For black and white Wednesday - This is the luminosity channel of the Elephant Trunk Nebula image I posted earlier today. As I wanted to show off the structures of this nebula, this is a starless image, illustrating only the dust clouds that exist there. Isn't it wild that things like this exist?

NGC 7331, also known as Caldwell 30, is an unbarred spiral galaxy about 40 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784.

NGC 7331 is the brightest galaxy in the field of a visual grouping known as the NGC 7331 Group of galaxies.

In fact, the other members of the group, NGC 7335, 7336, 7337 and 7340, lie far in the background at distances of approximately 300–350 million light years. [WIKI]

Imaged at Los Coloraos, Gorafe, Spain in September 2024 with a Celestron C14 EDGE HD telescope at 3900mm focal length. This has been rotated 90 degrees and cropped in to feature the galaxies.

A total of 13 hours of imaging time using Luminance, Red, Green and Blue filters.

All the technical details and a high resolution image available at: astrob.in/z88o4l/0/

Image Profile:

Lee, IL

Type: HaLRGB

Frames: 13x300 1x1; 10x200 1x1; 8x200 2x2; 8x200 2x2; 8x200 2x2

Imaging Date: 20140723

Hardware:

-Main scope: AT8RC

-Guiding Scope: Orion 80mm Short Tube

-CCD: QHY9M with filter wheel with LRGB Ha

-Orion Atlas Mount

Imaging Applications:

-Acquiring: Nebulosity Ver. 3.0.2

-Guiding: PHD Ver. 1.11.3

Processing Applications:

-CCD Stack

-Photoshop cs3

Comments: One of the best nights of the year so far: low winds and dew, good transparency. Probably a 5+ magnitude night. Low temp 54 F.

Explanation: Chaotic in appearance, these filaments of shocked, glowing gas break across planet Earth's sky toward the constellation of Cygnus, as part of the Veil Nebula. The Veil Nebula itself is a large supernova remnant, an expanding cloud born of the death explosion of a massive star. Light from the original supernova explosion likely reached Earth over 5,000 years ago. Blasted out in the cataclysmic event, the interstellar shock waves plow through space sweeping up and exciting interstellar material. The glowing filaments are really more like long ripples in a sheet seen almost edge on, remarkably well separated into the glow of ionized hydrogen and sulfur atoms shown in red, and oxygen in blue hues. Also known as the Cygnus Loop, the Veil Nebula now spans nearly 3 degrees or about 6 times the diameter of the full Moon. While that translates to over 70 light-years at its estimated distance of 1,500 light-years, this field of view spans less than one third that distance. Identified as Pickering's Triangle for a director of Harvard College Observatory. (text: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150917.html)

This picture was photographed during September-November 2016 in Rozhen observatory, Bulgaria.

Equipment: home assembled reflector 10 in., f/3.8

Mount WhiteSwan-180 with a control system «Eqdrive Standart», camera QSI-583wsg, Televue Paracorr-2. Off-axis guidecamera QHY5L-II.

HaRGB filter set Astrodon gen. II.

HaRGB = 19* 900 seconds, unbinned. 19 hours total.

FWHM source 1.96"-3.04", sum: - 2.22"

The height above the horizon from 64° to 79°, the scale of 1"/ pixel.

Processed Pixinsight 1.8 and Photoshop CS6

Taken from my home in Gérgal, Almería, Spain over 8 nights in January and February 2022.

A wide field view of the Virgo Cluster located in the constellation of Virgo and Coma Berenices. It is estimated that there are at least 1,300 galaxies in this region and possibly as many as 2,000.

On the left of the image is a curved chain of galaxies known as Markarian's Chain which contains near the centre, two interacting galaxies, NGC 4438 and NGC 4438 known as Markarian's Eyes.

This was a project that I added at the end of my nebula imaging sessions due to the Milky Way being very low in the sky in the winter months and I needed a target that was higher in the sky early in the morning. My wide field telescope is not suited to imaging many galaxies so I decided to image a cluster of galaxies instead.

Here's my second attempt at shooting C/2022 E3 (ZTF). This time I was able to capture the "Green Comet" as it passed by NGC5907 seen in the lower center of the frame. NGC5907 is a "knife edge" galaxy (due to its orientation to use) and is approximately 50 Million Light Years from Earth!

This photo is a combination of 28x300" exposures. I used my TS Optics 90mm CF APO refractor telescope with a .8x reducer (430mm focal length.) The camera I used was my ASI 2600MC Pro. For processing I used Pixinsight and processed the star/galaxy image separate from the comet itself.

Thanks for looking!

@nebulositymedia2023

The magnificent “Hercules Cluster” or NGC6205 in the constellation of Hercules (The Strongman) is one of the best known cluster in the northern hemisphere akin to Alpha Centauri in the south; it is a favorite object to show in star parties as it is easily visible with small telescopes where it appears a fuzzy smudge with smaller scopes and 4 inch or larger instruments will resolve some stars. It is approximately 22,100 light years distant from earth with an apparent magnitude of 5.78 and an angular size of 17 arcminutes. It contains approximately 300,000 to 400,000 stars spread across 145 light years diameter; the stars in the central area are just a few astronomical units (AU) apart.

Taken at the Sugar Grove Nature Center at McLean, IL on 20150518

Image Type: LRGB

Lum 15x180 1x1; RGB 7x180 1x1

Hardware:

AstroTech RC 8” with 0.8 reducer/flattener

Orion 400m Short Tube piggy back for guiding

Orion Star-Shooter Auto-guider

QHY9M with filter wheel with Astrodom filters

Software:

EQMOD with Starry Night Pro 7

Nebulosity 3.0.2

CCD Stack

Photoshop CS3

Conditions:

A New Moon night with good transparency and seeing, maybe the best night of the year so far (at least for me…) First time I was able to see the Milky Way from near Chicago this year. Low temperature of 47F.

olgeir.zenfolio.com/

Elaborazione difficile!

Non immaginavo che con oltre 13h di integrazione elaborare il complesso della nebulosa Velo (trattasi del resto di una supernova esplosa alcuni millenni fa) nella costellazione del Cigno fosse cosi ostico e complicato.

Forse alcuni fattori hanno complicato le cose: acquisizione con la presenza della luna quasi piena, trasparenza del cielo spesso non buona, inquinamento Bortle 6-7.

Probabilmente anche la debole luminosità della nebulosa insieme all'uso di un filtro a Banda-Stretta e ai fattori anzidetti hanno reso insufficienti i 300s di posa.

Ad ogni modo ho cercato di fare del mio meglio, anche se sono ancora principiante con i recenti programmi di elaborazione estetica GraXpert e SIRIL. Molto difficile è stato riuscire ad evidenziare le tenui nebulosità Halfa esterne alle nebulose NGC6960 e NGC6992.

Questa elaborazione ha evedenziato 2-3 criticità ottiche del teleobiettivo Zenit Giove 11-A soprattutto quando si utilizzano più filtri ottici contemporaneamente. Spero di trovare un buon compromesso quando utilizzerò questo obiettivo in futuro.

_____________

Difficult processing!

I didn't think that with over 13 hours of integration, processing the complex of the Veil nebula (the remnant of a supernova that exploded a few millennia ago) in the constellation of Cygnus would be so difficult and complicated.

Perhaps some factors complicated things: acquisition with the presence of an almost full moon, often poor transparency of the sky, Bortle 6-7 pollution.

Probably also the weak brightness of the nebula together with the use of a narrow-band filter and the aforementioned factors made the 300s exposure insufficient.

However, I tried to do my best, even though I am still a beginner with the recent aesthetic processing programs GraXpert and SIRIL. It was very difficult to highlight the faint Halfa nebulosities outside the NGC6960 and NGC6992 nebulae.

This processing also highlighted 2-3 optical critical issues of the Zenit Giove 11-A telephoto lens, especially when using multiple optical filters at the same time. I hope to find a good compromise when I use this lens in the future.

_____________

Lens : ZENIT Jupiter-11A 135mm f/4 flic.kr/p/MekcC7

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC-Pro

Filter: Optolong L-eNhance + SVbony UV-IR cut

Mount: Sky Watcher HEQ5 Synscan

Seeing: 3-4 (scala Antoniadi inversa)

104X300s / 121 gain / 18 dark/ 22 flat/ 22 darkflat/ 100bias

57x300s / 300gain / 12 dark / 22 flat / 22 darkflat/ 40bias

Date: 17-19-24-29-30-31/07/2024

Integration: 13h 25min

Temperature sensor: -5°C

Location: Biancavilla (CT) -Sicily- Italy 520m slm

acquisition: NINA

Processing: DSS +GraXpert+SIRIL+ PSCC.

astrometric resolution: nova.astrometry.net/annotated_full/11199844

🇨🇭 Contempler ce ciel en Suisse était absolument fou ! Bien loin des villes et des villages de la vallée, c'est au sud-est du pays que l'on trouve les endroits les moins touchés par la pollution lumineuse (sans avoir besoin de monter à 3000m d'altitude ).

.

Ici, nous ne sommes plus très loin des dolomites et la nature du paysage s'en ressent. Ce lieu est tellement paisible, l'herbe y est si verte. Seul les plantes et les fleurs viennent casser cette immense étendue. J'ai trouvé celle-ci au premier plan particulièrement photogénique 🍀. Avec les températures qui chutent beaucoup la nuit, le point de rosée est facilement atteignable et on le remarque par les gouttelettes sur la plante (et aussi un peu sur l'objectif ).

.

Un assemblage ciel suivi/sol non suivi a été réalisé pour parvenir à ce résultat.

Sol : 5 x 4 x 1mn à ISO 6400 f/2.2 (focus stacking en 4 parties)

Ciel : 10 x 1mn à ISO 1600 f/2.2

L'orientation est identique entre ciel et sol pour ne pas fausser le paysage. Tout est réalisé sur la même session.

.

Canon 6D Astrodon + Sigma Art 24mm f/1.4.

The Rosette Nebula (C49) in SHO.

Also known as the "Skull Nebula" and Caldwell 49, the Rosette Nebula is a large HII region of bright gas and filaments of dark dust, located in the constellation of Monoceros. The open cluster NGC 2244 (discovered by John Flamsteed in 1690) is associated with this region - the stars of which were formed within this molecular cloud. Located 5000 light years away, and measuring 65 light years in diameter, the Rosette Nebula is very large with an angular diameter of about 1.3 degrees - almost 3 times the diameter of the full moon. This object is so large that there are at least fie NGC listing numbers associated with it (NGC 2237, NGC 2238, NGC 2239, NGC 2244, & NGC 2246). It takes the form large gaseous "donut" and often compared to an architectural rosette - thus its name. This area is a rich star forming complex with over 2500 hot new stars which excite the gas and cause its glow. The stellar winds from these stars exert pressure on interstellar clouds and the compression leads to ongoing star forming activity in the region.

This object is a very tough one for me to shoot. By time we reach astrophotographic darkness, it is located due south near the meridian. This gives me a about 1.5 hours before it moves into some trees that block my view. The fact that the moon was out also did not help. Given how large the Rosette is, I really needed to shoot this with a wide field scope - but a wide field would end up hitting the trees sooner and shorted my shooting time. So I ended up using my AP130mm scope which has a focal length of 1050mm - there is no way I would end up fitting the entire object into it's field of view, so I framed this to focus on the center of the "donut hole" for a more close-in study of the region. So the conditions were NOT optimal, but when you live in Rochester NY, the 18% Gray capital of the Universe, you shoot when you get some clear skies - regardless!

So over a period of 3 nights, I attempted to capture 5 minute subs with my mono camera and narrowband filters. I really did not have high hopes for this image. Once I had three nights of data, I pulled subs in and inspected them with Blink and saw something strange - many of the later subs from each evening had strange looking stars - closer inspection showed a single line protruding from many starts. It looked like a diffraction spike, except there was only one spike! I finally realized that I was hitting the tree line sooner that I thought and the tree branches, denuded of leaves, seemed to be causing the star distortions!

So I removed the worse subs that I had and then processed them. If I had taken all of the effective subs out, I would have way too few to get a decent image, so I did leave in some that were partially effected. To my surprise the image came out better than I expected. If you look really close, you could see what looks like some star elongations resulting including some subs that showed a little of this effect. I did some post processing to try and correct for this and I was able to reduce the effect for the most part.

So not a perfect image, but given the capture challenge, I was somewhat surprised and happy with the result I did get.

Below are the details of the image:

----

Image Details:

*Number of frames is after bad or questionable frames were culled.

12 x 300 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, unity gain, Astronomiks 6nm Ha Filter

14 x 300 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, unity gain, Astronomiks 6nm OIII Filter

14 x 300 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, unity gain, Astronomiks 6nm SII Filter

Total of 3.3 hours

45 Dark exposures

30 Ha Flat Darks

30 OIII Flat Darks

30 SII Flat Darks

30 Ha Flats

30 OIII Flats

30 SI Flats

Capture Hardware:

Scope: Astrophysics 130mm Starfire F/8.35 APO refractor

Guide Scope: Televue 76mm Doublet

Camera: ZWO ASI1600mm-pro with ZWO Filter wheel with ZWO LRGB filter set,

and Astronomiks 6nm Narrowband filter set

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290Mini

Focus Motor: Pegasus Astro Focus Cube 2

Camera Rotator: Pegasus Astro Falcon

Mount: Ioptron CEM60

Polar Alignment: Polemaster camera

Software:

Capture Software: PHD2 Guider, Sequence Generator Pro controller

Image Processing: Pixinsight, Photoshop - assisted by Coffee, extensive processing indecision and second guessing, editor regret and much swearing…..

A quick side project in the middle of a few different dusty objects I have been imaging. VdB 131/132 (left and middle blue reflections) in Cygnus. A cool little region surround by gobs of Ha & Oiii emissions. I found processing this area to be quite enjoyable as all the nebulosity is so bright. One day perhaps, I will image this much closer up with a larger scope.

- Location: Remote Observatory (Bortle 1, SQM 21.99) near Fort Davis, TX

- Total Exposure Time: 14.4 Hours

Equipment:

- Scope: Esprit 100ED w/ 1x Flattener

- Imaging Camera: QHY 268M

- Filters: Chroma LRGB (36mm)

- Mount: Astro Physics Mach1GTO

- Guidescope: SVBony 50mm Guidescope

- Guide camera: ASI 120mm mini

- Focuser: Moonlite Nitecrawler WR35

- Accessories: Pegasus Ultimate Powerbox v2, QHY Polemaster, Optec Alnitak Flip Flat

------------------------------------------------------------

Software:

- N.I.N.A for image acquisition, platesolving, and framing

- PHD2 for guiding

- PixInsight for processing

-------------------------------------------------------------

Acquisition (Total between both panels):

- L: 136 x 3m

- R: 53 x 3m

- G: 51 x 3m

- B: 48 x 3m

- All images at Gain 56, Offset 25 (Readout mode 1) and -5C sensor temperature

- 20 flats per filter

- Master Dark, Flat & Bias from Library

- Nights: 9/16 - 9/21/22

-------------------------------------------------------------

Processing:

- WBPP for calibration

- StarAlignment and ImageIntegration of each filter

RGB Processing (apply to each master):

- DynamicCrop

- MureDenoise

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction

- StarAlign B and G to R

- ChannelCombination to combine RGB into linear color image

- StarAlign to luminance

- StarXterminator to turn starless and extract star_mask

- HistogramTransformation x5 to stretch starsless

Stretching Stars_Only

- HistogramTransformation x3 to make stars non-linear

- Invert -> SCNR Green -> Invert to remove magenta hue

- ColorSaturation to saturate stars

Luminance Processing:

- DynamicCrop

- MureDenoise

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction

- StarXterminator to make starless

- GeneralizedHyperbolicStretch for initial stretch to non-linear

- HistogramTransformation x2 for further stretch

- CurvesTransformation for contrast

- UnsharpMask with inverted luminance mask for sharpening

- NoiseXterminator for slight noise reduction

- ColorSaturation to saturate blues

Combine Channels and Further Processing:

- LRGBCombination to combine Luminance and RGB with saturation @ 0.3

- NoiseXterminator at 0.2 for slight noise reduction

- HistogramTransformation on midtones to 0.001 for both stars_only and LRGB_starless

- PixelMath to combine stars_only and LRGB_starless

- HistogramTransformation on midtones for combined image at 0.999

- Slight NoiseXTerminator for NR

- DynamicCrop to crop edges

- Save and Export

An HDR version of M42 Orion Nebula and The Running Man Nebula.

Imaged from my home in Gergal, Spain in November 2024.

This was to test the performance of a new iOptron CEM 26EC portable mount for my William Optics GT81 telescope. The ASI 1600MC Pro Cool camera was on loan from the Los Coloraos complex while I wait for a new mono image rig to be assembled. The images were taken without any filters at all.

I also took some narrow band data but after experimenting with the data, I decided I preferred the natural colours of the nebula.

Thank you for taking a look

LBN 777 aka the "Baby Eagle" - a super cool little dark nebula in the vast Taurus Molecular Cloud. I had been eyeing this target for a while but until now, could never put in the integration time it demands.

One of my favorite parts of this image is the bow shock surrounding the head of the eagle. There are also a ton of small background galaxies in this region.

- Location: Remote Observatory (Bortle 1, SQM 21.99) near Fort Davis, TX

- Total Exposure Time: 26 Hours

Equipment:

- Scope: Esprit 100ED w/ 1x Flattener

- Imaging Camera: QHY 268M

- Filters: Chroma LRGB (36mm)

- Mount: Astro Physics Mach1GTO

- Guidescope: SVBony 50mm Guidescope

- Guide camera: ASI 120mm mini

- Focuser: Moonlite Nitecrawler WR35

- Accessories: Pegasus Ultimate Powerbox v2, QHY Polemaster, Optec Alnitak Flip Flat

------------------------------------------------------------

Software:

- N.I.N.A for image acquisition, platesolving, and framing

- PHD2 for guiding

- PixInsight for processing

-------------------------------------------------------------

Acquisition:

- L: 268 x 3m

- R: 85 x 3m

- G: 85 x 3m

- B: 83 x 3m

- All images at Gain 56, Offset 25 (Readout mode 1) and -5C sensor temperature

- 20 flats per filter

- Master Dark, Flat & Bias from Library

- Nights: 10/27, 10/28, 10/29, 10/30, 11/2/22

-------------------------------------------------------------

Processing:

- WeightedBatchPreProcessing for calibration

- Blink to remove bad subs

- ImageIntegration with PSFSignalWeight weighing to stack

Luminance Processing:

- DynamicCrop to remove stacking artifacts

- MureDenoise for linear noise reduction

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction

- StarXterminator to create starless version and also extract luminance star_mask

- GeneralizedHyperbolicStretch for initial stretch

- HistogramTransformation x3 for further stretch with slight NoiseXterminator between each HT iteration

- LocalHistogramEqualization at 0.1 amount and 128 kernel radius for slight detail increase in nebulosity

- Slight NoiseXterminator for NR

RGB Processing (apply to each master then combine):

- DynamicCrop to remove stacking artifacts

- MureDenoise for linear noise reduction

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction

- StarAlign G and B to R

- ChannelCombination to combine to linear RGB

- DynamicCrop to crop edges

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction

- StarAlign to Luminance

- StarXterminator to turn starless and save extracted stars

- NoiseXterminator at 0.3 to reduce noise

- HistogramTransformation to stretch

- NoiseXterminator for NR

- SCNR green then invert image -> SCNR green -> invert back to remove green and magenta tint

- CurvesTransformation for color balance

Combine Luminance and RGB and further processing:

- LRGBCombination to combine starless luminance and starless RGB images with chrominance NR enabled and saturation at 0.35

- SCNR blue at 0.5

- MultiscaleMedianTransform for chrominance noise reduction

- SCNR green

- CurvesTransformation for brown saturation

- Stretch RGB and Luminance stars with HistogramTransformation

- Combine into LRGB stars image with LRGBCombination

- PixelMath to combine starless nebula and stars images together

- Use luminance star image as star mask

- MorphologicalTransformation for slight star reduction

- Slight NoiseXterminator for noise reduction

- RangeMask on starless luminance to target background galaxies

- HDRMulstiscaleTransform with range_mask applied on final image to recover details from background galaxies

Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias

Mosaic of the Sagittarius constellation area 11 shots

The Crescent Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, about 5000 light-years away from Earth. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1792.

I've been imaging the Crescent Nebula area over the last week when I got clear nights. I managed to get 5 nights with an average of 4+ hours each night, for an integration time over 20 hours. This is by far the longest integration time I've ever acquired. I wanted to experiment with longer integration times with an OSC camera (ASI2600MC Pro).

I used the FLT132 with the FLAT8 reducer (0.72x) to get a slightly wider field of view; it just about includes the Soap Bubble at the top left(ish) corner. I also used a combination of narrowband filters (Optolong L-Ultimate 3nm Ha & Oiii, IDAS NBZ and Antlia ALP-T 5nm Ha & Oiii) as well as a more broadband filter, Antlia Triband RGB Ultra. I think the combination of all the filters provides a more balanced set of colours, including a decent amount of Oiii detail in the Crescent Nebula.

Processed in PixInsight and Affinity Photo 2.

More acquisition details in Astrobin: astrob.in/08co9c/0/

Thanks for looking!

CS

Eduardo

This reflection nebula is located in the Carina constellation. Astronomers believe that the dust in the nebula is being emitted by a red giant, which also illuminates the object. This is a rare example of a star in its final stages before becoming a white dwarf.

H: 27x30m

R: 21x10m

G: 23x10m

B: 19x10m

Total Integration = 24hrs

Telescope: PW17

Camera: FLI ML16803

Remote Data from Deepskywest El Sauce Observatory, Chile.

This year, ESA's ground station boffins are planning to deploy a new cryogenically cooled "antenna feed" – a gizmo used to transmit and receive deep space signals – on the Agency's three deep-space antennas.

The ground stations routinely communicate with missions like BepiColombo – heading to Mercury, Gaia – surveying stars in our Galaxy, and ESA's two spacecraft at the Red Planet, Mars Express and the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.

ESA’s 35-metre antennas receive data from working spacecraft, in what’s called a ‘downlink’. As the Agency prepares to launch new missions deeper into our Solar System in the next few years, including Juice to Jupiter and the ExoMars Rover, as well as missions designed to generate large quantities of data, such as the future Sun-watching Lagrange mission, use of the stations' downlink capacity is set to grow significantly.

This means the stations have to 'up their game', and the new antenna feed is expected improve data return by 40% at the high frequencies used for spacecraft command and control. The feed must be cooled to just 10 K (just 10 degrees from absolute zero, about -263 C) for normal operation.

"While receiving extremely faint signals, the new feed should be capable of transmitting command signals to spacecraft at very high power of more than 25 kilowatts", says ESA ground station engineer Stéphane Halté.

"This is similar to the amount of power transmitted by 25 000 mobile phones switched on simultaneously."

The prototype antenna feed was mounted on NASA’s Deep Space Station 13 (pictured), at NASA's High Power Transmitter Test facility, in Goldstone, California. It was tested in December 2018 with the assistance of experts from the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab's Deep Space Network.

Testing successful, this ESA/NASA cooperation has cleared the way for the new technology to be rolled out at across ESA’s deep space ground stations, part of the Estrack network, within this year.

Credits: ESA

"You may use NASA imagery, video, audio, and data files used for the rendition of 3-dimensional models for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages. This general permission extends to personal Web pages."-COPIED FROM NASA.GOV

And this applies to all images shown here from NASA.

I am not doing anything which is illegal. I want to share some of the most beautiful images taken by NASA. I love astronomy and want to share this passion with others.

Thank You.

Discovery Of The Planet

Interplanetary Travel

Youtube: "4K" Road Trip in Tunisia - Visiting Tunisia "2019"

Camera: Canon EOS Kiss X7i

Photograph by Yusuf Alioglu

Location: Outer space (space)

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After leaving the city to get out in the dark I was chased back by clouds, 20 shots came from first night in the country and 108 shot from home in the clear all night long. this is 10 min shots, quite a spectacular colour full nebula area. once again this is 99% edited in PixInsight.

ZWO ASI071MC Pro @ -10c

Manual focus ,

Optolong LeNhance filter,

Skywatcher Black DiamondED80 OTA

Skywatcher EQM35Goto

Guided PHD2, SGP

DSS, Pixinsight, Ps.

M104 or The Sombrero Galaxy is a spiral galaxy in the constellation borders of Virgo and Corvus. The Sombrero Galaxy is about 29.35 million light years from our galaxy. Looking at this photo of M104 it really illustrates the vastness of space. If you look closely at the background, you can see a few faint galaxies off in the distance (cigar-like and circular objects).

Thanks for viewing and clear skies everyone!

Tech Details:

What started off as a quick hour and a half acquisition of data turned into a 7+ hour project. Initially collected the RGB as binned 2x2, with 300sec exposures but changed my mind part way through and only collected binned 1x1 (600sec exposures). Luminance was also captured using 600sec exposures. I’m still learning the ins and outs of astrophotography made a few mistakes along the way but I’m pretty happy with the result.

Exposures, Integration Time and Filters, and Software:

Luminance: 3.2 hrs total

Red: 1.4 hrs total

Green: 1.4 hrs total

Blue: 1.2 hrs total

Total integration: 7.2 hrs

Software: AstroPixel Processor, Pixinsight Photoshop,

My Peaceful Universe

Interplanetary Travel

Youtube: June 6, 2020 Full Moon "Moonrise" 1080p HD Full Moon video and Relaxing Ambient Music - Canon

Camera: Canon EOS Kiss X7i

Photograph by Yusuf Alioglu

Location: Outer space (space)

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M42 Orion Nebula Image time 6 Hrs with 6 Min Subs using Ha, RGB filters imaged from ANZA CA, USA

www.astrobin.com/413187

Iris Nebula is dramatic reflection nebula in the constellation Cepheus.

With plenty of dark interstellar dust is illuminated by a central hot star named SAO 19158 which is 10 times the mass of our sun.

It lies 1,300 light-years away and is six light-years across.

It was integrated only 15 hours, 50% best frames of the total valid frames taken between May and June of 2019.

PD: I am glad to check my improvements when I compare to this other capture from three years ago. :D

www.astrobin.com/263914

Technical card

Imaging telescope or lens:Altair Astro RC250-TT 10" RC Truss Tube

Imaging camera:ZWO ASI1600MM-Cool

Mount:Astro-Physics Mach-1 GTO CP4

Guiding telescope or lens:Celestron OAG Deluxe

Guiding camera:QHYCCD QHY5III174

Focal reducer:Riccardi Reducer/Flattener 0.75x

Software:Main Sequence Software Seqence Generator Pro, Astro-Physics AAPC, Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight

Filters:Astrodon L Gen.2 E-series 36mm, Astrodon B Gen.2 E-series 36mm, Astrodon G Gen.2 E-series 36mm, Astrodon R Gen.2 E-series 36mm

Accessories:ZWO EFW, MoonLite NiteCrawler WR30

Resolution: 2318x1665

Dates:June 1, 2019

Frames:

Astrodon B Gen.2 E-series 36mm: 41x180" (gain: 75.00) -20C bin 1x1

Astrodon G Gen.2 E-series 36mm: 40x180" (gain: 75.00) -20C bin 1x1

Astrodon L Gen.2 E-series 36mm: 177x180" (gain: 75.00) -20C bin 1x1

Astrodon R Gen.2 E-series 36mm: 42x180" (gain: 75.00) -20C bin 1x1

Integration: 15.0 hours

Avg. Moon age: 27.55 days

Avg. Moon phase: 4.36%

Astrometry.net job: 2777189

RA center: 315.429 degrees

DEC center: 68.162 degrees

Pixel scale: 1.007 arcsec/pixel

Orientation: 270.122 degrees

Field radius: 0.399 degrees

Locations: AAS Montsec, Àger, Lleida, Spain

Data source: Own remote observatory

Remote source: Non-commercial independent facility

Reprocessed data captured in 2019. One of my first attempts with PixInsight. 19x10min exposures with Canon 6D and 6” RC telescope and focal reducer.

Here is a 15-minute combined exposure of the Blue Flash Nebula in the constellation Delphinus (also known as NGC 6905). The inset has the brighter surrounding stars removed and adjusted to bring out some details. Focus slipped out on this somewhat – back on the target list for next season.

Tech Specs: This image is composed of 60 x 15 second images at ISO 3,200 with 5 x 15 second darks and 5 x 1/4000 second bias frames using a Meade LX90 12” telescope and Canon 6D camera mounted on a Celestron CGEM-DX mount. Imaging was done on October 5, 2016 from Weatherly, Pennsylvania.

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_6905)

Miami Valley Astronomical Society (mvas.org/node/5224)

Kitt Peak (www.noao.edu/kpvc/observers/n6905.html)

Hypothetical extrasolar system.

"An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet that orbits a star other than the Sun. Starting in 1988, and as of 1 January 2017, there have been 3,557 exoplanets in 2,668 planetary systems and 601 multiple planetary systems confirmed. HARPS (since 2004) has discovered about a hundred exoplanets while the Kepler space telescope (since 2009) has found more than two thousand. Kepler has also detected a few thousand candidate planets, of which about 11% may be false positives. On average, there is at least one planet per star, with a percentage having multiple planets. About 1 in 5 Sun-like stars [a] have an "Earth-sized" [b] planet in the habitable zone. [c] Assuming there are 200 billion stars in the Milky Way, [d] one can hypothesize that there are 11 billion potentially habitable Earth-sized planets in the Milky Way, rising to 40 billion if planets orbiting the numerous red dwarfs are included.

Besides exoplanets, there are also rogue planets, which do not orbit any star and which tend to be considered separately, especially if they are gas giants, in which case they are often counted, like WISE 0855−0714, as sub-brown dwarfs. The rogue planets in the Milky Way possibly number in the billions (or more)." (Text credits: Wikipedia).

NCG 7000 the "North American Nebula" in a SHO Palette. The North America Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus. The nebula itself is about 50 light years wide and it approximately 2000 light years away.

The North America Nebula gets it name from its appearance of looking like the outline of the North America continent. The famed "Cygnus Wall" is shown on the right of the image. The Cygnus Wall is a star forming region that is approximately 20 light years in length.

42x600" Exposures - 7hrs total integration time.

Sky: Bortle 5 zone, Azle, TX

Camera: ZWO ASI 2600 MC PRO

Telescope: TS Optics CF APO 90mm F6 w/ 1.0x field flattener.

Guide Scope: TS Optics 50mm Guide scope.

Filter: Optolong L-Xtreme Narrowband filter

Mount: Skywatcher EQ6R Pro

Controller: ZWO ASI Air

www.astrophotobooth.com

IC 1274 is an emission nebula located about 4,000 light-years away in the Sagittarius constellation, within the Lynds 227 molecular cloud. It has a cavity-like structure, likely shaped by the activity of the B0 V star HD 166033 and other early-type stars. The nebula contains four luminous stars, including HD 166033, and hosts young stars like T Tauri stars and Hα emitters. IC 1274 is part of the larger Simeis 188 complex, which includes notable nebulae like the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae. It is an active region of star formation, where ionizing radiation from early-type stars is dispersing the surrounding gas, potentially triggering the formation of new stars.

RGB: 17/18/30x600s

Ha: 24x600s

Total Integration = 14.8h

CDK24

Data from Martin Pugh

El Sauce Observatory, Chile

The Eta Carina nebula is visible from tropical countries and the southern hemisphere. It is bright enough to be easily visible to the naked eye as a tiny patch of light.

Also known as the Carina Nebula, Keyhole Nebula or NGC 3372, the nebula is estimated to be between 6500 and 10,000 light years from earth.

This image is a stack of 61X30s unguided exposures taken using an astro-modified Sony A7S coupled to a Canon 300mm f4 L lens mounted on the Star Adventurer star tracker. Image stacking was done in Astro Pixel Processor and image processing in Lightroom, Photoshop and using Astro-tools photoshop actions.

app.astrobin.com/i/wadvfz

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• Sky-Watcher Quattro 250P

• Sky-Watcher EQ8-R Pro

• ZWO ASI294MM-Pro

• Astronomik L: 50x300s bin1 gain 0

• Astronomik L: 114x600s bin1 gain 0

• Astronomik RGB: 32x300s bin2 gain 125

• Astronomik RGB: 78x600s bin2 gain 125

• ZWO Hα 7nm: 27x900s bin1 gain 200

(total integration 45.5h)

• ZWO OAG & ASI290Mini guide cam

• TS GPU coma corrector

• ZWO EFW, ZWO EAF & Pegasus Astro Ultimate Powerbox 2

Trevinca, Valding, Spain

Bortle 3, SQM 21.8

processed with Pixinsight

It's confirmed! ESA is building its fourth deep space antenna – much like the Cebreros dish pictured here – that will ensure upcoming missions like JUICE and the Hera mission have someone to talk to when they get to space.

'Deep Space Antenna 4' will be located at the New Norcia ground station in Western Australia, home of Europe’s first 35-metre antenna.

ESA’s ESTRACK network is currently made up of three deep space stations across the globe as well as a number of smaller dishes, and it is running at peak capacity. Following analysis of future mission needs, this fourth antenna will provide much-needed communication support to upcoming European and non-European deep-space missions.

Using the latest super-cool technology, the ‘antenna feed’ – through which data flows in from space – will be cryogenically cooled to just 10 degrees Kelvin (only 10 degrees above absolute zero, about -263 C). Doing this, incredibly, is expected to increase the amount of data returned by 40% at the high frequencies used for spacecraft command and control.

Such technology will also be used in the Cebreros station pictured here, and the Malagüe station, dramatically increasing the amount we can ‘hear’ from space.

Work should be finished on the station by the end of 2023, ready to begin operations by mid-2024 – just in time for the JUICE and HERA missions.

You now now find out, in real time, exactly what each ground station is up to using ESTRACKnow. Find out out exactly which spacecraft are communicating with which ground antennas at any moment, and check out the handy guide for more information!

Credits: ESA / J. Mai

IC 5070 & IC 5067

About 1800 light years away, this gaseous emission nebula somewhat resembles a pelican gazing to the left, hence its name. This image captured the SII, Ha, and OIII emission bands. Color has been rendered according to the "Hubble Palette".

17th, 18th, 19th, 20th June 2020

Fremont, CA

Apo TEC140 (140/f7.2) - FLI Proline 16803 - L (530m) R (150m) G (150m) B (150m)

Warrumbungle Observatory, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia (see my website for details)

If you would like to see larger sizes of this image or get high quality professional prints please visit my homepage at www.glitteringlights.com

It may not look like it, but this giant dish in Australia spends its time in in-depth conversation with a number of European deep space missions.

The 35-m antenna is part of ESA’s New Norcia ground station, located 140 kilometres north of Perth. The impressive structure is one of three such stations in the Agency’s ESTRACK network, designed for communicating with spacecraft exploring the far reaches of the Solar System.

Deep Space Antenna-1 (DSA 1) routinely provides support to Mars Express and Exomars TGO, currently orbiting the Red Planet; the Gaia space observatory, in the process of making the world's most precise map of the stars in our Milky Way galaxy; BepiColombo on its way to Mercury; and Cluster II, studying Earth's magnetic environment.

Preparations are also underway for critical 2020 events, including a crucial BepiColombo flyby and the launch of Exomars RSP and Solar Orbiter.

Discoveries by these spacecraft and others would not be possible without ESA ground stations collecting their data, making it available to researchers across the globe and ensuring we can command and communicate with the explorers from our Operations Centre on Earth.

Credits: ESA / D. O'Donnell

Imaged the Heart Nebula located in the constellation Cassiopeia. This has been a lower priority target for me in the past but got bumped up once I went mono. I'm glad I was able to get a decent shot of it this year. My camera and scope combo give a good FOV on this faint target. Oiii was extremely faint, but luckily good narrowband processing techniques can mask that well.

Total exposure time for this image is: 29 hours.

Equipment:

- AT65EDQ Scope

- ZWO ASI1600mm-Pro Imaging Camera

- Belt Modded Orion Sirius EQ-G

- QHY miniGuideScope and QHY5L-ii mono guidecam

- Chroma Ha/Oiii/Sii filters

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Software:

- N.I.N.A. for capture

- PHD2 for guiding

- PixInsight for Processing

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Acquisition:

- 175 x 300" Ha - Chroma 5nm

- 69 x 300" Oiii - Chroma 3nm

- 104 x 300" Sii - Chroma 3nm

- 200 gain and 50 offset, -10C

- 20 flats and flat-darks per filter

- 30 darks from library

- Nights: 10/12, 10/14, 11/6, 11/7/20

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Processing:

Each Master Image:

- Calibration, Integration, DrizzleIntegration

- DynamicCrop

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction

- Deconvolution (Ha only)

- TGVDenoise + MMT noise reduction using EZDenoise Script

- Arcsinhstretch (x2) to bring to nonlinear

- HistogramTransformation for further stretch

- CurvesTransformation to bring up background level

- StarAlign Oiii and Sii to Ha

- Starnet to remove stars from each master; duplicate starless Ha and set aside to use as Luminance layer

Combine Starless Masters via PixelMath:

- Duplicate Oiii and rename to 'f'. CurvesTransformation to boost signal of f and lower background

- R: f*Sii + ~f*Ha

- G: f*(0.7*Ha + 0.3*Sii) + ~f*Oiii

- B: Oiii

- Visit thecoldestnights.com/2020/06/pixinsight-dynamic-narrowban... for more information on Dynamic Narrowband Combinations

- CurvesTransformation to slightly reduce green and boost saturation

Starless Ha Luminance Processing:

- CurvesTransformation for contrast

- RangeMask + LocalHistogramEqualization on Melotte 15 to bring back details

- DarkStructureEnhance script at 0.3

- UnsharpMask using a new RangeMask

Combine Luminance and Color:

- LRGBCombination with Luminance at 85% weight and chrominance noise reduction enabled

Add Back Color Stars and Final Processing:

- StarAlign linear Oiii and Sii masters to linear Ha master

- Arcsinhstretch just barely each linear master

- Duplicate each barely stretched master and Starnet each to remove stars

- PixelMath: Master_Stars - Master_Starless to get just the stars for each channel

- PixelMath: Combine the stars of each channel into a color star image:

- R: Ha_stars

- G: Sii_stars

- B: Oiii_stars

- PixelMath: RGB_Stars + RGB_Nebula to add stars into nebula image

- DynamicCrop to remove edges

- Save and Export

The Cave Nebula is a diffuse nebula in the constellation Cepheus. Sh2-155 is an ionized Hydrogen Alpha region with ongoing star formation activity, at an estimated distance of 2400 light-years from Earth.

Image captured from Grasslands National Park, SK under Bortle 1 skies. 2020-08-14, 2020-08-15 & 2020-08-16.

Image capture details: (5h 40m)

Ha-7x1,200sec (2h20m)

OIII-5x1,200sec((1h 40m)

SII-5x1,200sec(1h 40m)

Imaging Equipment:

SharpStar 140PH Triplet

Celestron CGEM II mount (hypertuned),

ZWOASI1600MM Pro camera

Equipment & Image Details:

SharpStar 140PH Triplet with focal reducer, Celestron CGEM II mount (hypertuned), ZWOASI1600MM Pro camera. Narrowband subs: 3*1,200 sec Ha filter, 3*1,200 sec SII filter.

Messier 104 is known as the "Sombrero" galaxy. It is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo, whose bright nucleus, nusually large central bulge, and prominent dust ring give it the appearance of a Mexican hat.

15 hours of LRGB data imaged over 3 nights from Los Coloraos, Gorafe, Spain using the C14 Edge HD telescope and ASI 6200MM Pro camera.

A really bright galaxy core with a huge bulge of light to both sides of the nucleus making it a really different type of galaxy to image. Lot's of red shift in the image gives it an almost muddy brown appearance.

A high resolution image and full imaging details available at astrob.in/wd56bg/0/

Remotely imaged over 3 nights in April 2024 from Los Coloraos, Gorafe, Spain.

63 x 180s Red, 60 x Green, 60 x Blue and 192x 180s of UV IR Cut

Total image time: 15hours 33 minutes

Telescope: Celestron C14 EDGE HD

Camera: ZWO ASI6200MM Pro cooled to -5C

Filter: Astronomic Deep-Sky Red, Green and Blue and UV-IR Cut

Mount:Sky-Watcher EQ8

Captured with: NINA, processed with PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom Classic

Thank you for viewing!

The 'Shelburn' is a deepspace rescue and crisis response spacecraft, built for Lego Shiptember 2021. It is 105 studs long and was a lot of fun - but a bit challenging with not much time to build. One thing I'm really happy about is how sturdy it is, I defenitiely have improved on that !

LDN 1251, in Lynd's Catalog of Dark Nebulae, is a dense star forming region located in the constellation Cepheus. Together it and other objects combine to form the Cepheus Flare, a large molecular cloud above the Milky Way. Many objects are visible in this image including the dust of LDN 1251, LDN 1243, and a few galaxies including PGC166755 and PGC69472.

This image is a 2-panel mosaic taken over 10 nights, with approximately 19 hours of exposure time per panel.

- Location: Remote Observatory (Bortle 1, SQM 21.99) near Fort Davis, TX

- Total Exposure Time: 38.75 Hours

Equipment:

- Scope: Esprit 100ED w/ 1x Flattener

- Imaging Camera: QHY 268M

- Filters: Chroma LRGB (36mm)

- Mount: Astro Physics Mach1GTO

- Guidescope: SVBony 50mm Guidescope

- Guide camera: ASI 120mm mini

- Focuser: Moonlite Nitecrawler WR35

- Accessories: Pegasus Ultimate Powerbox v2, QHY Polemaster, Optec Alnitak Flip Flat

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Software:

- N.I.N.A for image acquisition, platesolving, and framing

- PHD2 for guiding

- PixInsight for processing

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Acquisition (Total between both panels):

- L: 380 x 3m

- R: 132 x 3m

- G: 131 x 3m

- B: 132 x 3m

- All images at Gain 56, Offset 25 (Readout mode 1) and -5C sensor temperature

- 20 flats per filter

- Master Dark, Flat & Bias from Library

- Nights: 6/23-6/27, 6/30, 7/1-7/3/22

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Processing:

- BatchPreprocessing for all calibration

- ImageIntegration with PSFSignalWeights for integration of all masters

Combining panels for each master:

- DynamicCrop on each panel

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction on each panel

- ImageSolver to platesolve panels

- MosaicByCoordinates script to create mosaic templates

- PhotometricMosaic script to create 2-panel LRGB masters

RGB Processing (apply to each master):

- FastRotation 90 degrees

- DynamicCrop

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction

- NoiseXterminator for linear NR

- StarAlign B and G to R

- ChannelCombination to combine into linear RGB image

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction to remove color gradients

- STF for stretch to non-linear

- CurvesTransformation to balance color

Luminance Processing:

- FastRotation 90 degrees

- DynamicCrop

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction

- NoiseXterminator for linear NR

- GeneralizedHyperbolicStretch for initial stretch

- HistogramTransformation x2 for further stretch

- CurvesTransformation on starless copy to increase nebulosity

- PixelMath to combine pushed starless and original via: (1- (1-$T) * (1-star)*F)+($T*~F) where F=0.3

- CurvesTransformation for contrast

Combine RGB and Luminance:

- StarAlign RGB to Luminance

- LRGBCombination with RGB channel weights set to 0.9, chrominance NR enabled, and saturation boost

- SCNR green @ 0.2

Further Processing:

- CurvesTransformation for contrast

- NoiseXterminator for slight nonlinear NR @ 0.2

- Starnet2 to create starmask

- MorphologicalTransformation for slight star reduction

- ColorSaturation to saturate brown dust

- CurvesTransformation for contrast

- DynamicCrop to remove edges

Created Annotated Version:

- Duplicate final image and StarAlign to initial linear Luminance

- ImageSolver script on luminance

- Transfer FITSHeader from solved luminance to staraligned final image

- AnnotateImage script to label objects

- DynamicCrop to remove edges

- IntegerResample to downsample 2x

- Save as PNG

This was a trial for Focus I noted each time I cleaned the focus track of the focus got better. I cleaned just before I started. HFR was 1.4 -1.6 all night long. Looks like its a worth while routine.

Taken with ZWO CMOS camera 56 Files 10 min files Shot With

ZWO ASI071MC Pro @ -10c

ZWO AEF,

Optolong LeNhance filter,

Skywatcher Black DiamondED80 OTA

Skywatcher EQM35Goto

Guided PHD2, SGP

Stacked DSS. Processed PixinSight , Lr