The famous Horsehead Nebula in the constellation Orion, taken back in March.

For more information please see my Astrobin: astrob.in/fw4yw0/I/

This region of the Milky Way, in the constellation of Monoceros, is full of interest, including the Cone and Fox Fur Nebulae and the Christmas Tree Cluster designated as NGC 2264. In this field of view, Barnard's Variable Nebula, NGC 2261 and the open cluster NGC 2259, are also visible in the frame.

Processed in narrowband in my version of the SHO Hubble palette. I had no time to capture the stars as RGB so they have uncorrected colours from the narrowband data.

My latest astro image, an interesting region of the sky in the constellation Cassiopeia, this includes the Lobster Claw Nebula, The Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635), the open cluster M52 and the Northern Lagoon Nebula (NGC 7538)

More details on Astrobin astrob.in/dkl14p/E/

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)

This object, currently passing nearby Earth, was last seen by the Neanderthals 50,000 years ago. It was discovered in March 2022 by the Zwicky Transient Facility. It's orbit extends to the Oort Cloud at the farthest reaches of the Solar System.

IC1805 is a large emission nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia, some 7500 light years from Earth.

The image is a combination of Sulphur II, Hydrogen Alpha and Oxygen III emissions with each band mapped to R,G and B respectively to produce a false colour image from a total of 12 hours of individual frames.

Full details on Astrobin: astrob.in/0cdm6m/H/

Imaged over 6 separate nights in January and February 2022, this large area of nebulosity lies within the constellation Cepheus. The image consists of two separate panels, stitched together as a mosaic. For full capture details look at the version on Astrobin: astrob.in/fhosoy/0/

This is an emission nebula in the Orion spiral arm of the Milky Way and is one of the nearest of these regions to our Solar System. The image is presented in false colour (SHO) using Hydrogen Alpha, Oxygen III and Sulphur II narrowband filters.

Techie stuff:

SHO Hubble palette

6h 55' integration (2 panel mosaic)

Takahashi FSQ-85EDX

iOptron CEM70

ZWO ASI294mm-Pro

ZWO EFW with Antlia 3nm narrowband filters

ZWO EAF

APT, APP, Photoshop

More details on Astrobin: astrob.in/ki6ln6/E/

The Flaming Star and the Tadpoles

The Flaming Star Nebula (IC405) and the Tadpoles Nebula (IC410) are two neighbouring emission nebulae in the constellation Auriga. The former is 1500 light years away and the latter is 12000.

My first target for 2022 during a clear spell of 4 nights. 7h 30' of narrowband data with my ASI294MM-Pro on the Takahashi FSQ-85EDX Baby-Q with 0.73x reducer. I wasn't expecting to get anywhere near this with the bright Moon but my dark (Bortle 4) skies definitely help.

I processed this as a modifed SHO Hubble palette in APP and Photoshop with StarXTerminator to separate the stars and Topaz Denoise AI for noise reduction.

More details on Astrobin: astrob.in/vc2q85/0/

The nebulae, in the sword of Orion, are the brightest in the northern skies and include the Orion Nebula itself (M42), de Mairan's Nebula (M43) and the Running Man Nebula (NGC 1977). They are 1500 light years away and are visible to the naked eye.

My latest project which has taken over a month to complete with data from 5 separate nights, totalling 12h 35' of LRGB.

The giant molecular cloud complex, surrounding the reflection nebula NGC 1333, in this region of Perseus, lies approximately 1000 light years away and contains more than 10,000 solar masses of gas and dust. There are also several designated LBN, LDN and Vdb objects in this region which covers an area of 6º by 2º in total.

This was tough to process but I hope I've done it justice.

The Horsehead and Flame nebulae in Orion. The famous Horsehead is a dark nebula, catalogued as Barnard 33, framed by the Hydrogen Alpha emissions of IC434. The large bright star is Alnitak, the furthest East of the three stars of Orion's belt and further east is The Flame Nebula, NGC 2024. Further emission nebulae, including NGC2023, IC435 and VdB51 also feature.

The total image is composed of a total of 7 hours 13 minutes of Hydrogen Alpha and RGB data.

Full details on Astrobin: app.astrobin.com/i/kviaqr

A couple of the objects in the M81 group, including M81, M82, NGC3077, and NGC2976.

So I'm learning the rhythm of deep sky object observation...what's up this month, when is the sky dark, and when are the winds calm. It's a little different than for nightscapes, but not hugely. It's a little easier to select a location, but harder to find the right night. I knew I was looking for M81 and M82, but I did not think I'd have enough to capture much else, so the NGC's are a nice bonus. I also managed to capture a bit of the unique features of M82 and NGC 2976.

This is actually the second round of processing. I felt the first round had too much stretching and lost some color detail in the DSOs. The second round, I used some luminosity masks to have greater control over the stretching.

I wonder: how many individuals from these galaxies will look our way millions of years from now when today's photons reach them and wonder how many eyes were looking their way across the void.

Peace and cheers!

CATEGORY: STACKED / TRACKED

EXIF: 120 light images. 10s, ISO 12800. 15 dark images. William Optics ZenithStar 61II Doublet Refracting scope (360 mm). Canon EOS Ra.

There is more processing to do, so this is a preliminary image. No noise reduction, no sharpening, and no star reduction yet.

ZWO ASI6200MM/EFW 2" x 7 (RGB)

Tele Vue NP101is

Losmandy G11

NINA (L: 90 x 60s, RGB 15 x 90s ea)

PixInsight (WBPP)

Photoshop (rough histogram and curves adjustments)

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.

The weather provided another (rare) chance to view, capture comet early in the evening of Thursday, February 9, 2023-- clear, dark (moon not up yet)...

The Pleiades or Seven Sisters is an open star cluster in the constellation Taurus. The seven main stars are easily visible with the naked eye.

This is a reprocessed version of an image taken back in October 2023 which now reveals fainter dust surrounding the main stars.

More details on Astrobin: astrob.in/48x9ar/B/

There are so many delights in Orion. This region in the head of Orion spans Barnard's Loop. Cederblad 51 is the blue reflection nebula near the centre which is surrounded by various LDN and Barnard dark structures together with areas of Hydrogen Alpha emissions.

More details on the capture and annotated version on Astrobin: astrob.in/wngl0f/E/

Wishing you all a Happy New Year.

More background and details on Astrobin: app.astrobin.com/i/2lufbh

This wider field capture of Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF

This wider field capture of Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF passing by Mars from Grand Mesa Observatory on the night of 2/11/2023 shows more of the comet's ion tail streaming away from the nucleus to the left in this image.

This roughly 4.33 x 2.93 degree image (the full Moon is about half a degree in width for reference) captures more of the scene around this interesting and transitory event. The comet nucleus shows up surrounded by a green coma and the two tails stream off to the left, the curved off white/yellowish more fanned out tail is the dust tail that is streaming off the comet relative to it's movement through it's orbit while the ion tail shoots out almost in a straight line from the nucleus which is driven by the intense solar wind coming from our Sun. Mars in this image is about 1.3 degrees away from the comet from our perspective here on Earth at the time of this capture. Also to note is the dark nebula Barnard 22 and reflection nebula IC 2087 above Mars in this image, to be sure this nebula is not located in our solar system but is much farther away at about 430 light-years distant.

This data and setup is available immediately for people wanting to subscribe to Grand Mesa Observatory's system 2c grandmesaobservatory.com/equipment-rentals

Captured on 11th February for a total acquisition time of 66 minutes

View in High Resolution

Astrobin: www.astrobin.com/v0cyk7/

Technical Info:

Captured and Processed by Tom Masterson, Terry Hancock and Kim Quick at Grand Mesa Observatory

Capture date 2/11/2023

Location: Grand Mesa Observatory grandmesaobservatory.com/equipment-rentals

Grand Mesa Observatory System 2c

Camera: QHY 128 Pro C One Shot Color

Optics: Borg 107ED

Image Acquisition software N.I.N.A

Pre Processing in PixInsight Post Processing in Photoshop CC

Equipment:

Celestron CGEM Mount

Canon FD 300mm f/4 L

Sony a7RIII (unmodified)

Altair 60mm Guide scope

GPCAM2 Mono Camera

Acquisition:

Taos, NM: my backyard - Bortle 3

10 x 151" for 25min and 10sec of exposure time.

10 dark frames

15 flats frames

15 bais frames

Guided

Software:

SharpCap

PHD2

DeepSkyStacker

Photoshop

My mount was polar aligned with SharpCap (what an amazing system for aligning). I'm not comfortable using my SCT as my lens yet. My solution is to piggyback my Sony a7RIII and adapted Canon FD 300mm f/4 L on a ADM dovetail rail on the top of my optical tube. I used DeepSkyStacker to combine all frames and then processed the TIFF file in Photoshop using my skill set and relying on the famous Astronomy Tools Action Set.

Comet C/2020 M3 Atlas in emerald green color passes by the main colorful nebula of the Constellation Auriga in this image captured and processed from Grand Mesa Observatory on 12/8/2020 by Terry Hancock and Tom Masterson. This image was captured using QHYCCD’s latest offering the QHY410C Back Illuminated Full Frame one shot color CMOS camera that we have the honor of testing.

The main nebulae in this image are the Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405) the comma shaped red and white/purple nebula to the top and right along with the Tadpole Nebula (NGC 1893) located to the center left. Comet C/2020 M3 Atlas is seen almost ‘touching’ the Tadpole Nebula in this image. Distance-wise Comet C/2020 M3 Atlas was a mere 3.74 light-minutes from Earth when this image was captured while the Flaming Star Nebula is about 1,400 light-years distant and further still is the Tadpole Nebula which is roughly 12,400 light-years away.

Technical Info:

Total Integration time 3.3 hours

Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado

Date of capture: December 9th, 2020

Color RGGB 200 min, 100 x 120 sec

Camera: QHY410C Back Illuminated Full Frame Color CMOS

Gain 0, Offset 76

Read Mode: High Gain Mode

Calibrated with Dark, Bias and Flat Frames

Optics: Takahashi E-180 Astrograph

Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6

Pre-Processed in Pixinsight

Post Processed in Photoshop

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.

After a long break from doing astrophotography, I decided to spend some time last night and use the new gear I recently got shooting a popular and relatively easy target, The Pleiades. It does appear the lens was slightly off on focus, but whatever. Most people will never pixel-peep it anyways. It all worked great, and it felt good to capture the heavens again.

Equipment:

SkyWatcher EQ6-R

Nikkor 500mm f/4 P AI-S at f/5.6

Sony a7RIII (unmodified)

ZWO 30mm Guide scope

GPCAM2 Mono Camera

Acquisition:

Taos, NM: my front yard - Bortle 3

68 x 121" for 2 hours, 17 min, and 8 sec exposure time.

10 dark frames

15 flats frames

15 bias frames

Guided

Software:

SharpCap

PHD2

DeepSkyStacker

Photoshop

Lightroom

I polar aligned my mount using SharpCap Pro. 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. The guide scope/camera was attached to the camera's hot shoe. I used PHD2 to autogude during the imaging session. DeepSkyStacker was used to combine all frames, and then I processed the TIFF file in Photoshop. I stretched the 32-bit file and used Gradient XT on the image. I then made it a 16-bit file and stretched it in levels, then curves. I used the color sampler tool and levels to do my best to help keep colors accurate. I then used my skillset and relied on Astronomy Tools Action Set and Topaz Denoise and Sharpening to give the image a polished look. I brought it into Lightroom to do final color corrections and add EXIF data.

photographed night of October 14, 2022 (from the garden/driveway; near Caddo Gap, ARK).

This spiral galaxy is some 2.73 million light years from earth. In the constellation Triagulum; is thought to be a satellite of the Andromeda galaxy (which is in the same general area of the night sky).

PHOTO NOTES: Nikon D850 with Svbony 503 80mm OTA with field flattner- 20 exposures at 30 seconds. ISO 3200. stacked in Sequetor. processed via photoshop, Nik, Topaz Denoise

The central region of NGC 7822 which includes SH2-171 and the young star cluster Berkeley 59 in narrowband, presented in SHO with RGB stars. The area is also covered by various LDN and LBN designated areas of dust which contrast nicely with the emission areas. I've concentrated on processing this to bring out as much detail in the darker areas as possible.

Full capture details on Astrobin: app.astrobin.com/i/k610uo

This region of the sky, in the constellation Monoceros, contains many different types of objects including Reflection nebulae (NGC2170), Hydrogen Alpha Emission nebulae (LBN999) and lots of surrounding molecular dust clouds. It is low in the sky from my latitude so more difficult to capture clean data and I also battled with intermittent clouds and a large number of satellite trails.

Takahashi FSQ-85EDX with 1.01x Flattener

Altair Astro Hypercam 26C

iOptron CEM70

16 hours of RGB data captured with APT

Processed using AstroPixelProcessor, Pixinsight and Photoshop

More details and hires on Astrobin: astrob.in/swtfm6/K/

This area in the well known constellation of Orion consists of dark dust and Hydrogen emissions, including a small part of Barnard's Loop which surrounds the familiar stars of Orion.

For more details have a look on Astrobin: astrob.in/p1id2c/E/

I have been very fortunate over the past week to have had 7 continuous clear nights which is unheard of here in Devon, in fact I can't ever remember having such a prolonged spell.

This image of the Strawberry or Raspberry nebula is the first from this week. SH2-263 is an emission nebula juxtaposed with the reflection nebula VdB 38. The main sequence, blue giant HD34989, located around 736.26 light years from Earth, illuminates the nebula which is located just north of the star Bellatrix in the head of Orion.

Capture details on Astrobin: app.astrobin.com/i/yuajdn

Apologies if you've seen this before, I accidentally deleted it so I'm reposting it!

The Tadpoles

My latest astro image taken recently. The Tadpoles is an emission nebula and star forming region in the constellation Auriga. The colours are determined by assigning the three main bands of emission to the R,G and B respectively - Sulphur SII to R, Hydrogen Alpha to G and Oxygen OIII to Blue. This colour mapping was first developed for the Hubble telescope an hence known as the Hubble palette.

High resolution and capture details: app.astrobin.com/i/d7e1ps

SHO (Hubble Palette) Processed in PixInsight / PS CC

SII - Red Channel

Ha - Green Channel

O3 - Blue Channel

Tech details:

SII - (Sulfur) 5nm

300s x 38 subs

Ha - (Hydrogen Alpha) 5nm

300s x 78 subs

O3 - (Oxygen III) 3nm

300s x 30 subs

Equipment:

Mount - Losmandy G11G

Scope - ES 127mm CF w/ .7x FF/FR

Camera - ZWO 1600MMC

(when I'm up in the morning... cool, clear, dark sky)

North America Nebula...

(Located in the constellation Cygnus-the swan- near/below major star Deneb)

early A.M of Monday, April 17, 2023

From near Caddo Gap, ARK. (USA)

(photo notes: Nikon D500 (ISO 2500) with Svbony 102mm OTA, 0 8x FF/FR, 7nm DB filter.

20x 1 minute exposures + 6 dark frames.)

NA_Neb_D500-102mmOTA_4-17-23-c

An interesting part of the northern sky, in the constellation Cepheus, with clouds of dark dust, LDN 1235, making the easily recognisable Shark, two reflection nebulae (vdB 149 and vdB 150) and a couple of distant galaxies, one of them (PGC 67671) near the centre of the field is some 55 million light years distant. This has been captured over several nights in January 2024 as a side project to complete the night after my other targets in Orion have got too low.

Capture details and hires on Astrobin: astrob.in/qh8hus/0/

The God Of Thunder

NGC 2359 otherwise known as Thor’s Helmet and Sharpless 2-298 in the constellation of Canis Major at a distance of 15,000 light years from earth and spanning 30 light years, The central star is the Wolf-Rayet star WR7, a very hot star thought to be in a pre-supernova stage of it's life.

Photographed using broadband filters in channels RGB together with narrowband filters H-Alpha mapped to the red channel and OIII mapped to the blue channel using the Sky-Watcher Esprit 150ED Triplet Super APO Refractor (which we have on loan for testing thanks to Sky-Watcher USA) together with the QHY163M Monochrome CMOS

This setup is available immediately for people wanting to subscribe to Grand Mesa Observatory's system 2B grandmesaobservatory.com/equipment

Total acquisition time 21.13 hours.

View in High Resolution

Astrobin : www.astrobin.com/naqfkx/

Technical Details

Captured and Processed by Kim Quick and Terry Hancock

Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado

HA 280 mins 40 x 420

OIII 280 mins 40 x 420

RED min 192 mins 32x360

GREEN 258 min 43x360

BLUE 258 min 43x360

Filters by Optolong

Camera: QHY163 Monochrome CMOS

Calibrated with Dark, Dark Flat and Flat Frames

Optics: Sky-Watcher 150 Esprit (courtesy of Sky-Watcher USA)

Image Scale: 0.75 arcsec/pix

Field of View: 1.37 degrees

EQ Mount: Paramount MEII

Image Acquisition NINA, Pre Processing in Pixinsight Post Processed in Photoshop CC

Thor (from Old Norse: Þórr) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, and fertility. Besides Old Norse Þórr, the deity occurs in Old English as Þunor, in Old Frisian as Thuner, in Old Saxon as Thunar, and in Old High German as Donar, all ultimately stemming from the Proto-Germanic theonym *Þun(a)raz, meaning 'Thunder'.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor

The Tulip Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus. The image also shows the bow shock from the Cygnus X-1 blackhole (the central blue region glowing in Oxygen III emission).

Alternative versions and capture details on Astrobin: app.astrobin.com/i/uux69q

LRGB Version of B33 Horsehead Nebula with stars

Winter wouldn’t be complete without capturing an object within the glorious constellation of Orion, and fortunately we have a huge legacy archive at Grand Mesa Observatory and this time around I decided to process The Horsehead and Flame Nebula captured using our system 1 from broadband data (LRGB) collected in November 2020.

As I have done this so many times before I decided to process and present both a regular LRGB and starless versions which in my opinion provides a very surrealistic rendering of the nebulous regions full of detail that are otherwise hidden by the many visible stars.

As B33 has been selected as one of the GMO targets for January I am also hoping to add more data in narrowband soon “and when the snow clears”

Starless Version

Astrobin: www.astrobin.com/5k8k7b/

Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/terryhancock/52603009902/in/datepos...

This setup is available immediately for people wanting to subscribe to Grand Mesa Observatory's system 1 grandmesaobservatory.com/equipment-rentals

Total acquisition time 5.5 hours.

Technical Details

Captured and processed by: Terry Hancock

Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado

LUM 86 min 43x120

RED 90 min 45x120

GREEN 80 min 40x120

BLUE 76 min 38x120

Filters by Chroma

Camera: QHY600 Monochrome CMOS Photographic version

Gain 60, Offset 76 in Read Mode Photographic 16 bit

Calibrated with Dark, Bias and Flat Frames

Optics: Walter Holloway's Takahashi FSQ 130 APO Refractor @ F5

Image Scale: 1.19 arcsec/pix

Field of View: 3d 7' 41.0" x 2d 3' 5.3 (127.3 x 190.1 arcmin)

EQ Mount: Paramount ME

Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6 Pre Processing in Pixinsight Post Processed in Photoshop CC

Less than one hundred light years from the Orion Nebula lies the aptly named Horsehead Nebula, another outcropping of the Orion Molecular Cloud and one of the most recognizable assemblies in the heavens. Whereas the Orion Nebula generates enough light to be visible to the unaided eye, the Horsehead has a far lower surface brightness and presents a challenge to visual observers even with large telescopes. But it’s a delight for astrophotographers and arm chair stargazers.

The Horsehead complex lies just south of the brilliant blue supergiant star Alnitak, the easternmost star in Orion’s Belt and just north of the Orion Nebula. The glowing reddish-pink region in the background is cataloged by astronomers as IC 434. Like the Orion Nebula, IC 434 is an emission nebula. It’s powered by the blazing-hot star Sigma Orionis, just south of Alnitak. Much of the nebula is permeated by tenuous streaks caused by magnetic fields in the region. This extract from The Armchair Astronomer by Brian Ventrudo and Terry Hancock

The book is available in multi-media format from Apple’s iBooks store, in high-resolution PDF format, and in standard e-book format from Amazon’s Kindle store. cosmicpursuits.com/astronomy-courses-and-e-books/armchair...

#IC434 #astro #astrophotographer #NASA #universetoday #APOD #deepspacephotography #photography #astrophoto #deepskyphotography #astrohobby #longexposure #photoshop #pixinsight #QHY600 #Space #Sky #deepspaceobject #deepsky #grandmesaobservatory #colorado #Milkyway #milkywaychasers #Astronomy #Astrophotography #Astroimaging #Universe #awesome #nightimages #Orion

H2-174 the Valentine Rose, is a mysterious object and extremely faint at a magnitude of 14.7 located in the northern constellation Cepheus. It's also the most northerly entry in the Sharpless Catalogue at 81° North.

Imaged over several nights in August and September with my colour camera with Ha combined with the pure RGB totalling just over 18 hours.

High resolution and capture details on Astrobin: astrob.in/397bww/0/

The Elephant's Trunk nebula is a region of ionized gasses located in the constellation Cepheus at a distance of 2,400 light-years from Earth. Of interest in this area is the population of very young newborn stars, whose intense stellar winds are excavating the interior of the nebula. Dark wisps of dust hide the cocoon of forming stars, called "globules", which will be blown away when the star ignites.

Captured recently in Narrowband and Broadband using a QHY600 60 Megapixel Full Frame Monochrome CMOS camera mounted on a Takahashi 130 FSQ, courtesy of QHYCCD.

This setup is available immediately for people wanting to subscribe to Grand Mesa Observatory's system 1.

grandmesaobservatory.com/equipment-rentals.

In this cropped version of the original Hubble Palette version (SHO) the H-Alpha is mapped to green channel, SII is mapped to red channel and OIII is mapped to the blue channel. The raw data was preprocessed using Pixinsight, the stars were removed using a tool called "Starnet" and the stars were later replaced during Post Processing in Photoshop CC with the more naturally colored stars from the RGB data.

I was so delighted with the result of the starless image I decided to post a starless image as well as the image with the RGB stars.

Captured bin 2x2 over 5 nights between March and July 2021 for a total acquisition time of 13.1 hours.

Technical Details

Captured and processed by: Terry Hancock

Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado

Dates of Capture April 18th, July 1st, 4th, 7th and 8th 2021

HA 140 min, 28 x 300 sec

OIII 145 min, 29 x 300 sec

SII 135 min, 27 x 300 sec

LUM 94 min, 47 x 120 sec

RED 96 min, 48 x 120 sec

GREEN 92 min, 46 x 120 sec

BLUE 84 min, 42 x 120 sec

Narrowband Filters by Chroma

Camera: QHY600 Monochrome CMOS Photographic version

Gain 26, Offset 76 in Read Mode Photographic 16 bit, bin 2x2

Calibrated with Dark, Dark/Flat Frames

Optics: Walter Holloway's Takahashi FSQ 130 APO Refractor @ F5

Mount: Paramount ME

Image Scale:2.39 arcsec/pix

Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6, Pre Processing and Starnet in Pixinsight Post Processed in Photoshop CC

Another collaboration by Tom Masterson and Terry Hancock

Captured on the 21st July at Grand Mesa Observatory using System 4a with the QHY367 Pro C full frame One Shot Color CMOS and the Takahashi E-180 (available on our subscriptions)

As Comet NEOWISE pulls away from the sun it's now possible to see the green coma. The grey/yellow dust tail and blue ion tail are also easily seen in this image.

Here's a handy guide on how to spot Comet NEOWISE: www.nasa.gov/feature/how-to-see-comet-neowise

Total Integration time: 10 minutes

Image details

Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colo.

38.963365, -108.237225

View in Astrobin High Resolution

www.astrobin.com/ahjtjo/

Date of capture: July 21st 2020

Color RGGB 10 min, 10 x 60 sec

Camera: QHY367 Pro C Color CMOS

Gain 2850, Offset 76

Calibrated with Dark & Bias

Optics: Takahashi E-180 Astrograph

Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6

Pre Processed in Pixinsight and Deep Sky Stacker

Post Processed in Photoshop

Seen in the constellation Sagittarius, the Lagoon Nebula, and Trifid Nebula shine even against the brilliance of the Milky Way bands they are near. The Lagoon Nebula was discovered before 1654, and later the Trifid Nebula was first observed in 1764. They both are ~5,000 light-years away from us here on Earth. They are both easily observed with the naked eye from dark areas, a pair of binoculars or telescope really brings out the details though!

Shot from my back yard near Taos, New Mexico.

Equipment:

Celestron CGEM Mount

Nikon 500mm f/4 P AI-s - shot at f/5.6

Sony a7RIII (unmodified)

Altair 60mm Guide scope

GPCAM2 Mono Camera

Acquisition:

Taos, NM: my backyard - Bortle 3

26 x 136" for 58 min and 56 sec of exposure time.

5 dark frames

15 flats frames

15 bais frames

Software:

SharpCap

DeepSkyStacker

Photoshop

PHD2

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 1600, f/5.6 and 135" exposures. I stacked lights/darks/flats/bias frames in deepskystacker. I then processed the TIFF file in photoshop stretching the file, minimal cropping and I used Astronomy Tools Action Set to help bring out details and colors.

What started off as a 3 panel mosaic covering The Great Nebula in Orion, The Horsehead, Barnards Loop and M78 soon became a much larger project including over 20 deep space objects and the majority of the Orion Molecular Cloud. The final mosaic image covers 13.5 x 6.8 degrees of our night's sky.

The detail captured in this image is best seen by looking at the 1.99 arcsecond per pixel full resolution 1.8 gigabyte mosaic which can be viewed in full resolution here: tinyurl.com/2mzfvybs

Or View on Astrobin: www.astrobin.com/1f5i46/

Dominating the night sky from December through March, the ancient constellation Orion is one of the most famous and most photographed star groups in the heavens. The ancient Greeks associated these stars with a mighty hunter adorned with a belt and sword, holding a westward facing shield in his left hand and an upraised club in his right. These stars were even included in the fictional world of J.R.R. Tolkien where they were called Menelva-gor, the “Swordsman of the Sky”

Captured over 14 nights from Grand Mesa Observatory. Total integration time of 33 hours.

Here are the details:

Captured and processed by Nicolas Rolland, Tom Masterson and Terry Hancock

Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado www.grandmesaobservatory.com

Camera: QHY367 Pro C Full Frame One Shot Color CMOS

Optics: Takahashi E-180 Astrograph

Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6

Pre-Processed in Pixinsight, PTGui

Post Processed in Photoshop, Pixinsight, Registar

The Iris Nebula is a bright reflection, meaning it glows due to the scattering of the light from its central star. It is officially named NGC 7023, and images of it show off the dark regions of cosmic dust its surrounded by.

Shot from my back yard near Taos, New Mexico.

Equipment:

Celestron CGEM Mount

Nikon 500mm f/4 P AI-s

Sony a7RIII (unmodified)

Altair 60mm Guide scope

GPCAM2 Mono Camera

Acquisition:

Taos, NM: my backyard - Bortle 3

85 x 180" for 4 hours 16 min and 25 sec of exposure time.

6 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/4 and 180" exposures. I stacked lights/darks/flats/bias frames in deepskystacker. I then processed the TIFF file in photoshop stretching the file, minimal cropping and I used Astronomy Tools Action Set to help bring out details and colors.

Another collaboration by Tom Masterson and Terry Hancock.

Captured on August 6th at Grand Mesa Observatory using System 4a with QHYCCD’s latest offering the QHY410C Back Illuminated Full Frame CMOS camera that we have the honor of testing. In this photogenic scene NEOWISE is, by our perspective on Earth passing by Globular Clusters M53 and NGC5053.

View in High Resolution

Astrobin www.astrobin.com/n3pucz/

Technical Info:

Total Integration time: 54 minutes

Location: www.grandmesaobservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado.

Date of capture: August 6th 2020

Color RGGB 54 min, 27 x 120 sec

Camera: QHY410C Back Illuminated Full Frame Color CMOS

Gain 0, Offset 76

ReadMode: High Gain Mode

Calibrated with Dark, Bias and Flat Frames

Optics: Takahashi E-180 Astrograph

Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6

Pre Processed in Pixinsight and Deep Sky Stacker

Post Processed in Photoshop

A couple of weeks ago I posted an image of the Soul Nebula without stars as “work in progress” so here is the final result with the more natural star color made possible by inserting stars from the LRGB image into the starless image. In this Hubble Palette version (SHO) the H-Alpha is mapped to green, SII is mapped to red and OIII is mapped to the blue channel and while the colors in this image are not the true colors, the narrowband filters used in the making of this Hubble Palette image reveal much more of the hidden gasses not visible in a broadband image.

Captured over 5 nights in October and November 2020 for a total acquisition time of 23.4 hours.

7000 light-years distant in the constellation of Cassiopeia lies the emission nebula colloquially known as the Soul Nebula. The gasses (mostly hydrogen) that comprise the nebula are being ionized by the stars within the region and as a result, the gases glow, much like a neon sign.The pressures exerted upon the material by the stars nearby are causing the material to become compressed. When enough of the gas becomes highly compacted, it triggers the birth of new stars. In effect, this is a beautiful snapshot of a multimillion-year process of an enormous cloud of dust and gas transforming itself into new stars.

View in High Resolution

Astrobin www.astrobin.com/yt6gt4/

Technical Details

Captured and processed by: Terry Hancock

Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado

Dates of Capture October 18, 19, 21, 22, November 11th 2020

LUM 46 min 23 x 120 sec

RED 46 min 23 x 120 sec

GREEN 44 min 22 x 120 sec

BLUE 40 min 20 x 120 sec

HA 560 min 56 x 600 sec

OIII 350 min 35 x 600 sec

SII 320 min 32 x 600 sec

Narrowband Filters by Chroma

Camera: QHY600 Monochrome CMOS Photographic version

Gain 60, Offset 76 in Read Mode Photographic 16 bit

Calibrated with Dark, Bias and Flat Frames

Optics: Walter Holloway's Takahashi FSQ 130 APO Refractor @ F5

Image Scale: 1.19 arcsec/pix

Field of View: 3d 7' 41.0" x 2d 3' 5.3 (127.3 x 190.1 arcmin)

EQ Mount: Paramount ME

Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6 Pre Processing in Pixinsight Post Processed in Photoshop CC

Last night 2/11/2023 Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF made a very close approach to Mars in our night sky passing about 1.3 degrees away from the red planet from our perspective here on Earth. In this image you can also see some dusty reflection nebula in the background which also makes this scene quite interesting.

You can find out more about Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF here on it’s wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2022_E3_(ZTF)

This data and setup is available immediately for people wanting to subscribe to Grand Mesa Observatory's system 1 grandmesaobservatory.com/equipment-rentals

Captured on 10th February for a total acquisition time of 24 minutes

High Resolution

Astrobin: www.astrobin.com/ezhh06/

Technical Details

Captured and processed by Tom Masterson and Terry Hancock

Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado

Date of Capture February 10th 2023

12 x 120 second exposures

Camera: QHY367 Pro C

Gain 2850, Offset 76

Optics: Takahasi FSQ 130 APO Refractor @ F5

EQ Mount: Paramount ME

Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6 Pre Processing in Pixinsight Post Processed in Photoshop CC

The Rosette Nebula captured recently in Narrowband using a QHY600 60 Megapixel Full Frame Monochrome CMOS camera mounted on the Takahashi 130 FSQ that we have the honor of testing for QHYCCD.

This setup is available immediately for people wanting to subscribe to Grand Mesa Observatory's system 1.

grandmesaobservatory.com/equipment-rentals.

In this Hubble Palette version (SHO) the H-Alpha is mapped to green channel, SII is mapped to red channel and OIII is mapped to the blue channel.

Captured bin 2x2 over 3 nights in March 2021 for a total acquisition time of only 4.75 hours.

View in High Resolution

Astrobin: www.astrobin.com/lnqzfq/

Technical Details

Captured and processed by: Terry Hancock

Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado

Dates of Capture March 1st, 6th and 8th 2021

HA 90 min 18 x 300 sec

OIII 90 min 18 x 300 sec

SII 105 min 21 x 300 sec

Narrowband Filters by Chroma

Camera: QHY600 Monochrome CMOS Photographic version

Gain 60, Offset 76 in Read Mode Photographic 16 bit, bin 2x2

Calibrated with Dark, Bias and Flat Frames

Optics: Walter Holloway's Takahashi FSQ 130 APO Refractor @ F5

Mount: Paramount ME

Image Scale:2.39 arcsec/pix

Image Scale: 2x2 = 2.38 arcsec/pix

Field of View: 3d 7' 41.0" x 2d 3' 5.3 (127.3 x 190.1 arcmin)

Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6, Pre Processing and Starnet in Pixinsight Post Processed in Photoshop CC

The dim constellation Monoceros, just east of Orion, hosts yet another majestic star factory. The Rosette Nebula, a vast wreath of gas and dust with a cluster of new stars near its center, is not associated with the Orion Molecular cloud but lies further along the Orion Arm of the Milky Way.

The Rosette has an apparent size similar to the Orion Nebula. But at a distance of 5,000 light years, it’s three times farther than the Orion Nebula, which means it’s intrinsically three times larger, spanning a diameter of about 115 light years.

This extract from The Armchair Astronomer by Brian Ventrudo and Terry Hancock

The book is available in multi-media format from Apple’s iBook’s store, in high-resolution PDF format, and in standard e-book format from Amazon’s Kindle store.

cosmicpursuits.com/astronomy-courses-and-e-books/armchair...

Otherwise known as OU4 and Sh2-129 in the constellation Cepheus lying at a distance of approximately 2300 light years. Both emission Nebulae, the Flying Bat mainly composed mainly of Hydrogen emission and the Squid’s emission composed of double ionized oxygen. An extremely faint object The Squid Nebula was discovered in 2011 by French Astro-imager Nicolas Outters

Captured recently in Narrowband (H-Alpha and OIII) and Broadband using a QHY600 60 Megapixel Full Frame Monochrome CMOS camera mounted on a Takahashi 130 FSQ, courtesy of QHYCCD.

This setup is available immediately for people wanting to subscribe to Grand Mesa Observatory's system 1.

grandmesaobservatory.com/equipment-rentals.

In this Bi Color version (HOO) the H-Alpha is mapped to the red channel and OIII is mapped to the green and blue channel. The raw data was preprocessed using Pixinsight, the stars were then removed using a tool in Photoshop called "StarXTerminator and the stars were later replaced with the more naturally colored stars from the RGB data.

Taken bin 2x2 over 17 nights between September and October 2021 for a total acquisition time of 51 hours.

View in High Resolution

Astrobin: www.astrobin.com/g8zawj/

Technical Details

Captured and processed by: Terry Hancock

Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado

HA 1330 min, 266 x 300 sec

OIII 1430 min, 286 x 300 sec

LUM 88 min, 44 x 120 sec

RED 86 min, 43 x 120 sec

GREEN 78 min, 39 x 120 sec

BLUE 58 min, 29 x 120 sec

Narrowband Filters by Chroma

Camera: QHY600 Monochrome CMOS Photographic version

Gain 26, Offset 76 in Read Mode Photographic 16 bit, bin 2x2

Calibrated with Dark, Dark/Flat Frames

Optics: Walter Holloway's Takahashi FSQ 130 APO Refractor @ F5

Mount: Paramount ME

Image Scale:2.39 arcsec/pix

Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6, Pre Processing in Pixinsight Post Processed in Photoshop CC

Winter wouldn’t be complete without capturing an object within the glorious constellation of Orion, and fortunately we have a huge legacy archive at Grand Mesa Observatory and this time around I decided to process The Horsehead and Flame Nebula captured using our system 1 from broadband data (LRGB) collected in November 2020.

I decided to process and present a starless version (using Russell Croman’s Photoshop version of StarXterminator) which in my opinion provides a very surrealistic rendering of the nebulous regions full of detail that are otherwise hidden by the many visible stars.

This setup is available immediately for people wanting to subscribe to Grand Mesa Observatory's system 1 grandmesaobservatory.com/equipment-rentals

Total acquisition time 5.5 hours.

View in High Resolution:

Astrobin: www.astrobin.com/5k8k7b/

Technical Details

Captured and processed by: Terry Hancock

Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado

LUM 86 min 43x120

RED 90 min 45x120

GREEN 80 min 40x120

BLUE 76 min 38x120

Filters by Chroma

Camera: QHY600 Monochrome CMOS Photographic version

Gain 60, Offset 76 in Read Mode Photographic 16 bit

Calibrated with Dark, Bias and Flat Frames

Optics: Walter Holloway's Takahashi FSQ 130 APO Refractor @ F5

Image Scale: 1.19 arcsec/pix

Field of View: 3d 7' 41.0" x 2d 3' 5.3 (127.3 x 190.1 arcmin)

EQ Mount: Paramount ME

Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6 Pre Processing in Pixinsight Post Processed in Photoshop CC

Less than one hundred light years from the Orion Nebula lies the aptly named Horsehead Nebula, another outcropping of the Orion Molecular Cloud and one of the most recognizable assemblies in the heavens. Whereas the Orion Nebula generates enough light to be visible to the unaided eye, the Horsehead has a far lower surface brightness and presents a challenge to visual observers even with large telescopes. But it’s a delight for astrophotographers and arm chair stargazers.

The Horsehead complex lies just south of the brilliant blue supergiant star Alnitak, the easternmost star in Orion’s Belt and just north of the Orion Nebula. The glowing reddish-pink region in the background is cataloged by astronomers as IC 434. Like the Orion Nebula, IC 434 is an emission nebula. It’s powered by the blazing-hot star Sigma Orionis, just south of Alnitak. Much of the nebula is permeated by tenuous streaks caused by magnetic fields in the region. This extract from The Armchair Astronomer by Brian Ventrudo and Terry Hancock

The book is available in multi-media format from Apple’s iBooks store, in high-resolution PDF format, and in standard e-book format from Amazon’s Kindle store. cosmicpursuits.com/astronomy-courses-and-e-books/armchair...

The California Nebula Captured recently in color (LRGB) using the new QHY600 60 Megapixel Full Frame Monochrome CMOS camera mounted on the Takahashi 130 FSQ that we have the honor of testing for QHYCCD.

This time around mainly due to a lack of clear nights lately I decided to capture the LRGB binned 2x2 for 2 minute exposures so I can capture the data quickly, H-Alpha data that I had captured previously at 1x1 binning was then added to the red channel and as a luminance layer during post processing in photoshop.

I was more than pleased with the results as I found with the 2x2 binning and 4788x3194 pixels there was no if any loss of resolution or detail when using on the TAK. Binning at 2x2 increases the pixel size to 7.5um pixels and full well capacity is increased to 196ke.

LRGB and H-Alpha Captured over 4 nights in January, February and March 2021 for a total acquisition time of 8.1 hours.

This setup is available immediately for people wanting to subscribe to Grand Mesa Observatory's system 1.

grandmesaobservatory.com/equipment-rentals

View in High Resolution on Astrobin:

www.astrobin.com/bm0piy/

Technical Details

Captured and processed by: Terry Hancock

Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado

Dates of Capture January 16th, 31st, February 28th, March 1st2021

LRGB 280 min 35 x 120 sec (each channel)

HA 210 min 21 x 600 sec

Filters by Chroma

Camera: QHY600 Monochrome CMOS Photographic version

Gain 60, Offset 76 in Read Mode Photographic 16 bit (same for 2x2)

Calibrated with Dark, Bias and Flat Frames

Optics: Walter Holloway's Takahashi FSQ 130 APO Refractor @ F5

Image Scale: 1x1 = 1.19 arcsec/pix

Image Scale: 2x2 = 2.38 arcsec/pix

Field of View: 3d 7' 41.0" x 2d 3' 5.3 (127.3 x 190.1 arcmin)

EQ Mount: Paramount ME

Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6, Pre Processing and Starnet in Pixinsight Post Processed in Photoshop CC

This is our first light image using the new QHY600 60 Megapixel Full Frame Monochrome CMOS camera mounted on the Takahashi 130 FSQ, I want to thank QHYCCD for the honor to be testing this amazing new camera. The image was captured in RGB, Ha and OIII. (H-Alpha is mapped to Red channel @70% opacity, OIII is mapped to the blue channel @70% opacity and OIII is mapped to the green channel @50% opacity) The Optolong OIII filter produces halos on the bright stars in this image such as 52 Cygni which is a bit disappointing however I'll be using Chroma Narrowband Filters on this setup from the end of this month.

Pictured here to the left of the image covering an area over 3 x 2 degrees of sky of are the Eastern Veil Nebula NGC6992 to the Western Veil Nebula NGC6960 (Witch’s Broom) far right with “Pickering’s Triangle” in between at the top of the image as well as “The Funnel” just below and the many knot’s and strands visible here and within this beautiful Supernova remnant.

This new setup is available immediately for people wanting to subscribe to Grand Mesa Observatory's system 1.

Captured over 5 nights in July and August for a total acquisition time of 8.5 hours.

Technical Details

Captured and processed by: Terry Hancock

Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado

Dates of Capture July 30, August 6th, 8th, 11th and 13th 2020

HA 210 min 21 x 600 sec

OIII 140 min 14 x 600 sec

RGB 165 min 11 x 300 sec (per channel)

Narrowband Filters by Optolong

Camera: QHY600 Monochrome CMOS Photographic version

Camera Details and Specs www.qhyccd.com/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=show...

Gain 60, Offset 76 in Read Mode Photographic 16 bit

Calibrated with dark, Bias and Flat Frames

Optics: Walter Holloway's Takahashi FSQ 130 APO Refractor @ F5

Image Scale: 1.19 arcsec/pix

Field of View: 3d 7' 41.0" x 2d 3' 5.3 (127.3 x 190.1 arcmin)

EQ Mount: Paramount ME

Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6 Pre Processing in Pixinsight Post Processed in Photoshop CC

Equipment:

Celestron CGEM Mount

Canon FD 300mm f/4 L

Sony a7RIII (unmodified)

Altair 60mm Guide scope

GPCAM2 Mono Camera

Acquisition:

Taos, NM: my backyard - Bortle 3

52 x 151" for 2hrs 10min and 50sec of exposure time.

10 dark frames

15 flats frames

15 bias frames

Guided

Software:

SharpCap

PHD2

DeepSkyStacker

Photoshop

My mount was polar aligned with SharpCap (what an amazing system for aligning). I'm not comfortable using my SCT as my lens yet. My solution is to piggyback my Sony a7RIII and adapted Canon FD 300mm f/4 L on a ADM dovetail rail on the top of my optical tube. I used DeepSkyStacker to combine all frames and then processed the TIFF file in Photoshop using my skill set and relying on the famous Astronomy Tools Action Set.