova remnant known as the Spaghetti Nebula, but more formally as Simeis 147 or Sharpless 2-240. It was discovered at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in 1952, an observatory also known by its name of Simeiz for the location where one of its facilities was located, thus the name of the catalogue of objects that includes entry #147.

 

The supernova that created this nebula exploded some 40,000 years ago and is about 3,000 light years away. In the sky it stretches across more than 3°, so it is big! The field of view here is 6.6° by 4.4°. The bright star at right is Elnath in Taurus or Auriga. The nebula itself is in Taurus.

 

This is a stack of 34 x 8-minute exposures through an IDAS NBZ dual-band nebula filter (which passes just green Oxygen III and red Hydrogen-alpha wavelengths) with the filter-modified (by Astrogear) Canon R at ISO1600, blended with a stack of 14 x 4-minute exposures at ISO 800 with no filter. So a total of 5.5 hours of exposure, on December 12, 2023.

 

The nebulosity comes from just the filtered set, while the stars come from the unfiltered set, which recorded nothing at all of the nebulosity but captured the stars' natural colours. However, despite the object having a fair amount of cyan-green OIII emission, and the filter passing it, not a lot got recorded here. There was some light haze in the sky which might have suppressed the shorter wavelengths. But the H-a showed up well.

 

All exposures were with the little Borg 77mm f/4 astrograph, one of the older scopes in my collection (and no longer made) and seldom used in recent years, but its fast speed and field of view were perfect for this target. Autoguided and inter-frame dithered (for eliminating thermal noise specks) with the Lacerta MGEN3 autoguider, on the Astro-Physics Mach1 mount.

 

Nebulosity brought out in Photoshop processing on a starless layer created with RC-Astro Star XTerminator, and using luminosity masks created with Lumenzia, and with applications of the Nebula Filter action in the Photokemi action set, and the Detail Extractor filter in the Nik Collection ColorEFX module, plus a mild application of an Orton Glow filter with Luminar Neo for artistic effect.

This is a panorama that extends for about 240º along the northern half of the Milky Way, centered on the Galactic Equator.

 

It takes in the sky from:

— Canis Major and Orion at left that were in the pre-dawn southeast sky this night ...

— through the other northern winter constellations of Taurus and Auriga at left of centre ...

— past the northern autumn constellations of Cassiopeia, Perseus and Cepheus at centre that were overhead in middle of the night ...

— then into the northern summer constellations of Cygnus and Aquila at right of centre ...

— to the constellations of Scutum, Sagittarius and Scorpius at far right that were low in the southwest post-dusk sky.

 

I shot all the images for this panorama on the same night in a long dusk-to-dawn session. So the segments at right were shot first in the early evening, the segments at centre in the middle of the night, and the segments at left shot last in the pre-dawn hours.

 

Bands of airglow tinted the sky at dusk (right) and dawn (left), particularly low in the southwest at dusk.

 

The brightest object at left is Jupiter, then in Taurus, with reddish Mars in Gemini above and to the left of Jupiter.

 

Along the Milky Way are many reddish star-forming emission nebulas, such as those around Orion at left, in Cassiopeia at centre, and in Cygnus at right of centre. But what stands out the most, and I emphasized in processing, are the many dark lanes of interstellar dust, not only in the MilkyWay itself, but also off the Milky Way adding subtle dark patches to the sky.

 

Everything in this image belongs to our Milky Way Galaxy, with the exception of the Andromeda Galaxy, the elliptical glow at bottom centre. It is another spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way that is 2.5 million light years away.

 

I shot the panorama on the night of October 3/4, 2024 from the Quailway Cottage in southeastern Arizona at latitude 32º N. It complements a similar dusk-to-dawn panorama that I shot six months earlier in March 2024 from Australia, using the same gear. That panorama takes in the opposite section of the Milky Way, from Orion to Scorpius, but including Carina, Crux and the southern constellations.

 

Technical:

This is a panorama of 16 segments, each a stack of between 6 and 12 exposures (the number varied due to time available and mistracking on some frames). Each frame was 2.5 minutes at f/2.8 with the RF28-70mm lens at 35mm, on the astro-modified Canon EOS R at ISO 800. The camera was on the MSM Nomad tracker using a ball head with a graduated azimuth motion that allowed easy panning at set 15º increments between each segments. The camera was oriented with the long dimension of the frame across, not along, the Milky Way.

 

However, neither panorama captured the galactic core area well, as it was low in the dawn sky from Australia and low in the dusk sky fromArizona. It would take a shoot in June or July from either location to get that area at its best.

 

The lens had an URTH Night broadband light pollution reduction filter on it to help increase sky contrast and bring out the red nebulas. I did not use a narrowband H-Alpha filter.

 

The first 9 segments were shot panning up the Milky Way toward overhead, at which point the camera had to be turned 180° and be re-framed as closely as possible to the previous segment, to resume shooting down the Milky Way from overhead toward Orion and Canis Major in the pre-dawn sky.

 

Pano segments were processed in Adobe Camera Raw, stacked in Photoshop, but stitched in PTGui for smoother blends than what ACR provided with its Panorama Merge routine. Finishing touch effects added with Nik Color EFX for detail enhancement and a glow effect.

This frames most of the intricate arcs and loops of the Vela Supernova Remnant (SNR), the remains of a star that exploded about 11,000 years ago. It is one of the closest SNRs to Earth, about 900 light years away. Most arcs and segments have no separate catalogue numbers, with the exception of the short straight Pencil Nebula, aka Herschel's Ray, in the lower left corner which is NGC 2736. It is the brightest segment of the Vela SNR visually in a telescope. The nebula complex is marked with lots of cyan arcs emitting oxygen III wavelengths, mixed with regions of red hydrogen-alpha emission.

 

The large area of red H-alpha nebulosity at top left is Gum 17. The small compact nebula below it is RCW 36. The field is about 7.5º by 5°. North is up in this framing.

 

This is a stack of 8 x 10-minute exposures shot through an IDAS NBZ dual narrowband filter to bring out the nebulosity, blended with a stack of 12 x 5-minute exposures with no filter for the "natural light" background and starfield. Shot at ISO 3200 for the filtered shots and ISO 800 for the unfiltered shots, all with the filter-modified (by AstroGear.net) Canon EOS R camera, on the Sharpstar 61 EDPH III refractor at f/4.4. On the Astro-Physics AP 400 mount autoguided with the Lacerta MGEN3 stand-alone autoguider. The waning crescent Moon rising at 2 am prevented more exposures.

 

Shot on a perfect night March 5, 2024 from Mirrabook Cottage near Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia.

Getting ready for a (short) imaging night at Blue Canyon - Nyack airfield in Northern California.

 

The astrogear hasn't changed in a while, but the keen-eyed followers might notice I have changed the "astro-car" to match the Mach 1 paint work :-)

This is a portrait of the constellation of Orion, shot and processed to bring out the rich array of bright and dark nebulas within its boundaries.

 

The largest feature is the arc of Barnard's Loop, a possible supernova remnant or stellar wind-blown bubble that encircles Orion. It is officially catalogued as Sharpless 2-276, and is usually plotted as just the easternmost arc, though it extends down and below Orion, all the way over to blue Rigel at bottom right.

 

To the right of Rigel is the purply-blue Witch Head Nebula, IC 2118, a reflection nebula lit by Rigel. Fainter blue nebulosity extends above it.

 

Below the three stars of the Belt of Orion just below centre is the nebulosity in the Sword of Orion that includes the dark Horsehead Nebula and below that the very bright Orion Nebula complex, Messier 42/M43, plus the bluish Running Man Nebula, above it, catalogued as NGC 1973-5-7.

 

The Belt and Sword are wrapped in other fainter red emission nebulas, patches of blue reflection nebulas, all amid a backround of dark yellow-brown dust clouds. The latter are densest above the left star of the Belt, Alnitak, with a dark lane containing the small but bright reflection nebula Messier 78. Just above Alnitak is the orange Flame Nebula.

 

At top is the large circular emission nebula Sharpless 2-264, surrounding the head of Orion and the star Meissa and a loose open star cluster Collinder 69. The nebula has become known as the Angelfish Nebula. It sits above orange Betelgeuse (at left) and blue-white Bellatrix (at right), marking the shoulders of Orion.

 

This is a stack of 16 x 2-minute exposures with the Canon RF28-70mm f/2 lens stopped down to f/2.8, on the filter-modified (by AstroGear) Canon EOS R camera at ISO 1600. The lens was equipped with a 95mm URTH broadband light pollution reduction filter which helps improve contrast and reduce sky gradients. The camera was on the MSM Nomad tracker for tracked but unguided exposures over 30 minutes. To those I blended in a stack of 4 x 2-minute exposures that had light cloud that added the fuzzy stars glows naturally. I did not use a diffusion filter. Incoming thin clouds prevented more exposures.

 

Processing with PhotoKemi "Nebula Filter" action and Nik Collection Color EFX filters (Detail Extractor and Pro Contrast) helped bring out the faint nebulosity, and with luminosity masks created with Lumenzia applied to restrict the effects to mid to mid-darks tones.

 

Taken from home on February 1, 2024.

Main camera: Zwo Asi183mm Pro

Guide camera: Zwo Asi120mm-mini

Telescope: Lacerta 72/432 F6 w/ flattener

Guiding telescope: Orion 50mm-mini

Mount: Skywatcher EQ-5 Pro Go-to belt-modded

Pegasus Pocket Powerbox Advance

Zwo EAF

Zwo EFW

Astronomik LRGBSHO filters

 

This is a showpiece of the southern skies, the Large Magellanic Cloud, a member of the Local Group, and a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way, one rich in star forming nebulas and clusters. The LMC is cross between a dwarf irregular galaxy and a barred spiral. The nebulas along its bar and arms show as regions of magenta and cyan, from hydrogen and oxygen emission.

 

The bright cyan Tarantula Nebula, NGC 2070, is at left, with the NGC 2014/NGC 1935 area above it.

 

The field is 7.5 by 5º but still does not include all the parts of the LMC.

 

This is a stack of 15 x 4-minute exposures with the Sharpstar 61mm EDPH III refractor at f/4.4 and the filter-modified (by AstroGear.net) Canon R at ISO 800, on the Astro-Physics AP400 mount autoguided with the MGEN3 autoguider. No filter was employed in the light path.

 

Taken March 3, 2024 from the Mirrabook Cottage near Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia, on the first night of a successul two-week observing run down under.

Lunette ASTRO-Professional 130 ED f:6,9 Triplet APO + LUMIX DC-G9 au foyer / Setup léger

This is Messier 1, the first entry in Charles Messier's 18th century catalogue of deep-sky objects that were not to be mistaken for comets, his real quest. It is also NGC 1952, or the Crab Nebula, from the Earl of Rosse's 19th century description and naming. It is north of the lower horn of Taurus the Bull. This is a remnant cloud of debris expanding away from a supernova explosion that was witnessed in 1054 CE. All that's left of the progeniitor star now is a neutron star forming a spinning pulsar at the heart of the explosion debris.

 

Some red H-alpha tendrils are obvious around the extremity of the otherwise bluish nebula glowing from synchrontron radiation created by the pulsar.

 

This is a stack of 24 x 6-minute exposures with the Askar APO120 refractor at f/7 with its 1x Flattener, and with the filter-modified Canon R camera at ISO 800. However, no filter was employed here. Autoguided and inter-frame dithered with the Lacerta MGEN3 stand-alone autoguider on the AP Mach 1 mount, Jan 1, 2024. Some high haze drifted through for part of the sequence. The frame was upsized in resolution and cropped from the original.

This is a version of the full-colour panorama, here rendered in near monochrome and low contrast to more or less simulate the appearance of the scene and sky as he unaided eye saw it.

 

Caption for the original colour image:

This is a classic Milky Way arch panorama, with the Milky Way, appropriately over the Milk River, as it winds through the sandstone rock formations and cliffs of Writing-on-Stone (Aisinai'pi) Provincial Park in southern Alberta. The Milk River is one of the few rivers in Canada that flow south into the Missouri River watershed and so into the Gulf of Mexico. It is flowing from right to left here, from west to east. It was quite windy this night, so the water was ripply and blurred by the long exposures, with no distinct reflections.

 

Aisinai'pi is a sacred site to the Blackfoot First Nations, and the sandstone cliffs are carved with petroglyphs recording life and historic incidents on the plains. In Blackfoot skylore the Milky Way is "Makoyoohsokoyi," the Wolf Trail, named for the legendary wolves who taught humans to live together in harmony.

 

Adding to the sky in the colour version were red nebulas (hydrogen gas clouds) along the Milky Way, as well as green bands of natural airglow, particularly bright to the east at centre, and what I think is aurora, not airglow, adding a magenta glow to the northeast at left.

 

The ground is illuminated only by starlight.

 

This was May 25, 2025, between midnight to 12:30 am, when the centre of the Galaxy area in Sagittarius and Scorpius was rising in the southeast at far right down the river, but the Milky Way was still low enough across the sky to be contained within the camera frame for an "arch" panorama. Later this night or later in the summer, while the Galactic Centre would have been higher in the south, the Milky Way would have been too high in the east to frame easily in a panorama. The pano extends over 180° and was shot from the beach area on the east side of the campground.

 

Technical:

This is a blend of two separate panos for the ground and sky:

- 10 segments, untracked, for the ground,

- with 10 segments, tracked, for the sky.

- Each segment is a single exposure: 1 minute at ISO 1600 for the ground, and 30 seconds at ISO 3200 for the sky,

- all at f/2 with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 28mm and f/2 on the astro-modified Canon EOS R, and with an URTH Night broadband light pollution filter on the lens.

The camera was on the Star Adventurer Mini tracker.

 

I shot the ground segments from L to R first, then immediately afterwards shot the sky segments, with the tracker motor now on, from R to L. The segments were spaced 20º apart with the camera in portrait orientation.

 

Segments stitched in Adobe Camera Raw yielding two DNG pans, which were layered and masked in Photoshop. Images processed primarily in ACR with AI-generated Landscape masks.

This is the bright, large and colourful naked-eye star cluster NGC 2516 in Carina, aka the Southern Beehive Cluster, near the bright star Avior (Epsilon Carinae) in Carina, the bottom star of the False Cross asterism.

 

Above the star cluster is the yellow nebula, IC 2220, aka the Toby Jug Nebula or Butterfly Nebula. It is a rare reflection nebula made of material cast off the central red giant star HR 3126, but not a planetary nebula per se. The central star is still a red giant.

 

With the aid of the Star XTerminator plug-in, I've processed the image to emphasize the faint wisps of other dusty reflection nebulas that permeate the field.

 

This is a stack of 8 x 5 minute exposures with the Sharpstar 61mm EDPH III refractor at f/4.4 and the filter-modified (by AstroGear.net) Canon R at ISO 800. No filter was employed. On the Astro-Physics AP 400 mount autoguided with the MGEN3 autoguider. Taken from Australia in March 2024.

This is a framing of an array of emission nebulas in Cygnus: the bright North America Nebula (NGC 7000) at right, and to the right of it, the Pelican Nebula (IC 5067/8). Those bright nebulas are set amid a complex of fainter nebulosity, notably the Clamshell Nebula at left, as it has become known recently, and catalogued as Sharpless 2-119. At bottom right is the curving Cygnus Arc, aka IC 5068. The small star cluster NGC 7044, yellowed by interstellar dust, is below the Clamshell. The nebulas are marked by lots of structure and radial streaks, perhaps from magnetic fields.

 

In processing, I tried to bring out the faint nebulosity while still maintaining the brightest nebulas as bright, and not compressing the dynamic range too much. And retaining the subtle variations in reds and magentas in the region. But in reality, all the nebulosity here, other than the North America and Pelican Nebulas, is faint. The long exposures through a filter and later processing was required to bring them out.

 

This is a blend of filtered images (for the nebulosity) and unfiltered images (contributing the naturally-coloured stars), all taken with the Sharpstar 61EDPHIII apo refractor with its Reducer/Flattener at f/4.4 and with the astro-modified (by AstroGear.net) Canon EOS R camera.

 

The filtered set is a stack of 12 images through an IDAS NBZ dual narrowband filter, for 8 minutes each at ISO 3200. The unfiltered set is a stack of 15 images taken a week later (due to clouds intervening on the first night) at ISO 800 for 6 minutes each. So this was a total of ~3 hours of exposure, still short by today's standards. All were autoguided and inter-frame dithered with the Lacerta MGENIII stand-alone autoguider. No darks or LENR employed on these fairly warm August nights. All stacked, aligned and blended in Photoshop CC.

 

Luminosity masks created with Lumenzia, mostly applied to a starless filtered layer created with RC-Astro StarXTerminator, brought out the faint nebulosity. As did an application of the Nebula Filter action in the Photokemi Star Tools action set. An application of the Detail Extractor filter in the Nik Collection Color EFX module enhanced the nebula structures. Noise reduction was with NoiseXTerminator.

This version has labels.

 

It captures the rich region of the summer Milky Way around the galactic centre as it was rising into position over the iconic Sweetgrass Hills of Montana, specifically the West Butte, but as seen looking south from Alberta, from the Sunset Point viewpoint at Writing-on-Stone (Aisinai'pi) Provincial Park. From this latitude of 49º N the lower tail of Scorpius never rises above the horizon and the deep sky objects that are visible here appear low. Though when I shot this Sagittarius was still rising and not at its highest yet. The timing was to get this field over the Hills.

 

In the vallery below, at Police Coulee, winds the Milk River which flows into the Missouri River watershed and into the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Some green bands of airglow tint the sky.

 

The bright star at right is the red giant (here looking yellow) Antares. The region around Antares is rich in red/magenta emission and blue reflection nebulas. However, unusually, the nebula around Antares itself looks yellow. Above it is the blue Rho Ophiuchi nebula, aka IC 4604, and the pink Sharpless 2-9. At top is the Blue Horsehead Nebula, aka IC 4592.

 

At centre is the complex of dark dusty nebulas that make up the Dark Prancing Horse, itself made of many "B" objects from E.E. Barnard's catalogue of dark nebulas. The most prominent is called the Pipe Nebula, at bottom, made of B78 and B59.

 

At left, the Milky Way is populated by many star clusters and nebulas, most from the 18th century catalogue of Charles Messier. The Lagoon (M8) and Trifid (M20) Nebulas are left of the Pipe Nebula. Above them is the Small Sagittarius Starcloud, aka M24, flanked by the star clusters M23 to the right and M25 to the left.

 

Above them is the pink Swan Nebula (M17) and Eagle Nebula (M16), with a diffuse red nebula Sharpless 2-54 above the Eagle.

 

At upper left is the Scutum Starcloud and the Wild Duck Cluster, M11.

 

At bottom, just above the Hills, is the main Sagittarius Starcloud, in the direction of the Galactic Centre, with the star cluster M6 in Scorpius just rising above West Butte.

 

Technical:

This is a blend of:

- a stack of 4 x 2-minute untracked exposures for the ground,

- with a stack of 4 x 2-minute tracked exposures for the sky taken immediately after without changing tripod position. However, the camera was aimed higher for the sky images.

 

All were with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 28mm and wide open at f/2 on the astro-modified Canon EOS R at ISO 800. On the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. The lens had an URTH Night broadband light pollution filter on it to improve contrast.

 

Taken on a superb and perfect night, May 24, 2025. I used The Photographer's Ephemeris and TPE3D apps to plan the location and timing for this juxtaposition of land and sky. i.e. the stars and nebulas really were above the Sweetgrass Hills â this is not a composite created by pasting in a Milky Way sky from another time and place. Nor is the foreground from a "blue hour" shot from earlier in the evening. Illumination is from starlight only, though the long exposures bring out the details.'pi) Provincial Park. From this latitude of 49º N the lower tail of Scorpius never rises above the horizon and the deep sky objects that are visible here appear low. Though when I shot this Sagittarius was still rising and not at its highest yet. The timing was to get this field over the Hills.

 

In the vallery below, at Police Coulee, winds the Milk River which flows into the Missouri River watershed and into the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Some green bands of airglow tint the sky.

 

The bright star at right is the red giant (here looking yellow) Antares. The region around Antares is rich in red/magenta emission and blue reflection nebulas. However, unusually, the nebula around Antares itself looks yellow. Above it is the blue Rho Ophiuchi nebula, aka IC 4604, and the pink Sharpless 2-9. At top is the Blue Horsehead Nebula, aka IC 4592.

 

At centre is the complex of dark dusty nebulas that make up the Dark Prancing Horse, itself made of many "B" objects from E.E. Barnard's catalogue of dark nebulas. The most prominent is called the Pipe Nebula, at bottom, made of B78 and B59.

 

At left, the Milky Way is populated by many star clusters and nebulas, most from the 18th century catalogue of Charles Messier. The Lagoon (M8) and Trifid (M20) Nebulas are left of the Pipe Nebula. Above them is the Small Sagittarius Starcloud, aka M24, flanked by the star clusters M23 to the right and M25 to the left.

 

Above them is the pink Swan Nebula (M17) and Eagle Nebula (M16), with a diffuse red nebula Sharpless 2-54 above the Eagle.

 

At upper left is the Scutum Starcloud and the Wild Duck Cluster, M11.

 

At bottom, just above the Hills, is the main Sagittarius Starcloud, in the direction of the Galactic Centre, with the star cluster M6 in Scorpius just rising above West Butte.

 

Technical:

This is a blend of:

- a stack of 4 x 2-minute untracked exposures for the ground,

- with a stack of 4 x 2-minute tracked exposures for the sky taken immediately after without changing tripod position. However, the camera was aimed higher for the sky images.

 

All were with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 28mm and wide open at f/2 on the astro-modified Canon EOS R at ISO 800. On the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. The lens had an URTH Night broadband light pollution filter on it to improve contrast.

 

Taken on a superb and perfect night, May 24, 2025. I used The Photographer's Ephemeris and TPE3D apps to plan the location and timing for this juxtaposition of land and sky. i.e. the stars and nebulas really were above the Sweetgrass Hills â this is not a composite created by pasting in a Milky Way sky from another time and place. Nor is the foreground from a "blue hour" shot from earlier in the evening. Illumination is from starlight only, though the long exposures bring out the details.'pi) Provincial Park. From this latitude of 49º N the lower tail of Scorpius never rises above the horizon and the deep sky objects that are visible here appear low. Though when I shot this Sagittarius was still rising and not at its highest yet. The timing was to get this field over the Hills.

 

In the vallery below, at Police Coulee, winds the Milk River which flows into the Missouri River watershed and into the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Some green bands of airglow tint the sky.

 

The bright star at right is the red giant (here looking yellow) Antares. The region around Antares is rich in red/magenta emission and blue reflection nebulas. However, unusually, the nebula around Antares itself looks yellow. Above it is the blue Rho Ophiuchi nebula, aka IC 4604, and the pink Sharpless 2-9. At top is the Blue Horsehead Nebula, aka IC 4592.

 

At centre is the complex of dark dusty nebulas that make up the Dark Prancing Horse, itself made of many "B" objects from E.E. Barnard's catalogue of dark nebulas. The most prominent is called the Pipe Nebula, at bottom, made of B78 and B59.

 

At left, the Milky Way is populated by many star clusters and nebulas, most from the 18th century catalogue of Charles Messier. The Lagoon (M8) and Trifid (M20) Nebulas are left of the Pipe Nebula. Above them is the Small Sagittarius Starcloud, aka M24, flanked by the star clusters M23 to the right and M25 to the left.

 

Above them is the pink Swan Nebula (M17) and Eagle Nebula (M16), with a diffuse red nebula Sharpless 2-54 above the Eagle.

 

At upper left is the Scutum Starcloud and the Wild Duck Cluster, M11.

 

At bottom, just above the Hills, is the main Sagittarius Starcloud, in the direction of the Galactic Centre, with the star cluster M6 in Scorpius just rising above West Butte.

 

Technical:

This is a blend of:

- a stack of 4 x 2-minute untracked exposures for the ground,

- with a stack of 4 x 2-minute tracked exposures for the sky taken immediately after without changing tripod position. However, the camera was aimed higher for the sky images.

 

All were with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 28mm and wide open at f/2 on the astro-modified Canon EOS R at ISO 800. On the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. The lens had an URTH Night broadband light pollution filter on it to improve contrast.

 

Taken on a superb and perfect night, May 24, 2025. I used The Photographer's Ephemeris and TPE3D apps to plan the location and timing for this juxtaposition of land and sky. i.e. the stars and nebulas really were above the Sweetgrass Hills â this is not a composite created by pasting in a Milky Way sky from another time and place. Nor is the foreground from a "blue hour" shot from earlier in the evening. Illumination is from starlight only, though the long exposures bring out the details.

This frames a pair of contrasting and superb star clusters in Puppis: rich NGC 2477 on the left and sparse but bright NGC 2451 on the right, the latter centred on the orange star c Puppis.

 

The blue star at lower left is Naos, Zeta Puppis.

 

The field is filled with the northernmost tendrils of gas and dust from the vast Gum Nebula.

 

This is a stack of 8 x 5 minute exposures with the Sharpstar 61mm EDPH III refractor at f/4.4 and the modified (by AstroGear) Canon R at ISO 800. No filter was employed here. Auto-guided on the Astro-Physics AP400 mount with the MGEN3 auto-guider. Taken from Australia in March 2024.

This is the superb Small Magellanic Cloud, a member of the Local Group, and a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way.

 

While not as richly endowed with nebulas and clusters as its nearby companion, the Large Magellanic Cloud, the SMC is still a wonderful region to explore. However, the two most notable objects in this scene do not belong to the SMC, but are closer objects that just happen to lie near it in the sky in the constellation of Tucana. At right is the spectacular globular cluster NGC 104 or 47 Tucanae, perhaps the finest globular in the sky. At top is what is dubbed as the "Mini 47 Tuc," or NGC 362, as through a telescope it looks like a smaller version of 47 Tuc, with a similar compressed core. Above and below 47 Tuc, respectively, are the small globular NGC 121 and large open cluster Kron 3.

 

The bright cyan nebula in the SMC is NGC 362, with the large star cluster NGC 395 to the left, and the smaller cluster NGC 330 below it. The small cyan nebula below and left of the main region of the SMC is NGC 456. Farther out is the very cyan NGC 602.

 

The field is 7.5 by 5º.

 

This is a stack of 14 x 4-minute exposures with the Sharpstar 61mm EDPH III refractor at f/4.4 and the filter-modified (by AstroGear.net) Canon R at ISO 800, on the Astro-Physics AP400 mount autoguided with the MGEN3 autoguider. No filter was employed in the light path.

 

Taken March 3, 2024 from the Mirrabook Cottage near Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia, on the first night of a successul two-week observing run down under.

This captures the rich region of the summer Milky Way around the galactic centre as it was rising into position over the iconic Sweetgrass Hills of Montana, specifically the West Butte, but as seen looking south from Alberta, from the Sunset Point viewpoint at Writing-on-Stone (Aisinai'pi) Provincial Park. From this latitude of 49º N the lower tail of Scorpius never rises above the horizon and the deep sky objects that are visible here appear low. Though when I shot this Sagittarius was still rising and not at its highest yet. The timing was to get this field over the Hills.

 

In the vallery below, at Police Coulee, winds the Milk River which flows into the Missouri River watershed and into the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Some green bands of airglow tint the sky.

 

The bright star at right is the red giant (here looking yellow) Antares. The region around Antares is rich in red/magenta emission and blue reflection nebulas. However, unusually, the nebula around Antares itself looks yellow. Above it is the blue Rho Ophiuchi nebula, aka IC 4604, and the pink Sharpless 2-9. At top is the Blue Horsehead Nebula, aka IC 4592.

 

At centre is the complex of dark dusty nebulas that make up the Dark Prancing Horse, itself made of many "B" objects from E.E. Barnard's catalogue of dark nebulas. The most prominent is called the Pipe Nebula, at bottom, made of B78 and B59.

 

At left, the Milky Way is populated by many star clusters and nebulas, most from the 18th century catalogue of Charles Messier. The Lagoon (M8) and Trifid (M20) Nebulas are left of the Pipe Nebula. Above them is the Small Sagittarius Starcloud, aka M24, flanked by the star clusters M23 to the right and M25 to the left.

 

Above them is the pink Swan Nebula (M17) and Eagle Nebula (M16), with a diffuse red nebula Sharpless 2-54 above the Eagle.

 

At upper left is the Scutum Starcloud and the Wild Duck Cluster, M11.

 

At bottom, just above the Hills, is the main Sagittarius Starcloud, in the direction of the Galactic Centre, with the star cluster M6 in Scorpius just rising above West Butte.

 

Technical:

This is a blend of:

- a stack of 4 x 2-minute untracked exposures for the ground,

- with a stack of 4 x 2-minute tracked exposures for the sky taken immediately after without changing tripod position. However, the camera was aimed higher for the sky images.

 

All were with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 28mm and wide open at f/2 on the astro-modified Canon EOS R at ISO 800. On the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. The lens had an URTH Night broadband light pollution filter on it to improve contrast.

 

Taken on a superb and perfect night, May 24, 2025. I used The Photographer's Ephemeris and TPE3D apps to plan the location and timing for this juxtaposition of land and sky. i.e. the stars and nebulas really were above the Sweetgrass Hills – this is not a composite created by pasting in a Milky Way sky from another time and place. Nor is the foreground from a "blue hour" shot from earlier in the evening. Illumination is from starlight only, though the long exposures bring out the details.

This captures the colourful and contrasty area of summer sky in Scorpius and Ophiuchus as it was rising into position over the iconic Sweetgrass Hills of Montana, specifically the West Butte, but as seen looking south from Alberta, from the Sunset Point viewpoint at Writing-on-Stone (Aisinai'pi) Provincial Park. From this latitude of 49º N the lower tail of Scorpius never rises above the horizon and the deep sky objects that are visible here appear low in the south.

 

Some green bands of airglow tint the sky.

 

The bright star at right is the red giant (here looking yellow) Antares. Beside it is the fuzzy-looking Messier object, M4, a globular star cluster. Several other Messier globulars are in the field: M9, M19, M62, and M80, but all appearing starlike at this scale.

 

The pink nebula at left in Sagittarius is Messier 8, the Lagoon Nebula. Above it is the smaller Trifid Nebula M20.

 

At right the region around Antares is rich in red/magenta emission and blue reflection nebulas. However, unusually, the nebula around Antares itself looks yellow. Above it is the blue Rho Ophiuchi nebula, aka IC 4604, and the pink Sharpless 2-29. At top is the Blue Horsehead Nebula, aka IC 4592.

 

The most notable sky feature is the complex of dark dusty nebulas that make up the Dark Prancing Horse, itself made of many "B" objects from E.E. Barnard's catalogue of dark nebulas. The most prominent is called the Pipe Nebula, at bottom, made of B78 and B59. Above it is the small Snake Nebula, B72.

 

Technical:

This is a blend of:

- a stack of 4 x 2-minute untracked exposures for the ground,

- with a stack of 4 x 2-minute tracked exposures for the sky taken immediately after without changing tripod position. However, the camera was aimed higher for the sky images, resulting in a square format image.

All were with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 56mm and wide open at f/2 on the astro-modified Canon EOS R at ISO 800. On the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. The lens had an URTH Night broadband light pollution filter on it to improve contrast.

 

Taken on a superb and perfect night, May 24, 2025. I used The Photographer's Ephemeris and TPE3D apps to plan the location and timing for this juxtaposition of land and sky. i.e. the stars and nebulas really were above the Sweetgrass Hills – this is not a composite created by pasting in a Milky Way sky from another time and place. Nor is the foreground from a "blue hour" shot from earlier in the evening. Illumination is from starlight only, though the long exposures bring out the details.

This version has labels.

 

It captures a 180° panorama of the rich and colourful summer Milky Way over the iconic Sweetgrass Hills of Montana, specifically the West Butte, but as seen looking south from Alberta, from the Sunset Point viewpoint at Writing-on-Stone (Aisinai'pi) Provincial Park. From this latitude of 49º N the lower tail of Scorpius never rises above the horizon and the deep sky objects that are visible here appear low.

 

In the valley below winds the Milk River which flows into the Missouri River watershed and into the Gulf of Mexico. The buildings are the restored barracks of the North West Mounted Police, built at the mouth of Police Coulee in the late 1800s to guard against illegal whiskey-trading Americans!

 

An arc of yellow-green airglow tints the sky. Yellow Antares and some of the stars of Scorpius are reflected in the river at right.

 

The bright star at right is the red giant (here looking yellow) Antares. The region around Antares is rich in red/magenta emission and blue reflection nebulas. However, unusually, the nebula around Antares itself looks yellow. Below Antares in the large red nebula RCW 129, from the Rodgers-Campbell-Whiteoak catalogue. Above it is the blue Rho Ophiuchi nebula, aka IC 4604, and the pink Sharpless 2-9. Above them is the Blue Horsehead Nebula, aka IC 4592. At top is the vast red Zeta Ophiuchi Nebula, aka Sharpless 2-27.

 

Above centre is the complex of dark dusty nebulas that make up the Dark Prancing Horse, itself made of many "B" objects from E.E. Barnard's catalogue of dark nebulas. The most prominent is called the Pipe Nebula, at bottom, made of B78 and B59.

 

At centre, the Milky Way is populated by many star clusters and nebulas, most from the 18th century catalogue of Charles Messier. The bright Lagoon (M8) and small Trifid (M20) Nebulas are left of the Pipe Nebula. Above them is the Small Sagittarius Starcloud, aka M24, flanked by the star clusters M23 to the right and M25 to the left.

This version has labels.

 

It captures the colourful and contrasty area of summer sky in Scorpius and Ophiuchus as it was rising into position over the iconic Sweetgrass Hills of Montana, specifically the West Butte, but as seen looking south from Alberta, from the Sunset Point viewpoint at Writing-on-Stone (Aisinai'pi) Provincial Park. From this latitude of 49º N the lower tail of Scorpius never rises above the horizon and the deep sky objects that are visible here appear low in the south.

 

Some green bands of airglow tint the sky.

 

The bright star at right is the red giant (here looking yellow) Antares. Beside it is the fuzzy-looking Messier object, M4, a globular star cluster. Several other Messier globulars are in the field: M9, M19, M62, and M80, but all appearing starlike at this scale.

 

The pink nebula at left in Sagittarius is Messier 8, the Lagoon Nebula. Above it is the smaller Trifid Nebula M20.

 

At right the region around Antares is rich in red/magenta emission and blue reflection nebulas. However, unusually, the nebula around Antares itself looks yellow. Above it is the blue Rho Ophiuchi nebula, aka IC 4604, and the pink Sharpless 2-29. At top is the Blue Horsehead Nebula, aka IC 4592.

 

The most notable sky feature is the complex of dark dusty nebulas that make up the Dark Prancing Horse, itself made of many "B" objects from E.E. Barnard's catalogue of dark nebulas. The most prominent is called the Pipe Nebula, at bottom, made of B78 and B59. Above it is the small Snake Nebula, B72.

 

Technical:

This is a blend of:

- a stack of 4 x 2-minute untracked exposures for the ground,

- with a stack of 4 x 2-minute tracked exposures for the sky taken immediately after without changing tripod position. However, the camera was aimed higher for the sky images, resulting in a square format image.

All were with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 56mm and wide open at f/2 on the astro-modified Canon EOS R at ISO 800. On the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. The lens had an URTH Night broadband

A framing of the northern spring constellation of Cancer the Crab, between the constellations of Leo (at left with the bright star Regulus) and part of Gemini (at upper right with Castor and Pollux) and Canis Minor (at lower right woth Procyon). Cancer is marked by the large binocular star cluster, Messier 44, the Beehive, at centre here. The head of Hydra is at bottom centre. Between the two is the small star cluster M67, just resolved here.

 

This is a stack of 11 x 2-minute exposures with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 34mm and f/3.5 and on the filter-modified (by AstroGear) Canon R camera at ISO 800, on the Star Adventurer tracker. An additional single 2-minute exposure through a Kase/Alyn Wallace StarGlow filter and layered and blended in Photoshop added the photogenic star glows, to accentutate the constellation patterns and star colours. Taken from home March 16, 2023.

This is a framing of an array of emission nebulas in Cygnus: the bright North America Nebula (NGC 7000) at right, and to the right of it, the Pelican Nebula (IC 5067/8). Those bright nebulas are set amid a complex of fainter nebulosity, notably the Clamshell Nebula at left, as it has become known recently, and catalogued as Sharpless 2-119. At bottom right is the curving Cygnus Arc, aka IC 5068. The small star cluster NGC 7044 is below the Clamshell.

 

In processing, I tried to bring out the faint nebulosity while still maintaining the brightest nebulas as bright, and not compressing the dynamic range too much. But in reality, all the nebulosity here, other than the North America and Pelican Nebulas, is faint.

 

This is a stack of filtered images taken with the Sharpstar 61EDPHIII apo refractor with its Reducer/Flattener at f/4.4 and with the astro-modified (by AstroGear.net) Canon EOS R camera, and taken in full colour but rendered here in monochrome. The conversion to monochrome was in Adobe Camera Raw.

 

The set is a stack of 12 images through an IDAS NBZ dual narrowband filter, for 8 minutes each at ISO 3200. Though the filter passed green Oxygen III wavelengths, the primary light recorded here was red Hydrogen-alpha. All were autoguided and inter-frame dithered with the Lacerta MGENIII stand-alone autoguider. No darks or LENR employed on these fairly warm August nights. All stacked, aligned and blended in Photoshop CC.

 

Luminosity masks created with Lumenzia brought out the faint nebulosity. An application of the Detail Extractor filter in the Nik Collection Color EFX module enhanced the nebula structures. Noise reduction was with NoiseXTerminator.

ASKAR 300 @ f/5.0

ASI2600MM Pro

Astronomik RGB Filters

Antlia Ha Filter (3nm)

Skywatcher EQ6 Pro

ZWO ASIAir Plus

 

10 x 180 Secs (Red)

10 x 180 Secs (Green)

10 x 180 Secs (Blue)

62 x 180 Secs (Lum)

17 x 300 Secs (Ha)

This is the Omicron Velorum cluster in Vela, catalogued as IC 2391, a bright naked-eye star cluster, though rather sparse when viewed through a telescope even at low power.

 

The bright star at bottom is Delta Velorum, the eastern star of rhe False Cross. The dim star cluster to the left of IC 2391 is NGC 2669. The field is immersed in faint nebulosity from the large Gum Nebula in Puppis and Vela.

 

This is a stack of 8 x 5 minute exposures with the Sharpstar 61mm EDOH III refractor at f/4.4 and the filter-modified (by AstroGear.net) Canon R at ISO 800. No filter was employed here. On the AP 400 mount autoguided with the MGEN3 stand-alone guider. Taken from near Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia, in March 2024.

This is the very blue and bright Southern Pleiades star cluster, catalogued as IC 2602, surrounding the naked eye star Theta Carinae.

 

The Southern Pleiades lies in Carina in a field immersed in diffuse nebulosity and dark lanes of dust. The star cluster below IC 2602 is Melotte (Mel) 101. The cluster at upper left is IC 2714. Below it is the smaller Mel 105.

 

This is a stack of 8 x 5 minute exposures with the Sharpstar 61mm EDOH III refractor at f/4.4 and the filter-modified (by AstroGear.net) Canon R at ISO 800. No filter was employed here. On the AP 400 mount autoguided with the MGEN3 stand-alone guider. Taken from near Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia, in March 2024.

A small Quintuplet air-spaced SD glass Petzval astrograph with 264mm focal length and 55mm aperture size.