Messier 88 is a classic spiral galaxy. It measures 6.9 x 3.7 arcminutes. A supernova was detected there in 1999.

26 x 10 minute subs. Modified Canon 80D at ISO400 on an Equinox 120ED doublet refractor.

See previous wide field for more details.

Took the new 12-inch Meade LX200 out for a nice drive in the cosmos over the last few nights and put it through its paces.

The mount is still in need of some work but this scope is amazing!

Equipment:

Scope: Lacerta 72/432 F6 0.85x reduktorral (367mm F5.1)

Mount: Skywatcher EQ-5 Pro Synscan Goto

Guiding: OAG

Guide camera: ZWO ASI120mm Mini

Main camera: ZWO ASI183MM-Pro cooled monochrome camera

Accessories:

ZWO ASIAIR Pro

ZWO EFW 8x1.25"

ZWO EAF

ZWO OAG

ZWO 1.25 Helical focuser

Lacerta Dew-heater 30cm

Programs:

PixInsight

Adobe Photoshop CC 2020

Details:

Camera temp: -15°C

Gain: 111

Astronomik 6nm Ha: 71x300s

Astronomik 6nm Oiii: 12x300s

Bortle Scale: 4

Location: Isaszeg, Hungary

Acquisition date(s):

2021.03.27., 2021.03.28., 2021.03.31., 2021.04.01., 2021.04.25.

M72 (NGC 6981) is a globular cluster in Aquarius.

Shot with RGB filters from my backyard in Long Beach, CA.

R: 16 30 s exposures

G: 30 30 s exposures

B: 25 30 s exposures

All taken with an Atik 414-EX mono camera on a Celestron Edge HD 925 at a focal length of 535 mm with Hyperstar. RGB filters are from Optolong.

Pre-processing in Nebulosity; registration, stacking, channel combination, and processing in PixInsight; final touches in Photoshop.

One of about 50 galaxies in our neighbouring "Local Group", Messier 33 lies about 2.7 million LY away. A trail of gas connects it to the much larger Andromeda galaxy and it is likely that it has gravitationally interacted with Andromeda in the past - this may explain why M33 has a very small core region.

Several areas in the galaxy are bright enough to warrant their own NGC classification numbers:

NGC 604 is the very prominent HII region at the NW

NGC 595 is a smaller bright HII region just to the right and above the core.

NGC 592 lies due East of the core and is a small diffuse HII area

NGC 588 lies along the same line as NGC 592 - just further East. Another diffuse HII zone.

This image represents 294 minutes exposure (49 x 6 mins) with a one shot colour CCD.Dithered, drizzled and stacked.

The field of view is about 50 arcminutes across.

Takahashi 150mm refractor (T3) at iTelescope's New Mexico Observatory.

Camera: Zwo Asi183mm Pro

Telescope: Lacerta 200/800 F4

Corrector: Gyulai Pál GPU

Filters: Astronomik Deep-Sky RGB, Astronomik L-3 UV-IR Block, Astronomik 6nm SHO

Mount: Skywatcher EQ-5 Belt-modded

Guiding: Orion 50mm Mini guidescope, Zwo Asi120mm mini kamera, N.I.N.A

Images:

Astronomik L-3 UV-IR Block: 71x120s Gain53 -15°C

Isaszeg, Bortle 4

Samyang 135 F2 @ F2.8, Zwo Asi 183mm Pro

Kamera hőmérséklet: -15°C

Gain: 111

Lófej-köd (Panel 1):

Astronomik 6nm Hidrogén-alfa: 52x300s

Astronomik L-3 UV/IR Block: 207x120s

Astronomik Deep-Sky R: 53x120s

Astronomik Deep-Sky G: 60x120s

Astronomik Deep-Sky B: 60x120s

M42- A nagy Orion-köd (Panel 2):

Astronomik 6nm Hidrogén-alfa: 51x300s, 15x60s, 15x30s

Astronomik L-3 UV/IR Block: 178x120s, 25x30s, 20x15s, 20x10s, 20x5s

Astronomik Deep-Sky R: 70x120s, 15x30s, 15x10s, 15x5s

Astronomik Deep-Sky G: 70x120s, 25x30s, 15x10s, 15x5s

Astronomik Deep-Sky B: 70x120s, 15x30s, 15x10s, 15x5s

Exif:

Mount: Skywatcher EQ-5 Pro GoTO

Scope: Lacerta 72/432 w/ 0,85 reducer

Camera: Pentax K-1 (unmodified)

Guider: Orion 50mm and Zwo 120mm mini with ASIAIR

Exposures: 76x180s, ISO800

Calibrated with dark, and bias.

Camera: Zwo Asi183mm Pro

Telescope: Lacerta 200/800 F4

Corrector: Gyulai Pál GPU

Filters: Astronomik Deep-Sky RGB, Astronomik L-3 UV-IR Block, Astronomik 6nm SHO

Mount: Skywatcher EQ-5 Belt-modded

Guiding: Orion 50mm Mini guidescope, Zwo Asi120mm mini kamera, N.I.N.A

Images:

Astronomik L-3 UV-IR Block: 264x120s Gain53 -15°C

Astronomik Deep-Sky R: 100x120s Gain53 -15°C

Astronomik Deep-Sky G: 104x120s Gain53 -15°C

Astronomik Deep-Sky B: 109x120s Gain53 -15°C

Isaszeg, Bortle 4

Equipment:

Scope: Lacerta 72/432 F6 0.85x reduktorral (367mm F5.1)

Mount: Skywatcher EQ-5 Pro Synscan Goto

Guiding: OAG

Guide camera: ZWO ASI120mm Mini

Main camera: ZWO ASI183MM-Pro cooled monochrome camera

Accessories:

ZWO ASIAIR Pro

ZWO EFW 8x1.25"

ZWO EAF

ZWO OAG

ZWO 1.25 Helical focuser

Lacerta Dew-heater 30cm

Programs:

PixInsight

Adobe Photoshop CC 2020

Details:

Camera temp: -15°C

Gain: 53, 111

Astronomik 6nm Ha: 121x300s

Astronomik L-3 UV-IR Block: 146x180s

Astronomik Deep-Sky R: 20x180s

Astronomik Deep-Sky G: 20x180s

Astronomik Deep-Sky B: 19x180s

Bortle Scale: 4

Location: Isaszeg, Hungary

Acquisition date(s):

2021.03.02., 2021.03.08., 2021.03.13., 2021.03.19., 2021.03.20., 2021.03.23.

New project is started, nearly 20 hours of integration time with luminance filter.

This is a combination of 26 subs, one set from April 2020, of 10 x 10 minutes duration and another set of 16 x 5 minutes duration from 2018. All at ISO400. Taken with my 480mm f/6 refractor on a modified Canon 80D.

Technical card for 2020 session is in my Backyard Astrophotography Album.

I’ve not cropped this, so some background galaxies can be seen in the corners.

M81 is a large spiral galaxy in Ursa Major that is reasonably local to us at 12 million light years. Its companion, M82 has been disrupted by an encounter with M81 in the past.

M82 is a starburst galaxy with intense star formation triggered by the gravitational influence of M81. The red fan-like filaments at right angles to the axis of the galaxy are formed by a "superwind". The intense star formation has resulted in multiple supernovae explosions occurring about once every 10 years - the explosions power the super wind. The filaments are expanding outwards at about 600 miles a second and glow brightly in hydrogen alpha (red). They are also a very strong source of radio emission, listed as 3C 231 in the 3rd Cambridge catalogue of radio sources.

NGC3077 lies top left. It’s classified as a peculiar galaxy and may have interacted with M81 in the past and become disrupted. Some radial dust bands are just visible in this image - couldn’t see this detail before so nice to pick up in this longer integration.

The faint galaxy Holmberg IX lies just above M81, seen here as a faint triangular smudge contained in a trapezoid set of stars. It seems to be a companion dwarf galaxy to M81, a bit like our Magellanic Clouds.

The small galaxies bottom left and right are PGC28563 and PGC28225 respectively.

Image scale: 1.59 arcsecond/pixel

Field-of-view: 1d 37' 34.0" x 1d 9' 3.6"

Image centred on:

RA: 9hr 55min 25.931s

DEC: +67d 10min 05.69s

I tried a few new things in PixInsight processing to try and get the best integrated image. I used a custom expression in SubFrame Selector and graded all the subs based on that expression (using Eccentricity, SNR and FWHM). The integration then used the weighted images (via a FITS keyword) so that the best made the most contribution and the worst, least.

An attractive grouping of 3 spiral galaxies in Leo about 35 million LY away. Comprising:

NGC 3628 “the Hamburger galaxy” - Edge on spiral with prominent dust lane. There is a long tail to the left of the galaxy of stars displaced by a previous gravitational encounter - just visible here.

Messier 65 spiral galaxy mostly old stars with little dust or gas except where it may have interacted with the other 2. 1 supernova detected.

Messier 66 barred spiral with 5 supernovae detected consistent with excess young Star formation probably due to interaction with the other 2.

Astrometry:

Resolution ............... 2.395 arcsec/px

Focal distance ........... 323.84 mm

Pixel size ............... 3.76 um

Field of view ............ 1d 26' 34.5" x 1d 1' 47.3"

Image centre............. RA: 11 20 03.322 Dec: +13 21 05.05

System 1 Scope:

Camera: QHY600M 16-Bit CMOS, Binned x2

Optics: Takahashi FSQ130

Aperture: 130mm

Focal Length: 650mm

Focal Ratio: F5

Guiding: Stellarvue 50mm

- I’m in the mountains with clear weather and wanted to see our galaxy in its full glory so I pointed my camera upwards to the sky. The Milky way is across the sky and the Andromeda galaxy is to the lower left. The foreground colours are from the various city lights.

Equipment:

Scope: Lacerta 72/432 F6 0.85x reduktorral (367mm F5.1)

Mount: Skywatcher EQ-5 Pro Synscan Goto

Guide scope: Orion 50mm mini

Guide camera: ZWO ASI120mm Mini

Main camera: ZWO ASI183MM-Pro cooled monochrome camera

Accessories:

ZWO ASIAIR Pro

ZWO EFW 8x1.25"

Lacerta Dew-heater 20cm

Lacerta Dew-heater 30cm

Programs:

PixInsight

Adobe Photoshop CC 2020

Details:

Camera temp: -15°C

Gain: 53

Astronomik L-3 UV-IR Block: 92x180s

Astronomik Deep-Sky R: 16x180s

Astronomik Deep-Sky G: 14x180s

Astronomik Deep-Sky B: 20x180s

Lots of StarStuff...

A widefield mosaic of the Sagittarius Trio - M8, M20 and NGC 6559. This is a dense region of stars, interstellar dust clouds, and dark nebulae, reflection nebulae and emission nebulae.

Image Acquisition:

Sequence Generator Pro with the Mosaic and Framing Wizard.

Plate Solving:

Astrometry.net ANSVR Solver via SGP.

Processing:

Pre-Processing and Linear workflow in PixInsight,

and finished in Photoshop.

Astrometry Info:

View Annotated Sky Chart for this image.

RA, Dec center: 271.636470386, -23.829939492 degrees

Orientation: 2.08453689517 deg E of N

Pixel scale: 7.63283615011 arcsec/pixel

View this image in World Wide Telescope.

About the Milky Way, and Earth's place within it:

The Milky Way Galaxy is estimated to have over 400 billion stars. Stars are suns, and just like in our Solar System, many of the stars have planets and moons. Our sun is a middle aged Yellow Dwarf star, located in the Orion Arm (or Orion Spur) of the Milky Way Galaxy. It’s a minor side spiral arm, located between two larger arms of the Milky Way Galaxy's spiral. The Milky Way is merely one mid-sized barred spiral Galaxy, amongst over 100 billion other Galaxies in the observable Universe. When we look up at the night sky from Earth, we see a glimpse of the Carina–Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. It takes about 250 million years for the Milky Way Galaxy's spiral arms to complete one rotation.

The size, distance and age of the Universe is far beyond human comprehension. The known Universe is estimated to contain over One Billion Trillion stars (the latest estimates are substantially higher).

Billion Trillion Stars:

1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000

Flickr Explore:

explore-2016-12-22

Martin

-

[Home Page] [Photography Showcase] [My Free Photo App]

[Flickr Profile] [Facebook] [Twitter] [My Science & Physics Page]

I was in cyprus last week for a few days to catch up with family and had the opportunity to go out at night to do a bit of astrophotography. This was my first attempt at photographing Andromeda Galaxy - our nearest galactic neighbour. I still got a lot to learn in this area, but for now I am happy with the results!

The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on spiral galaxy distanced 21 million light-years (six megaparsecs)[3] away from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. Discovered by Pierre Méchain on March 27, 1781, it was communicated to Charles Messier who verified its position for inclusion in the Messier Catalogue as one of its final entries.

Canon M, Celestron 90GT, Effective focal length of 1440mm.

10 images aligned and processed in Photoshop CC

A much more conventional looking spiral this time - shows how the spiral arms should be blue. Has quite a small core/bulge.

One of about 50 galaxies in our neighbouring "Local Group", Messier 33 lies about 2.7 million LY away. A trail of gas connects it to the much larger Andromeda galaxy and it is likely that it has gravitationally interacted with Andromeda in the past - this may explain why M33 has a very small core region.

Several areas in the galaxy are bright enough to warrant their own NGC classification numbers:

NGC 604 is the very prominent HII region at the NW

NGC 595 is a smaller bright HII region just to the right and above the core.

NGC 592 lies due East of the core and is a small diffuse HII area

NGC 588 lies along the same line as NGC 592 - just further East. Another diffuse HII zone.

Apparent size: 70.8 x 41 arc minutes

Legacy Data from Grand Mesa Observatory, Colorado.

M33 is in the constellation Triangulum.

They just barely fit in the view together when using Hyperstar with an Edge HD 925 and Atik 414-EX camera. Optolong RGB CCD filters.

Equipment:

Scope: Lacerta 72/432 F6 0.85x reduktorral (367mm F5.1)

Mount: Skywatcher EQ-5 Pro Synscan Goto

Guide scope: Lacerta 72/432 Apo

Guide camera: ZWO ASI120mm Mini

Main camera: ZWO ASI183MM-Pro cooled monochrome camera

Accessories:

ZWO ASIAIR Pro

ZWO EFW 8x1.25"

ZWO EAF

ZWO OAG

ZWO 1.25 Helical focuser

Lacerta Dew-heater 30cm

Programs:

PixInsight

Adobe Photoshop CC 2020

Details:

Camera temp: -15°C

Gain: 53

Astronomik L-3 UV-IR Block: 30x180s

Astronomik Deep-Sky R: 21x180s

Astronomik Deep-Sky G: 29x180s

Astronomik Deep-Sky B: 30x180s

Dark: 60x

Bortle Scale: 4

Location: Isaszeg, Hungary

Acquisition date(s):

2020.12.06., 2020.12.26.

Equipment:

Scope: Lacerta 72/432 F6 0.85x reduktorral (367mm F5.1)

Mount: Skywatcher EQ-5 Pro Synscan Goto

Guiding: OAG

Guide camera: ZWO ASI120mm Mini

Main camera: ZWO ASI183MM-Pro cooled monochrome camera

Accessories:

ZWO ASIAIR Pro

ZWO EFW 8x1.25"

ZWO EAF

ZWO OAG

ZWO 1.25 Helical focuser

Lacerta Dew-heater 30cm

Programs:

PixInsight

Adobe Photoshop CC 2020

Details:

Camera temp: -15°C

Gain: 53, 111

Astronomik 6nm Ha: 155x300s

Astronomik L-3 UV-IR Block: 132x180s

Astronomik Deep-Sky R: 20x180s

Astronomik Deep-Sky G: 20x180s

Astronomik Deep-Sky B: 20x180s

Bortle Scale: 4

Location: Isaszeg, Hungary

Acquisition date(s):

2021.02.28., 2021.03.02., 2021.03.06., 2021.03.07., 2021.03.08.

Imaging telescope or lens:Astro-Tech AT-65EDQ

Imaging camera:Nikon D5300

Mount:Celestron CG5

Guiding telescope or lens:Orion Mini 50mm Guide Scope

Guiding camera:QHY 5 L II M

Software:SharpCap Pro 3.1, APT - Astro Photography Tool, PixInsight 1.8 Ripley PixInsight, ProDigital Software Astronomy Tools Actions Set, Photoshop CC 2017, DeepSky Stacker

Resolution: 2912x2002

Dates: May 7, 2018

Frames:

15x120" ISO400

5x180" ISO400

30x60" ISO400

Integration: 1.2 hours

Bias: ~100

Avg. Moon age: 21.62 days

Avg. Moon phase: 55.60%

Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 4.00

Taken with a TMB92L, Hutech-modified Canon T3i DSLR, Orion SSAG autoguider and 50mm guidescope, and Celestron AVX mount. Consists of 25 300-second light frames and 19 300-second dark frames, all at ISO 800, as well as 35 flat and 50 bias frames. Captured with BackyardEOS, stacked in DeepSkyStacker, and processed in Photoshop.

95 x 120s

Sony a6000a

Skywatcher 150/750 PDS

Mgen II

Shot from my backyard in Long Beach, CA on the nights of 2022-11-19 and 2022-11-24. M79 (NGC 1904) is in the constellation Lepus, which is just south of Orion on the sky. This image was taken with a Celestron Edge HD 925 at focal length 535 mm with a Hyperstar. The camera was an Atik 414-EX monochrome with Optolong LRGB filters. Preprocessing in Nebulosity; registration, stacking, channel combination, and initial processing in PixInsight; final processing in Photoshop and Topaz Labs.

L: 56 15 s exposures

R: 43 60 s exposures

G: 77 45 s exposures

B: 60 45 s exposures

Testing a miniPC attached to my 480mm f6 refractor.

The miniPC ran PHD2 guiding and SharpCap for slewing the mount, plate solving and auto-focusing.

Mount control was with EQMOD.

Connected to home network by a long ethernet cable - I was able to watch over things from my iPAD inside the house!

240 x 1 minute exposures over 2 nights.

Technical Card

480/80mm f/6 Altair Starwave triplet refractor.

Altair Planostar 1.0 x FF with 2 inch IDAS P2 LPS filter

ZWO ASI2600MC; 240 x 60 second subs, Gain 100, Offset 25, Temp = -15c.

EQ6 R pro mount with EQMOD control. Primalucelab Sesto Senso electronic focuser.

Session control; SharpCap 4.1 on miniPC on scope

Automated plate solving GOTO.

Automated FWHM multistar focusing every 16 frames. +/- 250 steps at 8s and 600 gain.

60 dark frames

60 flat frames (electroluminescent panel A, 1600ms exposure @ 0 gain).

Post processed in PixInsight 1.8.9.

Light Pollution and Weather:

SQM (L) =20.2

Error measured by PHD2= 15 arc minute.

RA drift + 2.71 arcsec/min

Dec drift - 1.2 arcsec/min

Guiding:

PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/Altair Starwave 206/50mm guider. Every 15th sub dithered.

RA RMS error 0.89 arcsec

Dec RMS error 0.79 arcsec

Astrometry:

Resolution; 1.613 arcsec/px

Rotation; 74.808 deg

Focal distance; 480.86 mm

Pixel size; 3.76 um

Field of view; 2d 5' 59.5" x 1d 33' 24.7"

Image centre;

RA: 3 46 55.070

Dec: +24 07 46.32

Stack of 47 15 s ISO2500 images shot with a Nikon D5100 on a Celestron Edge HD 925.

I get the feeling I'm going to have to shoot this again from darker skies than my Bortle 8/9 backyard. I feel like there's a lot of density across this that got washed out. Or maybe it needs Hyperstar and a full 16-bit camera.

My tribute to "The Hubble Space Telescope", one of the most successful scientific endeavors that completely changed our view of the known Universe and our place within it.

Best viewed LARGE!

The image is not at full resolution, but is still best viewed as LARGE as possible. Zoom in and out by clicking on the image (in the gap under the Astrometry identification notes) and pan around. You can also view the image in lightbox mode by clicking HERE.

Original Resolution: 18 000px.

Current Resolution: 8 000px.

About M42, the Great Nebula in Orion:

M42 (NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way Galaxy, in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is located at a distance of 1,344 light-years from Earth, and is the closest region of massive star formation.

Why I like to "play around" with scientific data:

This Feynman quote sums it up...

"Feynman, that's pretty interesting, but what's the importance of it? Why are you doing it?'' ``Hah!'' I say. ``There's no importance whatsoever. I'm just doing it for the fun of it.'' - "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman'', by Richard P Feynman.

Data source:

The Hubble Legacy Archive (HLA).

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI).

hla.stsci.edu/hlaview.html

Processing:

Narrowband Monochrome FITS data in the HST Palette.

Processing and Linear workflow in PixInsight,

and finished in Photoshop.

Image processing by Martin Heigan.

Hubble Palette explanation:

www.astronomymark.com/hubble_palette.htm

Narrowband explanation:

www.swagastro.com/narrowband-information.html

My brief description of the Electromagnetic Spectrum of Light:

www.flickr.com/photos/martin_heigan/22278042895

Hubble Legacy Archive Credit:

Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and obtained from the Hubble Legacy Archive, which is a collaboration between the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI/NASA), the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF/ESA) and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC/NRC/CSA).

Flickr Explore:

Explore-2016-12-12

Martin Heigan

-

[Home Page] [Photography Showcase] [My Free Photo App]

[Flickr Profile] [Facebook] [Twitter] [My Science & Physics Page]

Pentax K1, Samyang 135 F2 @ F2.8

This is a re-process of some old data using a program called Pixinsight. It is an astrophography specific program & while quite hard to get your head around, it simplifies a lot of techniques that you would use in for example photoshop.

M101 is a face-on spiral galaxy in Ursa Major. It is a "grand design" spiral galaxy meaning that it has a prominent central bulge and well-defined spiral arms.

Observed May 9, 18, 19, 23, 24, 31 and June 1-3, 2025, to acquire LRGB files. Observed July 21-24, 2025, to acquire Ha (hydrogen alpha) files. Location: Washington D.C..

Equipment: WO Fluorostar 91mm f/5.9 triplet APO refractor with Adjustable Field Flattener 68III with ASI 2600MM Pro (monochrome) as the main camera. WO Uniguide 50 f/4.0 guide scope with ASI 290MM as the guide camera. Chroma 36mm LRGB Filter Set. 36mm Astronomik Ha 12nm filter. iOptron GEM28-EC mount.

Guide camera image scale / Main camera image scale = 2.99 arcsec per pixel / 1.43 arcsec per pixel = 2.1.

Data: 18.5 hours (317x210s subs) with Luminance filter (L). 4.7 hours (80x210s subs) with red filter (R). 3.2 hours (54x210s subs) with green filter (G). 4.8 hours (82x210s subs) with blue filter (B). 5.1 hours (2x210s; 49x315s; 6x420s subs) with Ha filter. Total = 36.2 hours.

Processed fully within PixInsight 1.9.3 Lockhart.

The processing was done using HaLRGB combination as described in a PI tutorial with some deviations to suit my purpose.

Preprocessed to create L, R, G, B and Ha master images.

Applied a dynamic crop to trim away the edges.

Created a synthetic L image by integrating the L, R, G and B images. This will be the new L image hereafter.

Used Channel combination to produce an RGB image.

Applied Gradient corrections to the L, RGB and the Ha image.

Did a color calibration for the RGB image with Spectrophotometric Color Calibration using Sd galaxy appropriate for M101 as the white reference.

Applied a second dynamic crop.

Combined the Ha image with the RGB image using Pixel Math to indicate that the red channel would receive a contribution of 60% Ha the balance being red. Made a mask from the Ha image and applied it to the original RGB image to protect everything in it except for the Ha emission areas. Applied an instance of the Ha-RGB to the mask-protected RGB to get an enhanced RGB image.

Adjusted the Target background and Shadows clippings for L and RGB to be compatible.

Applied a Blur xterminator, prior to delinearization, to sharpen stars.

Delinearized the L and RGB by a Histogram transformation.

Applied a dynamic range compression to the L image by HDR multiscale transformation.

Did a Channel combination to apply the luminance from the L image to the RGB image.

Applied a Star xterminator to split the RGB image into starless and stars only components.

Developed the starless RGB image using Local histogram equalization after applying a range selection mask to protect the galaxy. Continued the development by applying a Curves transformation and Color saturation. Applied a Noise xterminator.

Applied a Morphological transformation to the RGB stars only image to reduce the brightness of the starry background.

Used a Pixel Math expression to recombine the processed RGB starless and stars only images. Finally, reapplied a mask to protect the galaxy and applied a Noise xterminator and a Histogram transformation on the background. If needed, applied a final saturation boost.

Total Exposure Time: 240 Min.

Skywatcher 150/750 PDS

Mix of a7 III and a6000a Data

Die Whirlpool-Galaxie (auch als Strudelgalaxie, Messier 51 oder NGC 5194/5195 bezeichnet) ist eine große Spiralgalaxie im Sternbild Jagdhunde. Sie ist vom Hubble-Typ Sc, das heißt mit deutlich ausgeprägter Spiralstruktur. M 51 hat eine scheinbare Helligkeit von 8,4 mag und eine Winkelausdehnung von 11,2′ × 6,9′. Die Entfernung von unserer Milchstraße beträgt etwa 25 Millionen Lichtjahre, doch gibt es auch davon abweichende Ergebnisse zwischen 15 und 37 Millionen Lichtjahren.

M 51 hat einen nahen, wechselwirkenden Begleiter. Im NGC-Katalog trägt er die Nummer NGC 5195 (M 51 selbst hat die Nummer NGC 5194). Die Begleitgalaxie ist von irregulärem Typ, hat eine Winkelausdehnung von 5,9′ × 4,6′ und eine Helligkeit von 9,6 mag.[6] Der Kern des Begleiters hat aber fast die gleiche Flächenhelligkeit wie M51, sodass beide in kleinen Teleskopen kaum unterscheinbar sind.

Stack of 21 ISO 2000 15 s frames shot with a Nikon D5100 mounted on a Celestron Edge HD 925 at a focal length of 2160 mm. Preprocessed in Nebulosity; stacked and initially processed in PixInsight; final touches in GIMP.

This was part of an experiment to see if I could get globular clusters with unguided exposures with the DSLR. Results seem promising for bright clusters.

Equipment:

Scope: Lacerta 72/432 F6 0.85x reduktorral (367mm F5.1)

Mount: Skywatcher EQ-5 Pro Synscan Goto

Guide scope: Orion 50mm mini

Guide camera: ZWO ASI120mm Mini

Main camera: ZWO ASI183MM-Pro cooled monochrome camera

Accessories:

ZWO ASIAIR Pro

ZWO EFW 8x1.25"

Lacerta Dew-heater 20cm

Lacerta Dew-heater 30cm

Programs:

PixInsight

Adobe Photoshop CC 2020

Details:

Camera temp: -15°C

Gain: 200 for Ha 111 for RGB

Astronomik 6nm Ha: 15x300s

Astronomik Deep-Sky R: 10x180s

Astronomik Deep-Sky G: 10x180s

Astronomik Deep-Sky B: 10x180s

This is a stack of 8 150 s exposures taken around 2021-06-11 05:15 UT. The Leo Triplet consists of M65 (lower right), M66 (lower left) and NGC 3628 (top). These galaxies appear in Leo, about 8° north of the ecliptic. Since the inclination of Vesta's orbit is a bit over 7° to the ecliptic and its orbit is larger than Earth's, it can be photographed with the three galaxies.

Subframes taken with an Atik 314L+ color CCD on a HyperStar on a Celestron Edge HD 925. Preprocessing in Nebulosity; processing in PixInsight with final touches in Photoshop.

Vesta is the bright object in the lower right corner.

Equipment:

Scope: Lacerta 72/432 F6 0.85x reduktorral (367mm F5.1)

Mount: Skywatcher EQ-5 Pro Synscan Goto

Guiding: OAG

Guide camera: ZWO ASI120mm Mini

Main camera: ZWO ASI183MM-Pro cooled monochrome camera

Accessories:

ZWO ASIAIR Pro

ZWO EFW 8x1.25"

ZWO EAF

ZWO OAG

ZWO 1.25 Helical focuser

Lacerta Dew-heater 30cm

Programs:

PixInsight

Adobe Photoshop CC 2020

Details:

Camera temp: -15°C

Gain: 53, 111

Astronomik 6nm Ha: 121x300s

Astronomik L-3 UV-IR Block: 146x180s

Astronomik Deep-Sky R: 20x180s

Astronomik Deep-Sky G: 20x180s

Astronomik Deep-Sky B: 19x180s

Bortle Scale: 4

Location: Isaszeg, Hungary

Acquisition date(s):

2021.03.02., 2021.03.08., 2021.03.13., 2021.03.19., 2021.03.20., 2021.03.23.

Messier 33 / M33 / NGC 598 / The Triangulum Galaxy

M33 is a spiral galaxy 2.7 million light-years away in the constellation Triangulum. It is the third-largest member of the Local Group (behind the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way), with a diameter of 60,000 light-years. It contains about 40 billion stars, significantly less than the 400 billion in the Milky Way and the 1 trillion in the Andromeda Galaxy.

Total integration: 15 hours 16 minutes (916 minutes)

01/25/19: 1 x 120 seconds ISO800

01/25/19: 109 x 60 seconds ISO800

01/26/19: 104 x 60 seconds ISO800

01/27/19: 103 x 60 seconds ISO800

01/31/19: 107 x 60 seconds ISO800

10/02/19: 1 x 60 seconds ISO800

10/02/19: 98 x 120 seconds ISO400

10/03/19: 116 x 120 seconds ISO400

10/04/19: 31 x 120 seconds ISO400

Location: Charlottesville, VA

SQM: 19.22 mag/arcsec^2 (Bortle 6)

Camera: Canon T3i (stock/unmodified)

Average camera temperature: 95 F (35 C)

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED80 f/6.0 Apochromatic Refractor (with ES field flattener)

Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G

Guide scope: Svbony 50mm f/4.0 Guide Scope

Guide camera: Orion StarShoot AutoGuider

Software: N.I.N.A. with ASTAP (slewing and plate solving), PHD2 (guiding), Magic Lantern (image capture)

Pre-processed with PixInsight, processed with PixInsight and Paint.NET

60 x 300 s Integration Time

Sony a6000a

Skywatcher 150/750 PDS

This Messier Object was in the same field as the Bubble Nebula from my last session.

A group of about 200 stars that probably had the same origin in a now scattered cloud of gas and dust.

I was able to process this a bit differently as I didn't have to worry about any nebulosity just bright stars and dark background space.

All parameters were the same as my last Bubble nebula image.

Processed in PixInsight 1.8.9 with more emphasis on deconvolution and atrous wavelet removal of star halos and a gentler histogram transformation stretch.

This is my second attempt at a guided shot of the Pleiades. I doubled the exposure time and took bias frames for the first time.

Taken with a TMB92L, Canon T3i DSLR, Orion SSAG autoguider and 50mm guidescope, and Celestron AVX mount. Consists of 42 240-second light frames and 30 240-second dark frames, all at ISO 800, as well as 15 flat and 30 bias frames. Captured with BackyardEOS, stacked in DeepSkyStacker, and processed in Photoshop.

Samyang 135 F2 @ F2.8, Zwo Asi 183mm Pro

Samyang 135 F2 at F4, Zwo Asi183mm Pro

Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard)

Messier 3 / M3 / NGC 5272

Comet Leonard appeared to pass between the Whale Galaxy (NGC4631) and the Crowbar Galaxy (NGC4656) in late November. It then passed within a few arcminutes of Messier 3 on December 3rd, creating this spectacular conjunction. These objects may seem close, but they are extremely far apart: the light from the comet took about 3.5 minutes to reach Earth, while the light from the cluster has been traveling through space for 34,000 years.

Comet Leonard was predicted to become the brightest comet of 2021 around mid-December. It just barely achieved naked-eye visibility for northern observers before it was lost in the morning twilight. The comet will reach perihelion on January 3, 2022, marking the end of its 40,000-year journey to the inner Solar System. It will then be ejected into interstellar space, never to return.

Apparent magnitude: 6.2 (estimate from Stellarium)

Distance from Earth: 0.438 AU

Orbital period: 8,000 years (before ejection)

Velocity (relative to Sun): 28 mile/s (45 km/s)

Comet/starfield total integration: 1 hour 19 minutes

158 x 30 seconds ISO1600 [Bortle 6 in SC]

-

M3 total integration: 8 hours 48 minutes

446 x 60 seconds ISO800 [Bortle 6 in VA]

41 x 120 seconds ISO200 [Bortle 8/9 in FL]

Stacked separately for comet and stars, with extra M3 detail blended in from a previous image: flic.kr/p/2kdWmeC

Summary of processing details here: www.cloudynights.com/topic/803224-comet-leonard-and-messi...

Location: Summerville, SC (comet and stars), Charlottesville, VA and Coral Springs, FL (M3 core)

SQM: 18.99 mag/arcsec^2, 19.32 mag/arcsec^2, 18.20 mag/arcsec^2 (Bortle 6, 6, and 8/9 respectively)

Camera: Canon T3i (stock/unmodified)

Average camera temperature: 90 F (32 C)

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED80 f/6.0 Apochromatic Refractor (with ES field flattener)

Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G

Guide scope: Svbony 50mm f/4.0 Guide Scope

Guide camera: Orion StarShoot AutoGuider

Capture software: N.I.N.A., PlateSolve2, PHD2

Processing software: PixInsight, Paint.NET

Zwo Asi183mm Pro, Lacerta 200/800 F4

Two spiral galaxies in Leo - I couldn't quite get a third edge-on spiral galaxy into the frame as well.

48 x 6 minute subs.

Takahashi 150mm refractor @ 1095mm focal length. iTelescope T3.

Image dithered then drizzled and post-processed in Pix-Insight.

Image scale is 0.69 arcsec/pxl.

Taken on the night of 2023-11-11 from my Bortle 8/9 backyard in Long Beach, CA

Celestron Edge HD 925 at 1530 mm focal length (0.87"/pixel scale) with an Atik 414-EX camera and Optolong LRGB filters.

L: 55 30 s exposures

R: 14 120 s exposures

G: 14 120 s exposures

B: 15 120 s exposures

Data acquisition done with N.I.N.A.

Preprocessing in Nebulosity; registration, stacking, channel combination, and initial processing in PixInsight; final touches in GIMP.

M32 is a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). Portions of the disk of M31 are visible in the lower right portion of the image. I also wanted to get the luminosity data to have a comparison frame for looking for novae associated with this galaxy.

A Cosmic snowball of Stars.

Mixed weather forecasts tonight - decided I would chance it and assembled scope in back garden. Only got 15 minutes on target before hail shower! Scope quickly capped and disassembled!

Processed the 3 x 5 minute images of Globular cluster Messier 3 anyway. I used generic flats, darks and bias frames from my last session.

This is a mini-galaxy that orbits our own galaxy but it has lost any spiral arms it once possessed to our own galaxy's gravity, leaving just a spherical core of mostly old yellow stars. Sometimes, the stars interact in the dense core and one can steal matter off a neighbour to form a "blue straggler" which behaves like a young blue star.

Its estimated that there 500000 stars in this globular cluster including a large number of RR Lyrae variables that can act as a "standard candle" to measure interstellar distances as the luminosity of these stars varies in a periodic manner with time.

M3 lies about 33900 LY away from Earth.

Equinox ED 900mm f/7.5 scope x0.85 focal reducer.

Modified Canon 80D @ ISO400, 3 x 300 second subs.

SkyWatcher EQ6 pro mount with Rowan belt drive modification.

Guided by PHD2 via PrimaLuce 240mm f/4 guidescope.

Camera Temp: 8-9c

Astrometry:

Resolution: 0.978 arcsec/pxl

Focal distance: 791.17 mm

Pixel size: 3.75 um

Field of view: 56' 41.3" x 47' 40.6"

Image centre: RA: 13 42 11.692 Dec: +28 22 35

Polar Alignment:

QHY Polemaster alignment -

Error measured by PHD2= 0.5 arc minute.

RA drift + 0.98 arcsec/min

Dec drift - 0.12 arcsec/min

Guiding:

PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/PrimaLuce Lab 240/60mm guide scope. Every 3rd shot dithered.

RA RMS error 0.67 arcsec.

Dec RMS error 0.48 arcsec.

Personal Notes:

One star had quite a halo but used masked Atrous wavelet method in PixInsight to good effect.

Here's my second attempt at imaging the Andromeda Galaxy. All told, from telescope setup time to final processing, this photo took roughly eight hours to produce. The Andromeda Galaxy is 2.5 million light-years away. A single light-year is 5,865,696,000,000 miles. Now multiply that by 2.5 million. That's pretty far away. It contains roughly 1 trillion stars.

Taken with a TMB92L, Canon T3i DSLR, Orion SSAG autoguider and 50mm guidescope, and Celestron AVX mount. Consists of 53 120-second light frames and 41 120-second dark frames, all at ISO 800, as well as 15 flats. Captured with BackyardEOS, stacked in DeepSkyStacker, and processed in Photoshop.