Stacked & processed some shots from a short EAA session of The Orion Nebula. Focus could be better.

Telescope: Astrotech AT72ED

Imaging Camera: Rising Tech RT224 (IMX224) w/ ZWO IR cut filter.

Mount: Skywatcher Star Adventurer

Captured in Sharpcap > Stacked in Astro Pixel Processor Trial > Processed w/ Pixinsight LE > PS color adjustments.

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

53 poses de 14s soit 12.5 min de pose. Acquisition avec SharpCap 3.2 - Latitude 48°29' N

1er essai du logiciel SharpCap et de la Caméra ASI294MC pointée au hasard vers le zénith entre 2 averses. Une petite tache floue est apparue sur la 1ère photo à 150mm, à 600mm surprise, maintenant il faut trouver le nom de l'objet !!

NGC2903 est une galaxie spirale barrée de magnitude 9.16 dans la constellation du Lion à 38,165 Million d'années-lumière (données Stellarium).

M51, also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy, is one of the most iconic and well-studied deep-sky objects in the night sky.

It is a Grand-design spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici approximately 23 million light-years away.

It is interacting with a smaller galaxy, NGC 5195, which appears to be tugging on M51's structure — giving the Whirlpool its "swirling" look.

This was shot over multiple nights in Mono. First image processed using Adam Block Fundamentals. Really happy with the results.

Total Integration: 19 hours 13 mins

Equipment:

Stellarvue SVX102T and Flattener

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

#wandererastro Rotator Lite

#williamoptics 50mm Uniguide

#chroma 3nm LRGB, Ha

Acquisition: NINA, Sharpcap for PA

Stacked in APP, bias, flats, flatdarks, darks

Processed/edited in PI

Aberkenfig, South Wales

Lat +51.542 Long -3.593

A sequence of images I have captured over a period of 11 years which display the proper motion of this well known binary star system. It's apparent movement is about 5" (arc seconds) per year.

Images captured using a Skywatcher 254mm Newtonian with a modified Philips SPC 900NC Webcam. Exposure time 10s on LX Mode. The telescope was initially mounted on an EQ6 HD then EQ6 Syntrek for the later captures.

I am pleased to say that the webcam used is still in working order after all these years.

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

G.I.M.P. layers tool used to align, slightly crop, arrange images and add annotations.

Another page from my observations log and best viewed using the expansion arrows.

Webcam Settings using an old version of 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

Transparency 3/5

Seeing 2/5

C9.25 EDGEHD

ZWO120MC

SharpCap

AutoStakkert

PixInsight

I think I’ve managed to get a bit more detail out of some previous data. Celestron NexStar 6SE, ZWO asi224mc with IR cut filter, 2.5x TeleVue Powermate and ZWO ADC. 2 minute video Captured in SharpCap, processed in PIPP, AutoStakkert, RegiStax Wavelets then Lightroom.

Eclisse parziale di Sole

Telescopio: Skywatcher 200/800 Wide Photo

Camera: Zwo Asi 294 mc

Montatura: Skywatcher AZ-EQ6

Autoguida: 60mm UltraGuide Artesky con zwo asi 224mc

Correttore di coma: aplanatico Skywatcher f4

Filtro Astrosolar 3.8 + l-pro

Software Sharpcap Autstakkert3 Pipp Imppg registax6 pixinsight photoshop Adobe premiere

Sh2-86, NGC 6820 and 6823

One of the guys from our astronomy club, the The Chagrin Valley Astronomical Society, sent me this target as a suggestion. I took one look and moved it up on my short list. Does not seem to be imaged very often.

NGC 6820 is a small reflection nebula near the open cluster NGC 6823 in Vulpecula . The reflection nebula and cluster are embedded in a large faint emission nebula called SH2-86. M27, the Dumbbell Nebula, is found three degrees to the east.

I may have to revisit this object in the future.

Total Integration: 9 hours 56 Minutes

Equipment:

Sky-Watcher Evostar 100 ED, Flattener

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

Stellarvue 50mm Guide Scope F050G

Chroma 3nm Red, Green, Blue Filters

Acquisition: NINA, Sharpcap for PA

Stacked PI, bias, flats, flatdarks

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

High Resolution Image: www.astrobin.com/pe8h14/B/

IG: jlratino

#ASIWEEK

Genova, Italy (30 Sept 2023 01:23 UT)

Planet: diameter 47.6", mag -2.8, altitude ≈ 60°

Telescope: Celestron CPC C8 XLT (203 F/10 SC)

Camera: QHY5III462C Color

Focal Extender: Explore Scientific 2x (1.25")

Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector: Artesky

Filter: QHY UV/IR block

Recording scale: ≈0.15 arcsec/pixel

Equivalent focal length ≈4000 mm F/19.7

Image resized: +50%

Recording: SharpCap 4.0

(640x480 @ 125fps - 120 sec - RAW8 - Gain 189)

Best 25% frames of ≈15000

Alignment/Stacking (Jupiter): AstroSurface U4

Alignment/Stacking (Io): AutoStakkert! 3.1.4

Wavelets/Deconvolution: AstroSurface U4

Final Elaboration: GIMP 2.10.34

located in the constellation of Orion and at a distance of 6400 light years from Earth. This was some data I captured last weekend 03.02.19 still a work in progress and needs more data but it’s a start. But the weather gods are not playing ball again.

21x 5minute lights

50x flat 50x dark

Unity gain = 400

TEC set at -15C

Black level = 20

Captured with SharpCap 3.2 Pro

Integration with Astro Pixel Processor

Post processing with Adobe Photoshop CC2019

🔭 Altair Astro StarWave 102ED and x0.8 reducer

📷 AAIMX183C PROTEC Hypercam

SkyTech LPRO MAX LP filter

SkyWatcher AZ-EQ6 GT Mount

Altair Astro 60mm guider GPCAM1 mono guide camera

Guiding PHD 2.6.5

This image is the consolidation of 40 individual images captured in the early morning hours of July 17, 2025.

Telescope: 5" f/8 Astro Physics refractor.

Magnification: TeleVue 4X PowerMate

Effective focal length: 4064mm

Camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro

Capture software: SharpCap

Post Processing:

AutoStakkert

WaveSharp 2

Adobe Light Room Classic

Adobe Photoshop

Location:

Elkridge, Maryland USA

Light Pollution: Terrible

Jupiter with its Great Red Spot transiting at 20:06 on 3rd January 2024

This was my second ever capture of a planet and I'm extremely happy with it. I'm really happy to have managed to capture the Great Red Spot transiting.

While this is a frequent occurrence, due to the speed that Jupiter rotates, the spot doesn't stay in view for very long.

Conditions in the UK are rarely ever good for planetary imaging, so I'm very surprised with my result here, especially considering I don't have a dedicated planetary setup.

- ZWO 533MC

- 2x barlow

- Skywatcher 200 / 1000 Newtonian

- Sharpcap

10,000 frames captured at 106FPS. Best 50% stacked.

Colorized and processed using AutoStakkert, SolarToolbox in PixInsight. Captured with SharpCap using DayStar Quark Chromosphere, Baader ERF, Player One Apollo-M Max and RST135E mount.

The prominent large spot group is AR3615, rotating soon out of the view.

Went out Wednesday night, M45, M57 and IC434

WO SkyCat 51, Zwo 183MC 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 20 0c cooling, 1 minute exposure, 60 minutes for M57, IC434 was 22 minutes, 1 minute exposure each, M45 was 2 hours, 1 minute each, Had problems with the wind, clouds and storms north of me

50 darks 50 flats and 50 bias frames

Astro Pixel Processor and PS

M82 or the Cigar galaxy, shines brightly at infrared wavelengths and is remarkable for its star formation activity. The Cigar galaxy experiences gravitational interactions with its galactic neighbor, M81, causing it to have an extraordinarily high rate of star formation — a starburst. The galaxy lies around 12 million light years away.

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*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

M: iOptron EQ45-Pro

T: WO GTF81

C: ZWO ASI1600MC

G: 200mm Finder and PHD2

Gain: 200; RAW16; FITs

Temp: -2 DegC

Frames: 100 Lights; 6 Darks; 6 flats

Exp: 60s

No Crop

Capture: Sharpcap

Processed: DSS; PIPP; PS & Gradient Exterminator.

277/500 Frames

QHY5L-II

SharpCap

Adobe PS, Registax

NGC 457 The Owl Cluster Taken With William Optics Zenithstar 81

NGC 457 (also known as the Owl Cluster, the ET Cluster, or Caldwell 13) is an open star cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1787, and lies over 7,900 light years away from the Sun. It has an estimated age of 21 million years. ... The cluster features a rich field of about 150 stars of magnitudes 12-15. (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 61 exposures were each 120 seconds, and the gain was set to 120. An Optolong L-Pro filter was used in capturing the exposures. 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 software.

This supernova remnant in Gemini has a bright portion similar to the bright portions of the Eastern Veil Nebula, and then an extended but fainter structure, in total resembling a jellyfish. It's an easy target to hit but challenging to render well from the light polluted suburbs.

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

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

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

Image tech stuff: TV-85/Borg 1.08x flattener/ZWO ASI 533MCPro/ IDAS LPS-V4 filter/ RST-135E mount. 2 hours of unguided 8 second exposures captured in SharpCap LiveStacks and processed with PixInsight. From my Bortle 7 yard in Yonkers, NY.

127 Johanna is a main belt asteroid that is about 76 miles wide. Currently, it is slowly moving through the constellation Auriga at magnitude 11.8. From Wikipedia: Johanna (minor planet designation: 127 Johanna) is a large, dark main-belt asteroid that was discovered by French astronomers Paul Henry and Prosper Henry on 5 November 1872, and is believed to be named after Joan of Arc.

The animated GIF shows the movement of Johanna over 30 minutes by blinking two images.

Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120mm ED Triplet APO Refractor, Celestron CGEM-DX mount (pier mounted), ZWO ASI071MC-Pro running at -20C, 1 x 120 second exposures, GAIN 200, guided using a ZWO ASI290MC and Orion 60mm guide scope. Captured using SharpCap v3.2. Image date: January 22, 2020. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA.

Telescopi o obiettivi di acquisizione: Orion Mini Guidescope

Camere di acquisizione: SVBONY SV305

Montature: Celestron SLT

Telescopi o obiettivi di guida: Celestron 127/1500 Maksutov-Cassegrain

Software: SharpCap Pro 3.2 Sharcap · Maxim DL · photoshop

Date:14 Dicembre 2020

Pose: 93x10"

Integrazione: 0.3 ore

Giorno lunare medio: 29.33 giorni

Fase lunare media: 0.04%

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.

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.

Added a ton of data to the data collected a few weeks ago. A much cleaner image.

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 and Adobe Lightroom

6" f5 home built/hand-ground Newtonian

Meade X2 barlow

CG5 mount with OnStep by Howard Dutton

Nema 17 motors with belt drive

Celestron Neximage 5 camera

5000 frames at max gain to get fastest shutter speed best 20% stacked.

Software:

Sharpcap for capture

Autostackert3 for stacking

Registax for sharpening

Photoshop for final tweak

One of my many winter projects was building an equitorial platform for my 12" dob. First time to use it and, to my surprise, it actually works!

4 panel mosaic, each 100/ ~3500 frames

Equipment

Imaging Cameras

Point Grey Grasshopper 3 1.4MP

Mounts

DIY Equitorial Platform

Filters

Red

Accessories

Orion Shorty Barlow 2x

Software

Autostackert! · SharpCap V2.9 · Adobe Photoshop CS4 Photoshop CS4

Acquisition details

Date: March 9, 2022

Frames: 400

FPS: 25

Focal length: 3000

Resolution: 2869x4984

Data source: Backyard

The moon was nice and high [at the end of my imaging session](gfycat.com/madeverlastingindianpangolin) so I decided to point my DSO rig at it. Seeing was 'above average' according to Astrospheric. **This photo has had the saturation increased to emphasize the differences in the lunar soil**, which are *barely* noticeable to the eye through larger telescopes (for me at least). Tan/orange indicates iron rich minerals, and blue indicates titanium rich minerals. Captured at 6:20am on September 27th, 2021.

---

**[Equipment:](i.imgur.com/6T8QNsv.jpg)**

* TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

* Orion Sirius EQ-G

* ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

* Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

* ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm

* Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm

* Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm

* Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope

* ZWO ASI-120MC for guiding

* Moonlite Autofocuser

**Acquisition:** (Camera at Unity Gain, -15°C)

* R - 2000 x 1.618ms

* G - 1000 x 1.397ms

* B - 1000 x 2.172ms

**Capture Software:**

* Captured using Sharpcap and [N.I.N.A.](nighttime-imaging.eu/) for mount/filterwheel control

**Stacking:**

* Stacked the best 20% of frames in Autostakkert (autosharpened, 3X Drizzle)

**[PixInsight Processing:](i.imgur.com/sORySKX.png)**

* DynamicCrop

* ChannelCombination to combine monochrome images into RGB image

* HistogramTransformation (slight stretch, also applied to red stack)

* LRGBCombination using red stack as luminance

* CurvesTransformations to adjust lightness, contrast, colors, saturation, etc.

* ColorSaturation to desaturate red fringing around some craters

* SCNR green > invert > SCNR > invert

* more curves

* LocalHistogramTransformation

*Histogramtransformation to lower black point

* shitloads more Curves

* FastRotation

* Annotation

"Imbrium Ground Surges and Sculpture"

July 21, 2018

Since my teens I have been fascinated by the huge lunar impact basin known as Mare Imbrium. This is an easy naked-eye feature of the Moon. There was one afternoon when my reading of descriptions of lunar craters and meteor impacts built up to the realization that Mare Imbrium marked a truly titanic impact event, one that affected the entire side of the moon that we see.

This image captures in one wide field many far-flung (literally) changes in the lunar surface directly attributable to the enormous impact event that gouged the basin that became what we now know as Mare Imbrium.

Mare Imbrium is the huge circular lava plain located here in the upper left. It is surrounded by a ring of mountains, here represented by the Montes Appenninus. These mountains were raised by the impact event, as huge blocks of the Moon's crust were dislodged and lifted, like ripples in a pond. This ring of mountains is the first thing that slammed home for me the fact that Mare Imbrium marked a REALLY GINORMOUS impact basin.

Then I started looking outside the ring. Look at the upper right of this photo. There is another large lava plain - Mare Serenitatis. Formed in similar fashion to Mare Imbrium, Mare Serenitatis is older. We can see this because the Montes Appenninus adjoin and partly overlay the outer circular margin of Mare Serenitatis. Look at the lower boundary of Mare Serenitatis. The lava plains of it's basin abut a range of mountains, the Montes Haemus. The ridges in this region were originally a structure like the Montes Appenninus, but raised by the Serenitatis impact event. But look closer. These mountains are marked by radial gouges, centered on Mare Imbrium, and seem to me of having been scoured and partially buried by material that flowed out from Mare Imbrium. These radial gouges in the Moon are collectively known as "Imbrium sculpture".

Now look at the center of the photo. There is a small lava plain here called Sinus Medii. Using this as a reference, we can explore other regions scarred by the Imbrium event.

Directly south (down) from Sinus Medii there is a large circular crater with a smooth floor. It is the top crater in a prominent stack of three progressively smaller craters. The large crater is Ptolemaeus. The area surrounding Ptolemaeus is light colored and heavily cratered. It is pretty far from Mare Imbrium, but the terrain is gouged by more radial cuts, again centered on Mare Imbrium. Mountain-sized blocks were thrown outward from the Imbrium impact - they bounded across the surface of the Moon and cut through ridgelines and crater ramparts, scoring the Moon's face as they passed. How many can you find?

Looking North (upward) from Sinus Medii there is a funnel- shaped of region of hills, largely dark in color, that narrows to the north where it connects with the Montes Appenninus. There are some gouges and signs of scouring in this area, but it is the hills themselves that draw my interest. Nearest to Montes Appenninus these seem to be broken ridges of bedrock, roughly parallel to the arc of the Montes Appenninus with piles of rubble in between, material that flowed outward from the Imprium impact (ground surges). Farther away from the Montes Appenninus, the terrain looks more like piles of ejecta strewn in radial patterns that settled here to build hills and to deeply bury whatever features that existed here before the Imbrian event.

Lastly, look at the lower left side of the image. This area is dark, crossed by the lunar day-night terminator. Look into the darkness, west of Ptolemaeus, and you will see an area of hills very similar to those above Sinus Medii, described in the paragraph above. You may also see a medium sized circular crater with two smaller adjoining craters at the 6 o'clock and the 5 o'clock positions. the larger crater is called Fra Mauro. In the 1960's scientists suspected this was a region where material ejected from Mare Imbrium would be covering the surface. Apollo 13 was designated to land here and collect samples, but the accident en route to the Moon forced abandonment of this mission. Apollo 14 was retasked to land in this area, and did so successfully. Samples were confirmed to have been of Imbrian origin. The landing site was in the hilly terrain north of Fra Mauro crater, 500 km south of the edge of Mare Imbrium.

Video captured with SharpCap 3.1. Best 600 of 2000 frames from an .avi stacked with Autostakkert!3, wavelets processed in Registax 6, deconvolution in Fitswork 4, and finished with Photoshop CC 2018.

ZWO ASI290MM camera, Explore Scientific ED 80 APO f/6 refractor, Explore Scientific 3x focal extender, Optolong IR Pass filter (685nm), Celestron Advanced VX mount.

Taken using a StellaLyra 8" Classical Cassegrain with a ZWO ASI224 MC and ZWO Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector. Video captured using SharpCap, stacked in AS!3 and processed using Registax6 and GIMP.

Not brilliant as I knocked my scope and may have upset my focusing and tracking. Posting anyway. I did try out the new multi-star guiding function in PHD2 and it looked good. I'll realign the scope etc. tonight and try again...

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*3 mins @ 100 Gain, Temp -15C

- Dark Frames: 14*3 mins

- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

- Processed in PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom

The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters and Messier 45, are an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. The stars in this cluster lie around 444 light years away.

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: 16*4 mins @ 100 Gain, -25C

- Dark Frames: 16*4 mins

- Flat Frames: 50

- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

- Processed in PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom

Also known as “Casper the Friendly Ghost Nebula”! Messier 78 or M 78, also known as NGC 2068, is a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780 and included by Charles Messier in his catalog of comet-like objects. M78 is the brightest diffuse reflection nebula of a group of nebulae that includes NGC 2064, NGC 2067 and NGC 2071. This object lies around 1,350 light years away.

First time attempting this object for me. Just RGB data. Looks like other folks get better images with Luminance data as well.

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: 24x5 mins @ 100 Gain, -30F

- Dark Frames: 24*5 mins

- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

- Processed in PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop

Shot in R-RGB.

ZWO ASI 178MM, Celestron C14 EdgeHD on CGEPro Mount.

26th Aug, 2018.

SharpCap, Autostakkert and Registax.

Photo by Janmejoy Sarkar.

Image credits: Tezpur University Observatory and Sky Watchers Association of North Bengal (SWAN).

North America Nebula

Widefield

Starless

Bower 85mm f/1.4 @ f/4

ASI 1600MM-C -20C gain 139

ZWO filters

5 minutes

1x Ha

1x Oxygen

1x Sulfur

Sharpcap

Cartes Du Ciel

Pixinsight 1.8

StarXTerminator

NoiseXTerminator

Taken with a Celestron C6 SCT, Celestron AVX mount, 2.5x Televue PowerMate, and ASI120MC. Captured with SharpCap, stacked with AutoStakkert, and processed with Astra Image Pro and Photoshop.

Showing the Heart and Soul Nebulae and the Double Cluster (NGC 884 / NGC 869).

Total integration 4 hours and 40 minutes.

Nikon Nikkor Auto-S 50mm F1.4 at F2.8,

QHY163C with Astronomik CLS filter.

Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro

Captured using SharpCap and EQMOD.

Stacked and processed in DSS, Fitswork and Gimp

11th November 2017

Cambridge, UK.

A prominent feature of the winter sky, the appearance of the Pleiades changes notably depending on the way you view it. A small telescope or binoculars reveals why the close grouping of bright stars attracts our attention, and then a long camera exposure reveals the blue nebulous regions which almost seem to hold the group together. From dark sites they envelop the entire grouping but from here in the burbs they appear in patches.

Tech Stuff: Borg 55FL Astrograph; ZWO ASI1600MC Camera; Astronomik CLS filter; Ioptron CubePro8200 mount; 3 SharpCap Live stacks of 4 second exposures totaling 68 minutes intergrated and processed with PixInsight. Imaged from my yard 10 miles north of New York City.

M16 The Eagle Nebula Toward the Center of Our Galaxy. It's a crowded neighborhood as you look toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Stars everywhere. But a timed astrophotography image will reveal M16, the Eagle Nebula.

This image was produced from a stack of exposures captured at a Bortle 4 site in Landers, CA, USA on a New Moon night. Telescope: Explore Scientific ED102 FL 714mm F7. Guiding was with an Orion 50mm Guide Scope FL 242mm, and a ZWO ASI290MC for the guide camera, and with PHD2 auto-guiding software. Mount: Celestron Advanced VX. Main imaging camera: ASI294MC PRO cooled to -5C. Exposures: 124 x 45s with Gain at 280 and Bin 1 x 1. No darks, flats or bias frames. Processed in PixInsight. Slight crop. Polar alignment was with SharpCap Pro.

This was an experiment using short exposures with high gain. Many use this technique and get good results. It seems to be a quick way to negate bad, or no, auto-guiding. But I still prefer to use exposures of 180s-240s, or even 300s for most targets like this.

Taken from Oxfordshire, UK with a Coronado PST, 2x Barlow and ASI120MC camera. Shot through thin cloud. A 1,000 frame video was captured using SharpCap and the best 25% of the frames were stacked using Autoskakkert! 3. Processing was done in Lighroom, Fast Stone Image Viewer, Photoshop CS2 and Focus Magic.

I was intending to shoot overlapping images of the entire solar disk, but unfortunately I currently have a problem with my laptop screen which made it extremely difficult to focus the telescope but also made it near impossible to see well enough to get the exposures right. I gave up but did manage to capture some nice prominences in the meantime.

M: iOptron EQ45-Pro

T: WO GTF81

C: ZWO ASI1600MC

G: OAG and PHD2

Gain: 250; RAW16; FITs

Temp: -15 DegC

Frames: 22 Lights; 6 Darks; 6 flats

Exp: 250s

No Crop

Capture: Sharpcap

Processed: APP; PS, Gradient Exterminator.

NGC 891 is an edge-on galaxy 30 million light years out; it is said to resemble how our Milky Way would look from the side. This unguided image demonstrates that CMOS imaging using short exposures can provide nice results with less cumbersome gear than CCD long exposure imaging.

Tech Stuff: Questar 3.5" telescope at native 1570 focal length (f ratio 18); unguided Questar PGII fork mount. QHY163 mono camera Luminance only; integration of 5 SharpCap Live stacks of 8 second exposures totaling 49 minutes, processed with PixInsight. Imaged from my yard 10 miles north of New York City.

After a hard winter, my first attempt in RGB mode which is a field of imaging all new to me.

First test with ZWO RGB filter and camera ASI120mm.

Celestron 9.25 at f/10 on NEQ-6.

About 500 frames each colour at 64fr/sec.

SharpCap, Autosakkert2, Registax and PS3.

Format: 320 x 240. shown here at 100% and 200%.

Québec, 21 mars 2014

A star exploded some five to eight thousand years ago sending a ball of gas and dust out into space. Today the Veil Nebula can be found in Cygnus and is a great summer astrophotography subject. Here I have captured it using a new light pollution filter that helps bring forward the red (hydrogen) and blue (oxygen) features. The filter still allows the star field to come through, surprisingly dense for my suburban location 10 miles north of New York City.

Tech Stuff: Borg 55FL astrograph; IDAS LPS-V4 filter; ZWO ASI1600MC; iOptron CubePro 8200 mount unguided; 95 minutes of 8 second exposures stacked in 10 minute groups using SharpCap live stacking; processed with PixInsight.

Celestron NexStar 6SE, ZWO asi224mc with IR cut filter, 2.5x TeleVue Powermate and ZWO ADC. Captured in SharpCap, processed in PIPP, AutoStakkert, RegiStax Wavelets then Lightroom.

Captured on 31/03/2017 at 17:54 U.T. With Meade LX200 8" Classic + ZWO ASI 224 + ZWO IR Pass filter.

Please don't use my pictures without my consent. If you want to use my pictures you are advised to contact me previously.

Use of my pictures without my consent will be legally prosecuted.

I’m so happy with this image, I’ve managed to pickup some cloud details on Venus, I went with a blue filter today and no IR cut filter.

Celestron NexStar 6SE

ZWO asi224mc with Blue filter

Tele Vue 2.5x Powermate

ZWO ADC

FireCapture for ADC tuning.

2 minute video captured in SharpCap.

Processed AutoStakkert3, RegiStax Wavelets then finished in Lightroom.

Celestron NexStar 6SE, ZWO asi224mc with IR cut filter, 2.5x TeleVue Powermate and ZWO ADC. 2 minute video Captured in SharpCap, processed in PIPP, AutoStakkert, RegiStax Wavelets then Lightroom.

Jupiter with moon Io casting its shadow on Jupiter’s surface then transiting in front of the planet. Celestron NexStar 6SE, ZWO asi224mc with IR cut filter, 2.5x TeleVue Powermate and ZWO ADC. 2 minute videos Captured in SharpCap, processed in PIPP, AutoStakkert, RegiStax Wavelets then Lightroom.

You're looking at 300,000 suns!

First test image using the new Celestron StarSense Autoguider with my 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain. Initial set up was easy, and the autoguding was flawless.

This cluster lies just outside of our Milky Way galaxy at a distance of around 25,000 light years away and contains around 300,000 stars!

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

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

- Light Frames: 30*1 min @ 100 Gain, Temp -20C

- Dark Frames: 30*1 mins

- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

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

Tonight’s Jupiter shot through thin clouds.

Celestron NexStar 6SE

ZWO asi224mc with IR cut filter

Tele Vue 2.5x Powermate

ZWO ADC

FireCapture for ADC tuning.

2 minute video captured in SharpCap.

Exposure 3.0ms Gain 345

42K frames, stacked 50%

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

1.03.2022: CLAVIUS, MORETUS - Luna Crescente

Dopo non so quanti mesi, finalmente è capitata una serata di Seeing decente ed ho potuto apprezzare la qualità del Meade 16" che mi ha dato veramente la possibilità di "sorvolare" questa zona del Polo Sud Lunare.

Clavius (in basso a dx) è ancora in parte in penombra ma questo gioco di ombre permette di apprezzarne ancora di più i dettagli del "fondo valle", per non parlare poi di Moretus con il suo tipico picco centrale che staglia un'ombra netta fino al fondo del bordo del cratere. Sopra Moretus si vede illuminata la parete del cratere Newton, ancora del tutto in ombra. Sotto Moretus invece troviamo i due crateri Grumberger e Cysatus.

Per dare un ordine di grandezza, Moretus ha un diamtetro di circa 114 Km, e dal fondo del cratere fino alle vetta più alta della sua parte ci sono oltre 5000m di dislivello. In tutta la foto ci sono miriadi di crateri minuscoli; quelli più piccoli hanno un diametro che si attesta attorno al km, questo per sottolineare l'importanza che ha avere un buon seeing e la risoluzione paurosa di uno specchio di 40cm!!!

Foto composta di due pannelli uniti insieme.

Dati di scatto

Telescopio Meade ACF 16" su montatura Celestron CGX-L

Camera ZWO Asi 178 monocromatica + filtro G Baader

Barlow 1,5x

Somma di 800/3000 frame acquisiti

Software: Sharpcap, Autostakkert, Astrosurface, Photoshop