Some of the 50000 or so starlings that return each day at dusk to roost on the metal subframe of the pier - Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales

***************************************************************************

Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada

(285 km by road north of Toronto)

between 23.10 and 23.13 EDT

* Altitude of comet's head at time of exposures: ~12°

* Temperature 17° C.

* Total exposure time: 1.25 minutes

* 105 mm focal length lens

___________________________________________

Description:

This comet has been touted as the brightest in a generation. The last comet that I can remember being this bright was Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997, which was undoubtedly the best comet that i will have seen in my lifetime.

This visitor to the inner solar system was discovered on March 20 this year by astronomers during the NEOWISE mission of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope (hence the name of the comet). It reached naked eye visibility this month, and I finally got into a dark sky - with no Moon in the sky to wash out the fainter outer reaches of the tail - on July 17.

In this view we see the bright head of the comet at the bottom near the horizon, with the broad yellowish dust tail fanning out to the right, and the fainter, narrow bluish plasma or ion tail bordering the dust tail to the left.

At the time of this photo, Comet Neowise was 78 million km (0.52 astronomical units ("AU") - the distance from Earth to the Sun) from the Sun, and 109 million km (0.73 AU) from Earth, and shone at a brightness of third magnitude, with a 10 degree tail.

___________________________________________

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

Six stacked frames; each frame:

105mm focal length

ISO 3200; 30 sec. exposure at f/5.6; unguided

With long exposure noise reduction

Subframes stacked in RegiStar;

Processed in Photoshop CS6 (levels, brightness / contrast, colour balance, deblurring of tree horizon)

***************************************************************************

Sunset through the rock hole

This a monochrome image that was captured in Ha narrowband only, with subframes of 10 minutes each. I had intended to capture OIII and SII as well, but the target was above my limited southern horizon for only about an hour. More to come if I can get some more limited "peeks" before its gone for this season, and certainly more to come if I go to WInter Star Party next year.

Equipment:

ZWO ASI6200MM-P/EFW 2" x 7 (Ha)

TeleVue NP101is (4" f/4.3)

Losmandy G11

Software:

Captured in NINA

Processed in PixInsight

Integration:

Ha 4 x 600s = 0:40

It's not the best time here for astrophotography, the nights are short the summer solstice approaches.

But I managed to have 3 hours of data on the Western Veil

The Western Veil (also known as NGC 6960) is a part of the Cygnus Loop a large a supernova remnant whose explosion dates back 10.000 years.

The Western Veil is a nebula made of ionized gas and dust located about 1,400 light years from Earth

-Equipment-

Scope: TS-Optics 94/414 EPDH (414mm focal)

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -5°C

Guiding: ZWO OAG

Guiding camera: ZWO ASI 120MM

Mount: Skywatcher EQ5

Filter: Optrolong L-eXtreme

-Acquisition-

Light : 36x300s ( 3h ) at Gain:101 Offset:49

Dark,Flat,Offset

Date : Take on 3 night 06/13-15/2021

Location : France-Alsace Bortle 4/5

-Software-

Carte du Ciel, N.I.N.A, Phd2 , PoleMaster and PixInsight

All Processing in Pixinsight

Use EZ_Processing Suite(by darkarchon) in Pixinsight

-Pre Processing-

Image Calibration

Cosmetic Correction

Debayer

Subframe Selector

Star Alignement

Local Normalization

Drizzle x2

Crop the black bands from the stacking

-Processing-

Linear Fit

Channel Combination

DBE

EZ_Deconvolution

Background Neutralization

Photometric Color Calibration

SCNR (green 50%)

EZ_Denoise

EZ_Soft Strech

EZ_HDR

Curves Transformation with mask on nebula for Saturation, Hue and K channel

EZ_Star Reduction

Clear skies !

Manufacturer: Auto Union AG, Auto Union AG, Chemnitz - Germany

Type: F4 Series Lastwagen

Engine: 692cc straight-2 two-stroke water-cooled

Power: 20 bhp / 4.000 rpm

Speed: 85 km/h

Production time: 1934 - 1936

Production outlet: unkown

Curb weight: 800 kg

Special:

- Auto Union was the result of a merger between four companies in 1932: Wanderer, DKW, AUDI and Horch.

- The emblem represents this amalgamation with its four rings, one representing each company.

- The shares were sold in 1964 to Volkswagen and from that time on they were called Auto Union (without DKW).

- In 1969, NSU became part of the union and became known as AUDI NSU. In 1985, it offically became known as AUDI.

- From 1931 until Juli 1963 they were build at Audi works in Zwickau, Germany.

- This DampfKraftWagen (DKW) "Lastwagen" / lorry was based on the F4 Series (1934-1935), having front wheel drive.

- It has a three-speed manual gearbox (with a lockable freewheel device), a "Krückstockschalthebel" / "umbrella stick" coming out of the dashboard, a 6-Volts electric system, a 32 liter fuel tank and front wheel drive.

- Its self-supporting body was supported by a U-profile plywood subframe, has rear hinged "suicide" doors for easier access and egress, independent suspension and drum brakes all around.

A complete rework and framing from my previous version of the Pleaides.

This version was to show more of the dust clouds surrounding the reflection nebula which is just as interesting as the star cluster and it's nebula itself.

Captured from my home in Gérgal, Almería, Spain in two nights on the 28 and 29th of November 2021

Subframes:

Red: 168 x 120s = 5.6h

Green 172 x 120s = 5.7h

Blue 172 x 120s = 5.7h

Calibration

20 x Darks and Flat Darks

​​​​​​​20 x Flats per filter for each night

Margate, 2021.

This is part of my ongoing experiment to adapt one of my mono lunar/planetary cameras, a cooled ZWO ASI174MM, for deep sky work through my 300mm f/10 SCT. This is only a slightly trimmed LRGB image so M27 only just fits vertically in this close-up view. All luminance subframes were just 20 seconds each.

Practice experiments on two previous nights in the last week were ruined by a combination of poor skies with high cloud and some technical issues working out the right settings. I'm sure I can later improve on this image once I work out the optimum camera settings for the scope and add more data. The most important aspect was to gather appropriate dark and flat frames to ensure amp noise was removed.

The other parallel experiment was to abandon autoguiding and rely on the accuracy of my EQ8 mount.

Peter

L = 97x20 seconds

R = 13x30 seconds

G = 14 x30 seconds

B = 15x30 seconds

Peter

M42 The Orion Nebula imaged in HaOiiiOiii. The Ha image is mapped to red and consists of 6 hours of 60 second subframes. The Oii image is mapped to green and blue and consists of 4 hours worth of 60 second subframes.

Ha data was captured during December 2019 and January 2020.

Ts65 Quad Astrograph & ASI1600MM Pro camera

Manufacturer: Pontiac Motors Division, Kansas City, Kansas - USA / General Motors Company, Detroit, Michigan - U.S.A.

Type: Firebird Trans Am Turbo 4.9

Engine: 4940cc V-8 302 Turbo 90°

Power: 203 bhp / 4.000 rpm

Speed: 190 km/h

Production time: 1980 - 1981

Production outlet: 178,229 (all Firebirds 1980-1981)

Curb weight: 1706 kg

Special:

- This car of the second generation (1970-1981) has a three-speed Turbo-Hydramatic automatic gearbox, a Rochester M4MC 4-barrel carburettor, a Garrett TB305 turbocharger, a 12-Volts electric system, a 79 liter fuel tank and rear wheel drive.

- The separate partial F-body frame chassis with self-supporting body with front subframe has a 108.2 inch wheelbase, a bulge in the hood (to create more space for the turbo), recirculating ball VPAS steering, a special bird decal on the hood, turbo graphics on the hood and deck lid spoiler, front trapezoidal wishbones, independent coil spring front suspension with sway bar, longitudinal semi-elliptic rear suspension with anti roll bar, telescopic shock absorbers all round, special disc wheels, tire size P225/70 R 15, ventilated hydraulic servo disc brakes at the front and powered hydraulic drum brakes at the rear.

- A “Yellow Bird” package, an electronic-tuned stereo radio with a four-speaker system, a new dark blue interior color, and new seating which came in five colors were optional.

- The second generation Firebirds were assembled at plants in Van Nuys (California) and Norwood (Ohio). Norwood used lacquer based paint while Van Nuys used water based paint , due to California's tightening pollution regulations. The water based paint often failed and delaminated during the warranty period and subsequently, cars had to be repainted.

1 stack of 58 60s images, Canon 800D at ISO 800, Canon 400mm f5.6 lens at f6.3, iOptron Skyguider Pro tracker. 120 darks, 120 biases. Processed in PixInsight as below

* CC defect list + master dark (sigma = 8)

* Subframe selection

30*(1-(FWHM-FWHMMin)/(FWHMMax-FWHMMin))

+ 30*(1-(Eccentricity-EccentricityMin)/(EccentricityMax-EccentricityMin))

+ 20*(SNRWeight-SNRWeightMin)/(SNRWeightMax-SNRWeightMin)

+ 20

Eccentricity < 0.7 && SNRWeight > 1 && FWHM < 5. Keep frames 7173 and 7177 even though they failed the rejection conditions, for meteors

* star alignment:

img 8411 ref, frame adaptation (let's see if this works)

* ESD integration, range exclude

* drizzle integration, gaussian kernel\

*****Linear processing

*** Initial

* Crop

* DBE tolerance 3

*** CC

* PCC on Pleiades, default settings pixel size 2, background neutralization upper limit 0.0012

*** Decon

* star mask creation: extract luminance get starmask with starnet, then range mask 0.1-1 (1). from stretched luminance range mask 0.55-1 (2). Pixel math max the 2 as binary_star_mask. 4x dilate, 6x convolve

* PSF - ezdecon script

* background mask -ezdecon script and curves

* with background mask on, inverted, apply decon 100 iterations on luminance, deringing global dark 0.01 light 0.002 and local deringing with binary star mask, wavelet regularization

*** Denoise

Using jonrista.com/the-astrophotographers-guide/pixinsights/eff... as implemented by EZSuite.

* EZDenoise, TGV 1500 edge 1e-5, default MMT

***** Nonlinear

*** Initial stretch

* Masked stretch, default settings

* using a contrasty luminance as mask, curves stretch

*** Stretched color mods

* with binary_star_mask protecting stars, ACDNR on chrominance, lightness mask, stdev 4 iterations 6

* CC background ref upper limit 0.125

* invert, SNCR green 1, invert again (to fix magenta hues in whites)

* SNCR green 0.8

*** Star mods

* extract star mask with starnet, blur 3 layers of a trous, curve boost

* with it on, curve saturation upwards. Clone stamp out big stars - small_star_mask

* using that as a start, EZStarReduce using morphological transformation

* with small_star_mask on, unsharp mask 0.9, w/ deringing

***MLT stretch

www.stelleelettroniche.it/en/2014/09/astrophoto/m42-ngc19...

**Initial (fine details)

* created a new multiscale linear transform, kept 5 layers

* diffed from original image to create a "blurred" version of original image

* extracted luminance from original, s-shaped RGB curve used as mask on blurred version

* used curves to create s shape in RGB (asymmetrical, like a camera curve) and pump up saturation a lot

* pixelmath sum the 3, rescaled, back to original image

**Second (nebula)

* created a new multiscale linear transform, kept 7 layers, and diff from original

* extract luminance from diff, s-shaped RGB curve. Use as mask on blurred version

* slight boosts in sat and RGB

* pixelmath sum the 3, rescaled, back to original image

*** Finishers

* EzDenoise, TGV 1500 edge 8e-3, default MMT

* LHE kernel 512 contrast 1.5,slight boost in sat, 50-50 mix with original

* LHE kernel 256 contrast 1.5, 20-80 mix with original

* dark structure enhance

* MMT sharpen, 6 layers biases 0.05 0.05 0.025, 0.025, 0.012, 0.005 with luminosity mask s-curved for more contrast

Happy 4th July fireworks!

Captured in wisconsin

Gear:

ES80 apo + 0.8x focal reducer ( f/4.8 with an effective focal length of 384 mm)

iEQ45 pro, guided with PhD

30min integration (1min subframes)

Olympus E-M5, ISO 1000, auto dark subtraction filter on

Stacked in Nebulosity, tweaks in Lightroom

Fireball captured in one frame was overlain on the stacked image in Photoshop.

It was mostly cloudy this weekend so I didn't get much of a chance to add to the Orion images, I went out and tried shooting at a place I thought would make a good winter shooting location based on light pollution maps (easy access, supposedly bortle 3), turned out not so great, guess I'll have to keep searching. I also changed up my setup a little bit, opened up the legs on my tripod and hung a 20 pound dumbbell under it for better stability, now it's rock solid. I tried shooting 5 minute exposures with my D7000 and Samyang 135mm lens, it seems like I can get to 5 minutes fairly consistently with not too many subs that have to be thrown out (keeper rate of about 75% I'd guess), but once I go above 5 minute exposures the keeper rate drops down to probably 30%. The periodic error (?) of the mount is 10 minutes from what I've read so I guess once you get up to that length of exposure you are running into mount limitations. I'm thinking of buying a guidescope and camera and trying out some guiding with the mount to see if I can improve the keeper rate, I'd really love to take some super long exposures (like 10 minutes) to really bring out the dust around this area as well.

So I ended up only getting another 6 subs out of all the ones I shot thanks to clouds and tracking error, I decided to go back and re-calibrate, register, and stack in PixInsight this time using the subframe selector script to weight the subs prior to registering/stacking. I also tried not going to wild on the post processing and just focusing on bringing out the dust without destroying the image with noise.

Subframed by the Waterlily leaves.

“Water Lilies' is an extension of my life. Without the water the lilies cannot live, as I am without art.”

― Claude Monet

IMG_4751.jpgt.jpgp.jpgy

The Pelican Nebula (also known as IC 5070) is an emitting nebula located about 2000 years from the earth.

It is very extensive in the sky, about 2.5 times the diameter of the Moon.

-Equipment-

Scope: TS-Optics 94/414 EPDH

(414mm focal)

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -15°C

Guiding: ZWO OAG

Guiding camera: ZWO ASI 120MM

Mount: Skywatcher EQ5

Filter: Optrolong L-eXtreme

-Acquisition-

Light : 95x300s ( 8h ) at Gain:101 Offset:49

Dark-100x300s Flat-30 Bias-100

Date : Take on 5 night 05/24+30+31/2021 06/01+02/2021

Location : France-Alsace Bortle 4/5

-Software-

Carte du Ciel, N.I.N.A, Phd2 , PoleMaster and PixInsight

-Pre Processing in PixInsight-

Image Calibration

Cosmetic Correction

Debayer

Subframe Selector

Star Alignement

Local Normalization

Drizzle x2

Crop the black bands from the stacking

-Processing-

_L Layer_

DBE

EZ_Deconvolution

EZ_Denoise

EZ_Soft Stretch

Unsharp Mask

_RGB Layer_

Linear Fit

Channel Combination

DBE

Background Neutralization

Photometric Color Calibration

SCNR (green 50%)

EZ_Soft Strech

_LRGB_

LRGB Combination

Curve Tranformation

Color Saturation

Clear skies !

Starless verison

Original image : flic.kr/p/2mDTTGu

-Equipment-

Scope: TS-Optics 94/414 EPDH (414mm focal)

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -5°C

Guiding: ZWO OAG

Guiding camera: ZWO ASI 120MM

Mount: Skywatcher NEQ5

Filter: Astronomik L

-Acquisition-

Light :Panel-1 60x300s

Panel-2 60x300s

Panel-3 52x300s

Panel-4 60x300s

Dark-100x300s Flat-50 Bias-100

Date : Take on 2 night 05 September2021

and 10 October 2021

Location : France-Alsace Bortle 4/5

-Software-

Carte du Ciel, N.I.N.A, Phd2 , PoleMaster and PixInsight

Ez Processing Suite from darkarcon

darkarcon website : darkarchon.internet-box.ch:8443/

-Pre Processing each panels in PixInsight-

Image Calibration

Cosmetic Correction

Debayer

Subframe Selector

Star Alignement

Local Normalization

Drizzle x2

Dynamic crop

-Build the 4 panel mozaic

It's my first 4 panel mosaic so I follow this tutorial from Amy Astro www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0f8Tl_kC0A

-Processing

DBE master Light

Split L,R,G,B layer from Master light

__L__

Ez_Deconvolution

Ez_Denoise

Ez_Soft Streatch

Ez_HDR

UnsharpedMask with mask

__RGB__

Linear Fit

BackgroundNeutralization

PhotometricColorCalibration

Ez_Soft Streatch

Starnet++

CuvesTransformation with mask

A lot of curves...

Bring back stars with PixelMath

__LRGB__

LRGBCombination

Final CurvesTransformation

Ez_Star Reduction

DarkStructureEnhance script

Starnet++ for remove stars

Save as jpg

Clear Skies !

Manufacturer: Wilhelm Karmann GmbH, Osnabrück - Germany / Volkswagen AG (VAG), Wolfsburg - Germany

Type: Typ 34 1500S Karmann Ghia Coupé

Production time: 1962 - 1965

Production outlet: 29,502

Production outlet: 42,505 (September 1961 - July 1969: 1500, 1500S and 1600 models)

Engine: 1493cc (HO4 OHV) four-cylinder boxer forced air-cooled

Power: 54 bhp / 4.200 rpm

Torque: 106 Nm / 2.400 rpm

Drivetrain: rear wheels

Speed: 145 km/h

Curb weight: 866 kg

Wheelbase: 94.5 inch

Chassis: central tubular frame with continuous deck, rear forked subframe and monocoque all-steel body

Steering: worm & roller with hydraulic damper

Gearbox: four-speed manual / all synchronized / floor shifter

Clutch: single dry plate disc

Carburettor: twin Solex 32 PDSIT downdraft

Fuel tank: 40 liter

Electric system: Bosch 6 Volts 77 Ah

Ignition system: distributor and coil

Brakes front: ATE hydraulic Duplex drums

Brakes rear: ATE hydraulic drums

Suspension front: independent lengthwise crank trailing arms, anti-roll bar connected to upper trailing links, crossed transverse round torsion spring rods, progressively acting rubber springs + hydraulic telescopic shock absorbers

Suspension rear: pendulum axle, double jointed CV joint trailing arms, transversely rotating torsion bars, progressively acting rubber springs + hydraulic telescopic shock absorbers

Rear axle: live swing type

Differential: spiral bevel 4.125:1

Wheels: 4½J x 15 safety rim wheels

Tires: 6.00S x 15L Bias 6-Ply tubeless

Options: Fichtel & Sachs Saxomat semi-automatic four speed transmission (an electromagnetic clutch with a centrifugal clutch used for idle), three-speed automatic transmission, Air Conditioning (USA), radio, electrically operated sliding steel sunroof

Special:

- The body, based on Typ 3 platform (VW 1500/1600) and for that called „große Karmann-Ghia“ / „big Karmann-Ghia“ in Germany, was restyled by Sergio Sartorelli from Carrozzeria Ghia SpA, Turin - Italy, but built by Karmann in Osnabrück - Germany.

- The Typ 34 was the flagship model of the entire Volkswagen line. It was the most expensive Volkswagen available (handcrafted body), the fastest, and the most luxurious (built-in fog lights, cigar lighter, electric clock, locking steering column, front & rear vent windows, variable wiper controls and luxurious interior).

- Initially, this would replace the original Type 14 Karmann Ghia, but later it was decided to assemble both types at the same time.

- Sales went bad because Type 34, nicknamed “Razor-Edge Ghia” in the UK, was almost as expensive as a Porsche 356 and it was not offered officially in the USA. But nowadays the USA has the largest number of known Typ 34’s Karmann Ghia’s left in the world (400 of the total 1,500 (officially registered) to 2,000 or so remaining.

- Currently, less than 1500 are worldwide registered at the “VW Type 34 Karmann Ghia Registry”, San Diego, California - USA.

- Production figures from Convertibles differences, but it is very likely that 12 vehicles (prototypes and zero-series) were built at Karmann in Osnabrück. Some sources mention 17 prototype units.

- Lorenz Karosserie GmbH, Wetter an der Ruhr, Northrhein Westfalen - Germany converted Coupé’s into Convertibles on customer request. There should have been about 20 Lorenz Convertibles.

Seestar S50

393 ten second subframes - polar alignment

First Light with QHY163M

Gain:10

Offset:57

Camera: QHY163M Cooled CMOS to -30C

Telescope: 11" Celestron EdgeHD w/Hyperstar

Mount:Pier mounted CGEM-DX

46x30 second LUM subframes, unguided

flic.kr/p/NuqVFK

I added some RGB from an older image

This is a stack of 8 150 s exposures taken around 2021-06-11 05:15 UT. The Leo Triplet consists of M65 (lower right), M66 (lower left) and NGC 3628 (top). These galaxies appear in Leo, about 8° north of the ecliptic. Since the inclination of Vesta's orbit is a bit over 7° to the ecliptic and its orbit is larger than Earth's, it can be photographed with the three galaxies.

Subframes taken with an Atik 314L+ color CCD on a HyperStar on a Celestron Edge HD 925. Preprocessing in Nebulosity; processing in PixInsight with final touches in Photoshop.

Vesta is the bright object in the lower right corner.

lavender attached to subframing root on a house wall

Olympus XA4 & Kodak Tmax400 (exp.'02) FX39II.

Scan of a silver gelatin print using an epson v37.

****************************************************************************

Photographed 25 km east of Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia, long. 134.04° E., lat. 23.76° S., between 23.24 and 23.46 CAST (Central Australian Standard Time)

* Altitude of centre of frame at time of exposures: 40-43°

* Temperature 12° C.

* Total exposure time: 10 minutes

* 105 mm focal length lens

___________________________________________

Description:

The star pattern in the constellation Scorpius (The Scorpion) is one of the most recognizable in the sky. The lower part of this pattern - the tail of the scorpion - lies very low in the sky as seen from the northern hemisphere. From southern latitudes, however, this part of the sky is directly overhead during nighttime hours in the months of April-July.

Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, passes through Scorpius, as can be seen in this view. Numerous pink hydrogen gas clouds and many star clusters are concentrated in this part of the sky as well.

This is the telescope and mount that I used for my astrophotography on this trip:

www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/28602350028

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@N06/40663302100

__________________________________________

Technical information:

Nikkor AF-S 70-200 mm f/2.8 G ED VRII lens on Nikon D810a camera body, mounted on Sky-Watcher HEQ5 equatorial mount with Kirk Enterprises ball head

Seven stacked subframes; each frame:

ISO 3200; 1 minute exposure at f/4.5, 105 mm focal length, unguided (with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)

Subframes stacked in RegiStar;

Processed in Photoshop CS6 (levels, brightness, contrast)

****************************************************************************

Subframe

Description:

Some celestial objects announce themselves with explosive violence. Others emerge in silence, hidden within the dust that will one day give birth to stars. The Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex belongs firmly to the latter, a vast and intricate region of interstellar gas and dust located roughly 460 light-years away in the constellation of Ophiuchus, making it one of the closest stellar nurseries to Earth.

Unlike the glowing hydrogen-rich nebulae that dominate many astrophotography images, Rho Ophiuchi is a masterpiece of reflection and obscuration, shot here in a single night in broadband under Bortle 4 skies. Its characteristic blue hues arise from starlight scattering off fine cosmic dust particles, while the deep reddish-brown lanes are enormous concentrations of colder dust dense enough to absorb and extinguish the light behind them. Embedded within this chaotic structure are newly forming stars, protostellar systems, and complex molecular clouds that continue to evolve over astronomical timescales.

This target presents a unique challenge for astrophotographers in Kuwait. At my latitude, Rho Ophiuchi never climbs particularly high in the sky, reaching a maximum altitude of only about 36 degrees above the horizon. Imaging through such a thick layer of atmosphere means fighting against increased turbulence, atmospheric extinction, gradients, and the relentless scattering effects caused by dust and humidity near the horizon. Capturing fine detail under these conditions requires patience, careful calibration, and many hours of integration.

This image was captured using my dual Askar 140 APO setup operating at a focal length of 784.2mm. By combining two identical refractors simultaneously, I was able to produce an image I can truly be proud of in a single night.

Equipment:

Imaging Telescopes: 2x Askar 140APO

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro

Equatorial mounts used: Sky-Watcher EQ8-R Pro · ZWO AM5N

Filters:

Antlia Luminance 36 mm

Chroma Blue 36 mm

Chroma Green 36 mm

Chroma Red 36 mm

Accessories:

Askar 0.8x Full Frame Reducer / Flattener for 140APO Telescope

Acquisition details:

Date: May 14, 2026

Subframes:

Luminance: 65×300″ (5h 25′)

Blue: 20×300″ (1h 40′)

Green: 20×300″ (1h 40′)

Red: 20×300″ (1h 40′)

Total integration: 10h 25′

Location:

Al Salmy Desert, Al Jahra Governorate, Kuwait

#Subframing #FlickrFriday

I'd set out to use this WW2 coastal look-out bunker somehow for Flickr Friday anyway, but this as-found can was a gift from the photography Gods :-)

******************************************************************************

Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada

(285 km by road north of Toronto)

between 21.22 and 21.40 EDT

* Altitude of the cluster at time of exposures: 29.5°

* Temperature 13° C.

* Total exposure time: 16 minutes

* 1200 mm focal length telescope

___________________________________________

Description:

This large, pretty and bright open cluster of stars - which happens to lie in our line of sight in front of one of the bright and star-dense arms of our Milky Way galaxy - is a favourite observational target of northern hemisphere astronomers on summer evenings.

From Wikipedia:

"The Wild Duck Cluster is one of the richest and most compact of the known open clusters, containing about 2900 stars. Its age has been estimated to about 250 million years. Its name derives from the brighter stars forming a triangle which could resemble a flying flock of ducks (or, from other angles, one swimming duck)."

For a wider angle view of Scutum and M11, made with a 740 mm focal length telescope in September 2016, click here:

www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/30487082573

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@N06/30507824983

___________________________________________

Nikon D810a camera body on Explore Scientific 152 mm (6") apochromatic refracting telescope, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO equatorial mount

Sixteen stacked subframes; each frame:

ISO 6400; 1 minute exposure at f/8

(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)

Subframes stacked in RegiStar;

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

******************************************************************************

Over the past weekend, Rochester experienced something rare - four clear nights in a row! While it is true that the moon did not make for the best time for astro imaging, I had to take advantage of the rare clears skies and so I had both of my imaging platforms out catching photons every night!

The first image I am ready to share from this series is M81 and M82. I have been wanting to image these two beautiful galaxies for a while now and I finally got my chance!

Messier 81, also known as NGC 3031 and Bode's Galaxy, is a beautiful spiral galaxy located 12 Million light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It was first discovered by Johann Elert Bode on 31 December 1774, thus the common name of Bode's Galaxy. M81 is the largest galaxy in a group of 34 galaxies, known appropriately enough as the M81 Group.

Messier 82, also known as the NGC 3034 and as the Cigar Galaxy, and is also located 12 million light years away and is part of the M81 group of galaxies. M82 is an extremely luminous galaxy - being five time brighter than our own Milky Way, and has a core that is 100 time brighter! This is due to intense star formation caused by gravitational perturbations from interactions with M81. M82 is known for its complex network of dusty filaments that extend to the side of the galaxy.

This particular image is the result of 191 subframes with an exposure of 180 seconds, for a total integration time of just over 9.5 hours. These frames were taken over three nights.

I would really like to image this again using narrowband and see if I can get a better mage of the tendrils from M82! - A fun future project…..

Details for this image:

191 x 180 seconds, bin 1x1, unity gain @ -15C. (Total integration of 9.55 hours).

50 Bias exposures

34 Dark exposures

45 Flat Darks

30 Flats taken each night, each nights data was calibrated to these flats.

Scope: William Optics 132mm FLT F/7 APO

Guide Scope: Sharpstar 61DPHII

Guide Scope Focus Motor: ZWO EAF

Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290Mini

Main Scope Focus Motor: Pegasus Astro Focus Cube 2

Field Rotator: Pegasus Astro Falcon

Mount: Ioptron CEM60

Polar Alignment: Ioptron Ipolar integrated alignment cameras

Capture Software: PHD2 Guider, Sequence Generator Pro controller

Image Processing: Deepsky Stacker, Pixinsight, Photoshop, Coffee, extensive processing indecision and second guessing, and much swearing…..

Thanks for looking!

Pat

Most astrophotographers would label this as the Rho Ophiuchi dust complex. I don't think I took long enough exposures to pull out the colors and richness around Antares. I think I need more time with each subframe. This is a stack of 13 3 minute exposures with an unmodified Nikon D80 piggybacked on my Edge HD on a Celestron CGEM mount. Stacking and initial processing in PixInsight; final touches in PS CS 5.1.

The image center (J2000) is at

RA 16h 26m

DEC -24° 51'

The image spans 20° x 24°

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Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, between 03.47 and 03.59 EDT

(285 km by road north of Toronto)

* Temperature 10° C.

* Total exposure time: 6 minutes

* 90 mm lens

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Description:

The familiar "W" shape of the constellation Cassiopeia rises in the north-eastern sky after midnight in mid-summer in the northern hemisphere. The Milky Way galaxy runs through this part of the sky. Many open clusters of stars, loosely bound together gravitationally, also populate this area of the sky.

Many dark tendrils of foreground gas obscure the light of the stars beyond in this view.

For a version of this image withOUT labels, click on the LEFT side of your screen, or click here:

www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/36158810952

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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 equatorial mount with a Kirk Enterprises ball head

Six stacked frames; each frame:

90 mm focal length

ISO 3200; 1 minute exposure at f/4.5; unguided

(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)

Subframes registered in RegiStar;

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

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Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada

(285 km by road north of Toronto)

between 23.29 and 00.01 EDT

* Altitude of the nebula at time of exposures: 63°, increasing to 67°

* Temperature 15° C.

* Total exposure time: 15 minutes

* 660 mm focal length telescope

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This is a large ionized emission nebula and star forming region more than 100 light-years in diameter, located about 2,400 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. The gas cloud is energized by the bright multiple star HD206267, which is just a little right of centre in this image, as well as by the entire cluster (Tr37) of young, bright, bluish hot stars that is in the centre of the cloud.

Per Wikipedia: The HD206267 "system is emitting a stellar wind that reaches an exceptional velocity of 3,225 km/s, among the highest measured for stars of this type".

The very small Elephant’s Trunk Nebula (IC 1396A) is the elongated globule to the right of centre. Up to 250 stars are in the process of being created in this nebula. One 2012 study of this region argues that "the TSF [triggered star formation] mechanism in IC 1396A is a radiation-driven implosion process persisting over several million years".

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@N06/49230602858

For a view of this same region made with a 540 mm focal length telescope two years earlier, click here:

www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/36698969403

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

Fifteen stacked subframes; each frame:

ISO 8000; 1 minute exposure at f/5.2, unguided

(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)

Subframes stacked in RegiStar;

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

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Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy

The bright blue reflection nebulae of M78 glowing amidst intertwining lanes of dust and gas, with a section of the bright red emission nebula Barnard's Loop in the lower left of frame.

This image is an integration of 20 hours total exposure (241 x 300s subframes) shot on a QHY168C OSC with a WO Zenithstar 103 telescope. An STC astro-multispectra filter was used. Imaging was managed via Sequence Generator Pro and guiding controlled via PHD2. All post-processing was carried out in PixInsight.

Observed from Prachinburi, Thailand.

1999 Alfa Romeo 156 1.8 T. Spark.

Scrapped (last MoT test expired in September 2015).

It failed a test that month -

Nearside front subframe mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded (2.4.a.3)

Supplementary restraint system warning lamp indicates a fault (5.4.2)

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Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada

(285 km by road north of Toronto)

between 01.03 and 01.24 EDT

* Altitude of centre of frame at time of exposures: ~37°

* Temperature 16° C.

* Total exposure time: 10 minutes

* 105 mm focal length lens

___________________________________________

Description:

On of the brightest patches in the northern section of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, lies in the constellation Aquila (the Eagle), Scutum (the Shield), and Serpens Cauda (the Serpent's Tail). This starcloud contains many open clusters of stars, together with foreground globules of cold dark gas that are the incubators of new star formation.

One of the most prominent star clusters in this area of the sky is M11, the so-called "Wild Duck" cluster, which is a favourite observing target of amateur astronomers with modest telescopes. M11 is almost dead centre in this image. This is a rich open cluster of stars that looks like a duck in flight. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Duck_Cluster for more information about M11.

For a closer in view of M11 and the surrounding area, made on the same night with a 660 mm focal length telescope, click here:

www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/50039721548

For a version of this photo WITH LABELS, showing constellation boundaries and the dozens of open and globular star clusters, and dark nebulae, click on the RIGHT side of your screen, or click here:

www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/50061525587

___________________________________________

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

Ten stacked subframes; each frame:

105 mm focal length

ISO 4000; 1 minute exposure at f/5, unguided

(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)

Subframes stacked in RegiStar;

Processed in Photoshop CS6 (levels, brightness, contrast, colour balance, M11 masking)

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Taken using a Fujifilm X-T10 with Meike 35mm f/1.7 lens

Burano, Italy

Comet C2016 R2 from this morning. At first, the situation was quite frustrating. The clouds that ran through again and again left only small gaps in order to design and focus the image at all. Eventually the whole sky closed up (I used these shots as flats; -). I just kept the recordings running. And eventually, when I was sleeping, the sky finally opened up. Only the rechargeable battery of the Sony A7s had "given up"until then, so that only 6 subframes were possible in a good sky. What a joy this morning that some subframes were usable between 1:30 and 3:30h.

Technology:

(1) Hyperstar C14, Starlight Xpress H36 mono, 60 x 90 sec (bin 2x2)

(2) RASA C11, Sony A7s, ISO 3200,6 x 90 sec

ASA DDM85 mount

Tenerife, 1180 m a. s. l. 2018-01-15 1:30h - 3:30h UT