The Whirlpool Galaxy is one of the most spectacular sights when observing the night sky. Located at about 31 million years from us, it is a grand design spiral galaxy interacting with another one, in a slow dance by which both will merge within several million years. As a result of this, tidal streams of stars are swirling around, here seen as the faint light patch around. The Whirlpool Galaxy has lots of star formation areas - the bluish areas reveal the presence of young and hot stars.

Shot at Santa Susana, Portugal on the 29th and 30th of April, 2022 and at Barcarena, Portugal on the 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th of January 2023.

Technical details:

LUM: 172 x 180’’ (8h36)

RGB: 120 x 180’’ (6h00)

Ha: 119 x 300’’ (9h55)

Total integration: 24h31

SW EQ6-R Pro | TS Optics Triplet APO 800/115 | TS Optics TSFLAT2 0.79x | QHYCCD 268M | Optolong LRGB |Astronomik Ha 6nm | RBFocus Gaius-S | RBFocus Myrrdin 2.3

Acquisition: N.I.N.A. |

Processing: Pixinsight

More than 38 hours of total exposures went into this 4 panels mosaic covering about 140 square degrees of sky.

Pentax 67 EDIF 300mm f/4 - FLI Proline 16803 - Ha (920m) OIII (890) R (160m) G (160m) B (160m) - Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia

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

The Spaghetti Nebula is a supernova remnant (SNR) in the Milky Way, straddling the border between the constellations Auriga and Taurus. The nebulous area has an almost spherical shell and a filamentary structure. It is believed that the stellar explosion left behind a rapidly spinning neutron star known as a pulsar in the nebula core, emitting a strong radio signal. Sh2-240 is approximately 3,000 light-years from earth.

Image captured over 3 nights; 2023-02-12, 14, & 16

7 hours 20 minutes total integration

Ha subs 14 * 1,200 sec = 4 hours 40 min

OIII subs 8 * 1,200 sec = 2 hours 40 min

Imaging Equipment:

Canon EF 70-200mm at 135mm

Rainbow Astro RST-135,

ZWOASI294MM Pro camera

SH 3.0nm filters

Peek toward the handle of the Big Dipper with a telescope and you can find the Pinwheel Galaxy also known as M101. It lies 21 million light-years away, meaning the light traveled for 21 million years before hitting my camera's sensor. Discovered in 1781 by Pierre Méchain, one of Charles Messier's colleagues, the spiral arms stretches 170,000 light-years wide—almost twice the size of our Milky Way Galaxy.

Equipment:

SkyWatcher EQ6-R

Nikkor 800mm f/5.6 AI-S at f/5.6

Sony a7rIII (unmodified)

ZWO 30mm Guide Scope

GPCAM2 Mono Camera

Acquisition:

Taos, NM: my front yard - Bortle 3

40 x 212-second exposures for 2 hours, 11 minutes and 20 seconds of exposure time.

5 dark frames

15 flats frames

15 bias frames

Guided

Software:

SharpCap

PHD2

PixInsight

Photoshop

Lightroom

My a7rIII and adapted Nikon 800mm f/5.6 lens were mounted to my SkyWatcher EQ6-R mount using a vixen rail. The guidescope/camera was fixed to the front of the rail. I used SharpCap to achieve "excellent" polar alignment. I shot ISO 1600 at f/5.6. I took 212-second exposures using PHD2 with my guidescope to keep tracking accurately. I brought the lights/darks/flats/bias frames into PixInsight for stacking and aligning and then used: STF, Cropping, GraXpert, Dynamic Background Extraction, BlurXTerminator, plate solving, color correction, NoiseXTerminator, and then the galaxy was separated from the stars using StarXterminator, and both files processed and stretched separately and then recombined using PixelMath. That file was brought into Lightroom for Metadata and EXIF tags, light post-processing, and cropping. I used Photoshop to sharpen the final image.

English below

Abell 85 o LBN576, nota come Nebulosa Testa d'Aglio, è un resto di supernova nella costellazione di Cassiopea distante circa 9780 anni luce e di diametro di circa 98 anni luce.

11 ore e 20 minuti in pose guidate da 600 secondi con filtro dualband Antlia ALP-T 5nm, per le stelle un'ora in pose guidate da 60 secondi con filtro broadband SV260. Telescopio newton 150/600 con correttore Tecnosky 0.95x, camera Tecnosky Vision 571C, montatura Eq6-R Pro, elaborazione in Pixinsight.

Abell 85 or LBN576, known as the Garlic Nebula, is a supernova remnant in the constellation Cassiopeia, approximately 9,780 light-years away and approximately 98 light-years in diameter.

11 hours and 20 minutes in 600-second guided exposures with an Antlia ALP-T 5nm dual-band filter, and one hour for stars in 60-second guided exposures with an SV260 broadband filter. 150/600 Newtonian telescope with a Tecnosky 0.95x corrector, Tecnosky Vision 571C camera, EQ6-R Pro mount, and Pixinsight processing.

We haven't had a lot of clear skies during the "COVID days", however when we have had some I've tried to take advantage of it. In the mean time though, I've been working on some older images like this one. I captured the pictures that make up this image last year in Arizona, and then recently re-processed them and am SUPER happy with the result. The night sky is just so intriguing!

Volcanic turmoil, radiating out from the propeller nebular . DWB-111 Propeller Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus

This is the next installment of my 2016 Cygnus exploration. This image is made up of two panels and has an integration of approximately 50 hours of photography.

First light with the new scope! IC 1848 - The Soul Nebula in LRGB. The next door neighbor to the well-imaged Heart Nebula, which I imaged in narrowband back in 2020. I've never shot this target before and while initially it was "just a first light target", I was pleasantly surprised with the small structures and Bok globules within the nebula itself as well as the broadband dust that surrounds it.

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

- Total Exposure Time: 30.35 Hours

Equipment:

- Scope: Takahashi FSQ106EDX4

- 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:

- L: 319 x 3m

- R: 99 x 3m

- G: 97 x 3m

- B: 92 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: 12/16, 12/18-12/20, 12/23-12/25, 12/27/22, 1/13/23

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Processing:

- WBPP for Calibration

- Blink to remove bad subs

- ImageIntegration for stacking

RGB Processing (apply to each master):

- DynamicCrop

- MureDenoise

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction

- StarAlignment to align G and B to R

- ChannelCombination to combine to color image

- Duplicate image and ImageSolver to platesolve

- SpectroPhotometricColorCalibration on platesolved duplicate

- StarAlign both original and SPCC'd image to Luminance

- StarXterminator on original image to extract stars and save for later

- StarXterminator to create starless SPCC'd image

- HistogramTransformation x3 on SPCC'd image to stretch to non-linear

- NoiseXterminator on RGB image for noise reduction

Luminance processing:

- DynamicCrop

- MureDenoise

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction

- StarXterminator to create starless and extract stars

- GeneralizedHyperbolicStretch for initial stretch

- HistogramTransformation x2 for further stretch

- NoiseXterminator for slight noise reduction

- UnsharpMask using RangeMask for sharpening of structures in nebula

Combine Luminance and RGB:

- LRGBCombination with saturation at 0.35

- HistogramTransformation for slight stretch

- CurvesTransformation for slight saturation boost

- MultiscaleMedianTransform for chrominance noise reduction

Add RGB Stars to Nebula and further processing:

- HistogramTransformation x3 to stretch RGB stars and then Luminance stars to approximately the same amount

- LRGBCombination to combine RGB and Luminance stars

- ColorSaturation for saturating blue stars

- PixelMath and HistogramTransformation to add RGB stars to Nebula image

- CurvesTransformation for color balancing

- Slight SCNR green

- NoiseXterminator for noise reduction

- DynamicCrop to remove edges

- Save and Export

Distance: ca.41 Mio. Lj

Constellation Canes Venatici

Equipment:

TS 10" f/4 ONTC Newton

1000mm f4

ZWO ASI 1600mmc

Astrodon LRGB

Skywatcher EQ8

Guding:

Lodestar on TS Optics - ultra short 9mm Off Axis Guider

PHD2

total exposure time: 3,7 hours

29x180 luminanz

15x180 red

15x180 green

15x180 blue

26/27.04.2020

Processing: PixInsight/Capture One

This image shows the tail of the constellation Cygnus (Swan) around the stars Deneb and Sadr.

The left side of the frame is dominated by the famous North America Nebula (NGC7000) and the Pelican Nebula (IC5070). The bright blue star is Deneb. It is the brightest known star in visible light. If it was as close to earth as Vega (25 light years), it would shine as bright as a crescent moon!

The right yellowish-white star on the right side is a supergiant named Sadr. Sadr is surrounded by the emission nebula IC1318 one of the several nebulous regions at the centre of Cygnus. IC 1318 is known as the Gamma Cygni Nebula, Sadr Region or the Butterfly Nebula. It is not physically related to Sadr, but merely lies in the same line of sight. The nebula is located much farther away than the star.

At the very edge of the frame on the right is the Crescent Nebula. The star responsible for the nebula’s shape and glow is the Wolf-Rayet star WR 136. The nebula is formed by the star’s fast, powerful stellar wind that collides with the slower wind ejected by the star about 250,000 years ago, when WR 136 expanded to become a red giant. The collision has produced a dense shell, which continues to expand at a speed of 80 km/s.

Prints available: ralf-rohner.pixels.com

EXIF

ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro, cooled astrocam

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L ll @ 70mm

Baader Hll & Olll ultra narrowband and RGB filters

Skywatcher AZ-GTI, equatorially mounted

ZWO ASI 385MC guide cam

Rig control with a ZWO ASIair

20 x 180s Hll

30 x 120s Olll

20 x 30s RGB

Explanation: Follow the handle of the Big Dipper away from the dipper's bowl, until you get to the handle's last bright star. Then, just slide your telescope a little south and west and you might find this stunning pair of interacting galaxies, the 51st entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog. Perhaps the original spiral nebula, the large galaxy with well defined spiral structure is also cataloged as NGC 5194. Its spiral arms and dust lanes clearly sweep in front of its companion galaxy (left), NGC 5195. The pair are about 31 million light-years distant and officially lie within the angular boundaries of the small constellation Canes Venatici. Though M51 looks faint and fuzzy to the human eye, the above long-exposure, deep-field image taken last month shows much of the faint complexity that actually surrounds the smaller galaxy. (Text from apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090526.html)

This photo was taken for four nights in May and June 2013 in Crimea and Khlepcha observatory near Kiev, Ukraine.

Equipment: reflector S&D 10" f/4.7, Mount WhiteSwan-180, camera QSI-583wsg, Tevevue Paracorr-2. Off-axis guidecamera Orion SSAG.

LRGB filter set Baader Planetarium.

L=20*900 sec. bin.1 RGB: 10*900 sec. each channel, bin.1 Total exposure 12.5 hours.

North left.

Processed Pixinsight 1.8 and Photoshop CS6.

The **Eagle Nebula**, also known as **Messier 16 (M16)** or **NGC 6611**, is a stunning region of active star formation located about **7,000 light-years** from Earth in the **constellation Serpens**. It is best known for containing the **Pillars of Creation**, towering columns of gas and dust famously photographed by the **Hubble Space Telescope** in 1995.

This vast nebula spans about **70 by 55 light-years** and consists of **interstellar gas, dust, and young, hot stars** that illuminate and shape the surrounding material. The Eagle Nebula is a **stellar nursery**, where massive new stars are born from collapsing clouds of gas. These young stars emit intense ultraviolet light and powerful winds that sculpt the nebula’s features and erode the dense pillars from which they formed.

The "eagle" shape that gives the nebula its name is created by dark, silhouetted dust lanes against the bright background of glowing hydrogen gas. The Eagle Nebula is both a scientifically important object and a visually iconic one, offering astronomers insight into how stars and planetary systems form and evolve over time.

Shot in New Orleans, LA

Bortle 8 Skies

TEC140

AP900

SHO: 21 / 20 / 24 x15m

Total Integration = 16.25h

SXT/LF/SHO/NBNorm/NXT/NBStars/HT/Conv/Recreen

ColorEfex/Curves/Sat

☄️ Comète Leonard en approche 😱.

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J'étais obligé de la faire celle là ! J'ai tellement apprécié Neowise l'année dernière qu'il fallait que j'aille photographier la comète Leonard.

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Elle aura attendu le dernier mois de l'année pour pointer le bout de son nez . Mais quel spectacle encore !!

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Il est désormais possible de la voir à l'œil nu dans des bonnes conditions. Encore faut-il que la météo vous le permette. Et elle m'en a donné du fil à retordre la météo... Plus d'une semaine a check les nuages chaque nuit/aube parfois en mettant un réveil en pleine nuit (😂😭). Le ciel étant tellement couvert, il m'a fallu 2 sessions différentes pour accumuler assez de temps de pose. Un peu plus d'une heure d'expo au total pour ne garder que 35mn au final. Le pic de visibilité sera sans doute le 12 décembre mais aucune certitude si la météo me permettra de retourner shooter la comète une dernière fois.

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Comme l'année précédente, j'ai voulu trouver un spot fort de la région pour immortaliser ce moment. En cherchant une orientation Nord-Est, j'ai alors choisi le mémorial de Vimy qui s'est proposé à moi comme une évidence. C'est un lieu que j'aime particulièrement et que je n'avais pas encore photographié 🇨🇦.

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03/12/21 + 07/12/21 45x45sec iso 800 f/3.2 @ 135mm

The colorful Rho Ophichui cloud complex is one the closest star forming regions in our Milky Way and a favorite target for astrophotography. Highlighted by the bright star Antares, the region provides an impressive spectacle of colorful glowing gases, juxtaposed with converging dark rivers of thick dust.

IC 4604 (Rho Ophiuchi Nebula) is a large diffuse nebula of 5th magnitude located in the southwestern corner of the constellation Ophiuchus (Serpent Bearer), surrounding the bright multiple star system ρ (Rho) Ophiuchi. Several regions of bright and dark nebulosity surround the area, which takes its name from ρ Oph.

At the mid-northern lattitudes, I normally work from, it plays a bit hard to get, as it always rides close to the horizon and is only visible for a few hours during nights from spring to mid summer.

During my Namibia trip in 2023, I had the pleasure to shoot this wonderful area riding high in the unspoiled southern hemisphere sky.

EXIF

Canon EOS-Ra

Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM ll @ 135mm

Equatoriallly mounted Skywatcher AZ-GTI

IDAS 12 filter

30x 90s @ ISO1600, unfiltered & 10x 180s @ ISO6400, filtered

Presenting an M31 Andromeda Galaxy “beginner equipment” side-project. I wanted to capture a deep space object with what is representative of relatively “beginner” equipment and modest exposure times as a sort of “you don’t need to spend heaps of money to make a good image” demonstration. And Andromeda seems like the perfect target for this sort of thing. Something I can share when people argue a basic camera can’t make a nice image, or get caught up feeling as though spending thousands of dollars is the right solution to solve frustrations they are encountering learning this challenging hobby.

As Ed Ting quipped (paraphrased), “You end up spending a lot of money to find out you didn’t need to spend a lot of money.”

Or maybe it’s mainly a “for better or for worse” reminder that experience, process, and (especially) post-processing knowledge and software are valuable parts of the formula. Expensive equipment does not offer an escape from this. Not to say the right sort of equipment (e.g. an interchangeable lens camera with a decent sensor and a tracking mount) doesn’t play a vital role in what is possible.

Hopefully this is helpful.

And in the spirit of this goal, I also spent some time documenting, in detail, the post-processing steps and thought process behind the edits involved. For this I used PixInsight and Adobe Photoshop.

Full Post-Processing Notes

tinyurl.com/JPAndromeda

www.astrobin.com/uld8ae/

Olympus E-M1 Mk.II M43 Camera

Olympus 40-150 f/2.8 Pro (150mm)

iOptron SkyGuider Pro

Vello Intervalometer

ASIAir Pro, ZWO 30mm Guide Scope, 2x ASI120MM (one as a dummy camera)

Lights RGB 100x90s ƒ/2.8 ISO1000

Calibrated with Darks, Flats, Flat Darks

Antelope Island, Utah, USA (Bortle 4)

Lights Hα 24x300s ISO3200

RedCat 51 & Astronomik 12nm Hα

I wanted to show that a color, stock sensor doesn’t mean Hydrogen-alpha can’t be accented. But had to use the RedCat 51 for this as, unlike a basic Canon DSLR, I don’t have a good means of using a Hydrogen-alpha filter with this Olympus.

www.starkeeper.it/NGC7822B.htm

Hot, young stars and cosmic pillars of gas and dust seem to crowd into NGC 7822. At the edge of a giant molecular cloud toward the northern constellation Cepheus, the glowing star forming region lies about 3,000 light-years away. Within the nebula, bright edges and dark shapes stand out in this colorful skyscape. The image includes data from narrowband filters, mapping emission from atomic oxygen, hydrogen, and red,blue and green filters. The atomic emission is powered by energetic radiation from the central hot stars. Their powerful winds and radiation sculpt and erode the denser pillar shapes and clear out a characteristic cavity light-years across the center of the natal cloud. Stars could still be forming inside the pillars by gravitational collapse but as the pillars are eroded away, any forming stars will ultimately be cutoff from their reservoir of star stuff. This field of view spans over 40 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 7822 [Text adapted from APOD]

Optics: Takahashi FSQ-106EDXIII F/5 530mm. - APO Refractor

Mount: AP Mach1 GTO

Camera: Moravian G4-16000 Mark II

Filters: Astrodon E Series Gen II LRGBH 50mm squared

Guiding Systems: SX Lodestar

Dates/Times: 2020-2021

Location: Pragelato - Turin / Italy

Exposure Details: H:R:G:B => 360:60:50:50 = > (24x15):(12x5):(10x5):(10x5) [num x minutes]

Cooling Details: -25 °C

Acquisition: Voyager Astrophotography Automation

Processing: CCDStack2+, PS CC, StarXTerminator

Mean FWHM: 1.21 / 2.05

SQM-L: 20.21

✌️ "V" zodiacal et arche hivernale ✨.

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Au-revoir à Orion et son ciel d'hiver qui nous quittent en ce mois d'Avril. On se retrouve en Octobre pour de nouvelles astrophotos . Je n'ai malheureusement pas pu trop en profiter d'une part à cause de la météo et d'autre part à cause d'un autre projet photo qui me prend beaucoup de temps 👀.

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🆑 Ici, c'est un peu mon Chili à moi 😂. Probablement un des meilleurs ciels de notre région (disons plutôt le moins pire). Il me faut environ 1h15 de route de la maison pour profiter de ce ciel assez correct. Situé au fin fond du Pas-de-Calais, cet endroit est classé dans une zone Bortle 4 (proche Bortle 3). La meilleure valeur de la qualité de ciel que j'ai pu mesurer ici au SQM (Sky Quality Meter) est de 21.47. Le maximum étant 22.00, il correspond aux endroits sur Terre où le ciel est le plus pur, sans aucune pollution lumineuse. Cette différence entre les 2 valeurs paraît minime mais elle est en fait énorme et la différence sur la pureté du ciel l'est tout autant.

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🔭 Alors certes je n'ai pas la puissance des télescopes du désert chilien mais j'essaye de me débrouiller avec mon Newton 250/1000 . C'est un petit parallèle avec les moyens du bord comparé aux énormes observatoires qui sont là-bas. On voit beaucoup d'arches galactiques au-dessus des immenses coupoles, je voulais mettre à mon tour en valeur la bête . J'avais cette compo en tête du backstage : un "V" formé sous l'arche de la Voie Lactée. La cible ce soir-là était la galaxie M51, le post arrive bientôt. On peut observer de gauche à droite : le complexe d'Orion, la Voie Lactée, la lumière zodiacale, la galaxie d'Andromède et bien d'autres nébuleuses en H-alpha.

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EXIF :

-@canonfrance EOS R astro mod by a-m.de

-@sigmafrance ART 24mm f/1.4 DG HSM

-@skywatcherusa Star Adventurer GTi

-Ciel : pano de 12 tuiles 1*30s f/2.2 ISO 1250 suivi

-Sol : pano de 6 tuiles 1*75s f/3.2 ISO 3200 non suivi

www.astrobin.com/unoexu/

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• Sky-Watcher Quattro 250P

• Sky-Watcher EQ8-R Pro

• ZWO ASI294MM-Pro

• Astronomik L: 27x300s bin1 gain 0

• Astronomik RGB: 30x300s bin2 gain 125

• ZWO Hα 7nm: 41x600s bin1 gain 200

• ZWO Hα 7nm: 13x300s bin1 gain 200

• ZWO OIII 7nm: 4x600s bin2 gain 200

• ZWO OIII 7nm: 36x300s bin2 gain 200

(total integration 16.3h)

• 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

La saison d'Orion est bientôt terminée, la Voie Lactée commence à se lever tôt le matin mais j'ai encore quelques clichés du ciel d'hiver à vous partager !

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C'était surement la plus grosse sortie de cet hiver avec @remi.aug . Pas moins de 5 projets photos que j'avais en tête ont étés réalisés. Une nuit qui aura été bien prolifique avec des conditions exceptionnelles du début à la fin.

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Un cliché pensé depuis des mois et des mois et qui m'a rendu la vie un peu difficile au traitement. Ce n'est pourtant pas le projet le plus compliqué que j'ai pu faire lors de cette soirée. La météo m'a clairement empêché de le faire plus tôt dans l'année mais une fois les tempêtes Eunice et Franklin passées, le beau temps est revenu !

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Vous pouvez admirer les principales nébuleuses en Hydrogène (rouge) qui accompagnent notre ciel d'hiver. L'hexagone d'hiver se dessine au centre de l'image, il est formé par 6 étoiles brillantes et permet de connaître le positionnement de la Voie Lactée car elle passe en son centre.

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La Voie Lactée est bien visible au dessus de la mer, c'est grâce à l'absence de pollution lumineuse. On peut quand même remarquer l'énorme pollution de Boulogne-sur-Mer à gauche, quelques villes très éloignées mais avec une pollution lumineuse quand même visible (Le Tréport, Dieppe, etc...), quelques bateaux et sur la droite de l'image, les premières villes des côtes anglaises.

After many months of clouds, wind and/or extreme temperatures, we finally completed this winter target. Imaged from late February to late March as conditions allowed.

The HII region, Sh 2-261, is often called Lower's nebula because it appears on a photographic plate taken by the father-and-son team of Harold and Charles Lower in 1939.

Image captured over 5 nights; 2022-02-25, 2022-03-06, 21, 24 & 29

15 hours 40 minutes total integration

Ha subs 23 * 1,200 sec = 7 hours 40 min

OIII subs 9 * 1,200 sec = 3 hours

SII subs 15 * 1,200 sec = 5 hours

Imaging Equipment:

SharpStar 140PH Triplet 910mm focal length

Mesu 200 MKII mount,

ZWOASI2600MM Pro camera

SHO 3.0nm filters

An LRGB image of NGC2403

The image comprises of:

Luminance - 10 hours.

Red - 4 hours.

Green- 4 hours.

Blue - 4 hours.

Total - 22 hours

10 and 15 minute subs.

Acquisition - Planewave 12.5" CDK, PME, QSI 583 8WSG CCD, Lodestar auto guider, TSX, Maxim DL. Astrodon LRGB filters.

Processing Pixinsight 1.8 - I have had this data set around for a while and have never been happy with my processing results.

You are looking at a galaxy edge-on that is located 30 million light years away in the constellation Andromeda.

Consider our own Milky Way galaxy which is a huge disk of stars measuring 100,000 light years in diameter but only 1000 light years thick. So galaxies are quite thin relatively speaking.

A so-called edge-on view of a galaxy is like looking at the edge of a dinner plate and trying to see to the other side through the most dense portion. In the case of a galaxy this is mostly interstellar dust which is the dark linear region you see here. NGC 891, also referred to as the “silver sliver” galaxy, is very similar to our own Milky Way in size and luminosity.

The next time you see the Milky Way in a dark sky remember you are actually looking at it edge on also but this time you are on the inside looking out!

Image info:

Location: SkyPi Remote Observatory, Pie Town, NM US

Telescope: Officina Stellare RiDK 400

Mount: Paramount MEII

Camera: QHY600 M

Data: LRGB 3,5,4,4 hours respectively

Processing: Pixinsight

Orion nebula, horsehead nebula, witch head nebula, and more rising over a volcanic plug in the Navajo volcanic field in northwestern New Mexico, as seen with an 85mm lens on a full frame camera.

Can you believe this image took only 1 hour of exposures to stack to this level of cleanliness? New Mexico has some of the darkest skies in the United States, and the high altitude allows for even better imaging conditions than you get in many other dark sky national parks.

And being winter with sunset so early in the day, it means you can image something like this, eat dinner, and go to sleep at a reasonable hour! This image was stacked for denoising, but the perspective is unaltered, i.e. if we had extremely sensitive eyes, this is exactly how you would see it.

The Veil Nebula is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus. Older data reprocessed. Technical Info:

58 x 300 sec. Astronomik Ha 12 nm filter

51 x 300 sec. Astronomik OIII 12 nm filter

56 x 300 sec Astronomik SII 12 nm filter

Gain 200, Offset 50, Binning 1x1

Total Integration 13.8 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 1.8.9-2 and Photoshop 2024

wenn man schon 2 stunden lang meteoriten jagt und keine erwischt dann kann man das material noch zu startrails umbauen :D

A cool region of sky containing (surprise) a lot of dust and reflection. LDN 1355, the helping hand nebula, is rather aptly named. It appears to sit in front of a reflection region, Van den Bergh 9. VdB 7 is visible on the right hand side of the frame.

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

- Total Exposure Time: 33.3 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:

- L: 332 x 3m

- R: 113 x 3m

- G: 112 x 3m

- B: 110 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: 8/2, 8/3, 8/6, 8/7, 8/22, 8/26, 8/27, 8/29, 9/5, 9/6, 9/20, 9/21, 10/3, 10/4/22

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

Processing:

- WeightedBatchPreProcessing for calibration

- Blink to remove unwanted subs

- ImageIntegration for stacking of masters

RGB Processing (apply to each master):

- DynamicCrop

- MureDenoise

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction

- StarAlign G and B to Red

- ChannelCombination to combine into linear RGB

- StarAlign to Lum

- HistogramTransformation x 4 to stretch

- NoiseXterminator for NR

- CurvesTransformation for saturation and hue adjustment

- ColorMask to create green chrominance mask - apply to image

- CurvesTransformation to bring down green patches

- Further unmasked CurvesTransformation to neutralize blue hue of image

Luminance Processing:

- DynamicCrop

- MureDenoise

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction

- StarXterminator to make starless and generate star_mask

- GeneralizedHyperbolicStretch for initial stretch to non-linear

- HistogramTransformation x3 for further strethc

- Slight NoiseXterminator for NR with Lum_mask

- CurvesTransformation for contrast

- Additional masked NoiseXterminator for NR

Combine Lum and RGB and further processing:

- LRGBCombination to combine Luminance and RGB

- CurvesTransformation for color balancing

- ACDNR with Luminance mask for chrominance noise reduction

- Slight CurvesTransformation for contrast

- UnsharpMask for slight sharpening

- LocalHistogramEqualization for slight detail boost

Add Stars back in to image:

- HistogramTransformation x3 on RGB stars - save all 3 instances of HT

- Invert -> SCNR -> invert back to remove magenta

- CurvesTransformation to remove green hue and saturate stars

- Apply saved HistogramTransformation instances to extracted Luminance stars

- LRGBCombination to combine luminance stars with RGB stars with saturation at 0.35

- CurvesTranformation on combined stars to increase blue channel

- HistogramTransformation on stars and nebula images to bring to pseudo-linear state

- PixelMath to combine stars and nebula images

- HistogramTransformation to "re-stretch" image with both nebula and stars

Further Processing:

- CurvesTransformation for slight contrast adjustment

- MMT to disable layer 12 for chrominance noise blotching

- Additional CurvesTransformations to color balance

- NoiseXterminator (2 rounds) with luminance mask for additional noise reduction

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

- MMT for debotch and chrominance NR using inverted luminance masks

- Final CurvesTransformation for contrast

- DynamicCrop to remove edges

- Save and export

Distance: ca.30 Mio. Lj

Equipment:

TS 10" f/4 ONTC Newton

1000mm f4

ZWO ASI 1600mmc

Astrodon LRGB

Skywatcher EQ8

Guding:

Lodestar on TS Optics - ultra short 9mm Off Axis Guider

PHD2

80x180 luminanz

22x180 red

22x180 green

22x180 blue

total exposure time: 7,3 hours

Processing: PixInsight/Capture One

I wonder what happen to specimen 8825. I heard him here and there but WTH is this. aghhhhhhh

reworked

Pixinsight with SPCC and BTX

The Whirlpool Galaxy is an interacting spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici

at distance of 23 Mio. Lj

LRGB

Equipment:

TS 10" f/4 ONTC Newton

1000mm f4

GPU Aplanatic Koma Korrector

Moravian CCD G2-8300FW

Astrodon LRGB Filter

Losmandy G11/LFE Photo

Guding:

Lodestar on TS Optics - ultra short 9mm Off Axis Guider

PHD2

16x900s Luminanz

5x900s RGB

total exposure time: 7h 45′

Processing: PixInsight/Affinity Photo

Old data processing of M106 galaxy ( 24/04/2020 ) .

Processed with the help of sp.la.sh.id, find him on Instagram: www.instagram.com/sp.la.sh.id/

Gear used:

■ Mount: skywatcher neq-6 goto with Rowan modification belt

■ Telescope: skywatcher 200/1000 F/5

■ Autoguiding: Asi 120mm

■ Total exposure: 2H25m || 29 X 300 seconds

■ Camera: modified canon eos 700d astrodon

■ Filter(s): no filter

■ Other optic(s): baader coma corrector

■ Software : Siril / PixInsight / photoshopCC

Located in the constellation Orion and is associated with the open star cluster NGC 2175. NGC 2174 is about 6,400 light-years away from Earth.

Image captured over 8 nights; 2021-03-07 to 2021-03-16.

13 hours total integration

Ha subs 15 * 1,200sec = 5 hours

OIII subs 13 * 1,200sec = 4 hours 20 minutes

SII subs 11 * 1,200sec = 3 hours 40 minutes

Imaging Equipment:

SharpStar 140PH Triplet 910mm focal length

Mesu 200 MKII,

ZWOASI2600MM Pro camera

3nm Ha, OIII & SII filters

spacepaparazzi.com/

Continuing my series of deep space objects juxtaposed with terrestrial objects, this is the Elephant Trunk Nebula setting behind a mountain here in the Smokies. The entire scene was captured at 300mm and is astronomically correct, however was obviously not captured in a single photo.

By comparison, the moon at this focal length would fit inside the dark area at the center of the nebula.

First of all, Merry Christmas to all astro folks and friends out there.

This post is about my maiden voyage with the AG14 astrograph (Recently acquired Orion Optics large Newt)

After quite some time spent on a learning to colimate the the beast using the Catseye system and other miscellaneous odds and ends required for basic setup, such as, the need for an additional counterweight. The clouds finally cleared last night and I was able to run some test shots with the new Astrograph. This image is made of a stack 30 un-calibrated 1800 sec bin x 2 subs.

Imaging telescope: AG14 astrograph 1330mm F3.8

Imaging camera: 9.2mp Sony SX814

Mount: Software Bisque Paramount MX

Focus was manually set up once with a mask and the system ran uninterrupted for the night. I am waiting for a Baader steel drive to arrive which will allow full focus automaton.

Located about 5000 light years from Earth, the center image shows the Rosette star formation region

Acquisitions 03/05/2023 : 86 x 180s soit 4h18 seulement au total + DOF (version croppée)

Mᴀᴛᴇ́ʀɪᴇʟ ᴜᴛɪʟɪsᴇ́ ⬇️

Lunette SW 80ED sur HEQ5

Correcteur réducteur 0.85x

ZWO ASI294MC-PRO

Filtre L-Pro 2"

Guidage: ZWO ASI290MM et ZWO guidescope F/4

Lᴏɢɪᴄɪᴇʟs ⬇️

Guidage: PHD2

Prise de vue: N.I.N.A

Empilement et Pré traitement: Siril

Traitement: Photoshop, Starnet

M̲e̲s̲ ̲r̲é̲s̲e̲a̲u̲x̲ ̲s̲o̲c̲i̲a̲u̲x̲ ̲:̲

Ma chaîne YouTube ➡️ youtube.com/channel/UCgUAgzyV4MOHErHTioW0ktQ

Mon Instagram ➡️ www.instagram.com/elsasstronomy/

Le discord ➡️ discord.gg/E9NhKC3UBc

Ma chaîne Twitch ➡️ www.twitch.tv/elsasstronomy

Ma page Facebook ➡️ www.facebook.com/elsasstronomy

Explanation: Interstellar dust clouds and bright nebulae abound in the fertile constellation of Orion. One of the brightest, M78, on center in this colorful telescopic view, covering an area north of Orion's belt. At a distance of about 1,500 light-years, the bluish nebula itself is about 5 light-years across. Its blue tint is due to dust preferentially reflecting the blue light of hot, young stars in the region. Dark dust lanes and other nebulae can easily be traced through this gorgeous skyscape. The scene also includes the remarkable McNeil's Nebula -- a newly recognized nebula associated with the formation of a sun-like star, and the telltale reddish glow of many Herbig- Haro objects, energetic jets from stars in the process of formation. (text: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131010.html)

This picture was photographed during October 2017 - January 2018 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 and Off-axis guidecamera Lodestar SX-2 by Vasily Oleynik

L, Ha, RGB filter set Astrodon gen.II

L=55*900 + 28*600 seconds, RGB=15*900 + 14*600 seconds, Ha= 13*900 seconds bin.1 each filter, unbinned . About 36 hours.

FWHM source in L filter 2.12 "-3.16", sum in L channel - 2.58"

The height above the horizon from 36° to 48°, the scale of 1"/ pixel.

Processed Pixinsight 1.8 and Photoshop CS6

Photo with labels: olegbr.astroclub.kiev.ua/files/astrofoto/M78/M78_LHaRGB_O...

is a barred spiral galaxy located 22.5 million light years away

distance 22.5 Mly

exposure time: 13,7 hours

Processing: PixInsight/affinity photo

Equipment:

10" /f4 TS ONTC Newton

ASI1600mmc v2

ZWO EFW 8x

Skywatcher EQ8

Guiding TS9 OAG Lodestar

247x120s Luminanz

55x120s red

50x120s green

59x120s blue

February/March 2021

Located close to the Orion Nebula and usually included in the same frame but not very often given the main stage.

Imaged 17 Dec 2022 on a single night test imaging session after a complete rebuild of the Celestron C11 Edge HD imaging setup.

This is 362 x 60 second subframes totaling 6 hours of integration.

The full details are available on my Astrobin page astrob.in/w1lbb3/0/

Technical summary:

Celestron C11 Edge HD with 0.7 focal reducer.

ZWO ASI2600 MC Pro camera.

Baader Moon and Sky Glow filter.

EQ6 R Pro mount.

200mm guide scope.

No flats, no darks only 50 bias frames for calibration.

Edited with PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom Classic.

Image which has exceptional meaning for me. Taken on my last night at the GEO Observatory in Spain with my friend John Griffiths. He'd asked for a printout when I finished processing this image, which sadly I was not able to ever show him. This one is for him.

Atik 4000 CCD. H-Alpha/OIII filters

6 out of 9 space cadets... prefer our deep space hot air balloon rides.. they come bit heavy on the saturated side... the air up there is a little bit lighter... the veiw is out of this world...but the b/w effects are taking over now... getting ready for the festival next weekend...we should be arriving at 015..9r a bit later... so see you then.. btw what kinda faces are in the clouds.... up up and away in my beautiful balloon....HSS...

share.newsbreak.com/4j4r3mnh

Explanation: These two spiral galaxies make a photogenic pair, found within the boundaries of the northern constellation Draco. Contrasting in color and orientation, NGC 5965 is nearly edge-on to our line of sight and dominated by yellow hues, while bluish NGC 5963 is closer to face-on. Of course, even in this well-framed cosmic snapshot the scene is invaded by other galaxies, including small elliptical NGC 5969 at the upper left. Brighter, spiky stars in our own Milky Way are scattered through the foreground. Though they seem to be close and of similar size, galaxies NGC 5965 and NGC 5963 are far apart and unrelated, by chance appearing close on the sky. NGC 5965 is about 150 million light-years distant and over 200,000 light-years across. Much smaller, NGC 5963 is a mere 40 million light-years away and so is not associated with the edge-on spiral. Difficult to follow, NGC 5963's extraordinarily faint blue spiral arms mark it as a low surface brightness galaxy. (text: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120216.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 = 31 * 900 seconds , bin.1, RGB = 15* 450-600 seconds, bin.2 each filter. 14 hours total.

FWHM source in L filter 1.86"-2.76", sum in L channel - 2.30"

The height above the horizon from 58° to 75°, the scale of 1"/ pixel.

Processed Pixinsight 1.8 and Photoshop CS6

NGC 2359 - better known as Thor's Helmet - is an emission nebula located about 12,000 light-years away in the constellation of Canis Major. Also known as Sh2-198 and Gum 4, NGC 2359 is a “bubble” nebula measuring approximately 30 light-years across in size. It has a very complex structure and is powered by its central star, WR7, a Wolf-Rayet star, an extremely hot star that is thought to be in the pre-supernova stage.

This is my first image of 2022 and results from only 2.5 hours of Narrowband data collected on March 9 and March 29, 2022.

This image was shot with my Astro-Physics 130mm F/8.35 Telescope Platform with the IOptron CEM60 and the ASI2600MM-Pro Camera with Astronomiks 6mm narrowband fitters.

This spring's weather has been problematic, and this target is located very low in the sky between trees on my property, which gives me only about 1.5 hours of access on any given night. I only had two nights clear, allowing the capture of photons, and now it is beyond my reach, so I cannot add to it this year.

So with a paltry 2.5 hours of data - what could be done to pull an image out of the noise?

While far from a perfect image, I was a little surprised that it came out as well as it did, given the low integration time!

The story of the image and complete processing details can be seen on my website at:

cosgrovescosmos.com/projects/ngc2359-thors-helmet

Thanks for looking, and let me know if you have any questions!

CS,

Pat

LDN 1251 - small molecular cloud in the constellation Cepheus. In addition to the dark nebula in this picture is also seen several PGC galaxies that shine through the interstellar dust. Also in this picture I have identified five Herbig–Haro objects.

This picture was photographed during september in Petrivske village, Ukraine.

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

Mount WhiteSwan-180 with a control system «Eqdrive Standart», camera QSI-583wsg with TS 2.5″ 0.95x Wynne corrector. Off-axis guidecamera QHY5L-II.

LRGB filter set Baader Planetarium.

L = 37 * 900 seconds, RGB = 28 * 400-600 seconds in each filter, bin.2. Total of 20 hours.

FWHM source (in the filter L) 2.15″-4.72″, Sum in L channel - 2.95"

The height above the horizon from 64 ° to 48 °, scale = 1.25"/ pixel.

Processed Pixinsight 1.8 and Photoshop CS6

The horse head nebula in Orion. This was a tough one to process. Alnitak kept taking over the photo. Next time out I will take shorter exposures on the blue and green filter.

Taken with a ZWO ASI1600mm-cool, R=12 @ 240 sec , G=25 @ 120 sec, B= 45 @ 60 sec, HA=15 @ 240 sec. Clouds moved in before Luminance were taken. Default HDR gain setting. Edit with Pixisight. Taken Nov. 2018

Milkyway mosaic (16-frames) taken under perfect skies in the australian outback (mag 7, sometimes even mag7.5).

Equipment used: Canon EOS 40D (modified), Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 at f/4.0, AstroTrac (generation 1)

Exposure time was 211 times 5min.

In the constellation of Ursa Major, at about 25 million light years from us lies the Pinwheel Galaxy. This beautiful galaxy has 170,000 light years across, about twice of our Milky Way.

In the photo, two types of color clusters hint on the objects present: the red-pinkish ones are the hydrogen rich nebulas where star forming is taking place and the blue ones on the spiral arms are clusters of young and hot blue stars.

This photo is a cropped reprocessing of my previously published photo.

Shot at Santa Susana, Portugal on Mar.26th and Barcarena, Portugal on Apr.1st and Apr.28th 2022.

Technical details:

LUM: 129 x 180’’ (6h45)

RGB: 160 x 180’’ (8h00)

Ha: 82 x 300’’ (6h50)

Total integration: 21h35

TS Optics Triplet APO 800/115 | QHYCCD 268M | Skywatcher AZ EQ5-GT | Optolong RGB | Baader Ha 6nm TSOptics TSFLAT 3’ 0.79x

Acquisition: N.I.N.A. | Processing: Pixinsight

Simeis 147, also known as the Spaghetti Nebula, SNR G180.0-01.7 or Sharpless 2-240, is a supernova remnant (SNR) in the Milky Way, straddling the border between the constellations of Auriga and Taurus. Discovered in 1952 at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory using a large 25" telescope. it is difficult to observe due to its extremely low brightness.

The nebulous area is fairly large with an almost spherical shell and filamentary structure The remnant has an apparent diameter of approx 3 degrees, an estimated distance of approximately 3000 (±350) light-years, and an age of approximately 40,000 years.It is about 1000 light years away and is roughly 15 light years in diameter.

Due to its size this is a 2x2 pane mosaic in order to fit the whole nebula in the frame.

Details

M: Avalon Linear Fast Reverse

T: Takahashi FSQ85 0.73x

C: QSI683 with Astrodon 3nm Ha filter

23x900s in Ha in each pane

Totalling 23 hours of exposure.

This Globular Clusters in the constellation Serpens is one of the brighter in the sky. It photographs nicely at low exposures. Shot from Bortle 8 skies in New Orleans.

Takahashi FSQ-106 / EM-200 / ASI 2600MM

L 188x30s

RGB 60x30s

Lum: Drizzle (2x, 0.9, circular) / DBE / BlurXterminator / MMT (denoise) / HT / HDR

RGB: Drizzle (2x) / DBE / BlurXterminator / NoiseXterminator / RGBComb / ArcSin (8x2) / LRGB (Sat=0.4)

PS: Dfine2 / Curves / Levels