The Dumbbell Nebula (also known as Apple Core Nebula, Messier 27, M 27, or NGC 6853) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1227 light-years. This object was the first planetary nebula to be discovered; by Charles Messier in 1764. At its brightness of visual magnitude 7.5 and its diameter of about 8 arcminutes, it is easily visible in binoculars, and a popular observing target in amateur telescopes. The Dumbbell Nebula appears to be shaped like a prolate spheroid and is viewed from our perspective along the plane of its equator. This nebula is at most 48,000 years old, with many estimates placing it closer to the 10,000 year range! Prior to that, it was a giant star, burning through helium fuel in its core and hydrogen in its outer layers. When the core ran out of helium fuel, it contracted and heated up, and the elevation in radiation pressure first blew off the star’s outer, hydrogen-rich layers. In 1992, Moreno-Corral et al. computed that its rate of expansion in the plane of the sky was no more than 2.3" per century. From this, an upper limit to the age of 14,600 yr may be determined. In 1970, Bohuski, Smith, and Weedman found an expansion velocity of 31 km/s. Given its semi-minor axis radius of 1.01 ly, this implies that the kinematic age of the nebula is some 9,800 years.

Image Details:

- Imaging Scope: Celestron C8 SCT with F6.3 corrector

- Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Color with UV/IR Blocking filter

- Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval

- Guiding Camera: Orion Starshoot Auto Guider

- Acquisition Software: Sharpcap

- Guiding Software: PHD2

- Light Frames: 30*3 mins @ 100 Gain, -35F

- Dark Frames: 30*3 mins

- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

- Processed in PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom

One of my favorite views - the Double Cluster. 7,500 light years away.

Image Details:

- Imaging Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval

- Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Color with UV/IR Blocking filter

- Guiding Scope: Celestron C8 SCT with F6.3 corrector

- Guiding Camera: Orion Starshoot Auto Guider

- Acquisition Software: Sharpcap

- Guiding Software: PHD2

- Light Frames: 30*1.5 mins @ 100 Gain, -30F

- Dark Frames: 30*1.5 mins

- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

- Processed in PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom

A resampled and cropped version of one the Jupiter shots taken on 23rd August - Jupiter reached opposition on August 19-20. Two of Jupiter's moons are visible in this shot, Io (closest to the planet) and Europa.

Captured with SharpCap

Processed in PIPP and AutoStakkert

Post-processed in Photoshop

Image made from 2000 video frames

Gain - 11%

Exposure - 0.106461 seconds

Equipment:

Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS

Mount: Skywatcher EQ5

Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI120 MC

x2 Barlow with extension tube (equivalent to x3.3)

Ganymede approaches, casting a sharp shadow while Io heads away from the gas giant. Timelapse spans about 2.5 hours in 4 seconds. We had nice but imperfect conditions as the temperature dropped and you can see the impact of some early clouds, then clear sailing. I nodded off an hour before the capture stopped abruptly; I have no idea why tracking failed after four hours of perfect centering.

Questar 3.5"/TV 5x PowerMate/QHY 5iii178

Captured with SharpCap Pro with feature tracking using RST-135E mount. Processed in AS4, AstroSurface and PIPP. From my yard in Westchester County, NY.

A portion of the first crescent moon taken with a ZWOASI224MC planetary camera using SharpCap through a Celestron 4SE cassegrain telescope. The images were processed with RegiStax and Lightroom.

The Crescent Nebula (also known as NGC 6888, Caldwell 27, Sharpless 105) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, about 5000 light-years away from Earth. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1792.[2] It is formed by the fast stellar wind from the Wolf-Rayet star WR 136 (HD 192163) colliding with and energizing the slower moving wind ejected by the star when it became a red giant around 250,000[3] to 400,000[citation needed] years ago. The result of the collision is a shell and two shock waves, one moving outward and one moving inward. The inward moving shock wave heats the stellar wind to X-ray-emitting temperatures.

(Source: Wikipedia.org)

Technical for This Image: NGC 6888, The Crescent Nebula, is a difficult target to capture. First, it is a faint nebula and requires a good number of exposures and integration time. Second, it is in a dense star field, so image processing to bring out the nebula's detail can also over-brighten the stars around the object. This image was captured with an Explore Scientific ED102 APO Refractor telescope. At the prime focus was a ZWO ASI294MC Pro camera set to 240 Gain and cooled to a temperature of -5C. Exposures were 140 x 45s each. Guiding was done through an Orion 50mm guide scope and a ZWO ASI290MC camera and was directed by PHD2 auto-guiding software. Image acquisition was through Astrophotography Tool (APT) software. Post processing used Deep Sky Stacker software for stacking and alignment of frames and Pixinsight and Photoshop software for all other processing. Polar alignment for the evening was done through SharpCap Pro.

Seasonal Favorite, remnant of a supernova recorded in 1054. First in Messier's great catalogue of Deep Sky Objects -- not because it is biggest or brightest, but because it was the first fixed feature of the sky he observed when searching for Halley's Comet.

Tech Stuff: Borg 71FL/1.08x Borg flattener/ZWO ASI 1600MC/IDAS LPS-V4 filter. Captured with SharpCap 3.2 as 4 second exposures collected in 4 minute livestacks. Total integration time 92 minutes, processed with PixInsight and ACDSee. From my yard in Westchester County NY 2 Nov 2019.

On a rare, clear and virtually moonless night, I decided to give my first try at the Rosette Nebula. This nebula almost filled up the entire frame - I never realized how big it was!

Still need to work on my noise ratio, add a field flattener and Ha filter to my process.

Bortle Scale 7

Equipment

- Explore Scientific ED80CF

- ZWO ASI294MC Pro

- ZWO ASI290MM Mini (for guiding)

- WIlliam Optics 50mm Guidescope

- Telrad RDF

- Skywatcher EQ6 R Pro Mount

- Polemaster

Software

- Sharpcap Pro

- PHD2 Guiding

- Photoshop CC 2019 for post processing

Settings / Exposure Time

- Gain: 260

- Light Frames: 20 @ 210 sec

- Dark Frames: 15 @ 210 sec

- Bias Frames: 15

Telescope: Edge HD 8 / AVX CGEM mount

Camera: ASI585 MC with 1.5x Dakin magic barlow

Image source: 17 SER videos, 1 minute each (50% used)

Date: 09/5/2024

Location: St Charles, IL

Apparent Diameter = Planet: 19.19 arc-seconds, With Rings: 44.71 arc-seconds

NOTE: Taken with Sharpcap @33.3ms. All 17 videos de-rotated with WinJupos.

Celestron NexStar 6SE, ZWO asi224mc with IR cut filter, 2.5x TeleVue Powermate and ZWO ADC. 90 second video Captured in SharpCap, processed in PIPP, AutoStakkert, RegiStax Wavelets then Lightroom.

Fairly faint and hardly visually spectacular, Messier 71 is one of the nearest globular clusters to us at 13000 LY and is relatively young at about 10 billion years old.

Admiral Smyth described it in 1844 as… “of a very feeble light”.

It lies fairly close to the edge of the Milky Way so the stellar background is quite crowded which reduces contrast.

For many years, astronomers thought it looked more like an small open cluster than a globular until high resolution spectroscopy confirmed it was a globular.

This was my first image since March with my Esprit 120 scope. I had a lot of trouble with it out of the box back then with a faulty mechanical focuser and pinched optics from an overtightened lens unit - it took me most of last season to sort that out.

Given a 68% waning Moon, scudding cloud, a gusty wind and Saharan sand in the atmosphere (!), I thought I should go for something straightforward and its always nice to bag another Messier object!

I'd planned to get 30 x 2 minute subs over an hour but strong gusts of wind and scudding cloud left me with 25 x subs over 2 hours.

I'm just happy that my stars are round instead of hexagonal and the focuser was flawless.

Technical Card

840/120mm f/7 SkyWatcher Esprit 120ED triplet refractor.

SkyWatcher 1.0 x FF with 2 inch IDAS LPS P3 filter

ZWO ASI2600MC; 25 x 120 second 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 350)

FWHM multistar focusing - the best FWHM reading I could get was 4.3 - I didn't know it but next morning, the media had lots of pictures of dusty sunsets all over the UK - Saharan sand suspended in the atmosphere.

40 dark frames

60 flat frames (electroluminescent panel, 3000ms exposure at Gain 0).

Post processed in PixInsight 1.8.9.2.

Light Pollution and Weather:

Gusts of wind and scudding cloud. About half of all subs were discarded.

SQM (L) not measured due to waning Moon.

Polar Alignment:

PoleMaster alignment

Error measured by PHD2= 3.1 arc minute.

RA drift + 3.85 arcsec/min

Dec drift + 0.78 arcsec/min

Guiding:

PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/Primalucelab

240/60mm guider.

RA RMS error 0.77 arcsec

Dec RMS error 0.74 arcsec

This deteriorated later in the evening as it got windier.

I'm thinking of changing to a 320mm f4 guide scope - I understand guide FL should be about 1/3 of scope FL.

Astrometry:

Focal distance: 862.40 mm

Pixel size: 3.76 um

Resolution: 0.9 arcsec/pxl.

Field of view:55' 34.6" x 34' 45.5"

Image centre: RA: 19 53 44.124 Dec: +18 46 01.89

A timelapse of the Great Red Spot transiting the face of Jupiter, compressing 4 real hours down to 3 seconds. I deleted moments obscured by clouds, causing the appearance of accelerated movement during the first third of the transit. Ganymede (L) and Io move outwards.

Questar 3.5"/TV 5X PowerMate/QHY 5iii 178/ IR-cut filter/RST 135E mount. Captured with SharpCap; processed with AS4/AstroSurface/PixInsight and PIPP. From my yard in Westchester County, NY.

A 95% Waxing Moon processed in Photoshop to enhance the little colour that is seen in the moon.

M: iOptron EQ45-Pro

T: Celestron C8 SCT + F6.3 Reducer.

C: ZWO ASI1600MC-Cooled

F: No Filters

G: PHD2

GC: ZWO ASI120mini [OAG]

RAW16: SER

Temp: -15 DegC

Gain: 139

Lights: 200 x 0.001236s

Darks: 0

Flats: 0

80% Crop

Capture: SharpCap

Processed: DSS; PS

Sky: 95% Moon, no wind, 0% to 5% cloud, cold and damp, good seeing.

Bortle 5 Sky.

Distance from Earth: 384,400 km

Uma bela Lua registrada ainda com o Sol acima do Horizonte.

Composição feita com seis painéis, em screenshot, através do sharpcap.

Telescópio: 114mm rf 4,3

câmera: webcam logitech c/270

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 registax photoshop

Messier 1 [M1]. A supernova remnant in the constellation of Taurus.

M: iOptron EQ45-Pro

T: William Optics GTF81

C: ZWO ASI1600MC-Cooled

F: IDAS-LPS D2 (Light Pollution Filter)

G: PHD2

GC: ZWO ASI120mini - OAG

RAW16; FITs

Temp: -15 DegC

Gain 250;

19 x Exp 400s

1 x Exp 300s

Frames: 20 Lights; 10 Darks; 20 flats; 20 Dark Flats.

60% Crop

Capture: SharpCap

Processed: APP; PS

Sky: 10% Crescent moon, calm, minimal cloud, cold, good seeing.

6,523 light years distant.

The amount of stars in this image make the thing there HAS to be some other life out there.

Equipment

- Nikon D90 (Astro-Mod)

- Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer

- Sky-Watcher Tripod

- AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6

- Bahintov Mask

- Intervalometer

- Laptop

- All Sky Plate Solver

- Sharpcap

- Stellarium

Acquisition:

- ISO 800

- f/5.6

- Bortle 2-4

- Taken on 7/22/2021

- 183 light frames x 1 minute

- 150 bias frames

- 22 dark frames

- 100 flat frames

Processing:

- Calibrated subframes using WBPP

- Stacked using Normalize scale gradient

- crop out stacking artifacts

- extract luminance

- DBE

- Photometric color calibration

- EZ soft stretch

- Curves transformation

- HDR multiscale transform

- LRGB combination

Website: theastroenthusiast.com/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/the_astronomy_enthusiast/

Stellarvue ED70 CF

Losmandy GM8 Digital Drive

Daystar Quark Chromosphere filter

Player One XENA-M

Capture with SharpCap 4.1 Pro/Processed with Pixinsight Solar Toolbox

M: iOptron EQ45-Pro

T: WO GTF81 Refractor

C: ZWO ASI1600MC-Cooled

G: 200mm (FL) Finder and PHD2

GC: ZWO ASI120MC

RAW16; FITs

Temp: -25 DegC

Group 1: Gain 300; Exp: 180s

Frames: 38 Lights; 4 Darks

Group 2: Gain 260; Exp 60s

Frames: 40 Lights; 5 Darks; 100 flats

98% Crop

Capture: Sharpcap

Processed: DSS; PS, Gradient Exterminator.

Sky: No moon, breezy, no cloud.

Gear:

Imaging Camera: ASI183MM- Pro w/ EAF, EFW

Filters: Astrodon 1.25" 3nm Ha, OIII and SII

Main Scope: Orion 8" f4 Newt

Guidescope: Williams Optics 50mm Uniguide

Guidecam: ASI120MM mini

Mount: SW EQ6R Pro

Coma Corrector: Skywatcher Quattro

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Image details:

30% crop to enhance detail

70x300s, Ha, Gain 139, -15c

55x300s, OIII, Gain 139, -15c

45x300s, OIII, Gain 139, -15c

25 darks

14 hrs total integration

Bortle 5/6 sky

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Acquisition/Edits:

SharpCap, NINA, PHD2, Stellarium, Pixinsight, Photoshop, Starspikes Pro

QHY268M + Samyang 135mm f/2

Saxon AZ/EQ6 GT, no guiding

6nm filters Ha: 40x4 mins, Sii: 30x4 mins, Oiii: 30x4 mins

Calibration frames: 6 darks, 250 bias, 35 flats

Captured using Sharpcap Pro & ASCOM EQmod

Processed using DeepSkyStacker, Pixinsight, Photoshop, Lightroom & Starnet

#astro #astrophotography #astronomy #space #deepspace #deepsky #universe #divine #heaven #galactic #light #nebulosity #nebula #nebulae

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

The night of 6th-7th August was very clear in London So we thought we'd image some planets for a change. At this time, this year, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars are well placed for imaging although Jupiter and Saturn are very low in the sky. Jupiter reached opposition on July 14 this year so in this shot it is no longer as impressive as it was a couple of weeks ago but it's still big and bright enough to be interesting to image. We took numerous shots at different gain settings and exposures and this is the first image that I'm happy with but there are still lots more to process. This is a composite shot with the moons taken from another video, stacked and placed in the correct positions. Europa is on the left and Io is on the right. The final picture was resampled to make it larger while maintaining quality.

Captured with SharpCap

Processed in PIPP, AutoStakkert and Registax

Post-processed in Photoshop

PLANET

2001 stacked video frames at 30 fps

Gain - 80%

Exposure - 0.011533 seconds

Total integration - 23.08 seconds

MOONS

2000 stacked video frames at 30 fps

Gain - 50%

Exposure - 0.017449 seconds

Total integration - 34.90 seconds

Equipment:

Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS

Sky-Watcher EQ5 Mount

ZWO ASI120 MC camera

x2 Barlow with extension tube (equivalent to x3.3)

Created using 2 exposures (one for moons, one for the planet) combined into one image. Celestron Nexstar 6SE, ZWO asi224mc, ZWO ADC, 3 minute captures in SharpCap processed in PIPP, AutoStakkert3, RegiStax Wavelets and finished in Lightroom.

Celestron NexStar 6SE, ZWO asi224mc with IR cut filter, 2.5x TeleVue Powermate and ZWO ADC. 3 minute video Captured in SharpCap, processed in PIPP, AutoStakkert, RegiStax Wavelets then 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.

Taken with the WO RedCat refractor, Over 2 nights

ASI Zwo 294MC Pro cooled color camera IR/cut filter

M42 with Zwo 183MC Pro Cooled color camera

Had clear skies last night, No guiding

#SharpCap Pro, PoleMaster

Orion Skyview Pro EQ mount

120 Gain offset 10 and 20, -10c cooling,

M42 was 50 minutes, 30 seconds each

North Star was 25 minutes, 30 seconds

Markarian's Chains was 130 minutes, 30 seconds

50 darks 50 flats and 50 bias frames

Astro Pixel Processor and PS

Saturn is at opposition with Earth on 27th June (this is when Earth is aligned between the Sun and Saturn and so is at its closest to the planet). This means that at a mere 1.2 billion kilometers away Saturn appears bigger and brighter in the night sky and it's the best time to image it. This image was taken on 23rd June, very close to opposition so much more detail is showing including at least three of its rings as well as the Cassini division. Also visible is some of the banding in the planet's turbulent atmosphere caused by its fast rotation of 10 and a half hours. This image has been cropped to enlarge the features.

Created from 1,978 frames of video (best 75% of 2,000 frames)

Exposure - 0.069112 at 75% gain

Captured with SharpCap

Processed in AutoStakkert, Registax and Photoshop

Equipment:

Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS

Skywatcher EQ5 Mount

ZWO ASI 120 MC camera

x2 Barlow with extension tubes

Struggling with terrible seeing.

Seeing 2/5

Transparency 4/5.

10 min video derotated. 1.5X drizzle

C9.25 EDGEHD (F=2350mm)

ZWO120MC

SharpCap

Winjupos

AutoStakkert

PixInsight

Eng. - Saturn

Time: 15 July 2023, 03:20 UT

Telescope: Celestron SC 203/2032mm @ f/35

Eyepiece projection / f=15mm /

Mount: CG-5 AS-GT

Camera: ZWO ASI 120MC-S, 18fps

Stack: 15% of total 3100 frames

Software: SharpCap, AutoStakkert! 2.1, Registax6, GIMP

Place: Virovitica, Hrvatska - Croatia

Gear:

Imaging Camera: ASI294MM-Pro

Filters: Astrodon 1.25" 3nm Ha

Main Scope: Orion 8" f4 Newt

Guidescope: Williams Optics 50mm Uniguide

Guidecam: ASI120MM mini

Mount: SW EQ6R-Pro

ZWO EAF, EFW

-

Image Details:

HA-140x180s, gain 120, bin 2x2, -10c

OIII-130x180s, gain 120, bin 2x2, -10c

13.5 hrs total integration

-

Location: Parker, CO, USA

Bortle 5/6 sky

-

Acquisition/Edits:

SharpCap, NINA, PHD2, Stellarium, Pixinsight, Photoshop CC

Telescopio: Refractor Bresser Messier Acro 102/460 f4.5

Cámara: ZWO ASI178MM

Montura: EQ5 Bresser EXOS2 motorizada sin goto

Filtros: Baader Green CCD Filter

Software: SharpCap, AutoStakkert, Registax y Photoshop

Fecha: 2019-05-10

Hora: 20:48 T.U.

Fase lunar: 36.8% 5.92 días Creciente

Lugar: 42.615 N -6.417 W (Bembibre Spain)

Vídeo: 3 minutos

Resolución: 3096 x 2080

Gain: 90

Exposure: 0,004199

Frames: 2536

Frames apilados: 50%

FPS: 14.07

La V lunare si forma a causa della luce solare che arriva radente sul cratere Ukert (diametro 22 Km) e su alcuni crateri più piccoli nei dintorni. Come per la X, la V è ben visibile per alcune ore quando la Luna si trova in una fase prossima al Primo Quarto.

Dati:

- Telescopio Celestron 114/910 Newtoniano

- Montatura Eq2 con motore AR

- Camera planetaria QHY5L-II-C

- Filtro UV-Ir cut

- Barlow 2x Celestron Omni

- Sharpcap per acquisire un video da 2100 fotogrammi

- Autostakkert!3 e Registax 6 per elaborare circa il 50% dei fotogrammi

- GIMP per regolare luminosità e contrasto

- Luogo: Cabras, Sardegna, Italia

- Data: 6 giugno 2022

- Ora: 22:01 UTC (00:01 ora locale del 7 giugno)

Rare night with better seeing. Olympus Mons is easily visible rising on the eastern horizon (upper left edge)

2 X 5 min de-rotate.

Transparency (4/5)

Seeing (3/5)

C9.25 EDGEHD (F=2350mm)

ZWO120MC

SharpCap

Winjupos

AutoStakkert

PixInsight

M94 is about 16 million light years away, and is called the "Cat's Eye" galaxy thanks to the double ringed structure.

Tech Stuff: Borg 71 FL with 1.08X Borg flattener/IDAS LPS-D2/ZWO ASI 1600MC. 84 minutes of unguided 4 second exposures, collected in SharpCap LiveStacks, processed with PixInsight and Topaz DeNoise AI. From my yard in Westchester County, NY

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

This image of edge-on galaxy NGC 891 adds color data to the monochrome image here www.flickr.com/photos/124244349@N07/37267276371/in/photos.... NGC 891 is 30 million light years distant and is said to resemble our milky way as viewed from the side.

Tech Stuff: Questar 3.5" telescope at native 1570 focal length (f ratio 18); unguided Questar PGII fork mount. QHY163 mono camera using SharpCap Live stacks of 8 second subframes; total exposure in minutes L 49, R 42, G 13, B 25 (differences are arbitrary. L bin 1; RGB bin2). Processed with PixInsight. Imaged from my yard 10 miles north of New York City as part of my continuing exploration of ultraportable urban astrophotography.

Object Details: For a few minutes on Wednesday evening November 2, 2022 Jupiter's moons Ganymede and Europa both threw their shadows onto the planet's cloud tops. I was fortunate to catch this event using one of the longer focal-length scopes.

The attached shows how it appeared in three different wavelengths. As noted on the lightness version of the luminance image, Ganymede's shadow was just rotating on at left, while Europa's shadow was just rotating off at right. The moons themselves can be seen to the right of the planet, while at left the moon Io hangs out and watches the show ;) .

At 3,122 kms (1,940 mi) in diameter, Europa is the smallest of Jupiter's four Galilean moons; while having a diameter of 5,268 km (3,274 mi.) Ganymede is the largest (and is actually bigger than the plant Mercury at 4,879 km (3,032 mi) ! ). Looking closely at the luminance image one can see the huge shadow of Ganymede appears elongated, lower-left to upper-right, as it falls upon the curved cloud tops of Jupiter's sphere.

As is often the case, the infrared image shows additional detail in the planet's cloud tops given that filter's ability to reduce the detrimental effects of poor seeing to some degree. As such many Jovian atmospheric phenomena such as festoons, barges, 'smaller' storms, etc. become more apparent in that wavelength. Being a methane blocking filter, Jupiter's moons, which contain little to no Methane, appear much brighter relative to the planet itself in that filter's image.

Image Details: Taken by Jay Edwards over the course of approximately 15 minutes on the evening of November 2, 2022 (UT date of the 3rd) from the observatory I built at my home here in upstate NY; the data making up the attached composite was acquired using a vintage 1970, 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector and a 3X Televue barlow connected to a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / autoguider. As is often the case here the camera was controlled by SharpCap Pro & the scope was mounted and tracked using a Losmandy G-11 running a Gemini 2 control system.

Each image is a stack of several hundred frames selected from video clips which were kept fairly short due to Jupiter's fast rate of rotation. Since humans tend to see detail in an image via it's contrast and brightness, as opposed to it's color, I have extracted the lightness channel from each image and placed them in the second row. As shown here the data have been processed using a combination of Registax & Paint Shop Pro, and the entire composite has been resized down to 50% of it's original size.

I was able to capture additional images that evening both prior to and following this event, although I have yet to process any of it. Given that a quick look at the earlier shots appears to show that they may picked up the disk of Ganymede itself as it transited Jupiter earlier that evening, I'm looking forward to seeing what I can pull out of the data.

Wishing clear, calm & dark skies to all !

Similar planetary & solar composites can be found in the albums at the attached links:

Jupiter:

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760574...

Saturn:

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760574...

Mars:

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760574...

Solar:

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760573...

This distinctive emission nebula in Canis Major has been a target of interest to me for a couple of years but it's low in my sky and only accessible for imaging for a limited window on winter nights. I tried a few different optical and filtering setups before settling on narrowband imaging with a mono camera and refractive optics. Here OIII blue and green show glowing Oxygen and H-alpha red shows glowing Hydrogen, largely overlapped in the structure. Without the side "wings" this resembles the bubble nebula, with gasses expanding out from a super-hot Wolf Rayet star. Various sources say it's 11-15,000 light years away and about 30 light years across.

Tech Stuff:

Borg 71FL with 2X TV Powermate for 800mm fl (f/11)

iOptron CubePro 8200 EQ mode guided with PHD2

QHY 163 mono bin 2 15 second exposures livestacked with SharpCap 3.2 using dark and flat subtraction, -30° C

Astronomik Ha filter 64 minutes

Astronomk O3 filter 70 minutes

processed with PixInsight and ACDSee18

imaged from my yard 10 miles north of NYC Feb 3-6 2019

SQM-L readings 18.6-18.9 (Red Zone/Bortle 6-7)

Part of my ongoing exploration of ultraportable urban/suburban imaging techniques

SH2-290 ou Abell 31 (ou PK 219+31.1) est une nébuleuse planétaire.

Elle est située dans la constellation du Cancer et se trouve à environ 2000 Années-lumière de nous.

C’est une des plus grosses nébuleuses planétaires dans le ciel (similaire à Hélix) mais très peu brillante avec une luminosité surfacique typique des nébuleuses planétaires anciennes qui se diluent doucement dans l’espace.

Abell 31 est donc une très ancienne nébuleuse planétaire dont le gaz a commencé à se disperser il y a plusieurs milliards d’années.

Son étoile centrale est une petite naine blanche (environ 4% de la taille du soleil et donc 4 fois la taille de la Terre) mais qui est encore incroyablement chaude (~85000 °C)

sur l'image, au dessus, à gauche, on peut distinguer une petite trace, elle correspond à l'astéroïde 339 Dorothéa qui était visible

Dorotea (officiellement 339 Dorothea) est un astéroïde de la ceinture principale avec un diamètre moyen d'environ 38,25 km. Découvert par Max Wolf le 25 septembre 1892.

Son nom est dédié à l'astronome Dorothea Klumpke Roberts, épouse de l'astronome Isaac Roberts, et qui fut la première femme diplômée en mathématiques à l'université de la Sorbonne

il a une période orbitale de 1909 jours

matériel :

FSQ-106ED,

monture NEQ6 pro goto

caméra ZWO 1600MC-C avec filtre IDAS-LPS-D1

logiciel acquisition : Sharpcap 3.2

logiciel guidage : phd2

traitement avec deepskystacker, PSS

Image issue de 54 poses de 600s sur 3 nuits du 20 au 22 février.

M7, an Open Star Cluster in Scorpius.

RASA8 with ASI294Mc Pro on a CEM40 mount.

Unguided but with polar alignment using PoleMaster.

Captured using SharpCap

21*30 seconds so approx 10 minutes total capture time.

Camera = 0 degrees,

Gain = 300.

Processed in AstroPixel Processor, lights only.

Severe dew on the front element and still able to get this image...

This distinctive emission nebula in Canis Major is s tough target, faint and low in my sky. Imaged here in Narrowband, I have combined new data with last year's attempt. While this enhances the signal to background, I made an error in capture adding a lot of "walking noise" to the image, processed away to some degree.

2019 version here www.flickr.com/photos/124244349@N07/46098539945/in/datepo...

Tech Stuff:

Borg 71FL with 2X TV Powermate for 800mm fl (f/11)

iOptron CubePro 8200 EQ mode guided with PHD2

QHY 163 mono bin 2 15 second exposures livestacked with SharpCap 3.2

Astronomik Ha filter 142 minutes

Astronomk O3 filter 170 minutes

processed with PixInsight and ACDSee18

imaged from my yard 10 miles north of NYC Feb 2019 and 2020

SQM-L readings 18.6-18.9 (Red Zone/Bortle 6-7)

A large array of huge sunspots spanning across the sun's photosphere.

This photo was captured during the early afternoon of 9th August, 2024.

I used an 8" F5 newtonian stopped down to F20, a ZWO 533MM, Antlia red filter to reduce turbulent light from the blue channel and Baader solar film for a pure white and accurate image.

8000 frames captured via SharpCap using the seeing activated capture feature in the Pro version. This is incredibly helpful on days where conditions are inconsistent with clouds!

PIPP & Autostakkert 4 were used for stacking / stabilising. Register used for post and final work in Photoshop CC.

Andromeda Galaxy

Skywatcher 130/650 PDS

ASI 1600MM-C -20C gain 139

ZWO filters

1 minutes

29x L

20x R

20x G

20x B

20x dark frames

30x flat frames

0x bias frames

Skywatcher HEQ5

PHD2

Sharpcap 3.1

Deep Sky Stacker Kappa sigma clipping

Pixinsight 1.8

NGC 869 and NGC 884 Double Cluster in Perseus, taken from a Bortle 4 site in Landers, CA, USA on a New Moon night. I've always liked the colors surrounding these star clusters. And the stark contrast of these shining points of light against the dark sky shows a bit of the reason why we enjoy looking up at the night sky.

Technical Information for This Image

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED102 FL 714mm F7. Guiding was with Orion 50mm Guide Scope FL 242mm with a ZWO ASI290MC for the guide camera. Mount: Celestron Advanced VX. Main imaging camera: Canon T7i DSLR at Prime Focus. Exposures:70 x 45s with ISO 800. Used 10 darks, and no flats or bias frames. Acquisition was through Astrophotography Tool (APT) software. Processing was through Pixinsight software with finishing touches in Adobe Photoshop. Polar Alignment was done through SharpCap Pro software.

Artistic Version with Pearl

Riprese effettuate il 28-29-30-31 Luglio + 01 Agosto 2024 da Ariccia Provincia di Roma

Zenith sky brightness info (2015)

SQM 19.20 mag./arc sec2

Brightness 2.25 mcd/m2

Artif. bright. 2080 μcd/m2

Ratio 12.2

Bortle class 6

Elevation 302 meters

Luna : Da Ultimo Quarto a Mezzaluna calante

Magnitudine visuale: Da -11.2 a -8.5

Dimensione: Da 0° 32' 34.7" a 0° 31' 24.2"

Illuminazione: 10.1%

Età: 26.5 giorni

Dati di scatto, Strumentazione e Software:

Telescopio : Tecnosky LUX60 60mm 360mm F/6 APO FPL53 doppietto

Fotocamera : ZWO ASI 2600MC

Montatura : Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro

Autoguida : ASI 120MMini & Svbony SV165 30mm 120mm F/4

Luci : 145x600s @100 Guadagno, -5°C, 40 Dark, 40 Flat

Acquisizione : SharpCap

Guida : PHD2

Filtri : IDAS NGS1 + IDAS NBZ

Elaborazione : Siril, GraXpert, Starnet++, Photoshop CC, NoiseXterminator

Autore: Carlo Mollicone

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Sh2-119 - LBN 391 - aka The Clamshell Nebula

Sh2-119 è una nebulosa diffusa osservabile nella costellazione del Cigno, si trova a circa 2200 anni luce di distanza.

La sua forma appare simile a due gusci (per questo chiamata la Nebulosa a Conchiglia) che si dispongono ad est e ad ovest di 68 Cygni, la parte orientale è la più estesa e sembra avvolgere la stella 68 Cygni, di quinta magnitudine (la perla in questa immagine) è una delle stelle responsabili della ionizzazione del gas circostante.

Nella parte meridionale sono visibili dei sottili filamenti e bozzoli di nebulosità oscure, che contrastano fortemente sia con il chiarore della nebulosa che con il ricco campo stellare di sottofondo.

Si individua circa 2 gradi ad ovest della Nebulosa Nord America, o 9 gradi ad ovest della brillante stella Deneb.

La nebulosa a conchiglia viene spesso trascurata dagli astrofotgrafi per via della debole emissione in Ha, molto debole in SII ed estremamente debole in OIII.

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#astrofotografia #astrophotography #zwo #deepsky #deepspace #universetoday #nebulae #nightsky #astronomy #astrophoto #nightphotography #longexposure #cosmos #space #universe #sky #dark #stars #stargazing

astrofotografia astrophotography zwo deepsky deepspace universetoday nebulae nightsky astronomy astrophoto nightphotography longexposure cosmos space universe sky dark stars stargazing

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Ecco un'immagine del pianeta con le sue quattro lune medicee e alcuni dettagli della sua atmosfera come la GMR, visibile quasi sul meridiano centrale.

Ricordo che il 13 aprile prossimo è previsto il lancio della sonda Juice dell'ESA che avrà lo scopo di esplorare e studiare il sistema e in particolare le sue lune ghiacciate Europa, Ganimede e Callisto. La sonda partirà da Kourou, in Guyana francese, e il suo arrivo è previsto a luglio 2031, dopo alcune manovre gravitazionali che la porteranno nella giusta traiettoria verso il pianeta.

Telescopio Celestron 114/910 Newton

Montatura eq2 motorizzata Sky-Watcher

Camera QHY5L-II-C

Barlow 2x Celestron Omni

Filtro UV IR cut

Sharpcap 3.2 per un video contenente 1766 fotogrammi

AS!3 e Astrosurface T5 per elaborarne il 31%

GIMP per indicare i satelliti

Gain 13 su 22

Esposizione: 13,94 ms

Luogo: Cabras, Sardegna, Italia

Data: 16 ottobre 2022 alle 21:32 UTC

It's been a long time since we did close-ups of the moon. Precise lunar tracking is much harder than using sidereal tracking so the results were not sharp enough. But now we've tweaked the Arduino code and the results are much better. This image is of Mare Nectaris (Latin for "Sea of Nectar"), a small lunar mare or sea (a volcanic lava plain noticeably darker than the rest of the Moon's surface). It is located just south of Mare Tranquillitatis.

Captured with SharpCap

Processed in PIPP and AutoStakkert

Post-processed in Photoshop

Date: 01/12/2023

Jupiter

Made from 1,000 stacked video frames

Gain - 139 (Unity)

Exposure - 0.005244 seconds

Integration - 5.24 seconds

Equipment:

Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS

Guide scope: Orion 50mm Mini

Guide camera: SVBony SV105 with ZWO USBST4 guider adapter

Mount: Skywatcher EQ5

Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI120 MC

x2 Barlow with extension tube (equivalent to x3.3)

Planeta Netuno

Data - 17/08/2020

Hora - 21:59 local (-3 UTC)

Lat - 7,13S

Log - 34,83W

Local - João Pessoa, PB - Brasil

Bortle - Class 8

Telescopio - SW 1200mm 150mm

Câmera - ZWO ASI 120 Color

Montagem - EQ5

Motorização - On Step

Ligth - 1591 frames (50%)

Software Captura - Sharpcap

Softwares Processamento - AS3/Registax/PS

Crescent Nebula

last ditch effort to get something last night despite nicest, calmest skies ever lol.

I did not think this was even going to have any detail based on the APT preview. My mount was not tracking well either so probably best I did not stay up till 4AM on this. I only got 11 3 minutes exposures but shocked.

I had to turn off my DIY cooler because the red LED was leaking into the frame :(

11@ 180 seconds gain 111, offfset 5, 100 bias, 30 flats, 20 darks HA filter

Scope: AT65EDQ

Mount: iOptron iEQ45

Camera: ZWO ASI183M non cooled

Guide camera: QHY5Lii

Guide Scope: Meade 60mm achro fl 300

Orion 5 position manual filter wheel

ZWO LRGB

Schuler HA 9nm, Schuler 9nm Sii

MyFocuer Pro v2 (Robert Brown)

Software: APT, PHD2, Sharpcap, CdC, Pixinsight, Photoshop, Nic Dfine 2, Astronomy Tools plug in, Google Chrome Remote Desktop