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A large but relatively faint, emission nebula in Vulpecula. it contains the small reflection nebula NGC 6820 and the open cluster NGC 6823. It is most well known for the prominent pillar in the brighter core, though many other fascinating substructures can be seen in the dimmer parts of the nebulosity. The main body of the nebula is crossed by a dark cloud.
The image was taken with Ha (mapped to red), S-II (mapped to yellow/green), O-III (mapped to cyan) ultra-narrowband filters as well as with the g’ photometric filter (mapped to blue) to pick up the faint reflection nebulosity. The O-III signal is weakest but present in the bright core. Stars are from the sulfur-II plates and are thus without colour. Processing in AstroPixelProcessor, StarTools, PixInsight and Photoshop.
SIGMA fp L (Monochrome)
Celestron RASA 11
10 Micron GM1000 HPS
4,5 hrs, ISO 400, 620mm, F2.2
Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) and Horsehead Nebula in the constellation Orion.
This is an integration of 35x180s exposures at ISO 800 with a Nikon Z7ii and a Skywatcher Esprit 100 on a HEQ5 mount. Stacked in AstroPixelProcessor.
My goal with framing this shot was to include the Dumbbell Nebula (tiny, but bright, on the left), the asterism Brocchi's Cluster (lower right, AKA Coathanger) and some of the well-defined dark nebulae in the region (upper right). Emission nebulae are also fairly prominent near the center.
Acquisition details: Fujifilm X-T10, Samyang 135mm f/2.0 ED UMC @ f2.0, ISO 1600, 50 x 60 sec, tracking with iOptron SkyTracker Pro, stacking with DeepSkyStacker, editing with Astro Pixel Processor and GIMP, taken July 23, 2020 from Bortle 3/4 skies.
Dati: 156 x 300 sec ( 13 ore) gain 5 @ -10° c + 70 dark + 30 flat e darkflat
Filtro: Astronomik UV/IR Block L2
Montatura: EQ6 pro
Ottica: Takahashi FSQ106
Sensore: QHY168C
Cam guida e tele: asi120mm su Scopos 62/520
Software acquisizione: nina e phd2
Software sviluppo: AstroPixelProcessor e Photoshop
Temperatura esterna: 18 ° C - Umidità 70%
NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula in the constellation of Cepheus.
First run at this target on a 99% full moon night.
M: iOptron EQ45-Pro
T: William Optics GTF81
C: ZWO ASI1600MC-Cooled
F: No Filters
G: PHD2
GC: ZWO ASI120mini
RAW16; FITs
Temp: -20 DegC
Gain 139
104 x Exp 100s
Frames: 104 Lights; 2 Darks; 200 flats
95% Crop
Capture: SharpCap
Processed: APP; PS; Grad Exterminator.
Sky: Full Moon, calm, no cloud, mild, good seeing.
NGC7023: 1.3 thousand light years distant.
One of the brightest stars in the night sky and a dwarf galaxy right next to it: Regulus and the dwarf galaxy Leo I are a fascinating pair that I've had on my to-do list for quite some time. However, my first attempt turned out to be a failure because, after stacking, it turned out that a spike from Regulus was going right through the Leo I galaxy. I hadn't considered the spikes at all during the preparation of the capture. Fortunately, a new opportunity arose four weeks later, and I rotated the tube of my Newtonian telescope so that Leo I was now located between the spikes.
In the final stack, Leo I was nicely clear, bright, and clearly visible, so I could keep the editing very simple. Thanks to the CNC machined secondary spider, Regulus' spikes were also nearly perfect and required no corrections at all. I wish every image would work out like this...
I hope you enjoy my version of this odd couple!
Some more facts:
Regulus is not really a single star, but a multiple star system. It consists of two pairs of stars. Regulus A, the primary component in the Regulus system, is a spectroscopic binary star composed of a blue-white main sequence star with the spectral classification B7 V and a companion believed to be a white dwarf. With a visual magnitude of 1.35, Regulus A is reponsible for the star system’s brightness and bluish colour. The system lies approximately 79 light years from the Sun.
Leo I is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy in the constellation Leo. At about 820,000 light-years distant, it is a member of the Local Group of galaxies and is thought to be one of the most distant satellites of the Milky Way galaxy.
Leo I is located only 12 arc minutes from Regulus. For that reason, the galaxy is sometimes called the „Regulus Dwarf“. Scattered light from the star makes studying the galaxy more difficult, and it was not until the 1990s that it was detected visually. Typical to a dwarf galaxy, the metallicity of Leo I is very low, only one percent that of the Sun. The galaxy may be embedded in a cloud of ionized gas with a mass similar to that of the whole galaxy.
Skywatcher 200 1000 @750mm f/3.75
Starizona Nexus Coma Corrector & Reducer
Secondary Spider by Backyard Universe
EQ6-R Pro
ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro (Gain 100, Offset 18, -10°)
RGB (Baader UV/IR Cut Filter): 180 × 60″
Total: 3 h
Bortle 5
Darks, Flats, Darkflats, Dithering
N.I.N.A., Guiding: ZWO ASI 120MM & PHD2
Astropixelprocessor, Photoshop, Pixinsight
This is a SHO version of my capture of this beautiful area in Cepheus, located between „Wizard Nebula“ and „Elephant's Trunk Nebula“. Very faint, but comprising spectacular objects like the emission nebulae Sh2-134 and Sh2-135, the open star cluster NGC 7261 and a bunch of LDNs and LBNs, it turned out as a very nice photo project.
Celestron RASA 8 f/2
Celestron Motorfocuser
EQ6-R Pro
ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro (Gain 100, Offset 18, -10°)
Ha & OIII (IDAS NBZ Filter): 80 × 120″ (2h 40′)
TS 2600 MP Mono (Gain 100, Offset 50, -10°)
Ha: (Baader H-alpha Highspeed Ultra-Narrowband 3.5nm Filter): 70 x 120 (2h 20')
OIII: (Baader OIII Highspeed Ultra-Narrowband 4nm Filter): 140 x 120 (4h 40')
Total: 9 h 40‘
Flats, Darkflats, Dithering
N.I.N.A., Guiding with ZWO ASI 120MM and PHD2
Astropixelprocessor, Photoshop, Pixinsight
The Sadr Region features a rich complex of dust clouds and glowing nebulosity set against the plane of the Milky Way. It harbours a number of notable deep sky objects. Within this capture you can see IC 1318 The Butterfly Nebula, NGC 6888 The Crescent Nebula, open cluster NGC 6910 to name a few.
The young open cluster NGC 6910 occupies 10 arc minutes of the apparent sky and has a visual magnitude of 7.4. It lies half a degree east-northeast of Sadr and may be physically related to the Gamma Cygni Nebula. The cluster contains a number of OB stars, as well as supergiant stars, including the red supergiant RW Cygni. It is the core cluster of the Cygnus OB9 stellar association. It was discovered by William Herschel in October 1786.
Collinder 419, also within the image, is a young open cluster that surrounds the massive O-class star HD 193322. The cluster has a visual magnitude of 7.60. The nearby open cluster Collinder 421 is fainter, with an apparent magnitude of 10.10.
IC 1311 is another open cluster that can be seen in the region. With an apparent magnitude of 13.10, it is considerably fainter than the others and embedded in nebulosity.
Total of 22 hours capture over May, June and July. Originally an HOO project, but decided to add Sulphur ii and RGB Stars.
Sky Quality 19.67 Magnitude Class 5 Bortle.
Astromiks 50mm SHO 6nm Filters and RGB Filters
30 x Darks, Flats and Bias
ZWO ASI6200MM Pro
ZWO 7x2" EFW
ZWO EAF
Williams Optics GT81 IV
WO 6A III Field Flattener 0.8
HEQ5 Pro Rowan
ASIAIR Pro
Astro Pixel Processor
Pixinsight
Photoshop 2022
North America & Pelican Nebula (2-panel mosaic)
Celestron RASA 8
Celestron Motorfocus
IDAS NBZ Dualband Filter
EQ6-R Pro
ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro (Gain 100, Offset 18, -10°)
25 x 240 secs for each panel
N.I.N.A., Guiding with ZWO ASI 462MC and PHD2
Astropixelprocessor, Photoshop, Pixinsight
Bortle 5
Dati: 58 x 300 sec a gain 5 e offset 25 @ -15° c + 117 dark + 30 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
Temperatura esterna: 11 ° C - Umidità 50%
Sh2-263 is a red HII emission nebula in the constellation of Orion, located in the center of this image. The central star is HD 34989, a blue-white 5.8 magnitude star, located 1700 light-years away. The blue reflection nebula near the center is called vdB-38
Camera: QHY268M
Telescope: 11" Celestron Edge HD with Hyperstar V4
Mount: Orion HDX-110
Filter: Optolong UV/IR cut (Luminance)
60x120sec
Camera: QHY128C
Telescope: AstroTech AT65EDQ
Mount: Orion HDX-110
Filter: Optolong UV/IR cut (RedGreenBlue)
15x480sec
The L+RGB shot from the 2 telescopes were acquired with SGPro and APT, processed in AstroPixelProcessor, Pixinsight & combined in Photoshop 2024
Resolution ............... 1.430 arcsec/px
Rotation ................. -3.498 deg
Reference system ......... ICRS
Observation start time ... 2024-02-01 12:00:00 UTC
Focal distance ........... 532.19 mm
Pixel size ............... 3.69 um
Field of view ............ 2d 20' 48.0" x 1d 31' 50.4"
Image center ............. RA: 5 21 41.606 Dec: +8 24 07.36
Annotated Version: flic.kr/p/2pxbT6x
Date: 0:20JST- May.10, 2021
Location: Amagi Highland, Shizuoka Pref., Japan
Optics: SIGMA 70mm F2.8 DG MACRO | Art (f/3.2)
Mount: RainbowAstro RST-135
Camera: Canon EOS 6D (mod/SEO-SP4)
ISO speed: 1600
Exposure: 15x120sec.x3panel
Processing: PixInsight, AstroPixelProcessor
NGC 7822, a region of active star formation toward the constellation Cepheus with some amazing details of pillars and dust lanes.
70 total exposures in three mosaic tiles, 6 min. each (total 7.5 hours). Explore Scientific ED102 102mm f/7 refractor, 0.8x reducer/flattener, ZWO ASI2600MM monochrome CMOS camera, 7nm H-alpha filter, iOptron CEM25P mount, ASIAir controller, auto-guided. Processed in Astro Pixel Processor and Lightroom
#deepsky #astrophotography
10 hours RGB plus 3 hours dual band data over 3 nights 4-6th April 2021
Skywatcher 200pds
Altair Astro 294c
Optolong L-eXtreme dual band filter
Stacked in Astropixelprocessor
Processed in PixInsight and Photoshop
h + chi, the famous double cluster in the constellation Perseus. The object was already know to the greek astronomer Hipparchus 130 B.C.
Object: h + chi Persei (NGC 869 + NGC 884, Perseus Double Cluster)
Optics: GSO Newton 8" F4 + GPU
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MMC @-20°C, Gain=75, Offset=15
Filter: ZWO EFW 7x36mm, ZWO 36mm Filters
Exposure: total ~1h, R 40x30sec, G 40x30sec, B 40x30sec, L (mixed from RGB), 200 Bias, 40 Darks, 40 Flats per channel
Date: 2017-10-16
Location: Schwaig
Capture: Sequence Generator Pro
Guiding: Off-Axis, ASI120MM, PHD2
Image Acquisition: Stephan Schurig
Image Processing: Stephan Schurig
AstroPixelProcessor 1.070: Calibration, Registration, Normalization, Integration, Channel Combination, Background Flattening & Calibration, Star Colors Correction, Auto Digital Development
Photoshop 20.0.1: Levels, Curves, Exposure (Gamma, Offset, Exposure), Masked Nik Dfine 2 Denoise, Masked Dynamic (Dynamic, Saturation), Star Shrink, Masked HighPass Sharpening, Levels
RA: 03h47m00.00s
Dec: 24°07'01.20"
Constellation: Taurus
Designation: M45
Image Details: 180x90S at Gain 0
Darks: 101 Frames
Flats: 101 Frames
Bias: 201 Frames
Acquisition Dates: Dec. 12, 2020 , Jan. 9, 2021 , Feb. 9, 2021 , Feb. 10, 2021
Total Capture time: 4.5 Hours
Equipment Details:
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI Cameras ASI6200MC Pro 62mpx Full Frame OSC
Imaging Scope: Sharpstar Optics 15028HNT Hyperboloid Astrograph
Guide Camera: Starlight Xpress Ltd Lodestar X2
Guide Scope: 365Astronomy.com 280mm Guide Scope
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8 Pro
Focuser: Primalucelab Sesto Senso V2
Filter: Optolong Astronomy Filter L-Pro 2"
Power and USB Control: Pegasus Astro USB Ultimate Hub 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
Full Size Image
Astrobin: www.astrobin.com/1m3rgl
Even when it's not cloudy in Scotland, the sky never gets dark enough at this time of year to allow the observing of Deep Sky Objects. Therefore, on 22 May 2023, in order to capture this image of the recent supernova (SN 2023ixf) in the Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101), I logged on to iTelescope T11 in the Utah Desert Remote Observatory.
Equipment: Planewave 20" (0.51m) CDK OTA, FLI ProLine PL11002M CCD camera, Planewave Ascension 200HR mount.
Data: Luminance = 3 x 180 seconds; RGB = 3 x 120 seconds per filter.
Processed using AstroPixelProcessor and Adobe Photoshop.
Sky-Watcher Quattro 150P f/3.5
QHYCCD Minicam8
HSO
30 x 60sec. each filter.
Processed with Astro Pixel Processor, NoiseXTerminator and Affinity Photo.
Altair Astro 294c
Skywatcher 200pds
160x120s total integration
Stacked in AstroPixelProcessor
Processed in PixInsight and Photoshop
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) October 16, 2024.
30 frames, 60 sec. each (30 min. total)
Explore Scientific ED102 102mm f/7 apochromat refractor, Stellarvue 0.8x reducer/flattener
ZWO ASI294MC Pro cooled color CMOS camera, gain 120, -18ºC, ZWO UV/IR cutoff filter
ZWO EAF autofocuser
iOptron CEM25P mount
ZWO ASIAir Pro controller
auto-guided, SVBONY SV2165 30mm f/4 guide scope, ZWO ASI120MM Mini guide camera
Processed in Astro Pixel Processor, Lightroom, Photoshop
Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE cruising thought the constellation Auriga and about to enter the Lynx constellation. It has an orbital period of roughly 6.800 years, which means it was last seen around 4.800 B.C. At its closest point to the Sun, it's only 44 million kilometers away from it. At its furthest point from the sun, which it will reach in about 3.400 years, it'll be 107 billion kilometers away from it. Currently the comet is a naked-eye comet, meaning you can spot it in the night sky without the aid of binoculars or telescopes.
Object Information
* First frame date : 12-07-2020
* First frame time (local): 03:11
* First frame time (UTC): 01:11
* Distance from Earth : 129.540.000km
* Distance from Sun : 58.558.000km
* Last frame date : 12-07-2020
* Last frame time (local): 03:19
* Last frame time (UTC): 01:19
* Distance from Earth : 129.515.000km
* Distance from Sun : 58.574.000km
Shooting Location :
* 51° N 3° E
* Noordstrand, Oostende
* bortle class 6 beach
Hardware
* Imaging Lens : Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L II IS USM @ 200mm
* Imaging Camera : Canon EOS 6D Mark II
Exposures
* ISO speed : 1600
* Aperture setting : f/2.8
* Shutter speed : 2 seconds
* Light Frames : 77x
* Total Integration Time : 154 sec
Capture Software
* built-in intervalometer
Processing Software
* AstroPixelProcessor (Registration & stacking)
* PixInsight (Stretching)
* Topaz DeNoise AI (Noise reduction)
* Adobe Photoshop (Fine-tuning)
M44 IC4665 Summer Beehive Cluster
This is a first light from a revamped setup where the camera and mount have been upgraded. The conditions were not ideal, the wind was moderate with gusts up to 16mph and the ambient temperature was in the teens deg C.
Processing didn't go as smoothly as I had originally hoped, with Pixinsight failing to register red and green filter lights. AstroPixelProcessor struggled with the light pollution mainly contained within the luminescence frames, however I was pleased with the the inital performance of the ZWO ASI533MM Pro.
Frames taken on June 6, 2023
Mount: iOptron CEM40G
OTA Imaging: Skywatcher 120ED with x0.85 flattener, f6.35, 768mm
Camera:ZWO ASI533MM Pro, Cooled to -10 deg C
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW Mini
Focuser: Primaluce Lab ESATTO
Rotator: Primaluce Lab ARCO
Guiding: iOptron iGuide, 120mm : 2.9um
Computer: Primaluce Lab Eagle Pro 2 + ECCO2 (Enviroment)
Light Exposures:
Luminescence .. 40 x 60 seconds
Red ........... 40 x 60 seconds (2 rejected)
Green ......... 40 x 60 seconds
Blue .......... 40 x 60 seconds (5 rejected)
Calibration files:
BIAS .......... 100
Dark .......... 25
Flat .......... 25 per filter
Dark flat ..... 25 per filter
Total integration time: 2.55 hours
Processing
AstroPixelProcessor -> Photosphop -> Topaz DeNoise AI -> Photoshop
Center (RA, Dec): (266.608, 5.724)
Center (RA, hms): 17h 46m 25.849s
Center (Dec, dms): +05° 43' 25.817"
Size: 50.5 x 50.5 arcmin
Radius: 0.595 deg
Pixel scale: 1.01 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: Up is -179.1 degrees E of N
Tried a new technique to capture Andromeda, 79 shots of 30 seconds exposure at ISO 10,000, stacked in Astro Pixel Processor. I would have taken more but the fog rolled in and crashed the party ;)
Nikon D500 - Nikkor 500mm f4 AI-P - Celestron CGEM
Flickr Explore & Astrobin Image of the day 27 aug 2017:
www.astrobin.com/307683/D/?nc=iotd
Image of the week feb 5, 2018 on PhotographingSpace:
photographingspace.com/iotw-feb-5-2018/
Building further on the 48 (50) panel mosaic i added a row of 16 panels to include the Veil nebula Complex.The registration RMS error is only 0.1 pixel.......
As a basis for this Mosaic I used 70 separate stacks (also made with APP) with integration times between 45 and 345 minutes each depending on the object in the frame. An all new mosaic registration algorithm was used that is capable of truly sub pixel perfect registration of these large Mosaics. And the whole process is fully Automatic. The full size version is 29320x35386 pixels giving 1038 Megapixels).
That is not practicle for web use, but this upload is a 50% reduction and still a 120 Megabyte JPG.
You can download the 50% version by selecting the downloadlink here on Flickr.
Processing: only histogam stretch and curves adjustments, nothing else.
The Fits file size of the full version is 3.7 Gb.
Data collected between may 8 and july 31, 2017.
Esprit 100 Triplet APO f5.5 telescope and QHY16200 CCD Camera cooled to -20 C with Baader 6nm H-alpha filter.
Mosaic settings APP with version 1.0521 (Experimental version to test new Algorithm):
3) Analyse stars
min size: 4
Clip Prof: 0.1
Filter profile: off
Kappa: 3 (set to detect 3000-5000 stars)
4) Register
Pattern recognition: pentagons
scale start: 5
scale stop: 10
use dynamic distortion corr: on
same camera and optics: off
Distortion margin: 0.02
# of overlapping frames: 9
registration mode: mosaic
registration model: projective
6) Integrate
composition mode: full
LNC degree: 4)
LNC it: 3
enable MBB: on
MBB%: 5
No under/overshoot on
Integrate set scale 1.0
The Astro Pixel Processor website: www.astropixelprocessor.com/
More versions and information on : www.astrobin.com/307683/C/
Knight Observatory, Tomar.
(Explore)
Altair 294c
60x60s, 45x120s
Stacked in AstroPixelProcessor
Processed in PixInsight
Finished in Photoshop
Taken from my driveway in Durham, NC over two nights. Stellarvue 102T scope, Atik 460ex camera, .8 focal reducer, Atlas Pro mount, Lodestar X2 guide camera, Orion 50mm guide scope, Astrodon 5nm Ha, OIII, and SII filters. Ha: 48 x 5 minutes exposures = 4 hours, OIII: 24 x 5 minutes exposures = 2 hours, S2: 24 x 5 minutes exposures = 2 hours. Sequence Generator Pro, PHD 2, Pixinsight, Photoshop CC. Trees limit the number of hours I can get this target. HOS palette in Astropixelprocessor.
After adding 5 panels extra the "Volcano shape" with M81 at the volcano top is clearly visible. This is an annotated version.
The Integrated Flux Nebulae (or Galactic Cirrus) are high galactic latitude nebulae that are illuminated not by a single star (as most nebula in the plane of the Galaxy are) but by the energy from the integrated flux of all the stars in the Milky Way. These IFN are very faint and were discovered in 2005 by Steve Mandel. This mosaic shows sections of 2 main Nebula in the Mandel-Wilson Catalogue, the Volcano Nebula (MW3 near Messier 81/82) and the Angel Nebula MW2.
1583x300 second Luminance subs (132 hrs)
Image dates: 17 nov, 1,5,6,8,12,31 dec 2018, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 jan 2019. 2,3,4,5,6,7 feb 2019.
Esprit 100 f5.5 APO refractor/ QHY16200 CCD @-20C.
Processed/calibrated/Mosaic: AstroPixelProcessor (APP), Final processing/annotation with Pixinsight.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Mandel
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Flux_Nebula
Photographing Space Image of the week: 4 Nov. 2019: photographingspace.com/iotw-nov-04-2019/
Knight Observatory, Tomar
It'd been awhile since I'd been astrophotographing - felt great to be out under the stars and a smokeless sky. Fall is a excellent time for widefield astrophotography in the western US - there's a decent amount of astronomic dark, plenty of clear nights, temperatures aren't too cold, and quite a few interesting widefield subjects are available.
My goal with this small mosaic (only 2 panels) was to capture both the Fireworks Galaxy (NGC 6946, tiny here, bottom left) and the Elephant Trunk Nebula (IC 1396) in the same extent, with all of the interesting nebulosity in between, most notably the dark nebula Barnard 150 (AKA the Seahorse Nebula) in the lower left, one of my favs.
Surprisingly, I didn't detect much of the red emission Flying Bat Nebula (Sh2-129, center), part of which actually appears bluish (?, at first I was excited that I might have detected the Giant Squid Nebula (OU4), but nope, the blue is not in the right place). Previously I had captured Sh2-129, albeit faintly, with this same set up in the same location.
Part of the reason for this is that I stopped my Samyang 135mm down a half stop to f 2.4 (which I usually shoot wide open at f 2), not to tighten up stars, but to flatten out the heavy vignetting a tad. It did make a difference, but I did also notice that the Elephant Trunk Nebula didn't show up as strongly as expected based on my previous imaging of it. I'm still undecided whether I'll stay with f2 or move to f2.4, might depend on the subject.
There is a decent amount of what appears to be blue reflection nebulosity around star HD 198793 in the upper left quadrant; looking at widefield images of others, I can also see this faintly, but I haven't been able to find any closer images of it yet and it isn't cataloged in my astronomy app (SkySafari 6 Plus). It's possibly a processing artifact although it doesn't appear to be one.
Acquisition details: Fujifilm X-T10; Samyang 135mm f/2.0 ED UMC @ f2.4, ISO 1600; tracking with iOptron SkyTracker Pro; two panel mosaic - 42 x 60 sec and 44 x 60 sec; stacking with DeepSkyStacker; editing and mosaicking with Astro Pixel Processor; and curves adjustment/star reduction/editing with GIMP; taken on Aug. 31, 2021 under Bortle 3/4 skies.
An underrated area of the Gamma Cygni nebula IC 1318 - vdB 134 is a reflection nebula, reflecting the light of ω1 Cygni about 869 ly distant.
Toward the bottom of the frame is planetary nebula PLN 86 + 5 1.
128 * 3min lights OSC data with a Skywatcher 8" Quattro and Neodymium filter, lots of biases, flats and darks processed in APP, PI and Affinity.
Holy Bat Signal, Batman !
On 31 October 2025, The European Southern Observatory (ESO) released an image of a nebula captured with the VLT Survey telescope with data mostly in visible light (but incorporating some additional infrared data from ESO's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope).
Located between Circinus and Norma the image showed a huge cloud of gas and dust, shaped like a cosmic bat. This is a stellar nursery where new stars are forming and releasing enough radiation to energize the surrounding hydrogen gas, causing it to shine red. The darker, thread-like features resemble the bat’s skeletal wings. These filaments are cooler and denser than the surrounding material, with dust particles that obscure the starlight behind them.
I can find only one amateur image of this "cosmic bat" on the internet.
The VST is a 2.6 metre instrument with a 268 megapixel camera and is located at Paranal in Chile. ( As an aside remember the Bond villain's hideout in Quantum Of Solace? that's the accommodation for the Paranal Observatory :)).
In contrast I have a 100 mm telescope and a 9 megapixel camera; fortuitously this turned out to be just right to capture the bat in entirety, though it took me half an hour or more to get the framing right.
RCW 94 is the right wing of the bat, followed by RCW 95, which forms the body, while the other parts of the bat are very very faint and have no official designation.
Technical Details
Integration:
Ha 10 hours (10 minute subs)- Antlia 3 nm Ha filter
(There was no discernible signal in 4 hours of OIII data plus there were plane trails and other noise so I decided to ditch this data and process as only HaRGB)
RGB 4 hours ( 5 minute subs) - Antlia triband filter
Bortle 7.6
HEQ5Pro/Sharpstar Z 4/ZWO ASI 533 MM and MC/ASIAIR
AstroPixelProcessor/Pixinsight
This Supernova remnant at 1470 Lightyears distance is imaged here in RGB color. The reddish and Blue-Green Emission Nebula shows the colours of H-Alpha and [OIII]. This image is a small section of a Veil Nebula Complex Mosaic i am working on.
Imaged with an Esprit 100 f5.5 refractor/QHY16200 CCD @-20C.
Integration time 10.8 Hr.(43x300 sec Red, 42x300sec Green, 44x300sec Blue)
Imaged on 17,18,19 Apr+ 13,14,15,16 May 2018.
Processed in Astropixelprocessor (Using 2x Drizzle) and Pixinsight.
Knight Observatory, Tomar
Which way would you go? Left or right?
Taken with a @Canon 60D Mod at 14mm F4.0.
Sky - 13mins of 8sec untracked exposures, ISO5000, stacked in APP.
Foreground - 2x 1min exposures, ISO400, mosaic with ICE.
Processed in Photoshop
I shot this area with this exact framing last December, but wanted to improve my image. This time my focus was better (I didn't have a Bahtinov mask then), I shot and processed raw (jpeg last time), and I used Astro Pixel Processor tools for processing.
The only thing that wasn't better this time around was my tracking - I only used 50% of my subs, many of which still had slightly trailed stars; I think my balance was off. I would have liked more integration time, but still got a result I'm happy with using only 35 minutes of data.
Fujifilm X-T10, Samyang 135mm f/2.0 ED UMC @ f2.0, ISO 1600, 35 x 60 sec, tracking with iOptron SkyTracker Pro, stacking with DeepSkyStacker, editing with Astro Pixel Processor and GIMP, taken on Oct. 6, 2019 under Bortle 3/4 skies.
Jan 7 2020 edit: A very slight re-edit - I monkeyed with the original stack a bit less this time - I like the Horsehead Nebula better in this version.
✨ Voyage au cœur de la constellation d'Orion ✨
Après 4 heures de prise de vue et près de 30 heures de travail, avec 4 versions différentes à la clé, voici le résultat de ma dernière session d'astrophotographie.
J’ai capturé une partie de la majestueuse constellation d’Orion avec mon 135mm, mettant en lumière les subtiles nébuleuses qui peuplent cette région de notre ciel hivernal.
Durant ces 4 heures d’acquisition, j'ai aussi réalisé une série d’images sous-exposées pour mieux révéler le cœur de la nébuleuse d’Orion. Un grand merci à mon ami Harry Collis pour ses précieux conseils, sans qui je n'aurais peut-être pas atteint ce résultat avec autant de facilité. 🙏
Orion, la star de l'hiver, n'arrêtera jamais de nous fasciner et de nous inspirer, nous les astrophotographes du monde entier. ✨
Technique :
Apn défiltré + star aventurer + Samyang 135mm f2
240 lights à 60sec, 1600 iso, f2.8, 30 lights à 15sec, 30, lights à 4sec & 30 lights à 1sec (même réglages pour la série sous exposée)
100 flats, 100 offsets
AstroPixelProcessor, GraXpert, Starnet++, Photoshop, LR (export)
auch als "Siebengestirn" bekannt. 43 Aufnahmen (12xL, 11xR, 10xG, 10xB, zur Hälfte jeweils 30sec und 60sec). 32 Minuten Gesamtbelichtungszeit. Aufgenommen mit T14 von iTelescope.net in Mayhill, New Mexico. Bearbeitet mit AstroPixelProcessor, Photoshop, AstronomyTools, Lightroom.
TELESCOPE-Z4
CAMERAS; ZWO ASI 533 MC AND 533 MM @-10 DEGREES C
FILTERS; ANTLIA TRIBAND FOR RGB; ANTLIA 3 NM HA
INTEGRATION: 45 MINUTES IN RGB; 240 MINUTES IN HA
MOUNT; HEQ5 PRO
LOCATION: BORTLE 7.6
PROCESSING
STACKING IN ASTROPIXELPROCESSOR
PROCESSING IN PI-
ALIGNMENT
DYNAMIC CROP
ADBE
BLUR X CORRECT
BLURX SHARPEN
MAS
STARX
HARGB COMBINE RGB AND HA STARLESS
GHS
DARKSTRUCTURE ENHANCE
LOCALHISTOGRAM EQUALISATION
CURVES TRANSFORMATION
The Cygnus Loop (a.k.a. Veil Nebula) in the constellation Cygnus, the remnants of a supernova explosion in which a star blew itself apart after exhausting its primary nuclear fuels.
A mosaic of 72 exposures, 300 sec. each in six overlapping fields in the light emitted by hydrogen gas. Explore Scientific ED102 0.1m f/7 refractor, Stellarvue 0.8x reducer/flattener, ZWO ASI294MC camera, 7nm H-alpha filter, iOptron CEM25P mount, ASIAir controller, autoguided. Processed in Astro Pixel Processor and Lightroom.
12*300 second subs using the ASI1600MM and Antlia 3.5nm HA filter. Was aiming for some O3 but the sun came up.
Mount was the Avalon Instruments M Zero with PHD2 guiding with only a rough polar alignment. Again, I am just amazed at how well this mount tracks.
NINA was the acquisition software, camera gain = 111 and temp = 0 Deg.
Calibrated in APP, lights, darks, flats and dark flats
Balcony astro with a full moon. Gota love narrow band imaging.
100*30 second exposures of the galaxy M33 taken using the IDAS NGS1 Di light pollution filter. Taken from my north facing balcony 'observatory' in Bortle class 7 skies.
Gain= 220
Temp = 0
Acquired in NINA
Guiding PHD2 & dithering
Processed in AstroPixel Processor. Lights only with Bayer drizzle
Avalon M Zero mount
This is widefield of the region in Vela occupied by the RCW objects 32-36. RCW 33, (just right of centre), is a massive complex of gas and dust with multiple regions of star formation within its boundaries dominates the image.
Integration: 48*300 seconds
Location : Bortle 4.5
No moon
Samyang 135 mm/L Pro/ ZWO ASI 183MC/AM 3/ASIAIR
AstroPixelProcessor/PixInsight
Unfortunately the L Pro coupled with a fast camera lens appears to have created halos around bright stars that I was unable to remove. Learnt to stick with a UV/IR filter in future with this lens.