View allAll Photos Tagged astropixelprocessor
First light with the Sky-Watcher Quattro 150P f/3.5
Altair Astro 533C PROTEC OSC (Offset: 64 / Gain: 101 / HCG On)
28 x 120sec. subs (56 mins.)
Processed in Astro Pixel Processor, GraXpert and Affinity Photo
Ioptron CEM 25p
W/O Zenithstar 73 + flattner
ASI 533MC pro
W/O Uniguide 50mm
ASI 120mini
ZWO EFW
Duo Narrowband filter
ASIair pro controlled
26x5min (total time: 2,2h)
Darks + Flats
Post-processed #astropixelprocessor, PS and LR
M106, also known as NGC4258, UGC7353 and PGC39600.
"Messier 106 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth. M106 contains an active nucleus classified as a Type 2 Seyfert, and the presence of a central supermassive black hole has been demonstrated from radio-wavelength observations of the rotation of a disk of molecular gas orbiting within the inner light-year around the black hole."
- Wikipedia
Shooting Location :
* 51° N 3° E
* bortle class 5 backyard
Object Information
* Type : Spiral Galaxy
* Size : 135,000 lightyears in diameter
* Magnitude : 8.4
* Location (J2000.0): RA 12h 18m 57s / DEC +47° 18' 14"
* Approximate distance : 7.3 million parsecs / 23.7 million lightyears
Hardware
* Mount : Celestron CGX
* Imaging Scope : TS Optics 80mm f/6 APO FPL53
* Imaging Camera : ZWO ASI 183MM
* Filter Wheel : ZWO EFW 7*36mm + Baader Ha 7nm, Baader OIII 8.5nm + Baader SII 8.5nm + Baader LRGB
* Corrector : TS-Optics Flattener/Reducer 0.79x
* Guide Scope : Omegon 50mm f/4
* Guide Camera : ZWO ASI 290MM
Exposures
* Gain : 111
* Sensor Temperature : -20°C
* Light Frames :
- Baader Luminance : 152x 180sec
- Baader Red : 32x 180sec
- Baader Green : 32x 180sec
- Baader Blue : 32x 180sec
* Flat Frames :
- Baader L : 30x
- Baader R : 30x
- Baader G : 30x
- Baader B : 30x
* Dark Frames : 100x
* Total Integration Time : 12h36m
* Capture Dates : 2020-03-21 & 2020-03-25
Capture Software
* ZWO ASIair (Original)
Processing Software
* PixInsight
* AstroPixelProcessor
* Topaz Denoise AI
* Adobe Photoshop
30*120 sec subs taken with ASI1600MM and Sigma 70-200mm lens. Camera at 0 degrees C. Some walking noise in the image which is strange as the mount was polar aligned with a Pole Master.
This target could do with longer subs but the Star Adventurer can't handle it. (when its badly polar aligned)
Calibrated lights only in AstroPixel Processor.
Needs more signal.....
Three Messier objects: M17, M18, and M24 in the Milky Way. Nikon 300mm f/4 lens, ZWO ASI294MC Pro camera. 12 5-minute exposures.
Centaurus A is located about 11.5 million light years from Earth. It took light 11.5 million years to make its long journey to Earth. NGC 5128 is located in the Virgo Cluster of galaxies near to our Local Group of galaxies. The galaxy is about 60,000 light years in diameter which is about 60% the diameter of our Milky Way Galaxy. NGC 5128 is located in the skies of the southern hemisphere. It appears as a greyish smudge that is easily visible in a pair of binoculars in the night sky.
The Centaurus A Galaxy is considered to be two galaxies in mid-collision. One galaxy is elliptically shaped (spherically shaped) and the other is a spiral galaxy (disk shaped) that is viewed edge-on the Flickr photo. The dark dust band cutting across Centaurus A belongs to the spiral galaxy. The opposite ends of the dust band in the photo have been distorted as the result the of the mutual gravitational tidal forces between the two colliding galaxies.
Centaurus A is an example of a starburst galaxy. Starburst galaxies have a much higher rate of new star formation in them compared to normal galaxies like our Milky Way Galaxy. In the case of Centaurus A, the mechanism that produces the high star formation rate is the increased presence of shock waves in the spiral galaxy’s interstellar medium that is triggered by the gravitational interactions between the elliptical and spiral galaxy during the collision.
Centaurus A has a very active galactic nucleus. This is a sign of a supermassive black hole (SBH) at its center. The SBH is estimated to contain about 55 million solar masses. The activity of the SBH is manifested by two oppositely directed beams of X-rays and radio waves that are almost perpendicular to the spiral galaxy’s disk. The jets extend out to about 70,000 light years from Centaurus A’s center. The jets are generated by the disk of matter, an accretion disk, circling the SBH at such high speeds that it produces a magnetic beam-like structure that focus some of the material in the rotating disk away from the SBH at speeds close to the speed of light. The colliding matter in the jets produces X-rays and radio waves making Centaurus A which makes NGC 5128 one of the “brightest” radio sources in the sky. The jets are not visible in the Flickr photo since the astrograph’s camera detects visible light. X-ray and radio telescopes detect the jets.
The T30 astrograph located at iTelescope’s Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia was used to acquire imaging data from NGC 5128. T30 is a remotely controlled robotic astrograph that is controlled over the Internet by members of iTelescope. The imaging data was download to my home computer in the suburbs of Washington, DC for processing.
T30 consists of a PlaneWave CDK20 telescope and a Finger Lakes Instrumentation FLI PL6303E Monochrome CCD camera. The telescope is 508mm (20 inch) diameter and has a photographic speed of F/6.8. AstroDon Luminace, Red, Green, and Blue filters were inserted between the telescope and camera to produce the images needed to be combined to produce the single true color Flickr image of NGC 5128. At total of 3.8 hours of 5-minute exposures were combined using Astro Pixel Processor and PixInsight (PI) dedicated astrophotography software programs on my home PC. Adobe Photoshop 2021 was used to make tweaks in color and saturation to the output of the PI image.
Mars in conjunction with the Pleiades (M45) taken at Kelling Heath Spring Star Party. This object was very low so the raw images suffered from gradients from the 'claggy' atmosphere at low elevations and from the tops of the trees encroaching in the image as streaks of dark blurs. These were fixed using Astro Pixel Processor (a trial version but based on this I will be buying it as it is significantly better (but slower and more complicated) than the free Deep Sky Stacker.
La famosa galassia Vortice (Whirlpool) M51 che si trova nella Costellazione dei Cani da Caccia, a 31 milioni di anni luce dal sistema solare sembra toccarsi con la sua compagna in basso NGC-5195.
Setup SkyWatcher Heq5 goto, rifrattore Svbony SV503 102ed, camera Qhy183, impostata a -5 gradi, gain 11 offsett 30 filtro Svbony CLS, camera guida Asi 120mm teleguida 60/240.
Tot. Integrazione ore 16:00 risultato della somma di 240Light da 240” più Dark, Flat e DarkFlat.
Software di acquisizione Ekos tramite dispositivo raspberry e OS StellarMate.
Software somma e elaborazione, AstroPixelProcessor, Pixinsight.
Bortle 7.2.
Cieli Sereni
NGC 281, shot with:
Redcat 51
ZWO ASI533MC
Optolong L-Ultimate
ASI120MM / ZWO 30mm f4
ZWO AM5 Mount
Processed in:
AstroPixelProcessor, PixInsight, Photoshop
114 5-minute frames
This is not final yet! Will add more frames as I shoot more. Goal is 100+ frames (5 minutes each)
The Fireworks Galaxy (NGC 6946)
A spectacular view of a dramatic spiral galaxy seen through a mass of stars from our own Milky Way Galaxy. It took the light from this galaxy 22 million years to get here. I'm glad it was a clear night.
It gets its name, Fireworks galaxy because of the number of Supernova explosions that have been reported in the galaxy. In the last century alone, at least 10 supernovae have been detected in the galaxy. N.A.S.A.
It is also known as a Starburst Galaxy galaxy due to the number of new stars being created.
ZWO ASIAIR Pro
ZWO ASI 533MC Pro
ZWO EAF
Celestron C11-A XLT (not Edge HD)
SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro
Tracking but no guiding. I haven't been able to get the guide camera in focus either with OAG or separate guidescope yet so I restricted my captured to 30 seconds each to keep the stars round.
Captured in Live View, saving every frame:
85 Lights at 30 seconds, gain 100, temp -10C
20 Darks at 30 seconds, gain 100, temp -10C
40 Bias at 10.0ms, gain 100, temp -10C
Bortle 4 sky and a generic light pollution filter.
Integrated in Astro Pixel Processor and adjusted in Photoshop CS4.
Technical data:
Remote Observatory "FarLightTeam"
Team: Marc Valero, José Esteban, Jesús M. Vargas, Bittor Zabalegui.
Telescope: Takahashi FSQ106 ED 530mm f/5
CCDs: QSI683 wsg8
Filters: Baader Planetarium - LRGB
Mount: 10Micron GM1000 HPS
Imaging Software: Voyager
Processing Software: PixInsight-AstroPixelProcessor
Imaging Data:
Captured Between February 1 to April 30, 2022 in 6 sessions due to bad weather.
( Fregenal de la Sierra ) Badajoz, Spain.
Hosting "E-EYE Entre Encinas y Estrellas"
Image composed of:
Luminance 54 x 900" .....13,5 hours
RGB 28x300" on each channel ..... 7 hours
Total ....20,5 hours
Darks, flats, bias
Processed by: Jesús M. Vargas
Technical explanation of objects :
The Virgo cluster is a cluster of galaxies located approximately 59 ± 4 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Virgo. It contains some 1,300 known galaxies, although there may be as many as 2,000, and forms the central region of the Local Supercluster, in which the Local Group is also found. Its mass is estimated to be 1.2×1015 MS up to about 8 degrees from the center of the cluster, which is equivalent to a radius of about 2.2 Mpc.3
Many of the bright galaxies in this cluster, including the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87, were discovered in the late 1770s and early 1780s and later included in Charles Messier's catalogue. Described by Messier as starless nebulae, their true nature would not be discovered until the 1920s.
The cluster subtends a maximum arc of about 8 degrees centered on the constellation Virgo, and many of its galaxies can be seen with an amateur telescope. Its brightest member is the giant elliptical galaxy M49, but the most notable and famous is the galaxy M87, located in its center.
In the center of the image we show we have NGC 4435 and NGC 4438, also known as the Eye Galaxies or Arp 120, they are two galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, about 52 million light years from our galaxy, also visible with amateur telescopes.
NGC 4435:
NGC 4435 is a barred lenticular galaxy showing a ring of dust around the nucleus. Through studies carried out with the Spitzer telescope, a young stellar population has been detected in its center, which indicates that 190 million years ago it suffered a stellar outbreak perhaps caused by an interaction with NGC 4438, and almost all of its hot gas, according to studies. made in X-rays with the Chandra telescope, is concentrated in its central region. It also seems to have a long tail that was also thought to be produced by this event, but which is actually a system of dust clouds in our galaxy that is totally unrelated to NGC 4435.
NGC 4438:
NGC 4438 is a hard-to-classify galaxy that has been classified as both a spiral galaxy and a lenticular galaxy, which explains its inclusion in Halton C. Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. It is one of the most notable galaxies in the cluster due to its highly distorted appearance, which shows that it is undergoing or has undergone gravitational interactions, and for the unknown mechanism that causes its central region to show activity, and that it has expelled opposing gas loops at one the other. A starburst, a black hole, or an active galactic nucleus has been thought of, and all possibilities are under investigation. It also shows a low content of neutral hydrogen, perhaps due to its friction with the hot gas that fills the intergalactic medium of Virgo or with the corona of hot gas that surrounds the nearby galaxy M86 and/or due to having been torn away by gravitational attraction. of some galaxy with which it was about to collide (perhaps M86 itself), in addition to a displacement of the different components of its interstellar medium (neutral hydrogen, molecular hydrogen, hot gas, and interstellar dust, which reaches up to a distance of 4-5 kiloparsecs from its disk) in the direction of NGC 4435 -which tends to be attributed, however, to friction with the aforementioned intergalactic medium-, and finally traces of having undergone several bursts of star formation.
A pair of interacting galaxies?
NGC 4435 and NGC 4438 have been and are considered by numerous authors to be a pair of interacting galaxies, having calculated that the two galaxies came close 100 million years ago to just 16,000 light years from each other. In any case, and despite the strong evidence in favor of an interaction between the two, other scientists have expressed doubts as to whether the two galaxies are actually interacting despite their apparent proximity, since their redshifts are different and NGC 4435 is barely visible. has suffered the effects of such interaction. It has also been speculated that NGC 4438 may actually be two galaxies merging, having nothing to do with NGC 4435, which has interacted in the past with M86 (to which it seems to be joined by filaments of gas and in which it is detected certain amount of interstellar dust and atomic and ionized hydrogen that seems to come from NGC 4438, which reinforces this possibility) causing the peculiarities observed in it, that the three mentioned galaxies have interacted with each other, and even that NGC 4438 may be being torn apart by the gravity (tidal forces) of M87, which is only 58 arcminutes away from it (and seems to have gotten as close as 300 kiloparsecs).
The star-forming nebula known as IC 1848, or the Soul Nebula (goes with the nearby Heart Nebula).72 frames, 300 sec. each.
Messier 74 (also known as NGC 628 and Phantom Galaxy) is a large spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces. It is about 32 million light-years away from Earth. The galaxy contains two clearly defined spiral arms and is therefore used as an archetypal example of a grand design spiral galaxy. The galaxy's low surface brightness makes it the most difficult Messier object for amateur astronomers to observe. Its relatively large apparent size and the galaxy's face-on orientation make it an ideal object for astronomers who want to study spiral arm structure and spiral density waves. It is estimated that M74 hosts about 100 billion stars.
~
Telescope: Celestron C11-A XLT Schmidt Cassegrain OTA
Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro
Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Plus
Main Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -10C
Filter: Optolong L-Pro filter
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI174MM Mini guidecam
Guide via: ZWO OAG
Stacked from:
Lights 110 at 120 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Darks 30 at 120 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Flat 30 at 1.1 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Dark Flat 30 at 1.1 seconds, gain 101 temp -10C
Bortle 4 sky.
Integrated the saved frames in Astro Pixel Processor.
Processed in Pixinsight
Captions added in Photoshop CS4
My first data acquisition for the 2021 season, I have imaged this target in both the Astronomik CLSCCD and also the Optolong L-eXtreme Dual Band Narrowband filter in order to produce four different versions
RA: 20h51m04.48s
Dec: 30°55'14.61"
Constellation: Cygnus
Designation: Cygnus Loop, Eastern Veil, Western Veil, Witches Broom
Image Details:
CLSCCD: 200x120S - Gain 100
Darks: 201 Frames
Flats: 201 Frames
Bias: 201 Frames
Acquisition Dates: Sept. 5, 2021 , Sept. 6, 2021 , Sept. 7, 2021 , Sept. 8, 2021
Total Capture time: 6h 40m
Equipment Details:
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI6200MC Pro 62mpx Full Frame OSC
Imaging Scope: SharpStar 15028HNT Hyperboloid Astrograph
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI260MC Pro
OAG: ZWO L-OAG
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8 Pro
Pier: Altair Astro Skyshed 8" Pier
Focuser: Primalucelab Sesto Senso V2
Filter: Astronomik CLSCCD
Power and USB Control: Primalucelab Eagle4 Pro
Acquisition Software: Main Sequence Software. Sequence Generator Pro 3.2
Calibration and Stacking: Astro Pixel Processor
Processing Software: PixInsight 1.8.8 and EZ Processing Suite for Star Reduction
B86, the Ink Spot, is a Dark Nebula in Sagittarius that obscures the light from the background stars of the milky way. On the left lies the Open Cluster NGC 6520.
Object: NGC 6520 + B 86 (Ink Spot)
Optics: Lacerta Newton 12" F4 + 3" Wynne-Corrector
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8
Camera: ZWO ASI 183MM Pro @-20°C, Gain=53, Offset=10
Filter: ZWO EFW 7x36mm, ZWO 36mm Filters
Exposure: total ~1.3h, R 20x60sec, G 20x60sec, B 20x60sec, L 40x60sec, L (derived from RGB), 200 Bias, 40 Darks, 40 Flats per channel
Date: 2018-07-13
Location: ATHOS Centro Astronómico S.L., La Palma
Capture: Sequence Generator Pro
Guiding: Off-Axis, ASI120MM, PHD2
Image Acquisition: Stephan Schurig
Image Processing: Stephan Schurig
AstroPixelProcessor 1.062: Calibration, Registration, Normalization, Integration, Channel Combination, Background Calibration, Auto Digital Development
Photoshop 19.1.5: Curves, Masked Dynamic (Saturation), Cosmetic Star Repair, Shadows/Highlights, Curves, Masked Dynamic (Saturation), Nik Output Sharpener
Sky-Watcher Quattro 150P f/3.5
Player One Uranus-C OSC (Offset:10 / Gain:211 (HCG) )
SkyTech LPRO MAX filter
54 x 60sec. subs (54 mins.)
Processed in Astro Pixel Processor, GraXpert and Affinity Photo
Also known as the Witch's Broom
Sky-Watcher Quattro 150P f/3.5
Player One Uranus-C OSC (Offset:20 / Gain:60)
UV/IR filter
30 x 170sec. subs (85 mins.)
Processed in Astro Pixel Processor, Siril, GraXpert and Affinity Photo
NGC 2175, the Monkey Head Nebula (I don't see a monkey's head though), a cloud of warm hydrogen gas in the process of forming stars. 8hr total exposure. H and O: GSO 8" f/8 RC, ASI2600MM mono camera; color (stars) Explore Scientific ED102 (102mm f/7), ZWO ASI2600MC cooled color camera. processed in AstroPixelProcessor and Lightroom.
M81 (NGC 3031), M82 (NGC 3034), NGC 3177
47 exposures 300 sec. each.
Explore Scientific ED102 102mm f/7 apochromat refractor, Explore Scientific 1x flattener
ZWO ASI2600MC Pro cooled color CMOS camera, gain 100, -20ºC, IDAS DTD light pollution filter
ZWO EAF autofocuser
ZWO ASIAir Pro controller
iOptron CEM25P mount
auto-guided, SVBONY SV2165 30mm f/4 guide scope, ZWO ASI120MM Mini guide camera
Processed in Astro Pixel Processor, Lightroom, Photoshop
Soul nebula IC1848, narrowband processed. The stars are forming in the soul of the Queen of Ethiopia. More specifically, in a star-forming region called Soul Nebula can be found in the constellation Cassiopeia, a constellation Greek mythology identified as the arrogant wife of a king who has long ruled the lands around the top river Nile. the Soul nebula contains several open clusters of stars, an intense radio source known as W5 and huge bubbles formed by winds from massive young stars. Located about 6,500 light-years away, the Soul Nebula spans about 100 light years.
Technical data:
Remote Observatory "FarLightTeam"
Team: Jesús M. Vargas, Bittor Zabalegui,José Esteban, Marc Valero.
Telescope: Takahashi FSQ106 ED 530mm f/5
CCDs: QSI683 wsg8
Filters: Baader Planetarium - Halpha-SII-OIII
Mount: 10Micron GM1000 HPS
Imaging Software: Voyager
Processing Software: PixInsight-AstroPixelProcessor
Imaging Data:
Captured through 12 December 2021 to 21 February 2022, ( Fregenal de la Sierra ) Badajoz, Spain.
Image composed of a Mosaic of 2 tiles:
Ha: 94x1200"
SII-OIII: 147x1200"
Darks, flats, bias
Processed by: Jesús M. Vargas
Sky-Watcher Quattro 150P f/3.5
QHYCCD Minicam8
LRGB
30 x 120sec. subs each filter (2hrs. total)
Processed with Astro Pixel Processor, GraXpert, NoiseXTerminator and Affinity Photo
Globular Cluster M 22 in the constellation Sagittarius, near the galactic center. It is some 10,000 light years away from earth and one of the brightest and largest Globular Clusters in the sky.
Object: M 22
Optics: Lacerta Newton 12" F4 + 3" Wynne-Corrector
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8
Camera: ZWO ASI 183MM Pro @-20°C, Gain=53, Offset=10
Filter: ZWO EFW 7x36mm, ZWO 36mm Filters
Exposure: total ~0.5h, R 21x30sec, G 21x30sec, B 22x30sec, L (derived from RGB), 200 Bias, 40 Darks, 40 Flats per channel
Date: 2018-07-12, 2018-07-13
Location: ATHOS Centro Astronómico S.L., La Palma
Capture: Sequence Generator Pro
Guiding: Off-Axis, ASI120MM, PHD2
Image Acquisition: Stephan Schurig
Image Processing: Stephan Schurig
AstroPixelProcessor 1.062: Calibration, Registration, Normalization, Integration, Channel Combination, Background Calibration, Star Colors Correction, Auto Digital Development
Photoshop 19.1.5: Curves, Exposure (Offset), Masked Nik Dfine 2 Denoise, Masked Dynamic (Dynamic, Saturation), Star Shrink, Curves, HighPass Sharpening
I send you a (cropped) picture of SN 2022ewj in NGC 3367 for publication on your website www.rochesterastronomy.org/
I stacked 483 lights (x 15 s), so the integration time is 2 hrs 45 seconds. I used a 203mm/1624mm RC Telescope.
The lights were taken between 20:54 and 23:54 UTC (2022-03-26) in Southern Germany, Bavaria, near Dießen-Dettenschwang.
Stacking and Preprocessing with AstroPixelProcessor, processing with Fitswork and Photoshop.
The supernova seems to be 16,2 mag (by comparison with other stars).
Sincerely yours
Christoph Hahn
_______________________
Dr. Christoph Hahn
Hobelwirtstr. 3
86911 Dießen-Dettenschwang
My second try at astrophotography. Using a Nikon D800, a Nikkor 500mm AI-P and a Celestron CGEM EQ mount. 30 seconds expositions, blended in Astro Pixel Processor.
A small group of galaxies about 110 million light-years away. The reason to target this was the supernova in one of the galaxies, NGC 5915, bright enough to image with my modest equipment (about 15th magnitude). You can also see evidence of the gravitational interactions among the trio by their distorted spiral structure.
Taken from suburban Bloomnington, Indiana. Celestron Edge 8 SCT (203mm aperture f/10), 0.7x reducer/flattener, ZWO ASI294MC one-shot color and ZWO ASI2600MM monochrome cooled CMOS cameras, Losmandy GM811G mount, ASIAir controller, auto-guided. Processed in Astro Pixel Processor, Lightroom, and Photoshop.
#astrophotography #deepsky #supernova #galaxies
This is a Ha RGB image with a Samyang 135 - a two panel mosaic
About 4 hours of integration in Ha and 7 hours in RGB with an triband filter from a Bortle 7.6 backyard- total integration of 11 hours and 55 minutes. 64% moon on average.
I started this project way back in 2023 when I first collected the Ha data, but only got around to capturing the colour data in June of 2025. To be completely honest, I got tired of waiting for an opportunity to do so from a darker site!
Stacked individual panels in Ha and RGB
Mosaic assembled in AstroPixelProcessor and RGB and Ha data registered and aligned also in APP
Processed in PixInsight-usual workflow -roughly as follows
Dynamic Crop (RGB and Ha ; re-registered in APP after crop)
BlurX correct
ADBE
astrometric solution for RGB
SPCC for RGB
Starnet++
GHS
NoiseX
Histogram transformation
Combined Ha with RGB using the PixinSight script
Minor adjustment in Photoshop CS6 to finish
Samyang 135mm/ ZWO ADI 533 MM/ZWO ASI 533 MC/Antlia 3nm H Alpha Filter/Antlia triband filter/ AM3/ASIAIRMINI
The Flickr photo of IC 4592 is a true color image of the nebula. The Blue Horsehead Nebula is located in the constellation Scorpius, the Scorpion. IC 4592 is classified as a reflection nebula. The nebula resembles the head and upper neck of a horse with the eye represented by the blue star Nu (ν) Scorpii. The main and brightest star in this multiple star system is a main sequence B-type, blue-white, extremely hot star. IC 4592 is about 400 light years from Earth. The light captured to form the Flickr photo left the nebula in the early 18th century for its 400 year journey to Earth.
The reflection nebula is produced by blue light from a star being scattered by adjacent interstellar dust clouds that makes them visible to the camera sensors of a astrographs as bluish structures that form the nebula. The Flickr photo shows the large amount of brownish dust clouds that fills this region of interstellar space.
The technical information that specifies the imaging aspects behind the production of the Flickr photo is as follows.
•Telescope Live remote network AUS-2 astrograph
•The AUS-2 astrograph is located at Heaven’s Mirror Observatory, Australia
•AUS-2 consists of a Takahashi 106ED f/3.6 telescope and a FLI 16083 CCD camera
•AUS-2 uses AstroDon Generation II Luminance, Red, Green, and Blue wideband filters
•Calibrated imaging data was acquired and curated by Telescope Live
•The calibrated image data was processed on my home PC
•58 six-hundred second exposures were taken using wideband filters
•Total exposure time was 9 hours and 40 minutes
•Processing software: Astro Pixel Processor, PixInsight, and Affinity Photo 2
Dati: 17 x 300 sec a ISO 800 -16° c + 5 dark + 25 flat e darkflat
Montatura: EQ6 pro
Ottica: Nikkor 50 mm f/2 @ f/4
Sensore: Canon 40D CentralDS
Software sviluppo: AstroPixelProcessor e Photoshop
Temperatura esterna: 2 ° C - Umidità 55%
(passaggi di nuvole e velature)
The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224 and originally the Andromeda Nebula, is a spiral galaxy approximately 780 kiloparsecs (2.5 million light-years) from Earth, and the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. The galaxy's name stems from the area of the Earth's sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda.
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy
Equipment:
Celestron AVX
Baader Moon and Sky Glow with IR cut filter
ES ED 102 FCD 100 Scope
SSAG Cope and Camera
ZWO 183mc Pro
Pegasus Focus Cube
Software:
SGP Acquisition
Sharp Cap - Initial Focus and Polar Align
AstropixelProcessor for stacking and initial stretch
Finished in Photoshop
I'll have to look to see how much integration, 3-minute subs for sure though.
Venus and Jupiter are the two brightest planets in the night sky. They are visible to the naked eye without binoculars and are easily distinguishable even for the casual observer.
Venus appeared much brighter than Jupiter during the conjunction, however, they were both clearly visible to the naked eye in the early evening sky.
Thanks to the relatively short orbit of Venus (225 days) coupled with Jupiter’s 12-year orbit, the pair reach conjunction roughly every 13 months.
In this picture Venus is above Jupiter and you can clearly see the four Galilean moons of Callisto, Ganymede, Europa and Io. If you expand the picture to full size you will even make out some of the background stars.
Equipment Used
Telescope: William Optics Zenithstar 81 APO
Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro
Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Plus
Main Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at gain 101, temperature -10C
Filter: ZWO UV/IR Cut filter
Focal reducer: William Optics 0.8x 2.00"
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290MM Mini guidecam
Guide Scope: William Optics 50mm
Stacked from:
Lights 4 at 20ms, gain 101, temp -10C
Flats 30 at 150ms, gain 101, temp -10C
DarkFlats 30 at 150ms, gain 101 temp -10C
Bortle 4 sky.
Stacked in AstroPixelProcessor and adjusted in Photoshop CS4 and Topaz DeNoise AI
Messier 45, also known as the Seven Sisters or the Pleiades is an Open Cluster located in Taurus. It is obvious to the naked eye in the night sky. It contains blue and luminous stars some 100 million years old. The nebula around the stars was thought to be remains of star forming, but is now considered as unrelated dust.
Object: M 45 (Pleiades)
Optics: William Megrez 72ED F6 + TS Flattener
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MMC @-20°C, Gain=75, Offset=15
Filter: ZWO EFW 7x36mm, ZWO 36mm Filters
Exposure: total ~0.8h, B 6x240sec + B 52x30sec, 200 Bias, 40 Darks, 50 Flats per channel
Date: 2017-11-13
Location: Schwaig
Capture: Sequence Generator Pro
Guiding: APM50 Image Master, ASI120MM, PHD2
Image Acquisition: Stephan Schurig
Image Processing: Stephan Schurig
AstroPixelProcessor 1.070: Calibration, Registration, Normalization, Integration, Background Flattening & Calibration, Auto Digital Development
Photoshop 20.0.4: Levels, Curves, Masked Nik Dfine 2 Denoise, Levels, Shadows/Highlights, Masked HighPass Sharpening, Color Balance
Remarks: This image was taken in blue channel only, it shows the ASI1600MMC diffraction pattern
Playing around in my backyard. Class 5 Bortle.
A Lightpolution filter would come in handy, but that's for the next time.
Equipment:
- Canon 450Da, Canon 300mm/f4 IS USM
(iso800, f4, 90sec)
- Skywatcher StarAdventure
This picture is made from:
69 Lights a 90sec, 71Bias, 20Flats, 30Dark.
Stacked in AstroPixelProcessor(APP) afer that in LR and PS.
Gum-2 un gabbiano nello spazio, a 3260 anni luce, nella Costellazione del cane Maggiore, in questa regione molecolare, noteremo in particolare IC-2177 “la testa del Gabbiano” e i 4 ammassi stellari NGC-2335/NGC-2343/NGC/2345 e M-50 trattasi di ammassi di giovani stelle.
Setup, SkyWatcher Azgti in modalità equatoriale, ottica Jupiter 200mm, Asi2600mc, filtro Optolong L-Extreme, teleguida Svbony 30/165 camera guida Asi 120mm
Light 36x600” più Dark, Flat e DarkFlat
Tot. Integrazione ore 6:00
(Avrei voluto integrare almeno il doppio su questo astro, ma il tempo così bizzarro non lo ha permesso, sicuramente in futuro lo farò)
Acquisizione tramite dispositivo Raspberry, con pc da remoto, e applicazione Ekos.
Somma dei Light ed elaborazione tramite, AstroPixelProcessor e Pixinsight.
Livello di Bortle 7.2
Cieli sereni ✨
Dati: 32 x 300 sec a gain 5 e offset 25 a -10° c + 26 dark + 25 flat e darkflat
Filtro Astronomik UV/IR Block L2
Montatura: eq6 pro
Ottica: Takahashi FSQ106
Sensore: QHY168C
Cam guida e tele: magzero mz5-m su Scopos 62/520
Software acquisizione: nina e phd2
Software sviluppo: AstroPixelProcessor e Photoshop
Taken using iTelescope T09, a luminesence image of complied from 7 300s frames, total intergration time of 35 minutes. Unfortunately the weather changed and the roof was closed before the Red, Green and Blue channels could be taken, another night maybe. The image was processed in AstroPixelProcessor.
Playing around with colors to get beyond the "usual" red-blue-HOO-look. I captured this widefield of the Tulip Nebula area last year and tried different weights of Ha and OIII to bring out the Tulip as good as possible without overdoing and keep a somehow natural look.
Celestron RASA 8
Celestron Motorfocuser
IDAS NBZ Filter
EQ6-R Pro
ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro (Gain 100, Offset 18, -10°)
60 x 240 sec (4 h) Ha/OIII, 60 x 30sec RGB
N.I.N.A., Guiding with ZWO ASI 462MC and PHD2
Astropixelprocessor, Photoshop, Pixinsight
NGC 6888 nébuleuse du Croissant , Sony A7s 140x30s, 30 flats, 40 darks, 25 offsets, traitement AstroPixelProcessor, Pixinsight, et Photoshop CC, grosse galère car mon A7S souffre de "Banding" et très dur à atténuer.
The Horsehead nebula in Hydrogen-alpha
Astrophotography is a complex process combing optics, precise mechanical pointing & tracking, real-time guiding corrections, field derotation, environmental, and sequencing through multiple pieces of equipment that all need to “talk” to each other to automate the 66 exposure frames that were obtained here. Small corrections in focus need to be made as temperatures change, small errors in tracking are corrected using a second telescope and camera that counters the mechanical equipment limitations to keep it at level of seeing that the atmosphere allows.; periodic small adjustments in tracking, called dithering, are made to average out sensor issues that could later be mistaken for signal, then finally calibration frames are taken using a special light panel of perfectly uniform illumination…this is all done remotely and robotically controlled by a computer mounted with the scope communicating with my computer at home. My telescope could be in my backyard or halfway across the world.
After collecting the data frames called “light frames” those 66 44MB images are added together in a process called stacking. This registers, normalizes, calibrates, aligns and adds the data signal while keeping the noise as low as possible, it also normalizes gradients and artifacts due to the optics as well as light pollution. …the final preprocessed image is essentially a uniform blank gray single image about 250GB in size with no stars or nebula visible!
The post processing next takes this image and pulls or stretches the signal from the background noise (dark sky sensor dark current) makes two images: one with the stars removed and one with the stars. Those two are processed separately using different techniques to enhance the extremely dim nebula signal from the noise. Then eliminate more noise and enhance sharpness of the fine details. Finally the two Star field and nebula images are recombined in the single image you see.
Just three decades ago équipement and processing of this level were only available in professional research grade equipment costing millions of dollars. Of late, advances in signal processing software, consumer available astronomy camera grade sensors and computing power have allowed amateur astronomers to rival the best science images of only a decade before. And the cost and relative ease of entry to excellent astrophotography just over the last couple of years has decreased immensely allowing even novice astronomers with zero knowledge to press a couple power buttons and the scope, mount and software can automagically produce images that are really pretty good…all controlled on your telephone!!!
My setup is fully robotic and fully remote controlled of high end equipment designed for wide-field targets that are large and extremely dim deep space objects like nebula, star clusters and nearby galaxy clusters. As you may be able to tell it is a complex system of different equipment and software that all must to talk to each other perfectly throughout an evening(s) of imaging. So while the equipment does it thing outside in the cold or buggy heat, I can be cozy, warm and bug free away at home or sleeping. I even get warning alarms if something goes wrong (weather, clouds, dawn light or numerous other equipment issues) so if not automatically corrected that I can correct it remotely or physically need to check on the equipment. However failures are rare. While this project only involved less than a terabyte of data, some projects can collect 4+TB of data which must be off loaded remotely from the scope side SSD drives to a remote raid server.
Equipment
Telescope: WO FLT91 @540mm & f/5.9
Fattener: WO 68III (no reduction);
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro (monochromatic cooled APS-C CMOS sensor @-10°C, 100gain, 1x1bin);
Filters: Chroma Hα @ 36mm & 5nm band;
Mount: TTS160 Panther Alt-Az
Field derotation: TTS rOTAtor
Guide scope: WO RC51
Guide camera: ZWO ASI290MM
Control Computer: PLL Eagle4
Focus: PLL SS2 robotic focuser
Environment: PLL ECCO-2
Dew control: Kendrick heater straps
Flat panel: Elumiglow custom made
Image processing Computer: MacBook Pro M1
Data storage: Samsung2x 2TB SSD scope side & local OWC Mercury 4x6TB Raid
Remote Power: custom made: with LiTime 100Ah LiFePO battery, Victron Blue remote shunt, inverter, and power supply/charger
Sequencing and Processing
Remote client communications: Parallels Client
Planetarium: Cartes du Ciel & SSPro 6
Sequencing. framing & imaging: N.I.N.A.
Guiding: PHD2
Plate-solving: ASTAP
Alignment & pointing & power up: TTS custom
Communications platform: ASCOM
Focus control: NINA
Environment control: NINA
Calibration frames: NINA
Stacking & Preprocessing: APP - AstroPixelProcessor
Post processing: Pixinsight & Affinity Photo2
Image Frames
Integration time: 1hr 6min (66x60sec) Hα
Calibrations: flats and bias only
Pallet: H-alpha only
This was a fairly simple project as it involved only one Hα filter over a single evening of imaging with relatively short 60 second exposures. I can image more data with different filters and add that to the original data at a later time…
Color images however can take multiple evenings, weeks or years to collect hundreds of 3-5 minute HOS narrowband filter (Hydrogen-alpha, oxygen-III, and Sulfur-II) exposures as well as wideband short exposures of LRGB (luminence, red, blue, and green wide band pass filters) using 6 different filters for the camera. Total integration times (total exposure time) can easily be 40+hours involving thousands of light and calibration frames and multiple terabytes of data. The processing of the final image can take hours to days. So why not just use a color camera (called an “OSC” one shot color) instead of a monochrome sensor? Easy: monochrome sensors are superior and much more sensitive than OSC color cameras that must use a Bayer filter and collect only ¼ of the photons per pixel that a monochrome sensor can over the same amount of exposure time. Color cameras introduce more noise in the signal and further complicate the tracking/guiding errors due to the need for longer exposures. Plus color cameras just plain suck with color calibration and getting star colors those jeweled and bright objects that they are from the blue giants to the deep red carbon stars to all the colors in between. Also false color images are very easy to compose with a monochrome sensor!
Hope you enjoy the beauty of the invisible evening sky as much as I enjoy revealing it!!
Andromeda Galaxy (M31), 08/27/2020
So after I setup the big telescope last weekend I put my old Canon Rebel T5i on my small star tracker and pointed it at the Andromeda Galaxy. I’ve taken better images but they can’t all be winners. I overreached that night trying to do too many things at once. I also setup a time-lapse on yet another camera which I’ll also post soon. With so many things going on I totally forgot to take the calibration frames that were needed for this image. Next time I go out imaging, I’ll limit myself to only one deep-space image and one time-lapse or maybe super wide-angle setup.
Equipment:
Canon T5i
Skywatcher Star Adventure
Tamron 70-200 @ 200mm
Astronomik CLS clip-in filter
Details:
Location – Buck Creek Campground, WA
Bortle Class 3
ISO 3200
58 60-second Lights
0 Darks
0 Bias
0 Flats
Astro Pixel Processor
Lightroom
Photoshop
#astrophotography #astronomy #comos #nightphotography #space #telescope #deepsky #asi294mcpro #amateurastronomy #backyardastronomy #asiair #asiairpro #celestronrasa #celestron #astropixelprocessor #optolong #telescope #astronomyphotography #deepskyobject #zwo #longexposurephotography #m31 #andromedagalaxy