View allAll Photos Tagged deepspace
Second image in my short Moon series...
This is January's full moon, captured on the evening of the 13th, 2025. I used my 200-500mm Nikkor lens and shot it handheld at 1/125th of a second.
For added artistic flare and to give the image more depth, I overlayed a Deep Space filter/layer.
Now reach up and touch the moon, traveling into the stars above!
Messier 101 (M101), also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The Pinwheel Galaxy lies at a distance of 20.9 million light-years from Earth. It has the designation NGC 5457 in the New General Catalogue. Technical Info:
15 x 300 sec. Badder UV/IR Cut filter
Gain 200, Offset 50, Binning 1x1
Total 1.25 hours
Explore Scientific 102mm f/7 APO Refractor
Sensor cooled to -25°C on ZWO ASI294MC Pro (Color)
Calibration frames: Bias, Darks, and Flats.
Plate Solve ASTAP via N.I.N.A. 1.11
Image processing Pixinsight 1.8.8 and finished in Photoshop CC 2021
Photo showing Seven Experiments in Procedural Animation, a work by Karl Sims, in the Ars Electronica Center's Deep Space 8K .
Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) in the early morning of January 27, 2023.
The comet was discovered in March 2022 at the Zwicky Transient Facility telescope, thus the ZTF name.
Equipment:
SkyWatcher EQ6-R
Nikkor 500mm f/4 P AI-S at f/4
Sony a7RIIIa (unmodified)
ZWO 30mm Guide scope
GPCAM2 Mono Camera
Acquisition:
Taos, NM: my back yard - Bortle 3
4 x 121" for 8 minutes and 4 seconds of exposure time.
2 dark frames
15 flats frames
15 bias frames
Software:
SharpCap
DeepSkyStacker
Photoshop
Lightroom
My Sony a7RIII and adapted Nikkor 500mm f/4 P AI-S were mounted on an ADM vixen rail and secured to the SkyWatcher EQ6-R mount. I polar aligned my mount using SharpCap Pro. I struggled with getting guiding going and decided to trust my mount to track accurately. I took 4 121-second exposures and dark, flat, and bias frames. DeepSkyStacker was used to combine all frames, and then I processed the TIFF file in Photoshop. I stretched the 32-bit file using Levels. I then made it a 16-bit file and continued to stretch the file in levels and curves. I used the color sampler tool and levels to do my best to help keep colors accurate. I then used my skillset, including some dodging & burning, and relied on Astronomy Tools Action Set and Topaz Denoise to give the image a polished look. I brought it into Lightroom to do final color corrections and add EXIF data. I did not attempt to account for the comet's movement, and you can see the nucleus is elongated.
The Spaghetti Nebula is located in the constellations of Auriga and Taurus within the Milky Way and is a supernova remnant from an exploding star. These extremely faint and fine filaments of ionised hydrogen, sulphur and oxygen are all that remains from the explosion approximately 40,000 years ago. It's distance from our solar system is estimated to be 3000 light-years.
The size of the nebula is extremely large, approximately 3 degrees, and using my small 81mm telescope, the image almost entirely fills a full frame camera sensor. To capture this image I used over 28 hours of images using 3 narrow band filters for each gas.
Technical details:
Location:
Gérgal, Almeria, Spain. Bortle class 4.5
Filters used:
Ha: 256 @ 120s 512 min
Oiii: 342 @ 120s 684 min
Sii: 251 @ 120s 502 min
Total integration: 28.3 hours
Equipment:
Telescope: William Optics GT81 with x0.8 Field Flattener f/5.6 385mm
Image Camera: ZWO ASI 6200MM Pro @ -5 C
Pegasus Astro Falcon rotator
Pegasus Astro Focus Cube
ZWO 7 Position filter wheel
ZWO Filters 7nm Sii, Oiii and Ha
Guide scope: William Optics 50mm Uniguide 200mm f/4
Guide camera: ZWO ASI 192 MM Mini
Software:
N.I.N.A, PHD2, Sharpcap Pro, PixInsight, Photoshop, Lightroom and Topaz Denoise.
IC 1396 in a new light!
moonrocksastro.com/index.php/2015/11/01/cepheus/
It is named after Cepheus, King of Aethiopia in Greek mythology. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations. Its brightest star is Alpha Cephei with an apparent magnitude of 3.5. Delta Cephei is the prototype of an important class of star known as a Cepheid variable. RW Cephei, an orange hypergiant, together with the red supergiants Mu Cephei, VV Cephei and V354 Cephei are among the largest stars known. In addition, Cepheus also has the hyperluminous quasar S5 0014+81, hosting an ultramassive black hole in its core at 40 billion solar masses, about 10,000 times more massive than the central black hole of the Milky Way, making it the most massive black hole known in the universe.
This two panel mosaic has an Integration of 45.0 hours
Imaging telescopes or lenses: Vixen VSD
Imaging cameras: Starlight Express SXVR-H18
Mounts: Sky-Watcher NEQ6 Pro
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Vixen VSD
Guiding cameras: sx loadstar
Software: Sequence Generator Pro, PixInsight 1.8, Photoshop CS5, PHD, Main Sequence Software
Filters: H-alpha 3.5 Nm, Baader SII 8.5nm, Baader O III 8.5nm
Accessories: Starlight Xpress USB filter wheel
Resolution: 4542x3208
Dates: Oct. 20, 2015, Oct. 21, 2015, Oct. 22, 2015
Frames:
Ha 8.5nm: 30x1800"
O III 8.5nm: 40x1800"
SII 8.5nm: 20x1800"
Integration: 45.0 hours
Locations: Home observatory, Valencia, Spain
Ou4 the Giant Squid Nebula in Ti-colour with 10 hours of added SII and OIII
A mysterious, squid-like apparition cataloged as Ou4 ( OIII to blue), and Sh2-129 also known as the Flying Bat Nebula ( Ha to red) located in the constellation Cepheus
Imaging telescope: Vixen VSD 100 f/3
Imaging camera: 9.2mp Sony SX814
Mount: Software Bisque Paramount MX
Guiding telescope or lens: Vixen VSD 100 f/3
Filters: Chroma OIII 3nm, Chroma Ha 3nm and Chroma SII 3nm
Dates: Nov.. 3, 2016
Frames: 44x1800" at F3
Integration: 42.0 hours
Avg. Moon age: 1.81 days
Avg. Moon phase: 3.67%
Locations: Home observatory, Valencia, Spain
Messier 94 is a spiral galaxy in the mid-northern constellation Canes Venatici. Technical Info:
104 x 180 sec. . OPTOLONG L-eNhance filter
97 x 180 sec. ZWO Red filter
93 x 180 sec. ZWO Green filter
86 x 180 sec. Zwo Blue filter
Gain 200, Offset 50, Binning 1x1
Total Integration 19 hours
Explore Scientific 102mm f/7 APO Refractor
Sensor cooled to -15°C on ZWO ASI1600MM Pro (mono)
Calibration frames: Bias, Darks, and Flats.
Plate Solve-PlateSolver 2 via N.I.N.A. 1.11
Image processing Pixinsight 1.8.8-9, and Photoshop CC 2022
SH-2 132 Lion Nebula HOO
SH2-132 Lion Nebula has always been an image I wanted to capture and actually look a little like a Lion.
Not sure if it made the grade this time but pleased with the colour contrast and details in the Oiii and Ha regions.
In this image I made some changes to the editing workflow to leave the colour control and blending to PhotoShop and used PixInsight for the image pre-processing and stacking.
A high resolution image with imaging details can be found on my Astrobin page at: astrob.in/4pj3m2/0/
Technical summary:
Captured: 8 Nights in August 2024
Location: Turismo Astronómico, Los Coloraos, Gorafe, Spain
Bortle Class: 3
Total Integration: 38 hours 20 mins
Filter: Optolong L-Ultimate
This star forming region in the constellation Perseus resembles a snail inching its way across the Galaxy.
OTA: Takahashi CCA-250
MOUNT: Software Bisque Paramount ME-II w/AOE encoders
CAMERA: FLI PL-16803
REDUCER: Takahashi 645 CA 0.72X (f/3.6)
SOFTWARE: SGP, PhD2, TheSkyX, Pixinsight, Starnet++, Photoshop
FILTERS: Astrodon LRGB; 5nm Hα, SII 3nm, OIII 3nm
ACCESSORIES: FLI CFW 5-7 Filter Wheel
LOCATION: SRO
See on Fluidr
To see more of my work and to buy prints visit www.jklovelacephotography.com/pages/space
Messier 3 (M3 or NGC 5272) is a globular cluster of stars in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Charles Messier on May 3, 1764, and resolved into stars by William Herschel around 1784.
This cluster is one of the largest and brightest, and is made up of around 500,000 stars. It is estimated to be 8 billion years old. It is located at a distance of about 33,900 light-years away from Earth.
A globular cluster is a spherical collection of stars that orbits a galactic core as as satellite. Globular clusters are very tightly bound by gravity, which gives them their spherical shapes and relatively high stellar densities toward their centres.
Details.
M: Mesu 200
T: TMB 152/1200
C: QSI683 Baader LRGB filters
30x600s Luminance
30x600s Red
30x600s Green
30x600s Blue
Totalling 20 hours.
This was all taken as well during the full moon period, as Globular clusters are less affected by moonlight than other Deep Sky objects.
Hypothetical exoplanet seen from one of its satellites. The foreground was changed and stars were added to this version.
EXOPLANETS
==================================================
Confirmed 3439
Candidates 4696
Solar systems 2569
Earths 348
Data from NASA (exoplanets.nasa.gov/)
==================================================
"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).
WR 134 is a variable Wolf-Rayet star located around 6,000 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus, surrounded by a faint bubble nebula blown by the intense radiation and fast wind from the star. It is just over four times the radius of the sun, but due to a temperature of 63,000 K it is 250,000 times as luminous as the sun. [Wiki]
Imaged over 11 nights in July 2024 .
A high resolution image with a starless version and full imaging details can be found on my Astrobin page at: astrob.in/0fg4co/0/
Thank you for looking.
Technical summary:
Captured: 11 Nights in July 2024
Location: Turismo Astronómico, Los Coloraos, Gorafe, Spain
Bortle Class: 3
Total Integration: 46h 50m
Filters: Optolong L-Ultimate Dual Band
Pixel Scale: 1.4 arcsec/pixel
Telescope: Skywatcher Esprit 100ED
Image Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Mount: Skywatcher EQ 6R Pro
Capture software: NINA, PHD2
Editing software: PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop
The Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635) is an emission nebula located in the northern constellation Cassiopeia. The nebula lies at a distance of 7,100 light-years from Earth. The nebula is in fact a cloud of gas and dust illuminated by the brilliant star within it. Technical Info:
102 x 300 sec. Astronomik Ha 12 nm filter
66 x 300 sec. Optolong L-eHance
Gain 200, Offset 50, Binning 1x1
Total Integration 14 hours
Explore Scientific 102mm f/7 APO Refractor
Sensor cooled to -20°C on ZWO ASI1600MM Pro (mono)
Calibration frames: Bias, Darks, and Flats.
Plate Solve-ASTAP via N.I.N.A. 1.11
Image processing Pixinsight 1.8.8 and finished in Photoshop CC 2021.
Intergalactic Crocodile departing for the dusty emission nebula in Auriga.
moonrocksastro.com/index.php/2015/12/23/intergalactic-cro...
This is a mosaic made up of three panels with an integration of around 35 to 45 hours of exposure.
Caldwell 31, a huge, sprawling nebula spanning five light years and surrounding the ‘Flaming Star’, AE Aurigae, the bright star visible in the upper portion of the nebula. AE Aur (mag. +6) is an runaway star that is thought to have been one of three stars ejected from near the Trapezium in Orion 2.7 million years ago. It’s a class-O hydrogen fusing dwarf that is at least 30,000 times more luminous than our Sun. The nebula and the star lie around 1500 light years away.
The smaller nebula at the top is IC405, commonly known as the Tadpole Nebula for the small ‘tadpole-like’ structures of dense, cooler gas that are being shaped by the intense radiation from the hot stars of the young open cluster NGC 1893, embedded in the nebulosity. It’s just possible to see the tadpoles to the upper right of the largest dark section at the centre of the nebulosity, with the open cluster just above. IC405 lies 12,000 light years away.
Imaging telescopes or lenses: Vixen VSD
Imaging cameras: Starlight Express SXVR-H18
Mounts: Sky-Watcher MX
Guiding telescopes or lenses:Vixen VSD
Guiding cameras: sx loadstar
Software: Sequence Generator Pro, PHD, Photoshop CS5
Filters: Baader Ha, OIII & SII
Accessories: Starlight Xpress USB filter wheel, Baader Planetarium 36mm narrowband filters
Theme: Cyberpunk, Deepspace, Fantasy, Steampunk Featuring: Accessories, Apparel, Cosmetics, Decor, Hair, Jewelry, Poses, Shoes, Skins, Tattoos Event Opening Date: April 29, 2022 Event Closing Date: May 22, 2022
NGC 7822
....................................................
This is an emission nebula located in the constellation Cepheus, about 3000 light-years from us, being a region where new stars are born. If the strong radiation emitted by the new stars ionizes the surrounding gas and illuminates the entire area, the same radiation erodes those "pillars" of cosmic dust causing, over time, those concentrated areas of dust to disappear and thus destroy the main "material" that forms the new stars.
Equipment and settings:
Mount: Skywatcher Eq6R
Telescope: Explore Scientific 102ED + 0.75 APM reducer
Camera: ASI 533MM
Filter: Astrodon SHO
Total integration: 10 hours ( Ha 38 exposures x 5 min, Sii 44 x 5 min, Oiii 63 x 3 min )
Edit in Pixinsight.
Location: my Bortle 6+ backyard.
Emission Nebula with dark clouds in the Cygnus constellation.
Image taken from my backyard in Luxembourg between june 9 and 13.
Total exposure about 30 hours.
Gear: 203/926mm Newton, ASI1600mmPro camera, Ha/SII/OIII narrowband filters on an EQ8-Pro mount.
IC 405, the Flaming Star Nebula, is an emission and reflection nebula in the constellation Aurig. It is about 1,500 light-years away from Earth.. Technical Info:
15 x 300 sec. Astronomik Ha 12 nm filter
15 x 300 sec. Astronomik OIII 12 nm filter
15 x 300 sec. Astronomik SII 12 nm filter
Gain 200, Offset 50, Binning 1x1
Total Integration 3.8 hours
Explore Scientific 102mm f/7 APO Refractor
Sensor cooled to -25°C on ZWO ASI1600MM Pro (mono)
Calibration frames: Bias, Darks, and Flats.
Plate Solve-Plate Solver 2 via N.I.N.A. 1.11
Image processing Pixinsight 1.8.8, and Photoshop CC 2021
NGC 2244
Caldwell 49 & 50
========================
OBJECT
Magnitude: +5.50
Distance: 5,500 light years.
Diameter: 128 light years.
Apparent size of object: 80' x 60'
========================
IMAGE
Exposure: 28.7 min.
Sub-frames: 191s x 9.
FOV: 1.57° x 1.06°
Captured: 2021-03-08.
========================
------------------------------------------------------
• Sky-Watcher Quattro 250P
• Sky-Watcher EQ8-R Pro
• ZWO ASI294MM-Pro
• ZWO Hα 7nm: 26x600s bin1 gain 200
• ZWO OIII 7nm: 54x600s bin2 gain 200
(total integration 13.3h)
• 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
A boney finger of dark nebulas (Barnard 169 to 174) reaches for the light (Ced 199 Sh2-134 and Sh2-135)
See on Fluidr
OTA: Takahashi FSQ-106 EDX4
GUIDER: Stellarvue F50
MOUNT: Software Bisque Paramount MyT
CAMERA: FLI ML-16070M
GUIDE CAMERA: ZWO ASI 174 Mini M
REDUCER: Takahashi 645 QE .72x f/3.6
SOFTWARE: SGP, PhD2, TheSkyX, Pixinsight, Starnet++, Photoshop
FILTERS: AstrodonLRGB; 5nm Hα, 3nm SII, 3nm OIII
ACCESSORIES: Optec Gemini Focuser/Rotator
LOCATION: SRO
To see more of my work and to buy prints visit www.jklovelacephotography.com/pages/space
Newton 200x1000 sur HEQ5 pro Rowan.
Correcteur Bader MPCC MIII.
Optolong L-Extreme.
Canon 1000Dd.
132 x 3min - ISO 400.
Version HOO.
Ciel Bortle 8
The Sadr Region (also known as IC 1318 or the Gamma Cygni Nebula) is the diffuse emission nebula surrounding Sadr (γ Cygni) at the center of Cygnus's cross. The Sadr Region is one of the surrounding nebulous regions; others include the Butterfly Nebula and the Crescent Nebula. It contains many dark nebulae in addition to the emission diffuse nebulae.
Sadr itself has approximately a magnitude of 2.2. The nebulous regions around the region are also fairly bright.
The Crescent Nebula (also known as NGC 6888, Caldwell 27, Sharpless 105) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, about 5000 light-years away from Earth. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1792. It is formed by the fast stellar wind from the Wolf-Rayet star WR 136 (HD 192163) colliding with and energizing the slower moving wind ejected by the star when it became a red giant around 250,000 to 400,000 years ago. The result of the collision is a shell and two shock waves, one moving outward and one moving inward. The inward moving shock wave heats the stellar wind to X-ray-emitting temperatures.
It is a rather faint object located about 2 degrees SW of Sadr. For most telescopes it requires a UHC or OIII filter to see. Under favorable circumstances a telescope as small as 8 cm (with filter) can see its nebulosity. Larger telescopes (20 cm or more) reveal the crescent or a Euro sign shape which makes some to call it the "Euro sign nebula".
EQ6R Pro mount
William Optics GT81 iv Scope
Asi2600mc camera cooled to -10c
Optolong L Extreme Filter
ASIAIR Pro
ZWO EAF
ZWO mini guide scope and camera
50 x 300 second exposures
30 x darks
30 x dark flats
30 x flats
Stacked and processed in Pixinsight
Bortle 6 Sky (Kent UK)
Neighbors, but not close neighbours! On a two dimensional image these targets appear in close proximity to one another. In fact they are separated by more than 10,500 light-years.
IC 410, the Tadpoles nebula is a faint and dusty emission nebula approximately 12,000 light-years away from Earth in the northern constellation of Auriga.
IC 405,also known as the Flaming Star Nebula, is an emission and reflection nebula in the same constellation. IC405 is approximately 1,500 light-years away from Earth.
Image captured over 7 nights; 2022-11-19, 22, & 23, and 2023-01-01, 18, 19 & 22
17 hours 10 minutes total integration
Ha subs 23 * 1,200 sec = 7 hours 40 min
OIII subs 10 * 1,200 sec = 3 hours 20 min
SII subs 14 * 1,200 sec = 4 hours 40 min
R subs 15 * 120sec = 30 min
G subs 15 * 120sec = 30 min
B subs 15 * 120sec = 30 min
Imaging Equipment:
SharpStar 94EDPH with reducer at 414mm focal length,
Rainbow Astro RST-135,
ZWOASI2600MM Pro camera
SHO 3.0nm filters & RGB filters
Last night's full moon was very bright with a slight glow around it although it was a case of standing in the cold night air waiting for the clouds to clear long enough to get a hand-held shot but it was worth it.
Waning Gibbous Moon
Illumination: 98.9%
Distance to Earth: 362, 205 KM
Time: 23.13
Location: West Wales
Taken in black and white hand-held using a Panasonic DMC FZ200
f/2.8
1/1300
108.0 mm
ISO 100
Dedicated to CH (ILYWAMHASAM)
Newton 200x1000 - HEQ5.
Guidage chercheur + ASI120mc.
123x2min - ISO400.
CANON 1000Dd - Filtre Idas LPS D1 - Correcteur de coma Baader MPCC Mark III.
PixInSight - PS.
Ciel Bortle 8.
This my interpretation of the Hubble Heritage data for
WFC3-Mosaic-of-Carina-Nebula-HH-901-C in narrowband
Hope you find this interesting!
The original data can be found here if you want to have a go :)
Facebook | Instagram | Moonrocksastro
This is the next installment of my 2016 Cygnus exploration. This image has an integration of approximately 25 hours of photography. Featured in this image: SH2-115 an emission nebula. It is approximately 7500 light years away. Also featured are the Planetary Nebula Abell 71 and Weinberger 1-10 in the center left of frame.
M 101 A spiral galaxy in the Constellation Ursa Major. Distance from Earth 21 million light years
To be honest this is more my son Matthew's hobby than mine but I must admit the results are quite surprising even though lacking a little in resolution!
On top of Haleakalā - a volcano on the island of Maui - are a handful of deep space telescopes dotting the barren landscape.
An ancient planetary nebula
See on Fluidr
OTA: PlaneWave CDK20
GUIDER: Astrodon Monster MOAG
MOUNT: PlaneWave L-500
CAMERA: FLI ML-16803
GUIDE CAMERA: QHY 5-III 174 M
REDUCER: N/A
SOFTWARE: SGP, PhD2, PWI 3 & 4, Pixinsight, Starnet++, Photoshop, various plugins
FILTERS: Astrodon NII 3nm, Hα 3nm, OIII 3nm, RGB
ACCESSORIES: Pegasus UPB,
LOCATION: SRO
To see more of my work and to buy prints visit www.jklovelacephotography.com/pages/space
About 10,000 years ago, a star exploded and died here. The Helix Nebula, also known as the Helix or NGC 7293, is a large planetary nebula in the constellation Aquarius.
Karl Ludwig Harding, probably discovered it before 1824 and it is one of the closest objects to Earth among the planetary nebulae, about 700 light years from our Earth. Sixteen hours of exposure from El Sauce Observatory in Chile (TelescopeLive) and image processing with my interpretation of 178 raw images in PixInsight and PhotoShop.
The Orion and Running Man Nebulae are a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, being south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion. The Orion Nebula is 1,500 light-years away, and the nearest star-forming region to Earth. Technical info: 210 x 300 sec. Astronomik Ha 12 nm filter
173 x 300 sec. Astronomik OIII 12 nm filter
170 x 300 sec Astronomik SII 12 nm filter
Gain 200, Offset 50, Binning 1x1
Total Integration 46.1 hours
Explore Scientific 102mm f/7 APO Refractor
Sensor cooled to -15°C on ZWO ASI1600MM Pro (mono)
Calibration frames: Bias, Darks, and Flats.
Plate Solve-PlateSolver 2 via N.I.N.A. 2.0
Image processing Pixinsight 2.0 and Photoshop 2023
A 4 panel mosaic Frames: 120x1800"
Integration: 60.0 hours
This data was acquired with my Takahashi TSA 102. Hope you enjoy it!
NGC 2237 Inside the Rosette nebula
Imaging telescopes or lenses: Takahashi TSA 102,
Imaging cameras: Starlight Express SXVR-H18
Mounts: Sky-Watcher NEQ6 Pro
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Takahashi TSA 102
Guiding cameras: sx loadstar
Focal reducers: Takahashi TOA/FS Reducer
Software: PHD, Main Sequence Software
Filters: Baader Red 2", Baader SII 8.5nm, Baader B 2", Baader G 2", Baader O III 8.5nm, Baader Ha 8.5nm
Accessories: Starlight Xpress USB filter wheel
Before you draw your conclusions about this image, please read the description.
The sky and foreground were captured back to back at the same focal length and with the same equipment from a single tripod position.
The camera position was roughly 2 miles away from the mountain station, and the telescope/camera combination has an extremely narrow field of view of only 1.5° x 2°. The resulting telephoto compression makes the otherwise tiny Orion Nebula appear huge.
Two years ago, I had already captured a similar deepscape, but I was never really satisfied with it. The problem was lacking data for my sky, especially in the green channel, as clouds moved in towards the end of the imaging session.
Of course, I could have recaptured the missing data or the entire Orion Nebula from a different place, but that's not my style. After waiting two years for an opportunity to reshoot the image, I finally got my chance this February.
The weather this time was perfect, which made capturing the sky pretty straightforward, but otherwise, the conditions were still as demanding as 2 years ago.
Getting the foreground in focus with a monochrome micro 4/3rd astro-cam and RGB filters through a 500mm f/5.6 telescope is a real pain. Furthermore, snowcats grooming the slopes caused constantly changing, extremely bright illumination. Considering this, I am quite happy that I was able to capture a usable foreground.
EXIF
Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro (cooled monochrome MFT astro-cam)
Telescope: William Optics Megrez 88 (500mm f/5.6)
Filters: Baader HaRGB
Other equipment: ZWO EFW and EAF
Autoguider: ZWO ASI 385MC
Mount: Equatoriallly mounted Skywatcher AZ-GTI
Rig control: ASIair
Sky:
25min RGB (each)
21min Ha
Foreground:
5x 60s RGB (each)
10 x 60s Luminance
Explanation: A bright spiral galaxy of the northern sky, Messier 63 is about 25 million light-years distant in the loyal constellation Canes Venatici. Also cataloged as NGC 5055, the majestic island universe is nearly 100,000 light-years across, about the size of our own Milky Way. Known by the popular moniker, The Sunflower Galaxy, M63 sports a bright yellowish core and sweeping blue spiral arms, streaked with cosmic dust lanes and dotted with pink star forming regions. This deep exposure also reveals an enormous but dim arc extending far into the halo above the brighter galactic plane. A collaboration of professional and amateur astronomers has shown the arc to be consistent with the stellar stream from a smaller satellite galaxy, tidally disrupted as it merged with M63 during the last 5 billion years. Their discovery is part of an increasing body of evidence that the growth of large spirals by cannibalizing smaller galaxies is commonplace in the nearby Universe. (text: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100911.html)
This picture was photographed during April 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.
LRGB filter set Baader Planetarium.
L = 54 * 900 seconds , bin.1, RGB = 21* 450-600 seconds, bin.2 each filter. 22 hours total.
FWHM source in L filter 1.80"-2.96", sum in L channel - 2.32"
The height above the horizon from 56° to 83°, the scale of 1"/ pixel.
Processed Pixinsight 1.8 and Photoshop CS6
The comet to see of 2021 ~57 million miles away from Earth in the pre-dawn sky over Taos, New Mexico. | December 4, 2021.
Equipment:
Celestron CGEM Mount
Nikon 500mm f/4 P AI-s at f/5.6
Sony a7RIII (unmodified)
Altair 60mm Guide scope
GPCAM2 Mono Camera
Acquisition:
Taos, NM: my front yard - Bortle 3
4 x 75" for 5 minutes and 4 seconds of exposure time.
5 dark frames
15 flats frames
15 bais frames
Software:
SharpCap
DeepSkyStacker
Photoshop
Guided
My mount was polar aligned with SharpCap (what an amazing system for aligning). I then mounted my a7RIII and adapted Nikon 500mm f/4 P Ai-s lens to the top rail of my scope. I used SharpCap to achieve "excellent" polar alignment. I shot ISO 3200, f/5.6 and 75" exposures. I stacked lights/darks/flats/bias frames in deepskystacker. I then processed the TIFF file in photoshop stretching the file, cropping and I used Astronomy Tools Action Set to help bring out details and colors along with Topaz Denoise to help smooth things out.
I have been waiting and waiting since November to have a clear night with no wind or moonlight on a weekend. Finally, I got my chance in late March, and it was my last shot until next November as Orion will start to fade below the horizon in April.
Orion is one of my favorite deep space objects to photograph, but the bright core makes it a challenge to capture well. I really like how this turned out!
(Explore # 84)
Lapis colored filaments of Oxygen marbled with veins of ruby like Hydrogen, part of a vast supernova remnant in the constellation Vela.
See on Fluidr
OTA: Takahashi FSQ-106
MOUNT: Software Bisque Paramount MX
CAMERA: SBIG STX-16803
GUIDE CAMERA: SBIG STX built in
REDUCER: na
SOFTWARE: SGP, PhD2, TheSkyX, Pixinsight, Starnet++, Photoshop
FILTERS: Astrodon LRGB; Hα 5nm, SII 5nm, OIII 5nm
ACCESSORIES: SBIG FW-7 Filter Wheel
LOCATION: M & K Observatory, NSW Australia
To see more of my work and to buy prints visit www.jklovelacephotography.com/pages/space
M78 is is the blue reflection nebula in the centre of the frame and Barnards loop is the red / pink area to the left of the frame.
The nebula Messier 78 (also known as M78 or NGC 2068) is a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780.
M78 is the brightest diffuse reflection nebula of a group of nebulae that include NGC 2064, NGC 2067 and NGC 2071. This group belongs to the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex and is about 1,600 light years distant from Earth.
Barnard's Loop (Sh2-276) is an emission nebula in the constellation of Orion.The loop takes the form of a large arc centered approximately on the Orion Nebula. The stars within the Orion Nebula are believed to be responsible for ionizing the loop. Recent estimates place it at a distance of between 518 light years and 1434 light years giving it dimensions of either about 100 or 300 light years across respectively. It is thought to have originated in a supernova explosion about 2 million years ago, which may have also created several known runaway stars.
This is another image taken with the dual rig.
Details
M: Mesu 200
T: Takahashi FSQ85 0.73x
C: QSI683 and Moravian G2-8300 with Baader RGB filters, 3nm Ha Astrodon filters and Hutech IDAS.
70x300s RGB
30x1800s Ha
45x1200s Luminance
Total exposure time 47 hours 30 mins.
This has been blended as a simple RGB combination, then with the Ha data added into the red channel. The luminance layer was created using the luminance data and some Ha data added.
The Veil Nebula is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus, at about 2400 light years from us.
It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop,a supernova remnant, many portions of which have acquired their own individual names and catalogue identifiers. In modern usage, the names Veil Nebula, Cirrus Nebula, and Filamentary Nebula generally refer to all the visible structure of the remnant, or even to the entire loop itself. The structure is so large that several NGC numbers were assigned to various arcs of the nebula. There are three main visual components: 1. The Western Veil (also known as Caldwell 34), consisting of NGC 6960 (the "Witch's Broom", Lacework Nebula, "Filamentary Nebula"; 2. The Eastern Veil (also known as Caldwell 33), whose brightest area is NGC 6992, trailing off farther south into NGC 6995 (together with NGC 6992 also known as "Network Nebula"; 3. Pickering's Triangle (or Pickering's Triangular Wisp), brightest at the north central edge of the loop, but visible in photographs continuing toward the central area of the loop.
The source supernova was a star 20 times more massive than the Sun which exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. At the time of the explosion, the supernova would have appeared brighter than Venus in the sky, and visible in the daytime. The remnants have since expanded to cover an area of the sky roughly 36 times the area of the full Moon.
Equipment and settings:
Mount: Skywatcher EQ6 R pro
Lens: Rokinon 135mm F2
Camera: ASI 533MM Pro
Filters: Astrodon SHO
Total integration: 10h30 ( Ha 49 exposures x 5 min, Sii 30 x 5 min, Oiii 77 x 3 min )
Edit in Pixinsight.
Location: my Bortle 6+ backyard.
Here is a selction of some of my astro images from 2015. A wide selection of mono, narrowband and LRGB taken with two very differernt focal lengths and two different camera's.
It's been an interesting 2015 and I am really looking forward to what 2016 brings!
From top left the images are as follows. There's a clickable link to show the picture.
DWB111 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/18055155179/in/dateposted-pu...
IC5146 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/20956920656/in/dateposted-pu...
IC1805 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/20847210896/in/dateposted-pu...
IC1396 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/22841402303/in/dateposted-pu...
IC1848 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/23065199495/in/dateposted-pu...
IC1871 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/23065199495/in/dateposted-pu...
NGC7635 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/21672256872/in/dateposted-pu...
M1 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/16155482830/in/dateposted-pu...
IC434 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/16265877975/in/dateposted-pu...
NGC7023 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/18877814869/in/dateposted-pu...
Veil Complex - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/21230850569/in/dateposted-pu...
NGC1333 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/23235920719/in/dateposted-pu...
NGC2359 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/23529756720/in/dateposted-pu...
NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 are known as the Antennae, or sometimes called the "rat-tail" galaxies. They are located near the western edge of Corvus.
This pair of interacting galaxies was discovered by William Herschel in 1785. The Antennae Galaxies are the nearest and youngest example of a pair of colliding galaxies. About 1.2 billion years ago, the Antennae were two separate galaxies. Simulations of colliding galaxies suggest that the two will eventually form a single elliptical galaxy.
A high resolution image and full imaging details available at astrob.in/e2yddz/0/
Remotely imaged over 5 nights in April 2024 from Los Coloraos, Gorafe, Spain.
55 x 120 second exposures with Red, 52 x Green, 19 x Blue and 131 x 120 seconds of UV IR Cut
Total image time: 12 hours 19 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!