Jupiter/Saturn Conjunction 2020

Near Jupiter from left to right are moons Europa, Io, Castillo. Just below Saturn is moon Titan.

Scope/Mount: TS-Optics PhotoLine 130mm F7 APO Refractor, Celestron CI-700 Mount

Camera: ZWO ASI185MC color

Guiding: none

Exposure: Composite of 1 frame each of 4 ms, 17 ms, 67 ms, 250 ms.

Software: SharpCap, PixInsight

Comment: 12-21-2020, San Diego, CA, poor seeing.

Celestron NexStar 6SE, Tele Vue 2.5x Powermate, Zwo Asi224mc. 10K frames captured in SharpCap, stacked 50% in AutoStakkert, sharpened in wavelets and finished in Lightroom.

Been figuring out deconvolution and EZ Tools within PixInsight. Also, applied some HDR techniques to draw out some of those dusty areas a little better. Overdone??

The Trifid Nebula is located in Sagittarius. It was discovered by Charles Messier on June 5, 1764. Its name means 'divided into three lobes'. The object is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars; an emission nebula, a reflection nebula and a dark nebula. It lies approximately 5,200 light years from Earth.

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: 25*5 mins @ 50 Gain, Temp -15C

- Dark Frames: 25*5 mins

- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

- Processed in PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom

Ecco un mosaico della Luna al 93% prima del 16 maggio mattina, giorno di fase piena e in cui diventerà rossa a causa del fenomeno dell'eclissi.

In questo caso ho aumentato la saturazione dei colori per mostrare le differenze di composizione chimica della regolite sulla superficie lunare.

Ho leggermente modificato lil bilanciamento del colore, la luminosità e il contrasto della foto condivisa in precedenza.

Dati:

- Telescopio Celestron 114/910 Newton

- montatura eq2 con motore AR

- camera planetaria QHY5L-II-C

- filtro UV-IR cut

- Sharpcap per l'acquisizione di 21 video da 30 secondi ognuno

- Autostakkert! 3 e Registax 6 per elaborarli

- Autostitch per assemblare le 21 parti del mosaico

- GIMP per luminosità, contrasto e saturazione dei colori

Luogo: Cabras (OR)

Data: 13 maggio 2022 alle 20:20 UTC ( 22:20 ora locale)

M33 Triangulum Galaxy. Testing Guiding. Scope: TSAPO65Q. Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro. Camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro. Guiding: Altair GPCAMv2 130M with Orion 50mm. 9x5 Mins. Captured in SharpCap Pro. Processed in APP. Finished in Adobe CC.

Data - 24/04/2021

Hora - 20:54 ~ 21:45 local (-3 UTC)

Lat - 7,13S

Log - 34,83W

Local - João Pessoa, PB - Brasil

Bortle - Class 8

Câmera - ZWO ASI 120MC-S

Telescópio - SW 150mm F8

Montagem - EQ5

Motorização - OnStep Brasil

Light - filme de 2000 frames (empilhados 50%)

Software Captura - SharpCap

Softwares Processamento - PS/Registax

This is an animation of some proms from 14th June 2023

Location: West Midlands, UK

Scope: Coronado SM60 II

Camera: ASI 178MM, 2 x TAL Barlow

Mount: CEM60-EC

Integration: 106 x 500 frames, best 20% from each

Acquisition: Sharpcap Pro

Processing: AutoStakkert, PI, ImPPG and PIPP

Well, almost. lol

This was taken before the moon was actually closest to the Earth on Saturday evening, Dec 2, 2017, 7:30 PM CST.

It is a 2 panel mosaic with 100 frames stacked per panel. The little eyepiece cam I used works extremely well for stuff like this.

Technical:

Televue TV-85 at F/5.6

Rising Tech Sony IMX224 Eyepiece Cam

Atlas EQ-G w/EQMOD

Sharpcap 2.9

Here is an image I took from March 24, 2017 distilled from a video and processed in Registax. It is the first time I have been able to identify the feature referred to as Oval BA, also known as Red Spot Jr. The image on the right was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on April 3, 2017 for comparison, you can more clearly see this cloud feature in the HST image.

From NASA, “Oval BA first appeared in the year 2000 when three smaller spots collided and merged. Using Hubble and other telescopes, astronomers watched with great interest. A similar merger centuries ago may have created the original Great Red Spot, a storm twice as wide as our planet and at least 300 years old.” (Source: science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2006/02mar_...)

I look forward to continue learning planetary image processing and collecting additional video streams.

Tech Specs: Video captured using Meade LX90 12” telescope and ZWO ASI290MC camera. Imaging was done on March 24, 2017 from Weatherly, Pennsylvania. Software included AutoStakkert! V2.3.0.21, Registax v6 and Sharpcap v2.9.

A massive star explosion that happened thousands of years ago in the constellation of Cygnus as I photographed it using narrowband filters (Hydrogen-a + OIII) and a small 60mm reduced refractor. This is the reedited 2021 version. I hope I will add RGB data soon.

Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MM-PRO USB 3.0 Mono (Type CMOS)

Sensor Cooling Temperature: -15C

Filters: 1.25" 5nm Astrodon Hydrogen-alpha (Ha), 1.25" 3nm Astrodon Oxygen III (OIII)

Imaging Telescope: Takahashi FS-60CB

Correcting Lens: Takahashi Reducer 0.72x (composite focal length at 264mm and focal ratio at f/4.9)

Mount: iOptron CEM25EC

Software: SharpCap Pro, PixInsight, Lightroom, Photoshop

Website: astrotakis.com/

Low in my southern sky in the constellation Aquarius, the Helix Nebula is a tough target which I actually didn't think I could image from home. Another collapsed star like the Dumbbell and other planetary nebula, this one resembles a giant eye with the outer hydrogen gas cloud surrounding a bluish center. It's actually relatively close to earth for a deep sky target, only 650 light years away. With the skyglow from New York behind the nebula, and a moderate amount of summer haze in the sky, I suspect this is an image that can be improved dramatically by adding several additional hours of exposure time. With our current weather patterns that will take me well into the 20's!

Tech stuff: Borg 71FL with 1.08X Borg flattener/ZWO ASI 1600MC camera/IDAS LPS-V4 filter/iOptron CubePro 8200 mount, guided. 48 minutes of 8 second exposures captured over two nights with SharpCap 3.2; Processed with PixInsight and finished with GIMP and ACDSee. From my yard 10 miles north of New York City.

First attempt at this object for me. The ZWO Duo Band filter did a nice job of pulling out some good detail. Happy with the result!

The Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus. The common name comes from William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, who observed the object in 1842 using a 36-inch telescope and produced a drawing that looked somewhat like a crab. This nebula is located about 6,500 light years away.

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

- Filter: ZWO Duo Band (HA & OIII)

- Acquisition Software: Sharpcap

- Guiding Software: PHD2

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

- Light Frames: 22*3 mins @ 150 Gain, Temp -20C

- Dark Frames: 22*3 mins

- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

- Processed in PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom and Topaz Denoise AI

Technical card

Imaging telescope or lens:Astro-Tech AT-65EDQ

Imaging camera:Nikon D5300

Mount:Celestron CG5

Guiding telescope or lens:Orion Mini 50mm Guide Scope

Guiding camera:QHY 5 L II M

Software:APT - Astro Photography Tool, Adobe Lightroom CC, PixInsight 1.8 Ripley PixInsight, ProDigital Software Astronomy Tools Actions Set, Sequator global Sequator 1.4a, Photoshop CC 2017

Resolution: 5965x4261

Dates: April 7, 2018

Frames: 32x120"

Integration: 1.1 hours

Avg. Moon age: 21.42 days

Avg. Moon phase: 57.69%

Astrometry.net job: 2012281

RA center: 169.941 degrees

DEC center: 13.262 degrees

Pixel scale: 0.955 arcsec/pixel

Orientation: 95.311 degrees

Field radius: 0.972 degrees

Locations: Maine, United States

Description

Leo Triplet

First time using guiding. Overall went well. Also first time using APT (AstroPhotography Tool imaging software). Also first time using SharpCap for polar alignment. That was super easy.

Not the best night, but was really trying out my new toys more than anything and Leo is heading west for the summer.

31 X120 seconds ISO 800

9 darks

no flats

Nikon D5300

AT65mm Quadruplet APO

OLD CG5 with Onstep and belt drives

Stacked in Sequator

Processed in Pixinsight

finishing touches in PS

Waxing Gibbous/77.4%

Moon Age 9.71 out of 29.39 days

March 19, 2024, about 2200 local, Tallahassee, Florida. Unusually good seeing tonight!

TMB 80mm f/6.3 refractor; ASI585MC, full resolution (3840 x 2160) cropped; UV/IR cut filter; No.15 yellow filter; SharpCap; best 1000 frames out of 10,000. Gain 300; PIPP, AutoStakkert. WaveSharp. Photoshop (for exposure and color adjustment.)

Taken with ASI294MC camera and 400mm Canon lens on Losmandy G11 GT mount. No darks, bias, or flat frames and no guiding. Captured in Livestack option in Sharpcap. An Optolong L-Pro filter was used to manage the light pollution.

M27 Dumbbell Nebula. Scope: Ostara HR152 Achromat. Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro. Camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro. Guide: Altair GPCAMv2 130M with Orion 50mm. 8 x 2 Mins in SharpCap Pro. Processed in Astro Pixel Processor. Finished in Adobe CC.

Skywatcher 12" goto dob, 5x TeleVue Powermate, ZWO224MC, Sharpcap, PIPP, AS3

2021-08-25-1135_0__pipp_AS_P15_lapl5_ap1195_Drizzle15_conv_RS1

The Sun was playing hide & Seek with clouds today, but I managed to grab a few videos in the gaps so I could test out the new Baader Solar Continuum Filter that I bought from First Light Optics a few weeks ago. This filter helps to reduce the effect of atmospheric turbulence and I could definitely see that on screen. It also increases definition and brings out the granularity of the Sun's visible surface. I have wanted one of these for about 9 years so I'm super thrilled to finally have one! I'm looking forward to playing with it some more.

Taken with a William Optics 70mm refractor fitted with a Thousand Oaks glass solar filter. The Camera was an ASI120MC fitted with a Celestron 3x Barlow. Mount was an EQ5 Pro, tracking at solar speed. 290 frame video captured with SharpCap, the best 25% of the frames were stacked using Autostakkert! 2 then quick processing in Fast Stone Image Viewer.

Equipment-

Celestron NexStar 6SE

Zwo Asi224mc with IR cut filter

Zwo ADC

Tele Vue 2.5x Powermate

FireCapture for ADC tuning

SharpCap for capturing

Jupiter 2 minute video, exp-3.0ms gain-300

Taken with a Celestron C6 SCT, Celestron AVX mount, 2x Barlow, and ASI120MC. Captured with SharpCap, stacked with AutoStakkert, and processed with Astra Image Pro and Photoshop.

Taken from Oxfordshire on 1st May 2023 with a William Optics 70mm refractor and ZWO ASI120MC camera fitted with a Celestron 3x Barlow.

The telescope was on an EQ5 Pro mount on a permanent pier, tracking at lunar rate. It was still twilight when I started imaging and I was also dealing with varying amounts of thin cloud. The Moon was 85% Waxing Gibbous. Promontorium Heraclides is also known as Cassini's Moon Maiden because he drew this promontory with a woman's head with long, wavy hair. It is believe to have represented the head of Geneviève de Laistre, who would become Cassini's wife in 1673. This makes her the first woman on the Moon.

A 2,000 frame video was captured using SharpCap and the best 25% of the frames were stacked using Autostakkert! 3. Processing was done in Lightroom and Fast Stone Image Viewer, plus a bit of sharpening in Focus Magic.

I used a TMB 80mm f/6.3 refractor on a roughly polar-aligned GEM. I used a ZWO120MC CMOS camera (old, original model) with SharpCap. The final image is composed of four individual images, each obtained from separate stacks of roughly 1000 to 1600 frames. The stacks were processed using PIPP and AutoStakkert. The four images were combined using Photoshop's photomerge feature. The combined image was color and levels adjusted, and sharpened using Topaz.

Seeing that night was horrible. I had a really hard time finding a reasonable focus. The observation site is suburban, Bortle 7.

Here is a view of last night's moon, 81% illuminated and currently residing in the constellation Aquarius.

Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120ED Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera, best 20% of 500 frames, Sky-Watcher EQ6R-Pro pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, captured using SharpCap Pro v4. Image Date: October 24, 2023. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).

Theophilus and Cyrillus Craters photograph on April 2, 2017 – transparency remained pretty good, but seeing was on the horrible side with resulting in a very wavy image. 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 2k. Photographed on April 2, 2017 from Weatherly, Pennsylvania.

This image shows detail in a very small part of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small satellite galaxy visible from the Southern Hemisphere.

Object Details:

Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) mag +0.8

NGC 1856 Star Cluster (mag +10.1)

NGC 1858 Open Cluster with nebulosity (mag +9.9)

NGC 1855 Globular Cluster (mag +10.4)

NGC 1854 Open Cluster with nebulosity (mag +10.4)

NGC 1850 Globular Cluster (mag +9.0)

Constellation: Dorado.

Visual magnitude: as above

Apparent diameter of LMC: 645 x 550 arc-min. (about 20 Lunar Diameters).

Actual diameter: 29,700 light years.

Distance: 160,000 light years.

Altitude: 42° above SW horizon.

Image:

Exposure: 5 min

Date: 2018-03-11.

Location: Field night at The Oaks, NSW, with Macarthur Astronomical Society

Sky: semi-dark rural with North Easterly metropolitan sky-glow.

Cloud: clear.

Moon: New Moon.

Image acquisition software: SharpCap.

Image post-processing: Deep Sky Stacker > GIMP.

Cropping: no.

Saved as Fits file.

Astronomy Gear:

Imaging telescope: Skywatcher Esprit 120ED Super APO triplet refractor.

Focal length: 840 mm, focal ratio: f/7.

Imaging camera: ZWO ASI 071 MC Pro.

Guiding camera: Orion StarShoot.

Guiding control software: unguided

Guiding accuracy: n.a.

Telescope mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R.

Polar aligning method: QHYCCD PoleMaster.

Polar alignment error: n.a.

Field flattener: yes; filter: no.

Observing Notes:

I’ve been having poor results over the last three months due to inaccurate star alignments. This night was no different and I also had issues with a loose lens on my Polemaster and the guide scope did not want to operate.

Spending all evening dealing with technical problems on a field night was disappointing and this shot was a last resort quick snatch of 36 frames, so as not to go home without at least one image. I was not even sure exactly where I was aiming and had to subsequently identify the objects in the frame.

I’ve had two observing sessions at home since then and with the alignment very erratic I need to find an opportunity to take the scope in for maintenance. So no more sessions for a while! 😦

SharpCap Camera Settings:

[ZWO ASI071MC Pro]

Debayer Preview=On

Pan=0

Tilt=0

Output Format=TIFF files (*.tif)

Binning=1

Capture Area=4944×3284

Colour Space=RAW8

Hardware Binning=Off

Turbo USB=80(Auto)

Flip=None

Frame Rate Limit=Maximum

Gain=376

Exposure=8

Timestamp Frames=On

White Bal (B)=55(Auto)

White Bal (R)=38(Auto)

Brightness=44

Temperature=15.5

Cooler Power=100

Target Temperature=-10

Cooler=On

Auto Exp Max Gain=300

Auto Exp Max Exp M S=30000

Auto Exp Target Brightness=100

Mono Bin=Off

Anti Dew Heater=On

Apply Flat=None

Subtract Dark=None

#Black Point

Display Black Point=0

#MidTone Point

Display MidTone Point=0.5

#White Point

Display White Point=1

TimeStamp=2018-03-11T11:14:04.9204590Z

SharpCapVersion=3.1.5059.0

TotalExposure(s)=288

StackedFrames=36

First attempt at this nebula. Tricky to process, but interesting nonetheless.

Cataloged as IC 5146, the beautiful nebula is nearly 15 light-years wide, located some 3,300 light years away toward the northern constellation of the Swan (Cygnus). Like other star forming regions, it stands out in red, glowing, hydrogen gas excited by young, hot stars and blue, dust-reflected starlight at the edge of a nearly invisible molecular cloud.

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: 20*5 mins @ 100 Gain, Temp -15C

- Dark Frames: 20*5 mins

- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

- Processed in PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom

Triangulum Galaxy (also known as Messier 33 and NGC 598). This is the third attempt at imaging M33, the previous two attempts weren't too bad but were either a bit too noisy or a bit too faint so this time it was given plenty of longer exposures with a dedicated astronomy camera and a better polar alignment. The resulting image is much more satisfying. Conditions were pretty good for this part of London, a nice clear night with just a few high wispy clouds, no wind and no Moon. However it was quite humid and the seeing could have been better. The only problem was the light source we use to make flat frames needs some adjustment as the processed image had a massive gradient which was hard to remove without messing up other parts of the picture. To get around this I used a master flat from a previous session. This version of the image is a reprocess of the original post.

The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 3 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, behind the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy with a diameter of about 60,000 light-years (roughly 40% the size of the Milky Way) and it is one of the most distant permanent objects that can be viewed with the naked eye (under good conditions and from a location with dark skies and no light pollution).

The galaxy is the smallest spiral galaxy in the Local Group and it is believed to be a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy due to their interactions, velocities, and proximity to one another in the night sky. It also has an H-II nucleus. Triangulum may be home to 40 billion stars, compared to 400 billion for the Milky Way, and 1 trillion stars for Andromeda Galaxy.

Information courtesy of Wikipedia:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulum_Galaxy

Some more interesting facts here: www.space.com/25585-triangulum-galaxy.html

042 x 300 second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C

050 x dark frames

030 x flat frames

100 x bias/offset frames

Binning 1x1

Total integration time = 3 hours 30 minutes

Captured with APT

Guided with PHD2

Polar Alignment with SharpCap Pro

Processed in Nebulosity, Fitsworks and Photoshop

Equipment

Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS

Mount: Skywatcher EQ5

Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini

Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI120MC

Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600MC Pro

Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector

Light pollution filter

Celestron NexStar 6SE

Tele Vue 2.5x Powermate

ZWO asi224mc with IR cut filter

ZWO ADC

FireCapture for ADC tuning.

3x 2 minute captures in SharpCap

Exposure- 2.80ms Gain- 340

Processed in PIPP, AutoStakkert3, RegiStax Wavelets and finished in Lightroom.

As I continue my venture into learning how to do deep-sky imaging, While at the Winter Star Party in the Florida Keys, I was able to capture this image of M104 known as the Sombrero Galaxy. This was an unguided image of 29 stacked frames. Each exposure was 14.76 seconds.

Details:

Date - Feb 02, 2020

Time - 2:52AM EST USA

Astro Physics 5" f8 refractor

Losmandy G11 Mount

Camera - ZWO ASI178MM

Capture software - SharpCap Ver 3.2.5985.0

Processing - PhotoShop and Lightroom

last night session just to sort out my plate solving issues and my psychotic PHD2 program. Good news I did sort that stuff out.

I just swung over to the Crescent Nebula to take a test image. I did not think an unmodded camera would be worth it on this image (especially with the moon) but after seeing the whole nebula in a single 2 minute exposure, I thought, hmmm.... why not.

My tracking was still terrible. Mostly because I had the balance wrong (at 12:30 realized was WEST heavy and at zenith). So every frame is trailed but whatever.

26@ 120 seconds

ISO 400

100 BAIS

no flats

no darks

AT65EDQ

dithered

Nikon d5300

Celestron CG5 with OnStep (Howard Dutton) and belt and motor upgrade

The worst aluminum tripod filled with sand to make better

QHY 5LII-M guide camera

Orion 50mm mini guide scope

DIY FocuserPro2 arduino focus motor ( Robert Brown)

Software: APT, PHD2, CdC, Sharpcap, ASCOM POTHUB, DSS, Pixinsight, PS/ACR, Team Veiwer.

PS Plug ins: Nik Define 2, Astronomy Tools

Location: backyard, Bortle 4 skies

quick edit, not my final offer

IC 5146 est composé d'une nébuleuse en émission et d’un amas ouvert dont les étoiles ont des âges de l'ordre de 240 millions d'années, de magnitude 7 à 8, situés à environ 3200 années-lumière de la Terre dans la constellation du Cygne. Elle a un diamètre d'environ 15 années-lumière. Elle présente la couleur rouge caractéristique de l’hydrogène excité par le rayonnement des jeunes et chaudes étoiles bleues

Elle se trouve près du bord Est de la constellation, près de celle du Lézard, en plein dans la Voie lactée. Elle est située à l'extrémité de la nébuleuse obscure Barnard 168.

C’est une zone de formation d'étoiles.

Sur l'image à coté d'IC5146, une petite nébuleuse par réflexion VdB147

en haut à gauche, un petit chapelet de galaxie, la seule que j'ai pu retrouver dans Aladin, la plus "grosse", elle répond au nom de 2MASX J21510146+4657059.

Matériel

lunette FSQ-106ED équipée extender x1.6 sur monture NEQ6 pro goto

caméra ZWO ASI1600MC-C équipée filtre IDAS-LPS-D1

guidage avec lunette APM 50*240 et caméra ZWO120MM

40 poses de 300s

logiciels :

acquisition : Sharpcap 3.2

guidage : PHD2

prétraitement : Deepskystacker

Traitement : Photoshop CS6

Cadre : Gimp

46P/Wirtanen is a periodic comet, discovered in 1948, by the American astronomer Carl Wirtanen. It is will make its closest approach eight days after this image was taken, on 16th December 2018, as it makes its way out almost as far as Jupiter’s orbit.

I was still suffering from the unreliable alignment of my SkyWatcher EQ6-R mount and had to manually locate the object.

Well…… to be honest, I found it with the guidance of my friend John Rombi, who patiently aimed his laser pointer at the target while I battled with the controls, using my red dot finder from an unnatural position somewhere in the tangle of cables below my ‘scope.

Object Details:

Comet 46P/Wirtanen

Constellation: Eridanus.

Visual magnitude: +4.2, brightening.

Actual diameter of nucleus: 1 km

Actual diameter of coma: tbc

Period, 5.4 years.

Distance: 0.09 AU or 13.7 million km (for a comet, that’s close!)

Altitude: 59°.

Tail: not seen.

Image:

Exposure: total 19 minutes over 25 frames.

Date: 2018-12-08.

Location: The Oaks, NSW.

Sky: semi-dark rural.

Cloud: no.

Moon: no.

Image acquisition software: SharpCap.

Image post-processing: PIPP; Deep Sky Stacker > GIMP.

Cropping: slight.

Gear:

Imaging telescope: Skywatcher Esprit 120ED Super APO triplet refractor.

Focal length: 840 mm, focal ratio: f/7.

Telescope mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R.

Optical: field flattener yes; filter no.

Imaging camera: ZWO ASI 071 MC Pro.

Polar aligning method: QHYCCD PoleMaster.

Polar alignment error: 1′ 42″ (Synscan).

Guiding: none.

SharpCap Camera Settings:

[ZWO ASI071MC Pro]

Pan=0

Tilt=0

Output Format=PNG files (*.png)

Binning=1

Capture Area=4944×3284

Colour Space=RGB24

Hardware Binning=Off

Turbo USB=80(Auto)

Flip=None

Frame Rate Limit=Maximum

Gain=337

Exposure=45.767742

Timestamp Frames=Off

White Bal (B)=61(Auto)

White Bal (R)=59(Auto)

Brightness=72

Temperature=-12.9

Cooler Power=100

Target Temperature=-15

Cooler=On

Auto Exp Max Gain=300

Auto Exp Max Exp M S=30000

Auto Exp Target Brightness=100

Mono Bin=Off

Anti Dew Heater=On

Banding Threshold=35

Banding Suppression=0

Apply Flat=None

Subtract Dark=C:\Users\Roger\Desktop\SharpCap Captures\darks\ZWO ASI071MC Pro\RGB24@4944×3284\13.4s\gain_503\dark_5_frames_-14.1C_2018-12-07T11_17_24.fits

#Black Point

Display Black Point=0

#MidTone Point

Display MidTone Point=0.5

#White Point

Display White Point=1

TimeStamp=2018-12-08T11:47:34.3748894Z

SharpCapVersion=3.2.5871.0

TotalExposure(s)=1144.19355

StackedFrames=25

Observing Notes:

Another test night for the EQ6R, following eleven months of unreliability. It failed to align again, with an errot of over 5° and will be returned to the manufacturer for the third time.

Finally, some partially clear skies to image with - this Spring and Summer have been fairly cloudy. This is my first real, concentrated attempt at this gorgeous nebula.

The Lagoon Nebula is a giant interstellar cloud in the constellation Sagittarius. It is classified as an emission nebula and as an H II region. The Lagoon Nebula was discovered by Giovanni Hodierna before 1654 and is one of only two star-forming nebulae faintly visible to the eye from mid-northern latitudes. 4,100 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: 14*4 mins @ 40 Gain, Temp -20C

- Dark Frames: 14*4 mins

- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

- Processed in PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom

21 Million light years away, this glitzy spiral galaxy is a faint and somewhat challenging target for a small telescope. This monochome image is another in my Uncool and Misguided Series this spring of urban deep sky targets shot with an uncooled mono planetary camera on an unguided mount.

Tech Stuff: Borg 71FL/1.08X Borg flattener/ QHY5III174M camera/ iOptron CubePro. Luminance channel only 100 minutes of 4 second exposures, collected in SharpCap livestacks and processed in PixInsight. From my Bortle 7 (SQM-L 18.7) yard in Westchester County 10 miles north of New York City.

Messier 67 is less famous than the Beehive cluster (Messier 44) in Cancer but is quite appealing. Estimated age is about 5 billion years old, so very old for an open cluster but spectroscopic analysis of all the stars confirms this. Mostly main sequence stars, some red giants and a few blue stragglers. there are about 500 members in the cluster.

I’ve had a few issues with my 480mm scope recently in terms of guiding and some of the mechanical aspects of the mount. This is a test image of 50 x 5 minutes to play around with some guiding parameters and assess the quality of the stars.

The stars are a bit square suggesting some differential flexure or field rotation between main scope and guide scope. I’ll make sure everything is tightened up and properly aligned then try again.

Technical Card

480/80mm f/6 Altair Starwave triplet refractor.

Altair Planostar 1.0 x FF with 2 inch IDAS P3 LPS filter

ZWO ASI2600MC; 50 x 300 second subs, Gain 100, Offset 25, Temp = -15c.

EQ6 pro mount with Rowan belt drives. EQMOD control. Primalucelab Sesto Senso electronic focuser.

Session control; SharpCap 4.0 on laptop with WiFi link to IPad.

Automated plate solving GOTO.

Automated FWHM multistar focusing every 16 frames. +/- 500 steps at 2s and 578 gain.

20 dark frames

50 flat frames (electroluminescent panel, 1500ms exposure @ 0 gain).

Post processed in PixInsight 1.8.9.

Light Pollution and Weather:

SQM (L) 19.90 at 11pm - first quarter Moon.

Session clear throughout.

Polar Alignment:

Error measured by PHD2= 0.3 arc minute.

RA drift + 1.75 arcsec/min

Dec drift - 0.09 arcsec/min

Guiding:

PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/Altair Starwave 206/50mm guider. Every 4th sub dithered.

RA RMS error 0.8 arcsec

Dec RMS error 0.65 arcsec

Astrometry:

Resolution: 1.610 arcsec/px

Rotation: -97.267 deg

Observation start time: 2023-02-26 20:01:51 UTC

Observation end time: 2023-02-27 00:54:44 UTC

Focal distance: 481.58 mm

Pixel size: 3.76 um

Field of view: 2d 47' 42.0" x 1d 52' 5.2"

Image center: RA: 8 51 06.628 Dec: +11 50 16.80

Ecco un mosaico della Luna al 93% prima del 16 maggio mattina, giorno di fase piena e in cui diventerà rossa a causa del fenomeno dell'eclissi.

Dati:

- Telescopio Celestron 114/910 Newton

- montatura eq2 con motore AR

- camera planetaria QHY5L-II-C

- filtro UV-IR cut

- Sharpcap per l'acquisizione di 21 video da 30 secondi ognuno

- Autostakkert! 3 e Registax 6 per elaborarli

- Autostitch per assemblare le 21 parti del mosaico

- GIMP per luminosità e contrasto

Luogo: Cabras (OR)

Data: 13 maggio 2022 alle 20:20 UTC ( 22:20 ora locale)

Iconic open cluster in Cancer. I'd planned to image some emission nebulae but they were all too close to the waxing Moon. This was well away.

Technical Card

480/80mm f/6 Altair Starwave triplet refractor.

Altair Planostar 1.0 x FF with 2 inch IDAS P3 LPS filter

ZWO ASI2600MC; 75 x 90 second subs, Gain 100, Offset 25, Temp = -15c.

EQ6 R mount . EQMOD control. Primalucelab Sesto Senso electronic focuser.

Session control; SharpCap 4.1 on miniPC attached to scope. Ethernet cable to home network.

Automated plate solving GOTO and focusing.

30 dark frames

61 flat frames (electroluminescent panel A, 1600ms exposure @ 0 gain).

Post processed in PixInsight 1.8.9.

Light Pollution and Weather:

SQM (L) not recorded - 70% Moon

Clear throughout.

Polar Alignment:

Still adjusting to my new mount - guiding getting better.

Error measured by PHD2= 0.7 arc minute.

RA drift - 0.4 arcsec/min

Dec drift + 0.3 arcsec/min

Guiding:

PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/Altair Starwave 206/50mm guider. Every 8th sub dithered.

RA RMS error 0.81 arcsec

Dec RMS error 0.55 arcsec

Astrometry

Resolution ............... 1.612 arcsec/px

Observation start time ... 2025-02-06 21:02:29 UTC

Observation end time ..... 2025-02-06 22:59:50 UTC

Focal distance ........... 481.24 mm

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

Field of view ............ 2d 47' 49.1" x 1d 52' 9.9"

Image center ............. RA: 8 40 06.038 Dec: +19 59 44.91

AUTORE: Aldo Rocco Vitale (Gruppo Astrofili Catanesi “Guido Ruggieri”)

DATA: 6 gennaio 2018

ORA: 04:45

LOCALITA’: S. Agata Li Battiati (CT) 250 m. s.l.m.

OGGETTO: Giove

TEMPERATURA: 8°

UMIDITA’: 85%

SEEING: 3

TRASPARENZA: 3

MAGNITUDINE: -1,41

DIMENSIONE ANGOLARE: 0°0’33,5”

FRAMES: 1250

GAIN: 10

TEMPO DI POSA: 1/50 ms

DISTANZA: 5,8 UA = 870 milioni di Km c.a.

OBIETTIVO: Celestron Nexstar C11; D=280 mm; F=1764 mm; f/6.3

CAMERA DI RIPRESA: ZWO ASI 120MC

SOFTWARE DI ELABORAZIONE: Sharpcap + Autostackert + MaximDL + Pixinsight + Gimp

This image is showing my journey since I started astrophotography in 2018. We can see the planet Saturn and it’s beautiful rings tilting in upward direction with the time. On May 2025, the rings will directed to Earth as edge on and we can not see it. This phenomenon is happening due to 27 degrees tilt in Saturn’s axis and it’s happening every 15 years. Also, we can see the progress in my experience in capturing & processing. I hope you can enjoy it. Gear setup: Celestron 125SLT & Celestron HD8, TV 2.5 powermate, Celestron Neximage 5, ZWO 294MC, ZWO 290MC. Captured by Sharpcap pro. Stacked in Autostakkart!. Wavelets in Registax.

Taken using Altair 72ED-R, ZWO 178MC mounted to a Skywatcher AZGTi in EQ mode. 30x 60s exposures at 200 gain. Live stacked in Sharpcap with dark frame subtraction

The Sombrero Galaxy (also known as Messier Object 104, M104 or NGC 4594) is a galaxy in the constellation Virgo found 9.55 megaparsecs (31.1 million light-years) from Earth. The galaxy has a diameter of approximately 15 kiloparsecs (49,000 light-years), 30% the size of the Milky Way. It has a bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane in its inclined disk. The dark dust lane and the bulge give this galaxy the appearance of a sombrero hat. Astronomers initially thought that the halo was small and light, indicative of a spiral galaxy, but the Spitzer Space Telescope found that the dust ring around the Sombrero Galaxy is larger and more massive than previously thought, indicative of a giant elliptical galaxy. The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of +8.0, making it easily visible with amateur telescopes, and it is considered by some authors to be the galaxy with the highest absolute magnitude within a radius of 10 megaparsecs of the Milky Way. Its large bulge, its central supermassive black hole, and its dust lane all attract the attention of professional astronomers.

(Source: Wikipedia.org)

Image Acquisition Specifics: The image frames for this image were taken from a Bortle 4 site in Landers, CA, USA on a New Moon night. Telescope: TPO Ritchey-Chretien 6 inch with a FL 1370mm. Guiding was with Orion 50mm Guide Scope FL 242mm with a ZWO ASI183MC for the guide camera. Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro. Main imaging camera: ASI294MC PRO cooled to -5C. Exposures: 26 x 240s with Gain at 120 at Bin 1x1. No darks, flats or bias frames. Processed in PixInsight and Photoshop. The image was slightly cropped for adequate size in presentation. Polar alignment was with SharpCap Pro.

NGC 4631 Whale Galaxy

Details

28th April 2024

4h48m x 360s Lights + calibration frames

Altair 26C Gain 100 O/S 200 HCG

EdgeHD8 @F10 (f=2064mm)

EQ6R-PRO | Celestron OAG + ASI178m

Acquisition: APT4.5 | GSS | PHD2 | Sharpcap (PA)

Processed in PixInsight

Aberkenfig, South Wales

Lat +51.542 Long -3.593

A sequence of images I have taken over a period of 7 years which display the proper motion of this well known binary star.

Images captured using a Skywatcher 254mm Newtonian with a Modified Philips SPC 900NC Webcam on LX Mode. The telescope was initially mounted on an EQ6 HD then an EQ6 Syntrek for the later captures.

Hot pixels removed before final levels slightly adjusted with G.I.M.P.

G.I.M.P. used to align & slightly crop images with layers tool. Annotations added also added with G.I.M.P.

Another page from my observations log.

Best viewed in intermediate expanded mode.

Webcam Settings using Sharpcap:

[Philips SPC 900NC PC Camera (LX Mode)]

Resolution=640x480

Colour Space / Compression=YUY2

Exposure (s)=10.0466495818267

Output Format=PNG files (*.png)

Brightness=90

Contrast=40

Saturation=72

Gamma=3

ColorEnable=255

BacklightCompensation=0

Gain=30

Re-processed 12th October 2021

M51a (Whirlpool Galaxy) interacting with its companion galaxy NGC5195 23 million light-years away. The star bridge/dust cloud connecting the galaxies are a result of the gravitational interaction which has estimated to have been ongoing for the last 500 million years. This interaction will eventually cause the two galaxies to merge.

Equipment:

Skywatcher HEQ5-pro (Rowan Belt Mod)

ZWO ASI 294MC-pro

Explore Scientific ED APO 102mm F7 FCD-100 Triplet Carbon Fibre

Hotech SCA 1x field flattener

ZWO ASI-120MM-mini guide camera

Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED guidescope

2 inch mounted Optolong L-Pro

Acquisition:

Sharpcap polar alignment, ASCOM guiding/dithering with PHD2

APT image acquisition

Lights – 100 x 180s at -15c, gain 125, offset 30 (total integration 5 hours)

Darks – 30

Flats – 30

Dark flats - 30

Procesing:

Images calibrated and stacked in APP

Light pollution removal and star colour calibration in APP

Autostretched image saved as 16 bit TIFF

PS – star saturation, masked stretch to reveal faint outer dust, high pass filter on galaxy (pixel size 5) with layer mask, further saturation enhancements, denoise of background, black point set to 25, starnet++ used to reduce star size/burden.

Minimal crop

27 million light years away!

Not exactly happy with the processing here, lots of weirdness with my final stacked image. It'll do.

Image Details:

- Imaging Scope: Celestron C8 SCT

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

- Guider: Celestron Starsense Autoguider

- Mount: Celestron CGEM

- Acquisition Software: Sharpcap

- Guiding Software: Celestron

- Light Frames: 25*3 mins @ 100 Gain, Temp -10C

- Dark Frames: 10*3 mins

- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

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

Captured from my home in Gérgal, Almeria, Spain on the 21st of June 2021. The moon that marks the start of summer in the Northern hemisphere. A colour enhanced composite image of the best 250 images out of 1,000 images taken in only a few seconds to capture the best detail possible.

Camera: ZWO ASI183-MC Pro cooled to -10 C

Telescope: William Optics GT81 385mm f/5.6

Telescope mount: Celestron CGX Equatorial mount.

Capture software: Sharpcap Pro

Processed in Autostakeert, Topaz Labs GigaPixel and Adobe Lightroom

Reflector SW 250/1200, barlox x3 y cámara ZWO Asi 120 MC, desde cielo urbano (Rosario SF, Argentina).

Captura con Sharpcap en video AVI, suma de 993 cuadros con Autostakkert, procesado con Astroart.

ANother attempt at a starless image, except the massively bright Alnitak which is hard to remove. Shows off the lovely molecular dust and gas action in this part of the sky!

This capture shows the lovely nebulae that lie around the left-most star in Orion’s belt. This star, Alnitak, is actually a triple star system and lies about 1260 light years away from us. The Flame Nebula, on the left, lies around 1300 light years away. The Horsehead Nebula, also known as Barnard 33 is around about 1500 light years away and is a part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex where star formation is taking place. The blueish nebular cloud almost at center is NGC2023. What must this all look like if we were in orbit around the Alnitak system?

Image Details:

- Imaging Scope: AstroTelescopes 80mm ED 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: 27x3 mins @ 100 Gain, -10F, Offset 40

- Dark Frames: 27*3 mins

- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

- Processed in PixInsight, Photomatix Pro HDR and Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop

Test image taken last night with my new 61mm Doublet. I acquired a William Optics field flattener and spent some time making all the right adjustments for flat field, focus etc. This is 16*4 mins on the Swan Nebula, with darks. The field flattener has done a brilliant job here, with crisp, round stars to the edge of the frame. I love the star color this little doublet produces, and no halos to process out at all!

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: 16*4 mins @ 100 Gain, Temp -15C

- Dark Frames: 16*4 mins

- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

- Processed in PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom

NGC 2129 is a small open cluster in the constellation Gemini, it is about 7,200 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.