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This deer had her face stuck in the snow rooting for food, when she suddenly snapped up giving me this silly snow face look.
I love seeing these brightly coloured cardinals, especially on a cold winter day!
Spotted at Lemoine Point Conservation Area
Trying to shelter from the stuff cold wind, this Snowy Owl too low to the ground for a bit of protection.
Not the most obvious choice of import! I can imagine finding spare parts being an absolute pain. Imported when brand new, it would seem. Gained a new owner since I saw it.
At 9:30 PM Eastern on Friday, October 28, 2022, this unusually bright bolid streaked through the sky over the Camden Lake Provincial Wildlife Area.
The bolide was bright enough to light up stuff on the ground and cast shadows. It also left a nice glowing debris trail behind it.
This was easily one of the brightest fireballs that I've seen to date, and the largest I've managed to capture in photo.
-=TECH DATA=-
#Nikon Z6ii
#Rokinon 14mm f/2.8
Here is my first deep sky image of 2020 - a 2 frame panorama of Messier 81 (Bode's Galaxy / Bode's Nebula) and Messier 82 (The Cigar Galaxy)
M81 is a spiral galaxy in Ursa Major about 12 million light years from Earth. It's the largest member of the M81 group, the closest galaxy cluster to our own Local Group.
M82 is a fantastic specimen of a starburst galaxy. These galaxies are undergoing unusually high levels of star formation compared to the other far more common types of galaxies. M82 is the closest example of a starburst galaxy to Earth. It gets its name for the obvious resemblance to a cigar.
This panorama contains a total of 8 hours of integration time - 4 hours for each galaxy - shot over 2 nights per galaxy.
-= Tech Data =-
-Equipment-
Imaging Scope: Sky-Watcher Quattro 250P
Mount: Celestron CGX
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MC-Pro
Filter: SCT Duo Narrowband
Focus: Pegasus Astro Dual Motor Focuser
Guide Camera: Orion SSAG
Guide Scope: Starfield 60mm guide scope
Dew Control: Kendrick
Power: Pegasus Astro Pocket Power Box
- Acquisition -
∙ 80 x 3 minute exposures (4 hours total) per panorama frame
Calibration:
∙ Darks: Master dark from my dark library (2H of 120s darks)
- Bias: Master bias from my bias library (stack of 100 exposures)
- Software -
Acquisition / Rig Control: Sequence Generator Pro
Stacking: Astro Pixel Processor
Processing: PixInsight
Post Processing: Photoshop CC
Shot at the Camden Lake Provincial Wildlike Area near Moscow, Ontario.
This is the comet of the century (so far), so it's not surprising to see everyone and their dog posting pics of it.
Despite not being one to follow trends, I'm also not one to miss opportunity when it knocks. I can't resist taking photos of the first bright comet to grace our night skies in the last 23 years.
Enjoy!
-= Tech Data =-
-Equipment-
Nikon D7000
Rokinon 135mm f/2.0
iOptron SkyGuider Pro
24 x 60 second exposures @ ISO 800
Shot at the Camden Lake Provincial Wildlife Area near Moscow, Ontario
This nebula lies at a distance of about 1000 LY from Earth in the constellation Perseus. It gets its name due to the slight resemblance to the state of California.
This is my first time shooting this nebula. This image was taken back in September. Since it occupies a rather large swath of the sky, this image is a 2 panel panorama that was required to fit most of it in frame. Likely a 3rd image would have been required to get it all.
-=Tech Data=-
-Equipment-
Imaging Scope: Explore Scientific ED80
Mount: Celestron CGX
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MC-Pro
Filter: Baader STC Duo Narrowband (Ha and OIII)
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI120 Mini
Guide Scope: Starfield 60mm guide scope
Dew Control: Kendrick
Power: Pegasus Astro Pocket Power Box
- Acquisition -
5H of 5 min exposures
- Software -
Acquisition / Rig Control: Sequence Generator Pro
Stacking: Astro Pixel Processor
Processing: PixInsight
Post Processing: Photoshop CC
Shot at the Camden Lake Provincial Wildlife Area near Moscow, Ontario.
Located at about 5700 LY from Earth in the constellation Serpens, the Eagle Nebula is a huge stellar nursery brimming with active star formation. At its core, the famous Pillars of Creation, made famous by Hubble's groundbreaking photo, span several light years and contain thousands of protostars.
This is one of those jewels of the night sky that I can't help but revisit almost every year. The depth and colour of the nebula and the surrounding starfield is breathtaking and keeps luring me back time and time again. And each time, I try to capture it better than I did before. This is no different, as this is easily my best capture of this object. I can now put it to rest for at least a couple of years before I decide to revisit it once more.
-=Tech Data=-
-Equipment-
Imaging Scope: Sky-Watcher Quattro 250P
Mount: Celestron CGX
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MC-Pro
Filter: SCT Duo Narrowband
Focus: Pegasus Astro Dual Motor Focuser
Guide Camera: Orion SSAG
Guide Scope: Starfield 60mm guide scope
Dew Control: Kendrick
Power: Pegasus Astro Pocket Power Box
- Acquisition -
∙ 114 x 3 minute exposures (5hours 42 mins)
Calibration:
∙ Darks: Master dark from my dark library (2H of 120s darks)
- Bias: Master bias from my bias library (stack of 100 exposures)
- Software -
Acquisition / Rig Control: Sequence Generator Pro
Stacking: Astro Pixel Processor
Processing: PixInsight
Post Processing: Photoshop CC
Shot at the Camden Lake Provincial Wildlike Area near Moscow, Ontario.
12 pane panorama of the Milky Way. Shot at Camden Lake near Moscow, Ontario
Nikon D750
Vivitar 13mm f/2.8
20 second exposures @ ISO 3200
I was searching through some images I shot earlier this summer and came across a montage I hadn't yet published, so I figured it was high time to get it out.
The Milky Way is always a beautiful sight from a dark location, partticuarly in summer from my latitude. Nothing beats shooting it with an ultra-wide lens. The sky was tracked over a period of 1 hour using my iOptron SkyTracker and subsequent images stacked. The foreground was from the same cameram, lens and session, but I physically moved the camera about 3 meters to get under the gazebo. When compositing the foreground and background, I attempted to blend them at the same angle for a more natural look, and I managed quite nicely.
Shot at Camden Lake Provincial Wildlife Area near Moscow, Ontario, Canada.
Tech Data
Nikon D750
Vivitar 13mm f/2.8
iOptron SkyTracker
Sky is 20 x 3 min exposures @ ISO 400
Foreground is 1 min exposure @ ISO 400.
A beautiful, clear night under the stars at the Lennox and Addington County Dark Sky Viewing Area.
Nikon D750
Vivitar 13mm f/2.8
25 second exposure @ ISO 3200
A time stack of the sunset over Kingston's city hall. It's was a pretty good sunset, but not quite what I was hoping for, so I'll be revisiting this one again someday.
Visit my instagram page to see the timelapse video, www.instagram.com/mattmolloyphoto/
I made this time stack by combining 80 photos into one image. Here's a quick and easy Photoshop tutorial of the process I use to make time stacks. youtu.be/oTfp47jTzWc
The weather is bleak and I can't get out. So I'm getting a lot of practice re-processing earlier photos, honing my PixInsight skills.
This is a revisit of the first image I shot with my new 10" telescope back in the spring. It was my first time out, first time using my electronic focuser, and just getting reacquainted with my equipment after it having been in storage all winter.
I now realize my focus isn't as sharp as I would have liked it to be, but the level of detail in the image is still very impressive, all things considered. This is still by far my best image of this galaxy.
- TECH DATA -
Scope: Sky-Watcher Quattro 250P @ f/4
Mount: Celestron CGX
Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MC-Pro
Autoguider: Orion Mini Guide Scope + SSAG
55 x 2 min exposures
Stack: Astro Pixel Processor
Process: PixInsight
Post Processing: Photoshop CC 2019
Shot at the L&A County Dark Sky Viewing Area near Erinsville, Ontario
M51 is my all-time favourite deep sky target. It was my first astro image I ever took all those years ago. I've been imaging it every years trying to outdo what I did before and capture more detail. And every time I get a new telescope, it's my first target. This years was no different.
The beauty of this galaxy pair colliding is something that just has me in awe every time. The shape of the spirals blending together following a curve that seems to follow the Fibonacci sequence makes this a very unique pair.
About 6 weeks back, I had posted a photo of it, and it was the best I'd ever taken hands down. Since then, I managed to gather a bit more data on it (only an extra 30 mins due to weather) and reprocessed it using PixInsight now that I've gotten more comfortable with it. And much to my amazement, I surpassed the quality and detail of the original shot quite significantly. So I had to share this one again - this time with a closer crop to show off more of the fine detail within the galaxy.
- TECH DATA -
Scope: Sky-Watcher Quattro 250P @ f/4
Mount: Celestron CGX
Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MC-Pro
Autoguider: Orion Mini Guide Scope + SSAG
55 x 2 min exposures
Stack: Astro Pixel Processor
Process: PixInsight
Post Processing: Photoshop CC 2019
Shot at the L&A County Dark Sky Viewing Area near Erinsville, Ontario
I picked up a used Sony a6300 as a backup for my A7iii and was curious how well the crop factor would work on my 200-600mm lens. Just to make things even more interesting, I added my x1.4 extender too!
The lens and camera combo worked surprisingly well! When the x1.4 was added the autofocus began to struggle. Understandably so with the maximum aperture becoming f/9.
This image was with the extender on, so effective focal length was just over 1200mm. I’m quite pleased with this performance.
A beautiful clear night with a nice stable sky is all any astrophotographer can hope for. And last night delivered in a big way!
Nikon D750
Rokinon 14mm f/2.8
Single 25 second exposure @ ISO 6400
Shot from the Lennox and Addington Dark Sky Viewing Area near Erinsville, Ontario.
The Trifid Nebula is an active star formation region in Saggitarius. It's trifurcated and features multiple objects of interest. The magenta areas are an emission nebula, the blue areas are reflection nebula, and the dark areas are dark nebula. And an open cluster lives within its gassy clouds. This is one telescopic target that has it all!
The data acquired for this new version of this image is a lot cleaner due to clearer skies and less tracking issues, resulting in more fine detail, and after a month of using PixInsight, my skills have improved drastically. And this is the result.
- TECH DATA -
Scope: Sky-Watcher Quattro 250P @ f/4
Mount: Celestron CGX
Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MC-Pro
Autoguider: Orion Mini Guide Scope + SSAG
46 x 2 min exposures
Stack: Astro Pixel Processor
Process: PixInsight
Post Processing: Photoshop CC 2019
Shot at the L&A County Dark Sky Viewing Area near Erinsville, Ontario, Canada.
At a distance of 31 million light years from Earth, M51 hangs majestically in the night sky. It's beautiful spiral arms and clouds of ejected stars due to its collision with its companion galaxy, NGC 5195 hanging in the blackness of space.
While M51 steals the show, this field is full of other background objects. Upon close examination, you can find IC 4257, a planetary nebula at 11000 light years away from Earth, as well as at least 10 easily visiblegalaxies, some over 100 million light years away.
-=Tech Data=-
-Equipment-
Imaging Scope: Sky-Watcher Esprit 100
Mount: Celestron CGX
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MC-Pro
Filter: Baader UV/IR cut
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI120 Mini
Guide Scope: Starfield 60mm guide scope
Dew Control: Kendrick
Power: Pegasus Astro Pocket Power Box
- Acquisition -
42 x 5 min exposures (3H 30M total integration time)
- Software -
Acquisition / Rig Control: Sequence Generator Pro
Stacking: Astro Pixel Processor
Processing: PixInsight
Post Processing: Photoshop CC
Shot at Lennox and Addington Dark Sky Viewing Area.
The moon is an object that can be both loved and reviled by astronomers, both amateur and professional alike.
Its close proximity and brightness make it a joy to observe with thousands of fine features that can be observed using even small telescopes.
On the other hand, it's brightness in its fuller phases washes out the sky, which is a frustrating time for stargazers looking to observe those faint, deep sky objects. The glow of the moon has much the same effect as light pollution, making deep sky observation prohibitively difficult or impossible. This is what earns it the distinction of "The Devil's Flashlight" amongst astronomy buffs who try to avoid its presence or use filters in an attempt to minimize its effect.
But no one can deny the beauty of our closest celestial neighbour as it does its eternal gravitational dance with our home planet.
-=Tech Data=-
-Equipment-
Imaging Scope: Sky-Watcher Quattro 250P
Mount: Celestron CGX
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MC-Pro
Filter: STC Astro Duo-Narrowband filter (Hα and OIII) (yes, this was shot with a filter!)
-Software-
Acquisition: Sharpcap
Pre-processing: Planetary Image Pre-Processor (PiPP)
Stacking: Autostakkert!3
Post Processing: Photoshop CC with Astra Image Deconvolution plugin
Best 1500 of 2100 shots
Shot at the Camden Lake Provincial Wildlife Area near Moscow Ontario.
NGC 7023 - The Iris Nebula
The Iris Nebula is a bright blue reflection nebula located in the fertile star fields of the constellation Cepheus. The nebula is approximately 6 LY across and 1300 LY from Earth. The gas at the core of the nebula is lit up by a young, bright star which reflects off the gas and interstellar dust around it.
Being right in the plane of our galaxy, the nebula is surrounded by a giant clouds of dust and cold molecular gas that obscure much of the background stars. This gives the region surrounding the reflection portion of nebula a very "dirty" appearance out of which the bright blue Iris stands out amongst the subdued browns, reds and near black regions. Oddly, the clearest spot to see the unobstructed background in this field of view is the "hole" near the bottom left of the Iris, which reveals a pristine background with unobstructed stars.
This image was captured over a span of approximately 3 hours. After combing through my subs and picking out images that weren't absolutely perfect, 164 minutes of integration time made it into this final image.
- TECH DATA -
Scope: Sky-Watcher Quattro 250P @ f/4
Mount: Celestron CGX
Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MC-Pro
Autoguider: Orion Mini Guide Scope + SSAG
79 x 2 min exposures
Stack: Astro Pixel Processor
Process: PixInsight
Post Processing: Photoshop CC 2019
Shot at the Camden Lake Provincial Wildlife Area near Moscow, Ontario.