View allAll Photos Tagged messierobjects
Taken with a TMB92L, Canon T3i DSLR, Orion SSAG autoguider and 50mm guidescope, and Celestron AVX mount. Consists of 32 180-second light frames and 28 180-second dark frames, all at ISO 400, as well as 31 flat and 25 bias frames. Captured with BackyardEOS, stacked in DeepSkyStacker, and processed in Photoshop. Diffraction spikes added with StarSpikes Pro.
Description: This is my image of the Andromeda Galaxy M31 based on about 15 hours of total exposure time. The image identifies the two satellite galaxies M32 and M110. The angular size of M31 is a huge 178x63 arcminutes which occupies a significant portion of the APS-C sensor of my camera. Since there are also numerous background stars, finding a relatively star-free area to do a Background Neutralization is a bit of a challenge. I also found achieving a proper color balance to be another challenge. Various sources indicate the presence of an outer bluish halo encompassing the core. I tried to achieve my objective by applying a series of Curves Transformations while protecting the background with a mask. As a side note, while numerous stars are present, I decided against applying a Morphological Transformation to reduce their brightness because in doing so I detected an undesirable ringing effect. One possible solution is to apply Multiscale Linear Transform with deringing selected. However, I have not tested that option.
Date / Location: 21-23 September and 8-10 October 2022 / Washington D.C.
Equipment:
Scope: WO Zenith Star 81mm f/6.9 with WO 6AIII Flattener/Focal Reducer x0.8
OSC Camera: ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro at 100 Gain
Mount: iOptron GEM28-EC
Guide Scope: WO 50mm Uniguide Scope
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI 290mm
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Light Pollution Filter: Chroma LoGlow Broadband
Processing Software: Pixinsight
Processing Steps:
Preprocessing: I preprocessed 184x300s subs (= 15.3 hours) in Pixinsight to get an integrated image using the following steps: Image Calibration > Cosmetic Correction > Subframe Selector > Debayer > Select Reference Star and Star Align > Image Integration.
Linear Postprocessing: Rotation > Dynamic Crop > Dynamic Background Extractor (subtraction to remove light pollution gradients and division for flat field corrections) > Background Neutralization > Color Calibration > Noise Xterminator.
Nonlinear Postprocessing: First Histogram Transformation > Second Histogram Transformation > First Local Histogram Equalization > Second Local Histogram Equalization First Curves Transformation > Second Curves Transformation > Third Curves Transformation > SCNR Noise Reduction.
Taken with a TMB92L, Canon T3i DSLR, Orion SSAG autoguider and 50mm guidescope, and Celestron AVX mount. Consists of 42 120-second light frames and 45 120-second dark frames, all at ISO 800, as well as 32 flat and 50 bias frames. Captured with BackyardEOS, stacked in DeepSkyStacker, and processed in Photoshop.
Very early this morning, I had an epiphany, and made a big discovery.
As most of you know, I own a 10" Meade LX200 telescope. The focal ratio of the telescope is f/6.3, which puts it about 15-20 percent optically faster than a standard f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain.
For a couple years, I've had an f/6.3 focal reducer/field flattener for a smaller f/10 8-inch Meade LX5 telescope I also own.
I decided to experiment - and in the process of doing so, I made my 10" LX200 optically faster by 50%. What does this mean?
I now have significantly more light gathering power, at a small cost. The focal length is halved from 1600mm to 800mm.
Not only that, I can shorten my exposure time by half!
This is the first result: Messier 42 - AKA The Great Orion Nebula.
10x5 seconds for the core
20x30 seconds for the outer fringes.
15x5-second dark calibration frames
30x30 second dark calibration frames
10 "T-shirt" flat calibration frames
It would've taken me about twice as long to gather the data to produce this image!
Description: M109 (or NGC 3992) is a beautiful barred spiral galaxy in Ursa Major one interesting feature of which is its ring structure. By integrating 298x300s subs for a total exposure of 24.8 hours I was able to obtain a reasonably well-defined ring structure.
Date / Location: 24, 26-28 February 2023; 1, 4-6 March 2023 / Washington D.C.
Equipment:
Scope: WO Zenith Star 81mm f/6.9 with WO 6AIII Flattener/Focal Reducer x0.8
OSC Camera: ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro at 100 Gain and 50 Offset
Mount: iOptron GEM28-EC
Guider: ZWO Off-Axis Guider
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI 174mm mini
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Light Pollution Filter: Chroma LoGlow Broadband
Processing Software: Pixinsight
Processing Steps:
Preprocessing: I preprocessed 298x300s subs (= 24.8 hours) in Pixinsight to get an integrated image using the following processes: Image Calibration > Cosmetic Correction > Subframe Selector > Debayer > Select Reference Star and Star Align > Image Integration.
Linear Postprocessing: Dynamic Background Extractor (both subtraction to remove light pollution gradients and division for flat field corrections) > Background Neutralization > Color Calibration > Noise Xterminator.
Nonlinear Postprocessing: Histogram Transformation > Local Histogram Equalization > Curves Transformation.
I also inserted, as needed, additional Noise Xterminator steps as well as an SCNR Noise Reduction step in postprocessing.
Total integration is 4 hours and 45 minutes.
Telescope: Lacerta 72/432 f6 w/ 0.85 reducer
Mount: Skywatcher EQ-5 Pro
Camera: Pentax K-1
Guiding: Orion 50mm mini with Asiair
24x300s, ISO800
16x600s, ISO800
Total of a 50 minute integration. Through an Astro-Tech 10" f/8 Ritchey-Chrétien telescope taken with a Starlight Xpress sx-694 CCD Camera. using an Astronomics Luminance filter
First light for the camera and scope, and also my first use of the OAG.
Messier 42 / M42 / NGC 1976 / The Great Orion Nebula
Messier 43 / M43 / NGC 1982 / De Mairan's Nebula
NGC 1973 / NGC 1975 / NGC 1977 / The Running Man Nebula
The Great Orion Nebula, a giant interstellar cloud of gas and dust, is the closest region of massive star formation to us, at a distance of 1,300 light-years. It is a small part of the much larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. The nebula is a vast stellar nursery 24 light-years across, where new stars are being born.
Observations have revealed about 700 stars in various stages of formation. The Hubble Space Telescope recently discovered over 150 protoplanetary disks within the Orion Nebula. These disks are considered to be newborn stars in the earliest stage of solar system formation.
The red/pink hue is a result of H-alpha emission from ionized hydrogen, and the blue is caused by reflected radiation from massive type O stars. The young Trapezium Cluster, visible at the core of the nebula, is responsible for the illumination (and future destruction by photoevaporation) of the cloud.
Total integration: 1 hour 35 minutes (95 minutes)
180 x 30 seconds ISO800
30 x 10 seconds ISO800 (for the core)
Location: Burns Lake Campground in Big Cypress National Preserve near Ochopee, FL
SQM: 21.65 mag/arcsec^2 (Bortle 4)
Camera: Canon T3i (stock/unmodified)
Average camera temperature: 100 F (38 C)
Telescope: Explore Scientific ED80 f/6.0 Apochromatic Refractor (with ES field flattener)
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G (unguided)
Processing software: PixInsight, Paint.NET
Messier 45 / M45 / The Pleiades / The Seven Sisters
Venus
Every 8 years, Venus passes close to the Pleiades cluster from our perspective. Since Venus was over 700 times brighter than the brightest star in the cluster at the time of this conjunction, short exposures had to be combined with long exposures captured months ago to show both objects in a composite image.
Venus apparent magnitude: -4.3
M45 apparent magnitude: 1.6
Venus distance from Earth: 0.630 AU (0.00001 LY)
M45 distance from Earth: 28,080,000 AU (444 LY)
Total integration for M45: 30 hours 43.4 minutes (1843.4 minutes)
10/24/19: 59 x 120 seconds ISO400
10/28/19: 120 x 120 seconds ISO400
11/21/19: 54 x 120 seconds ISO400
11/25/19: 5 x 120 seconds ISO400
11/28/19: 166 x 120 seconds ISO400
01/17/20: 145 x 120 seconds ISO400
01/26/20: 136 x 120 seconds ISO400
01/26/20: 1 x 84 seconds ISO400
02/15/20: 109 x 120 seconds ISO400
02/22/20: 93 x 120 seconds ISO400
03/24/20: 34 x 120 seconds ISO400
Total integration for Venus: 6 minutes
04/04/20: 12 x 30 seconds
Location: Charlottesville, VA and Coral Springs, FL
SQM: 19.22 mag/arcsec^2 and 18.18 mag/arcsec^2 (Bortle 6 and Bortle 8/9)
Camera: Canon T3i (stock/unmodified)
Average camera temperature: 78 F (26 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
To give M7 (NGC 6475) a proper treatment with the Edge HD 925 and HyperStar would require a mosaic. Maybe I'll come back and build that at some point, but the center of the cluster is rather interesting on its own. I especially like the adjacent dark nebula. Remember - every dot in this picture is a star.
M7 itself is an open cluster of young stars that you can find just off the tail of Scorpius. It appears in many of my wide-field shots of that area of the sky, but this is the first time I have focused closely on it. An analysis of the H-R diagram of M7 indicates that it has an age between 125 million and 200 million years. (See Reddy and Lambert, arxiv:1902.02939)
North is at the top in this image.
I was a little surprised, but very pleased, to wake to a clear sky on 20161113. This had not been forecast, but reality beats theory! I went outside to have a closer look at the Milky Way where it passes through the constellations of Centaurus, Vela, and Carina. This is basically the region of the Milky Way that stretches from the centre to the top of the image that I posted recently at ...
www.flickr.com/photos/momentsforzen/30802518655/
At the same time, I investigated various questions that I have been pondering ...
a) Will my 150mm f/4.0 lens provide better detail of the night sky than my 250mm f/5.6 lens?
b) Is there any benefit to be gained by using ISO 3200 rather than ISO 1600 or does it add more noise to the image?
c) What do the 5 Caldwell Objects look like in this region of the sky?
d) Can I devise a general, simple, and robust post-processing sequence that will produce night sky images that I find pleasing and satisfying?
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a) Overall, I am getting better results with my 150mm lens than the 250mm lens.
- The increased resolution of the 250mm lens is not sufficient to offset the 2 stops of additional light with the 150mm lens.
- The 150mm has a 1 stop wider aperture (f/4.0 versus f/5.6).
- Reduced focal length / magnification allowed a longer exposure time without showing star trail behavior.
> Exposure length of 4 or 8 seconds versus 2 seconds (i.e., 1 or 2 stops equivalent of exposure better off).
- The resolution advantage of the 250mm versus 150mm focal length cannot be fully exploited because the ultimate resolution is being control by the background ambient light level.
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b) There appears to be a net benefit to use ISO 3200 over ISO 1600. When pushed to a similar level of enhancement as the image shown here, the corresponding image acquired with ISO 1600 displays artifacts in the form of horizontal stripes or banding.
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c) Amateur astronomers have appreciated being guided in their viewing targets by several lists of objects, notably the Messier Objects, the Caldwell Catalogue, and the New General Catalogue.
The 109 / 110 Messier Objects were compiled into a list by Charles Messier in the late 18th century. He was primarily interested in comets and he compiled the list so that he could ignore these features in his search for new comets.
The New General Catalogue is a vastly more comprehensive list of 7,840 objects compiled by John Dreyer in the late 19th century. It contains references to many different types of deep sky objects, going well beyond what can be observed with the unaided eye or captured by very simple imaging devices (e.g., a "conventional" camera).
The Caldwell Catalogue is a list of 110 relatively bright deep sky objects. Messier compiled his list from observations made in France, and consequently, it does not include features that are only visible from southern latitudes. The entries in the Caldwell Catalogue were sourced from features that are visible from both or either northern and southern hemisphere locations.
List of Caldwell Catalog objects that are present in this scene ...
Catalogue # | Name | NGC or IC # | Type | Constellation | Apparent Brightness
C91 | Wishing Well Cluster | NGC 3532 | Open Cluster | Carina | +3
- Diffuse cluster of stars 1/3rd from the left edge and 1/3rd from the bottom.
C92 | Eta Carinae Nebula | NGC 2272 | Nebula | Carina | +3
- Bright, complex cluster immediately left of the center of the image.
C97 | Pearl Cluster | NGC 3766 | Open Cluster | Centaurus | +5.3
- Small, dense cluster of stars near the bottom edge and 1/2 way in from the left edge.
C100 | Lambda Centauri | IC 2944 | Open Cluster and Nebula | Centaurus | +4.5
- Hard to describe - A half dozen or so bright objects close to the bottom edge and to the right of C97.
C102 | Theta Car Cluster | IC 2602 | Open Cluster |Carina | +1.9
- Loose luster of bright objects 3/4 across from the left edge and 1/2 way up from the bottom.
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d) With the level of ambient light present, there is only so much that can be done to obtain a "good" (i.e., pleasing) result.
- The base level of the background luminance noise is elevated, which reduces the contrast and color gamut of small point objects that can be extracted from the raw data.
- The result is a flat, monochromatic image.
- Refer to the notes below for more details of the processing applied to the raw image to produce the processed image shown here.
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As of a few weeks ago, I have been unable to obtain a solid coupling between any of my shutter release cables and the threaded portion of the 500C/M camera body exposure button.
Various empirical tests showed that the following procedure introduces a minimal amount of camera shake into my long exposure photographs, and I used this procedure to capture this image.
- Mount the camera on a sturdy tripod.
- Adjust the "Exposure Time" on the CFV-50c digital back to the desired value so that it will be the digital back that terminates the exposure. I have found that I often introduce some camera shake into the image if I terminate the shot by releasing the shutter button.
- Pre-stage the mirror by using the mirror lock-up functionality that is activated by sliding the tab below the camera body winder upwards.
- Allow any camera shake to subside by waiting several seconds.
- Initiate the exposure by firmly depressing the exposure button on the camera body. Continue to hold the button down.
- Release the exposure button after the exposure is terminated by the digital back.
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Links for background information ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldwell_catalogue
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_object
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_General_Catalogue
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[ Location - Barton, Australian Capital Territory, Australia ]
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Photography notes ...
The photograph was taken using the following hardware configuration ...
(Year of manufacture indicated in braces where known.)
- Hasselblad 500C/M body (1994).
- Hasselblad CFV-50c Digital Back for Hasselblad V mount camera.
- Hasselblad Focusing Screen for the CFV-50c digital back, with focussing prism and crop markings.
- Hasselblad 45 Degree Viewfinder PME-45 42297 (2001).
- Hasselblad Carl Zeiss lens - Sonnar 150mm f/4 CFi T* (2003).
- FotodioX B60 Lens Hood for Select Hasselblad Telephoto CF Lenses.
- MeFOTO BackPacker Travel Tripod
- Hasselblad HATQCH (3043326) Tripod Quick Coupling
- Arca-Swiss ARUCP38 Universal Camera Plate 3/8"
I acquired the photograph (8272 x 6200 pixels) with an ISO of 3200, exposure time of 4 seconds, and aperture of f/4.0
The processing sequence below is "loosely" based on ...
"How to Process Milky Way Astrophotography in Adobe Lightroom"
(Ian Norman, September 7, 2015)
www.lonelyspeck.com/how-to-process-milky-way-astrophotogr...
Post-processing ...
Finder - Removed the CF card from the camera digital back and placed it in a Lexar 25-in-1 USB card reader. Then used Finder on my MacBook Air to download the raw image file (3FR extension) from the card.
Lightroom - Imported the 3FR image.
Lightroom - Used the Map module to add the location details to the EXIF header.
Lightroom - Increased the exposure. I revisited the Exposure setting several times during the processing to make smaller / second order changes to compensate for the effect of other processing adjustments.
Lightroom - Temporarily increased the Vibrance and Saturation to +100. Adjusted the white balance (i.e., temperature). *** I found that adjusting the Purple Hue from purple towards blue and the Blue Hue to darker blue in the HSL panel were important steps towards the final color for the image. After making the temperature adjustments, I returned Vibrance and Saturation to zero.
Lightroom - Increased the Contrast.
Lightroom - Substantially decreased the Whites and Blacks to minimize clipping of the brighter stars and darken the background. Increased Clarity substantially, and reduced Saturation a fraction.
Lightroom - Left the Sharpening at its default values. Increased the Color / Chroma noise reduction setting to 100%. Activated the Luminance noise reduction process with 50%.
Lightroom - Applied the Vignetting portion of the Lens Profile Correction for the Zeiss Batis 2/25 lens. Applied zero Distortion.
Lightroom - Applied Dehaze (positive amount).
Lightroom - Added several Graduated Filters to compensate for the gradients in exposure levels that were introduced by various ambient light sources (e.g., the building and street lights at Kingston.
Lightroom - Re-visited all of the settings to fine tune them.
Lightroom - Saved the Develop module settings as preset 20161118-102.
Lightroom - Switched to the Library module and Output the image as a JPEG image using the "Maximum" quality option (8272 x 6200 pixels).
PhotoSync - Copied the JPEG file to my iPad Mini for any final processing, review, enjoyment, and posting to social media.
@MomentsForZen #MomentsForZen #MFZ #Hasselblad #500CM #CFV50c #Lightroom #Sky #Night #Dark #Stars #MilkyWay #Vela #Carina #Centaurus #Caldwell #CaldwellCatalog #CaldwellCatologue #Messier #MessierObjects #NewGeneralCataolog #NewGeneralCatalogue #NGC #C91 #C92 #C97 #C100 #C102
When I was in Cyprus, I had a go at deep space astrophotography. I borrowed a tamron 200-500mm lens from a friend to try this. It was a cold, clear night with good visibility so I spent over an hour capturing this image of Orion Nebula (also known as M42). I am quite pleased with the end result - the amount of detail captured was much better than I expected. The colours are as captured by the camera. I still have a lot to learn in this area, but I can't wait to try it again.
I am running an astrophotography workshop in Cyprus this summer. It'll be for capturing wide angle night skies, and nightscapes but we may even get a chance to try stuff like this if the group is up for it. You can find more information and book a place on my website: esentunar.com/workshops
Taken with a TMB92L, Canon T3i DSLR, and Celestron Advanced VX mount. Consists of 41 light and 39 dark frames, each a 50-second exposure at ISO 800, stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Photoshop.
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:
43x180s, ISO800
Moon illumination: 87%
Calibrated with dark and bias.
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:
22x600s, 28x300s
Calibrated with dark and bias.
Stack of 47 15 s ISO2500 exposures with a Nikon D5100 mounted on a Celestron Edge HD 925 at focal length 2150 mm. Shot from my Bortle 8/9 backyard.
This was the last deep sky Messier object I needed to complete my photographic catalog.
Taken with a TMB92L, Canon T3i DSLR, and Celestron CG-4 mount. Consists of 37 light and 29 dark frames, each a 40-second exposure at ISO 800, stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Photoshop.
The Merope Nebula (also known as Tempel's Nebula and NGC 1435) is a diffuse reflection nebula in the Pleiades star cluster, surrounding the 4th magnitude star Merope. It was discovered on October 19, 1859 by the German astronomer Wilhelm Tempel. The discovery was made using a 10.5cm refractor. John Herschel included it as 768 in his General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars but never observed it himself.
The Merope Nebula has an apparent magnitude starting at 13 and quickly dimming by a factor of about 15, making most of the nebula dimmer than magnitude 16. It is illuminated entirely by the star Merope, which is embedded in the nebula. It contains a bright knot, IC 349, about half an arcminute wide near Merope, which was discovered by Edward Emerson Barnard in November 1890. It is naturally very bright but is almost hidden in the radiance of Merope. It appears blue in photographs because of the fine carbon dust spread throughout the cloud. Though it was once thought the Pleiades formed from this and surrounding nebulae, it is now known that the Pleiades nebulosity is caused by a chance encounter with the cloud.
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
Taken with a TMB92L, Canon T3i DSLR, and Celestron CG-4 mount. Consists of 41 light and 23 dark frames, each a 35-second exposure at ISO 800, stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Photoshop.
Messier 27 (NGC 6853), also known as the Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula in Vulpecula constellation.
This is perhaps the finest planetary nebula in the sky, and was the first planetary nebula ever discovered.
On July 12, 1764, Charles Messier discovered this new and fascinating class of objects, and describes this one as an oval nebula without stars. The name "Dumb-bell" goes back to the description by John Herschel, who also compared it to a "double-headed shot."
It has an apparent magnitude of 7.5 and is 1,250 light years distant.
Scope: Vixen ED103S
Focal reducer: f/5.2
Mount: Vixen Sphinx SXW Equatorial Mount
Camera Canon EOS 5D M II
Exposure 121 seconds
ISO Speed 640
© 2015
In the November 2013 edition of Sky and Telescope magazine, Alan Whitman mapped out structures within Andromeda that he has observed with his 16-inch Newtonian and a colleague had observed with a 12.5 inch Newtonian scope.
Whitman A. Going Deep: Exploring Messier 31. Sky and Telescope 2013; Nov: 58-61.
Newtonians are famous for being able to grab lots of light and resolve at high magnitude but long exposure astrophotography gives you a chance to catch up. The first page of the article is a black and white photographic negative of Andromeda that has been labelled with all the globular clusters (G designation), open clusters (C designation) and stellar associations (young, star-forming regions, A designation) that the pair have observed over many years.
I have used their map to construct my own based on my 115 minute integration with just a 360/71mm scope and have labelled everything that I could match on their map with my own.
These black and white negative “plates” are interesting because this is how Astronomers in the 1920s, such as Edwin Hubble explored the Cosmos. One of Hubble’s smartest moves was to hire the best photo technician and developer that he could get so that his plates were of the highest quality.
G = globular cluster (located immediately to left of letter “G”).
C = open cluster(s) (located immediately above or below letter “C” OR circled if close together).
A = stellar association (circled).
I am just amazed that I can locate globular clusters around a galaxy 2.5 million light years away with a small scope in my back garden!
Taken on the night of 2021-03-18, this pair of star clusters in Puppis are along the Northern Hemisphere winter path of the Milky Way. A bit more than 10° east of Sirius, M46 (on the left) and M47 (on the right) stand out in long exposure, wide field shots of this part of the sky (like this one: flic.kr/p/22MMqbL). There is also a planetary nebula (NGC 2438) amidst the stars of M46. Another planetary nebula (PK231+4.1 --- can you find it?) is north of that, and the older star cluster NGC 2425 is between M46 and M47 in this shot.
This is a mosaic composed of 3 separate panels. Stacks of at least 25 sub-frames of 120 s each were taken with a Celestron Edge HD 925 at f/2.3 with HyperStar and an Atik 314L+ color CCD with light pollution filter. There are some artifacts around the brighter stars in M47. Preprocessing in Nebulosity; registration, stacking, mosaic composition, and processing in PixInsight; final touches in Photoshop.
The image spans a region that is 105' by 55' and is centered near RA 7h 39m, DEC -14° 40'.
So, the last couple nights we have had, we've been blessed with superb clear weather and amazing transparency, and I have actually been thankful for those on a few astronomy groups on FB for helping me through an alignment issue I had on the LX200 the other night.
I spent a lot of my target acquisition on NGC 6946 and NGC 7023, but I also spent about an hour each night acquiring photons on the Dumbbell Nebula, which I had greater luck with, IMO.
I shot a series of about 230 usable 30-second frames @ ISO2000 and then followed it up with some darks and flats. The good thing is that both nights, the temperatures were about the same so I didn't have any temperature gradient issues - and the low temps held the noise levels down on the D5100. The bad thing? On the full-res uncropped *.TIF, I ended up with a lot of amp glow at the bottom that I wish I could get rid of. It seems to be getting worse, but I wonder if that's because my camera is 'aging' a bit.
Alas, after stacking in Deep Sky Stacker (a process that nearly dragged this computer to its knees), and three further hours in Adobe PS CS3, I was able to call it a 'finished product'.
I'm pretty happy with the results I got. If only I had a guide scope and an autoguider!
Taken with a TMB92L, Canon T3i DSLR, and Celestron Advanced VX mount. Consists of 38 light and 33 dark frames, each a 40-second exposure at ISO 800, stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Photoshop.
A pretty boring open cluster.
Taken with a TMB92L, Canon T3i DSLR, and Celestron Advanced VX mount. Consists of 38 light and 37 dark frames, each a 50-second exposure at ISO 800, stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Photoshop.
First light for my Sky Watcher Evostar 80ED
This was captured from my back garden in light polluted Nottingham, I just couldn't wait to test out the telescope, gibbous moon or not.
I can foresee a visit to a dark sky site in the near future!
Canon 60D
SW Evostar 80ED f/7.5
EQ6 Pro (EQASCOM)
Astronomik EOS CLS Clip Filter
29 frames at ISO 1600
180s per frame
Total integration time: 87 minutes
Off axis guided using an SPC900 webcam and GuideDog.
Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, processed in Photoshop, no flats, darks or bias frames used.
No focal reducer/corrector used.
Taken with a TMB92L, Canon T3i DSLR, Orion SSAG autoguider and 50mm guidescope, and Celestron AVX mount. Consists of 40 180-second light frames and 18 180-second dark frames, all at ISO 800, as well as 15 flat and 25 bias frames. Captured with BackyardEOS, stacked in DeepSkyStacker, and processed in Photoshop.
Found in the constellation Leo, M95 is a beautiful barred spiral galaxy. It was discovered in 1781 by Pierre Méchain, a colleague of Charles Messier.
This Hubble observation reveals a section of M95 featuring its central bar of stars in the upper left and one of its spiral arms extending to the lower right. The observations were taken in near-infrared, visible, and ultraviolet wavelengths of light with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3. Hubble took these observations of M95 to better understand star formation in nearby galaxies.
M95 is located approximately 33 million light-years away and has a magnitude of 9.7. It has around 40 billion stars. Its spiral arms host a flurry of star birth activity and sparkle with the light of countless young, blue stars. The arms themselves are very tightly wound around the galaxy's core and are nearly circular.
M95 can be seen as a hazy smudge on a clear, dark night using a good pair of binoculars, but large telescopes will reveal more detail. It appears close to M96, M105, and a number of fainter galaxies that all belong to the Leo I (or M96) group. The best time of the year to view M95 is in April.
Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI, and D. Calzetti (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) and R. Chandar (University of Toledo)
Description: This image of the Pleiades Star Cluster M45 was developed by me from 120x300s subs or 10.0 hours of total exposure time. The inset shows a close-up of the cluster star Maia and its immediate surroundings.
Date / Location: 9-11, 13, 14, 16-19 December 2022 / Washington D.C.
Equipment:
Scope: WO Zenith Star 81mm f/6.9 with WO 6AIII flattener/focal reducer x0.8
Cooled camera: ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro at 100 Gain and 50 Offset
Mount: iOptron GEM28-EC mount
Guider: ZWO Off-Axis Guider
Guide camera: ZWO ASI 174MM mini
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Light pollution filter: Chroma LoGlow Broadband Light Pollution Reduction Filter - 2"
Software: Pixinsight
Processing Steps:
Preprocessing: I preprocessed 120x300s subs (= 10.0 hours) in Pixinsight to get an integrated image using the following process steps: Image Calibration > Cosmetic Correction > Subframe Selector > Debayer > Select Reference Star and Star Align > Image Integration.
Linear Postprocessing: Rotation > Dynamic Crop > Dynamic Background Extractor (both subtraction to remove light pollution gradients and division for flat field corrections) > Background Neutralization > Color Calibration > Noise Xterminator.
Nonlinear Postprocessing and additional steps: Histogram Transformation > Local Histogram Equalization > Curves Transformation > SCNR Noise Reduction. Multiple passes of Histogram Transformation, Local Histogram Equalization and Curves Transformations were made in small doses.
Captured with a Nikon D5500 and a 10-inch Meade LX200 'Classic' f/6.3 wide-field telescope.
EXIF data is removed via stacking processes in Autostakkert!2 for planetary imaging and in Deep Sky Stacker for deep sky imaging.
M90 is a bright, beautiful spiral galaxy situated in the Virgo cluster of galaxies. Located in the constellation Virgo, this galaxy is approximately 59 million light-years away from Earth and has a magnitude of 9.5. M90 is believed to be breaking away from the rest of the galaxies in the Virgo cluster and is one of the few galaxies traveling toward our Milky Way galaxy, not away.
Charles Messier found M90 in 1781 while looking at other galaxies in the Virgo cluster. M90 contains approximately a trillion stars and a thousand globular clusters. With the exception of the inner disk region, the galaxy's arms contain very little star formation. Interactions with neighboring galaxies likely stripped away the gas and material that M90 needs to have active star formation in its outer regions. In the future, M90 is expected to evolve into a lenticular galaxy, which is a galaxy that has qualities of both a spiral and an elliptical galaxy.
This Hubble observation was taken in infrared, ultraviolet, and visible light with the telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. Less than half of the galaxy is visible in this image. Astronomers used these Hubble observations to help study the properties of galactic bulges and the cores of nearby galaxies.
The best time to view M90 is in May. It can be seen with binoculars in a clear, dark sky, and telescopes (especially larger ones) will begin to reveal more details of the galaxy, such as its arms and bright core.
Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI, and V. Rubin (Carnegie Institution of Washington), D. Maoz (Tel Aviv University/Wise Observatory), and D. Fisher (University of Maryland)
Last night's dabbling with the
telescope - Orion's Sword!
I rarely shoot deep sky objects in 'Portrait' layout on my camera, but for this I decided to do things differently - so I could capture the entirety of Orion's 'Sword' in one frame.
At the top of this photo is the Running Man nebula, consisting of NGC 1973, NGC 1975 and NGC 1977.
At the center, and the showcase of Orion's sword is the Great Nebula of Orion, designated as Messier 42, and an H-II region known as Messier 43.
Below the Great Nebula, resides NGC 1980, and the star ι Ori (Hatsya).
This is 25-30 second shots at ISO1600, plus 10 5-second shots for the core, captured via Nikon D5100 and a Meade DS2090 piggybacked to a Meade LX200
After months of clouds and rain, all is right in the world. Happy astronomer is happy! :)
This is my second go at deep-sky imaging. Make sure you right-click and view the full-size image to get a better view of the Dumbbell Nebula.
Taken with a TMB92L, Canon T3i DSLR, and Celestron CG-4 mount. Consists of 40 light and 20 dark frames, each a 30-second exposure at ISO 800, stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Photoshop.
Description: Despite integrating ~20 hours of raw data, this proved to be a difficult image to process due to its wispy and diffuse ring structure and its faint coloring. Multiple passes of Local Histogram Equalization were required to reveal some structure in the ring system. A curious feature of this galaxy is that it seems to have counter-rotating disks.
Date / Location: 30-31 March 2023 and 2-5 April 2023 / Washington D.C.
Equipment:
Scope: WO Zenith Star 81mm f/6.9 with WO 6AIII Flattener/Focal Reducer x0.8
OSC Camera: ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro at 100 Gain and 50 Offset
Mount: iOptron GEM28-EC
Guider: ZWO Off-Axis Guider
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI 174mm mini
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Light Pollution Filter: Chroma LoGlow Broadband
Processing Software: Pixinsight
Processing Steps:
Preprocessing: I preprocessed 244x300s subs (= 20.3 hours) in Pixinsight to get an integrated image using the following processes: Image Calibration > Cosmetic Correction > Subframe Selector > Debayer > Select Reference Star and Star Align > Image Integration.
Linear Postprocessing: Dynamic Background Extractor (both subtraction to remove light pollution gradients and division for flat field corrections) > Background Neutralization > Color Calibration > Noise Xterminator.
Nonlinear Postprocessing: Histogram Transformation > First Local Histogram Equalization > Curves Transformation > SCNR Noise Reduction > Second Local Histogram Equalization.
Taken with a TMB92L, Canon T3i DSLR, and Celestron CG-4 mount. Consists of 28 light and 22 dark frames, each a 30-second exposure at ISO 800, stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Photoshop.
Taken with a TMB92L, Canon T3i DSLR, and Celestron CG-4 mount. Consists of 43 light and 32 dark frames, each a 35-second exposure at ISO 800, stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Photoshop.
Taken with a TMB92L, Canon T3i DSLR, and Celestron CG-4 mount. Consists of 43 light and 33 dark frames, each a 40-second exposure at ISO 800, stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Photoshop.
M62 is known for being one of the most irregularly shaped globular clusters in our galaxy. This might be because it is one of the closest globular clusters to the center of our galaxy and is affected by galactic tidal forces, displacing many of the cluster's stars toward the southeast.
M62 has an extremely dense core of 150,000 stars. In 2007, astronomers discovered a stellar-mass black hole in M62, one of the first to ever be found in a globular cluster. According to observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, M62 also contains a large number of X-ray binaries, which formed in close encounters between stars in the cluster.
This Hubble observation was taken in ultraviolet and visible light using the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3. Most of the globular cluster is featured in this observation, with the core focused toward the top right. Hubble made these observations to help astronomers study the characteristics of globular clusters, measure the mass of M62's black hole, and help determine the formation and evolution of cluster binaries.
Charles Messier discovered M62 in 1771. The globular cluster is almost 12 billion years old. M62 has a magnitude of 6.6 and is located in the constellation Ophiuchus, approximately 22,200 light-years away from Earth. Best observed in July, the cluster is easily found southeast of the bright star Antares and can be seen as a hazy patch with binoculars. Small telescopes reveal a comet-like shape, while telescopes 8 inches or larger will resolve more stars.
Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI, and S. Anderson (University of Washington) and J. Chaname (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile)
Classified as a "Peculiar" galaxy - it has probably been disrupted by its gravitational encounter with M101
This is Messier 13 - a globular cluster of stars in the constellation of Hercules and probably the best globular cluster in the Northern hemisphere. Its often just known as the "Hercules Cluster"
A small galaxy is seen underneath at about 7 o'clock - IC 4617 and a larger spiral galaxy is seen at the lower left edge - NGC 6207.
M13 is a very, very old collection of stars held together by its own gravity that orbits our Milky Way. This was probably a dwarf galaxy core that lost its periphery to our Milky Way galaxy in the distant past.
Many descriptions on the net state that the brightest star in the cluster is a large variable red star, V11, but it took me quite a while to find an image showing exactly which star that is - Ive marked it in the negative inset.
You are looking at a clump of about 300000 stars in a diameter of 145 light years - imagine what the night sky would look like inside the cluster, given our nearest stellar neighbour is 4.2 LY away.
Most of the stars are extremely old and stable red dwarfs, (about 12 billion years old). Don't expect any young massive stars to go supernovae in this locale.
A few youngish "Blue Stragglers" are seen but essentially these are close binary stars where one partner pulls matter off the other to rejuvenate its nuclear processes and appears to be a young massive blue star.
38 x 6 min exposures from T3 in New Mexico. Dithered and drizzled. Post-processed in PixInsight.
Our galaxy has about 100 globular clusters, the Andromeda galaxy about 370.
You will find more about M13 in some of my previous write-ups in the DSO album here - in particular the "propeller" seen towards the top left and how M13 was accurately drawn and described by astronomers working with "the Leviathan" telescope in Birr Castle, Ireland.
Star cluster M46 (NGC 2437) and planetary nebula NGC 2438, shot from Joshua Tree, CA on 2013-02-09; stack of 16 185s exposures with a Celestron Edge HD 9.25" at f/2.3 with HyperStar and an Atik 314L+ color CCD; preprocessing and stacking in Nebulosity, processing in PixInsight, final touches in PS CS 5.1.
Clear skies are amazing when they happen here in the Pacific Northwest. The last two have been no exception!
This was the first time I've shot this little critter. A good friend gave the suggestion, and for that I'm happy he did! Messier 63 is an amazing target!
Imaging gear:
Nikon D5100
Meade LX200 10-inch f/6.3
Software:
BackyardNIKON
Deep Sky Stacker
Adobe Photoshop CS3
Dear Charles Messier,
were you drunk?
were you high?
Why is this in your catalog, guy?
It's just two stars, not even four
Even M73 has twice as more
I never would have aimed my telescope at this,
but then my collection would one object miss.
Yay. M40. Somehow, I got 4 frames to stack - even though there's basically nothing here.
Photographic Messier catalog complete! Here's the link to it:
I used my camera to produce a night sky image to provide a location map for more detailed, higher resolution photographs of features that are present in this portion of the Milky Way.
The following classes of features are identified in this image; Planets, the Milky Way, Messier Objects, and Barnard Catalogue (Dark nebulae) Objects.
A “clean” version of this image, along with details of the hardware, capture, and post-processing can be seen at ...
www.flickr.com/photos/momentsforzen/42748021022/
@MomentsForZen #MomentsForZen #MFZ #Hasselblad #X1D #PixInsight #Photoshop #GradientXTerminator #Lightroom #PhotoSync #Sky #Night #Dark #Stars #Planets #Saturn #MilkyWay #GreatRift #LargeSagittariusStarCloud #SmallSagittariusCloud #Teapot #Scorpius #TheCatsEyes #Lesath #Shaula #MessierObjects #M6 #ButterflyCluster #M7 #PtolemyCluster #M8 #LagoonNebula #M20 #TrifidNebula #M16 #EagleNebula #M17 #SwanNebula #HorseshoeNebula #M22 #SagittariusCluster #M23 #M25 #BarnardCatalogue #DarkNebula #B56 #B78 #ThePipeDarkNebula
I used my camera to produce a night sky image to provide a location map for more detailed, higher resolution photographs of features that are present in this portion of the Milky Way.
I don’t often use an 80mm lens for night sky photographs, but I am very happy with the level of detail in the output here. This focal length is midway between the wide angle (21-40mm) and mild telephoto (150mm and 250mm) lenses that I use more often.
The following features of interest can be seen in this image;
Planets ...
- Saturn
Milky Way ...
- Great Rift
- Large Sagittarius Star Cloud
- Small Sagittarius Cloud
- The “Teapot”
- Scorpius - Including the Cat’s Eyes - Lesath and Shaula
Messier Objects ...
M6 - Butterfly Cluster
M7 - Ptolemy Cluster
M8 - Lagoon Nebula
M20 - Trifid Nebula
M16 - Eagle Nebula
M17 - Swan (Horseshoe) Nebula
M22 - Sagittarius Cluster
M23
M25
Barnard Catalogue (Dark nebulae) ...
- B56, B59, B65-67, and B78 - The Pipe (Dark) Nebula - Barnard Catalogue
-———
Links for background information ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Messier_objects
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnard_Catalogue
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_Nebula
-———
An annotated version of this image can be seen at ...
www.flickr.com/photos/momentsforzen/28924569218/
The annotation was added using Pixelmator Pro.
-———
[ Location - Barton, Australian Capital Territory, Australia ]
Photography notes ...
The photograph was taken using the following hardware configuration ...
(Year of manufacture indicated in braces where known.)
- Hasselblad X1D-50c Medium Format Mirrorless Digital Camera (Silver) - MFR # H-3013900 (2017).
- Hasselblad X1D GPS Module - MFR # H-3054772.
- Really Right Stuff BX1D-L Set L-Plate for Hasselblad X1D - MFR # BX1D L-PLATE SET.
- Novoflex Adapter Hasselblad V-Lenses To Hasselblad X-Mount (X1D) - MFR # HAX/HA.
- Hasselblad Carl Zeiss lens - Planar T* 80mm f/2.8 CFE (2000).
- FotodioX B60 Lens Hood for Select Hasselblad Standard Length CF Lenses.
- Really Right Stuff (RRS) TQC-14 Series 1 Carbon Fiber Tripod - MFR # TQC-14.
- Really Right Stuff (RRS) BH-30 Ball Head with Mini Screw-Knob Clamp - MFR # BH-30 PRO.
- Artisan & Artist ACAM-301N Silk Cord Strap (Black) - MFR # AAACAM301NBLK.
I acquired the 21 input photographs (8272 x 6200 pixels) with an ISO of 800, exposure time of 8.0 seconds, and aperture of f/2.8.
Post-processing ...
Finder - Removed the UHS-I SDXC card from the camera and placed it in a Lexar 25-in-1 USB card reader. Then used Finder on my MacBook Air to download the raw image file (3FR extension) from the card.
Lightroom - Imported the 3FR images.
Lightroom - Exported the images as 16-bit TIFF files.
PixInsight - Loaded the images.
PixInsight - Registered the images, using the image in the middle of the sequence of photographs as the reference image.
PixInsight - Integrated / stacked the images.
PixInsight - Output the stacked image as a 16-bit TIFF image.
Photoshop - Imported the PixInsight TIFF image.
Photoshop - Selected slivers along the edges where there were artifacts related to the registration and integration of the input photographs.
Photoshop - Filled these areas using the content-aware fill option
Photoshop - Selected background portions of the image (e.g., corners and borders of the image).
Photoshop - GradientXTerminator - Applied the Filter / RC-Astro / GradientXTerminator Photoshop plug-in that uses tension splines to remove gradients from the image, including any vignetting. Specified “Fine” for “Details”, “High” for “Strength”, and checked the “Balance Background Color” option.
Photoshop GradientXTerminator - Output the image as a TIFF file.
Lightroom - Imported the TIFF image.
Lightroom - Applied various basic lighting and color adjustments in the Develop module.
Lightroom - Saved the Develop module settings as a preset.
Lightroom - Output the image as a JPEG image using the “Maximum” quality option (8272 x 6200 pixels).
PhotoSync - Copied the processed image to my iPad Mini for any final processing, review, enjoyment, and posting to social media.
@MomentsForZen #MomentsForZen #MFZ #Hasselblad #X1D #PixInsight #Photoshop #GradientXTerminator #Lightroom #PhotoSync #Sky #Night #Dark #Stars #Planets #Saturn #MilkyWay #GreatRift #LargeSagittariusStarCloud #SmallSagittariusCloud #Teapot #Scorpius #TheCatsEyes #Lesath #Shaula #MessierObjects #M6 #ButterflyCluster #M7 #PtolemyCluster #M8 #LagoonNebula #M20 #TrifidNebula #M16 #EagleNebula #M17 #SwanNebula #HorseshoeNebula #M22 #SagittariusCluster #M23 #M25 #BarnardCatalogue #DarkNebula #B56 #B78 #ThePipeDarkNebula
M104 Edge on Spiral Galaxy
The Sombrero Galaxy aka Messier Object 104, M104 or NGC 4594 is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo located 28 million light-years or 8.6 Mega-parsecs from Earth. The galaxy has a diameter of approximately 50,000 light-years, 30% the size of the Milky Way. It has a bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane in its inclined disk. The dark dust lane and the bulge give this galaxy the appearance of a sombrero. The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of +9.0, making it easily visible with amateur telescopes, Based on its brightness & distance, it's considered by some Astronomers to be the brightest galaxy within a radius of 10 Mega-parsecs of the Milky Way. In the large central bulge, the central super-massive black hole, and the dust lane attract the attention of professional astronomers. It was nicknamed the Sombrero Galaxy as visually through the telescope it resembles a Mexican Sombrero! This is a 18 x 5 minute subs, 90 Minute total exposure with a QHY8 CCD camera and my home made 16" Newt. scope. Despite the heavy moisture and being low on the horizon at my site, it turned out okay.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
Clear skies are amazing when they happen here in the Pacific Northwest. The last two have been no exception!
Over the course of the last two nights I have been re-shooting this gem from January: SN 2014J. While it is no longer visually discernable in a 10-inch SCT, it is clearly visible through post-processing - as a dim fading remnant of what was one of the most spectacular supernovae in recent history.
This was a brand new dataset - 2 hours integration @ ISO 1600.
Imaging gear:
Nikon D5100
Meade LX200 10-inch f/6.3
Software:
BackyardNIKON
Deep Sky Stacker
Adobe Photoshop CS3