Equipment:

Celestron CGEM Mount

Canon FD 300mm f/4 L

Sony a7RIII (unmodified)

Altair 60mm Guide scope

GPCAM2 Mono Camera

Acquisition:

Taos, NM: my backyard - Bortle 3

52 x 151" for 2hrs 10min and 50sec of exposure time.

10 dark frames

15 flats frames

15 bias 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 piggyback my Sony a7RIII and adapted Canon FD 300mm f/4 L on a ADM dovetail rail on the top of my optical tube. 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.

Older data (October 2021) but revised processing techniques in PixInsight given what I have learned over recent weeks. Maybe my best yet.

The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224 and originally the Andromeda Nebula, is a barred spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth and the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way.

It will collide with our own Milky Way in about 4.5 billion years.

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: 32*4 mins @ 100 Gain, Temp -15C, 40x2 mins @ 150 Gain, Temp -20C

- Dark Frames: 32*4 mins, 40x2 mins

- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

- Processed in PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom and Topaz Denoise

These 5 pictures from Monday and Tuesday nights, Sadr region, IC1396, Heart & Soul Nebulas, M8 & M20 and Veil complex...

WO SkyCat 51 Zwo 071MC Pro cooled color camera

Optolong eNhanced filter

#SharpCap Pro

Ioptron i45 Pro EQ mount PHD2 guiding

Orion 60mm guidescope SSAG

200 Gain offset 20 0c cooling all pictures 1 minute exposure

50 darks 50 flats and 50 bias frames

Astro Pixel Processor and PS

Sony IMX571 APS-C format native 16-bit ADC sensor (I do not state camera company unless it's a Canon.) SCT-11" @ F/10: The seeing was great for 30*C temperatures, the camera was not cooled. still in the process of trying to get perfect culmination but not easy when it's so hot out. would prefer 20*C: SHARPCAP to capture 3 minutes SER stacked in AS2 Tweaked with registax and photoshop. no WinJupos:

Went out Monday night, IC5070, IC405 and M42&M43

Orion 80mm ED refractor, Zwo 294MC Pro cooled color camera, Used an electronic focuser, Nice to have!!

Optolong L eNhance filter

#SharpCap Pro, PoleMaster

Ioptron i45 Pro EQ mount, PHD2 guiding

Orion 60mm guidescope SSAG

220 Gain offset 10 -10c cooling,

IC5070 was 90 minutes, 1 minute exposure each

IC405 was 90 minutes, 1 minute exposure each

M42&M43 was 55 minutes, 1 minute exposure each

Weather was good, Getting cooler too with some dew forming.... High thin clouds trying to cover up M42

75 darks 100 flats and 75 bias frames

Astro Pixel Processor and PS

Image captured using a 1965 quartz Questar 3.5-inch Maksutov Cassegrain telescope, a ZWO ASI120MC camera coupled with a Celestron Ultima 2x Barlow with about a 80-second capture of 1777 frames using SharpCap 3.0 and Registax 6 for stacking and processing, minor adjustments with PS Elements.

Data - 04/06/2020

Hora - 23:33 local (-3 UTC)

Lat - 7,13S

Log - 34,83W

Local - João Pessoa, PB - Brasil

Bortle - Class 8

Telescopio - SW 1200mm 150mm

Barlow - 2,5X GSO

Câmera - ZWO ASI 120 Color

Binnig - 1x1

Gain - 63

Exp - 0,934915s

Montagem - EQ5

Motorização - Apenas RA

Ligth - 1200 frames (75%)

Software Captura - Sharpcap

Softwares Processamento - PIPP/AS3/Registax/PS

www.astrobin.com/g47vfl/

Initial capture before to use a Powermate 2,5 to increase focal length.

Really interesting how the Sun is increasing the activity.. and what we will see on the next years!!

Equipment

Imaging Telescopes Or Lenses

Lunt LS60THa/LS50FHa Double stack

Imaging Cameras

ZWO ASI174MM

Mounts

Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi ×

Filters

Lunt B1200 12mm Blocking Filter

Accessories

Primaluce Lab SESTO SENSO

Software

AstroSharp Ltd SharpCap · Emil Kraaikamp AutoStakkert! · Torsten Edelmann FireCapture

Acquisition details

Date: June 4, 2023

Time: 10:40

Frames: 10000

FPS: 107

Exposure per frame: 0.94 ms

Resolution: 1888x1756

File size: 2.6 MB

Locations: Berga Resort, Berga, Barcelona, Spain

Data source: Backyard

Data - 20/08/2024

Hora - 22:38:42 local

Local - João Pessoa, PB - Brasil

Bortle - Class 8

Telescopio - SW 150mm F8

Câmera - ZWO ASI 120MC

Montagem - EQ5

Motorização - On Step Brasil

Dupla Exposição

1000 frames para Lua (75%)

1000 frames para Saturno (42%)

Software Captura - SharpCap

Softwares Processamento - AS3/Registax/PhotoShop

La super lune du 18 septembre 2024

Prise de vue (entre 22h15 et 23h45) :

•Lunette TS PHOTOLINE 80/560 mm à F/7 avec correcteur TS2.5

•Caméra monochrome ALTAIR 183 MM refroidie à- 15°, gain au minimum soit 100 dans Sharpcap

•Monture équatoriale Skywatcher HEQ5

•Luminance : 400 Photos dont 200 à 5,5 ms et 200 à 4,25 ms

•Rouge : 200 photos à 17 ms

•Vert : 200 photos à 11,5 ms

•Bleu : 200 photos à 15,15 ms

Total 1000 photos

Prétraitement : PIPP (Planetary Image Pre-Processor)

Empilement Lucky Imaging avec Astrostakker : environ 500 photos retenues

Netteté et accentuation des détails de la couche luminance : Registax

Composition RVB et traitement complémentaires : Astrosurface et Photoshop

I went back and reshot this, framing it to include both objects, where before NGC 288 was a surprise for me.

I've been wanting to shoot this galaxy for awhile and I pulled out my gear last night to do it finally. It is to the south and pretty low, near the horizon. I have to shoot towards the town of Taos to get this galaxy. I was unaware of the star cluster, NGC 288 before I began shooting last night.

Equipment:

Celestron CGEM Mount

Nikkor 500mm f/4 P Ai-s at f/4

Sony a7RIII (unmodified)

Altair 60mm Guide scope

GPCAM2 Mono Camera

Acquisition:

Taos, NM: my backyard - Bortle 3

47 x 120" for 1 hr 34min and 47 sec of exposure time.

11 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 piggyback my Sony a7RIII and adapted Nikkor 500mm f/4 P Ai-s on a ADM dovetail rail on the top of my optical tube. I used DeepSkyStacker to combine all frames and then processed the TIFF file in Photoshop. I stretched the 32 bit file and used Gradient XT on the image. I then made it a 16 bit file and stretched in level, then curves. I used the color sampler tool and levels to do my best to keep the background space black. I then using my skillset and relied on Astronomy Tools Action Set, and dodging and burning a bit to give the image the finishing touches.

Un des plus beaux objets du ciel d'été...

89 images brutes de 120 secondes au Canon EOS 600D (gain 800 ISO) non défiltré sur SHARPSTAR 61 EDPH II sur LXD75. 60 darks+49 flats+100 offsets.

Alignement polaire Sharpcap

Capture avec NINA

Guidage PHD2 avec QHY 5L II C

Traitement SIRIL+GIMP

One of the most beautiful objects in the summer sky...

89X120-second subs with unmodified Canon EOS 600D (800 ISO gain) on SHARPSTAR 61 EDPH II on LXD75 mount. 60 darks+49 flats+100 offsets.

SVBONY CLS EOS Clip filter

Sharpcap polar alignment

Capture with NINA

PHD2 guiding with QHY 5L II C and SVBONY mini guidescope

SIRIL+GIMP processing

The Crab Nebula (catalogue designations M1, NGC 1952) is a supernova remnant in the constellation of Taurus, it was first identified in 1731 by English astronomer John Bevis. The nebula was independently rediscovered in 1758 by Charles Messier as he was observing a bright comet. Messier catalogued it as the first entry in his catalogue of comet-like objects.

After some observation, noticing that the object that he was observing was not moving across the sky, Messier concluded that the object was not a comet. Messier then realized the usefulness of compiling a catalogue of celestial objects of a cloudy nature, but fixed in the sky, to avoid incorrectly cataloguing them as comets.

William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse observed the nebula at Birr Castle in 1844 using a 36-inch (0.9m) telescope, and referred the nebula as the "Crab Nebula" because a drawing he made of it looked somewhat like a crab. He observed it again later, in 1848 using a 72-inch (1.8m) telescope and could not confirm the supposed resemblance, but the name stuck nevertheless.

Equipment:

Celestron 9.25” 2350mm Edge-HD Telescope

Celestron .7 EdgeHD Reducer Lens

Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro Computerized GoTo Telescope Mount

Orion 50mm Helical Guide Scope & StarShoot AutoGuider

Celestron 9x50 Finder Scope

ZWO ASI294MC Pro Color Camera

ZWO 1.25” Duo-Band Filter

PHD2 Guiding Software

SharpCap Pro

Thank you for your comments,

Gemma

I've always avoided doing DSOs in Moonlight but a while back, I bought an Optolong L-eNhance Triband filter which can be helpful in reducing light pollution and stray Moonlight - it predominantly passes 3 narrow band widths centred on:

Hydrogen Alpha: Red, 656.4 nm

Oxygen III: Green, 500.7nm

Hydrogen Beta: Green-Blue, 486 nm

The filter is certainly more opaque than my standard IDAS P3 light pollution suppression filter. Usually my flats are exposed at 1600ms but for this filter it was 6500ms at 0 gain. Autofocus and plate solving exposures were 4s at 578 gain.

The raw image was lacking in contrast - not surprising given the Moonlight but I've used curves enhancement and local contrast enhancement in PixInsight to improve that. I haven't altered the colour palette as this was a first test for this filter.

Technical Card

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

Altair Planostar 1.0 x FF with 2 inch L-eNhance filter

ZWO ASI2600MC; 39 x 360 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, 6500ms exposure @ 0 gain).

Post processed in PixInsight 1.8.9.

Light Pollution and Weather:

SQM (L) not recorded - 95% Moon

Session ended by cloud, target was also very near roof level.

Polar Alignment:

Resumed from previous Park.

Error measured by PHD2= 0 arc minute.

RA drift + 2.44 arcsec/min

Dec drift - 0 arcsec/min

Guiding:

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

RA RMS error 1.1 arcsec

Dec RMS error 0.82 arcsec

Astrometry:

Resolution: 1.612 arcsec/px

Rotation: -87.819 deg

Observation start time: 2023-02-07 20:41:29 UTC

Observation end time: 2023-02-08 01:09:49 UTC

Focal distance: 481.13 mm

Pixel size: 3.76 um

Field of view: 2d 9' 37.7" x 1d 41' 33.2"

Image centre: RA: 6 32 17.164 Dec: +4 58 40.33

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) imaged on the morning of Jan 23, 2023. This is sets of 2 minute exposures and 5 minute exposures that I processed and made a composite, "Star Freeze," image with just a little artistic license here and there.

Lots of LP from a big city's light dome in the area of the sky where the comet was, unfortunately. I used a UV/IR filter when I probably should have considered using a UHC or L-Pro filter to help block LP. Oh, well.

Technical: TPO (Askar) 180mm F.L. at F/4.5, QHY183c at -15C, Astronomik L-3 UV/IR filter, Atlas EQ-G w/EQMOD, PHD2 Guiding, SharpCap 4.x LiveStacking for acquisition, 17x300 sec, gain 11, offset 17 and 46x120 sec, gain 20, offset 17.

c2022-e3-ztf-16x300-g11-46x120-g20-o17-qhy183c_-15C-uvir-40f4_5-sf-v3

High clouds and dew plagued my imaging session on this night. My dew heater's power supply failed right at the start, too.

For this full field image, I took 40 sub-images of the comet between 01:49 UT and 03:09 UT. I only lost 3 subs to guiding problems, despite the clouds.

I thought all the clouds and dew problems I had would ruin the chances of getting a good final image, but I guess I was wrong. :-)

Technical: 37x120 sec, QHY294C-Pro at -10C, Gain 1600 (Unity,) Offset 30, UV/IR filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6, Atlas EQ-G w/EQMOD. PHD2 Guiding, SharpCap 4.x LiveStacking for acquisition, FitsWorks for dark/flat calibration and debayering, IRIS for stacking and PSCS3 for post-processing.

c2022e3-2023-02-13-0230UT-37x120-qhy294c_-10C-ug-o30-uvir-85f5_6-v2

‎ سديم الهلال هو عباره عن غيوم فضائية تتألف من غاز الهايدروجين المحفز بواسطة نوع من النجوم يدعى Wolf-Rayet. هذا النوع من النجوم له عواصف شمسية قوية لها القدرة على تحفيز غاز الهايدروجين وجعله يضيئ باللون الاحمر. تكون مثل هذة النجوم في نهاية حياتها حيث تقوم بالتخلي عن غلافها الغازي الخارجي و الذي يظهر في الصورة على شكل هلال. وتقع هذة النجمه في وسط سديم الهلال.

This beautiful nebula is resemble crescent Moon. Its mainly composed oh Hydrogen gas. The powerful stellar wind that produced from Wolf-Rayet star is responsible for expanding & energizing Hydrogen gas to glow in red. Actually, this star is in its final stage of life, which expel its outer layer of gases which appears as crescent in this nebula. This star is located in the central region. Lights Ha 35 x 300, O iii 48 x 300, total exposure of 7 hours. Gear setup: Ioptron GEM45, Celestron Edge HD8 @f/7, ZWO EFW 2”, Antila Ha 3nm, Antila O III 3nm, ZWO 2600MM @ 0. Captured by APT, Sharpcap pro, PHD2. Stacked in APP & processed in PS and Pixinsight.

astro.carballada.com/sun-20230212-1041utc/

Happy to use a new fast process and workflow that allows me to get ready the image in question of hours and not days like before.

My last Sun image was from Sep 2021 and it was testing a remote operation.

Currently I come back to my nomad rig and it's not fixed on the remote observatori anymore.

Anyway, talking about the capture, it's amazing how the activity increased during this period of time.

Now the surface and corona are completely full of events.

t's really nice to see that after all this time with no practically action.

Equipment

Imaging Telescopes Or Lenses

Lunt LS60THa/LS50FHa Double stack

Imaging Cameras

ZWO ASI174MM

Mounts

Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi ×

Filters

Lunt B1200 12mm Blocking Filter

Accessories

Primaluce Lab SESTO SENSO

Software

AstroSharp Ltd SharpCap · Emil Kraaikamp AutoStakkert! · Torsten Edelmann FireCapture

Acquisition details

Date: Feb. 12, 2023

Time: 10:41

Frames: 1000

Resolution: 1145x1014

File size: 1.8 MB

Locations: Berga Resort, Berga, Barcelona, Spain

Data source: Backyard

I saw that Flickr user Henrique J.Silva posted his version of this scene yesterday. I had a good night where I live and I wanted to try my hand at capturing the same scene with similar gear.

Equipment:

Celestron CGEM Mount

Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AF-D @ f/2.8

Sony a7RIII (unmodified)

Altair 60mm Guide scope

GPCAM2 Mono Camera

Acquisition:

Taos, NM: my backyard - Bortle 3

43 x 151" for 1hour 5min and 13sec of exposure time.

7 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 piggyback my Sony a7RIII and adapted Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AF-D on a ADM dovetail rail on the top of my optical tube. I used DeepSkyStacker to combine all frames and then processed the TIFF file in Photoshop. I stretched the 32 bit file and used Gradient XT on the image. I then made it a 16 bit file and stretched in level, then curves. I used the color sampler tool and levels to do my best to keep the background space black. I made a layer to overexpose the galaxies a bit and then masked off the Triangulum Galaxy to try to match it to the brighter Andromeda Galaxy. I used dodging and burning to bring out a bit more detail in the galaxies. I then using my skillset and relyed on Astronomy Tools Action Set to give the image the finishing touches.

Location: West Midlands, UK

Scope: Coronado SM60 II / BF10 / Teleview 2.5x Powermate

Camera: ASI 178MM

Mount: CEM60-EC

Integration: best 200 of 2000 frames with a sigle frame overlay of the plane

Acquisition: Sharpcap Pro

Processing: Autostakkert 3.1 / ImPPG / Photoshop

Found in the sword of the Orion Constellation, the Orion Nebula is visible to the naked eye. It is only 1,500 light years away from us and thus appears very bright. It is worth checking out with a small telescope or even a pair of binoculars.

Equipment:

Celestron CGEM Mount

Nikkor 500mm f/4 P Ai-s at f/5.6

Sony a7RIII (unmodified)

Altair 60mm Guide scope

GPCAM2 Mono Camera

Acquisition:

Taos, NM: my backyard - Bortle 3

47 x 90" for 1 hr 11min and 17 sec of exposure time.

11 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 piggyback my Sony a7RIII and adapted Nikkor 500mm f/4 P Ai-s on a ADM dovetail rail on the top of my optical tube. I used DeepSkyStacker to combine all frames and then processed the TIFF file in Photoshop. I stretched the 32 bit file and used Gradient XT on the image. I then made it a 16 bit file and stretched in level, then curves. I used the color sampler tool and levels to do my best to keep the background space black. I then using my skillset and relied on Astronomy Tools Action Set, and dodging and burning a bit to give the image the finishing touches.

Shot from my front yard near Taos, New Mexico.

Equipment:

Celestron CGEM Mount

Canon FD 24mm f/1.4 L

Sony a7RIII (unmodified)

Altair 60mm Guide scope

GPCAM2 Mono Camera

Acquisition:

Taos, NM: my backyard - Bortle 3

13 x 75" for 16 min and 28 sec of exposure time.

7 dark frames

15 flats frames

15 bais frames

Software:

SharpCap

DeepSkyStacker

Photoshop

My mount was polar aligned with SharpCap (what an amazing system for aligning). I then mounted my a7RIII and adapted Canon FD 24mm f/1.4 lens to the top rail of my scope. I used SharpCap to achieve "excellent" polar alignment. I shot ISO 800, f/4 and 75" exposures. I stacked lights/darks/flats/bias frames in deepskystacker. I then processed the TIFF file in photoshop stretching the file, minimal cropping and I used Astronomy Tools Action Set to help bring back star color and to enhance the diffraction spikes to make the brighter stars stand out better.

Rho Ophiuchi

Luglio/Agosto 2021

Località: San Romualdo - Ravenna

Samyang 135mm F/4

Avalon M1 - QHY5III 174M su OAG Celestron

QHY294C - Gain 1600 - Offset 5 - raffreddata -10

Filtro Optlong L-Pro 32x120"+51x180" - L-enhance 44x5 min.

Acquisizione: SharpCap - Calibrata con Dark e Flat.

Elaborazione: Astroart6, MaximDL5, Paint Shop Pro 2021, Topaz e Nik Plug-in.

www.cfm2004.altervista.org/astrofotografia/nebulose/rhoop...

Mejorado el procesamiento de la zona de los Pilares de la Creación.

An improvement in the processing of the Pillars was made.

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

2 minute exposure in SharpCap 2.9 and processed in Registax 6. The prominent features include Mare Nectaris, the Pyrenees Mountains and the Santbech and Petavius craters.

Celestron C90 (Vintage Orange) 1000mm f/11 Maksutov Cassegrain Telescope

ZWO ASI120MC

This picture of the Sun's chromosphere highlights a large prominence showing off the edge. The surface is showing several filaments (black lines), plage (white area) and one large sunspot.

Photo was captured in Elkridge, Maryland USA

Telescope: Lunt 60mm Hα with double stack

2X Barlow

Camera: ZWO I178MM monochrome

Note: Yellow color was added using PhotoShop

Capture Software: SharpCap

Processing Software:

AutoStakkert, RegiStax 6, Light Room Classic, Photo Shop

Topaz AI

Le Soleil aujourd'hui / The Sun today (Spaceweatherlive.com)

* 202 = Nb de taches solaires / Sunspots number

* 11 = Régions de taches solaire / Sunspot regions

* 2 = Plages H-alpha sans taches / H-alpha plages without spots

Risingcam IMX571 color

William Optics Zenithstar73ii

iOptron CEM26

Filtre SVBony UV/IR cut

Filtre Thousand Oaks Solarlite ND5

Exp. 18ms / Gain 100 / caméra refroidie à 10 degrés

Best 10% de 2500

Aquisition: Sharpcap

Traitement: PIPP, AutoStakkert 4.0, Registax et Affinity Photo 2

@Astrobox 2.0 / St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Québec

AstroM1

Taken from my rooftop on April 15, 2022, Phoenix, Arizona. Daystar Quark hydrogen filter dialed in finally, with a SkyWatcher 80mm Esprit, Skywatcher EQ6r pro mount, and a QHY 174 camera. Used SharpCap for acquisition.

Mejorado el procesamiento de la zona de los Pilares de la Creación.

An improvement in the processing of the Pillars was made.

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

The Iris Nebula or NGC 7023, is a reflection nebula, its color comes from the light of its central star, which lies in the constellation Cepheus. You can find it nearish to the North Star. It is located ~1,400 light-years away from Earth, and its gasses stretch ~6 light-years across.

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

101 x 181" for 5 hours 4 min and 41 sec of exposure time.

6 dark frames

15 flats frames

15 bais frames

Guided

Software:

SharpCap

PixInsight

Lightroom

Photoshop

My mount was polar aligned with SharpCap (what an amazing system for aligning). I then mounted my a7RIII and adapted Nikon 500mm f/4 P Ai-s lens to the top rail of my scope. I used SharpCap to achieve "excellent" polar alignment. I shot ISO 3200, f/4 and 181" exposures. Image frames were stacked and integrated and processed in PixInsight using: STF, Cropping, Dynamic Background Extraction, BlurXTerminator, plate solving, color correction, NoiseXTerminator and then the DSO was separated from the stars, and both files processed and stretched separately and then recombined using PixelMath. That file was brought into Lightroom for Metadata and EXIF tags, light post-processing, and cropping to the final image.

PM me for digital download rights

Best 50% of 2000 frames

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 IR PASS filter

Moonlite focuser CR2

Moonlight Hi Res stepper motor

MyFocuser Pro v2 (Robert Brown) controller

Home Observatory

Software: Sharpcap, CdC, Photoshop, Team Viewer, autostakert!3, Registax

Telescopio: APM 140 mm f 7 APO

Barlow Zeiss Abbe 2X

Camera CMOS di ripresa: ZWO ASI 224 MC

Montatura:iOptron CEM60

Software:SharpCap 3.2 Pro, Registax 6.1.0.8, Emil Kraaikamp Autostakkert 3.0.14, Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight 1.8

Focuser Starlight 3,5"

23 Giugno 2019 Ore: 23:25

Pose: 11500 su 20.000 riprese

fps: 250 Lunghezza focale: 1960 mm

Seeing: 2 Trasparenza: 9

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: ZWO M68 OAG, ZWO ASI 120mm mini

Tesela 1:

*Gain 139, -15 º C, Ha 7nm 2" Optolong, 80x180"

*Gain 139, -15 º C, Oiii-CCD 6.5 nm 2" Optolong, 50x180"

*Gain 139, -15 º C, Sii-CCD 6.5 nm 2" Optolong, 60x180"

Tesela 2:

*Gain 139, -20 º C, Ha 7nm 2" Optolong, 82x180"

*Gain 139, -20 º C, Oiii-CCD 6.5 nm 2" Optolong, 50x180"

*Gain 139, -20 º C, Sii-CCD 6.5 nm 2" Optolong, 60x180"

Tesela 3:

*Gain 139, -20 º C, Ha 7nm 2" Optolong, 84x180"

*Gain 139, -20 º C, Oiii-CCD 6.5 nm 2" Optolong, 50x180"

*Gain 139, -20 º C, Sii-CCD 6.5 nm 2" Optolong, 60x180"

Tesela 4:

*Gain 139, -20 º C, Ha 7nm 2" Optolong, 80x180"

*Gain 139, -20 º C, Oiii-CCD 6.5 nm 2" Optolong, 45x180"

*Gain 139, -20 º C, Sii-CCD 6.5 nm 2" Optolong, 55x180"

100 Darks

80 Flats / 80 Darkflats por filtro

Polar Align: SharpCap 3.2

Adquisición: SGP 3.2

Procesado: Pixinsight 1.8.8, PS

www.astrobin.com/sgulx6/B/

Not to much opportunities to nigh photo, I try new options on Solar.

New process: investigating tritones and different Barlow lenses.

There are also two options available.

Do you prefer monochrome or color?

In monochome the result it's more dramatic...

Equipment

Imaging Telescopes Or Lenses

Lunt LS60THa/LS50FHa Double stack

Imaging Cameras

ZWO ASI174MM

Mounts

Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi ×

Filters

Lunt B1200 12mm Blocking Filter

Accessories

Primaluce Lab SESTO SENSO · Tele Vue 2.5x 1.25" Powermate (PMT-2513)

Software

AstroSharp Ltd SharpCap · Emil Kraaikamp AutoStakkert! · Torsten Edelmann FireCapture

Acquisition details

Date: June 4, 2023

Time: 09:02

Frames: 10000

FPS: 103

Exposure per frame: 5 ms

Resolution: 1702x2290

File size: 3.4 MB

Locations: Berga Resort, Berga, Barcelona, Spain

Data source: Backyard

also I leave here the link to the mono version

astro.carballada.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/sun-2023_...

An image of a portion of the lunar Southern Highlands on a waning moon taken under a steady sky with a ZWOASI224MC planetary camera using a 2x barlow lens on a Celestron 5se cassegrain telescope. All the images were created from 500 frame videos shot using SharpCap, stacked with RegiStax, and processed with Adobe Lightroom.

Shot from my front yard near Taos, New Mexico.

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

44 x 135" for 1 hour 39 min and 44 sec of exposure time.

6 dark frames

15 flats frames

15 bais frames

Software:

SharpCap

DeepSkyStacker

Photoshop

Guided

My mount was polar aligned with SharpCap (what an amazing system for aligning). I then mounted my a7RIII and adapted Nikon 500mm f/4 P Ai-s lens to the top rail of my scope. I used SharpCap to achieve "excellent" polar alignment. I shot ISO 1600, f/5.6 and 135" exposures. I stacked lights/darks/flats/bias frames in deepskystacker. I then processed the TIFF file in photoshop stretching the file, minimal cropping and I used Astronomy Tools Action Set to help bring back star color and to enhance the diffraction spikes to make the brighter stars stand out better.

A reprocess of www.flickr.com/photos/124244349@N07/51786194929/in/datepo...

The Rosette Nebula is a fairly large structure to the east of Orion's shoulder. The significant H-alpha content makes it a fine target for imaging from light polluted locales like the New York City suburbs.

I have not been very meticulous with this reprocess as I'm just getting my bearings with some new features of PixInsight before teaching Urban Astrophotography starting next week for New York City's Amateur Astronomers' Association.

aaa.org/event/urban-astrophotography-deep-sky-imaging-202...

Tech Stuff: Borg 71FL/Borg 1.08X Flattener/ZWO ASI 1600MC Color cam/IDAS LPS V4 nebula filter/iOptron CubePro mount, unguided. 2.5 hours of 8 second exposures captured in SharpCap livestacks, processed in Pixinsight and finished with ACDSee GemStone 12. From my yard in Westchester SQM-L 18.8 (red zone Bortle 7).

This collapsed star has produced a colorful nebula which is a geat target for beginning imagers. I've been experimenting with a new camera and mount but we've had terrible weather and Canadian smoke. Last night I had a good enough session to capture an hour of data; this take on the nebula is ok but as is often the case I'm amazed by the depth of the starfield over my house revealed by the camera. Not a single star shown here can be seen by the naked eye through the light pollution and haze.

Tech Stuff: TV-85/Borg 1.08 flattener/ZWO ASI 533MC Pro/no filter. 60 min of 4 second exposures captured in SharpCap LiveStacks. RST-135E mount, unguided. From my yard, 10 miles north of NYC.

Esprit 80, Daystar Quark, and QHY 174. 1000 frames in SharpCap, best 15%, processed in AutoStakkert, IMPPG, Photoshop, Topaz deNoise, and Lightroom.

Messier 96 is a spiral galaxy with a bright inner ring, a fainter outer ring and a dark dust lane linking the 2. Top right is a trio of galaxies. Messier 105 is the more round of the 2 elliptical galaxies. NGC 3384 is the more elliptical and the small blue spiral galaxy is NGC 3389.

Technical Card

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

Skywatcher 1.0 x FF with 2 inch IDAS P3 LPS filter

ZWO ASI2600MC; 55 x 240 second subs, Gain 100, Offset 25, Temp = -15c.

EQ6 pro mount with Rowan belt drives. EQMOD control. Pegasus Astro FocusCube electronic focuser.

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

Automated plate solving GOTO (via ASTAP).

Automated FWHM multistar focusing +/- 200 steps at 5s and 600 gain.

40 dark frames

50 flat frames (electroluminescent panel, 2800ms exposure @ 0 gain).

Post processed in PixInsight 1.8.9.

Light Pollution and Weather:

SQM (L) 20.28 at 0030hrs.

Session clear throughout.

Temp -1.8c, Dewpoint -1.5c, Saturation 98%

Polar Alignment:

Error measured by PHD2= 0.1 arc minute.

RA drift + 2.16 arcsec/min

Dec drift + 0.03 arcsec/min

Guiding:

PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm mini /Primalucelab 240/60mm guider. Every 7th sub dithered.

RA RMS error 0.84 arcsec

Dec RMS error 0.73 arcsec

Astrometry:

Resolution: 0.900 arcsec/px

Rotation: 104.929 deg

Observation start time: 2023-03-14 21:19:04 UTC

Observation end time: 2023-03-15 01:18:39 UTC

Focal distance: 861.44 mm

Pixel size: 3.76 um

Field of view: 1d 15' 23.1" x 44' 57.3"

Image center: RA: 10 47 34.157 Dec: +12 13 44.96

Issues

Quite a lot of mechanical backlash on the focuser made me hesitant about using autofocusing frequently through the night. Im not certain that I got tight focussing. Probably needs more benchwork. UPDATE: Mechanical focuser replaced.

Stars are hexagonal and bright stars show pinched optics. This phenomenon is known with the Esprit 120 and is worse in cold weather, The 6 sets of 3 screws holding the lens element can be accessed by removing the dew shield and a layer of anti-reflective felt tape overlying the lenses.

UPDATE: I have backed off each of the 6 x 3 screws by 1/8 turn. It may be worthwhile experimenting with dew heating strip placement if that doesn’t work. Temp was -2c last night.

Time: 15.8.2021. 20:59 UTC

Location: Zagreb, Medvednica (850m)

Telescope: Celestron C6

Barlow: GSO x2.5

Camera: ASI120MM-s + Zwo RGB filters

Software: Sharpcap, Autostakkert!3, Registax6, Winjupos, Photoshop

Tonight’s waxing gibbous moon, 66% illuminated.

Tech Specs: Meade LX-90, Antares Focal Reducer, ZWO AS071 running at -10C, Celestron CGEM-DX mount, best 20% of 5000 images, captured with SharpCap Pro. Image Date: December 1, 2022. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).

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

Got a "clear" (as in no clouds, but plenty of haze/poor visibility thanks to our lovely inversion in Salt Lake City) night last night, decided to pack up my gear and drive up to the top of a canyon near my house. Still a bortle 6/7 zone so lots of light pollution that's made worse thanks to the snow on the ground and the haze in the air this time of year. Decided to go for the "layup" in terms of night sky targets, M42, since the skies weren't great and I probably wouldn't have been able to image much else. Just wanted more practice setting up, imaging, dithering, and breaking down this new gear. I think I've nailed the polar alignment process with sharpcap, guiding has been going well (usually around 1 arc-sec total RMS), dithering is something I need to figure out how to automate better though.

Acquisition details:

Shot with Astrotech AT65EDQ and Nikon D7000 (full spectrum mod with UV/IR Cut filter)

Orion Sirius EQ-G mount with Rowan Belt Mod and ADM Losmandy saddle

Orion 50mm mini guide scope and ToupTek guide cam, polar aligned with Sharpcap, guiding and dithering with PHD2

36 x 5 minute exposures at ISO 800

25 x 45 second exposures at ISO 800

100 x bias frames, 41 x flat frames

Editing steps:

created master bias, corrected flat frames with master bias and then created master flat, then calibrated light frames with master bias and master flat in PixInsight

cosmetic correction to remove hot pixels in PI

BatchDebayer to debayer all light frames

StarAlignment for image registration, then stacking (5 minute exposures separate from 45 second exposures), then drizzle integration

Dynamic Crop to crop off edges

Extract luminence channel, then separate RGB channels, LinearFit RGB channels to luminence channel and then channel combination to combine RGB channels

Dynamic Background Extraction to remove gradient

Color calibration with white and dark reference points

Noise reduction with MultiScaleLinearTransform

Screen Transfer Function for the 5 minute exposure stack, masked stretch for the 45 second exposure stack

Open stacks in Photoshop, align as layers, then mask in the 45 second exposure stack for the core of the nebula.

Flatten image and do a smart sharpen

Select brighter stars with astro actions tool, then expand selection several pixels, feather by half as many pixels.

Minimum filter to reduce star size

Curves and levels to add contrast

Open in lightroom so I can resize and export with watermark for web upload

It's pretty overprocessed, the stacking didn't remove some artifacts like the geosynch satellite trails, there was also some horizontal banding that I think was caused by cars driving by illuminating the haze in the air. Not an overly great edit, but it was more about getting more practice with the equipment and just trying this target with this scope for the first time.

Went out Monday night, M45

Orion 80mm ED refractor, Zwo 183MC Pro cooled color camera, Used an electronic focuser

Zwo IR/cut filter

#SharpCap Pro, PoleMaster

Ioptron i45 Pro EQ mount, PHD2 guiding

Orion 60mm guidescope SSAG

120 Gain offset 20 -10c cooling,

M45 was 90 minutes, 1 minute exposure each...

Weather was ok, Getting cooler too with some dew forming.... High thin clouds trying to cover up M45

75 darks 100 flats and 75 bias frames

Astro Pixel Processor and PS

Moon / Lune

Zenithstar 73 + Risingcam IMX571 OSC

Filtre 685nm IR Pass

iOptron CEM26

Best 450 de 1800 / 30ms -- Gain 100

Capture: Sharpcap

Process: PIPP, Registax & Gimp

AstroM1

M 109 is the most distant object in the Messier catalogue at 85 million light years. The blazing star to the upper right is Phecda, a more familiar object than you might think -- it's the bottom corner of the Big Dipper's bowl, on the handle side. That makes it one of the very few stars which can be seen by naked eye from my suburban yard. You can find 3 faint companion galaxies in the image and the annotator in PixInsight shows me about 30 more, but they're indistinguishable from faint stars in this casual deep sky image.

Tech Stuff: Borg 71FL/Borg 1.08X flattener/IDAS LPS-D2 filter/ZWO ASI1600MC camera. 4 second unguided exposures captured in SharpCap Livestacks; total integration time 100 minutes. From my Bortle 7 yard 10 miles north of New York City, SQM-L 18.6.

Warming up for deep sky imaging course in February at AAA.,org. The blue stars of Messier 35 cluster form a nice trio with the red Jellyfish Nebula and small golden companion cluster NGC2158.

Borg 55FL/ZWO ASI1600MC/IDAS LPSV4 filter. 72 minutes total of 4 second unguided exposures captured in SharpCap livestacks with dark and flat correction. From my Bortle 7 yard in Yonkers, NY (SQM-L = 18.5).

Deep Sky course information here aaa.org/event/urban-astrophotography-deep-sky-imaging-2023/

A view of last evening’s 64% illuminated moon from Weatherly, PA.

Tech Specs: Meade 12” LX-90, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO ASI071mc-Pro, Antares Focal Reducer, best 15% of 2,500 frames, unguided. Captured using SharpCap Pro v3.2, sharpened in Registax. Image date: March 22, 2021. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4 Zone).

Actually two interacting galaxies, it's the most irresistible spring imaging target. Here I have aimed for the best image I can do from my red zone location using my portable gear. We had 4 clear nights in a row and I used each one to collect 2 to 3 hours of decent data. All captures used 8 second exposures, albeit a buttload of them (where 1 buttload = 4,275 subframes).

Tech Stuff: Borg 71FL/TeleVue 2.0X PowerMate/QHY 166mono/ZWO LRGB filter set/iOptron CubePro unguided. Data collected with SharpCap in 6 minute LiveStacks with dark and flat subtraction L X 186 min; R X 162 min; G X 102 min; B X 120 min. Total 9.5 hours. Processed in PixInsight, GIMP, ACDSee. Collected April 5-9 2021 from my yard in Westchester, SQM-L 18.4-18.7 (Bortle 7 Suburban/Urban Transition sky).