Lotus Elite (Type 14) (1958-63) Engine 1216cc S4 Coventry Climax FWE Production 1030

Entrant John Danby Racing

Race Number 97 Oliver Stirling

Registration Number 100 CNR (Leicestershire)

LOTUS SET

www.flickr.com/photos/45676495@N05/sets/72157623671671113...

An ultra light 2 seat Coupe, debuting at the 1957 London Earls Court, Motor Show.

The Elite's most distinctive feature was its highly innovative fiberglass monocoque construction, in which a stressed-skin unibody replaced the previously separate chassis and body components. the Elite also used this glass-reinforced plastic material for the entire load-bearing structure of the car, though the front of the monocoque incorporated a steel subframe supporting the engine and front suspension, and there was a hoop at the windscreen for mounting door hinges and jacking the car up.

The first 250 bodies were produced by Maximar Mouldings at Pulborough, Sussex but production problems caused numerous early problems, until manufacture was handed over to Bristol Aeroplane Company

Diolch am olygfa anhygoel, 64,640,701

oblogaeth y Lloegr honno dros y Mynyddoedd

Thanks for a stonking 64,640,701 views

Shot 05.05.2018 at Donington Historic Festival, Donington Park, Leic Ref 133-219

,

Total exposure was 2 hours 32 minutes at ISO 800 (61 subframes of 150 seconds were stacked). I used Canon 1000D without IR-filter and telescope-refractor Sky-Watcher ED-80 (F=510mm, D=80mm, f/6.4).

The planetary nebula NGC2818, another southern target in the Pyxis constellation. This is an Ha L O3 RGB exposure for about 8.5 hrs; Scope GSO RC 30cms, camera Sbig STF8300/AO-8 operating at -35°C. 12 min subframes, from my backyard observatory at La Colonia, Illapel, Chile. This planetary nebula (PLN) doesn't belong to the open cluster (NGC 2818A), but have near the same distance to us.

La nebulosa planetaria denominada NGC2818 en la sureña constelación de Pyxis. No pertenece al cúmulo abierto (NGC 2818 A), sino que está por coincidencia a una distancia y línea de visión similares. Exposición con filtros Ha-L-O3 y RGB, subframes de 12 minutos, telescopio GSO RC de 30cms, cámara Sbig STF8300/AO-8 operando a -35°C, desde mi observatorio casero en La Colonia, Illapel, Chile.

Comet C252/P, captured today (2016-04-30) between 0:45h and 2:45h UT in Tenerife, 1180 m altitude. After stacking the subframes I was very surprised by these faint HII regions (unknown to me; perhaps someone can give me some information) at top of the coma and also under the near coma part of the tail (giving false red color to it).

Coma diameter is 37 ' and tail length about 1 degree.

Parallel exposure resulting in a LRGB image.

RGB: 120 x 45 sec, Sony A7s (CentralDS modded), Hyperstar 14"/F1.9, ISO3200, IR block filter

Monochrome: 40 x 180 sec, Starlight Xpress SX-36, RASA 11"/F2.2, L-pro filter

Both mounted at a ASA DDM 85 (unguided)

Manufacturer: Daimler-Benz AG, Stuttgart - Germany

Type: 190 SL 121-Serie W121 B II BM121.042 Roadster

Production time: May 1955 - February 1963

Production outlet: 25,881

Engine: 1897cc straight-4 Daimler-Benz M 121 B II SOHC (mounted on a detachable sub-frame)

Power: 105 bhp / 5.700 rpm

Torque: 142 Nm / 3.200 rpm

Drivetrain: rear wheels

Speed: 171 km/h

Curb weight: 1164 kg

Wheelbase: 94.5 inch

Chassis: self-supporting (frame-floor unit with welded unibody), front subframe with front suspension, engine block and steering

Steering: recirculating ball

Gearbox: four-speed manual / all synchromesh / floor shift

Clutch: single dry late disc

Carburettor: twin Solex 44 PHH 2-barrel downdraft

Fuel tank: 65 liter

Electric system: Bosch 12 Volts 56 Ah

Ignition system: distributor and coil

Brakes front: ATE-T-50 power assisted hydraulic 9.1 inch Duplex drums

Brakes rear: ATE-T-50 power assisted hydraulic 9.1 inch drums

Suspension front: independent trapezoidal double wishbones, sway bar, coil springs with rubber auxiliary springs + hydraulic telescopic shock absorbers

Suspension rear: independent single-joint swing axle with longitudinal sliding struts, coil springs with rubber auxiliary springs + hydraulic telescopic shock absorbers

Rear axle: swing axle

Differential: hypoid 3,90:1

Wheels: 5K x 13

Tires: 6.40 - 13 Sport

Options: power brakes (standard from 1956), small third-passenger transverse seat, removable hardtop roof, removable hardtop roof with storage box made of wood, high-gloss paint, safety belts in front (from 1961), cigarette lighter, leather seats, special interior with Becker Mexico radio and automatic antenna, whitewall tires, sealed beam headlights, fog lights, “English” instruments, separate cross seat in the back, bumper overriders, wheel trim rings, chrome stone guards, chrome rocker strip, jack-hole covers, eyebrow chrome on fenders, ski holders, various suitcases, two-tone colouring

Special:

- Established in 1871, Benz & Cie. was the most important of several companies founded by Karl Benz.

- Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) was founded by Gottlieb Daimler and his partner Wilhelm Maybach in 1890. Daimler died in 1900 and Maybach left DMG in 1907.

- By then, Benz & Cie. and DMG were rivals.

- In 1924, owing to economic necessity after World War I, they entered into an "Agreement of Mutual Interest", allowing each company to manufacture and sell their products under their original brand names. After the official merger in June 28, 1926, the firm became known as Daimler-Benz.

- The SL was designed by Karl Wilfert, Friedrich Geiger and Walter Häcker and as prototype introduced at the 1954 New York Auto Show. The production model was revealed at the 1955 Geneva Auto Show.

- The “S” stands for “Sport”/ “Sports” while the “L” meant “Leichts”/ “Light”. Some say “SL” stands for “Sehr Leicht”/ “Very Light”.

- During its first years the 190 SLR was available as a sports-racing model with small perspex windscreen and spartan one-piece leather covered bucket seats and aluminum doors.

- The 190 SL was primarily intended for the US market; a lot of comfort, but little speed.

- Some owners leave the hardtop permanently on their cars, but an official Coupé was never produced.

- All SL's were assembled in Untertürkheim, Stuttgart - Germany.

- From the total of 25,881 units built, 5,245 remained in Germany, 20,636 units were exported, including 10,368 units to the United States.

1994 Vauxhall Calibra turbo 4x4.

Last MoT test expired on 8th January 2022 (SORN).

It failed a test on 9th May 2022 -

Offside front outer drive shaft joint constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (6.1.7 (g) (ii)) - Major

Offside rear coil spring fractured or broken broken (5.3.1 (b) (i)) - Major

Nearside front suspension component mounting prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength subframe (5.3.6 (a) (i)) - Major

Emissions not tested do to fuel leak (8.2.2.2 (e)) - Major

Fuel system component leaking pipe (6.1.3 (b) (i)) - Major

Photo with kind permission of [https://www.flickr.com/photos/34679063@N04].

This is a detailed Moon mosaic using an infrared pass filter. The mosaic is made up of 24 individual frames, each one is a stack of the best 40% of 1,200 subframes. Taken in trying conditions with occasional rain causing me to dive for cover and protect the scope and mount before I started. By the time I had finished and closed up my home-built observatory the rain had started in earnest.

Peter

Equipment:

ZWO ASI174MM Cool mono CMOS camera, IR pass filter, 14inch f/10 LX200 SCT OTA, EQ8 mount

This is the nebulosity surounding attractive star cluster NGC 6910 in Cygnus. The image is a stack of eleven five-minute subframes in Hydrogen Alpha.

Peter

Equipment:

Atik 460EX mono CCD, 130mm triplet APO, EQ8 mount. As part of a test of accuracy in RA of my EQ8 all images were captured unguided.

I've photographed sections of the Cygnus Loop several times before but never had a telescope and camera that had a wide enough field to capture the loop in its entirety. The Dwarf III in mosaic mode finally gave me that capability.

I captured this image two ways to create three different iterations. First I took 200 subframes 15 seconds each using the Astro filter built into the Dwarf III. This is good for representing stars without bloat. It does not do a good job of revealing detail in nebulae. Next I took 200 subframes 30 seconds each using a Duo filter. This filter is good at revealing nebulae details, but tends to produce stars than are not terribly sharp.

I first tried combing the results of both filters, but I didn't particularly like the result. Neither did I like the result of the Astro filter. The Duo filter produced the most pleasing image to my eye, which is what is posted above.

Austin Metro 1.3 HLE (1980-97) Engine 1275cc S4 OHV Tr. Production 2,078,218 (includes Rover 100)

Registration Number E 907 PFL (Peterborough)

AUSTIN ALBUM

www.flickr.com/photos/45676495@N05/sets/72157623759808208...

introduced the Austin mini Metro. It was intended as a big brother, rather than as a replacement, for the Mini, Some of the Mini's underpinnings were carried over into the Metro, namely the 998 cc and 1275 cc A-Series engines, much of the front-wheel drivetrain and four-speed manual gearbox, and suspension subframes. The Metro used the Hydragas suspension system found on the Allegro but without front to rear interconnection. The hatchback body shell was one of the most spacious of its time and this was a significant factor in its popularity. Initially, the Metro was sold as a three-door hatchback, followed later by the five door model.

The Metro range was expanded in 1982 to include the luxury Vanden Plas and higher performance MG versions. The Vanden Plas featured higher levels of luxury and equipment, while the slightly more powerful MG Metro 1.3 sold as a sports model. The Vanden Plas variant received the same MG engine from 1984 onwards (with the exception of the VP Automatic, which retained the 63 bhp version, The luxury fittings marking out the Metro Vanden Plas took the form of a radio-cassette player, electric front windows, an improved instrument panel with tachometer, and a variety of optional extras such as trip computer, leather trim, remote boot release, and front fog lamps

Diolch am 92,393,631 o olygfeydd anhygoel, mae pob un yn cael ei werthfawrogi'n fawr.

Thanks for 92,393,631 amazing views, every one is greatly appreciated.

Shot 23.04.2022 at the Bicester Spring Scramble, Bicester, Oxfordshire 158-069

Taken from my backyard @ Tiny Twp, Ontario Canada on the morning 01 Oct 2025 5 am with Askar APO185 and ASI533MC camera . Comet is very low just @35 degrees altitude on East between trees . Stack of 25 X 60 sec subframes and processing in PI .

24 July 2023; 6:43 am

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Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada

(285 km by road north of Toronto)

* Temperature 12° C.

* Total exposure time: 8 minutes

* 1200 mm focal length telescope

___________________________________________

Description:

From Wikipedia:

"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 1,360 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."

What we are seeing is the visible remains of a low-mass star's expelled gaseous outer-envelope, leaving an X-ray hot white dwarf at the centre.

Stars to about 17th magnitude are visible in this image. The central star in the nebula is magnitude 14.0.

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Technical information:

Nikon D810a camera body on Explore Scientific 152 mm (6") apochromatic refracting telescope, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO equatorial mount with a Kirk Enterprises ball head

Eight stacked subframes; each subframe:

1200 mm focal length

ISO 4000; 1 minute exposure at f/8; unguided

(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)

Subframes registered in RegiStar;

Stacked and processed in Photoshop CS6 (levels, brightness, contrast, sharpening)

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Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, between 22.39 and 23.04 EDT

(285 km by road north of Toronto)

* Altitude of centre of image at time of exposures: 23°

* Temperature 15° C.

* Total exposure time: 11 minutes

* 540 mm focal length telescope

* field of view: 3° wide by 2° high

* co-ordinates of centre of frame: R.A. 18 h 07 m, Dec. -22° 46'

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Description:

The best known of the several ringed planets in our solar system is Saturn, which is easily visible to the unaided eye and is the brightest object in the night sky after the Sun, the Moon, and the planets Venus, Jupiter and (sometimes) Mars.

Saturn revolves around the Sun in a period of about 30 years, which means that it passes through each of the twelve constellations of zodiac in about 2 1/2 years.

This year (2018), Saturn is in the constellation Sagittarius, and is set against the gorgeous background of the centre of our Milky Way galaxy.

In this view, Saturn - the brilliant object near the left edge of the frame - is very close to the the well-known and beautiful Trifid Nebula (M20, at the top right of the frame) and Lagoon Nebula (M8, lower right), making for a striking view.

For a different, higher contrast view of the Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae, made in Sept 2016, click here:

www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/29207812440

And for a closer-in view of the Lagoon Nebula, made in Sept. 2017, click here:

www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/36452351134

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Technical information:

Nikon D810a camera body on Tele Vue 101is 101 mm (4") apochromatic refracting telescope, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO equatorial mount

Eleven stacked frames - each frame:

540 mm focal length

ISO 3200; 1 minute exposure at f/5.4; unguided

(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)

Subframes registered in RegiStar;

Stacked and processed in Photoshop CS6 (levels, brightness, contrast, colour balance, bright star flare reduction)

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My new winter project. A 1979 Mini 850. Its had rebuilt subframes and a reconditioned engine so drives really nice. I'm intending on a full respray fairly soon but still deciding on a colour!

I was lucky enough to have a clear spell as this magnitude 9 comet made its rendezvous with the famous Double Cluster in Cassiopeia last night. I wasn't lucky in another sense as I only had my 80mm triplet refractor without any filters set up for imaging with a colour camera so I couldn't use my larger refractor to pick up the comet a little better in my light polluted skies. I've had to boost the colour to ensure that the comet can be picked out mid-image to the left of the Double Cluster.

This is a stack of 21 two-minute subframes taken with a colour CMOS camera.

Peter

IC 443 – The Jellyfish Nebula

IC 443 is a supernova remnant found in the direction of the constellation Gemini. It is thought that the supernova occurred sometime between 3,000 and 30,000 years ago. There is no known record of this supernova. The object is approximately 50 arc-minutes across and is thought to be about 5,000 light-years away.

Captured on 1-16-21 from the General Nathan Twinning Observatory (the dark sky site of the Albuquerque Astronomical Society) and 2-6-21 from my light-polluted Albuquerque backyard, using 7 nm band pass Sii, Halpha and Oiii filters on an ASI 1600mm camera, attached to an AT65 refractor mounted on a Losmandy G11 mount, this is at least my third attempt on this object. Previous attempts, made in RGB with OSC cameras have failed to yield satisfactory images. 36 x 300” subframes were captured in Sii, Halpha and Oii, for a total of 9 hours of data. All files were calibrated with darks, bias and flats, aligned and combined in PixInsight. I still found it somewhat difficult to obtain a finished image that I was satisfied with. One problem is the brightness of the stars Propus and μ Geminorum. In retrospect, I probably should have made separate images of much shorter duration and blended those into the final image. Nevertheless, this is by far the best image I’ve managed to make of this object.

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Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada

between 02.24 and 02.44 EDT

(285 km by road north of Toronto)

* Altitude of centre of frame at time of exposures: ~12°

* Temperature 14° C.

* Total exposure time: 10 minutes

* 660 mm focal length telescope

___________________________________________

Description:

North is to the upper right in this image, which contains several objects of note.

M8, the Lagoon Nebula, with embedded star cluster NGC 6530 (right side of the frame)

One of the most prominent, large, bright and well known nebulae in the sky is the Lagoon Nebula (M8), which is a favourite target of amateur astronomers with modest telescopes.

From Wikipedia: "The Lagoon Nebula ... is a giant interstellar cloud ... classified as an emission nebula and as an H II region. [It] 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. Seen with binoculars, it appears as a distinct oval cloudlike patch with a definite core. Within the nebula is the open cluster NGC 6530.

The Lagoon Nebula is estimated to be between 4,000-6,000 light-years away from the Earth. In the sky of Earth, it spans 90' by 40', which translates to an actual dimension of 110 by 50 light years. ... The nebula contains a number of Bok globules (dark, collapsing clouds of protostellar material), the most prominent of which have been catalogued by E. E. Barnard as B88, B89 and B296."

IC 4678 (directly above M8)

This is a tiny nebula composed of emission (pink) and reflection (blue) components.

NGC 6544 (near centre of frame)

This is a small globular star cluster of magnitude ~7.3, lying at a distance of 9,000-10,00 light years from us..

NGC 6553 (left edge of frame, just below centre)

This is a globular star cluster of magnitude ~8.@, with an unusually low star concentration even at its centre, and lying about 19,600 LY from our solar system. Studies show that it underwent two distinct periods of star formation, resulting in two populations of stars with differing compositions, especially in sodium and aluminum.

For a version of this photo WITH LABELS, click on the RIGHT side of your screen, or click here:

www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/52229322166

To see a wider angle view this and other adjacent nebulae, photographed in Australia in Sept. 2019, click here:

www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/49183970671

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Technical information:

Nikon D810a camera body on Tele Vue 127is (127 mm - 5" - diameter) apochromatic telescope, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO equatorial mount

Ten stacked frames; each frame:

660 mm focal length

ISO 2500; 1 minute exposure at f/5.2; unguided

With long exposure noise reduction

Subframes stacked in RegiStar;

Processed in Photoshop CS6 (levels, brightness / contrast, colour balance)

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Museo Novecento, Florence, Italy

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

985 ten-second subframes.

Seestar S50

Celestron C8 with Hyperstar using the new Optolong L-eXtreme F2 dual band filter. I wanted to test the glare reduction on bright stars. It works much better than the older version. ZWO ASI294MC Pro camera, stacked, preprocesses in Siril, processed in PI and some little tweaking in Photoshop

105 x 2minutes subframes

Gain 120

1.7 Diesel.

Scrapped, failed an MOT in October 2015.

Reason(s) for failure

Offside Outer Seat belt anchorage prescribed area is excessively corroded sill by (5.2.6)

Nearside Rear Outer Seat belt anchorage prescribed area is excessively corroded sill by (5.2.6)

Nearside Rear Outer Suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded sill by (2.4.A.3)

Offside Front Subframe mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded floor to outrigger by (2.4.A.3)

Nearside Rear Inner Suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded sill 'A' panel by (2.4.A.3)

Nearside Rear Inner Suspension spring mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded wing to chassis by (2.4.A.3)

Nearside Rear Inner Vehicle structure excessively corroded within 30cm of towbar mounting wing to chassis by (6.6.6)

"Well, dinnae jes stand thar, get in thar 'n get 'im!"

"Hm. Well, Cap'n, we got a bit o sub-framin' goin' on."

"A bit'o WOT?"

"Sub-framin. Prince Valiant is framed as a shot within tha shot!"

"Aye, 'e's even focus 'n we ern't."

"I'd say that were Paprika's shoddy camera work! Wot'r ye blatherin' on aboot??"

"If ye ask me, tis a set-up fer a 'eroic scene, 'tis."

"So, it'd be a bit like suicide fer us ta go in after 'im."

"Ohhh, talk aboot knight photography...!"

"I dinnae usually trust plastic castles with purple doors in any case."

⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅⋅•⋅⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅

A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.

A series featuring 54mm scale(ish) toy soldiers from Britains, Marx, Elastolin and others.

Elastolin

Prince Valiant

Germany, 1960

Britains Ltd.

Deetail

Knights

1970s

Description: This image of the Andromeda Galaxy M31 was developed from 184x300s subs or 15.3 hours of total exposure time. The nonlinear post processed image was first split into its RGB components, followed by the application of appropriate weighting factors to the green and red channels, further followed by LRGB Combination. The resulting image was post processed using Curves Transformation with various color masks.

Date / Location: 21-23 September and 8-10 October 2022 / Washington D.C.

Equipment:

Scope: WO Zenith Star 81mm f/6.9 with WO 6AIII Flattener/Focal Reducer x0.8

OSC Camera: ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro at 100 Gain

Mount: iOptron GEM28-EC

Guide Scope: WO 50mm Uniguide Scope

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI 290mm

Focuser: ZWO EAF

Light Pollution Filter: Chroma LoGlow Broadband

Processing Software: Pixinsight

Processing Steps:

Preprocessing: I preprocessed 184x300s subs (= 15.3 hours) in Pixinsight to get an integrated image using the following steps: Image Calibration > Cosmetic Correction > Subframe Selector > Debayer > Select Reference Star and Star Align > Image Integration.

Linear Postprocessing:

Dynamic Background Extractor (doing subtraction to remove light pollution gradients and division for flat field correction) > Background Neutralization > Color Calibration > Blur Xterminator > Noise Xterminator.

Nonlinear Postprocessing and additional steps:

Histogram Transformation > Star Xterminator to create Starless and Stars Only Images.

Starless Image > Noise Xterminator > Local Histogram Equalization > Multiscale Median Transform > Split RGB channels > Create new green and blue channels > LRGB Combination > Curves Transformation using various color masks.

Stars Only Image > Morphological transformation.

Pixel Math to combine the Starless Image with the Stars Only Image to get a Reinstated Image.

Reinstated Image > Dark Structure Enhancement > Topaz AI.

Pixel Math to combine the (non-AI) Reinstated Image with the Topaz AI Image to get a final image.

This is a colour image of this fascinating region around Orion's belt captured through an 80mm triplet APO refractor using a colour Atik Horizon CMOS camera with a Baader-S filter. I had to wait for both the sky to clear and fireworks displays around me to stop before I could take this image. The image consists of eleven seven-minute subframes stacked. Dark frames have been subtracted but no flats or bias frames used.

Peter

Woordfoto: gebouw

The Trifid nebula (M20/NGC 6514) at top with the huge Lagoon nebula (NGC 6523) below with several smaller HII regions over at bottom left.

This picture is a mosaic of two panes, each pane being an integration of multiple subframes shot with a William Optics Zenithstar 103 scope and QHY168C OSC camera; an STC multi-spectra LP filter was used. The upper pane is an integration of 236 x 180s frame, the lower pane is 183 x 180s.

Imagiing was managed via Sequence Generator Pro and PHD2, all post-processing was carried out in PixInsight.

Observed from Prachinburi, Thailand

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Photographed from mid-town Toronto, Canada, at 18.43 EST (Moon altitude: 57° | Sun 14° below the horizon)

* Temperature 4° C.

The sky was reasonably clear, with some thin cirrus cloud, when I was able to get the ten base subframes that make up this view of the Moon high over Toronto early on this mild January evening before the heavier cloud moved in.

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Nikon D850 camera body on Explore Scientific 152 mm (6") apochromatic refracting telescope, mounted on Sky-Watcher AZ-EQ6 SynScan mount.

Best ten of fourteen identical stacked frames; each frame:

* ISO 100, 1/120 sec. exposure

Stacked in Registax

Processed in Photoshop CS6

(brightness, contrast, sharpening on right side of Moon)

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A window in the Roman Baths gave a cute street view.

Vain Lights…

I just discovered, triple subframing :D

The Heart Nebula is in the constellation Cassiopeia. We all know Cassiopeia, it’s that big W in the sky easily seen, even in the city, rising just east of north in the evening every Fall. The Heart Nebula is just below the W, whose stars are a few hundred light years away. The Heart is even further away, at 7500 light years, in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way. It is at the edge of the Milky Way highway immersed in a rich, dense field of stars. So, being so far away and so red from hydrogen-alpha emission, the Heart Nebula is difficult to see even in a small telescope. The stellar winds from the open cluster near the center of the heart (formed by gravitational collapse from the hydrogen in the nebula) has cleared out the remaining hydrogen from the center, leaving the heart shape made mostly of hydrogen at the outer edges. Those bright stars near the center are young - only 1.5 million years old (based on their spectra, energy output, and size). What’s left in the center of the nebula is mostly oxygen, colored blue in my image.

I live in Phoenix where the light pollution is much worse. However, it is still possible to get interesting images of the deep sky using very narrow filters that are tuned to the emission lines of hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur but block most of the light pollution. I then map the monochrome camera outputs of those narrowband images to my color of choice and blend them together to make an RGB color image. Since the colors are mapped, it is an artistic endeavor (my weak point) but has some science lurking in the background since the colors represent the presence of these 3 elements and places where they are mixing in the chaotic aftermath that is still occurring in these remnants of exploded stars. So, I present a new image of the Heart Nebula that I made this past week from my mini observatory in my back yard.

In this image, I’ve mapped dark orange to hydrogen, yellowish gold to sulphur, and blue to oxygen. Astronomers catalog a few different objects in this complex. The overall structure is the Heart Nebula, the open cluster of stars near the center of the Heart is IC 1805, the bright fish shaped structure at the bottom of the image is NGC 896. I

Here’s how this image was made: Sub-exposures: 187 5 minute exposures made through narrowband filters and 40 1 minute exposures made through broadband RGB filters for star color - total exposure time of 16 hours and 15 minutes over three nights. The equipment was my current set up of a Takahashi Epsilon 160ED telescope, QHY 600 cooled CMOS full frame 62 megapixel camera, Astro-Physics Mach 2 mount, and Chroma 3-nm narrowband filters. The subframe images were calibrated, registered, integrated, color calibrated, stretched, colorized and blended in PixInsight. Finishing touches were done in Lightroom.

Heart_Nebula_77O_64H_63S_x5min_241025_RQFugate

Taken in Hydrogen Alpha just before 4pm as the sky was beginning to darken.

This is a stack of 29 subframes taken through my 130mm refractor using an Atik 460 EX mono camera and 0.75 reducer.

Peter

Year of first registration: 1992.

The GTM Rossa is a Mini based 2+2 kit car by GTM Cars.[1] The car was based on two front mini subframes, with the steering being locked on the rear subframe. The Mark 1 car was produced from 1987 to 1990, and the Mark 2 car was produced beginning in 1990.

Bron: Wikipedia.org

Verona, Italy

I took this image just at the end of astronomical dark on April 10,2021 in the Gila National Forest, New Mexico, USA.

The Lagoon Nebula is about 5200 light years from Earth. It is the remnant of an exploded star and as such is a new star forming region - look at all those young (1-2 million years) hot white stars recently formed through gravitational coalescence near the center of the magenta colored cloud. The nebula is an emission nebula, meaning it emits lots of light at the Hydrogen alpha wavelength of 656 nm in the deep red. Other emission lines in the blue from oxygen, mix with the red to make a brilliant magenta. The emission is produced when ionized atoms recombine with free electrons. The atoms become ionized (or driven into an excited state) by ultraviolet light emitted by one or a few of the brighter stars. One in particular, 9 Sagittarii, is nearly 25,000 times brighter than our Sun. The Lagoon nebula is one of several great examples where we can see the life cycle of stars in one image. BTW that’s the Trifid Nebula in the upper right part of the image.

If you can find a really dark place, it is just barely visible to the naked eye ( I was able to see it after the core of the Milky Way was up). It is easily seen in binoculars or a small telescope but still appears gray since the most sensitive part of our retinas don’t see color. It is often seen in wide angle night scape photos of the Milky Way over the landscape and can be easily photographed with a tripod, a normal camera lens and a few seconds of exposure. Look for a purple region.

Photo info: Subframe images collected the early morning hours of April 10, 2021 in the Gila National Forest, New Mexico, with a Takahashi FSQ EDX4 telescope and ZWO ASI6200MM cooled 62 megapixel CMOS camera and Chroma filters on a Sky Watcher EQ6 auto-guided equatorial mount under control of a Raspberry Pi computer. The 18 one minute subframe images were calibrated, debayered, registered, integrated and post processed in PixInsight. About 3 hours before these images were taken my autoguider camera failed (bad cable?) so I took these images unguided but limited the exposure to 1 minute since this mount is not great. The image is cropped to about 40% of the original area.

I didn’t do any artificial enhancement to this image to “create art”. I think it is hard in a few minutes to improve on what Mother Nature did over billions of years.

As always please feel free to share any of my images.

Narrowband (Ha Sii Oiii) combination using SHO palette. Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop, and enhanced in Lightroom.

The weather has still remained bad, so I have been limited in what I can capture (it doesn't help that it's low in the sky and goes behind houses by midnight). I processed what I managed to capture this week.

Doing 5 min exposures, 100 gain. 12xOiii, 6xHa, and only a couple Sii. Given the results from that amount of subframes, I'm looking forward to what I can do when the weather improves.

Equipment: Skywatcher Esprit 100ED, HEQ5-Pro mount, ASI 2600MM Camera, and I had to temporarily switch to .67x flattener because my SkyWatcher one has issues.

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Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada

(285 km by road north of Toronto)

between 23.55 Aug. 1 and 00.11 EDT Aug. 2

* Altitude of centre of frame at time of exposures: ~70°

* Temperature 17° C.

* Total exposure time: 8 minutes

* 105 mm focal length lens

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Description:

High in the northern hemisphere summer sky, the gossamer band of our Milky Way galaxy passes through the constellations Cepheus (to the left) and Cygnus (to the right). This area of the sky is rich with red-pink clouds of glowing ionized hydrogen gas, as well as numerous star cluster and foreground clouds of dark gas.

The distinctively shaped north America Nebula in Cygnus appears in the lower right. The large gas cloud IC 1396 in Cepheus is in the opposite corner. At the upper left edge of IC 1396 is Herschel's Garnet Star, with its striking ochre-orange colour.

For a version of this photo WITH LABELS, click on your screen to the RIGHT of the photo, or click here:

www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/48527625751

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Technical information:

Nikkor AF-S 70-200 mm f/2.8 G ED VRII lens on Nikon D810a camera body, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO mount with a Kirk Enterprises ball head

Eight stacked subframes; each frame:

105 mm focal length

ISO 6400; 1 minute exposure at f/4.5, unguided

(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)

Subframes stacked in RegiStar;

Processed in Photoshop CS6 (levels, brightness, contrast, colour balance)

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These are two images of Neptune taken in the early evening of 19 November. On the left a LRGB video sequence of the best 40% of frames at 15fps for luminance and 12fps for Red, Green and Blue and on the right a stack of 400 luminance subframes at 5 seconds per frame converted from video to still images and stacked to enable the much fainter Triton to be picked up in the imaging. It has also blown out the size of Neptune in consequence although both images were taken at the same magnification.

Neptune is a tricky target at the best of times for close-up imaging. For a variety of reasons from technical equipment issues to weather conditions this is the first time I've successfully managed to pin down a reasonable image of Neptune and Triton in 2017.

Peter

Equipment:

Cooled ZWO ASI174MM mono CMOS camera, LRGB filters, 300mm f/10 LX200 SCT, EQ8 mount.

Architecture. The person in right bottom is hanging for cleaning glass

Multiple Triangles embedded. Sub-framing

This is a two-panel mosaic of the large California nebula using my 80mm refractor and an Atik Horizon colour camera. This is two stacks of eight-minute subframes, fifteen in total.

Peter

This is the first time I've tried this target with a colour CMOS camera. It was very much a test to see how it would behave pointed at bright stars as some colour CMOS cameras have suffered from reflections and micro-lensing on bright stars.

Normally I rely on mono CCD and CMOS to get the best detail but this is one of the new generation of colour CMOS camera using a Panasonic chip and properly designed to avoid any amp glow. In this image I haven't used flats or darks although I had them available if needed.

The image is a stack of 28 three-minute subframes.

Peter

Equipment:

Atik Horizon CMOS colour camera, 80mm triplet APO, EQ8 Mount.

Manufacturer: Auto Union AG / August Horch Automobilwerke GmbH, Zwickau - Germay

Type: 853A Sport Cabriolet

Engine: 4944cc straight-8

Power: 120 bhp / 3.400 rpm

Speed: 135 km/h

Production time: 1938 - 1939

Production outlet: 342

Curb weight: 2631 kg

Special:

- The basic 853 is designed by Horch chief-designer Günther Mickwausch.

- The 853A differs from the 853 through the shortened frame (5 cm) and a renewed subframe to support the radiator. This was done, so other coachbuilders (like Gläser, Baur, Erdmann & Rossi, etc.) could put on easier a Convertible or Coupe.

- The 853A also had a new engine with 120 bhp (instead of 100bhp), a renewed front, a new front suspension with double wishbones and used a DeDion axle rear suspension.

- The most beautifully styled Sport Cabriolet of their era was although expensive, they were cheaper than their Mercedes-Benz rival, the 540K.

- Auto Union was comprised of Horch, DKW, Audi and Wanderer since 1932.

- It has a four-speed manuel gearbox with overdrive by ZF.

- This automobile could be delivered in the colour "Fischsilber" ("silver fish"), a metallic paint in four colours (contained finely ground fish scales).

- When World War II began, production of the Horch Automobiles ceased.

Added to the gallery www.flickr.com/photos/stevepoe/galleries/72157639107186833