Waxing Gibbous Moon (12/26/20)

Yes it's the Moon again.  So this was not planned it was just there, really there.  It has been tough imaging lately, fake clear nights where it looks clear so I image but end up trashing most of the exposures.  Saturday night it was clear but the moon was really close to one my four targets so even imaging in Ha was not useful - I actually tried but it was so bright the guider would not work.  So, I shot the moon and put a slight mineralized color to it.  It actually crossed my object target 12 hours later so I will post a composite once I am done with it.  It actually came out OK.  The crater Tycho, bottom of the image, shows the shock wave radiating off from it really well.    

Waxing Gibbous Moon
Home Monroe, CT
Date: 12-26-20
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805
f/7
Focal Reducer:  AstroTech 0.8x Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius

Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: L 500 x 23fps, R 500 x 23fps, G 500 x 23fps, B 500 x 23fps
Gain: 139
Offset 21
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Sharpcap, Autostakkert2, Photoshop, Topaz NoiseNR.

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NGC 1579 - Northern Trifid Nebula

NGC 1579 (a.k.a. The Northern Trifid Nebula) resembles the very popular Trifid Nebula which is much further south in the night sky from my location.  Ironically it is so far south I can't see it from my yard which is why I only imaged it once several years ago off site.  NGC 1579 is approximately 2,100 light-years away and three light-years across.  It is classified as a diffuse nebula located in the constellation of Perseus and lies within the California Molecular Cloud.  The blue colors are produced by dust reflecting nearby star light as is the case for the Trifid Nebula.  The red color, however, results from an immense  young star that emits a tremendous amount of hydrogen alpha light located within in the nebula.

There are many other objects located in this image as well.   IC 2067 is a bright blue reflection nebula located below and to the right of the NGC 1579.  Other named objects in the image are an Ha region known as LBN 766 (just above IC 2067), a dusty area known as Ced 36 (to the left of IC 2067), and a dark nebula LDN 1482 (lower right corner).  There are several other unnamed dark nebula in this image as well.  If you look carefully one is above NGC 1579 and another one is located directly below NGC 1579.  I cropped the image a small amount but not much so the other objects would still be in the FOV.

Processing was straight forward, however, putting the Ha to use was a bit tough as most of the Ha was limited to the core of the nebula (NGC 1579).  In fact many people don't bother with Ha on this object and the main reason I did was because the moon was out when I started on it.  The other areas had no Ha as it was mainly the dark molecular cloud.  The Ha data detracted the image as a whole.  As a result, I combined only the core region of the Ha into the red channel of the RGB image and the Luminosity image and then combined them together to make the final image as the Ha did sharpen the central portion.

 Dates: 12-1, 12-2, 12-5, 12-6, 12-8, 12-10, 12-13

NGC 1579 - Northern Trifid Nebula
Dates: 12-1, 12-2, 12-5, 12-6, 12-8, 12-10, 12-13
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm
f/7
Focal Reducer: AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO Ha, L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 46 x 240, L 83 x 90, R 62 x 90, G 50 x 90, B 61 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 21
Temp: 0 C
Processing: APT, NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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Jupiter & Saturn with the Crescent Moon

I don't have a good view from my yard but fortunately we live on a not so well travelled road.  Taken from on Williamsburg Drive (side of the road). 

Jupiter & Saturn with the Crescent Moon
Location: Monroe, CT
Date: 12-17-20
Camera: Canon T3i/600D modified
Lens: Canon 50mm f/1.8 
Focal Length: 50mm
f/4.5
Mount: iOptron SkyGuider Pro on a Manfrotto Tripod
Filter: Astronomik OWB Clip-In
Autoguiding: none
Exposure: 1 x 4s
ISO: 400
Processing: Photoshop, Topaz DeNoise AI

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http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/
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NGC 1491 - Fossil Footprint Nebula

NGC 1491 or Fossil Footprint Nebula (a.k.a. SH2-206 and LBN 704) is listed as a bright emission nebula and HII region on Stellarium.   It is located about 10,700 light-years away in gaseous region in the constellation Perseus on the edge of the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way.  It seems this a popular object to image but i was not aware of until recently.  I shot this over 13 nights do to my limited FOV but I did not mind as I just switched to another object when this went behind some trees.

The object looks really cool especially bright streamers in the center and also the many other streamers throughout the nebula.  The data collection was straight forward despite the many nights, however, what a pain-in-the neck to process.  I used Starnet++ to remove the stars to make the nebula 'easier' to process.  I spent my hours trying to adjust the colors to make it presentable with the typical blue-gold color scheme - at one point there were six versions going on at once including an HOS, however, I came to realize that are not that many blue-gold versions.  The SHO version one out as it produced the sharpest and most detailed view in the main portion of the nebula.  I still like how the HOS version looked so it is attached (Link).  There is a lot of faint nebulosity on the lower right portion of the image which I attempted to bring out more but it looked really bad so I left it faint.  Some others have brought it out  really well, however, they had more than double the exposure time.  Finally, there is an interesting small colorful spot on the right central edge that looks like a planetary nebula or something like it that was in the NB channels.

Also, I made a video on Ionization - Why Nebulae Shine, using demos since I have all of my 'stuff' at home while we are doing remote learning (https://youtu.be/UmIxclwCtvE). 

Dates: 10-30, 11-2, 11-7, 11-8, 11-9, 11-13, 11-14, 11-16, 11-18, 11-20, 11-23, 11-26, 11-28

SHO Version

HOS Version

NGC 1491 (SH2-206 and LBN 704) - Fossil Footprint Nebula 

Dates: 10-30, 11-2, 11-7, 11-8, 11-9, 11-13, 11-14, 11-16, 11-18, 11-20, 11-23, 11-26, 11-28

Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm
f/7
Focal Reducer: AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 57 x 240, OIII 52 x 240, SII 56 x 240, R 29 x 90, G 29 x 90, B 28 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 21
Temp: 5 C
Processing: APT, NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/
http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/
https://www.astrobin.com/users/kurtzepp/collections/
http://youtube.com/c/AstroQuest1