The Rho Ophiuchi and the Antares region are incredible glimpses of the night sky. They are full of multicolor reflection and dark nebulae.

Blue, orange, cyan and red nebulae decorate one of the most beautiful constellation of the boreal sky: the Scorpius (one of my favourites).

In this photo on the left you can see the cyan/blue Rho Ophiuchi nebula near a scythe-like dark nebula on the right. Two of the three stars inside the Rho Ophiuchi nebula are actually double stars.

Antares is on the right, just a little bit over the frame (south). That's why everything looks golden in that area (Antares is a red giant).

Unfortunately the sky was not perfectly clear that day so the photo is not like I imagined it.

Canon EOS 60D (unmodded) and TS APO 80/480 Triplet on a HEQ5 guided mount (QHY5L-II + 60/200).

Photos were acquired with Astrojan Tools and PHD Guiding.

Calibration and stacking with MaximDL and post processing with PixInsight LE and Photoshop.

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⚙️ TECHNICAL DETAILS:

480mm - f/6.0 - ISO800

Light Frames: 24x300''

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This is a mosaic that I had mostly constructed in 2019. The area around Antares (brightest star, in the lower left) was too challenging for a straightforward approach, so I hoped to try some different optics or other approaches in 2020.

I did not get out to a dark sky site with my rig in 2020. Hmmmm...

A magnitude 1 star like Anatares star will bring out any oddities in your optical path. Regardless of where I put the star in the field, I got these strange Lissajous figures of light somewhere else in the frame. After trying to shoot with an 80mm refractor, I thought about taking a bunch of images with Antares in different places on the sensor. Then, maybe I could build the mosaic around where these odd ghosts were appearing.

Thankfully, that worked. All sub-frames for this mosaic are 90 s exposures with an Atik 314L+ color CCD on a HyperStar on a Celestron Edge HD 925. Stacks were used to construct 23 separate panels. Preprocessing was done in Nebulosity. Registration, stacking, and plate solving was in PixInsight, then Mosaic by Coordinates to put the panels together. Some additional processing in PI before moving over to Photoshop for the final tweaks.

What all is in this image? The lower left corner is Antares - a Type M1.5 Iab-Ib supergiant star. The brightest star in the constellation Scorpius, it is massive enough that it will end its existence with a core collapse supernova. It is actually a double star, with its companion being a B2.5 main sequence star. I have no chance of resolving the companion with this setup. To the right of Antares is M4 - the globular cluster that is nearest to the Earth, at about 2200 pc away. This is one way of understanding how you can't tell distances from brightness or visual appearances in space. Antares is only about 170 pc away - about 12 times closer. M4 (NGC 6121) is a gravitationally bound association of tens of thousands of older stars. Another globular cluster - NGC 6144 - is above and to the right of Antares. At 8500 pc, it is roughly 4 times more distant than M4. This cluster is also partially obscured by all of the dust in this region.

That dust appears bright blue around the star i 22 Sco in the upper left. This is a reflection nebula - the dust particles are the right size to preferentially scatter the blue light from the star. Portions of this dust complex fill most of the left half of this image.

The bright star in the upper right is Alniyat (σ Sco). The red glow associated with it is an emission nebula. The hydrogen in this nebula is hit with high energy photons that separate the electrons from their nuclei. As they recombine, the strongest visible wavelength produced is this characteristic red glow.

Reflection nebula NGC 1333 is currently the most active region of star formation in the Perseus molecular cloud. It is a wonderful example of a reflection nebula embedded with an open star cluster. This object holds hundreds of “young” (less than a million years old) stars, most of which are hidden from our view by the dense dust clouds.

This is an LRGB image taken through a Sky-Watcher Esprit 120 APO. The camera system is an Atik 460ex and the filters are made by Astrodon. Exposure (min) L:R:G:B 398:90:90:90 RGB bin 2x2

Tough object when imaging from inside a metro area with a UHC filter. It was low in the muck when I started, so that did not help. I did 2.5 hrs (300x30 sec) worth of 30 sec sub-images LiveStacked in SharpCap 3.2 and even that was not enough. Televue TV-85 at F/5.6, Baader UHC-S filter, QHY183c camera at -20C on an Atlas EQ-G mount w/EQMOD

Nella costellazione invernale dell'Auriga spicca la nebulosa blu VdB31, così chiamata perchè è il 31° oggetto nel catalogo di nebulose a riflessione di Sidney van den Bergh del 1966. Accanto a lei si trovano le nebulose scure registrate nel catalogo di Edward E. Barnard del 1919 : si tratta di nubi di polvere interstellare, che bloccano la luce delle stelle di sfondo.

Nel caso di VdB31, la luce riflessa è quella della luminosa stella AB Aurigae visibile al suo interno.

L'esplorazione dei dintorni di AB Aurigae con il telescopio spaziale Hubble ha rivelato che la stella, giovane di diversi milioni di anni, è a sua volta circondata da un disco di polvere appiattito, che testimonia la formazione in corso di un sistema planetario. AB Aurigae dista circa 470 anni luce.

Questa immagine è stata premiata dalla Nasa come foto astronomica del giorno il 13 Febbraio 2025 apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250213.html

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In the winter constellation of Auriga stands out the blue nebula VdB31, so called because it is the 31st object in Sidney van den Bergh's 1966 catalogue of reflection nebulae. Next to it are the dark nebulae recorded in Edward E. Barnard's 1919 catalogue: these are clouds of interstellar dust, which block the light of the background stars. In the case of VdB31, the reflected light is that of the bright star AB Aurigae visible within it. Exploration of the surroundings of AB Aurigae with the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed that the star, young by several million years, is in turn surrounded by a flattened disk of dust, which indicates the ongoing formation of a planetary system. AB Aurigae is about 470 light-years away.

This image has been awarded by NASA as Astronomical Picture Of the Day (APOD) for the day 13 February 2025 - apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250213.html

Technical data

Astrograph Newton Artec 200 E - Aperture 200mm, focal lenght 912mm, f/4.5

Mount Skywatcher EQ6R

Camera ZWO ASI 294 MM Pro with filter wheel 7 positions

Filters Antlia LRGB 36mm

Guiding system Artesky Ultraguide 60 MKII with guide camera Touptek 2210M

Exposure details:

L 145x180", R 43x180", G 47x180", B 41x180"", all in bin2 -15C gain 120

Total integration time: 13h48'

Acquisition: Voyager, PHD2

Processing: Pixinsight 1.8, Photoshop CS5, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, BlurXTerminator

SQM-L: 21.00   

Location: Promiod (Aosta Valley, Italy)

Data obtained in 4 nights in October/November 2024

*** All Rights are Reserved***

If you are interested in licensing my copyrighted photos for websites, books, cards, etc, please Email me at: client@bruce-wayne-photography.com

Capturing the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex was like my own personal quest to find the 6 Infinity Stones (which ironically share some of the same colors as many of the objects in this image), and I’ve have been completely obsessed with capturing it. The journey started back in 2020 and ended on the 5th of October 2021. I originally finished collecting data on this object at the end of August 2020, but I decided this year to add Hydrogen-alpha (Ha) and, in the process, like any astrophotographer, I decided the image needed more data, lol. I always envisioned capturing an additional celestial object passing in front of the Cloud Complex, but at the time I had no idea when such an event would occur. When I began collecting Ha in April of this year I discovery that C/2020 T2 Palomar would be passing in front the Complex in October 2021. To be honest, I thought it would be pretty much impossible to capture the comet passing in front of Rho Ophiuchi. With the limited time that Rho Ophiuchi would be in the sky at this time of year combined with the very short window to capture the fading comet, I knew I’d have to get extremely luckily. Not to mention I had no idea what the weather would be like when I was planning this back in April, or even if it would come out the way I envisioned it. But sometimes you get a win in this hobby, the conditions and timing were right, and I was able to capture the comet before it passed out of the Cloud Complex completely.

Thanks for viewing and Clear Skies everyone!

Info about the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex and comet:

Located in the constellation Scorpius, the large multicoloured Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex, contains several objects including reflection (blue), emission (red) and dark nebulae as well as a few globular star clusters. The bright shining yellow star Antares (lower left) is about 550 light-years away. While the globular cluster (M4) at the bottom right top is one of the nearest globular clusters to Earth at 7,000 light-years away. The smaller globular cluster between Antares and M4, which is NGC 6144 is nearly 33,000 light-years away!

The comet C/2020 T2 Palomar, was recently discovered by the Palomar/Zwicky Transit Facility survey on the night of October 7th, 2020. This celestial object won’t return to the inner solar system for over another five millennia (the orbital period of this comet is ~5,550 years). The comet topped out at +9th magnitude in August and is now rapidly fading low in the dusk sky. The green comet can be seen near the center of the image, next to the blue reflection nebula on the left.

Tech info:

This image is a 4-panel mosaic. Individual (Ha, L, R, G & B) channels were stacked in AstroPixel Processor and processed in PixInsight, with finishing touches applied in Photoshop. Several telescopes and cameras were used to capture this image. Information regarding filters and exposures can be found below:

Filters and Exposures (Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex) (For 4-panels)

RGB Subs = 180sec; Bin 2x2

Luminance (L) Subs = 300sec & 600sec (~1hr per panel for 600sec subs) Bin 1x1

Ha Subs = 600 sec; Bin 1x1

L = 5.9 hrs

Ha = 7.3 hrs

R = 2.7 hrs

G = 2.7 hrs

B = 2.45 hrs

Filters and Exposures (comet C/2020 T2 Palomar)

RGB Subs = 180sec; Bin 2x2

Luminance (L) Subs = 180sec; Bin 1x1

L = 9 mins

R = 6 mins

G = 6 mins

B = 6 mins

Total Integration Time: 21.5 hrs

Scopes: Takahashi FSQ106 EDX; Tele Vue NP127FLI Refractor

Cameras: FLI Microline 16803; FLI Proline 16803 - Grade 1

I have an explore scientific 16mp OSC kindly on loan/test from Kerin at Telescope House and this is my 2nd image. This has been quit a processing marathon due to my unfamiliarity with processing OSC and some defences with this Camera like:-

1. Bayer Pattern is BGGR not the more common RGGB.

2. Cameras equivalent to unit gain (ZWO 139) and offset which is 500 & 91 when using APT, Gain range is 100 to 2000 in this software. I don't know if this is the case for other acquisition software.

3. With a mono camera I usually take 2-3min RGB subs but as expected I have found +8min subs are required when using a equivalent gain with a OSC.

On another matter I was pleasantly surprised at how much dust I manage to pick up with this camera considering I'm imaging from Bortle 4/5 area & I was not using any type of blocking filter. If I had gone with more subs, 50 rather than 32 I would have greatly improved the signal to noise ratio from 5.5/1 to 7/1 giving more detail and cleaner image.

Object Description:-

This is a bright reflection Nebula in the constellation of Cepheus. The nebula, which shines at magnitude +6.8, is illuminated by a magnitude +7.4 star and lies 1,300 light-years away and is 6 light-years across. Its Apparent Dimension is 18' x 18'. The designated No. NGC7023 actually refers to the open cluster within the nebulosity which has it own designation of LBN487.

EQUIPMENT:-

Explore Scientific 102mm F7 APO Carbon

Explore Scientific 0.7 Focal Reducer

Skywatcher AZ-EQ6 GT

Explore Scientific 16mp cooled OSC

Orion Mini Auto Guide

Chip Temp Cooled to -10 degC

IMAGING DETAILS:-

NGC7023 Iris Nebula (Cepheus)

Gain 500 (Unit Gain) in APT

Offset 91

Dithering

32 RGB subs@480 (4h 16min)

20 Darks

25 Flats

PROCESSING/GUIDING SOFTWARE:-

APT "Astro Photograph Tools"

Siril

DSS

PS CS2

M78 (NGC 2068) and Barnard's loop in Orion along with lots of dust and gas in this star forming region. Other objects around M78 include NGC 2064, NGC 2067, NGC 2071. The cluster just at the left edge is NGC 2112.

I planned to get a good bit more exposure on this object, but thin clouds meant that time was better spent sleeping!

Exposure: 25x6min (2.5 hr)

Date: 2016.02.10

Telescope: 100mm f/5.5

Camera: 5D2 (unmodified), ISO 1600

Thoughts? [bad processing, will redo]

The Pleiades (Seven Sisters) is an asterism and open star cluster containing hot B-type stars in the constellation Taurus. At a distance of 444 light years, it is among the nearest star clusters to Earth. The two reflection nebulae associated with the Pleiades are NGC 1435 (Merope Nebula -- lower right) and NGC 1432 (Maia Nebula -- upper right). With enough exposure time and careful processing, however, it just looks like dust everywhere.

Rio Rancho NM Bortle 5 zone,

Oct 20-22, 2023

William Optics Redcat 51

ZWO 183mm pro

ZWO 30mm f/4 mini guide scope and ZWO 120 Mini

ZWO ASI Air Pro

Sky-Watcher HEQ5

92 X 300s Red

97 x 300s Green

96 x 300s Blue

Darks flats dithering GraXpert

Gain 111 at -10C

Processed in DSS and PS

Reprocess with a couple extra exposures added to the stack. editing in PS, stacked in deepskystacker 3.4 same kit as before. managed to bring more of the brown/golden dust and blue reflection nebula out as well as the main nebula itself. quite happy with this one i think. :P

Looking towards the bright star Antares in the sky above Lake Sonoma on a pleasant night at the beginning of June.

38 x 3 minute sub-exposures taken with the iTelescope T68, 28cm aperture, f/2.2 scope in Australia.

This is part of the huge Orion molecular cloud of dust and gas which acts as a stellar nursery.

In the centre of the image, two young B-class stars (HD 38563A and HD 38563B) are reflected in the surrounding gas with an overlying dark arch.

Towards the left is another reflection nebula, NGC 2071.

NGC 2064 and NGC 2067 are the two bright zones above the dark arch.

Towards the lower right, some early stars are just managing to penetrate the darkness as red or yellow splotches. One of these splotches (triangular - just to right of two small stars) brightened considerably in 2004 - its thought a young star ignited at that time - the region is called McNeil's nebula after the amateur who first noticed it.

Top left has a deep red colour as the field of view starts to include hot emitting hydrogen atoms in supernova remnant Barnards loop.

There is another reflection nebula at top left but so far I can't find a reference number for it.

Infra-red imaging shows about 45 new stars in the early phases of development in this cloud (T-tauri stars or Herbig-Haro objects which are outflow jets from young forming stars).

Comet C/2014 Q2 near M45, the Pleiades on 2015.01.18.

Seven 4-min exposures stacked, 5D2, ISO 1600, 100mm lens @f/4.

NGC 7023 or Iris Nebula is a wonderful example of an open star cluster associated with a reflection nebula. It is located in Cepheus, about 3.5 degrees southwest of β Cep (Alfirk).

Visually, NGC 7023 is a fairly bright, irregularly-shaped reflection nebula surrounding a 7th magnitude star (HD 200775) . NGC 7023 lies in a region of the Milky Way darkened by dust, within which the nebula is embedded.

NGC 7023 is about 6 light-years across, and 1,300 light-years away. Within the Iris, dusty nebular material surrounds a massive, hot, young star in its formative years.

Imaged in December 2024 over three nights at the Turismo Astronómico complex in Los Coloraos, Gorafe, Spain using the Esprit 100ED telescope and ASI 2600 MC Pro camera through a UV/IR cut filter.

Full details and a high resolution image you can download here or at: astrob.in/wi2br0/0/

Naples, FL

January 31, 2024

Equipment--

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED 80, field flattener (no reducer), 480mm focal length

Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6R-Pro

Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro

Guide scope: Williams Optics 50mm guide scope

Guide camera: ZWO ASI120MM-S

Software: NINA, PHD2

Imaging--

Lights: 38x300s

Darks, Flats, DarkFlats, Bias: assorted

Sensor temp: -10.0

Filter: Optolong L-Extreme

Sky: Bortle 5 (nominal)

Post processing--

Software: PixInsight, Photoshop

Acquisition details: Fujifilm X-T10, Samyang 135mm f/2.0 ED UMC @ f2.0, ISO 1600, 25 x 60 sec, tracking with iOptron SkyTracker Pro, stacking with DeepSkyStacker, editing with Astro Pixel Processor and GIMP, taken just before astronomic dawn on Mar. 22, 2020 from Bortle 2 skies.

At my latitude, this region of the sky only gets about 17 degrees above the horizon - every time I've shot it I've had thin clouds and haze to deal with. This time was no different - I wasn't able to use most subs because of thin cloud cover.

LDN 564 and many swirling dust clouds in Serpens. This is the second of 3 images of this region that I have completed/am acquiring data for. The dynamic range of the current generation of Sony sensors really helps capture the shadows and reflections in the clouds. Also visible are a few bright reflection regions and a tiny bit of Hydrogen Alpha emission near the center of the frame. This image was a fun one to process!

- Location: Remote Observatory (Bortle 1, SQM 21.99) near Fort Davis, TX

- Total Exposure Time: 18.45 Hours

Equipment:

- Scope: Esprit 100ED w/ 1x Flattener

- Imaging Camera: QHY 268M

- Filters: Chroma L/R/G/B (36mm)

- Mount: Astro Physics Mach1GTO

- Guidescope: SVBony 50mm Guidescope

- Guide camera: ASI 120mm mini

- Focuser: Moonlite Nitecrawler WR35

- Accessories: Pegasus Ultimate Powerbox v2, QHY Polemaster, Optec Alnitak Flip Flat

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Software:

- N.I.N.A for image acquisition, platesolving, and framing

- PHD2 for guiding

- PixInsight for processing

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Acquisition:

- L: 191 x 3m

- R: 55 x 3m

- G: 61 x 3m

- B: 62 x 3m

- All images at Gain 56, Offset 25 (Readout mode 1) and -5C sensor temperature

- 20 flats per filter

- Master Dark & Bias from Library

- Nights: 5/1-5/3, 5/5, 5/7, 5/9, 5/27/22

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Processing:

- BatchPreProcessing to calibrate all images

- SubFrameSelector to reject/approve subs and weigh approved

- ImageIntegration with SFS weights

RGB Processing:

- DynamicCrop

- MureDenoise

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction

- StarAlign RGB master to Luminance

- ChannelCombination to combine to RGB color

- DynamicbackgroundExtraction for color gradient

- Unlinked STF for stretch to non-linear

- ColorMask script on greens, apply and invert mask

- SCNR green to remove green patches

- CurvesTransformation for saturation and hue adjustments

Lum Processing:

- DynamicCrop

- MureDenoise

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction

- GeneralizedHyperbolicStretch to bring to non-linear

- HistogramTransformation x3 for further stretch

- CurvesTransformation for contrast

Combined Processing:

- LRGBCombination with chrominance NR enabled to combine Lum and RGB

- CurvesTransformation via inverted RangeMask for contrast boost

- SCNR red @ 0.2 to slightly remove red hue

- CurvesTransformation for slight saturation boost

- Invert, SCNR Green @ 0.3, Invert back to remove magenta hue

- DynamicCrop to remove edges

- Save and Export

✨ NGC 7023 – The Iris Nebula ✨ Captured with: 📷 QHY286m 🔭 Askar APO185 EQ8-R Mount 🎨 LRGB Filters 🕒 125 x 3-minute exposures

Nestled in the constellation Cepheus, about 1,300 light-years from Earth, NGC 7023—also known as the Iris Nebula—is a stunning reflection nebula. Unlike emission nebulae that glow from ionized gas, the Iris shines by reflecting the light of its central star, HD 200775, a young, massive B-type star. This star illuminates the surrounding interstellar dust, creating the nebula’s signature soft blue glow.

The intricate filaments of dust and gas, along with dark lanes weaving through the illuminated regions, make the Iris Nebula a favorite among astrophotographers. It’s not just beautiful—it’s a window into the early stages of star formation and the delicate dance between starlight and cosmic dust.

🌌 #NGC7023 #IrisNebula #Astrophotography #DeepSky #ReflectionNebula #Cepheus #SpaceArt #CosmicWonder #LRGB #QHY286m #AskarAPO185 #EQ8R #AstroGear #StarryNight

Sky region between Scorpius and Ophiūchus, centered on Rho Oph

Credit: Giuseppe Donatiello

85mm + Canon EOS 4000D - 4h tot exp (2018, 2019, 2020) on EQ5

(north left, east down)

New edit: November 22, 2022

Not a new target, but always a pretty one and challenging one with so many subtle wisps of cosmic dust.

The Pleiades (Messier 45) is an open star cluster containing young (around 100 million years old) B-type stars in the northwest area of the constellation Taurus. At a distance of about 444 light years, it is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and the nearest Messier object to Earth.

The Pleiades contains multiple reflection nebulae — dust that is illuminated by the hot blue stars. This dust cloud was once thought to be leftover material from the cluster's formation but is now believed to be an unrelated dust cloud through which the stars are currently passing.

Charles Messier was an avid comet hunter and compiled a catalog of deep-sky objects to help prevent other comet enthusiasts from wasting their time studying objects that were not comets. Messier published his catalog of comet-like objects in 1771, and the inclusion of the Pleiades has been noted as curious, as most of Messier's objects were much fainter and more easily confused with comets. One possible explanation is that Messier simply wanted to have a larger catalog than his scientific rival Lacaille, whose 1755 catalog contained 42 objects. Messier's original catalog contained 41 objects, so he added some bright, well-known objects to boost the number on his list to 45. In later years, with the help of his friend and colleague Pierre Méchain, the list of entries was increased to 103. The current Messier list stands at 110 entries.

Data for the attached image was shot through red, green and blue filters using a monochrome camera. Total exposure times were blue - 14 hr, green - 9 hr, and red - 9 hr.

First time targeting IC 4592, the Blue Horsehead Nebula, all by itself. This reflection nebula in Scorpius is extremely faint and low to the horizon at my latitude, so I was pleased to be able to pull out some decent detail and color. I used a stock Fujifilm X-T10 camera and Samyang 135mm f/2 lens wide open, shooting 53 2-minute tracked exposures (1 hr, 46 min total) at ISO 1600 and no calibration frames. I stacked the images in Deep Sky Stacker and processed the stacked image in Astro Pixel Processor and Photoshop. The final image is cropped in a bit from the original frame. Tracking (no guiding) was provided by an Orion Sirius EQ-G mount.

I love the juxtaposition of the dark nebulosity in Taurus with the bright Pleiades. Once I figured out mosaics, I knew this would be my second after Orion.

This is a mosaic of 5 different panels taken on two nights, Oct. 2, 2019 and November 20, 2020, 188 x 1 minutes of imagery. All subs were taken with my Fuji X-T10 and Samyang 135 mm on the iOptron SkyTracker Pro. Each sub is 60 seconds, taken at ISO 1600 with the Samyang 135mm open to f2.

I used the same process as that of my previous mosaic of Orion: I integrated individual panels using DeepSkyStacker, and used the 'remove light pollution' tool of Astro Pixel Processor to flatten integrations, which had substantial vignetting from being shot at f2. These flattened panels were then mosaiced with Astro Pixel Processor using the process outlined here: www.astropixelprocessor.com/part-3-register-normalize-int.... Curves adjustment, star reduction, and color tweaking were then done with GIMP. This image is downscaled to 70% of the original mosaic.

This is the nebula rich region in the constellation of Monoceros the Unicorn with the dark Cone Nebula (left of centre) and the small V-shaped and bright Hubble’s Variable Nebula at bottom, a reflection nebula that varies in form and brightness. Above the Cone Nebula is the triangular Christmas Tree Cluster, NGC 2264, here upside down as the bright blue star 15 Mon is the base of the tree. The large region of nebulosity is Sharpless 2-273. The V-shaped dark nebula above centre is LDN 1603.

Near 15 Mon is a blue reflection nebula. Another blue reflection nebula IC 2169 and associated star cluster Collinder 95 is at left — I framed the field to contain this nebula. Other bits of reflection nebulosity surround it - clockwise: NGC 2245, NGC 2247 and IC 446 above the main nebula. The rich faint cluster near centre is Trumpler 5.

This is a blend of 8 x 5-minute exposures at ISO 800 unfiltered with 6 x 8-minute exposures at ISO 1600 shot through an Optolong L-Enhance dual-band nebula enhancement filter (it lets through only Oxygen III blue-green and Hydrogen-alpha red to really enhance the nebulosity). All exposures with the Canon EOS Ra mirrorless camera through the SharpStar HNT150 Hyperbolic Newtonian Astrograph at f/2.8, from home on a very clear moonless night January 26, 2020. All stacked, aligned and blended in Photoshop 2020.

Distance from Earth: 965 Light years.

NGC 1333 is a reflection nebula located in the northern constellation Perseus, positioned next to the southern constellation border with Taurus and Aries. It was first discovered by German astronomer Eduard Schönfeld in 1855.

Within the nebula are 20 young stellar objects producing outflows, including Herbig–Haro objects (in bright red), and a total of 95 X-ray sources that are associated with known members of embedded star clusters. [Wikipedia]

21 hours of imaging taken over 5 nights in February 2024 from the Complejo Astronómico Los Coloraos in Gorafe, Spain using my C11 f/7 Edge HD telescope with RGB filters.

Imaged with NINA, processed with PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom Classic.

For all the technical details and a full resolution image please visit my Astrobin page at: astrob.in/1lrjg2/0/

Thank you for looking!

Nebula M78 in Orion Constellation. This is a reflection nebula 1600 light years from the Earth.

2.5 hrs LRGB data from yesterday. Trying new targets till the moon or weather vanishes the possibilities.

Here’s my first experiment at a Milky Way nightscape photography which includes sufficient exposures and processing to highlight some deep space objects, such as Rho Ophiuchi (that colorful patch behind stars which “bleeds” dark nebula into the Milky Way), which normally don’t make an appearance in already-beautiful Milky Way landscape photography.

This was taken at Antelope Island State Park, Utah (Bortle 4), on April 19, 2021. The bright patch of light in the bottom left-hand section is the light pollution dome over Salt Lake City. The assorted red patches through the Milky Way and in surrounding areas are emission nebula (most prominent in the nebula Sh2-27, a red patch around the star Zeta Ophiuchi toward the top of the composition), which don’t typically show up in images captured by off-the-shelf cameras.

It may go without saying, but this sort of photography brings out detail far, far beyond what we can make out with our crumby eyeballs. Although everyone ought to experience, at least once, what the Milky Way looks like in the night sky under truly dark skies after our eyes have fully acclimated to the darkness. You know, in my rather biased opinion.

Technical Details

Multiple photographs were shot for the sky and the for the foreground. Photos were taken with an Olympus E-M1 Mk.III and the Olympus 7-14/2.8 Pro lens. Additional data was used for emission nebula (see below).

Sky Photographs

45x45 seconds 9mm f/2.8 ISO 640

62x45 seconds 14mm f/2.8 ISO 640

Two series of sky photographs were taken. One focused on the Milky Way and the full field of view and featured the top of the mountain below for placement, and a second series zoomed in more narrowly focused on Rho Ophiuchi and fainter deep space objects appearing to the right of the Milky Way. Dark and bias frames were used; flat frames were not—I forgot my equipment to take flats frames in the dark of night—but should have been. Photos were stacked and initially processed, aligned, and cleaned up in PixInsight, stars separated, and then passed on to Adobe Photoshop.

Landscape Photographs

10x60 seconds 14mm f/6.3 ISO 200

These photographs were stacked and aligned in Adobe Photoshop (allows for bringing out more detail and better colors with less noise) and captured while the moon was still up for some natural light (sky photos captured while the moon was down).

Nebulosity

Some wide angle data of nebulous regions (red patches) was used from some other photographs I’ve captured was used to bring out the red/pinkish regions in the photo. My Olympus camera has not been modified to pick up more red-spectrum light, otherwise this data would have come through properly in the original exposures.

Adobe Photoshop

The final images of the sky and foreground were combined in Adobe Photoshop in position and scale true to the landscape and night sky and edited/blended with masks.

A Couple Thoughts

Next time, I’ll capture more data, and be fussed to capture flat frames. I’ll spend more time getting my mask separating sky from foreground right the first time. An astro-modified interchangeable lens camera would be nice to capture the emission nebulosity if I made a habit of this. In the future I’ll stick to very dark skies. It was unpleasant to process out deep sky detail, without flats, in an image which scaled from fairly dark skies to the intensely bright light pollution above Salt Lake City, although I’m glad I did this once as an homage to the city I live in.

Just north of the Great Nebula in Orion is this region of gas and dust known as The Running Man Nebula. To see it properly in this picture, tilt your head by 90°. Lost of dust... soooo much dust, and it's scattering light from hot, blue B-class stars. Thus, the blues that fill the center of this image. That violet area? I'm not sure - maybe a combination of blue from reflection nebulae and red from emission nebulae?

This is a stack of 35 75s exposures from a Celestron Edge HD 9.25" scope at f/2.3 with Hyperstar and an Atik 314L+ color CCD. Preprocessing in Nebulosity; stacking and initial processing in PixInsight; final touches in PS CS 5.1.

The image scale is 2.5" per pixel. J2000 coordinates of the center are:

RA 5h 35m 21.8s

DEC -4° 48' 6"

My main target from the trip to Marathon, Texas is finally processed. NGC 1333, a reflection nebula in the constellation Taurus, and its surrounding dust clouds. The first time I saw an image of this target a few months ago, I knew I had to try and capture it. Being completely broadband, I made sure to spend all 3 nights at the Marathon Motel and Sky Park imaging this curious, dusty region of the sky. I'm very satisfied with how it came out in the end.

- Total Exposure Time: 24.8 Hours

- Location: Marathon Motel and Sky Park in Marathon, Texas ( a Bortle 2 location)

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Equipment:

- Scope: AT65EDQ

- Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600mm-Pro

- Filters: Chroma LRGB

- Mount: Belt-modded Orion Sirius EQ-G (HEQ5 Pro)

- Guidescope: QHY MiniGuideScope

- Guide camera: QHY5L-ii mono

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Software:

- N.I.N.A for image acquisition, platesolving, and framing

- PHD2 for guiding

- PixInsight for processing

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Acquisition:

- L: 261 x 180"

- R: 77 x 180"

- G: 80 x 180"

- B: 78 x 180"

- 20 flats and dark flats per filter per night

- All images at gain 139 & offset 21

- Nights: 11/14, 11/15, 11/16/20

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Processing:

Preprocessing of all images:

- Calibrate all light files

- StarAlignment, ImageIntegration

- DrizzleIntegration of masters

Luminance:

- DynamicCrop

- AutomaticBackgroundExtraction bc impossible to find background for DBE (and ABE worked very well)

- TGV/MMT Noise Reduction via EZDenoise Script

- EZSoftStretch script to bring to non-linear

- RangeMask + LocalHistogramEqualization for reflection nebulosity detail recovery

- CurvesTransformation to reduce some contrast

RGB Processing (apply to each RGB master):

- DynamicCrop

- ABE

- Heavy TGV/MMT due to less integration time than Luminance

Combine RGB Masters:

- StarAlign R/G/B linear images to Luminance

- Combine RGB into color with ChannelCombination

- DynamicCrop to crop edges

- PhotometricColorCalibration

- EZSoftStretch to stretch RGB image

- SNCR Green

- ACDNR with boosted Luminance Mask to remove chrominance noise

Combine L and RGB:

- LRGBCombination with L weighted at 0.85 and saturation boost at 0.2

Further Processing:

- EZ StarReduction script using Adam Block's method to reduce star size

- CurvesTransformation for contrast/bringing out dark nebulosity

- ACDNR with Luminance Mask for luminance noise reduction

- CurvesTransformation using inverted StarMask for contrast and saturation boost

- Invert image -> SCNR Green -> Invert image back to remove magenta tone

- Further star reduction via StarMask and MorphologicalTransformation

- Save and export

A bright star within clouds of dust and cold gas shines intensely scattering light through the nebula. Red is preferentially absorbed by the dust and blue is preferentially scattered. The central star is catalogued as SAO 19158. It weighs in at 10 solar masses and is a pre-main sequence B3 class star.

It is a Herbig Be star which is just settling down into the Main Sequence. (Essentially a larger version of the more familiar T Tauri type star). Surface temperature is 17000k compared with 5700k for our Sun. Rather amazingly, all that heat and light comes from gravitational contraction rather than nuclear fusion.

As it spins down to a mature star (that fuses), it produces two outflow jets along its poles which correspond to the two triangular zones (like a bow tie) seen spreading out on either side of the star.

As all this happens in a dusty environment with lots of hard UV from the star so various shock waves and compression fronts can be seen.

The appearance is said to resemble an Iris flower - others have compared it with a blue butterfly..

Robotically acquired from Grand Mesa Observatory system 1 scope.

Tricky to process as it contains both a bright reflection nebula and dark clouds. I used a lot of selective masking.

Id like to try for this target with my home scope.

Finally did: flic.kr/p/2p9VPMa

An unguided image of the The Pleiades star cluster and reflection nebula taken over Monticello, NY through a Canon 400mm f/5.6 L lens using a Canon 7D MKII dslr camera on a Celestron AVX mount. Ten 60 second images and four dark frames were stacked using DeepSkyStacker, then enhanced with Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop Elements.

NGC 5367 is a reflection nebula associated with the cometary globule CG12 in the Centaurus constellation. Dicovered in 1976 on an ESO/SRC Sky Survey plate taken with the UK Schmidt telescope, CG12 is in contrast to the most other Cometary Globules, because it is far away from the galactic disk.

The nebula NGC 5367 (also catalogued as IC 4347) reflects light from two bluish stars of the binary system h4636 (the stars are from spectral type B4 and B7).

RA: 13h 57m 38.6s

DEC: -39° 59’ 56.40“

Location: Centaurus

Distance: 1,794 ly

Captured August 2020

Fiel Of view: 39.1 x 26.4 arcmin

Total acquisition time of 23 hours.

Technical Details

Data acquisition: Martin PUGH

Processing: Nicolas ROLLAND

Location: El Sauce Observatory, Rio Hurtado, Chile

Dates of Capture July & August 2020

L 23 x 1200sec

R 15 x 1200sec

G 15 x 1200sec

B 16 x 1200sec

Optics: Planewave 17“ CDK @ F6.8

Mount: Paramount ME

CCD: SBIG STXL-11002 (AOX)

Pre Processing: CCDstack & Pixinsight

Post Processing: Photoshop CC

AAPOD link

A portrait of various emission nebulas in southern Gemini and into northern Orion. At top is the bright star cluster Messier 35, with the small more distant open star cluster NGC 2158 below and to the right of it. Left of centre is the shell-like supernova remnant, IC 443, aka the Jellyfish Nebula. The small blue reflection nebula above and to the left of it is IC 444 amid a field of fainter emission nebulosity. The round and bright nebula at bottom is IC 2174 in Orion, aka the Monkeyhead Nebula. It is mostly an emission nebula but has some blue reflection components. The smaller round red nebula above it is Sharpless 2-247. It appears to be an ionized HII region, as a form of bubble, but is not a planetary nebula. So this is a field of various forms of nebulas: emission, reflection and supernova remnants. Missing is an obvious planetary nebula or dark nebula.

The orange star to the right of the Jellyfish is Propus, or eta Geminorum.

This is a stack and blend of filtered and unfiltered exposures, the latter set maintaining the natural star colours, and avoiding the haloes introduced by the filters, particularly the L-eXtreme.

The image is a blend of: 10 x 6 minutes at ISO 800 without a filter + 8 x 12 minutes at ISO 1600 with an Optolong L-eNhance dual narrow-band filter + 6 x 16 minutes at ISO 3200 with the Optolong L-eXtreme vary narrowband filter, the latter set taken at the end of the sequence when the field was quite low. Through masking the L-eXtreme images contributed only some of the nebulosity, particularly the subtle cyan fringes on the leading edges of IC 443 — it is the Oxygen III cyans that the L-eXtreme is good at picking up.

All were with the Canon EOS Ra camera and through the SharpStar 76mm triplet apo refractor with the EDPH reducer/flattener for f/4.5. Guiding was with the multi-star Lacerta MGEN3 stand-alone auto-guider, which also controlled the camera shutter and performed dithering between each frame to shift each exposure by a few pixels for noise reduction in stacking. All stacking, alignment and blending was with Photoshop v22.3. Some curves were applied with Lumenzia luminosity masks to selectively adjust the mids or dark-mid tones. Nik Collection ColorEFX ProContrast filter applied locally to the nebulas, plus a high pass sharpening, both to further enhance the nebulosity. No darks or LENR frames were employed or applied on this cool but pleasant and very clear and dry late winter night.

NGC 225 is an open cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia. These stars form a crescent around the reflection nebula VdB 4. This is seen at the center of the image. One of the stars in the cluster is causing the blue-white ghostly glow of the nebula. Starlight is scattered by the dust, which causes the blue light, a similar process to what makes our sky blue.

The distance from Earth is around 2200 light years.

Surrounding that reflection nebula in the image center is a large expanse of interstellar dust and gas with interesting globular fingerlike condensations of gas in several areas.

Image info:

Dates: Aug, Sept 2024

Location; somewhere in the Gila National Forest, NM US

Telescope: Takahashi FSQ106N

Camera: QHY268C

Mount: Rainbow Astro RST 135E

Data: approximately 11 hrs, 300 sec subs

Processing: Pixinsight

A "work in progress" test image done with my old Newtonian Telescope, of the interesting Deep Sky Object in Orion called M78. This tricky target requires far more data to do it justice, and I plan to image it properly with my Refractor.

The nebula M78 (Messier 78 or NGC2068) is a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion. M78 is the brightest diffuse reflection nebula of a group of nebulae that include NGC2064, NGC2067 and NGC2071. This group belongs to the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex and is about 1,600 light-years from Earth.

Astrometry Info:

View the Annotated Star Chart for this image.

RA, Dec center: 86.7043475041, 0.097061493109 degrees

Orientation: 0.475181941402 deg E of N

Pixel scale: 1.72452222665 arcsec/pixel

View this image in the World Wide Telescope.

Martin

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LDN 1235, the shark nebula, and lots of dust in Cepheus. A few background galaxies are visible as well. This is one of the few nebulae that clearly resembles the common name!

Thoughts?

100mm, f/5.5 telescope

5D2, ISO 1600

36x6min (3.6hr)

2018.11.05

SpaceCat51 @f/4.9

AP900

5D4, ISO 1600

180sx39 exposures (1.95hr)

2023.06.13

Thoughts?

NGC 1999 has a huge hole of empty space appearing as a black patch in its central region. It’s a reflection nebula, shining from the light of V380 Origins variable star.

The black patch is not a dense cloud of dust and gas but a truly empty hole.

The nebula is about 1,500 ly from Earth in the constellation Orion.

RA: 05h 36m 25.3s

DEC: -06° 42’ 57“

Location: Orion

Distance: 1,500 ly

Magnitude: 10

Other designations: LBN 979

Captured between December 2019 & January 2020

Fiel Of view: 41.3 x 27.1 arcmin

Total acquisition time of 24.7 hours.

Technical Details

Data acquisition: Martin PUGH

Processing: Nicolas ROLLAND

Location: El Sauce Observatory, Rio Hurtado, Chile

Dates of Capture December 2019 & January 2020

L 14 x 1200 sec

R 14 x 1200 sec

G 14 x 1200sec

B 17 x 1200sec

Ha 10 x 1800sec

Optics: Planewave 17“ CDK @ F6.8

Mount: Paramount ME

CCD: SBIG STXL-11002 (AOX)

Pre Processing: CCDstack & Pixinsight

Post Processing: Photoshop CC

Objects visible in the plate solved version:

[H53] 58: HII (ionized) region

GAL 291.06-00.77: HII (ionized) region

[KPR2005] 65: Open (galactic) Cluster

[CHM2007] HDC 633: Group of Galaxies

[BYF2011] 128: Molecular Cloud

GAL 291.3-00.7: HII (ionized) region

OH 291.3-0.7: HII (ionized) region

[R2003] 338: Object of unknown nature

[DBS2003] 62: Open (galactic) Cluster

GN 11.09.3: Reflection Nebula

ESO 129-5: Interstellar matter

[MR2010] G291.2-0.7: HII (ionized) region

NOVA Car 2008: Nova

GAL 291.6-00.4: HII (ionized) region

RCW 57: HII (ionized) region

GAL 291.61-00.52: HII (ionized) region

GAL 291.61-00.53: HII (ionized) region

GAL 291.6-00.5: HII (ionized) region

[CH87] 291.614-0.525: HII (ionized) region

Astrobin Top Pick

For me, when I add a little imagination to the Trifid Nebula, I see a grumpy dog with a pink head and a blue body. I know it's really just nebula clouds but does anyone else see a Trifid puppy dog?

Not long after posting a similar image from this same area, I was pleased to see even better image data provided by iTelescope.net - in this case, coming from a high quality 20 inch telescope over many nights. In addition to providing access to their telescopes, iTelescope.net provides subscribing members with a combination of premium image sets (with the rights to use & post them) and webinars that show how to process them. Itelescope.net captured the images and I did the post-processing with Astro Pixel Processor, Photoshop, and Topaz Sharpen AI.

Exposure Settings

• 16 rgb images with 5 minutes exposures (6 red, 6 green & 4 blue)

• 12 blue images with 15 minute exposures (12 blue)

• Total Exposure Time: 260 minutes

This is a rescued image from February 2022. I was still finding my way with CMOS imaging back then and I think I badly underexposed the subexposures here.

PixInsight didn’t give me anything useable but I ran the 90 x 3 minute subs through ASI deep stack tonight and came out with something.

My most successful run at this target was taken remotely with a very fast scope in Colorado here:

flic.kr/p/2k4xSMP

Certainly the background stars are a great colour and not over-exposed but I’m not sure if 3 minutes exposure (gain 100, offset 50) is the right option for a f/6-7 system - it's commonly mentioned on imaging fora but people tend not to specify their f-stop!

Update - I'm using 5 minutes, Gain 100, Offset 25 as a standard now.

With one of the more spectacular views in the night sky, Thor's Helmet Nebula (NGC 2359) features a bubble shaped emission nebula. This bubble (containing hundreds of solar masses of ionized material) appears to be getting blown by solar wind coming from the central star. This is a rare type of central star known as a Wolf-Rayet star which runs extremely hot and is thought to be in a pre-supernova stage.

Calibrated images of Thor's Helmet Nebula were provided by iTelescope.net. In addition to providing access to their telescopes, iTelescope.net provides subscribing members with a combination of premium image sets (with the rights to use & post them) and webinars that show how to process them. Itelescope.net captured the images and I did the post-processing with Astro Pixel Processor, Photoshop and Topaz Sharpen AI. Star spikes are natural.

Exposure Settings

• 27 images (9 red, 9 green & 9 blue)

• Exposure Time: 10 minutes (each image)

• Total Exposure Time: 270 minutes

The Orion Nebula, also known as M42, is a diffuse nebula located about 1,344 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Orion. It is a well-known stellar nursery, where new stars and planetary systems are forming from collapsing clouds of gas and dust. Spanning about 24 light-years in diameter, it is one of the closest and largest regions of massive star formation visible to us.

At the heart of M42 lies the Trapezium Cluster, a young open cluster of stars. This cluster consists of four main stars arranged in a trapezoid shape within a 1.5 light-year diameter. Two of these stars can be resolved into binaries, bringing the total to six visible stars in the cluster. These stars, along with many others in the nebula, are in the early stages of their evolution. The Trapezium Cluster is part of the larger Orion Nebula cluster, which includes about 2,800 stars spread over 20 light-years.

Near the top of the frame is Sh2-279, the Running Man reflection nebula.

All the surrounding dust and lanes of dark-nebulae are part of the Orion Molecular Cloud complex.

This was a moderately complicated image to make, being an HDR:

300 lights at 1s - for the stars, especially the trapezium cluster in the core

100 frames at 180s for the detail in the dust

20 frames at an intermediate 30s for a smooth blend

TI: 6.25hr

Processed in PixInsight: WBPP, BlurXterminator, ABE, SPCC, NoiseXterminator, HDRComposition, Seti Astro's Statistical Stretch; finished in Affinity (tonemapping, HSL, clarity).

Prints, cards and more: shiny.photo/photo/M42-and-De-Mairan-s-Nebula-905695a23bff...

This Image shows the Sadr Region with it's strong Hydrogen-alpha emission.

I originally only planed to shoot this target in RGB but with the moon out I thought I would go for a HaRGB Image. The RGB data was captured with my Canon EOS 6D between the 23th and 30th of July. The total integration time of the RGB image is about 6,5 Hours and was done using 4 minute long exposures at ISO 1600.

Now I wanted to shoot some Ha data in order to create this HaRGB Image, but my Canon EOS 600Da has a smaller sensor than my 6D, so I had to do a mosaic. Thankfully N.I.N.A has a built in Mosaic Planner which worked perfectly and enabled me to create a 4 Panel Ha Mosaic. Each Panel has roughly 2,5 Hours of total integration time and was captured at the beginning of August. So the total integration time of the Ha Image would be around 10 Hours. Since all four Panels overlap in the middle, the data there is noticably cleaner than on the edges. I used some cold packs in order to cool down the sensor of my 600Da for less thermal noise. With that the sensor sits at around 5°C below ambient, definitely worth it in the hot summer months.

The total integration time of the whole image is about 16,5 Hours.

All images were calibrated and stacked in Pixinsight. I followed the Mosaic Tutorial on Lightvortex in order to create the Ha Mosaic. Both RGB and Ha were combined with the NRGB Combine Module in Pixinsight. Further edits were done in Darktable. I brought back some detail in the highlights of the star Sadr in GIMP with some underexposed images I took.

Camera RGB: Canon EOS 6D

Camera Ha: Canon EOS 600Da

Mount: Skywatcher EQ5 Pro

Telescope: Omegon Pro Astrograph 154/600 F4

Guide camera: Orion starshoot autoguider

Guidescope: Orion 50mm

Coma Corrector: Skywatcher aplanatic coma corrector

Filter: Ha 12nm Clip in

Another part of Saturday night's session - I really wanted to catch C/2016 R2 but couldn't find it at first so took a few subs of M45 before trying again. This is initially 8 x 5 min sub-exposures but I was able to find 5 x 5 minute subs from a session in Nov 2014 from the same camera and scope and add them in.

The old subs had a diffraction spike from a hair from a cleaning brush stuck on the focal reducer! - Ive left them in.

I hadnt got my guiding sorted at the start of the evening and lost 2 subs to DEC drive backlash - got that sorted by hitting the "compensate" button in PHD2 and only guiding Southwards as DEC tended to push Northwards.

480/80mm refractor with Canon 60Da @ ISO 800.

IPAS LPS filter

Ioptron ZEQ25GT

QHY Polemaster alignment.

Polar alignment error measured by PHD2 - 0.8 arcmins

RA drift -3.8 arcsec/min

Dec drift +0.74 arcsec/min

Guiding from PHD2 (ZWO 290MM/Orion Mini Guider).

RA RMS error 2.2 arcsec, peak -18.7 arcsec

Dec RMS error 1.1 arcsec, peak 6.9 arcsec

PixInsight 1.8 post processing.

30 dark frames

30 bias frames

57 flat frames (LED panel @ 1/20 sec).

Image field of view: 1.75 deg x 1.45 deg

Image centred on: RA: 3h 47m 07.82s, Dec: +24deg 04m 59.7s

Image scale: 1.75 arcsec/pixel.

NGC 2170 or “Angel Nebula” is a dusty reflection nebula and stellar nursery that formed about 6 to 10 million years ago, located at the edge of a giant star-forming molecular cloud Monoceros R2 (Mon R2), some 2,700 light-years away in the constellation of Monoceros.

This is a fascinating region which exhibits a unique blend of color created by several processes. Regions of dust scatter the light from nearby hot stars giving rise to the blue reflection nebulae. Hydrogen gas absorbs energy from stars and re-emits this energy in red light.

Most of the region is filled with interstellar dust which has a range of opaqueness, from the extremely dark ‘tentacles’ toward the center of the image to lighter shades of brown patches in the periphery.

Image info:

Location: SkyPi Remote Observatory, Pie Town, NM US

Telescope: Orion Optics UK AG14 (F3.8)

Mount: 10 Micron GM3000

Camera: SBIG STXL 16200

Data: LRGB 6,5,4,5 hours respectively

Processing: Pixinsight

An active, dusty star-forming region in Taurus

OTA: Takahashi FSQ-106 EDX4

GUIDER: Stellarvue F50

MOUNT: Software Bisque Paramount MyT

CAMERA: FLI ML-16070M

GUIDE CAMERA: ZWO ASI 174 Mini M

REDUCER: Takahashi 645 QE .72x f/3.6

SOFTWARE: SGP, PhD2, TheSkyX, Pixinsight, Starnet++, Photoshop

FILTERS: Astrodon LRGB

ACCESSORIES: Optec Gemini Focuser/Rotator

LOCATION: SRO

©JKLOVELACE 2019

To see more of my work and to buy prints visit www.jklovelacephotography.com/pages/space

Sources seem to differ on whether this reflection nebula is in Eridanus or Rigel but the entire field shown here is a large diffuse molecular cloud of material - the Orion/Eridanus bubble - a giant shell of hydrogen gas and dust blown by the UV stellar wind of the Orion OB1 association of giant blue stars (luminosity class O and B).

You can see some faint hydrogen alpha red coloured emission in the background.

The actual Witch Head is thought to be a condensation of the diffuse bubble from the shockwave of a supernova explosion.

The denser cloud of gas and dust is illuminated by nearby bright hot blue stars (again classes O and B), principally Rigel which is offscreen to the top right. The dust tends to absorb red and infra-red wavelengths but preferentially reflects bluish wavelengths.

T20 iTelescope in New Mexico. 75 x 6 min subs. 25 x R,G,B processed in PixInsight and Photoshop.

Learning how to clean up noise, CCD column defects and cold and hot pixels in subs with PixInsight Cosmetic Correction tool and reduce background star sizes with PixInsight Morphological Transformation tool.

LBN 534 is a molecular cloud stretching across more than 1.5 degrees of sky in the constellation Andromeda. It is about 1400 light years away and about 36 light years ( 211600000000000 miles ) long. The blue reflection nebula within LBN 534 is designated as vdB 158 and is lit by the bright star HD 222142.

There is also a planetary nebula PK110-12.1 located near the bottom center of the image. It was discovered by Luboš Kohoutek in 1963, the same astronomer that discovered Comet Kohoutek, which was visible to the naked eye in 1973. Planetary nebulae only last a few tens of thousands of years -- a mere blink in cosmic time -- before their material scatters into space. A "planetary" nebula is actually a shell of gas and dust that's ejected from a dying star. The name "planetary nebula" is a historical misclassification that comes from when astronomers first observed these objects. They thought they were looking at gas planets, and William Herschel named them after planets because they appeared round. PK110-12.1 appears dark green in this image. There are no green stars (another interesting topic), so see if you can locate it in the sea of dots.

Generally speaking, green colors in a nebula are due to forbidden transitions in ionized Oxygen. Forbidden transitions refer to transitions between energy levels that are not allowed by the selection rules of quantum mechanics under normal circumstances. However, they can still occur under certain conditions, such as in the presence of external fields or through higher-order processes.

Rio Rancho NM Bortle 5 zone, September 23-29, 2024

William Optics Redcat 51

ZWO 183mm pro

ZWO 30mm f/4 mini guide scope and ZWO 120 Mini

Optolong R G B filters

ZWO ASI Air Pro

Sky-Watcher HEQ5

Darks GraXpert dithering

Gain 111 at -10C

Processed in DSS GraXpert and PS

The Pleiades, or Seven Sisters (Messier 45 or M45), is an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky.

The cluster is dominated by hot blue and extremely luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. Dust that forms a faint reflection nebulosity around the brightest stars was thought at first to be left over from the formation of the cluster, but is now known to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium, through which the stars are currently passing.

You will notice that star colors differ from red, orange and yellow, to blue. This is an indication of the temperature of the star's Nuclear Fusion process. This is determined by the size and mass of the star, and the stage of its life cycle. In short, the blue stars are hotter, and the red ones are cooler.

Gear:

GSO 6" f/4 Imaging Newtonian Reflector Telescope.

Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector.

Astronomik CLS Light Pollution Filter.

Celestron SkySync GPS Accessory.

Orion Mini 50mm Guide Scope.

Orion StarShoot Autoguider.

Celestron AVX Mount.

QHYCCD PoleMaster.

Celestron StarSense.

Canon 60Da DSLR.

Tech:

Guiding in Open PHD 2.6.2.

Image acquisition in Sequence Generator Pro.

Lights/Subs:

12 x 180 sec. ISO 6400 CFA FIT Files.

Calibration Frames:

50 x Bias

33 x Darks

Pre-Processing and Linear workflow in PixInsight,

and finished in Photoshop.

Astrometry Info:

nova.astrometry.net/user_images/1284610#annotated

RA, Dec center: 56.8543781048, 24.2014291678 degrees

Orientation: 1.21552596549 deg E of N

Pixel scale: 5.70814251699 arcsec/pixel

Martin

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[Home Page] [Photography Showcase] [My Free Photo App]

[Flickr Profile] [Facebook] [Twitter] [My Science & Physics Page]

Taken on Wednesday nights session - Ive found the Canon 80D at least a stop or an ISO more sensitive than my old Canon 60Da so I cut my ISO level down to ISO400 - even with that the stars are much more bloated than I would like - I will probably go for 3 mins at ISO400 in future rather than 5 minutes used here.

Had to use a lot of complex morphological transform techniques in PixInsight to reduce star size.

Large B class stars that are gravitationally bound, transit through a dust cloud. Dust clouds tend to refract blue light and absorb red and infra-red (heat) light hence the predominantly blue appearance of the nebulae. The complex lines in the nebulae are thought to be due to magnetic field lines from the stars.

The diffuse blue nebulae are catalogued in the van den Berg catalog of reflection nebulae.

vdB 20 - the Electra nebula

vdB 21 - the Maia nebula

vdB 22 - the Merope nebula

vdB 23 - centred on Alcyone

480/80mm f/6 Altair Starwave refractor

Astro-modified Canon 80D at ISO400, IDAS LPS D1 filter, 21 x 5 minute subs.

NEQ6 pro mount with Rowan belt drives.

Mini-PC with WiFi

Mount WiFi control with ASCOM/AstroPhotography Tool

Camera WiFi control with Backyard EOS

30 dark frames

40 flat frames (electroluminescent panel @ 1/40s)

31 bias frames

Post processed in PixInsight 1.8 and Photoshop

Local parameters:

Temp: 3.7 - 3.9c

Humidity: 74- 79%

Pressure: 998.5 kPa

Camera Sensor Temp: 12-17c

Light Pollution and Weather:

SQM (L) at start of session (2305 hrs UT) =20.14 mag/arcsec2.

SQM (L) at end of session (0130 hrs UT) = 20.2 mag/arcsec2.

Clear, moderately windy at end.

Polar Alignment:

QHY Polemaster alignment -

Error measured by PHD2=0.1 arc minute.

RA drift + 1.93 arcsec/min

Dec drift -0.02 arcsec/min

Guiding:

PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/Altair Starwave 206/50mm guider. Dithered.

RA RMS error 0.76 arcsec, peak error -2.73 arcsec

Dec RMS error 0.63 arcsec, peak error 2.94 arcsec

Astrometry:

Center (RA): 03h 46m 19.894s

Center (Dec): +23° 58' 37.974"

Size: 70.4 x 55.9 arcmin

Pixel scale: 1.59 arcsec/pixel