LBN641 - A Portion of a Supernova Remnant (HB3)

Although LBN641 is not commonly imaged on its own, it pops up in many widefield images of the IC1805 a.k.a. the Heart Nebula. It is actually a portion of a very faint but large supernova remnant (SNR) designated as HB3 (SNR G132.7+1.3) just west of IC1795 a.k.a. the Fishhead Nebula. Although there is not much information on LBN641, I did find some information on the Deep-sky Imaging webpage by Charles Bracken. The SNR was detected by a radio survey in 1953. Following the survey a small amount of hydrogen (Ha) was detected, however, the OIII was not detected until 1982. It is estimated that the supernova event that created this nebula occurred 30,000 years ago.

There is quite a bit of Ha and OIII scattered throughout the region, however, it is quite dim in fact the OIII was barely visible in any of the subframes. I did some star reduction and could have done more in order to bring out the nebula more but I really like the colorful starfield. I know I am behind the times but I finally got Spectral Photometric Color Calibration (SPCC) to work so I have a better feeling the star colors are somewhat accurate. SPCC along with the new version of BlurXTerminator made processing the stars a breeze. I really like the fine wispy detail in the out edges of the nebula, especially the Ha portion so I decided to keep the image background on the darker side. I have seen more nebulosity in some images of this region including my widefield attempt from last year, but doing that masks some of the fine detail so it is a bit of a balancing act.

Dates: 9-26-23, 9-27, 10-2, 10-3, 10-4, 10-22, 10-23, 10-24, 11-1, 11-2, 11-7, 11-9, 11-12, 11-14, 11-16, 11-18
 

LBN641 - A Portion of a Supernova Remnant (HB3)
Dates: 9-26-23, 9-27, 10-2, 10-3, 10-4, 10-22, 10-23, 10-24, 11-1, 11-2, 11-7, 11-9, 11-12, 11-14, 11-16, 11-18
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, OIII; ZWO R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 163 x 300, OIII 148 x 300, R 72 x 90, G 68 x 90, B 60 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -10 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, GraXpert, Bill Blanchan Star Reduction, Bill Blanchan Color Masks.

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IC 5146 - Cocoon Nebula (wide field)

This is my wide field shot of the region around IC 5146, the Cocoon Nebula (also Caldwell 19, Sh 2-125, Barnard 168), in the Cygnus constellation. IC 5146 is an emission and reflection nebula 15 light years wide and located 4000 light years away. There is a lot of dust in around IC 5146 with a dark dust tail containing several dark nebulae streaming towards the top of my image. These dark nebulae are in Lynds Dark Nebula catalog and designated LDN 1042, 1045, 1047, 1030, 1031, 1040, 1035 and 1040 where LDN 1042 is closest to IC 5146 and LDN 1040 is farthest away. My favorite is LDN 1035 which seems to resemble a crown at the top center of my image.

IC 5146 is relatively bright and ionized hydrogen gas gives it the reddish glow. The small blue reflection nebula to the upper right of IC 5146 is vdB 147. This image was taken with the ASI2600 MC (a color camera) and I did not use a filter in order to capture the heavily dusted region as well as the stars, however, to capture the faint red glow of the ionized hydrogen in the background I used the dual band IDAS NBZ filter. This filter is capable of picking up ionized hydrogen (red) and ionized oxygen (blue). The two separate images were then blended inorder to highlight the dust and stars of the unfiltered data and the glowing hydrogen of the filtered image.

On the left side of the image there is a blue nebula surrounding bright star coordinates, ~ 49 03 16, 22 00 23, which only shows up in the data collected using the dual band IDAS NBZ filter. Since it is blue that would indicate that it is composed of oxygen rather than the hydrogen that predominates most of the background in this region.

Dates: 10-2-23, 10-3, 10-4, 10-10, 10-11, 10-12, 10-13, 11-1, 11-2, 11-5, 11-12

Combined RGB and IDAS NBZ

RGB 

IC 5146 - Cocoon Nebula (wide field)
Dates: 10-2-23, 10-3, 10-4, 10-10, 10-11, 10-12, 10-13, 11-1, 11-2, 11-5, 11-12
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Telescope: Askar FRA300 Pro
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 300mm
F/5
Focal Reducer: None
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: IDAS NBZ, Camera UV-IR
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to a ZWO Mini guidescope
Exposure: UV-IR 358 x 120 (11h 56m), NBZ 318 x 180 (15h 54m)
Gain: 100
Offset 0
Temp: -10 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarX, Bill's Color Masks, Bill's Star Reduction, GraXpert

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LDN 1357 - Helping Hand Nebula

So this is my version of LDN 1357, nicknamed the Helping Hand Nebula, in the constellation Cassiopeia. However, there are numerous other areas of interest in this dusty region such as dark nebulae, reflection nebulae, and colorful stars. Near the hand (center left) is the Yellow giant star SU Cassiopeiae, a Cepheid variable star 19 times larger than our sun 1289 light-years away. Blue reflection nebula VdB 9 (LBN 643) surrounds SU Cas for which it owes its brightness. Unfortunately, big stars is the one thing that my old trusty ASI1600 workhorse camera does not do well as it produces those geometric reflections - oh well (newer ZWO cameras do not have this issue).

Another very cool star is in the lower right, RZ Cassiopeiae. This star is also a variable star which is much closer at 219 light-years away and is also surrounded by a blue nebula designated as VdB 7. Although RZ Cas appears to be the source for the nebulosity around VdB 7, research indicates that it is actually a smaller nearby star.

Several dark nebulae are located in the center of dense dusty regions going through the image like a lightning bolt. LDN 1357 is the dark area located on the left most portion while LDN 1355 is the dark area on what appears to be the palm just above SU Cas. The center top houses another dark area known as LDN 1358.

This is another object that was out of my FOV until this year when some new neighbors cut some trees down and opened a small window. The one downside is that a lot of the window starts low in the sky so it is not the most ideal imaging conditions. It is also very dim so there was nothing in the RGB subframes and only a hint in the luminosity. This object would be much improved if it were captured at a darksite. Still I was happy to get this but I had to do a lot processing gymnastics to pull out the nebula.

LDN 1357 - Helping Hand Nebula
Dates: 9-19-23, 9-20, 10-10, 10-11, 10-12, 11-2, 11-5, 11-10
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, OIII; ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Lum 263 x 120, R 100 x 90, G 122 x 90, B 113 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -10 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, Bill Blanshen Masks, GraXpert.

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Remote Imaging: Avoid Problems & Live Stacking - ASIAIR #astro #astropho...

 

Processed

Processed Crop

 

Unprocessed - Background Extraction

NGC 281 - Pacman Nebula
Dates: 11-1-23
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Telescope: Askar FRA300 Pro
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 300mm
F/5
Focal Reducer: None
Mount: ZWO AM3
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: IDAS NBZ

Focuser: None
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to a ZWO Mini guidescope
Exposure: UV-IR 10 x 60
Gain: 100
Offset 0
Temp: -10 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarX, GraXpert

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Crescent Nebula, WR 134, & Many More!

The main object in this view is the Crescent Nebula, on the left (also known as NGC 6888, Caldwell 27, Sharpless 105), which is an emission nebula located approximately 5000 light-years away in Cygnus. Current structure is a result of a collision of faster moving stellar wind from Wolf-Rayet Star WR 136 with slower moving wind from when the star ejected its outer layers when it became a red giant 250,000 to 500,000 years ago. The resulting collision has ionized the gas causing it to glow. The second most prominent object is Wolf-Rayet star WR 134, on the right, located approximately 6000 ly away, which like the NGC 6888 is also blowing off its outer layers at very high speeds. The blue arc was produced when the outer layer collided with the gas that was already surrounding the star. 

Both the Crescent Nebula and WR 134 show a strong Oxygen III signal (blue color) in addition to the more common Hydrogen Alpha (red color). I used the IDAS NBZ dual band filter and was very pleased to pick up so much of the fainter less abundant Oxygen. To the lower left south of the Crescent is a recently discovered (2007) planetary nebula named the Soap Bubble Nebula (a.k.a PN G075.5+01.7). It is very faint and found only in the OIII band. Below the Soap Bubble another emission nebula LBN 209 that contains an oxygen rich blue region. Just scrolling around in that same area further to the left I discovered a tiny PN that does not show up on the Stellarium or Astrobin Plate Solver. I was about to give up on this nebula but then I thought of all the work Gary Imm does especially with his new compendium and searched on Simbad, turns out this PN is designated as PNA66 69 (RA 20 19 58.3 / DEC +38 24 02.16). Although it is very small it looks surprisingly well defined in my widefield setup, might be worth a look with more focal length. 

If I had to do this over I would have framed it a bit lower to fully incorporate LBN 195 & SH2-104 on the center bottom. I also like the swirling ribbon-like structure of the hydrogen gas in this entire region. I did end up tossing about four hours of data but in order to image at all in New England you have to collect data when you can even if it is not ideal in the hopes that some usable data will be obtained.

 

Crescent Nebula, WR 134, & Many More!
Dates: 8-22-23, 8-23, 8-31, 9-1, 9-3, 9-4, 9-6, 9-14, 9-19, 9-20
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Telescope: Askar FRA300 Pro
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 300mm
F/5
Focal Reducer: None
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: IDAS NBZ, Camera UV-IR
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to a ZWO Mini guidescope
Exposure: UV-IR 53 x 90, NBZ 229 x 300
Gain: 100
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarX, Bill's Color Masks, Bill's Star Reduction, GraXpert

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LBN 576 (Abell 85) - Supernova Remnant

LBN 576, also known as Abell 85 (or CTB 1), is a remnant supernova event that occurred 10,000 years ago towards the constellation of Cassiopeia. It was formed when a star used up all of its elemental fuel and exploded. The glowing shell of gas nicknamed the Popped Balloon or Medulla Nebula glows in visible light as a result of its collision with interstellar gas.

This is a first for me on this object and I am quite happy with the results. It is very faint which is most likely why it is not imaged as much as the nearby Heart and Soul Nebula, in fact there was barely anything in any of the subframes. Processing was interesting as I used the new AI version GraXpert Gradient Extractor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzDDafSrZ7k&t=0s) which was incredibly simple. I have been using just BXT for star reduction but this time I experimented with the settings to keep better star shapes but it did not reduce the stars as much, so I did addition reduction with Bill's star reduction and with using curves. The hard part in processing was trying to keep as much Ha detail while incorporating the OIII data. After doing a normal HOO blend I added the Ha as luminosity because of its great detail but it drowned out the OIII. After doing several additional OIII bends, the detail and OIII color were preserved.

Dates: 8-22-23, 8-23, 8-27, 8-31, 9-1, 9-3, 9-4, 9-6, 9-12, 9-14, 9-16

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LBN 576 (Abell 85) - Supernova Remnant
Dates: 8-22-23, 8-23, 8-27, 8-31, 9-1, 9-3, 9-4, 9-6, 9-12, 9-14, 9-16
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, OIII; ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 107 x 300, OIII 97 x 300, R 39 x 90, G 42 x 90, B 45 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, Grapert, Bill Blanchan Star Reduction.

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Askar FRA300 Pro Review & Comparison to Canon 200mm! #astro #astrophotog...

IC 1396 - Elephant Trunk and More plus First Light!

IC 1396 is a very large cloud of ionized gas and dust located approximately 2400 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. Within its confines is IC 1396A or commonly referred to as the Elephant Trunk Nebula because of its similar appearance. It sits on the top portion of my image pointing upwards. Most visible light images show IC 1396A as dark, however, that is because it glows in the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum as does the famous Horsehead Nebula. Several very young stars have been detected in the Elephant Trunk indicating that it is an active stellar nursery.

The really bright orange star located on the lower left at the edge of the nebula is Mu Cephei or Herschel's Garnet Star. It is a red supergiant nearly 100,000 times brighter than the Sun, one of the largest known stars. If it were placed in the Sun's position it would engulf the orbit of Mars and maybe Jupiter. It is also nearing its death as it has burned up all of its hydrogen and is now fusing helium into carbon. Another region I find fascinating is the lower portion, in particular the numerous dark splotches scattered around. They are known as Bok globules and are isolated small dark nebulae, containing dense cosmic dust and gas from which star formation may take place. I also like the canyon appearance on the upper portion of the trunk, the 3d effect really pops out if you scroll in. Lastly, many images of this including my previous versions have the surrounding area darkened in order to highlight the main portion,I chose not to do that this time in order to bring out the dark nebulae scattered throughout this dusty region.

 
So this is my first image taken with the Askar FRA300 Pro 60mm and I am very happy with the results. I received the astrograph/telescope six months ago but I have been very busy with other things and only now have had time to activate it. Ironically it is also the first light for the replacement ASI2600MC as my old one had the dreaded grease leak. The detail I was able to pull out was much better than any of my previous attempts on this nebula.

IC 1396 - Elephant Trunk and More plus First Light!
Dates: 8-12-23, 8-15, 8-19, 8-20
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Telescope: Askar FRA300 Pro
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 300mm 
F/5
Focal Reducer: None
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: IDAS NBZ
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to a ZWO Mini guidescope
Exposure: UV-IR 76 x 90, NBZ 85 x 300
Gain: 100
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarX, Bill's Colormasks, Bill's Linked Stretch

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Sh2-155 - Cave Nebula

Sh2-155 or more commonly known as the Cave Nebula is a complex region in the constellation Cepheus that contains emission, reflection, and dark nebulae. The most eye-popping part is the ionized hydrogen (Ha) region which supports star formation approximately 2400 light-years away. It also happens to lie at the edge of the much larger Cepheus Molecular cloud so it is plenty dusty! To make things more interesting there is a less popular reflection nebula nearby in Cepheus known as Ced 201 or VdB 152 which also goes by the nickname the Cave Nebula. Patrick Moore included Sh2-155 in his catalog as Caldwell 9 but also nicknamed it the Cave Nebula even though Ced 201 was previously nicknamed the Cave Nebula.

This was the fourth time for me on this object and the second time using the SHO palette. The other two were widefield and with the dual band filter. This narrowband SHO image came out much better than my first attempt partly due to better filters and better processing techniques. The Antlia 3nm filters just bring out the fine detail more than the capable 7nm filters I was using. I probably could have brought out the surrounding nebulosity amore but I like the fading translucent look.

I had some issues with WBPP in PixInsight when stacking as it left stripes running down the SII and OIII stacked images. I remade flats and darks and did a bunch of experiments before I zeroed in on PI where I posted the issue on the forum as well as the Facebook page. The answer from a PI Top Contributor (Vicent) was I needed to 'deactivate the Linear Correction under the Lights tab'. Apparently it is not needed for CMOS cameras. I also had issues with using the EZ Processing suite, in particular I had been using the EZ Soft Stretch scripts as part of my normal routine. However, Dark Archon, the developer, had other commitments so were not usable for a time. Looking for a new easy way (I am lazy) to stretch linear data I came across Bill Blanchan's Pixel Math scripts which I used here. He wrote back with directions on how to reinstall the EZ Processing suite if I wanted to still use it. As of this writing I like Bill's method better.

Sh2 - Cave Nebula
Dates: 7-30-23, 8-1, 8-2, 8-8, 8-9, 8-11, 8-13, 8-18, 8-19
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, OIII, SII; ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 77 x 300, OIII 68 x 300, SII 71 x 300, R 48 x 90, G 48 x 90, B 49 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, Bill Blanchan Masks, Bill Blanchan Stretch.

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Interesting Stacking Issue with Sulfer and Oxygen - Any Thoughts?

I collected 90 second frames of R, G, B and 300 second frames of Ha, OIII, and SII. I then stacked them using the default setting of WBPP in PixInsight as I always do. The R, G, B, and Ha came out looking really well, however, the SII and OIII to a lesser extent had a weird stripe from top to bottom. I did some experiments and the results are leaving me a bit confused.

Experiment:

I restacked the SII with no darks, flats, and bias and there was no stripe. I then stacked them with the darks and the stripe was back. Eureka - the darks are somehow the problem! To be sure I restacked them again with only the flats and there was no stripe.

The confusing part is the same darks were also used for the Ha. If the darks were the issue, the Ha should also be affected.

Results:

Figure 1 - SII stacked with darks, flats, and bias 

Figure 2 - SII stacked with no support frames

Figure 3 - SII stacked with flats only 

Figure 4 - SII stacked with darks only 

Figure 5 - OIII stacked with darks, flats, and bias 

Figure 6 - Ha stacked with darks, flats, and bias 

Anyone have any ideas?

Equipment:

Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, OIII, SII; ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 77 x 300, OIII 68 x 300, SII 71 x 300, R 78 x 90, G 48 x 90, B 49 x 90
Gain: 139
Sensor Temp: 0 C

LDN 1251 - A Dark Nebula in Cepheus

LDN 1251 is a dark nebula found in a faint glowing molecular cloud. Located approximately 1,000 light-years away (LY) in the constellation Cepheus the molecular cloud contains other dark nebulae as well as bright patches of nebulosity associated with newborn stars known as Herbig-Haro (HH) objects. In addition, two small galaxies stand out in this region - PGC 166755, located in the center left shows some structure and PGC 69472 located in the bottom center.

Capturing went pretty well as we had some clear weather last month although the green and blue channels seem to be more dull compared to the red channel - this was most likely due to the smoky skies that have been plaguing us all summer long. Processing was pretty smooth as well. The only thing that I don't like is the geometric shape of the bright yellow star HR8625 located in the bottom of the nebula. That shape is due to reflections on the ZWO ASI1600 camera sensor - it doesn't handle large stars well. The nebular color is what came through. For once I did very little color adjustment other than brightening with vibrance and saturation.

LDN 1251
Dates: 6-15-23, 7-19, 7-20, 7-21, 7-22, 7-23, 7-24
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: L 199 x 120, R 87 x 90, G 92 x 90, B 90 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator.

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Dwarf II Images

Dwarf  Labs recently sent their portable Dwarf II Smart Telescope review. I have made four Youtube videos on setting up and using the Dwarf II as well as basic processing. The Dwarf system consists of the following:

Telescope Parameters:

- Aperture Diameter: 24mm
- Focal Length of the Telephoto: 100 mm
- F-number: 4.2 (Tele lens), 2.4 (Wide lens)
- Field of View: 3° (Tele lens), 50° (Wide lens)
- Digital Resolution: 8 Megapixel (Tele lens), 2 Megapixel (Wide lens)

Hardware Parameters:

- CPU: 4-Core Cortex-A7 1.5GHz
- NPU: 2 TOPS NPU
- Sensor: SONY IMX415 Starvis
- Motor: 0.001 °/s~30 °/s
- Visibility Angle: Pitch 240°, rotation 340°
- Battery: Replaceable, 5600mAh
- Mounting Screw Thread: 1/4″

Interactive Parameters

- Connectivity: WiFi & Bluetooth
- Compatible System: iOS & Android
- API: Available
- TF Card Capacity: 512 GB Max
- Waterproof: IP54
- Storage Format: JPG, PNG, RAW
- Operating Temperature: 14~113°F / -10~45°C

Also, the camera is capable of recording at 30 frames per second.

The following are images produced using the Dwarf II.

Sun

Date: 8-2-23

Camera:SONY IMX415 Starvis

Telescope: Dwarf II Telephoto
Focal Length: 100mm
f/4.2
Mount: Dwarf II
Filter: None

Frames: best 200 out of 2170

Exposure: 1/320s

Gain: 100
Sensor Temp: 15 C

Processing: Autostakkaert, PIPP, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator.

NGC7000 - North America Nebula   

Date: 7-30-23

Camera:SONY IMX415 Starvis

Telescope: Dwarf II Telephoto
Focal Length: 100mm
f/4.2
Mount: Dwarf II
Filter: None

Exposure: 735 x 10

Gain: 100
Sensor Temp: 15 C
Processing: PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator.

M27 - Dumbbell Nebula

Date: 8-2-23

Camera:SONY IMX415 Starvis

Telescope: Dwarf II Telephoto
Focal Length: 100mm
f/4.2
Mount: Dwarf II
Filter: None

Exposure: 18 x 10

Gain: 100
Sensor Temp: 15 C
Processing: PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator.

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Autostakkert Correction

On a recent Youtube video, Solar Imaging with the Dwarf II & Simple processing - PIPP, Autostakkert, & Photoshop (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F97iid78hIQ&t=638s), using Autostakkert I wanted to stack 200 frames but only stacked 2.

Figure 1 - Corrected image, 200 frame stack

Figure 2 - Original image, 2 frame stack

Figure 3 - Corrected & colorized image, 200 frame stack

Figure 4 - Original colorized image, 2 frame stack

Emission Nebula Sh2-140 (LBN 505)

Sh2-140 is a hydrogen emission nebula located approximately 3,000 light-years away on the edge of a ring of molecular gas and dust known as the Cepheus Ring. From what I can tell in the literature, Sh2-140, refers to the more dense star forming the bottom edge of the nebular complex while LBN 505 is the nebula as a whole. Larger telescopes can reveal some of the star formation detail in the Sh2-140 region especially using IR filters.

There are many other objects in this field such as reflection nebulae, a star cluster, and colorful stars. The bright yellow star on the right is known as 25 Cep (25 brightest star in Cepheus). Up near the top the bright blue star has some blue reflection which also seems to be associated with an emission nebula, LBN 500. On the lower right side of the image there is another blue reflection nebula named vdB 153 which is adjacent to reflection nebula LBN 508.

Sh2-140 (LBN 505)
Dates: 6-29-23, 7-6, 7-10, 7-11
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 79 x 300, L 87 x 90, R 69 x 90, G 62 x 90, B 68 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, Bill Blanshan Masks.

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Tarantula Nebula & NGC 2070 from CT?

The Tarantula Nebula, also known as 30 Doradus, is an immense hydrogen emission nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud - a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way approximately 160,000 light-years away. NGC 2070 is a star cluster located in the center of the Tarantula Nebula and provides the energy to ionize the nebula. It is estimated to be 550 LY across and is so bright if it were where the Orion Nebula, the Tarantula, would cast shadows at night. It also happens to be the largest emission nebula in the Local Group of galaxies of which the Milky Way is part of.

For those not in the know, the Tarantula is only visible below 21 degrees north latitude so it is best seen from the Southern Hemisphere. In order to produce this image I used data from Slooh Online Telescopes for Educators (https://www.slooh.com/). Slooh has graciously given our high school a trial year to use their astronomy curriculum which includes their telescopes. What Slooh is NOT is a remote astrophotography observatory like Deep Sky West or Chilescope which is devoted to astrophotography pursuits, rather Slooh is strictly for educational purposes and scientific research.

It is a really ingenious way to learn about astronomy. The way is works is a student or family member (if you get a family membership) will be assigned a quest where they would learn all about a planet, moon, the sun, a star cluster, galaxy, or etc. and as part of the 'Quest' they would have to go on a 'Mission' where they would schedule time on a telescope to image the phenomena - if they are awake they see it acquiring data live. When it is complete, a pretty decent image is produced by a program and saved as a '.png' file. Slooh as of this writing has professional grade equipment in Chile and the Canary Islands so the entire night sky is doable. Chile has two telescopes available and the Canary Islands has four night time telescopes and a fifth solar telescope.

I made a video using Slooh - link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WTz-uj-sVQ)

The reason it is not good for straight astrophotography purposes is you can only go on one mission (schedule time - 10 min) at a time. Also, you have no control over the exposure time, it is predetermined based on the object. For my image of the Tarantula, the 27 stacked sessions (missions) consisted 20 seconds for RGB band and 50 seconds for luminosity (i.e. each session was 110 seconds). In addition, I have no idea if flats, darks, or bias were even collected but if they were I did not see any of that data.

I scheduled sessions (missions) over 2-month period from March to May using the Chile Two Wide-field Telescope which consists of the following equipment:

Telescope: Planewave CDK17 ($22,500)

Camera: FLI Proline PL16803 Monochrome CCD Camera with 63.5mm Shutter ($12,900)

Filter Wheel: FLI FL-CL1-10 CenterLine Ten Position Filter Wheel ($3,900)

Filters: Astrodon Photometric Johnson/Cousins Filters (50mm) ($660)

Mount: Paramount MEII ($20,000)

You can see from the prices which I included just for giggles that Slooh is using top of the line equipment. I do know people that have this kind of equipment but for most backyard astrophotographers it is not feasible. I managed to collect 32 LRGB sessions over that time period but only used 27 of the best sessions after running it through Subframe Selector. The rest of the processing was straightforward - what I would normally do. As expected I was able to bring out more of the faint nebulosity with the stacked 27 frames than the single frame. Interestingly the stacked image was more red than the single processed frame which was more purple.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out especially for such a short total exposure (49 min. total LRGB). It shows what can be accomplished with bortle 1 skies. I don't know if I will do it anymore as I prefer to collect my data with my own equipment but it was really fun to do. I have always wanted to see and image the Magellanic Clouds and some of the other goodies down south so this is a good consultation prize.

Figure 1 - My Processed Image (27 sessions)

Figure 2 - Slooh Processed Image, same crop (1 session)

Figure 3 - Slooh Processed Image, original field of view (1 session)

Tarantula Nebula & NGC 2070 from CT?
Dates: 3-5-23 ... 5-16-23

Camera: FLI Proline PL16803 Monochrome CCD
Telescope: Planewave CDK17
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2938mm (native)
F/6.8
Focal Reducer: none?
Mount: Paramount MEII
Filter Adaptor: none?
Filters: Astrodon Photometric Johnson/Cousins Filters
Focuser: FingerLakes?
Autoguiding: none ?
Exposure: Lum 27 x 50, RGB 27 x 20
Gain: ?
Offset ?
Temp: ? 
Processing: PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarX, GradientXT, Bill's Colormasks

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Late to the Supernova Party - M101 (Pinwheel Galaxy)

If you are not in the astro community you may not know that a supernova was discovered in M101, a.k.a. The Pinwheel Galaxy, on May 19 by an amateur astronomer, Koichi Itagaki. Designated as 2023ixf the supernova happens to be the closest to to Earth in a decade and should still be visible through the summer. There have been hundreds of fine images of this galaxy posted over the last month so my image is a bit late. Ironically I started imaging this in May not realizing there was an active supernova - my last image of this was from 2017 when my skills were very low. Although it was finished in mid June, I only now had time to processed it.

Located in Ursa Major approximately 21 million light-years from us M101 is an immense face-on spiral galaxy 170,000 LY across containing over a trillion stars. The outer arms consist of young, hot, blue star clusters that appear as 'knots' on my image. Also, very large pink-red clouds composed of molecular hydrogen are scattered throughout the arms. These nebular regions are large enough to have their own NGC designation and are home to intense star formation. My favorites include the NGC 5450 on the lower right, NGC 5471 to the left of the leftmost outer arm, NGC 5462 on the left outer arm, and NGC 5461 just below NGC 5462. The very large star adjacent to NGC 5461 is the supernova (SN 2023ixf). A dwarf galaxy, NGC 5477, is located on the far left side of the image.

I captured this over several nights trying to avoid crappy weather and smoke from the wildfires as best I could - a lot of collected data was not used. In addition to capturing natural color with my ASI294MC I decided to capture some Ha data using the IDAS NBZ filter. I separated the NBZ data into RGB channels using the red data since that is where the hydrogen wavelength would fall - of course using a monochrome camera with narrow pass Ha filter would be the optimal way to collect the Ha data.

Dates: 5-26-23, 5-27, 5-28, 5-29, 6-4, 6-10

Late to the Supernova Party - M101 (Pinwheel Galaxy) 
Dates: 5-26-23, 5-27, 5-28, 5-29, 6-4, 6-10
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native), 1400mm
F/10 (native), F/7
Focal Reducer: Celestron 0.7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Optolong Luminosity, IDAS NBZ
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Lum 257 x 90, NBZ 126 x 180 
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarX, Bill's Colormasks

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NGC 5364 & NGC 5363 Galaxy Group

The most prominent object in this image is the beautiful nearly face-on spiral galaxy NGC 5364 (a.k.a. NGC 5317) located in Virgo. William Herschel originally discovered it, however, his son John Herschel rediscovered and labeled it NGC 5317. Approximately 52 million light-years (LY) away it is reported to be about 93,000 LY in diameter. It seems to have an asymmetric galactic bulge and spiral arms which is attributed to interactions with the dwarf galaxy NGC 5360 located above NGC 5364 in my image.

The other major galaxy in this image is the lenticular galaxy NGC 5363. It has a well developed bulge and a diffuse galactic disk. It is approximately 57 million LY away and about 5 million LY distant from NGC 5364, so there is probably no tidal interaction between the two.

I purposely did not center this on the two prominent members as there are other midsized goodies in this image that I wanted to show such as NGC 5356, NGC 5348, and UGC 8818. I really like the structure of UGC 8818 which is 250 million LY away and 39,000 LY in diameter. There are numerous other objects visible in this image including far away galaxies and a quasars.

Typically images taken in the northern hemisphere are oriented with North at the top, however, this is oriented as it would appear taken from the southern hemisphere because I liked the way it looked. Also, this image is cropped quite a bit so I have a link to the full frame image with even more faint fuzzies (https://www.smugmug.com/app/organize/Galaxies/i-QnSTcZC).

cropped image

full frame image

NGC 5364 & NGC 5363 Galaxy Group
Dates: 5-18-23, 5-19, 5-23, 5-26, 5-27
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: None, ZWO R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: None 112 x 90, R 71 x 90, G 67 x 90, B 52 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, Bill Blanshan Masks.

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Arp 286 (NGC 5566, NGC 5569, & NGC 5560)

Arp 286 is made up of three interacting galaxies, NGC 5560, NGC 5566, and NGC 5569 located approximately 80 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. NGC 5566 is a barred spiral galaxy and the largest of the trio at 150,000 light-years in diameter. It has a very distinct dust lane on the upper portion and to travel with one of the broad arms. This galaxy has a yellow tint while its closest and smallest neighbor, NGC 5569, has blue tint. NGC 5560 has a yellow core and blue outer portion.

I imaged this about a month ago while it was in a good location for me. I found this object while searching Stellarium and ironically I saw that Michael Feigenbaum had just posted a fabulous version of this object. I am happy with how my version turned out although there is not as much detail as I had seen on other versions. I only collected RGB data but wish I would have collected some Hydrogen. Also, this happens to correspond to when the Alberta smoke began to affect our skies so my next few images may be iffy.

Arp 286 (NGC 5566, NGC 5569, & NGC 5560)  
Dates: 5-17-23, 5-18, 5-25
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native), 1400mm
F/10 (native), F/7
Focal Reducer: Celestron 0.7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Optolong Luminosity
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Lum 277 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarX

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M53 & NGC5053 (2023)

M53 (also known as NGC 5024) is a globular cluster located in the constellation of Coma Berenices. It is approximately 60,000 light-years away from us and ironically the same distance away from the center of the Milky Way. The metal poor cluster is dominated by blue and yellow stars. Metal-poor clusters are composed mostly of first generation stars (stars that are still burning their original light elements such as hydrogen and helium). The other feature in this image is NGC 5023, also a metal-poor globular cluster but much more diffuse. It is very close to M53 and is believed to have interacted with it in the past.

The other stars in this field of view are quite colorful. Located in the upper right corner is the very far spiral galaxy IC 857 along with some other interacting galaxies (IC 858 and IC 859) just below.

I find processing globular clusters particularly difficult but they are fun to do anyway. Capturing this object was pretty interesting as the sky conditions have been particularly iffy due to Canadian wildfires. First there were the Alberta fires which were affecting the transparency when some of this data was collected so I had to trash some of the data. Most recently we have been dealing with actual smoke from much closer wildfires in Quebec - the smell is pretty bad but the red sun at noon looks pretty cool.

M53 & NGC5053 (2023)
Dates: 5-9-23, 5-10, 5-11
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: None, ZWO R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: None 68 x 60, R 90 x 90, G 41 x 90, B 64 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator.

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M63 (2023)

Messier 63 (a.k.a. M63, NGC 5055, or the Sunflower Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. At approximately 30 million light-years away and 100 thousand across the galaxy contains a central disc surrounded by many short spiral arm segments. It is part of the M51 Group, a group of galaxies that also includes M51 (the 'Whirlpool Galaxy'). Also of note, in 1971, a supernova with a magnitude of 11.8 appeared in one of the arms. The spiral nature of the arms appears to be discontinuous and loose in visible light so it is also considered a flocculent galaxy.

This is a very popular image among astrophotographers so it may be surprising that it is only the second time I imaged this, the first time was an unimpressive attempt from over six years ago. As usual I have three different versions differing mainly in the color and not which is the best. However, I believe this version highlights the fine detail the best. I find these larger galaxies particularly challenging to process due to the color varitions.

I did not collect any hydrogen data but I wish I would have plenty of rich star forming Ha regions in this galaxy. One thing that I did not capture are some newly detected very faint arc star streams believed to be remnents of satellite galaxies distorted by tidal forces. To capture this a faster scope along with darker site would be required or highly recommended.  

I had to trash 120 exposures (one night's worth of data) due to smoke from wildfires in Alberta. Lastly, I seemed to have improved my star shapes by loosing and tightening the screws holding the dew heater ring which may have been pinching the corrector plate.

M63 (2023)
Dates: 5-9-23, 5-10, 5-11, 5-14
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native), 1400mm
F/10 (native), F/7
Focal Reducer: Celestron 0.7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Optolong Luminosity
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Lum 383 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarX, Bill's Color Masks

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NGC 3521 (2023)

This is my version of NGC 3521, a very cool looking spiral galaxy in Leo. I decided to go after this object like I choose most of my objects and that is searching Stellarium. It is a decent size which was important since I was using the AT115 refractor rather than the Edge800. It is 35 million light-years away and 50,000 light-years across. It is quite colorful with pink star-forming regions as well as blue clusters. I was very surprised with the flocculent nature surrounding the core as well as some of the other finer structures in the arms. The other unusual feature of NGC 3521 is that it sits inside fainter bubble-like shells. These shells are believed to be tidal debris from satellite galaxies that have merged with NGC 3521 long ago.

I did crop this image to get a closer view but not too far as I really like the colorful starfield. The better shaped stars are the benefit of the refractor over the SCT but of course you lose out in focal length. Several small galaxies can be spied on in the background as well which is another reason for not cropping too much.

NGC 3521 (2023)
Dates: 4-12-23, 4-13, 4-17, 4-20, 4-21, 4-24, 4-25
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: None, ZWO R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: None 132 x 90, R 94 x 90, G 82 x 90, B 72 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, Bill Blanshan Masks.

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NGC 4725 & NGC 4712 (2023)

Although these galaxies appear close, they are actually quite far apart. NGC 4725 is the closest galaxy at 40 million light-years away and happens to be the smaller one even though it appears larger. It is a barred spiral galaxy over 100 thousand light-years across. Interestingly, the galaxy only has one large arm that makes 2-1/2 revolutions around the core. The arm has many prominent blue regions indicating newborn star clusters. The smaller galaxy, NGC 4712, is larger than NGC 4725 in actual size at 150,000 light-years across but is over 200 million light-years away. I decided to image this by doing a random search on Stellarium and thought it would make a good project with my C8. Ironically, I found many other people that I follow also doing this object - great minds think alike.

There appears to be many smaller galaxies in this Field of View which is not surprising given the location in the constellation of Coma Berenices, a region of space rich in galaxies. NGC 4725 had a surprising amount of detail as did NGC 4712. The central dust lanes are really quite visible and even the faint ones near the core. The colors were fairly easy to pull out without much adjustment, however, that made not going overboard with color saturation difficult especially for me since I tend to saturate to the fullest extent. With this in mind I held back and attempted not to oversaturate.

NGC 4725 & NGC 4712 (2023)
Dates: 4-12-23, 4-13, 4-19, 4-20, 4-25
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native), 1400mm
F/10 (native), F/7
Focal Reducer: Celestron 0.7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Optolong Luminosity
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Lum 475 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarX, Bill's Color Masks

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Sh2-284 (2023) - Colorized SHO w/ RGB Stars

This is my version of the emission nebula Sh2-284 (also known as LBN 983 & LBN 984). Sh2-284 is a star forming region of gas and dust located in the constellation Monoceros approximately 15,000 light-years from the Earth. I really like the edges of the main portion as there are several "elephant trunk" formations - huge pillars of gas and dust that stretch into the central portion of the nebula. My favorite is the pillar located on the bottom which resembles a forefinger of a hand pointing upwards to the stars in the center of the nebula. These pillars are formed by the intense radiation and stellar winds from the very hot stars of the open cluster designated Dolidze 25. The cluster is very young at about 3 to 4 million years and is responsible for clearing a central void in the surrounding nebula. Overall the nebula is approximately 150 light-years across.

I was really happy about imaging this as it was somewhat low in a location where I had a limited window. Nine nights of imaging began February 21 and ended on March 26. My new Antlia 3nm filters were used capturing the Ha and OIII narrowband data. Processing was fun and a bit tedious as I did it using the normal SHO combining methods but simultaneously using the Colorized SHO processing method (colorize OIII to blue, SII to yellow-red, and Ha to gold and then combine them using Pixel Math). This was only the second time I used this method and I wanted to ensure the base image was at least as good or better than the normal method. Interestingly, they were similar in color, however, the Colorized version did seem slightly better so I went with it. I am pretty happy with the results and think it is quite interesting how inside the OIII inside the gold-red ring is a turquoise color where the OIII outside the ring is deeper blue.

Sh2-284 (2023) - Colorized SHO w/ RGB Stars

Dates: 2-21-23, 2-24, 2-26, 3-8, 3-9, 3-16, 3-19, 3-20, 3-26

Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, OIII; ZWO R, G, B, SII
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 77 x 300, OIII 65 x 300, SII 55 x 300, R 32 x 60, G 20 x 60, B 30 x 60
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -20 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, Bill Blanshan Masks.

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On the Border (Perseus & Cassiopeia)!

Amazing what can be captured in 22 minutes in Bortle 3.5-4.0 skies at 7600 ft (2300 m). This is another image from just outside of Santa Fe taken with my Canon nifty fifty camera lens. The nifty fifty is actually a 50mm f/1.8 prime lens and it is surprisingly good for medium to wide field astrophotography especially considering the price. In this image are lots of star clusters, emission nebulae, and dark nebulae. The highlights for clusters is the Double Cluster (NGC 869 & 884) in the center but many others are scattered throughout such as the Lawnmower (NGC 663), Yin-Yang (NGC 659), Fuzzy Butterfly (NGC 654), and Dragonfly (NGC 457). Two gorgeous emission nebulae, The Heart (IC 1805) and Soul (IC 1848) are just north of the Double Cluster. In addition to these emission nebulae, there are a few very dark regions composed of molecular gas and dust, these are the dark nebulae.

I really like how it came out but I would have been able to pickup more photons had I set to a lower f-stop than f/4 (I forgot to change it), however, the stars probably better shaped because the high f-stop.

On the Border (Perseus & Cassiopeia)!

Camera: Canon T3i/600d modified
Telescope: Canon 50mm f/1.8 Lens

Aperture: f/4
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 50mm
Focal Reducer: None
Mount: iOptron Skyguider Pro
Filter Wheel/Drawer: none
Filter: none
Focuser: none
Autoguiding: none
Exposure: 22 x 60
Gain/ISO: 1600
Processing: PixInsight, Photoshop, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator
GradientXTerminator, BTX.

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