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Hercules and nearby Atlas are both craters with multiple terraced edges. Strongmen of ancient mythology, the Titan Atlas was condemned to hold up the sky for eternity whilst Hercules was the Roman equivalent of the Greek hero Heracles.
Endymion is a walled plain close to the Moon’s northeast limb which appears oval due to foreshortening. In Greek mythology Endymion was a lover of Seline. Pliny the Elder suggested that he was the first human to observe the movements of the moon.
Lacus Temporis, or Lake of Time, is an area of basaltic lava.
Franklin, named after Benjamin Franklin, is a lunar impact crater with a central peak.
Cepheus is a relatively young crater named after a king of Aetheopia and father of Andromeda.
Bürg crater has a large central mountain and is named after Johann Tobias Bürg, a Viennese astronomer who published tables on the orbit of the moon in 1799.
Imaged with Sharpcap on 13-09-2022 from the UK using a SW200P Newtonian scope and Altair H183Mpro camera with a red filter. The best 25% of 2000x 3ms subs were stacked in AutoStakert, sharpened in Registax and post processed in Affinity Photo with Topaz DeNoiseAI plug-in.
Messier 50 (M50) is an open cluster that can be found in the constellation Monoceros. The cluster is about 3,200 light years away from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 5.9, there are about 50 members in this cluster.
Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120mm ED Triplet APO Refractor, Celestron CGEM-DX mount (pier mounted), ZWO ASI071MC-Pro running at -25C, 7 x 120 second exposures, GAIN 200, guided using a ZWO ASI290MC and Orion 60mm guide scope. Captured using SharpCap v3.2. Image date: January 21, 2020. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA.
Went out 2 nights, IC1396, NGC6888, NGC2244, NGC7293, IC1805 and IC434
Orion 80mm ED refractor, Zwo 183MC Pro cooled color camera
Optolong L eNhance filter
#SharpCap Pro, PoleMaster
Ioptron i45 Pro EQ mount, PHD2 guiding
Orion 60mm guidescope SSAG
220 Gain offset 20 0c cooling,
IC1396 was 90 minutes, 1 minute exposure each
IC434 was 60 minutes, 1 minute exposure each
NGC2244 was 15 minutes, 1 minute exposure each
IC1805 was 60 minutes total, 1 minute exposure each
NGC7293 was 60 minutes total 1 minute exposure each
NGC6888 was 90 minutes total 1 minute exposure each
Weather was good all night for me, Getting colder too with some dew forming
50 darks 50 flats and 50 bias frames
Astro Pixel Processor and PS
Took these pictures Friday night, M15 and M27
Orion 80mm ED refractor, Zwo 294MC Pro cooled color camera
Zwo IR/cut filter
#SharpCap Pro PoleMaster
Ioptron i45 Pro EQ mount PHD2 guiding
Orion 60mm guidescope SSAG
120 Gain offset 10 0c cooling, 1 minute exposure, 65 minutes, for M15, M27 was 80 minutes,1 minute exposure each
50 darks 50 flats and 50 bias frames
Astro Pixel Processor and PS
79% moon....
Actually a test image that came out alright! Taken with a ZWO Duo band filter, revealing all that hydrogen! Look carefully at center for the so-called "Pillars of Creation". About 7,000 light years away.
Image Details:
- Imaging Scope: William Optics 61mm Zenithstar II Doublet
- Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Color with ZWO Duo band filter
- Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval
- Guiding Camera: Orion Starshoot Auto Guider
- Acquisition Software: Sharpcap
- Guiding Software: PHD2
- Light Frames: 36*3 mins @ 100 Gain, Temp -15C, 40x2 mins @ 150 Gain, Temp -20C
- Dark Frames: 36*3 mins, 40x2 mins
- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
- Processed in PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom and Topaz Denoise
Took these pictures Saturday night, M27 and M22 & M28
WO SkyCat 51, Zwo 183MC Pro cooled color camera
Zwo IR/cut filter
#SharpCap Pro
Ioptron i45 Pro EQ mount PHD2 guiding
Orion 60mm guidescope SSAG
120 Gain offset 20 0c cooling, 1 minute exposure, M22 & M28 was 40 minutes, M27 was 80 minutes total, 1 minute exposure each
50 darks 50 flats and 50 bias frames
Astro Pixel Processor and PS
Full moon too...
NGC 488 is a face-on spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces. It is at a distance of about 90 million light-years away from Earth. Its diameter is estimated to be 52,6 Kpc. The galaxy has a large central bulge, and is considered a prototype galaxy with multiple spiral arms. Its arms are tightly wound.
Extremely difficult to process this one. Took me weeks!
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
- Capture Software: SharpCap Pro (LiveStack mode with dithering)
- Light Frames: 30*4 mins @ 100 Gain, Temp -20C
- Dark Frames: 30*4 mins
- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
- Processed in PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom, and Topaz Denoise AI
Haven't imaged this for years. Nice to revisit it with slightly newer gear and better image processing techniques.
This galaxy looks very similar to how our own Milky Way galaxy would look from the same distance, which is about 2.5 million light years away. Actually, this galaxy is naked-eye visible from darker skies, and if the human eye could detect it completely, it would appear 5-6 moon-lengths in size! Another interesting tidbit is that this galaxy is on a collision course with the Milky Way, expected to “touch” in about 4.5 billion years from now!
.
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: mins @ 100 Gain, -25F
- Dark Frames: 24*5 mins
- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
- Processed in PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom
Taken with 150mm refractor and ASI294MC Pro camera. Consists of 41 x 25 seconds exposure. Captured and stacked on the fly with SharpCap. Using Optolong L-Pro for light pollution.
Equipment:
Celestron CGEM Mount
Zeiss C/Y 35mm f/1.4
Sony a7RIII (unmodified)
Altair 60mm Guide scope
GPCAM2 Mono Camera
Acquisition:
Taos, NM: my backyard - Bortle 3
6 x 60" for 6 minutes for exposure time.
10 dark frames
15 flats frames
15 bais frames
Unguided
Software:
SharpCap
PHD2
DeepSkyStacker
Photoshop
After spending some time on M5 I thought it would be fun to try some widefield Milkyway shots. I had to rebalance and go through the alignment procedure for my scope. I switched the 500mm for a more modest 35mm f/1.4 lens. I decided to shoot it at f/2.8 so it wasn't just wide open and trust my mount that had been polar aligned with SharpCap to do it's thing. I wanted a bright star to help define the area of the sky, so I chose Altair which can be seen in the middle right of this frame and let the gear do it's thing. Images stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Photoshop.
A monochrome capture of M63, 400 billion stars 29 million light years away. One of the more prominent Messier objects in the winter sky. Here I've used my 3.5" Questar telescope on a robotic strain wave mount to facilitate capture during what has been a difficult season for imaging.
Tech Stuff: Questar 3.5"/ ZWO ASI 533 MM/ RST-135-E mount. 2 hours total of livestacked 8-second exposures, captured in SharpCap Pro and processed in PixInsight. From my yard in Westchester County, 10 miles north of NYC.
Taken from North Oxfordshire, UK with an Orion 10" Dobsonian telescope, Celestron 3x Barlow and ZWO ASI120MC camera. The telescope has tracking and GoTo but we are having some technical issues with it at the moment so I had to manually slew the telescope, keeping Jupiter in frame, while I captured a 2,000 frame video using SharpCap. I shot several videos over a ten minute period, whilst deal with stripes of thin cloud. I stacked the best 5%, 10% and 15% of the frames. This image was the best of the bunch and it was a stack of 5% of 2,000 frames.
The images were stacked using Autostakkert! 3, sharpened using Focus Magic, then processed in Lightroom and Fast Stone Image Viewer. Considering the technical issues + cloud I am surprised I got this much detail! The dot to the left is Jupiter's Moon Io.
Its 8 years since I've imaged this target! Used the same scope but nearly everything else has changed.
www.flickr.com/photos/16271433@N02/15093428895/in/album-7...
An interesting circular feature inside an emission nebula.
The bright star at 2 O'clock inside the bubble is a O6.5 class giant that has shrugged off clouds of hydrogen gas as it matures.
The diffuse red cloud represents earlier ejections whilst the "bubble" represents a more tightly defined and more recent ejection of matter. The O class star is rich in ultraviolet light (surface temp = 37500k compared with 5700k for our Sun) that makes the hydrogen gas fluoresce with its characteristic red colour (656 nm).
The host star (BD +60 2322) is not at the centre of the bubble but it is thought that it probably was when the bubble was ejected.
Equipment-
480/60mm f/6 Altair Astro Triplet Refractor.
Altair Astro planostar x 1.0 FF with 2 inch IDAS LPS D1 filter
ZWO ASI2600MC; 30 x 5 minute subs + (150 minute total integration). Gain: 100 Offset:50 Temp: -10c.
NEQ6 Pro Mount with Rowan modified belt drives.
Laptop with SharpCap 4.0 for plate solving GOTO. focusing and acquisition.
Calibration-
50 dark frames
50 flat frames (Electroluminescent panel @ 1 second, Gain 0)
QHY Polemaster alignment -
Error measured by PHD2 =1.2’
Guiding-
PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/Altair lightwave 209/50mm secondary scope. Alternate subs dithered.
RA 0.53” RMS
Dec 0.35” RMS
Astrometry-
Resolution ............... 1.613 arcsec/px
Focal distance ........... 479.46 mm
Pixel size ............... 3.75 um
Field of view ............ 31' 59.8" x 25' 6.8"
Center (RA, hms): 12 36 08.136
Center (Dec, dms): +25 55 58.99
Light Pollution-
SQM (L): 20.33 mag/arcsec2.
Typical of outer suburbs - Bortle scale = 5/9 Yellow
Environmental-
Clear throughout
Post processed in PixInsight 1.8.9
Uncropped image from a 480mm scope. The chief targets were M52 and the Bubble Nebula but you can see several dark nebulae and the red glow of a molecular cloud towards the right.
www.flickr.com/photos/16271433@N02/15093428895/in/album-7...
An interesting circular feature inside an emission nebula.
The bright star at 2 O'clock inside the bubble is a O6.5 class giant that has shrugged off clouds of hydrogen gas as it matures.
The diffuse red cloud represents earlier ejections whilst the "bubble" represents a more tightly defined and more recent ejection of matter. The O class star is rich in ultraviolet light (surface temp = 37500k compared with 5700k for our Sun) that makes the hydrogen gas fluoresce with its characteristic red colour (656 nm).
The host star (BD +60 2322) is not at the centre of the bubble but it is thought that it probably was when the bubble was ejected.
Equipment-
480/60mm f/6 Altair Astro Triplet Refractor.
Altair Astro planostar x 1.0 FF with 2 inch IDAS LPS D1 filter
ZWO ASI2600MC; 30 x 5 minute subs + (150 minute total integration). Gain: 100 Offset:50 Temp: -10c.
NEQ6 Pro Mount with Rowan modified belt drives.
Laptop with SharpCap 4.0 for plate solving GOTO. focusing and acquisition.
Calibration-
50 dark frames
50 flat frames (Electroluminescent panel @ 1 second, Gain 0)
QHY Polemaster alignment -
Error measured by PHD2 =1.2’
Guiding-
PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/Altair lightwave 209/50mm secondary scope. Alternate subs dithered.
RA 0.53” RMS
Dec 0.35” RMS
Astrometry-
Resolution ............... 1.613 arcsec/px
Focal distance ........... 479.46 mm
Pixel size ............... 3.75 um
Field of view ............ 31' 59.8" x 25' 6.8"
Center (RA, hms): 12 36 08.136
Center (Dec, dms): +25 55 58.99
Light Pollution-
SQM (L): 20.33 mag/arcsec2.
Typical of outer suburbs - Bortle scale = 5/9 Yellow
Environmental-
Clear throughout
Post processed in PixInsight 1.8.9
Some interesting solar prominences today. This composite image was captured using an Altair GPCam V2 290 mono camera attached to a specialist Lunt LS50THa B600 Hydrogen Alpha solar telescope.
I used SharpCap Pro to control the camera, with the best 50% of the frames stacked using AutoStakkert2 and pre-processed using Registax 6. Final processing was done using Photoshop CC.
Very nice prominence off the right edge of the solar disk. Thanks to my friend Steve J. for making me aware of it.
I was able to capture this picture through a thin cloud layer. They just did not want to entirely clear for me.
This was captured as a monochrome (B&W) image and for artistic impact, artificially colored using Adobe Lightroom Classic. My viewers love the yellow Sun. :-)
This picture was capture using a 60mm Lunt Hα telescope in the double stack configuration.
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro
Capture software: SharpCap
Genova, Italy (06 Sep 2022 01:14 UT)
Planet: diameter 49.1", mag -2.9, altitude ≈ 46°
Telescope: Orange 1977 vintage Celestron C8 (203 F/10 SC)
Mount: EQ5 with ST4 hand controller (no GoTo)
Camera: QHY5III462C Color
Barlow: GSO APO 2.5x
Filter: QHY UV/IR block
Recording scale: 0.150 arcsec/pixel
Equivalent focal length ≈ 3990 mm F/19.7
Image resized: +50%
Recording: SharpCap 4.0
(640x480 @ 60fps - 120 sec - RAW16 - Gain 120)
Best 25% frames of about 7246
Alignment/Stacking: AutoStakkert! 3.1.4
Wavelets/Deconvolution: AstroSurface T3
Final Elaboration: GIMP 2.10.30
The Sun continues to provide stunning views. You are looking at the Sun's chormosphere. This is accomplished using a Hydrogen-alpha (Hα) filtered telescope that is also properly filtered to block out the harmful rays.
Telescope: Lunt 60mm Hα with double stack
2X Barlow (picture on right)
Camera: ZWO1294MC Pro
Capture Software: SharpCap
Processing Software:
AutoStakkert, RegiStax 6, Light Room Classic, Photo Shop
Equipo Principal: SW Explorer 200p + SW Coma Corrector 0.9x + ZWO ASI 1600 mm-pro + ZWO EAF + ZWO 7x2" EFW + SW EQ6-R-Pro
Equipo guía: ZWO M68 OAG + camara guia ZWO ASI 120mm mini
*Gain 139, -20 º C, Ha 7nm 2" Optolong, 93x180"
*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, 50x180"
100 Darks
55 Flats por filtro
100 Dark-Flats por filtro
Polar Align: SharpCap 4
Adquisición: SGP 3.1
Procesado: Pixinsight 1.8.9, PS
Taken from Oxfordshire UK on Christmas Eve morning. I had the solar scope set up because there was an ISS solar transit visible from here at 11:09 GMT. There were two sunspot groups visible as well as a huge prominence on the eastern limb and a couple of smaller ones on the south western limb.
Photo taken with a Coronado PTS solar telescope, ASI120MC camera with 2x Barlow fitted onto it. The telescope was on an EQ5 Pro mount on a permanent pier.
2,000 frame video was shot using SharpCap, then the best 75% of those frames were stacked using Autostakkert! 3. The stacked image was processed in Lightroom and Fast Stone Image Viewer
Mars as seen on the 16th January 2025 at 01:27.
This is Mars at opposition as seen through my 14" telescope. Many features are visible in this photo including the main Arabia Terra region in the centre, the North polar cap and clouds on the far left limb of the planet.
This was only the second time ever that I had photographed Mars. I'm so happy I was able to capture it at opposition as usually it's completely clouded here in the UK for any celestial event.
Equipment / affiliate links
- Skywatcher 350P / 14" dobsonian - www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-3...
- ZWO 585MC - www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-cameras/zwo-asi-585mc-usb-3-...
- TeleVue 3x barlow - www.firstlightoptics.com/barlow-eyepieces/tele-vue-barlow...
- ZWO ADC - www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-accessories/zwo-125-atmosphe...
- PIPP
- SharpCap 4.1
- Autostakkert
- AstroSurface
Taken from Oxfordshire UK on Christmas Eve morning. I had the solar scope set up because there was an ISS solar transit visible from here at 11:09 GMT. There were two sunspot groups visible as well as a huge prominence on the eastern limb and a couple of smaller ones on the south western limb. The prominence in this photo is one of the biggest I've ever photographed. I used the solar ruler to measure its height and it was just over the 50,000 km mark, and it was approximately 150,000 km long!
Photo taken with a Coronado PTS solar telescope, ASI120MC camera with 2x Barlow fitted onto it. The telescope was on an EQ5 Pro mount on a permanent pier.
2,000 frame video was shot using SharpCap, then the best 75% of those frames were stacked using Autostakkert! 3. The stacked image was processed in Lightroom and Fast Stone Image Viewer
Taken with Espirit 150 mm scope. ASI2600MC camera and Optolong L-Pro filter. 42 frames of 5 minutes each Live Stacked and calibrated on the fly in Sharpcap Pro.
Taken from Oxfordshire, UK with a Coronado PST H-alpha solar telescope. Camera was an ASI-120MC fitted with a 2x Barlow. A 1,000 frame video was captured using SharpCap and the best 50% of the frames were stacked with Autostakkert! 3.
The image shows:
the (upside down) Horsehead Nebula, Barnard 33;
the red emission nebula IC434 (mag 7.3);
the emission nebula NGC 2024, Flame Nebula (mag 10);
the very bright star Alnitak (mag +1.7 and +3.7 double);
the smaller nebula NGC 2023 (mag 10); and
an Earth orbiting satellite trail.
The Horsehead is a challenging object for visual observers to detect but using live stacking photography it is a sheer joy to behold, as it it slowly reveals, on site, the red nebulosity and the dark outline of the Horsehead itself.
Object Details:
Barnard 33
Constellation: Orion.
Visual magnitude: na
Apparent size: 6′ x 4′
Distance: 1,600 light years.
Altitude: 47° above NE horizon.
Image:
Exposure: 61 x 60 sec = 61 min. Live stacked.
Gain 337
Date: 2018-12-08 commencing approx 11.15 pm
Location: The Oaks, NSW.
Conditions:
Sky: semi-dark rural.
Cloud: clear.
Moon: no.
Processing:
Image acquisition software: SharpCap.
Image post-processing: GIMP.
Cropping: no.
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: off (guide camera malfunction).
Telescope mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R.
Polar aligning method: QHYCCD PoleMaster.
Polar alignment error: 1′ 51″.
Field flattener: yes; filter: no.
Observing Notes:
This was another frustrating night because again the mount would not carry out a successful three star alignment. It will shortly be on it’s way back to the manufacturer for replacement under warranty.
I was determined not to let the problems beat me and I managed to image not only the Horsehead but also Comet 46P Wirtanen.
Despite my alignment woes, I was able to manually manoevre the telescope to find the Horsehead. Regardless of its dark nature, it was surprisingly easy to find, being very close to the bright star Alnitak in Orion’s Belt.
Copernicus Crater – diameter is 96 km, named after the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. It typifies craters that formed during the Copernican period in that it has a prominent ray system. Tech Specs: Meade 12” LX90, Celestron CGEM-DX mount, ASI290MC, best 2.5k of 5k frames, AutoStakkert! V3.0.14 (x64), FireCapture v2.5.10 x64 and Registax v6. Photographed on July 4, 2017 from Weatherly, Pennsylvania.
thought I'd try this target in my little scope. Only got 40 minutes under average conditions. Too tiny to spend more time on but I like capturing interesting targets.
40 @ 60 seconds gain 50 LUM
Scope: AT65EDQ
Mount: iOptron iEQ45
Camera: ZWO ASI183M non cooled
Guide camera: QHY5Lii
Guide Scope: Stellarvue 60mm
Orion 5 position manual filter wheel
ZWO LRGB
Schuler HA 9nm, Schuler 9nm Sii
MyFocuer Pro v2 (Robert Brown)
Bahtinov mask
Software: APT, PHD2, Sharpcap, CdC, Pixinsight, Photoshop, Nic Dfine 2, Astronomy Tools plug in, Google Chrome Remote Desktop, autostakert!3, Registax
Taken on Jan 24, 2020. LiveStack from SharpCap 3.2 with 121x30 sec (1hr, 30 sec) of sub-images. Taken with a UHC-S filter, a TV-85 at F/5.6 and a QHY183c camera from a metro area with Bortle 8 Red Zone skies
A young star throws out gas and matter as it settles down onto the main sequence. It will eventually become a B class giant at about 8-10 solar masses.
Another early star throwing off matter can be seen at 5 o'clock down from the central star of the Iris giving off a small cone of bright light/matter.
UV light from the star is scattered through the surrounding dust clouds giving a blue colour. the cold dust clouds further out are red-brown in colour.
My previous attempt at imaging this nebula using a robotic scope in Grand Mesa Observatory, Colorado is here:
Technical Card
SkyWatcher Esprit 120ED triplet refractor.
SkyWatcher 1.0 x FF with 2 inch IDAS LPS P3 filter
ZWO ASI2600MC;
50 x 180s subs, Gain 100, Offset 25, Temp = -10c.
EQ6 pro mount with Rowan belt drives. EQMOD control. Pegasus Astro Focus Cube electronic focuser.
Session control; SharpCap 4.0 on laptop with WiFi link to IPad.
Automated plate solving GOTO via ASTAP (4 secs exp at Gain 450)
30 dark frames
30 flat frames (electroluminescent panel, 3000ms exposure at Gain 0).
Post processed in PixInsight 1.8.9.2.
BlurXterminator and StarXterminator plug-ins used.
Light Pollution and Weather:
Clear throughout. I collected 54 subs but discarded the worst 4 as measured by Sub Frame Selector in PixInsight.
SQM (L) was 20.36 - Bortle 4.5
Polar Alignment:
PoleMaster alignment
Error measured by PHD2= 4.3 arc minute.
RA drift + 0.4 arcsec/min
Dec drift + 0.42 arcsec/min
Guiding:
PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/Primalucelab
240/60mm guider.
RA RMS error 0.61 arcsec
Dec RMS error 0.66 arcsec
Astrometry:
Resolution ............... 0.900 arcsec/px
Rotation ................. -81.757 deg
Focal distance ........... 861.37 mm
Pixel size ............... 3.76 um
Field of view ............ 1d 10' 39.9" x 49' 40.3"
Image center ............. RA: 21 01 22.892 Dec: +68 02 07.47
Ficha técnica:
Telescópio: Orion ED80
Câmera: QHY163M
Montagem: equatorial germânica caseira (Mark VI)
Software: SharpCap e AS!2
Data: 30 de abril de 2020
Frames:
200 frames empilhados
Solar image taken with the following equipment.
Skywatcher Evo 80DS-Pro
Baader planetarium herchel wedge
ASI 224MC camera
Sesto Senso remote focuser
A 2000 frame video was taken with sharpcap, and processed in Autostakkert, IMGPP, and then false colour added and final tweaks in Photoshop CS5.5.
IC1848. An emission nebula located in the constellation of Cassiopeia.
M: iOptron EQ45-Pro
T: William Optics GTF81
C: ZWO ASI1600MC-Cooled
F: L-eNhance filter (Dual Ha,Hb & Oiii Narrowbands)
G: PHD2
GC: ZWO ASI120mini
RAW16; FITs
Temp: -15 DegC
Gain 200;
20 x Exp 200s
5 x Exp 300s
5 x Exp 400s
Frames: 30 Lights; 10 Darks; 20 flats
80% Crop
Capture: SharpCap
Processed: DSS; PS
Sky: 80% Gibbous moon, calm, minimal cloud, cold, fair seeing.
7,500 light years distant.
The tallest mountain on the moon can be found in the Montes Apenninus mountains standing 3.3 miles high.
Equipment used;
Celestron cgx mount
ZWOasi224mc camera
Nexstar8se telescope
Celestron 9 x 50 finder scope
X-cel lx 2 x Barlow lens
Captured using sharpcap, stacked in as2 and finished in photoshop.
NGC2264 and IC1848 with the ES 80mm ED triplet APO refractor, Orion Field Flattener and Zwo ASI1600MM Pro cooled mono camera...
The Pegasus power box was a good buy, Got rid of 3 power adapters and 1 control box
Had clear skies last night, ok 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,
IC1848 was 80 minutes, 1 minute exposure each
NGC2264 was 125 minutes, 1 minute each
40 darks 40 flats and 40 bias frames
Astro Pixel Processor and PS
The smaller galaxy, NGC5195 has suffered extensive disruption following a gravitational encounter with the much larger M51 spiral galaxy.
Two tiny galaxies can also be seen - edge-on spiral IC 4277 is just under and to the right of NGC 5195 and IC 4278 is an irregular class galaxy to the right of the junction between M51 and NGC 5195.
Imaged over 18th and 19th March 2025.
Technical Card
900/120mm f/7 Skywatcher Esprit 120 triplet refractor.
0.85 x Field corrector with 2 inch IDAS P3 LPS filter
ZWO ASI2600MC; 60 x 300 second subs, Gain 100, Offset 25, Temp = -15c.
EQ6 R pro mount . EQMOD control.
Pegasus Astro FocusCube 2 electronic focuser.
Session control; SharpCap 4.1 on laptop.
Controlled from inside house with iPAD
Automated plate solving GOTO and focusing. 8 secs at gain 635.
60 dark frames
50 flat frames (electroluminescent panel A, 3500ms exposure @ 0 gain).
Post processed in PixInsight 1.8.9.
Light Pollution and Weather:
Night 1: SQM (L) =19.98 m/as2
Clear throughout - stopped at Moonrise
Night 2: SQM (L) =20.03 m/as2
Session stopped by cloud
Polar Alignment:
Error measured by PHD2= 0.5 arc minute.
RA drift - 0.04 arcsec/min
Dec drift - 0.10arcsec/min
Guiding:
PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/WO GuideStar 61.
Every 6th sub dithered.
RA RMS error 0.53 arcsec
Dec RMS error 0.39arcsec
Astrometry
Resolution ............... 0.900 arcsec/px
Observation start time ... 2025-03-23 20:52:58 UTC
Observation end time ..... 2025-03-24 02:35:13 UTC
Focal distance ........... 861.81 mm
Pixel size ............... 3.76 um
Field of view ............ 1d 33' 42.7" x 1d 2' 38.1"
Image center ............. RA: 14 03 25.884 Dec: +54 19 13.67
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. It is about 4,000 light years away.
This was taken using a new William Optics 31mm Uniguide guidescope. Worked a treat!
Image Details:
- Imaging Scope: William Optics 61mm ZenithStar APO
- Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Color with ZWO Duo band filter
- Guiding Scope: William Optics 31mm Uniguide
- Guiding Camera: Orion Starshoot Auto Guider
- Acquisition Software: Sharpcap
- Guiding Software: PHD2
- Light Frames: 36*3 mins @ 100 Gain, Temp -10C
- Dark Frames: 36*3 mins
- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
- Processed in PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom and Topaz Denoise
The Andromeda Galaxy, or M31, Found in the constellation of Andromeda
M: iOptron EQ45-Pro
T: WO GTF81 Refractor
C: ZWO ASI1600MC-Cooled
G: 200mm (FL) Finder and PHD2
GC: ZWO ASI120MC
App: SharpCap Pro
RAW16; FITs
Temp: -20 DegC
Gain 200
Exp 100s
Frames: 25 Lights; 4 Darks; 0 flats
Processed: DSS; LR, PS, Gradient Exterminator.
Sky: No moon, calm, Slight cloud, good seeing.
Approx 2.537 million light years distant.
In questo periodo il pianeta è visibile per buona parte della notte e tra un mese esatto si troverà in opposizione, quindi al meglio della sua osservabilità.
La ripresa video da cui ho ricavato quest'immagine è della notte scorsa e contiene quasi 8000 fotogrammi per una durata di 5 minuti.
La foto è abbastanza nitida e sono visibili le bande orizzontali dell'atmosfera del pianeta, i suoi anelli e la divisione di Cassini.
Se si guarda bene giù a destra è visibile debolmente Titano, il suo satellite più grande.
Dati:
– Telescopio Celestron 114/910 Newtoniano
– Montatura Eq2 con motore AR con pulsantiera
– Camera planetaria QHY5L-II-C
– Filtro UV-Ir cut
– Barlow 2x Celestron Omni
-Sharpcap per acquisire un video da 5 minuti
– Autostakkert!3 e Registax 6 per elaborare circa il 25% dei fotogrammi
- Gimp per ridurre leggermente il rumore
– Luogo: Cabras, Sardegna, Italia
– Data e ora della ripresa: 14 luglio 2022 alle 2:43 UTC ( 4:43 ora locale)
NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula in the constellation of Cepheus.
First run at this target on a 99% full moon night.
M: iOptron EQ45-Pro
T: William Optics GTF81
C: ZWO ASI1600MC-Cooled
F: No Filters
G: PHD2
GC: ZWO ASI120mini
RAW16; FITs
Temp: -20 DegC
Gain 139
104 x Exp 100s
Frames: 104 Lights; 2 Darks; 200 flats
95% Crop
Capture: SharpCap
Processed: APP; PS; Grad Exterminator.
Sky: Full Moon, calm, no cloud, mild, good seeing.
NGC7023: 1.3 thousand light years distant.
My first Jupiter image built from separate R, G, and B channels. Imaged with a Celestron Edge HD with 2x Barlow, ZWO EFW filter wheel, ZWO ASI120MM camera, and Optolong RGB filters. Recorded in SharpCap 3.2, then stacked in AutoStakkert 3. Initial wavelets in PixInsight, then channel derotation and combination in WinJUPOS. Brought the resulting RGB image back into PixInsight for some sharpening and color correction, then some final touches in Photoshop.
Stacks were shot from about 2:00am to 2:35am local time. Jupiter was at a distance of about 612 million km (34.0 light minutes). It was at an altitude of about 43° from my backyard in Long Beach, CA.
Markarian's Chain
Taken with the WO RedCat refractor
ASI Zwo 294MC Pro cooled color camera IR/cut filter
Had clear skies last night, No guiding
#SharpCap Pro, PoleMaster
Orion Skyview Pro EQ mount
120 Gain offset 10 -10c cooling,
Markarian's Chains was 142 minutes, 30 seconds each
50 darks 50 flats and 50 bias frames
Astro Pixel Processor and PS
The other picture is from All Sky Plate Solver
This is a supernova remnant. The Chinese recorded the supernova event in 1060AD, and even saw it during daylight hours for several days. It lies around 6,500 light years away.
Image Details:
- Imaging Scope: Celestron C8 SCT
- Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Color with ZWO IR cut filter
- Guider: Celestron Starsense Autoguider
- Acquisition Software: Sharpcap
- Guiding Software: Celestron
- Mount: Celestron CGEM
- Capture Software: SharpCap Pro (LiveStack mode with dithering)
- Light Frames: 30*5 mins @ 100 Gain, Temp -20C
- Dark Frames: 30*5 mins
- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
- Processed in PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom, and Topaz Denoise AI
M61 with Supernova
LUM 261@ 15 seconds Gain 200
this was taken with NINA software but I live stacked the sub in Sharpcap with no darks or flats. This is the saved stack from that, actually processed better than my DSS stack w darks.
no flats, no bias, darks
No guiding but dithering via NINA
Scope: Orion 8" f4 Astrograph with Baader Coma Corrector (still working on collimation)
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
Home Observatory
Software: PHD2, Sharpcap, CdC, Pixinsight,Team Viewer,
Saturn, taken this evening using a QHY5-III 290C camera attached to a Sky-Watcher Mak 180 Pro telescope. Captured in SharpCap Pro, stacked using AutoStakkert 2 and edited in Registax 6 and PhotoShop CC
Equipo Principal: ZWO ASI 1600 mm-pro + SW Explorer 200p + ZWO EAF + SW Coma Corrector 0.9x + EQ6R-Pro
*Gain 100, -20º C, Ha 7nm 2" Optolong, 5000 frames (apilado solo el 70%, 3500 frames en total)
Procesado: Sharpcap 3.2, Autostakkert 3, Registax 6, PS CC 2017
Messier 31 The Andromeda Galaxy
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 (770 kiloparsecs) from Earth and the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. ...
The virial mass of the Andromeda Galaxy is of the same order of magnitude as that of the Milky Way, at 1 trillion solar masses (2.0×1042 kilograms). The mass of either galaxy is difficult to estimate with any accuracy, but it was long thought that the Andromeda Galaxy is more massive than the Milky Way by a margin of some 25% to 50%. This has been called into question by a 2018 study that cited a lower estimate on the mass of the Andromeda Galaxy, combined with preliminary reports on a 2019 study estimating a higher mass of the Milky Way. The Andromeda Galaxy has a diameter of about 220,000 ly (67 kpc), making it the largest member of the Local Group in terms of extension, if not mass.
The number of stars contained in the Andromeda Galaxy is estimated at one trillion (1,000,000,000,000), or roughly twice the number estimated for the Milky Way. (Wikipedia.org)
Technical Information for This Image
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 51 exposures were each 120 seconds, and the gain was set to 120. Auto guiding was done using a Skywatcher EVO Guide 50mm refractor attached to a ZWO ASI290MC 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 Pro software.
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
Took this picture Monday night, IC 59 & IC 63 and M45
WO SkyCat 51, Zwo 183MC Pro cooled color camera
Zwo IR/cut filter
#SharpCap Pro
Ioptron i45 Pro EQ mount PHD2 guiding
Orion 60mm guidescope SSAG
120 Gain offset 20 0c cooling, 1 minute exposure, was 2 hours and 30 minutes for IC 59 & 63, 1 hour and 15 minutes for M45, 1 minute each
50 darks 50 flats and 50 bias frames
Astro Pixel Processor, StarTools and PS