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DISCOVERED a new color calibration tool in PixInsight (Photometric Color Calibration) which is getting me much better color in my images during processing. Very pleased with this result!)
This galaxy lies approximately 21 million light years away. It is interacting/colliding with another galaxy (smaller object to the top, NGC 5195) which has been continuing for millions of years. Several supernovas have been spotted here in recent years.
Last night presented an exceptional night of viewing here in Central Texas. Temperatures around freezing, clear skies and a moon that set around 9:15pm. I was able to capture 3 hours of data on this object before I had to go to bed to get ready for work the next day.
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*5 mins @ 100 Gain, Temp -30C
- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
- Processed in Photomatix Pro HDR and Adobe Lightroom
Coronado PST single stack, ASI183M, 2 imaged blended. One tuned for surface, one tuned for proms. SharpCap, Autostakkert3!, PI deconvolution, PS for blending layers and color. Tracked on a GM8 base with OnStep controller
Scope: Orion 8" f4 Astrograph with Baader Coma Corrector
Mount: iOptron iEQ45 pro
Camera: ZWO ASI183M non cooled
best 50% of 5000frames
ZWO 850nm IR Pass Filter
Sharpcap, CdC, Photoshop, autostakert!3, Registax
Taken from Bortle 7 city skies using 150mm refractor, ASI294MC Pro camera and Optolong L-Pro filter. Consists of 200 x 60 second exposure captured in Live Stacking mode in SharpCap Pro software.
RED for detail120 each @ 15 seconds Gain 200
30 darks
Color from Jim Carroll's data
Scope: Orion 8" f4 Astrograph with Baader Coma Corrector
Mount: iOptron iEQ45 pro
Camera: ZWO ASI183M non cooled
ZWO 8 position 1.25 filter wheel filter wheel
ZWO LRGB
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
The Moon. This shot was taken on the night of 7-1-20. I don't normally do Moon or planet imaging, but I was tweaking part of my rig and the Moon as there ... so why not? I shot a 200 frame high res video sequence using my ZWO ASI294MC-Pro camera and SharpCap Pro software. When you watch the video you have see the image of the Moon wavering around as the atmosphere was distorting it. The video was analyzed and the sharpest 66 frames were stacked using Autostakkert 3 software. I then used Registax software to do Wavelet sharpening of the image. Finally, Photoshop was used to finish things up. It was interesting to try out a different form of capture and image processing.....
27.02.2018 - Last night's Waxing Gibbous Moon (94% illuminated) in between the snow fall last night.
Altair Astro LightWave 72EDR
Altair Astro IMX178 colour Hypercam
SkyWatcher AZ-GTI mount
Best 200 frames stacked from 2000 captured.
SharpCap 3.1
Post processed with Photoshop CC 2018
Saturation and contrast boosted.
M51 In the constellation of Canes Venatici.
M: iOptron EQ45-Pro
T: William Optics GTF81
C: ZWO ASI1600MC-Cooled
F: Hutec IDAS D2
G: PHD2
GS: BaaderFlip Mirror with OAG
GC: ZWO ASI120mini
RAW16; FITs
Temp: -15 DegC
Gain 139;
7 x Exp 500s
Gain 200;
14 x Exp 200s
Frames: 20 Lights; 50 Darks; 100 flats
Approx 50% Crop
Capture: SharpCap
Processed: DSS; APP; PS
Sky: 80% moon, calm, minimal cloud, cold, fair seeing.
31 million light years distant.
(NOTE: This new image replaces an earlier image I had taken. Hope you like it.)
The Fascinating Neighborhood of the Star Sadr
Compared to our Sun, Sadr is an enormous star, with 12 times the Sun's mass and about 150 times the Sun's radius. It is emitting over 33,000 times as much energy as the Sun, at an effective temperature of 6,100 K in its outer envelope. This temperature is what gives the star the characteristic yellow-white hue of an F-type star. Massive stars such as this consume their nuclear fuel much more rapidly than the Sun, so the estimated age of this star is only about 12 million years old. (Wikipedia.org)
Technical Information for This Image
Sadr is the center star in the large cross asterism in the constellation of Cygnus. This image was taken with a William Optics Zenithstar 81 APO Doublet Refractor on an iOptron CEM25P mount. This telescope is a very compact unit and has optical elements made of FPL53 glass and is actually considerably sharper than some of my larger telescopes. The main imaging camera, attached to the prime focus of the telescope was a ZWO ASI294MC Pro cooled camera which was cooled to -5C. The 12 exposures were each 240 seconds, and the gain was set to 120. Auto guiding was done using a William Optics 50mm guide scope with a 200mm FL. Attached to the guide scope was a ZWO ASI183MC camera which was connected to PHD2 autoguiding software. Capturing was done with Astrophotography Tool (APT) software and post processed with Pixinsight software with finishing touches put in using Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud. Polar Alignment for the evening was done using SharpCap software.
Vlacq Crater – diameter is 89 km and it is located in the southeast region of the moon, named after Adriaan Vlocq a Dutch book publisher and author of mathematical tables (1600-1667). The rim is eroded, the interior largely flat but does have a central mountain.
Tech Specs: ZWO ASI290MC camera and Meade 12” LX90 telescope mounted on a Celestron CGEM-DX mount. Software used included Sharpcap v2.9 and AutoStakkert! Alpha Version 2.3.0.21. Photographed on February 2, 2017 from Weatherly, Pennsylvania.
Skywatcher 12" goto dob, 5x TeleVue Powermate, ZWO224MC, Sharpcap, PIPP, AS3
2021-08-25-1123_4__pipp_lapl4_ap185_Drizzle15_convRS1
This fabulous region of Cygnus is a big glowing hydrogen cloud, invisible to the naked eye but revealed in larger telescopes and in images like this from small scopes when filtered for the H-alpha wavelength. I'm happy with the improvement from my last serious imaging attempt 3 years ago.
Tech stuff: Borg 55FL astrograph at f/3.6/ZWO ASI1600MC/IDAS LPS-V4 filter/iOptron CubePro mount. 8 Second exposures unguided captured in SharpCap Livestacks; total integration time 132 minutes. From my Bortle 7 yard 10 miles north of NYC. Captured August 1st.
Equipment
Imaging Telescopes Or Lenses
Meade LX65 6" MAK OTA
Imaging Cameras
ZWO ASI224MC
Mounts
Celestron Advanced VX
Filters
SVBony UV/IR Cut 1.25"
Software
Adobe Photoshop · AstroSharp Ltd SharpCap · Cor Berrevoets et al. Registax · Emil Kraaikamp Autostakkert
Acquisition details
Date: July 22, 2022
Time: 03:07
Frames: 2000
FPS: 80.890
Exposure per frame: 7.36 ms
Focal length: 1800
Resolution: 984x723
File size: 366.4 KB
Locations: Sassari, Sassari, Sardegna, Italy
Data source: Backyard
The Leo Triplet (also known as the M66 Group) is a small group of galaxies about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. This galaxy group consists of the spiral galaxies M65, M66, and NGC 3628.
I must say, the new William Optics 61mm ZenithStar refractor is very capable and seems to work nicely with the ZWO ASI183MC Pro camera.
Image Details:
- Imaging Scope: William Optics 61mm ZenithStar II Doublet
- 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
- Capture Software: SharpCap Pro (LiveStack mode with dithering)
- Light Frames: 40*4 mins @ 100 Gain, Temp -16C
- Dark Frames: 40*4 mins
- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
- Processed in PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom and Topaz Denoise AI
Went out Tuesday night, Just NGC2244 and SH2-240 Had clear skies...….
SH2-240 is a very large dim supernova remnant, also called the Spaghetti nebula, 3 hours isn't enough time, Need at least 10 hours+ to bring out the details, I was able to get a portion of the nebula...
WO RedCat51, Zwo1600MM Pro cooled mono camera
Astronomik Ha 12nm CCD 1 1/4" filter
#SharpCap Pro, PoleMaster
Ioptron i45 Pro EQ mount, PHD2 guiding
Orion 60mm guidescope SSAG
200 Gain offset 50, -10c cooling,
NGC2244 was 60 minutes, 1 minute exposure each
SH2-240 was 3 hours @ a minute each
100 darks 100 flats and 100 bias frames
Astro Pixel Processor and PS
Equipo Principal: ZWO ASI 1600 mm-pro + SW Explorer 250pds + SW Coma Corrector 0.9x + EQ6-R-Pro + ZWO EAF + ZWO 7x2" EFW
Equipo guía: starguider 60/240 mm, ZWO ASI 120mm mini
*Gain 139, -25 º C, Ha 7nm 2" Optolong, 85x180"
*Gain 139, -25 º C, Oiii-CCD 6.5 nm 2" Optolong, 80x180"
*Gain 139, -25 º C, Sii-CCD 6.5 nm 2" Optolong, 80x180"
100 Darks
100 Flats por filtro
Polar Align: SharpCap 3.2
Adquisición: SGP 3.1
Procesado: Pixinsight 1.8.8, PS
ZWO ASI294MC-Pro Cooled + Meade ETX90 f.1250mm f/d13.8 sur Sky Watcher Star Adventurer.
50 poses de 1/125s . Acquisition avec SharpCap 3.2 - Empilement AutoStakkert - Traitement RegiStax 6 et FastStone Image Viewer.
Plus petit cratère défini ( ex. Gambart H) D = 4 km
This is my first go at sunspots since completing the the observatory. Sunspot Group 12674 was captured using a piggyback setup on my main telescope (Meade 12” LX90). Happy with the results this far, technical details below.
Tech Specs: Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM + Canon 2x Extender III + ZWO ASI290MC camera piggyback mounted on a Meade 12” LX90 telescope on a Celestron CGEM-DX mount. Best 50% of 5000 frames collected using SharpCap v3.0 and AutoStakkert! V3.0.14 (x64). A 77mm Thousand Oaks Optical Solar Filter was on the business end of the lens. Date: September 1, 2017.
Telescopi o obiettivi di acquisizione: Celestron 127/1500 Maksutov-Cassegrain
Camere di acquisizione: SVBONY SV305
Montature: Celestron SLT
Software: PIPP x64 2.5.9 · SharpCap Pro 3.2 Sharcap · ASTROSURFACE · AutoStakkert! · photoshop
Data:24 Dicembre 2020
Pose: 1200
FPS: 50,00000
Lunghezza focale: 1500
Seeing: 4
Trasparenza: 8
Risoluzione: 902x601
Luoghi: Terrazzo di casa (Sant'Agata li Battiati), Sant'Agata Li Battiati, CT, Italia
Origine dei dati: Giardino
Been learning a lot about PixInsight, so ran some data captured a couple of months ago through some new processing. Super sharp result, probably my best image of this galaxy to date!
This galaxy lies approximately 21 million light years away. It is interacting/colliding with another galaxy (smaller object to the top, NGC 5195) which has been continuing for millions of years. Several supernovas have been spotted here in recent years.
Image Details:
- Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes ED 80mm Refractor
- Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Color with UV/IR Blocking filter
- Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzva
- Guiding Camera: Orion Starshoot Auto Guider
- Acquisition Software: Sharpcap
- Guiding Software: PHD2
- Light Frames: 41*5 mins @ 50 Gain, Temp -25C
- Dark Frames: 41*5 mins @ 50 Gain, Temp -25C
- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
- Processed in PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom
27% Waxing Crescent Moon. Taken from Oxfordshire, UK with a William Optics 70mm refractor with ASI120MC camera + Celestron 3x Barlow. The telescope was on an EQ5 Pro mount on a permanent pier.
2,000 frame video was captured using SharpCap, the best 30% of the frames were stacked using Autostakkert! 3 then processed in Lightroom and Fast Stone Image Viewer. The first video I shot was pretty clear but then thin cloud was moving across the Moon for the remainder of the imaging session.
This region shows the craters near to the shadow terminator and the south western region. The crater with a central peak at the top of this image is Piccolimini. To the lower left are two more craters with central peaks, and they are Pitiscus and Vlaq. There are so many craters to study during this lunar phase!
IC434 and IC1805 with the ES 80mm ED triplet APO refractor, Orion Field Flattener and Zwo ASI1600MM Pro cooled mono camera
Had clear skies last night, good tracking
Astronomik 1 1/4" 12nm Ha filter
#SharpCap Pro, PoleMaster
Ioptron i45 Pro EQ mount, PHD2 guiding
Orion 60mm guidescope SSAG
200 Gain offset 50, -10c cooling,
IC1805 was 80 minutes, 1 minute exposure each
IC434 was 220 minutes, 1 minute each, over 3 1/2 hours
100 darks 100 flats and 100 bias frames for IC434
30 darks 30 flats and 30 bias frames for IC1805
Astro Pixel Processor and PS
A few small solar prominence's on today’s sun (July 4, 2019).
Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher 120ED Esprit, ZWO ASI290MC, Daystar Quark Chromosphere + Daystar 2" UV/IR filter, SharpCap v3.0, best 15% of 2k frames, AutoStakkert, Registax. Image date: 4 July 2019. Location: The Dark Side Observatory in Weatherly, PA, USA.
On the year of the 50th anniversary since the first Moon landing, this is the very first time I'm capturing the Moon seriously with a telescope. Best 50% of 2000 frames captured with the ASI1600 on an 80mm Triplet APO. Captured on the evening of March 23rd 2019 via SharpCap and processed with Autostakkert and Lightroom.
Here is a view of the planet Venus taken on January 1, 2017, now at 57% full and it will be progressively getting narrower over the next few weeks.
Tech Specs: Meade LX90 12” Telescope, ZWO ASI290MC camera at prime focus, best 1000 frames of 5000 frames sampled. Taken from Weatherly, Pennsylvania. Software included SharpCap 2.9, Registax, and Adobe Lightroom.
Messier 42, the Great Nebula in Orion, taken from a Bortle 4 site in Landers, CA, USA on a New Moon night. Telescope: Explore Scientific ES80 Refractor with a FL 480mm and F7. Guiding was with Orion 50mm Guide Scope FL 242mm with a ZWO ASI183MC for the guide camera. Mount: Celestron Advanced VX. Main imaging camera: Canon T7i at prime focus. Exposures: 20 x 60s with ISO at 400. No darks, flats or bias frames. Processed in PixInsight. Slight crop. Polar alignment was with SharpCap Pro.
First attempt at this galaxy for me. Great skies last night until about 2:30am when clouds rolled in. Not bad for an 80mm ED scope on this considering it's distance and relative size.
The Black Eye Galaxy is a relatively isolated spiral galaxy 17 million light-years away in the mildly northern constellation of Coma Berenices. It was discovered by Edward Pigott in March 1779, and independently by Johann Elert Bode in April of the same year, as well as by Charles Messier the next year. It contains around 100 billion stars, about the same as our own Milky Way.
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: 30*4 minss @ 40 Gain, Temp -20C
- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
- Processed in PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom
REPROCESSED 13th JUNE 2019
I'm delighted to share my first attempt at capturing a transit of the Sun by the International Space Station!
The transit was visible from Oxfordshire, and took place at 5:23pm BST on Thursday 6th June. The whole event lasted just 1.3 seconds!
Telescope: William Optics 70mm refractor fitted with Thousand Oaks glass solar filter
Mount: EQ5 Pro on a permanent pier, tracking at solar speed
Camera: ZWO ASI120MC camera
2,000 frame video captured with SharpCap Pro, started 12 seconds before the predicted transit time. Video was debayered, then run through PIPP to extract the 31 frames which had the ISS in shot. Those frames were then stacked using StarStaX, processed in Lightroom, Registax 6, Photoshop CS2, Fast Stone Image Viewer and Focus Magic.
To see my video blog capturing this event, visit:
Or on You Tube:
Another grab ofnthe M42 Orion Nebula. Actually a test image as I'm getting weirdness with my camera output. Thought I'd share anyway.
Image Details:
- Imaging Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval
- Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Color with UV/IR Blocking filter
- Guiding Scope: AstroTelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
- Guiding Camera: Orion Starshoot Auto Guider
- Acquisition Software: Sharpcap
- Guiding Software: PHD2
- Light Frames: 20x5 mins @ 100 Gain, -25F
- Dark Frames: 20*5 mins
- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
- Processed in PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom
I've imaged this before and this is not my best but I'm happy with this output from an uncooled planetary camera, part of my ongoing exploration of ultraportable urban astrophotography.
The North America nebula is named for its striking resemblance to the continent and the Pelican, likewise, for its less compelling resemblance to the sea bird. Both are part of the same cloud of ionized Hydrogen which emits the characteristic reddish H-alpha wavelength that facilitates imaging with an appropriate filter. Higher resolution take here:
www.flickr.com/photos/124244349@N07/43192523632/in/datepo...
Compared with the cooled camera used for this linked image, the planetary camera used here has a much smaller chip and is a fraction of the cost. While a camera like this is great for imaging Jupiter and Saturn, its performance on a target like this a testament to the improvement in sensor technology.
Tech Stuff: Canon 17-55mm f2.8 zoom lens/ZWO ASI385MC/IDAS LPS-D2 filter/iOptron CubePro 8200 mount, unguided. Two hours total integration time of 4 second exposures, captured with SharpCap and processed with PixInsight. Captured from my yard in Westchester County.
The Leo Tripet, about 35 million light years away from us, here on Earth.
Equipment:
Celestron CGEM Mount
Nikon 500mm f/4 P Ai-s @ f/5.6
Sony a7RIII (unmodified)
Altair 60mm Guide scope
GPCAM2 Mono Camera
Acquisition:
Taos, NM: my backyard - Bortle 3
15 x 240" for 60.5 minutes of exposure time.
10 dark frames
20 flats frames
20 bais frames
Guided
Software:
SharpCap
PHD2
DeepSkyStacker
Photoshop
My mount was polar aligned with SharpCap (what an amazing system for aligning). I'm not comfortable using my SCT as my lens yet. My solution is to piggy back my Sony a7RIII and adapted Nikon 500mm f/4 on a ADM dovetail rail on the top of my optical tube. I had to throw away about 5 frames due to satellites passing through or near my targets. This was low on the horizon and when I came out to end my imaging session I found my guidescope not being able to guide and had to delete my last 3 frames becasue the images were not sharp. It was a fun learning experience, looking forward to trying again when this target is higher in the sky.
Aberkenfig, South Wales
Lat +51.542 Long -3.593
Skywatcher 254mm Newtonian Reflector, Tal 2x Barlow Lens, ZWO ASI 120MC Imager. Captured using Sharpcap.
Processed with Registax 6 & G.I.M.P.
Seeing Conditions - Reasonably Good.
Final image expanded to 175%
M101 In the constellation of Ursa Major.
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;
73 x Exp 300s
Frames: 73 Lights; 10 Darks; 200 flats
70% Crop
Capture: SharpCap
Processed: PIPP; DSS; PS
Sky: No moon, calm, minimal cloud, cold, fair seeing.
20.87 million light years distant.
A hard one to process, but a decent result.
The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy 2.73 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is catalogued as Messier 33 or NGC 598. The Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, behind the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way.
Image Details:
- Imaging Scope: William Optics 61mm Zenithstar II Doublet
- 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: 20*5 mins @ 100 Gain, Temp -15C
- Dark Frames: 20*5 mins
- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
- Processed in PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom
Equipment:
Celestron CGEM Mount
Nikon 500mm f/4 P Ai-s
Sony a7RIII (unmodified)
Altair 60mm Guide scope
GPCAM2 Mono Camera
Acquisition:
Taos, NM: my backyard - Bortle 3
12 x 240" for 48 minutes for exposure time.
5 dark frames
15 flats frames
15 bais frames
Guided
Software:
SharpCap
PHD2
DeepSkyStacker
Photoshop
My mount was polar aligned with SharpCap (what an amazing system for aligning). I'm not comfortable using my SCT as my lens yet. My solution is to piggy back my Sony a7RIII and adapted Nikon 500mm f/4 on a ADM dovetail rail on the top of my optical tube. I'm still new to autoguiding. I got some great detail of a galaxy with 3:30 second light frames. For this I stopped down the aperture to get diffraction spikes on the brighter stars and exposed my lights for 4 minutes. I used DeepSkyStacker to combine all frames and then processed the TIFF file in Photoshop using my skill set and relying on the famous Astronomy Tools Action Set.
Skywatcher T250/1000 Newton F4
Player-One Uranus-C IMX585
Skywatcher AZ-EQ6 Pro Goto USB
Logiciels acquisition: Stellarium - SharpCap
Logiciels traitement : PIPP - AutoStakkert - Pixinsight
Filtres: IR cut
Accessoires: Focuseur ZWO EAF - Barlow Kepler x2.5
Dates: 18 Janv. 2025- 22h38 GMT
Images unitaires: SER (1054x3.36ms) 10% de 10541
Gain: 330
Échantillonnage: 0.137 "/pixel
Focale résultante: 4390mm
F/D: 17.56
Seeing: 1.10 "Arc
Bortle: 5
Phase de la Lune (moyenne):72%
Using a Coronado SM40/BF10 filter set on my 72ED apo an 800 frame SER was recorded with QHY5III 178 and Sharpcap of the surface detail and another 300 Frame SER for the prominence image,stacked in Registax and processed in Astrosurface,the two images combined using layers in Photoshop CS2 adding false colour to the disk.
Image taken 15/12/20
NGC 6960, the Western Veil Nebula, taken from a Bortle 4 site in Landers, CA, USA on a New Moon night. Telescope: Explore Scientific ES80 APO Refractor with a FL 480mm and F6. Guiding was with Orion 50mm Guide Scope FL 242mm with a ZWO ASI183MC for the guide camera. Mount: Celestron Advanced VX. Main imaging camera: Canon T7i DSLR. Exposures: 60 x 60s with ISO 1600. No darks, flats or bias frames. Processed in PixInsight. Slightly cropped. Polar alignment was with SharpCap Pro.
Messier 16 Heart of the Eagle
This image was produced from a stack of exposures captured at a Bortle 4 site in Landers, CA, USA on a New Moon night. The telescope used was an Explore Scientific ED102 FL 714mm F7. Guiding was with an Orion 50mm Guide Scope FL 242mm, and a ZWO ASI290MC for the guide camera, with PHD2 auto-guiding software adjusting the tracking during the exposures. The Computerized GOTO mount used was a Celestron Advanced VX. The main imaging camera was a ZWO ASI294MC PRO cooled to -5C. Exposures taken numbered 124 at 45s each. The camera was set to a Gain of 280 and a of Bin 1 x 1. No darks, flats or bias frames were used. The post processing was done through Pixinsight software, while the polar alignment for the evening was with done with SharpCap Pro. The image was cropped to show the center feature known as the Pillars of Creation.
Explore Scientific AR152 refractor @125mm aperture, with Baader x2.25 Barlow and ZWO 120MM-S (f17.8 0.35"/pixel) on EQ6. Baader OD 3.8 solarfilm, solar continuum + UV/IR cut filters. 250 of 2500 frames captured in SharpCap, processed in AutoStakkert.
Close up shot of the lunar landscape showing the 'Mare' or 'Sea' looking as though it has actual waves. (Middle right hand side) A fave moon pic of mine, a lot of detail to be seen, including the Rilles running along the surface, and sharp edges to the smaller craters that only really show up under good Seeing conditions with a decent size aperture.
Scope: 200p f5 newt
Camera: ZWOASI120MC
Barlow: TeleVue 3x
Captured: Sharpcap
Stacked: Registax6
Post-process: Photoshop.
This is a two-panel mosaic of today’s sun in white light, artificial color. From SpaceWeather.com “SUNSPOT NUMBERS AT A 20-YEAR HIGH: For the second month in a row, the monthly-average sunspot number is cruising toward a 20-year high. The current value, around 230, would eclipse every month since Sept. 2001, which occurred during the peak of old Solar Cycle 23. The current cycle (Solar Cycle 25) was not supposed to be this strong, and it may become even stronger before Solar Max is finished.
Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120ED Telescope, ZWO ASI462MC planetary camera, glass solar filter, Celestron CGEM-DX mount, ZWO IR/UV filter, ZWO 0.5x focal reducer, best 20% of 2000 frames, Autostakkert+Registax, unguided, focus with a ZWO EAF, captured using SharpCap 4.0, controlled with a ZWO ASIAir Pro. Image Date: August 23, 2024. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
The crater Piccolomini photographed on April 2, 2017 – The crater is named after 16th century Italian Archbishop and astronomer Alessandro Piccolomini. It is 88 kilometers in diameter and 4,500 meters deep. The main peak rises to a height of 2.0 kilometers above the surrounding floor.
Tech Specs: ZWO ASI290MC camera and Meade 12” LX90 telescope mounted on a Celestron CGEM-DX mount. Software used included Sharpcap v2.9 and AutoStakkert! Alpha Version 2.3.0.21. 10k frames, stacked the best 500. Photographed on April 2, 2017 from Weatherly, Pennsylvania.
Equipo Principal: StellarVue SXV80-3SB + SFFX1 Flattener + QHY183M + ZWO EAF + ZWO 2" FD + SW EQ6-R-Pro
Equipo guía: QHY5iii-462c (UV/IR cut filter) + ZWO OAG
*Gain 10, -15 º C, Ha 7nm 2" Optolong, 20x300"
*Gain 10, -15 º C, Oiii-CCD 6.5 nm 2" Optolong, 21x300"
*Gain 10, -15 º C, Sii-CCD 6.5 nm 2" Baader, 22x300"
100 Darks
50 Flats por filtro
50 Dark-Flats por filtro
Polar Align: SharpCap 4
Adquisición: SGP 3.1
Procesado: Pixinsight 1.9.3, PS, RC Astro plugins
First light for the Zwo 1600MM Pro cooled mono camera
Also got to try out the new focuser from Deepskydad, The focuser worked very well, Got the stars down to 1.68
Went out Tuesday night, Just NGC7380, Had clear skies but a bright object, in the night sky
WO RedCat51, Zwo1600MM Pro cooled mono camera
Astronomik Ha 12nm CCD 1 1/4" filter
#SharpCap Pro, PoleMaster
Ioptron i45 Pro EQ mount, PHD2 guiding
Orion 60mm guidescope SSAG
200 Gain offset 10, -10c cooling,
NGC7380 was 125 minutes, 1 minute exposure each
100 darks 100 flats and 100 bias frames
Astro Pixel Processor and PS
NGC 6946 The Fireworks Galaxy
NGC 6946 (also known as the Fireworks Galaxy or Caldwell 12) is a face-on intermediate spiral galaxy with a small bright nucleus, whose location in the sky straddles the boundary between the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus. Its distance from Earth is about 25.2 million light-years or 7.72 megaparsecs, similar to the distance of M101 (NGC 5457) in the constellation Ursa Major. Both were once considered to be part of the Local Group. but are now known to be among the dozen bright spiral galaxies near the Milky Way but beyond the confines of the Local Group. NGC 6946 lies within the Virgo Supercluster.
Discovered by William Herschel on 9 September 1798, this well-studied galaxy has a diameter of approximately 40,000 light-years, about one-third of the Milky Way's size, and it contains roughly half the number of stars as the Milky Way. It is heavily obscured by interstellar matter due to its location close to the galactic plane of the Milky Way, with a dimming of ~1.5 magnitudes. Due to its prodigious star formation it has been classified as an active starburst galaxy.
(Wikipedia.org)
Technical Information for This Image
This image was captured on a TPO Ritchey-Chretien 6 inch telescope with 1370mm FL and an F9 speed. A ZWO ASI294MC Pro camera was used at the prime focus of the telescope and was set to a Gain of 120 and a Bin 1x1. 58 exposures of 120s each were taken under the supervision of Astrophotography Tool (APT) software. Guiding was done using an Orion 50mm guide scope coupled to a ZWO ASI183MC camera. PHD2 auto-guiding software kept the entire setup on target for the 116 minutes of capture. Polar alignment was done with Sharpcap Pro. Post processing of the image was done with Pixinsight software with Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud software putting the finishing touches on the image and translating it to the JPG format for uploading to Flickr.
Here is a widefield view of Mare Crisium and the bright crater Proclus – check out those distinctive impact rays.
Tech Specs: ZWO ASI290MC camera and Meade 12” LX90 telescope mounted on a Celestron CGEM-DX mount – an Antares Focal Reducer was used for the wide view. Software used included Sharpcap v2.9, AutoStakkert! Alpha Version 2.3.0.21, and ImagesPlus v5.75a. Best 2500 frames out of 10000 frames captured. Photographed on March 8, 2017 from Weatherly, Pennsylvania.
500 frames. Taken with a ZWO ASI120MC camera, Celestron C8 telescope and Celestron CGEM mount.
Captured in SharpCap, processed in AutoStakkert and Lightroom.
The Full Wolf Moon passing in front of Mars (occultation) on Monday evening. This coincided with Mars closest approach to earth on Jan 12.
Occultation takes place when a celestial body with a greater apparent diameter passes in front of a body with a smaller apparent diameter. For example, when the moon passes in front of a star or planet. The occultation of the Sun by the Moon is called a solar eclipse.
Credit: www.starwalk.space.com
This is a composite image of Mars' path taken at one minute intervals. (18:51:45 through 20:40:19MST)
10ms exposures, 3.2 frames per second for 10 seconds every minute. 50% stacked. Acquired with Sharpcap 4.1, processed in Autostakkert 4, IMPPG and Photoshop.
Imaging equipment:
SharpStar 140PH Triplet 910mm focal length
Mesu 200 MKII mount,
ZWO2600 camera
M81 is a large spiral galaxy in Ursa Major that is reasonably local to us at 12 million light years. Its companion, M82 has been disrupted by an encounter with M81 in the past.
M82 is a starburst galaxy with intense star formation triggered by the gravitational influence of M81. The red fan-like filaments at right angles to the axis of the galaxy are formed by a "superwind". The intense star formation has resulted in multiple supernovae explosions occurring about once every 10 years - the explosions power the super wind. The filaments are expanding outwards at about 600 miles a second and glow brightly in hydrogen alpha (red). They are also a very strong source of radio emission, listed as 3C 231 in the 3rd Cambridge catalogue of radio sources.
A very faint satellite galaxy to M81 - Holmberg IX can just be seen as a faint blue smudge above its parent galaxy.
Equipment-
900/120mm f/7.5 Equinox EDrefractor.
Star watcher x 0.85FR with 2 inch IDAS LPS D1 filter
ZWO ASI2600MC; 20 x 6 minute subs + (120 minute total integration).
NEQ6 Pro Mount with Rowan modified belt drives. Plate solving GOTO.
Laptop with SharpCap 4.0 for focusing and acquisition.
Calibration-
30 dark frames
30 flat frames (Electroluminescent panel @ 150ms)
QHY Polemaster alignment -
Error measured by PHD2= 0.6 arc minute.
RA drift +0.28 arcsec/min
Dec drift -0.14 arcsec/min
Guiding-
PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/Altair lightwave 209/50mm secondary scope. Alternate subs dithered.
RA RMS error 0.40 arcsec, peak error -1.84 arcsec
Dec RMS error 0.39 arcsec, peak error -2.54arcsec
Astrometry-
Center (RA, hms):09h 55m 39.082s
Center (Dec, dms): +69° 20' 28.639"
Pixel scale: 0.97 arcsec/pixel
Light Pollution-
SQM (L) at middle of session (2350 hrs UT) 20.2 mag/arcsec2 .
Typical of outer suburbs - Bortle scale = 5/9 Yellow
Environmental-
Temp = -0.5c
Humidity = 99%
Dew point = -0.7c
Occasional light cloud.
Post processed in PixInsight 1.8.