View allAll Photos Tagged running_man_nebula
The constellation of Orion needs no introduction. It's a rich area encapsulated by a molecular cloud and featuring some of the most destinct and most popular nebulae the night sky has to offer. These nebulae are popular targets for amateur visual observers with binoculars and small telescopes, particularly the great Orion Nebula (M42) and its immediate companion, the Running Man Nebula. But others are far fainter and benefit from large aperture telescopes or long exposure photography, such as the Horsehead, Flame and Witch Head Nebulae, and smaller, faint nebulae, many of which are represented in this field of view.
This is my first deep sky image produced with my new Nikon Z6ii. It's similar to a surprisingly good test image that I shared some weeks ago shot with my D750, only now with the constellation much higher, I didn't have horizon glow and treetops to crop out. And since the constllation is up much earlier, I didn't have to cut my night short. I would have actually gotten more exposure time but unfortunately the battery in my SkyGuider Pro died after 150 minutes, putting this session to an end. But overall, I'm very pleased to be able to share what I consider by far my best wide field image of this constellation to date.
Nikon Z6ii mirrorless
Rokinon 135mm f/2 @ f/5
iOptron #SkyGuiderPro
100 x 90 second exposures @ ISO 800
Put together a quick edit of the Orion and Running Man Nebula shot in H-alpha, this is roughly 3 hours worth of integration with 1 minute, 3 minute, and 7 minute exposures. Shot with an ASI183mm Pro and William Optics GT81 (with Flat6Aii reducer) on a GEM45 mount, Astrodon 6nm h-alpha filter.
The Great Orion Nebula (Messier 42). We all know it. It’s one of the first targets we point our telescope or camera at before stumbling down the ridiculous rabbit hole that is astrophotography.
One of my main goals in astsophtoogrpahy has been to meticulously create the most detailed and deep image of the Orion Nebula I could manage. A perfect challenging in astrophotography, in my opinion, as Orion is both a delightful and easy target for beginners, and as advanced a target as we might like for revisiting in years to come. Over the past three years or so I’ve accumulated some 150 hours of data on Orion, scattered amidst assorted experiments and attempts in editing (which, up until now, I’ve never finished). Over the past four months I’ve collected the images for this rendition, and spent an embarrassing amount of time learning and experimenting with new (to me) post-processing approaches to arrive at this result. I’m sincerely delighted to share this labor of love with everyone.
Constrictive feedback and discussion are absolutely welcome.
Acquisition Details
Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4, ZWO ASI2600MM Pro, iOptron CEM-40EC
- Jan 22 2022, Jan 26 2022, Feb 4 2022
- Astronomik RGB: 75x30" (37' 30") f/5 -20°C bin 1x1
- Astronomik RGB: 480x10" (1h 20') f/5 -20°C bin 2x2
- Astronomik UV+IR L2: 136x120" (4h 32’) f/5 -20°C bin 1x1
- Astronomik UV+IR L2: 160x30" (1h 20') f/5 -20°C bin 1x1
Celestron RASA-8, ZWO ASI2600MC Pro, iOptron CEM-40EC
- Jan 23 2022, Jan 24 2022, Jan 28 2022
- Color Imaging: 60x5" (5') f/2 -20°C bin 1x1
- Color Imaging: 129x120" (4h 18') f/2 -20°C bin 1x1
Additional Details at AstroBin
Post-Processing
Source data includes two nights of long and short exposures captured with my Celestron RASA-8 and ZWO ASI2600MC Pro, and numerous nights captured with my Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 and ZWO ASI2600MM Pro with Astronomik UV/IR L2 and Deep Sky RGB filters. With the Takahashi I captured short and long exposures in luminance and color, along with a separate 4-panel mosaic in LRGB (binned color) which I used for stars and fine detail in highlights. I discarded sub-par data from sessions liberally. A master luminance image was created with data combined from both telescopes (blended into RASA data for the larger field of view, which was a point of challenge). A master color image was created with the RASA data, which contributed color for nebulae and background. And the four-panel mosaic was prepared and processed separately, ultimately contributing detail in highlights and the stars in the final rendition. And just because, why not—I’ve gone this far—I used my best subset of 5s exposures captured in Hα, last year, for luminance on the Trapezium. (The original is more than 16000 pixels across, and I went out of my way to present fine detail so a large print could end up on my wall, allowing me to appreciate details up close, returning me to these fun and stupidly cold nights whenever I like.) Starless versions were sent out to Adobe Photoshop for final combination and blending. Some normal PixInsight steps, like HDR combination, also ended up being handled, in part, in Adobe Photoshop. PixInsight was used during this process for features such as Local Histogram Equalization.
It’s challenging to outline post-processing details on this one because the workflow ended up looking like the stereotypical insane person’s wall cataloging a crime scene investigation, but I’m delighted to answer any questions someone may have.
Sigma 500mm F4 Sport lens on ZWO ASI 294MC Pro camera. 4.5 hours in 30 and 180s subs. Mount Skywatche HEQ5 Pro.
Great nebula in Orion constellation. It is a multiple nebulas region. On the left side on the photo is Sh2-279, named “Running man nebula”. On the right is a massive Messier 42, brightest and closest star formation cloud to the Earth.
All the image data was captured during 4 separate nights from my backyard home observatory. As this region is rather too big for my telescope focal length and for my DSLR sensor size, i decided to built 2 panels mosaic to show both nebulas in more adequate frame size. Two stacks of images are joined in the middle (left and right) + very bright M42 core captured with shorter expositions so that details could be visible.
Captured: Nov 12 and 26, Dec 6 and 7, 2018.
Location: AO Nostromo, Gornji Milanovac, Serbia
Telescope: SkyWatcher MN190/1000
Mount: SkyWatcher AZ-EQ6 GT
Camera: DSLR Canon 450D (full spectrum)
Frames: Left segment: 69x360" Right segment: 23x360" Core: 42x20"
Exposure: 9.5h
Software: PHD2; BackyardEOS; PixInsight; Photoshop
Me and my friends from "Astronomical Society Aristarchus" have created astrophotography website. I would appreciate if you take a look :) www.aristarh.rs
This is my third attempt at photographing the Orion Nebula. Over the years I’ve used different star trackers and lenses with different results, and this is by far my best attempt, but I still have a lot to improve upon. I recently purchased a small telescope, the William Optics Zenithstar 61 refactor. That plus the iOptron SkyGuider Pro have worked out quite well, the telescope is small and light enough to work with the lightweight tracker. This is actually heavily cropped from the original framing. The Z61 telescope has a focal length of 360mm, which isn’t enough to really zoom in on the nebula, so I had to crop in significantly. But I did use 2x drizzle upscale resampling with DeepSkyStacker, so the file was 2x resolution from the original 24MP Nikon Z 6 file, so cropping in dramatically wasn’t as bad as it would have been without the upscaling.
The Orion Nebula (M42) is the big one, with Mairan’s Nebula (M43) sort of sticking out the top left side of M42, and then the Running Man Nebula (NGC 1975) is the other nebula in the top part of the frame. Lots of dust clouds are also visible in the background.
This image is a blend of 2 main images, both acquired on different nights. The Orion Nebula is difficult to photograph with one capture because the core of the nebula is easily blown out with the bright stars blocking the view, so two captures with different settings are often used to get a good exposure of the whole scene, with one capture blowing out M42’s core, and another capture to get a good exposure of just M42’s core.
Nikon Z 6 with FTZ lens adapter
William Optics Zenithstar 61 telescope
William Optics Flat61A flattener
iOptron SkyGuider Pro star tracker
Darker exposures for M42 core: 188 x 30 seconds @ ISO 100 — 94 minutes total
Brighter exposures: 84 x 60 seconds @ ISO 3200 — 84 minutes total
The 30s exposures were taken on a night with an almost full moon, so the ISO was much lower because the sky was so bright. The 60s exposures were taken without moonlight and so the signal needed to be boosted dramatically (very high ISO) to get above the noise.
I probably could have used significantly fewer darker exposures for M42’s core, but I captured those images when I was still figuring things out and thought the data might be good enough by itself to create the final image, but there was just way too much noise because I was exposing for the highlights, leaving the nebula and background buried in the electronic noise of the camera.
Both set of captures were stacked in DeepSkyStacker, running on a Windows 10 VM on my MacBook Pro. Then each resulting image was processed in PixInsight for color calibration and stretching, then they were blended in Photoshop, and final edits applied in Photoshop and PixInsight.
Visit my website to learn more about my photos and video tutorials: www.adamwoodworth.com
My latest attempt at this famous object, this time taken on the QHY163M and WO FLT110. It is an RGB image with 88,89 and 97 1 minute frames of each colour respectively, using Optolong filters. The scope was mounted on a Skywatcher AZ EQ6-GT mount and image sequencing was managed via SGP and PHD2. Auto-focus was via a Lakeside Astro focuser. All post-processing was in PixInsight.
Taken from Prachinburi, Thailand
The object is rather overshadowed by its more famous neighbour, the Great Orion Nebula, M42, the edge of which is seen at bottom right here
11 x 4-minute manually off-axis guided exposures at ISO 1600.
Modified EOS 600D & Revelation 12" Newtonian reflector telescope.
Frames registered and stacked in DeepSkyStacker software; curves adjusted in Canon Photo Professional; noise reduction in CyberLink PhotoDirector.
M42 (NGC 1976) Orion and Running Man Nebula (NGC 1977) in one shot color. Technical info 170 x 300 sec -Total Integration 14.2 Hrs
Explore Scientific 102mm f/7 Imaging APO Refractor
Sensor cooled to -15°C on my ZWO ASI2490 MC Pro
Calibration frames: Bias, Darks and Flats.
Plate solving- PlateSolver 2 via N.I.N.A. 2.3, Image processing Pixinsight 1.8.9-2, Photoshop CC 2024
Orion Nebula with "Running Man Nebula" (Sharpless 279) above.
Lights: 55x 60sec. @ISO 3200
55x 30sec. @ISO 3200
55x 30sec. @ISO 1600
The Orion Nebula (Messier 42) is situated in the Milky Way, 1,344 light years away from Earth. It is located south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion.
M42 is a massive star formation. The emission nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen, helium and other ionized gases.
The red hue is a result of the strong H-alpha radiation, while the blue-violet coloration is the reflected radiation from the massive stars at the core of the nebula. The dark areas result from clouds of dust which block the light.
The Running Man Nebula or NGC 1977 is a reflection nebula that is found in the Orion constellation ... almost 1500 lightyears away. It is called the Running Man because the shape looks exactly like that ... ie a man running. It is to the left in this photo ... a purple shape on a field of blue. But in the night sky the Running Man is actually above Orion, but here in this photo I rotated it so that you could see it better.
The Orion Nebula (Messier 42 or NGC 1976) on the right here in this photo is a diffuse nebula just south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is a bright nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky ... but only as a faint fuzzy smudge unless you have the help of a telescope.
This image is composed of only 11 images stacked and processed in PixInsight and Photoshop. With more images there would be much more detail visible.
Captured from my back garden in Torquay here is an image of M42 (Orion Nebula) M43 and NGC 1977 (The Running Man Nebula). Also in the FOV is NGC 2024 (The Flame Nebula) and you can make out faintly The Horsehead Nebula. The 3 bright stars on the left make up Orion's belt and are (bottom to top) Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka.
Created with 36, 1 minute exposures that were tracked and then stacked using Deep Sky Stacker and edited in Lightroom. I had captured 70 images but due to cloud streaking across the frame I lost a few so only ended up with 36 usable shots.
Nikon Z6ii
Tamron 70-200 (2.8) G2 at 200mm
f/4
ISO 800
Skywatcher Adventurer 2i Pro Tracker
K&F Light Pollution filter
36 x 60 second lights, no calibration frames
The Orion Nebula, aka Messier 42, at centre, with the blue Running Man Nebula (NGC 1973-5-7) above it. The smaller nebula attached to the top edge of M42 is M43. The blue star cluster at top above the Running Man is NGC 1981; the loose star cluster below M42 is NGC 1980.
This is a stack of 8 x 5-minute exposures with the Canon EOS Ra mirrorless camera at ISO 800 unfiltered, blended with a stack of 6 x 8-minute exposures at ISO 1600 but through the dual-band Optolong L-Enhance filter that records the faint red nebulosity very well. Blending and masking the filtered with the unfiltered shots allows the faint red nebulosity to come through while retaining the blues, magentas and even subtle greens of the bright nebulosity and the blue of the hot stars as recorded by the “white-light” images.
These two sets of long exposures are blended using luminosity masks with a set of 6 x 60-second exposures and 4 x 30-second exposures, both at ISO 400, for recording the bright core of M42 with its Trapezium stars that would otherwise be overexposed into a bright mass with only long exposures. The short exposures were all unfiltered. I applied a high-pass sharpening filter to snap up contrast in the dark lanes.
All were through the SharpStar HNT150 Hyperbolic Newtonian Astrograph at its native fast focal ratio of f/2.8 for a focal length of 420mm. Taken from home in Alberta on January 28, 2020.
All stacked, aligned and blended in Photoshop 2020. PS’s Auto-Align function aligned all 24 images in one fell swoop in less than a minute.
What is cool about M42, the famous Orion Nebula and the Bluish Nebula near it?
- Only nebula in the northern hemisphere that can be seen with the unaided eye.
- The blueish nebula is called the Running Man nebula. Can you make out the runner?
- The bright core is a highly productive star hatchery!
- "Only" resides 1,344 light years from earth
- Ptolemy catalogued the nebula as a single bright star in 130 AD
- In about 100,000 years, most of the nebula will be gone and leave behind a bright, young open cluster of stars surrounded by wispy remains of the former nebulosity, similar to the Pleiades.1
www.messier-objects.com/messier-42-orion-nebula/
If you are interested in the details of this capture, go here:
The Orion Nebula, M42, with its companion nebula M43 to the north, and the blue Running Man Nebula at top (aka NGC 1975), all in a clear but moonlit sky, illuminated by a first quarter Moon, making the sky blue. So this can’t be a very deep image, but it shows the main features visible in a large telescope. The loose open cluster, NGC 1981, is at top — I should have framed this scene a little more north to better include the cluster.
This is a blend, using luminosity masks, of three sets of exposures: 8 x 8 minutes for the main image content + 4 x 2 minutes for a mid-level exposure for the core area + 1 x 30-second for the Trapezium area right at the core.
This sort of “high dynamic range” blending is necessary for M42 as it contains such a range of brightness that no single exposure can record it all. However, I did not use HDR methods to do the blending, but luminosity masks which are easy to make with one click in Photoshop — Command/Control click on the RGB Channel of each image to select the highlights then add a mask to that image — and they allow far greater control of the blending.
All were with the Astro-Physics Traveler apo refractor at f/6 with the Hotech field flattener and Nikon D750 (not modified) at ISO 200!
I like this one better. The colors are nicer, however I'm struggling to get this in sharp focus. Multiple tries and none of them were very sharp. Focusing in the dark on stars is not easy for me, that's for sure.
This is 17 frames stacked in Deep Sky Stacker (20s, ISO3200, 260mm) with two dark frames, then processed in PixInsight (trial version) and Lightroom.
By the way, you can also glimpse the Running Man nebula near the top of the frame.
This nebula is commonly called "The Running Man Nebula" due to the somewhat identifiable outline of a man striding through the sky. The object’s catalogue number is mostly known as NGC1977, but two other NGC catalogue members lay in the field – NGC1973 and 1975. In a dark sky site, this nebula is easy to see in a small telescope, but the "running man" dark lane area can be difficult to see. The Running Man nebula lies south of the famous and substantial stellar nursery called the Orion Nebula, being some 1,500 light years away in the constellation of Orion. NGC1977 was first discovered in 1786 by William Herschel, with Heinrich Louis d'Arrest first identifying the two smaller regions of NGC 1973 [1862] and NGC 1975 [1864].
Processing this object I found the main subject to be quite heavily shrouded in foreground light dust. I decided to make the Running Man more prominent by reducing the intensity of this dust to allow the revealing of background emission nebula detail and contrast levels.
Thanks for looking!
Full Resolution:
c2.staticflickr.com/8/7812/46173065224_57c64c273c_o.jpg
Information about the image:
Instrument: Planewave CDK 12.5 | Focal Ratio: F8
Camera: STXL-11000 + AOX | Mount: AP900GTO
Camera Sensitivity: Lum: BIN 1x1, Ha: BIN 1x1, RGB: BIN 2x2
Exposure Details: Total: 39 hours | Lum: 65 x 900 sec [16.25hr], Ha: 46x 1200 sec [15.33hr],RGB 450sec x 20 each [7.5hrs]
Viewing Location: Central Victoria, Australia.
Observatory: ScopeDome 3m
Date: January 2018 to February 2018, and September 2018 to January 2019
Software Enhancements: CCDStack2, CCDBand-Aid, PS, Pixinsight
Author: Steven Mohr
My Astrophotography
#orion_nebula and a side of of the #running_man_nebula
Telescope 🔭
152mm David H. Levy #Comet_Hunter at Focal length 730mm.
Mount
AZ-EQ5 GoTo Mount
Camera
ZWO ASI294 mc pro
Guide Camera
ZWO ASI120MC
No filters
60 images light frames:
40 X 60 sec
20 X 5 sec
15 flats
120 sec.
Imaging Software
N.I.N.A
Stacked using
DeePSkYStacker
Pixinsight
Photoshop
Another perspective on M42, M43, and NGC1977. I really like this orientation because it shows of the "Running Man" so nicely.
Taken with a TMB92L, Hutech-modified Canon T3i DSLR, Orion SSAG autoguider and 50mm guidescope, and Celestron AVX mount. Consists of 31 300-second light frames, 25 25-second light frames, and 15 5-second light frames, plus darks, flats, and bias frames. Captured with BackyardEOS, stacked in DeepSkyStacker, and processed in Photoshop.
Hi Guys,
Here is a Photo of M42 the great Orion Nebula and Sh2-279 The running man Nebula. The Image was taken using a Canon 5D M3 unmodified and a Sigma 150 to 600mm lens @600MM on a star adventurer tracking mount. All the stacking and processing was done in photoshop 2020.
There is nothing better than being out underneath the stars on a crisp clear night. It’s just something about the magnitude looking into the vastness of space, taking it all in. after a short time realizing everything, you are worried about suddenly becomes very small.
Anyway, Stay safe and Clear Skies.
Carl.
Thought I would piggy back a second camera and lens to my Telescope last night. So glad I did. Canon 5DSR and 70-200mmL @ 200mm. 192 x 30 sec exposures pointing at Orion whilst my main scope was shooting the Horsehead and Flame Nebula. This wider perspective has managed to capture top right -The great Orion nebula and running man nebula.In the centre region we have the horsehead and flame nebula, and bottom left is Casper the friendly ghost nebula. Pretty damn happy with this. My only gripe was silly user error and for some reason my cam was set to small jpeg and not raw capture.
M42 the Orion Nebula and Running Man Nebula - Just a quick process to test the scope and equipment after some maintenance following some issues the other night - Seems to be working well !
10 exposures at 180sec, with Master Calibration frames added.
Meu primeiro registro da Nebulosa do Homem Correndo (NGC 1977).
Nebulosa do Homem Correndo: Você consegue enxergar um homem correndo nesta imagem? Bem, astrônomos conseguiram. É por esse motivo que a NGC 1977 ficou conhecida como a nebulosa “Running Man” (ou nebulosa do Homem Correndo). Essa nebulosa de reflexão está localizada a 35° ao norte da M42, a Grande Nebulosa de Órion. Ela é visível a olho nu, distante e difusa no céu, perto das três estrelas que formam o Cinturão de Órion. A grande parte azul da imagem é a luz das estrelas vizinhas refletidas em NGC 1977. A reflexão contrasta nitidamente com o avermelhado e com as grossas nuvens escuras de poeira situadas entre a NGC 1977 e Grande Nebulosa de Órion. A grande parte azul da imagem é a luz das estrelas vizinhas refletidas em NGC 1977. A reflexão contrasta nitidamente com o avermelhado e com as grossas nuvens escuras de poeira situadas entre a NGC 1977 e Grande Nebulosa de Órion. Fonte: www.hypescience.com
Refletor Sky-Watcher 200mm F/5 EQ5, Canon T6 (Foco Primário) não modificada. Guiagem Onstep, com Guidescope 50mm e ASI 120MC-S. Processamento: Sequator, DeepSkyStacker, PhotoScape e PS Express.
Nebulosa do Homem Correndo: 17 light frames de 120 segundos, 10 dark frames, 20 bias frames. ISO 800.
After a bit of a break I have started to play with imaging Deep Sky Objects again. This is a stack of images taken with a 200mm lens rather than a telescope. It shows the stars that make the belt of Orion and four of the Nebula, The orion nebula, running man nebula, flame nebula and horse head nebula. Taken from the back garden, bortle class 5, 120 second light frames stacked in DSS and processed in photoshop. It still amazes me that you can see this from your back garden
Another attempt at deep sky photography. Stacked and tracked images - about 30 for 45 seconds each. I think we are seeing from left to right - Flame Nebula, Horsehead Nebula, Running Man Nebula and Orion Nebula.
Untitled-1a-Edit-Edit-3
All data of the Great Orion Nebula and Running Man Nebula combined. An estimated total of an hour and a half's worth of imaging data. Image data gathered in late September, 2012, and then on January 14, 15, and 16, 2013.
Just a quick color version of the Orion and Running Man Nebula, this needs a lot more integration which I'll hopefully get to over the coming months weather permitting.
Another reworking of the Great Orion and Running Man Nebulas. I am getting better at post! This time I used the OrionX photoshop extension to bring out the gas clouds that were missing in a previous post. I really like this one. Taken with the Nikon D850 and Nikkor 500mm pf lens on a modified Celestron alt-azimuth tripod with an iOptron Sky Guider Pro and green laser finder. 10 30 second frames with 5 dark frames and stacked in Sequator. Processed in Photoshop, On1 PhotoRaw and OrionX. I think it came out great!
iso 1600
12 x 3min lights
6 x darks
10 x flats
100 x bias
Stacked is DSS and processed in photoshop CS6
Celestron 5SE
Canon 1100D.
Orion 50mm Guide Scope + WSOASI120-MC. + PHD2.
HEQ5 Pro Mount.
M42 The Orion Nebula and NGC 1977 The Running Man Nebula and M43 captured this time with a longer lens which I wanted to experiment with.
Using the 150-600mm Tamron G2 lens at 600mm I knew I was pushing my star tracker beyond the limits but even without autoguiding I was still able to get some usable images. I stacked a series of various exposure lengths creating 3 images using Siril and in Photoshop stacked and edited them before moving to Lightroom to finish off.
50 lights (series of 20, 30 and 60 sec exposures)
Calibration frames (Biases, Flats, Darks)
Nikon Z6ii
Tamron 150-600mm at 600mm
f/6.3
ISO 800
Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro
Sky - Bortle 5
Thank you for looking.
Orion and Running Man in RGB using Antlia Triband filter. Altair 26C. Askar FRA600 + 0.7x F/3.9. Antlia Triband. ZWO AM5. 17x6 mins.
This is two simultaneously taken views of the region around the Great Orion nebula, M42. On the left a luminance only view taken through my 80mm triplet APO refractor with a ZWO ASI174MM mono CMOS camera, to the upper left the Running Man nebula can be clearly seen.
On the right, through my 130mm triplet APO (the 80mm sits on top of it) usng an Atik460EX mono CCD and three narrowband filters, Hydrogen Alpha, Hydrogen Beta and Oxygen III to create a RGB image. The H Beta filter proved very useful for picking up the whispier parts of the nebulosity. M43 is the small bright nebula towards the top of this image. I was careful to keep individual subframe exposures short enough to stack without the bright part of the M42 nebula obscuring the Trapezium.
Peter
An unfinished work. Only 53 minutes and 30 seconds of exposure.
107x30 ISO 800
Nikon D5000
CEM25P
Long Perng S400-G 66/400 F6 Apo Doublet
No autoguiding this time.
This is a 450 frame stack of 10 second exposures taken with the Canon 5D3 and Sigma 800 lens.
Settings: ISO3200, f/5.6, focal length 800mm.
The Orion Nebula M42/NGC1976 is seen on the right with De Mairan's Nebula M43/NGC1982 in the centre and The Running Man Nebula NGC1977 to the left.
(Made Explore Position 55)
This photo had 10,122 views, 22 comments and 198 faves in just one day on 6th December 2013!!
Equipo Principal: ZWO ASI 1600 mm-pro + SW Explorer 250pds + SW Coma Corrector 0.9x + EQ6-R-Pro + ZWO EAF + ZWO 7x2" EFW
Equipo guía: guidescope 60/240 mm, ZWO ASI 120mm mini
*Gain 100, -20 º C, R-CCD 2" Svbony + L-Pro 2" Optolong, 30x120"
*Gain 100, -20 º C, G-CCD 2" Svbony + L-Pro 2" Optolong, 30x120"
*Gain 100, -20 º C, B-CCD 2" Svbony + L-Pro 2" Optolong, 30x120"
*Gain 100, -20 º C, L 2" Optolong + L-Pro 2" Optolong, 77x120"
50 Darks
50 Flats / filter
Polar Align: SharpCap 3.2
Adquisición: SGP 3.1
Procesado: Pixinsight 1.8.8, PS
Photometric CC
SCNR (type=0, amount=1.00, preserve=true)
Histogram Transf. (mid=0.001, lo=0.012, hi=1.000)
100x 10 sec exposure lights
At this time of the year, many nightscapers pack away their cameras and say that the Milky Way season is over. They couldn’t be more wrong! The core season might be over, but the winter Milky Way is visible all night and makes an excellent photographic target.
With its abundance in hydrogen emission nebulas, the "bad side" of the Milky Way is actually more colorful than its brighter summer counterpart, especially when captured with an astro-modified camera.
Orion is a real gem: The sword is dominated by the famous Orion Nebula and the nearby Running Man Nebula. Both are glowing in red Hydrogen and blue Oxygen light. Orion’s belt harbors the Horsehead Nebula, a dark dust cloud that is silhouetted against another deep red nebulosity (IC 434) and right next to it, the bright Flame Nebula shares the same field of view.
This whole complex is surrounded by the elusive Barnard’s Loop an interstellar gas cloud that is ionized by the stars inside the Orion Nebula.
Another prominent part of the Orion’s nebulosity, is a ring around Lambda Orionis (Meissa). It measures about 12 degrees across and probably is the remains of a supernova explosion, now ionized by the ultraviolet radiation from Meissa itself and some of the surrounding hot stars.
Those blessed with dark skies might even be able to record the very elusive Witch Head Nebula, an extremely faint reflection nebula, believed to be an ancient supernova remnant or gas cloud, illuminated by the nearby supergiant star Rigel.
Of course there is not only Orion. Other prominent Hydrogen emission Nebulas are the Rosette Nebula in the constellation Monoceros, the Seagull Nebula near Canis Major, the California Nebula in Perseus, Cassiopeia’s Heart and Soul Nebulas or The Elephant Trunk Nebula in Cepheus.
The whole winter Milky Way is dotted with open star clusters. Some are naked eye objects like the Pleiades, the Hyades, the Beehive Cluster or the Double Cluster and many of them are part of the famous Messier Catalogue (e.g. M34 – M38, M44 –M48, M67). Some of these open clusters are surrounded by gas clouds and the ionizing radiation from their stars powers many of the emission nebulas mentioned above.
Furthermore, autumn and winter is galaxy time. Our galactic neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, is the most prominent example, but there are many more, like the Triangulum Galaxy (M33), pictured here to the east of Andromeda.
Fed up with deep sky objects? Then you might like this: Under dark skies you might be able to observe the gegenschein. The backscatter of sunlight by interplanetary dust causes this optical phenomenon. It forms a slightly more luminous, oval glow directly opposite the Sun within the band of the luminous zodiacal light. The intensity of the gegenschein is relatively enhanced, because each dust particle is seen in full phase.
Even closer to home, you might be able to see meteors (from the Leonids or the Alpha Monocerotids in November or the famous Geminids in December) burning up in earth’s atmosphere and of course you might also be able to capture some colorful airglow.
For an unspoiled view of this scene check my unlabeled version: flic.kr/p/2c7twYL
First light for the ASIAir I picked up.
19x300s
ASI071MC-Cool
ASIAir, AVX, Orion SkyGlow filter, WO SpaceCat 51.
Bortle 4 front yard stacked image! I was feeling a bit nostalgic and wanted to see how my trusty old Canon 60D might work with the Samyang EF 135mm f/2.0. Since this is a crop sensor camera, it is a bit tighter for a wide area capture. I've shot this same constellation many times but its ultimate beauty never disappoints.
In this, there is:
M42-Great Orion Nebula
Sh2-279-Running Man Nebula
Barnard 33-Horsehead Nebula
Sh2-277-Flame Nebula
Processed in Siril 1.0.9-beta
IC434 Horsehead and Flame Nebula, and M42 Orion and Running Man Nebula - Test FOV ASI6200MC, 6th February 2020. ASI6200MC Pro. Optolong L-eNhance. TSAPO65Q. SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro / 6R StellarDrive. 8 x 10 Mins with SharpCap Pro. Processed in NINA. Some artefacts remain - issues processing.
Winter imaging is not complete until you image the Orion and Running Man nebula found in the constellation Orion. I really wanted to put more time into this, but spent a lot of time switching from a DSLR setup to a dedicated astronomy camera, and the associated learning curve.
This is probably one of the most photographed nebula in the sky. Objects in this view include M42 (Orion Nebula), M43 (de Mairan’s Nebula), NGC 1977 (The Running Man Nebula), NGC 1975 and NGC 1973.
Tech Specs: Williams Optics REDCAT, ZWO ASI071mc-Pro, Optolong L-eNhance 2" filter, 24 x 300 seconds, Gain 200, running at -25C. Image Date: January 21, 2020. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, Pennsylvani, USA.
Annotated version on our blog at: darksideobservatory.com
Winter imaging is not complete until you image the Orion and Running Man nebula found in the constellation Orion. This is probably one of the most photographed areas in the winter sky. Objects in this view include M42 (Orion Nebula), M43 (de Mairan’s Nebula), NGC 1977 (The Running Man Nebula), NGC 1975 and NGC 1973.
Tech Specs: Williams Optics Redcat, Sky-Watcher EQ6R-Pro mount, ZWO ASI2600MC-P camera, Optolong L-eNhance 2" filter, 36 x 300 seconds at -20C with darks from the library and flats taken the next morning, guided using a ZWO 30mm f/4 mini guide scope and ZWO 120 Mini. Captured using ZWO AAP and processed using PixInsight. Autofocus using the ProAstroGear Black-CAT and ZWO EAF. Image date: January 26, 2022. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
Found in the sword of the Orion Constellation, the Orion Nebula is visible to the naked eye. It is only 1,500 light years away from us and thus appears very bright. It is worth checking out with a small telescope or even a pair of binoculars.
Equipment:
SkyWatcher EQ6-R
Nikkor 500mm f/4 P Ai-s at f/5.6
Sony a7RIII (unmodified)
Altair 60mm Guide scope
GPCAM2 Mono Camera
Acquisition:
Taos, NM: my backyard - Bortle 3
89 x 120" for 2 hr 59min and 29 sec of exposure time.
20 dark frames
15 flats frames
15 bais frames
Guided
Software:
SharpCap
PHD2
DeepSkyStacker
PixInsight
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 the outputted TIFF file was brought into PixInsight using: STF, Cropping, Dynamic Background Extraction, BlurXTerminator, plate solving, color correction, NoiseXTerminator and then the DSO was separated from the stars, and both files processed and stretched separately and then recombined using PixelMath and lastly HDR Multiscale Transform to bring back detail in the nebula's core. That file was brought into Lightroom for Metadata and EXIF tags, light post-processing, and cropping to the final image.
Orion and Running Man. Imaged at Steeleman New Jersey Observation Site with a modified Canon D60, TakahashiFSQ106N telescope at prime, Astro-physics Goto900 mount, Off-axis guider, and fish camp guide camera. Subs were calibrated and combined in Pixisight and the image was digitally processed in Photoshop.