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Telescope OTA: Celestron 8" Newtonian reflector, C8N

Mount: Celestron CGEM DX

Camera: Lum: Canon 350d mono, Color: Canon 450d

Exposure: Lum: 31x8min iso200, Color: 67x4min ISO 800

Filter: Astronomik CLS, Orion Skyglow imaging

Captured with BackyardEOS

Registered and stacked with DeepSkyStacker

Photographed from Round Rock TX (Orange zone)

M: iOptron EQ45-Pro

T: WO GTF81 Refractor

C: ZWO ASI1600MC-Cooled

G: 200mm (FL) Finder and PHD2

GC: ZWO ASI120MC

RAW16; FITs

Temp: -20 DegC

Gain 200; Exp 60s

Frames: 84 Lights; 10 Darks; 10 flats

60% Crop

Capture: Sharpcap

Processed: DSS; LR, PS, Gradient Exterminator.

Sky: No moon, breezy, no cloud, good seeing.

 

23.16 million light years distant.

I've taken the first steps to learning more about astrophotography. This shot of M13, the Hercules Cluster was taken on a polar aligned mount with a 500mm lens piggybacked on my optical tube. I recently bought an autoguider but this was just before I did that. This is 27 90 second images stacked with darks, biases and flats in deepskystacker.

EXIF - 140X180" (7h), Gain 0

Calibration: Darks - 40, Bias - 40

Camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro (cooled to -10°C)

Filter: Astronomik L-2 - UV IR Blockfilter 1,25"

Main optics: William Optics RedCat 51

Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro

Guiding: William Optics UniGuide + ZWO ASI120MM Mini

Controller: ZWO ASIair Pro

Software: DeepSkyStacker + Pixinsight + Photoshop

Location: Sibenik, Croatia

This edge-on Spiral Galaxy in Coma Berenices (Berenice's Hair) lies at 30-50 Million lightyears distance. Imaged with an Esprit 100mm refractor and Primaluce Lab Cooled Canon 700Da DSLR camera (cooled at -10 Celcius). Optolong -L filter. 34x300 seconds iso 800 and stacked in DeepSkyStacker using 40 Darkframes, 20 Flatframes and 100 Biasframes. Processed in Pixinsight. Dates (2016-04-29+30)

 

Knight Observatory, Tomar

Heart Nebula IC 1805, Fishhead Nebula IC1795

 

4.5hrs guided

Camera and scope : TS72 APO + TS72flat, Nikon d90 mod

432mm /f6/ iso800

  

Tracking: Skywatcher Star Adventurer

guiding: TS 50mm f3.6 guidescope , zwo asi120mc-s

 

Software: Deepskystacker, Photoshop, PHD2

M30 (NGC 7099) is a bright globular cluster located in the southern constellation Capricornus. M30 is about 27,000 light-years from the Earth. I read an abstract titled “Accreted versus In Situ Milky Way Globular Clusters” by Duncan A. Forbes and Terry Bridges (January 2010) in which M30 is listed as a candidate globular cluster that was stolen from another galaxy at some point in time. The term “accreted” means “come or bring together under the influence of gravitation.”

This image is composed of 32 x 15 second images at ISO 3200 with additional dark and bias frames. Tech Info: Meade LX90 12” telescope, Antares Focal Reducer, and Canon 6D camera. Imaging was done on September 1, 2016.

 

About 9.5 hours of exposure over four days using a Tamron 150-600mm lens set to 300mm attached to a Canon EOS 50D(modified). Taken in strong Los Angeles light pollution under the hated light pole. I really need to invest in a light pollution filter but they're expensive...

 

Processed using DeepSkyStacker, Photoshop, Topaz Denoise AI, and Lightroom.

Immagine realizzata in collaborazione con Giuliano Monti (www.tecnosky.it) coautore che ha gentilmente concesso tutta la strumentazione, lol, io ho messo solo la camera eos e due birre ♥

 

Telescopi o obiettivi di acquisizione: GSO RC12

Montature: SkyWatcher AZ EQ6 GT

Camere di guida: Starlight Xpress Lodestar

Software: DeepSkyStacker, Adobe Lightroom 3, Noel Carboni's Astro Tools for PhotoShop

Filtri: Orion SkyGlow 2" Imaging Filter

Accessori: Tecnosky Guida fuori asse-OAG

Date: 30 luglio 2013

Luoghi: Fubine (AL)

Pose:

Orion SkyGlow 2" Imaging Filter: 7x480" ISO1600 1C bin 1x1

Orion SkyGlow 2" Imaging Filter: 4x600" ISO1600 1C bin 1x1

Orion SkyGlow 2" Imaging Filter: 1x780" ISO1600 1C bin 1x1

Integrazione: 1.8 ore

Dark: ~21

Flat: ~24

Scala del Cielo Scuro Bortle: 3.00

Temperatura: 17.00

 

Haven't been around these parts much lately, but managed a couple of images in the meantime.

 

This is another collaboration between myself and Dave Williams, who provided the Ha used as luminance. My first mosaic, it consists of three frames (well, two and a tiny little strip in between really) processed using photomerge in Photoshop, which I was impressed with. Several sessions between July and September 2013

 

Meaningless stats follow:

 

RGB:

SW ED80/EQ5

Canon 500D modded, Baader Neodymium filter

All three frames: 246 subs totalling 13 hours 28 minutes

Acquisition: APT

Guiding: Quickcam Pro4000/9x50 finderscope, PHD

Stacked in DSS and processed in CS5, using photomerge for the stitching together

 

Ha (Dave Williams):

Usual :)

  

www.DonegalSkies.com

  

Location: Killygordon, Co. Donegal, Ireland.

Time: 22:00 - 00:00

Date: 21 Sep 2012

Target: ANdromeda Galaxy

Exposures: 8 x Five minute exposures (12Darks) Flats

 

Equipment:

Mount- Celestron CG5-GT (unguided)

Camera- Self-modified Canon 1000D

Telescope- Celestron Oynx 80ED

Additional- Astronomik cls clip LP filter.

Stacking & Processing: DeepSkyStacker & Photoshop CS5

Night shift today with my son Kevin. The green dot on the top right is the comet "Leonard". It passes the earth only every 80,000 years (!) and is visible this year from late November to early December. Unfortunately the weather is very cloudy, we have been watching the weather forecast for days and saw last night that this morning could be an opportunity with a lot of luck. So we got up at half past four and searched. After about 30 minutes we had found it. Then made a total of 120 pictures each 4 seconds and stacked them with DeepSkyStacker. Lens was the "bokeh master" Sigma 105/1.4.

Picture saved with settings embeTaken using Skywatcher 80ED Pro (.85XFR), Nikon D3300, 363x30" lights (ISO 1600), 100 flats, 110 bias. Stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Photoshop.

[edit: reprocessed]

 

Ho usato solo lo spianatore con il 102 a 700mm, sono molto contento del campo ai bordi :) ma si sono generati due strani flare che erano già comparsi con la foto delle Pleiadi di settembre, chiaramente non ho la benchè minima idea di cosa la generi, forse il filtro skyglow, nelle due foto ho usato due spianatori differenti..

Vabbèè

 

Telescopi o obiettivi di acquisizione: 102ED

Camere di acquisizione: Canon EOS 450D / Digital Rebel XSi / Kiss X2

Montature: Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro

Telescopi o obiettivi di guida: 80/600

Camere di guida: LVI Smartguider 2

Riduttori di focale: Tecnosky Spianatore 2"

Software: DeepSkyStacker, Adobe Lightroom 3

Filtri: Orion Skyglow 2" Filter

Luoghi: Cossombrato (AT)

Pose: 15x600"

Integrazione: 2.5 ore

Giorno lunare medio: 6.18 giorni

Fase lunare media: 37.30%

Centro AR: 05:40:32.709

Centro DEC: -02:20:15.945

Campionamento: 4.98 arcsec/pixel

Orientazione: 125.66 gradi

Larghezza del campo: 1.77 gradi

Altezza del campo: 1.18 gradi

Erste Gehversuche mit Deep Sky Fotografie und DSS (Stacker).

Stack von 25 Bilder mit Canon 70-200 /2.8

200mm / f2.8 / 1,6sec / ISO 1250

Aufnahme vom 2019-02-24

Fujifilm X-T10, Samyang 135mm f/2.0 @ f2.0, ISO 1600, 32 x 60 sec, tracking with iOptron SkyTracker Pro, stacking with DeepSkyStacker, editing in GIMP, taken June 2 under Bortle 3/4 skies.

 

July 31 edit: Reduced green cast.

The faint outer halo is just visible, bringing out the dark ring around the brighter centre of the galaxy.

34 x 1-minute unguided exposures at ISO 6400. Modified EOS 600D & Revelation 12" f/4 Newtonian reflector telescope.

Frames registered and stacked in DeepSkyStacker software; curves adjusted in Canon Photo Professional; noise reduction in CyberLink PhotoDirector.

For this image i wanted to find a workflow with a minimum number of processing steps. I used DeepSkyStacker with the auto white balance (raw) setting so the raw stack already looked good. In Pixinsight the autostretch was transferred to the histogram function followed by slight curves and green reduction with (0.8) SCNR (So no color calibration, no masking, no noise reduction etc.). Image data: Esprit 100 f5.5 refractor and Canon 6Da, 45 x 300 sec iso1600 with 25 flats and 65 biasframes. This is a small crop of the full field of view.

 

Knight Observatory Tomar.

19 x 1-minute unguided exposures at f/4 and ISO 3200.

Using more exposures helps reduce digital noise, so I also included 3 x 3-minute manually off-axis guided exposures at ISO 1600, f/4, taken in 2015.

Modified EOS 600D & Revelation 12" Newtonian reflector telescope.

Registered and stacked using DeepSkyStacker; curves adjusted in Canon Photo Professional; noise reduction via CyberLink PhotoDirector.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Skywatcher ED 80/600

 

Mounts: Celestron Advanced VX Goto

 

Guiding cameras: Canon 600 astro-modificated

 

Focal reducers: TS 2" PHOTOLINE 0.8x reducer / flattener

 

Software: DeepSkyStacker, Photoshop, Fitswork

 

Filters: Hutech IDAS LPS-D1 EOS

 

Resolution: 2268x1604

 

Dates: Dec. 6, 2015

 

Frames: Hutech IDAS LPS-D1 EOS: 47x55" ISO800

 

Integration: 0.7 hours

 

Flats: ~15

 

Avg. Moon age: 24.51 days

 

Avg. Moon phase: 25.88%

 

Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 7.00

 

Temperature: 8.00

The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on spiral galaxy 21 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. The giant spiral disk of stars, dust and gas is 170,000 light-years across — nearly twice the diameter of our galaxy, the Milky Way. M101 is estimated to contain at least one trillion stars. The galaxy’s spiral arms are sprinkled with large regions of star-forming nebulas. These nebulas are areas of intense star formation within giant molecular hydrogen clouds. Brilliant, young clusters of hot, blue, newborn stars trace out the spiral arms. (ref: Wikipedia and NASA)

 

Observation data (J2000 epoch)

Constellation: Ursa Major

Right ascension: 14h 03m 12.6s

Declination: +54° 20′ 57″

Distance: 20.9 ± 1.8 Mly

Apparent magnitude (V): 7.9

 

Tech Specs: Orion 8” RC Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at -10F, 47 x 60 seconds, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in DSS and PixInsight. Image Date: February 5, 2024. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).

Used my 150mm apo triplet and 1000D dslr with light pollution filter to collect 3 panels of 6 subs at 5 minutes each at ISO 1600 to create this mosaic of the Pleiades star cluster. Stacked and dark frame calibrated in Deepskystacker,mosaic stitched using IMerge and processed in Photoshop.

Image taken Midnight onwards 5/11/16

12/4/2018 12:46-1:41am MST

 

Grand Mesa Observatory

grandmesaobservatory.com/

 

14x 240sec

 

Processing: Photoshop CC, PixInsight

Stacking: DeepSkyStacker

 

Camera: QHY367C One Shot Color CMOS

Pixel Size: 4.88x4.88

Image Scale (1x1): 1.55 arcsec/pixel

FOV: 127.3 x 190.1 arcmin

 

Optics: Takahashi FSQ130

Aperture: 130mm

Focal Length: 650mm

Focal Ratio: F5

Guiding: Stellarview 50mm

 

Mount: Paramount ME

150 ED Apo f7 triplet,Canon 1000D with UHC filter was used to capture 8 subframes at 16 minutes apiece,stacked in Deepskystacker and processed in Photoshop. Image taken 3/12/16

The Trifid Nebula (catalogued as Messier 20 or M20 and as NGC 6514) is an H II region located in Sagittarius.

 

Color, cropped image. The color saturation suffered in this image due to lack of an IR filter. That said, tracking was spot on with the image centered nicely in the frame and the surrounding stars are nice and round.

 

MOUNT: Meade LX850 w/ Starlok

SCOPE: Stellarvue SV105-3SV, 105mm APO Triplet

REDUCER: SFF7-3SV Field Flattener

CAMERA: Canon 550D Full Spectrum Mod by Gary Honis

FILTER: None

CAPTURE: Backyard EOS v3.1.8

STACKING: DeepSkyStacker

RAW EDIT: Adobe Lightroom v4.4

OS: Windows 10

 

Total Imaging Time: 1:32:30

 

LIGHTS

20 1-minute @ ISO 1600

11 2-minute @ ISO 1600

10 5-minute @ ISO 800

 

DARKS

5 1-minute @ ISO 1600

5 2-minute @ ISO 1600

5 3-minute @ ISO 1600

5 5-minute @ ISO 1600

3 10-minute @ ISO 1600

4 15-minute @ ISO 1600

 

Framing is a little out as this was shot using 2 scopes.

 

H-alpha data captured by Mick Hyde (9 Feb 14).

 

H-Alpha - 12x300s & 7x20s

Green - 21x120s & 21x15s (2x2)

Blue - 15x120s & 15x15s (2x2)

 

Stacked in DeepSkyStacker & processed in PS2.

 

Camera: Atik 490ex Mono

Filters: Baader H-Alpha 7nm, GB.

Scope: (G&B) Sky-Watcher Equinox 80ED .

Mount: AZ EQ6-GT goto, PhD guided with Orion 50mm guidescope & SSAG.

 

A spiral galaxy in the constellation Camelopardalis.

It goes by the nickname of the Hidden galaxy as it's a very difficult target for visual and for photography. This is due to it lying pretty much in the same line of sight as the Milky Way and all it's bright stars and dust lanes. Except IC342 which is about 11 million light years further on.

  

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -10c gain 100, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO asiair plus.

Darks, Flats & Bias.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in StarTools & Affinity Photo.

An nearby spiral galaxy, only 12 million light-years distant. The active nucleus harbors a supermassive black hole , estimated at 70 million times as massive as our Sun.

 

This was a test to see what this camera would show of deep-sky objects.

 

ZWO ASI290mm camera, Explore Scientific 3x Barlow lens, Optolong CLS filter, Explore Scientific ED 80 APO refractor, Celestron Advanced VX EQ mount.

 

21 45-sec frames

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker, dark frames applied

Post-processing with Photoshop CC 2017.

 

28 x 5 minutes, ISO 800

Sensor temp: +39-43C

60 darks, 60 flats, 100 bias

 

Equipment: Canon t2i, Orion 8" Astrograph, Atlas EQ-G

 

Guiding: SSAG, Orion ST80, PHD

 

Accessories: Astronomik CLS, Baader MPCC

 

Acquisition: EQMOD, Cartes du Ciel, Backyard EOS

 

Processing: DeepSkyStacker, Pixinsight, Photoshop CS6 (for mask fine-tuning)

 

M56 Globular star cluster

About 33,000 light years from us. This star cluster was first spotted by Charles Messier in January of 1779.

 

I used my Canon 1100D on my 150mm Newtonian

Mount is a HEQ5 pro goto, unguided.

I used 140 light frames of 40 seconds, at ISO 800

80 Bias, 40 Darks & 40 Flats.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker, then Processed with StarTools.

The time is now! I've heard the requests and for my latest calendar, it is exclusively astrophotography as shot through my telescope/camera setup. I'll unveil all 12 months in the coming days, but for today, I'll open up preorders and share with you a brand new photo that made the cut. More on this photo after the calendar details:

If you want to preorder a 2022 calendar, please fill out this form forms.gle/cNdv9go1NcBQp4tC8 . The calendars will be $18 for preorders and then $20 after November 1. The price includes shipping to anywhere in the US/Canada. The calendars are individually wrapped and all photos are ones that I have shot with my telescope/camera setup of amazing celestial views. I'll be sharing some more of exactly what you can expect next week.

As for this new image... you are looking at NGC 7380, the Wizard Nebula! I first shot this about a year ago when I was still figuring out a lot with capturing/processing narrowband astrophotography, and I just re-shot it a few nights ago and gave it a full new re-process. The final result is a bit more true to how the colors actually appear to the naked eye, as far as the emissions of the various gases involved. The image came from a little over 5 hours of narrowband exposures (105 minutes in Hydrogen-Alpha, Sulfur-ii, and Oxygen-iii separately) in the same night. The individual exposures were 5 minutes long and they were stacked in DeepSkyStacker before being combined in PixInsight.

I think I stopped the aperture down a bit too much on this one, causing the diffraction spikes around the Pleiades's brightest stars. Next time, I'll try f/5.6 or f/6.3.

 

Taken with a Sigma AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO DG at 133mm and f/8, Canon T3i DSLR, and Celestron Advanced VX mount. Consists of 34 light and 30 dark frames, each a 90-second exposure at ISO 1600, and 21 flat frames. Captured with BackyardEOS, stacked in DeepSkyStacker, and processed in Photoshop.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker: 15 frames, 2s, F2.8, ISO1600

More commonly known as The Dumbell Nebula. Sometimes as the Apple core or egg timer as well.

 

M27 is a planetary nebula over 1,200 light years away in the constellation of Vulpecula. Discovered by Charles Messier in 1764 it's thought to be the first planetary nebula discovered.

They were given the title planetary nebulae by William Herschel, who thought that these kind of objects looked small and round like a planet.

 

Boring techie bit:

Celestron Nexstar 8SE telescope, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, RVO 32mm mini guide scope, ZWO asi120mm mini guide camera, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -10c gain 0, ZWO asiair plus.

Darks, Flats & Bias.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in Affinity Photo.

Photo credit myself & Stuart Keane.

Data captured at www.astronomycentre.org.uk

   

This is my second attempt at processing this image, I think the result looks better than my last try. I still need more data though.

 

Canon 60Da

Tamron 24-70mm at 70mm

Astronomik CLS EOS Clip Filter

22x 120 second exposures

ISO 3200 at f/2.8

 

Tracked using an AstroTrac TT320X-AG (no guiding)

 

Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and processed in Photoshop.

Taken in Cabo de Gata National Park in Spain, May 2014.

 

The center of this view was barely fifteen degrees above the horizon when I started imaging it, I was killing time waiting for my main target to rise in to view.

 

22 Lights

30 Darks

30 Flats

100 x 4' subs, stacked in DeepSkyStacker. No dark, flat, or bias frames (I really need to do that to up my game). Curving dust tail, with the ion tail a bit dimmer rotated just to the left of the dust tail. Nice striations in the dust tail.

.

.

Comet 32 frames DeepSkyStacker ISO 1600 X32 stacked CG

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Frames: IMG_3662-3699

As requested by some fellow imagers, here's a look at what each individual narrowband channel has to offer in this part of the sky.

 

3 panel narrowband mosaic. Exposure times for each panel: 24X600"Ha, 24X600"OIII, and 24X600"SII.

 

Equipment used:

Canon 85mm f1.8 lens at f4, ZWO ASI183mm camera, AP900 mount, DeepSkyStacker, PixInsight star alignment, Photoshop levels, curves, blending, guided with ZWO174mm and Stellarvue SVR90T.

Pleiades M45 last night. Moon was out, so hard to get detail! 🔭

 

Stacked 20 lights, iso 800, 180seconds and processed in DeepSkyStacker and Photoshop. Nikon z 50 and Skywatcher Esprit 100.

www.DonegalSkies.com

 

Location: Killygordon, Co. Donegal, Ireland.

Time: 20:30-22:00

Date: 14 March 2010

Target: Orion's Belts (inculding M42 and the Horsehead Nebula)

Exposures: Seven ten minute exposures (6 Darks). 70mins total exposure. Combined with 15 x 30sec and 30 x 15sec exposures for the core of the Orion nebula.

Equipment: Mount- Celestron CG4 (unguided)

Camera- Unmodified Canon 1000D

Lens- 70-300mm Sigma APO working at 135mm

Additional- Astronomik cls clip LP filter.

Stacking & Processing: DeepSkyStacker & Photoshop 7.0

 

M8 Lagoon Nebula

M20 Trifid Nebula

M16 Eagle Nebula

M17 Omega Nebula

 

Tracker: Vixen Polarie Star Tracker

Exposure time: 8 mins (8 frames x 60s + 5 Dark frames)

Gear: Nikon D810A + Samyang 135mm F2.0 UMC + STC Astro-Multispectral clip filter.

Camera Setting: iso1600, 60s, F2.8 & 135mm.

Software: DeepSkyStacker 4.1.1 & Photoshop CC

Location: Home Observatory, Miri City

Finally was successful in this shooting session after two years of trials and errors with countless fails of guiding and imaging. I was able to acquire a little over 1h10min for this image.

This was the very first DSO image I've seen when I was a kid on NASA's APOD, it amazed me on the first sight.

Clear skies everybody!

While I'm waiting for a new 12mm f2.0 lens, I thought I'd test my new Fuji X-M1 with the kit zoom under the light polluted skies of suburban Melbourne at ISO 6400. Then I pushed and played as much as I dared.

It's not realistic, but it is remarkable what a digital camera and software can do these days.

A photo of our galaxy, the Milky Way, taken just outside our chalet at Crystal Springs Mountain Lodge in Mpumalanga, South Africa. It's amazing what a dark, clear sky can show (along with a little work on the computer). This is 10 photos that I took (each 30 seconds exposure time), stacked together (using Deep Sky Stacker), and then edited a bit in GIMP. My first real Milky Way shot!

 

If anyone is curious about how I went about getting this shot, I wrote a "how-to" here: digital-photography-school.com/forum/how-i-took/197256-mi...

there the stars are born from the Cocoons.

 

Covering the large portion of the Milky Way, which is the disk subsystem of our Galaxy, constellation Cygnus houses a lot of gaseous and dusty entities, both bright and dark. This image features among others the tiny bright Cocoon nebula (IC 5146/ Caldwell 19) which is a star formation region and much more prominent dark filament of Barnard 128 (the Snake nebula).

 

2048 size is quite viewable :)

 

Aquisition time: 10-11.08.2013 between 23:45 and 01:30 MSK (UTC+4)

Equipment:

Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 macro USM lens and Baader Planetarium 2" UHC filter mounted in front of the lens via step-down ring attached to Canon EOS 60D running Magic Lantern 2.3 firmware override riding on Vixen Polarie tracking platform over photo-tripod (alltogether codenamed "Anywhere Is, SWANS configuration").

Aperture 21,4 mm

Focal length 60 mm

Tv = 60 seconds

Av = f/2.8

ISO 4000

Exposures: 58 (plus 27 dark frames and 10 offset frames plus 2 fake flat-field frames).

Processing: Contrast was set to "linear" for all images in Canon DPP and 16-bit outputs were fed to DSS and stacked in Maximum Enthropy mode.

16-bit stacking result was processed in Photoshop with AutoContrast and Levels (namely gamma was set to 3,5) and Curves (skewed sigmoid curve was applied).

Note: I had to crop away some portion at the bottom of the image. The stars were really ugly there.

Comet ATLAS C/2019 Y4, discovered in December 2019, has been quickly increasing in brightness over the last few months, and many of us hope that trend will continue; past projections put it as reaching naked-eye brightness this April or May. However, it's brightness has recently plateaued around magnitude +8. That and an elongated nucleus suggest that it might be disintegrating.

 

It was likely about magnitude +8 when I photographed it last night, April 9th, near Star 42 Camelopardalis. I'm not sure what the faint nebulosity is to the lower left of the comet: either Dark Nebula HSVMT 25, integrated flux nebula (IFN), or it's simply an artifact. Galaxy NGC 2366 is also apparent in the upper right corner.

 

Acquisition details: Fujifilm X-T10, Samyang 135mm f/2.0 ED UMC @ f2.0, ISO 1600, 50 x 30 sec, tracking with iOptron SkyTracker Pro, stacking with DeepSkyStacker (used comet stacking mode so stars and comet were stacked separately and then combined), editing with Astro Pixel Processor and GIMP, taken in the 30 minute-window between astronomic dusk and the rise of the 93% illuminated moon on April 9, 2020 under Bortle 3/4 skies.

Taken on a beach a short walk away, as it's a darker location than at home and with an unobstructed southern horizon over the sea. The conditions, were rather hazy, however, with a thick, dark haze close to the horizon. From home, this haze would have been lit by the floodlights from a car dealership some distance to the south, so the beach was far better in these conditions.

10 x 2-minute exposures at f/2 and ISO 1600; modified Canon EOS 600D & Samyang 24mm f/1.4 lens, on a Vixen Polarie star tracker.

Frames registered and stacked using DeepSkyStacker; initial curves adjusted in Canon Photo Professional; final curves & colour-balance adjusted using Paint Shop Pro; noise reduction via CyberLink PhotoDirector.

'Ave anuvver one :)

 

Did this the same session as The Ring Nebula. Two images in one session - whatever next? :)

 

M103 aka NGC 581 is one of the most distant open clusters known, with distances of 8,000 to 9,500 light years from Earth and ranging about 15 light years apart. The cluster is about 25 million years old. Thus spake Wiki.

 

To me, it's number 27 :)

Taken with a TMB92L, Canon T3i DSLR, and Celestron CG-4 mount. Consists of 34 light and 20 dark frames, each a 45-second exposure at ISO 800, stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Photoshop.

This was inevitable - got to leave it alone now.

 

Little less brutal, and easier on the blue. Also, I used lens correction in the previous version to compensate for the lack of flattener. That distorts the entire image though, and made the galaxy a little wide of girth! Better in this version I think (if you don't look at the corners) :)

 

SW ED80/EQ5, cropped

Nikon D70 modded, Baader Neodymium filter

18 x 4 mins iso 1600

30 x 6 mins iso 1250

22 x 10 mins iso 800

Guiding: Quickcam Pro4000/9x50 finderscope, PHD

Stacked in DSS and processed in CS5

 

Reprocessed again here :)

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