NGC 2281 is another small open cluster found in the constellation Auriga. It has a magnitude of 5.4 and is about 1,800 light years away from Earth.

Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120mm ED Triplet APO Refractor, Celestron CGEM-DX mount (pier mounted), ZWO ASI071MC-Pro running at -25C, 20 x 60 second exposures, GAIN 200, guided using a ZWO ASI290MC and Orion 60mm guide scope. Captured using SharpCap v3.2. Image date: January 1, 2020. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA.

The Crescent Nebula also known as NGC 6888, Caldwell 27, Sharpless 105 is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, about 5000 light years away from Earth. It is formed by the fast stellar wind from the Wolf-Rayet star WR 136 colliding with and energizing the slower moving wind ejected by the star when it became a red giant around 250,000 to 400,000 years ago.

Shot over the past few months over 8 nights. Framed it a little different than I usually see.

Total Integration: 28 hours 5 mins

#askarv 80mm at 600mm

#zwo ASI2600MM

ZWO Am5

ZWO ASI220MM, EAF & Filter Wheel

#stellarvue 50mm Guide Scope F050G

#deepskydad Flat Panel

Pegasus Rotator V1

#antlia 3nm Ha, OIII, SII

#optolong R, G, B filters

Acquisition: NINA, Sharpcap for PA

Stacked in APP, bias, flats, flatdarks, darks

Processed/edited in PI, PS

High Resolution Image: app.astrobin.com/u/jratino?i=l9ewzl#gallery

FB JL Ratino

IG jlratino

Halloween moon

Best 50% of 1000 frames IR PASS filter

Scope: Orion 8" f4 Astrograph with Baader Coma Corrector

Mount: iOptron iEQ45 pro

Camera: ZWO ASI183M non cooled

ZWO IR PASS filter

ZWO 8 position 1.25 filter wheel filter wheel

Moonlite focuser CR2

Moonlight Hi Res stepper motor

MyFocuser Pro v2 (Robert Brown) controller

Home Observatory

Software: Sharpcap, CdC, Photoshop, autostakert!3, Registax, Google remote desktop

Nel pomeriggio del 26 luglio, con difficoltà e un po’ di fortuna, sono riuscito a riprendere con la camera planetaria e il piccolo telescopio newtoniano il brevissimo transito della Stazione Spaziale Internazionale davanti al Sole. La durata totale del transito è stata di poco più di un secondo a causa dell’elevata velocità con cui la stazione orbita intorno alla Terra. La ISS è grande circa come un campo da calcio, orbita a circa 400 km di quota e viaggia alla velocità di quasi 28000 km/h compiendo un’orbita in circa 92 minuti. Al momento l’equipaggio è composto da 7 astronauti tra cui anche Samantha Cristoforetti.La ripresa contiene 1059 fotogrammi e in soltanto 8 è presente la sagoma della ISS, che ho sovrapposto per ottenere questa immagine.

Sono abbastanza visibili gli enormi pannelli solari della struttura e sono presenti alcune macchie solari, tra cui una più grande ed evidente.

Dati:

Telescopio Celestron 114/910 Newton

Montatura Eq2 con motore AR con pulsantiera

Camera QHY5L-II-C

Filtro UV-IR cut

Filtro Astrosolar

Sharpcap per acquisire un video da 1059 fotogrammi a 17 fps con tempo di esposizione di 1/2000 sec

Pipp per scomporre il video in immagini TIFF

GIMP per sovrapporre i fotogrammi e modificare leggermente la nitidezza e il contrasto nel risultato finale.

Luogo: Cabras (OR)

Data: 26-07-2022

Ora esatta del transito:17:41:06.75 ora locale

Uncropped image from a 480mm scope. The chief targets were M52 and the Bubble Nebula but you can see several dark nebulae and the red glow of a molecular cloud towards the right.

www.flickr.com/photos/16271433@N02/15093428895/in/album-7...

An interesting circular feature inside an emission nebula.

The bright star at 2 O'clock inside the bubble is a O6.5 class giant that has shrugged off clouds of hydrogen gas as it matures.

The diffuse red cloud represents earlier ejections whilst the "bubble" represents a more tightly defined and more recent ejection of matter. The O class star is rich in ultraviolet light (surface temp = 37500k compared with 5700k for our Sun) that makes the hydrogen gas fluoresce with its characteristic red colour (656 nm).

The host star (BD +60 2322) is not at the centre of the bubble but it is thought that it probably was when the bubble was ejected.

Equipment-

480/60mm f/6 Altair Astro Triplet Refractor.

Altair Astro planostar x 1.0 FF with 2 inch IDAS LPS D1 filter

ZWO ASI2600MC; 30 x 5 minute subs + (150 minute total integration). Gain: 100 Offset:50 Temp: -10c.

NEQ6 Pro Mount with Rowan modified belt drives.

Laptop with SharpCap 4.0 for plate solving GOTO. focusing and acquisition.

Calibration-

50 dark frames

50 flat frames (Electroluminescent panel @ 1 second, Gain 0)

QHY Polemaster alignment -

Error measured by PHD2 =1.2’

Guiding-

PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/Altair lightwave 209/50mm secondary scope. Alternate subs dithered.

RA 0.53” RMS

Dec 0.35” RMS

Astrometry-

Resolution ............... 1.613 arcsec/px

Focal distance ........... 479.46 mm

Pixel size ............... 3.75 um

Field of view ............ 31' 59.8" x 25' 6.8"

Center (RA, hms): 12 36 08.136

Center (Dec, dms): +25 55 58.99

Light Pollution-

SQM (L): 20.33 mag/arcsec2.

Typical of outer suburbs - Bortle scale = 5/9 Yellow

Environmental-

Clear throughout

Post processed in PixInsight 1.8.9

Messier 33.

Located in the constellation of Triangulum.

A re-process of previous light frames, using the 'Astro Pixel Processor' application. A slight crop applied ~ 85%.

M: iOptron EQ45-Pro

T: William Optics GTF81

C: ZWO ASI1600MC-Cooled

F: L-eNhance filter (Dual Ha,Hb & Oiii Narrowbands)

G: PHD2

GC: ZWO ASI120mini

RAW16; FITs

Temp: -20 DegC

Gain 139; Exp 400s

Frames: 25 Lights; 4 Darks; 20 flats

100% Crop

Capture: SharpCap

Processed: APP; PS, Astrotools

Sky: New moon, calm, no cloud, cold, fair seeing.

2.73 million light years distant.

Taken from Oxfordshire, UK with a Coronado PST H-alpha solar telescope. Camera was an ASI-120MC fitted with a 2x Barlow. A 1,000 frame video was captured using SharpCap and the best 50% of the frames were stacked with Autostakkert! 3.

The past few weeks we finally had some clear nights. Gemini and Monoceros constellations are visible for only a couple of hours before being blocked by trees in our backyard. So I put both rigs to work gathering data on IC443, the Jellyfish Nebula, and the Cone Nebula (hopefully I can gather a bit more). Its distance is roughly 5,000 light years from Earth.

IC 443 is a galactic supernova remnant in the constellation Gemini.

I processed this image in HOO, incorporating SII data using Adam Block Gilding Method. I think I ended up with a nice Red/Orange color.

Total Integration: 16hours 43mins

Equipment:

Rig1

Stellarvue SVX102T and Flattener

ZWO ASI533MM, ZWO AM5, EAF, EFW, ASI120 guide cam

Wandererastro Rotator Lite

Stellarvue 50mm Guide Scope F050G

Chroma 3nm Ha, OII, SII, R, G, B

Rig2

AskarV 80mm at 600mm

ZWO ASI2600MM

ZWO Am5

ZWO ASI120MC/30MM Guide Scope, EAF & Filter Wheel

Pegasus Rotator V1

Antlia 3nm Ha, OIII, SII

Acquisition: NINA, Sharpcap for PA

Stacked in APP, bias, flats, flatdarks, darks

Processed/edited in PI, very minor editing in PS/LR, Topaz Denois

Two Deep Space Objects in the same field of view! Howzat? The Owl Nebula is to the left (see his eyes?) and the Surfboard galaxy to the right. In reality, the Owl Nebula lies about 2,000 light years away, whereas the Surfboard Galaxy lies a much more distant 45.9 million light years away!

Image Details:

- Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes ED 80mm Refractor

- Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Color with UV/IR Blocking filter

- Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval

- Guiding Camera: Orion Starshoot Auto Guider

- Acquisition Software: Sharpcap

- Guiding Software: PHD2

- Light Frames: 33*3 mins @ 180 Gain, Temp -30C

- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

- Processed in PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom

M: iOptron EQ45

T: WO GTF81

C: ZWOASI1600MC

G: OAG ASI120MM

Lights: 60% best of 250 x 60s

Gain: 139

Temp: -15 DegC

Darks and Flats to suit.

In all about 2.5 hrs of Data.

Capture: SharpCap

Processed in Astro Pixel Processor & PS to tweek.

M: iOptron EQ45-Pro

T: William Optics GTF81

C: ZWO ASI1600MC-Cooled

Filter: L-eNhance

G: None

GC: None

RAW16; SER Output Format

Temp: -20 DegC

Gain 139; Exp 0.025s [25ms]

Frames: 1010 Lights; 50 flats

80% Crop

Capture: SharpCap

Processed: PIPP; DSS; PS.

Sky: At sunrise, 3rdQ moon, calm, no cloud, good seeing.

The less photographed eastern limb, due to it being seen in the early morning, when most of us are tucked up nice and warm.

22-25 million light years away with not just any black hole but a "supermassive" black hole at the center. Dwarf galaxy NGC 4248 stands by on the upper right.

Tech Stuff: Questar 3.5"/ ZWO ASI 533 MM/ RST-135-E mount. 100 minutes total of livestacked 8-second exposures, captured in SharpCap Pro and processed in PixInsight. From my yard in Westchester County, 10 miles north of NYC.

Bullialdus Crater – diameter is just under 61 km, named for Ismael Boulliau, French astronomer (1605-1694).

Tech Specs: ZWO ASI290MC camera and Meade 12” LX90 telescope mounted on a Celestron CGEM-DX mount. Software used included Sharpcap v2.9, AutoStakkert! Alpha Version 2.3.0.21, ImagesPlus v5.75a, and Registax v6.1.0.8. Photographed on January 7, 2017 from Weatherly, Pennsylvania.

Same comet, same images [lights] processed differently using Astro Pixel Processor. I prefer this one.

This version of the recent Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), whilst zipping through the constellation Auriga a few days ago. Processed from a stack 100 light frames, each with an exposure of 60s. Astro Pixel Processor image processing application used to track the comet across the stack of images, while letting the background stars blur. The ion tail is visible here shooting off to the top left. Star trails are the 'smudges' going from bottom left to top right.

Emission nebula located 4300 lightyears away, spanning 300 lightyears across.

Captured from my backyard in Korumburra, VIC, Australia.

Skywatcher Evostar ED80

Saxon AZ/EQ6-GT

QHY 268M

QHY3FW-3M + 6nm 36mm filters

Light frames: Sii x 20 | Ha x 27 | Oiii x 15

Subexposures 360s | Gain 120 | Offset 50

Calibration frames: Darks x 20 | Bias x 50

Captured using Sharpcap Pro, ASCOM EQmod & PHD2.

Processed in Pixinsight, Photoshop & Lightroom

Data collected 8 Aug. 2019

77 frames at 60 seconds, gain 0.

Capture ZWO ASI224MC

Tracking ZWO ASI120MC-S

Scope 8" f/3.9 Orion Astrograph

Guide scope 60x215 (I think)

Mount Atlas Pro AZ/EQ-G

Captured with Sharpcap 3

Processed with PixInsight

Comments welcome.

Taken with Espirit150, 0.75x focal reducer and ASI2600MC camera. 40 x 2 minutes exposures Live Stacked in SharpCap Pro.

M106 In the constellation of Canes Venatici.

A second run at this target on a moonless night, with more light exposures. Definitely more detail!

M: iOptron EQ45-Pro

T: William Optics GTF81

C: ZWO ASI1600MC-Cooled

F: No Filters

G: PHD2

GC: ZWO ASI120mini

RAW16; FITs

Temp: -15 DegC

Gain 139;

42 x Exp 360s

Frames: 42 Lights; 2 Darks; 200 flats

100% Crop

Capture: SharpCap

Processed: DSS; PS; Grad Exterminator.

Sky: No Moon, calm, no cloud, cold, excellent seeing.

22-25 million light years distant.

This is my first ever attempt at imaging Mars through a telescope; all of my previous photos of it have been widefield / conjunction photos.

Taken with an Orion 10" Dobsonian telescope, Celestron 3 x Barlow and an ASI120MC camera.

3,000 frame video captured with SharpCap Pro, the best 5% of the frames were stacked using Autostakkert! 3, sharpened and RGB realigned in Registax 6. Processing was done with Lightroom, Photoshop CS2 and Fast Stone Image Viewer.

I've included the labelled Mars map from Mars Mapper (secure18.prositehosting.co.uk/secure_ssl/BAA/mars.html#) to compare the surface features seen on my image.

I tried stacking lots of different percentages of the frames but the seeing was pretty grim so a stack of 5% definitely produced the best results. For a first ever attempt and given the conditions, I'm pretty pleased with this!

The Eagle Nebula includes the famous "Pillars of Creation" which have been imaged in great detail by the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. The pillars are noted as "stellar nurseries," and multiple bright stars activate the gaseous emission nebula. It's a nice backyard target but it's very low in my sky which means I have to plan for when I can image it. Here I've used my 3.5" Questar, a fine telescope for viewing planets but it's very slow (f/16) for targets like this. I acquired a new mount this year that makes most steps of the capture process much more efficient than "hacked" approaches I used when I started imaging 8 or 9 years ago.

Tech Stuff: Questar 3.5" telescope/RST-135E mount/ZWO ASI 533MC Pro camera/IDAS LPS V-4 filter. 80 minutes of unguided 4 to 15-second exposures collected in SharpCap livestacks and processed in PixInsight. From my Bortle 7 yard 10 miles north of NYC.

M101 In the constellation of Ursa Major.

M: iOptron EQ45-Pro

T: William Optics GTF81

C: ZWO ASI1600MC-Cooled

F: IDAS D2

G: PHD2

GC: OAG & ZWO ASI120mini

RAW16; FITs

Temp: +4 DegC

Gain 250;

40 x Exp 400s

Frames: 40 Lights; 20 Darks; 20 flats

100% Crop

Capture: SharpCap

Processed: APP; PS; Gradient Exterminator

Sky: Waning 60%, Calm, No cloud, Mild; fair seeing.

20.87 million light years distant.

I’m so proud to present to you Eta Carina with it’s full beauty or the Great Carina Nebula NGC 3372. Always, I want to image this fascinating area of the sky but due to its very low height over horizon because it’s located in southern constellation and difficult to image. I’m so lucky to get clear horizon to make a sneak capture for 30 minutes and chase the chance to shot this beauty and its latitude is only 2-4 degrees over horizon. This nebula is 4 times larger than well known Orion nebula and even brighter that can be seen by naked eye from a dark sky. It’s located in southern Carina constellation that can only seen from southern hemisphere. Its very large diffuse emission nebula that energised by the central star called Eta Carinae which is responsible for this mess. This star is 5 million times more luminous than our Sun. Imaged from Bortle 4 sky. Gear setup: Celestron RASA 8 f/2, iOptron GEM45, ZWO 2600MC @-10, ALP-T Dual band Highspeed filter 2”. Captured by APT, PHD2, Sharpcap Pro, Lights 10 x 180, Flats 20, Darks 20, Bias 50. Stacked in APP, Processed by PI & PS.

Taken with ASI2600MC camera using an Espirit 150mm scope. Exposure consists of 58 x 5 minute sub exposures Live Stacked and calibrated on the fly in SharpCap Pro

Hercules and nearby Atlas are both craters with multiple terraced edges. Strongmen of ancient mythology, the Titan Atlas was condemned to hold up the sky for eternity whilst Hercules was the Roman equivalent of the Greek hero Heracles.

Endymion is a walled plain close to the Moon’s northeast limb which appears oval due to foreshortening. In Greek mythology Endymion was a lover of Seline. Pliny the Elder suggested that he was the first human to observe the movements of the moon.

Lacus Temporis, or Lake of Time, is an area of basaltic lava.

Franklin, named after Benjamin Franklin, is a lunar impact crater with a central peak.

Cepheus is a relatively young crater named after a king of Aetheopia and father of Andromeda.

Bürg crater has a large central mountain and is named after Johann Tobias Bürg, a Viennese astronomer who published tables on the orbit of the moon in 1799.

Imaged with Sharpcap on 13-09-2022 from the UK using a SW200P Newtonian scope and Altair H183Mpro camera with a red filter. The best 25% of 2000x 3ms subs were stacked in AutoStakert, sharpened in Registax and post processed in Affinity Photo with Topaz DeNoiseAI plug-in.

NGC 2192 is a nice little open cluster found in the constellation Auriga. It has a magnitude of 10.9 and is about 11,300 light years away from Earth. The Sky Watcher Esprit frames this cluster nicely mixed in with some brighter 6th and 7th magnitude stars. This size of the cluster is roughly 5-6 arc-minutes wide.

Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120mm ED Triplet APO Refractor, Celestron CGEM-DX mount (pier mounted), ZWO ASI071MC-Pro running at -25C, 20 x 60 second exposures, GAIN 200, guided using a ZWO ASI290MC and Orion 60mm guide scope. Captured using SharpCap v3.2. Image date: January 1, 2020. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA.

NGC 772 is an unbarred spiral galaxy approximately 130 MILLION (!) light-years away in the constellation Aries.

First attempt at this object. The new Celestron Starsense Autoguider is stunningly good and easy to use. I'd never thought I could get images like thise through my 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain. My processing still needs work but this is some crazy deep space stuff now...

Image Details:

- Imaging Scope: Celestron C8 SCT

- Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Color with ZWO IR cut filter

- Guider: Celestron Starsense Autoguider

- Acquisition Software: Sharpcap

- Mount: Celestron CGEM

- Guiding Software: Celestron

- Capture Software: SharpCap Pro (LiveStack mode with dithering)

- Light Frames: 30*5 mins @ 100 Gain, Temp -20C

- Dark Frames: 30*5 mins

- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

- Processed in PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom, and Topaz Denoise AI

The Rosette Nebula, off the eastern shoulder of Orion, is a great urban astronomy target this time of year. Here I've processed a modest capture to a trendy Hubble Palette option, which actually shows greater variation in the makeup of the gas cloud than the Hydrogen-heavy (very red) conventional backyard image.

Tech Stuff: Borg 55FL/ ZWO ASI 533 MC Pro/IDAS LPS-V4/RST-135E mount. 42 min of unguided 8 second exposures captured in SharpCap Livestacks, processed in PixInsight. Captured 03/11/24 and processed to demonstrate capture and processing techniques for deep sky images for my Urban Astrophotography course with NYC"s Amateur Astronomers Association. From my Bortle 7 yard in Yonkers, NY.

Edit 9/10/2021: This image was featured by APOD GrAG: apod.grag.org/2021/09/10/a-sagittarius-triplet-m8-m20-and...

This so far is my favorite image! Nearly 21 hours of data (taken across 4! nights) and 3 hours of processing went into this huge project. I love the color range so much - golden milky way stars, pink lagoon nebula, and light blue trifid reflection.

Equipment:

- Nikon D90

- Sigma 300mm prime lens

- Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer

- Star Adventurer Tripod

- Bahintov Mask

- Intervalometer

- DIY diffraction spikes using a violin strings

- Stellarium

- All Sky Plate Solver

- Sharpcap

- Laptop

Acquisition:

- Taken from Sharon, CT

- Bortle 2-4

- ISO 800

- F/4.0

8/7/2021

- 112 x 3′ lights

- 200 bias

- 50 flats

- 32 darks

8/8/2021

- 92 x 3′ lights

- 50 flats

- 12 darks

8/11/2021

- 102 x 3′ lights

- 50 flats

- 16 darks

8/14/2021

- 108 x 3′ lights

- 100 bias

- 50 flats

- 27 darks

Total:

- 414 x 3′ lights (20.7 hours)

- 300 bias

- 200 flats

- 87 darks

Processing:

- Calibrate using WBPP

- Assign weights with subframe selector

- Star align

- Integrate 10 best images for a local norm reference

- ABE degree 1 on the image

- Local norm scale 256

- Image integration

- CFA drizzle

- DBE

- Background neutralization

- PCC

- Extract L

- Histogram transformation and ArcsinH stretch on RGB

- Masked stretch and Histogram stretch on Luminance data

- LRGB combine

- create starless image

- Exponential transformation on starless image

- Blend back to LRGB with pixel math to avoid blowing out stars

- Slight curves

- Adam block style star reduction

- blend back using straight average with normal image

- Annotate image with watermark

Instagram: www.instagram.com/

Website: theastroenthusiast.com/

24 @ 300 seconds in HA

Scope: AT65EDQ

Mount: iOptron iEQ45

Camera: ZWO ASI183M non cooled

Guide camera: QHY5Lii

Guide Scope: Stellarvue 60mm

Orion 5 position manual filter wheel

Schuler HA 9nm,

MyFocuer Pro v2 (Robert Brown)

Bahtinov mask

Software: APT, PHD2, Sharpcap, CdC, Pixinsight, Photoshop, Google Chrome Remote

274 frames at 8 seconds each live stacking in SharpCap. Gain 50 ASI183MM non cooled. No guiding, no darks (that was a mistake).

65 mm APO 420mm FL.

The California Nebula is a prominent target in the autumn sky. Invisible to backyard observers with small telescopes, the Hydrogen-alpha light emission makes it easy to reveal with filtered astro-photography. Here I am experimenting with the popular trend of using "Hubble Palette" coloration which was necessitated by the need to assign visible colors to energy -- like UV and infrared -- outside the visible light spectrum. With my backyard data from the NY suburbs, the transformation from the familiar "lobster claw" appearance displays more complexity in this great cloud of galactic dust. Older image here tinyurl.com/calinebHA.

Starting March 7th, I'll be teaching a fresh round of Urban Astrophotography: Deep Sky with NYC's Amateur Astronomers Association

aaa.org/event/urban-astrophotography-deep-space-imaging-2...

The six Zoom sessions are available to members and non-members for a slightly higher registration fee.

Tech Stuff: Borg 55FL/ZWOASI533MC/IDAS LPS-V4/RST-135E. 6 Hours of unguided 8-second exposures captured in SharpCap Livestacks, processed in PixInsight. Imaged over 2 nights in November 2023 from my Bortle 7 yard in Westchester County.

First in Messier's catalogue of things that weren't comets. This exploded star continues to evolve and makes for a fun winter imaging target.

Tech Stuff: Questar 3.5"/ ZWOASI 533Pro/ Idas LPS V4 filter/ RST-135E mount. 5.5 hours of unguided 15-second exposures, captured in 6-minute livestacks in SharpCap 4.1 From my Bortle 7 yard in Westchester County; 3 nights around New Years Day 2024.

Here is a view of last evening’s 60% illuminated moon shot through some heavy fog.

Tech Specs: Sky Watcher Esprit 120ED, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO ASI290MC, ZWO EAF, Televue 1.5x Barlow. Captured in SharpCap Pro, processed in Autostakkert and Registax, four panel mosaic. Image date: October 13, 2021. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).

Its 8 years since I've imaged this target! Used the same scope but nearly everything else has changed.

www.flickr.com/photos/16271433@N02/15093428895/in/album-7...

An interesting circular feature inside an emission nebula.

The bright star at 2 O'clock inside the bubble is a O6.5 class giant that has shrugged off clouds of hydrogen gas as it matures.

The diffuse red cloud represents earlier ejections whilst the "bubble" represents a more tightly defined and more recent ejection of matter. The O class star is rich in ultraviolet light (surface temp = 37500k compared with 5700k for our Sun) that makes the hydrogen gas fluoresce with its characteristic red colour (656 nm).

The host star (BD +60 2322) is not at the centre of the bubble but it is thought that it probably was when the bubble was ejected.

Equipment-

480/60mm f/6 Altair Astro Triplet Refractor.

Altair Astro planostar x 1.0 FF with 2 inch IDAS LPS D1 filter

ZWO ASI2600MC; 30 x 5 minute subs + (150 minute total integration). Gain: 100 Offset:50 Temp: -10c.

NEQ6 Pro Mount with Rowan modified belt drives.

Laptop with SharpCap 4.0 for plate solving GOTO. focusing and acquisition.

Calibration-

50 dark frames

50 flat frames (Electroluminescent panel @ 1 second, Gain 0)

QHY Polemaster alignment -

Error measured by PHD2 =1.2’

Guiding-

PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/Altair lightwave 209/50mm secondary scope. Alternate subs dithered.

RA 0.53” RMS

Dec 0.35” RMS

Astrometry-

Resolution ............... 1.613 arcsec/px

Focal distance ........... 479.46 mm

Pixel size ............... 3.75 um

Field of view ............ 31' 59.8" x 25' 6.8"

Center (RA, hms): 12 36 08.136

Center (Dec, dms): +25 55 58.99

Light Pollution-

SQM (L): 20.33 mag/arcsec2.

Typical of outer suburbs - Bortle scale = 5/9 Yellow

Environmental-

Clear throughout

Post processed in PixInsight 1.8.9

No guiding Narrowband, short exposures

HA 240 @ 30seconds Gain200

30 darks

Scope: Orion 8" f4 Astrograph with Baader Coma Corrector

Mount: iOptron iEQ45 pro

Camera: ZWO ASI183M non cooled

Schuler HA 9nm,

Moonlite focuser CR2

Moonlight Hi Res stepper motor

MyFocuer Pro v2 (Robert Brown) controller

Bahtinov mask

Home Observatory

Software: APT, PHD2, Sharpcap, CdC, Pixinsight, Photoshop, Team Viewer

I got M28 with some more color this time compared to M16, and clouds wanted to be photographed as well...

ES 80mm ED Triplet APO refractor 480mm F/6, Orion FF, Zwo 294MC Pro cooled color camera 107 frames 1 minute 120 gain, plus flats and bias frames....Shapcap Pro, DSS and PS, Ioptron i45 Pro EQ mount, just tracking

M82-NGC 3034 La galaxie du Cigare (à gauche).

M81-NGC 3031 Galaxie spirale (à droite).

ZWO ASI294MC-Pro Cooled + filtre IR-CUT ZWO M48 + adaptateur CCD TS Optics EOS/T2 + Sigma 150/600 à 600mm f6.3 sur Sky Watcher Star Adventurer.

83 poses de 30s soit 41.5 min de pose. Acquisition avec SharpCap 3.2 - Traitement hasardeux sur Darktable .

Latitude 48°29' N - Passage de nuages légers.

Merci aux forums et tutos qui traitent de l'astrophotographie.

The smaller galaxy, NGC5195 has suffered extensive disruption following a gravitational encounter with the much larger M51 spiral galaxy.

Two tiny galaxies can also be seen - edge-on spiral IC 4277 is just under and to the right of NGC 5195 and IC 4278 is an irregular class galaxy to the right of the junction between M51 and NGC 5195.

Imaged over 18th and 19th March 2025.

Technical Card

900/120mm f/7 Skywatcher Esprit 120 triplet refractor.

0.85 x Field corrector with 2 inch IDAS P3 LPS filter

ZWO ASI2600MC; 60 x 300 second subs, Gain 100, Offset 25, Temp = -15c.

EQ6 R pro mount . EQMOD control.

Pegasus Astro FocusCube 2 electronic focuser.

Session control; SharpCap 4.1 on laptop.

Controlled from inside house with iPAD

Automated plate solving GOTO and focusing. 8 secs at gain 635.

60 dark frames

50 flat frames (electroluminescent panel A, 3500ms exposure @ 0 gain).

Post processed in PixInsight 1.8.9.

Light Pollution and Weather:

Night 1: SQM (L) =19.98 m/as2

Clear throughout - stopped at Moonrise

Night 2: SQM (L) =20.03 m/as2

Session stopped by cloud

Polar Alignment:

Error measured by PHD2= 0.5 arc minute.

RA drift - 0.04 arcsec/min

Dec drift - 0.10arcsec/min

Guiding:

PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/WO GuideStar 61.

Every 6th sub dithered.

RA RMS error 0.53 arcsec

Dec RMS error 0.39arcsec

Astrometry

Resolution ............... 0.900 arcsec/px

Observation start time ... 2025-03-23 20:52:58 UTC

Observation end time ..... 2025-03-24 02:35:13 UTC

Focal distance ........... 861.81 mm

Pixel size ............... 3.76 um

Field of view ............ 1d 33' 42.7" x 1d 2' 38.1"

Image center ............. RA: 14 03 25.884 Dec: +54 19 13.67

Three billion, eight hundred million years ago the Moon was rocked by a colossal collision with an asteroid. That impact changed the face of the moon. A vast 860 km wide basin was blasted into the Moon; its borders were defined by a ring of mountains that were raised in an instant. Large chunks were hurtled outward from the center of the impact, many forming new craters of their own, others gouging radial valleys as they bounded across the lunar surface. A wash of smaller debris buried surrounding surface features and filled the floors of older craters. The center of that impact slowly filled back with basalt and became what we now know as Mare Nectaris. This event marked the end of the Moon’s formative era and the beginning of another, the Nectarian Era.

This is a view of the Nectaris Basin today. Many of the once-vivid features of the basin have been obliterated in turn by subsequent impact events. A portion of the 860 km wide ring of mountains can be seen in the lower left portion of this image, starting at the left center margin and arcing down and to the right, ending at Piccolomini Crater. This is the Rupes Altai, a scarp or arc of cliffs, named after the Altai Mountains of Central Asia. The darker, smoother, circular lava plain in the center of this image is Mare Nectaris. Mare Nectaris marks ground zero of the massive Nectaris Impact Event.

340 video frames captured with SharpCap 3.1. Video frames were stacked into a single image with AutoStakkert!3 software, 3x drizzle. Wavelets applied in Registax 6. Post-processing and cropping in Photoshop CC 2018.

Explore Scientific ED 80 APO refractor, 480mm focal length, f/6

Explore Scientific 3x Focal Extender

Celestron Advanced VX mount

Explore Scientific 3x Barlow

ZWO ASI 290MM camera (monochrome)

This is the third largest galaxy in our local group of galaxies. It lies about 2.7 million light years away. You can find it in the Triangulum Constellation.

Captured during new moon on November 14 from my back yard in South Calgary (Bortle 8)

This is 18 x 10 minute exposures calibrated with flats, darks, and bias frames.

Camera: ZWO ASI533mc-pro

Scope: Orion 80EDT-cf f/6

Mount: Celestron AVX

Filter: Optolong L-Pro 48mm

Guiding: PHD2 using an Orion SSAG guide camera

Mount Control: CPWI

Polar and Star Alignment: SharpCap and CPWI

Image acquisition: Sequence Generator Pro

Stacking, calibration, and processing: PixInsight and Adobe Photoshop

M57 Ring Nebula, planetary nebula in Lyra captured using RGB lucky imaging technique.

Location:02-06-23 St Helens UK, Bortle 7, Full Moon.

Acquisition:436x 0.5s Red, 309x 0.5s Green, 497x 0.5s Blue. Calibrated with 500x 0.5s Darks. Gain 3000, Offset 40, Sensor Temp 16c.

Equipment:Skywatcher 200P Newt (modified); ZWO EAF, EFW and filters; Altair H183Mpro.

Software:Sharpcap Pro, EQMOD.

Processing:Siril, AstroSharp, Affinity Photo 2 with NoiseXTerminator and StarXTerminator plug-ins.

Comments:Lucky imaging experiment. 1000 frame SER files captured for each colour using high camera gain and short 0.5s per frame exposure. FWHM rejection threshold applied in Siril to weed out frames most affected be bad seeing.

Equipo Principal: ZWO ASI 1600 mm-pro + SW Explorer 200p + ZWO EAF + SW Coma Corrector 0.9x + EQ6R-Pro

*Gain 100, -20º C, Ha 7nm 2" Optolong, 5000 frames (apilado solo el 50%)

Procesado: Sharpcap 3.1, Autostakkert 3, Tegistax 6, PS CC 2017

Sunspot AR2846

Images with a ZWO ASI120MC Astro Camera (in monochrome mode) with a Baader Solar Continuum filter, mounted on a Questar 3.5-inch (89mm) f/14.4 Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope.

Best of 500 frames (plus 300 flats) captured in SharpCap 2.9 and stacked using Autostakkert!2. Wavelets applied using Registax 6.

Bonsoir,

Je vous présente une photo de l'activité solaire de ce jour (15H30). Image prise à Monchecourt (59).

Matériel:

Lunt 50 (lunette dédié au solaire)

Caméra Omégon Vetec 533C

Capture avec le logiciel sharpcap.

#omegon #cosmopic #astroshop #sun #lunt #astronomy #astronomie

The heart nebula, IC1805, is a beautiful object in the northern hemisphere's sky for moderate magnification. Coincidentally, it is actually rather well visible around Valentine's Day, although this specific image was acquired a few weeks earlier (you never know how the weather will turn out...).

The image was taken using the newly-installed William Optics Redcat 71 at the Volkssternwarte München, with an ASI 294 MC Pro camera and IDAS NBZ-II duo-narrowband filter.

Image information:

Telescope: William Optics Redcat 71 (350 mm f/4.9)

Camera: ASI 294 MC Pro

Mount: equatorial

Filter: IDAS NBZ-II

Location: Volkssternwarte München

Exposure: 153x 60 s (2h 33min)

Gain: 120

Camera temperature: -5 °C

Capture software: SharpCap Pro

Stacking: Deep Sky Stacker (re-stacking of raw data from live stacking)

Processing: SiRiL, fitswork, Luminar 2018

Quando la Luna è in una fase prossima al primo quarto si possono osservare alcune configurazioni ottiche situate nei pressi del terminatore, la linea che separa il lato notturno da quello diurno.

Quindi a nord è visibile la "V" causata dalla luce solare che lambisce il cratere Ukert e altri più piccoli, la "X" che si forma per la presenza dei crateri La Caille, Blanchinus e Purbach e infine anche una "L" situata più a sud.

Queste configurazioni si possono osservare in questa fase lunare solo per poche ore al mese.

Dati tecnici:

- Telescopio Celestron 114/910 Newtoniano

- Montatura Eq2 con motore AR

- Camera planetaria QHY5L-II-C

- Filtro UV-Ir cut

- Sharpcap per acquisire 10 video da 20 secondi ognuno

- Autostakkert 3 e Registax 6 per elaborare i video

- Autostitch per creare il mosaico

- GIMP per regolare luminosità e contrasto

- Frazione illuminata: 52%

- Luogo: Cabras (OR), Italia

- Data: 8 febbraio 2022

- Ora: dalle 18:50 alle 18:59 UTC

It' was a little too cloudy tonight for deep space imaging so I captured this quick shot of the moon instead (even caught the lunar V and X as a bonus).

200 frames captured with Sharpcap Pro using a QHY163M mono camera attached to an Altair Wave 115ED with 0.79x focal reducer. Processed using Autostakkert2 and Registax 6.

Unusual capture through the modded finder of my Questar. This is a 4 hour capture from last night, using livestacks of 8 second exposures. The modification is a Televue lens with 112 mm focal length replacing the standard Q finder, which allows me to bring a filtered camera to focus.

Tech stuff: Finderscope on 3.5” Questar/ QHY 5iii178 color/ Astronomik CLS filter/ SharpCap/PixInsight/ ACDSee. From my yard in Westchester SQM-L 18.7

I've tried doing panos of the moon in the past but have mostly failed. I would never leave quite enough overlap between my frames for a pano to assemble properly leaving black gaps in the middle of my final image, or my focus would be off. This time, I took my time to ensure that I had plenty of overlap in each of my frames. And I'm quite pleased with the final result

46% Moon from April 22, 2018

30 panel pano

Acqisition:

- Explore Scientific ED80

- Meade Series 4000 2x shorty Barlow

- Celestron AVX

- ZWO ASI120MC-S camera

- Captured with SharpCap

Processing:

- Pre-processed in PiPP

- Stacked in Autostakkert!3

- Pano blended using Photoshop CC 2018 Photomerge

- Sharpening using AstraImage plugin for Photoshop (Lucy-Richardson deconvolution)

Each panel is a 1024 x 768 stack of the best 1000 of 2000 frames.