NGC 1514 - Crystal Ball Nebula

NGC 1514 (a.k.a. The Crystal Ball Nebula) is a planetary nebula located 650-2,200 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. Planetary nebulae are formed when a star expels the outer layers of material during its final stages. The estimated expansion rate of NGC 1514 is 25 km/s. Although it does not look much of a 'Crystal Ball' to me, it does show some really cool structure. It is described as a double-shell nebula where the inner consists of blobs and filaments approximately 65" and a faint halo approximately 90". This nebula has an interesting blue-green color and the progenitor star visible in the center is actually a binary system. I cropped it quite a bit but wanted to keep the bright yellow star (HIP 19397) to the South and the bright white star in the North.

I did a little star reduction but not too much as I like star fields. So this is my first image in a long while without the Hyperstar and I am pleased with the results. I plan to do more imaging of smaller FOV objects which is why I ordered the EdgeHD800 instead of the RASA in the first place. I did have a return of the ASI294MC and PI red splotches when using a NB filter issue but I was able to 'fix' it. I really like this camera but there is something with the sensor and Ha in particular. ZWO says the sensor passes all the tests and that the red splotches can be removed with calibration which they can. If you do get a color version of this camera, be aware of using it with Ha filters.

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NGC 1514 - Crystal Ball Nebula

Dates: 12-12, 12-13, 12-20, 12-22
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native)
Focal Reducer: Celestron .7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Baader IDAS NBZ (2-inch)
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: NBZ 75 x 180
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: -10 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, Gradient Exterminator, Star Exterminator, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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M45 - The Pleiades

The Pleiades is such a wonderful cluster which has been recognized since ancient times and is also my favorite open cluster. It is easily visible with the naked eye unlike so many other objects and it is relatively easy to locate due to its close proximity to the bright star Aldebaran which is halfway between The Pleiades and Orion. Located in the Constellation of Taurus at 444 light-year from our solar system,

M45 is made up of 500 to 1000 mostly hot blue stars. It turns out the nine brightest stars of the are named for the Seven Sisters of Greek mythology: Sterope, Merope, Electra, Maia, Taygeta, Celaeno, and Alcyone. The other two stars are their parents Atlas and Pleione.

This region of space contains a huge amount of dust and the open cluster is currently passing through it creating a gorgeous blue reflection nebula. So I feel like I cheated on this object as the total exposure was just under an hour. I was not planning to image this since I was about to remove the Hyperstar for a while, however, there were a couple of exceptionally clear nights with no moon and the weather was not looking good for the rest of the week so I decided to image something bright that I could finish in one or two nights. I was planning on more exposures but clouds moved in so all I managed was about an hour - but what an hour. This image is just as good as my previous versions with much longer time, hence the Hyperstar allows you to cheat. One of my favorite parts of the image is the dusty spires which came out much better than I anticipated. Ironically, the stars are better on this Hyperstar image than on my previous Hyperstar images in my opinion. Maybe it is because the exposures were only 30 seconds this time.

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M45 - The Pleiades
Dates: 12-3, 12-4 
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native) F/1.9 (Hyperstar)
Focal Reducer: Starizona Hyperstar
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Adaptor: Starizona Filter Drawer
Filter: Optolong L
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Helical Guidescope
Exposure: L 105 x 30s
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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Autoguiding Quad Table

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Autoguiding Quadrant Table

Good Autoguiding numbers:      ~1.0 - 0.5“ or less Stars: Tight Round  All systems are good!  Recommendation: Keep doing what you are doing!	Good Autoguiding numbers:      ~1.0 - 0.5” or less Stars: Bloated Oblong The Autoguiding system is working but it does not match well with the imaging train!   Recommendation: Use a larger Guidescope or an Off-Axis Guider!
Fair to poor Autoguiding numbers:      ~1.0 - 0.5” or more Stars: Tight Round  The Autoguiding system is good but some settings may be off! Recommendation: Check settings when convenient.	Fair to poor Autoguiding numbers:      ~1.0 - 0.5” or more Stars: Bloated Oblong The Autoguiding system is not working.  It may work or it does not match well with the imaging train and or the settings may be off!   Recommendation: Check settings ASAP. Use a larger Guidescope or an Off-Axis Guider!

LBN 569

LBN 569 (Lynds' Catalog of Bright Nebulae) is a rarely imaged molecular cloud in Cepheus. As of this writing there are only 5 other images on Astrobin all of which are better than this and taken in Bortle 4 or less skies. This is the best I can do with Bortle 5 skies directly overhead but degrading quickly below 50 degrees altitude. I am very happy I got something as the subframes were completely blown out with light pollution and I had no way of knowing if I was capturing anything. The gradients were extreme when I first saw the stacked image even after flats and background extraction. I had to crop it quite a bit just to get rid of the heaviest gradients.

I really like these molecular clouds but you really need better skies for doing them justice. I first found out about this one from Goran Nilsson who seems to be on a mission with these types of 'clouds' from his location in Sweden. Not much is written about this object, only that LBN 569 is next to MBM 163 - 165 (Magnani, Blitz & Mundy). I really like the central structure of the cloud as well as the detail in the lower right corner which I had 'uncovered' from the LP gradient. I also used the StarXterminator program though it did a great job of removing the stars plus it was much quicker than Starnet.

Based on my limited results so far with my sky conditions, for imaging molecular clouds with Hyperstar - use with the ASI1600MM rather than the ASI294MC. However, I have successfully used the EdgeHD800 without the Hyperstar and the ASI294MC.

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LBN 569
Dates: 11-13, 11-29, 12-3
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native) F/1.9 (Hyperstar)
Focal Reducer: Starizona Hyperstar
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Adaptor: Starizona Filter Drawer
Filter: Optolong L
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Helical Guidescope
Exposure: L 418 x 90s
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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LBN 639

LBN 639 is located in the constellation Pisces and is part of a larger structure known as the MBM 3 molecular cloud.  Information is sparse for this object however I did find a distance estimate of 807 to 858 light-years from Jim Thommes website (http://www.jthommes.com/Astro/LBN639.htm).  Several  galaxies which are over 500 million light-years away are visible in this image as well as some quasars.  

I enjoy imaging dark reflection nebula and molecular clouds so naturally I live in one of the worst places to do these types of projects but oh well, I like a challenge.  One of the advantages of using the hyperstar system is that it is very fast (collects photons quickly) with a focal ratio of 1.9.  It really does pick up a lot faint nebulosity quickly, however, the stars are not as good as refractor stars.  I did do some tweaking with the telescope which improved their quality but it is still not as good as refractor stars in my opinion.   

I have noticed for a long time that when I collect luminosity data the stars seem a little larger (high FWHM) than the RGB data - this seems to be worse with the hyperstar.  I did not think anything of it until I saw a recent post by Rodd Dryfuss who lives close by and was mentioning he is not collecting  luminosity data anymore for certain objects because of this very reason.  For this object as well as most molecular clouds and such luminosity is needed for the nebulosity but not for the stars.  I made a starless image out of the LRGB image and then blended the only the RGB stars back - thanks Rodd.  I also used my ZWO ASI1600MM and my new Opolong 2" LRGB filter set for this project.  

LBN 639

Dates: 10-31, 11-5, 11-6, 11-8
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native) F/1.9 (Hyperstar)
Focal Reducer: Starizona Hyperstar
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: Starizona Filter Drawer
Filter: Optolong LRGB
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Helical Guidescope
Exposure: L 244 x 90s, R 34 x 90s, G 36 x 90s, B 42 x 90s
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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Heart (IC 1805) & Soul (IC 1848) hanging in Cassiopeia

This is my version of the very popular pair of deep sky objects known as the Heart Nebula (IC 1805) and the Soul Nebula (IC 1848). They reside in the constellation of Cassiopeia approximately 6,000 light-years away. Both of these emission nebulae are relatively large in the night sky and together they are immense at more than 10 moons across which corresponds over 500 light-years. Although the size of these objects are well known I made a size calculator video based on a formula that Gary Imm gave me last year - it works really well as long as the distance is known.

To image this I used my Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens set at f4.0 with a ZWO ASI294MC Pro and an IDAS NBZ filter all set on an Atlas Pro (yes a little overkill). This is one of my favorite setups that I have grown to love for its wide field. I managed to capture 20 hours of usable data although I collected much more but I was imaging when the moon was out and that data was very poor quality so did not use it.

There was hardly any noise as a result of collecting so many frames. The time consuming part of processing was highlighting the OIII region and merging the starless image with the star mask. I am not a big fan of starless processing mainly because I am not good at bringing stars back really well but am happy with what I did this time so maybe I am getting better at it.

Dates: 10-12, 10-14, 10-18, 10-19, 10-21, 10-31, 11-5, 11-6, 11-8

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Heart Nebula (IC 1805) & Soul Nebula (IC 1848) 
Dates: 10-12, 10-14, 10-18, 10-19, 10-21, 10-31, 11-5, 11-6, 11-8
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 200mm
f/4.0
Focal Reducer: none
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO EOS Filter Drawer
Filter: IDAS NBZ (2-inch)
Focuser: None
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to a ZWO Mini guidescope - None
Exposure: L 416 x 180
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Temp: -10 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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NGC 7293 - Helix Nebula - Don't laugh - 14 minutes & 200mm lens?

NGC 7293 or commonly known as the Helix nebula is approximately 650 light-years away in the constellation of Aquarius.  It is a Planetary Nebula approximately 2.9 light-years which formed as the central dying star blew off its outer layers of gas leaving a small hot dense core.

So I have always wanted to image this but it is really low and we have high trees so I actually never though it was possible at all.  Just for giggles after finishing another object I pointed the mount and camera in the direction of the Helix and it was there just above the trees.  It soon disappeared however I did get 14 minutes on it before going away.  If it were visible for an hour it might be worth imaging with larger setup but for less than a half hour this will do.  Actually I was happy to get anything. 

I cropped it heavily and was very creative with new noise reduction as it was bad, not to mention the gradients.  Also, there were no support frames for this either - not even darks so I had to remove hot pixels by hand.  If you are a pixel peeper see how many you can find.  I decided to make a gif of the 14 subframes so you get an idea how close the trees are to it - the gif is my first ever attempt and is low quality.   

NGC 7293 - Helix Nebula - Don't laugh - 14 minutes & 200mm lens?
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 200mm
f/4.0
Focal Reducer: none
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Adaptor: ZWO EOS Filter Drawer
Filter: IDAS NBZ (2-inch)
Focuser: None
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to a ZWO Mini guidescope - None
Exposure: NBZ 14 x 60
Gain: 120
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Gradient Exterminator, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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Veil Nebula (a.k.a. Cygnus Loop)

The Veil Nebula also goes by the Cygnus Loop or the Filamentary Nebula. It refers to the visible structure of a supernova remnant located in Cygnus. The progenitor star was 20 times more massive than the Sun and exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. The nebula is quite large at 120 light-years in diameter (3 degrees) and approximately 2400 light-years across. An excellent article in the September 2021 Sky & Telescope by Howard Banich focuses on the Veil Nebula. Banich describes how the region’s interstellar dust was cleared prior to the explosion by the star and may not have been much to look at until the shock wave encountered farther out interstellar dust clouds a few thousand years ago.

The Veil Nebula is so large that it consists of several different NGC numbers describing different parts but I like the way Banich separated it into five parts.

1 - The First Veil - NGC 6960 located on the western side is also known as the Witch’s Broom.

2 - The Second Veil - Fleming’s Triangle (formerly Pickering’s Triangle) also known as Simeis 3-188 was discovered by Williamina Fleming in 1904 at the Harvard College Observatory but credit was given to her director E. C. Pickering until recently.

3 - The Third Veil - Southern Blowout Region is very faint and located at the bottom edge of Fleming’s Triangle.

4 - The Fourth Veil - NGC 6974, NGC 6979, and Assorted Filaments are located just east of Fleming’s Triangle and are also quite dim.

5 - The Fifth Veil - NGC 6992, NGC 6995, IC 1340, and the Southeastern Knot are all located on the eastern side. The portion is very bright and to me, resembles a claw.

Note: My image is rotated 90 degrees so west is top, south is right, east is bottom, and north is left (most images of the Cygnus Loop are rotated like this). 

I spent many nights trying to capture enough data between the clouds in order to bring out the Ha gas and extra dust but did not capture what I had hoped in that regard, however, I am happy with what I did get main nebula wise.  I captured 436 three minute subframes after and initial inspection but did another inspection with the PI Subframe Selector and trashed another 137 frames - I have to be very careful as the sky conditions here in southern CT are not that stable.  There are hints of the faint Ha in my image specially on the left side of my image but I believe longer exposure subframes such as 10 minutes are needed to bring that out (at least that is what Jeffrey Horne did with his recent image of this).

Veil Nebula (a.k.a. Cygnus Loop)

Dates: 9-10, 9-11, 9-13, 9-18, 9-19, 9-20, 9-24, 9-26, 9-27, 9-30, 10-1
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 200mm
f/4.0
Focal Reducer: none
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO EOS Filter Drawer
Filter: IDAS NBZ (2-inch)
Focuser: None
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to a ZWO Mini guidescope - None
Exposure: L 299 x 180
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Gradient Exterminator, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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C14 - An Unusual Look For The Double Cluster in Perseus

This lovely star cluster is actually two clusters but since they are so close to one another they are together known as the Double Cluster. Located in the Constellation of Perseus they go by other designations such as h and chi Persei, NGC 869 and NGC 884, and also Caldwell 14 (C14). They are approximately 7,500 light-years away and visible with the naked eye as hazy patches but stars can be resolved with binoculars. Like most open-clusters, C14 contains hot mostly hot young stars which are blue in color but there are some orange stars scattered throughout as shown on the image.

I imaged the Double Cluster in the past which is considered an easy target, but not with the red tinted hydrogen alpha (Ha) clouds in the background. There is a reason there are not many images with the Ha clouds because it is exceedingly faint - this was one of the hardest images I have done, almost a month of collecting data. Twenty three hours of total exposure (138 x 10min) using hyperstar (f/1.9) was used to capture these clouds and this is all I obtained. I tried to capture Ha data last year when I did this object with my AT115 at f/5.6 and there was not even a hint even after 17 hours so I bagged it until I had a faster system. If you do attempt to capture the nebulosity I would recommend a fast system (f/4 or less), at least 10 minute exposures, and dark skies. I have Bortle 5 skies at best here in southern Connecticut and crappy weather so not the best conditions for this.

Capturing itself went fine with the ASIAir and Atlas Pro but I did have difficulty with the star shapes as mentioned from my previous image post, however, after adjusting the corrector plate a second time the stars showed significant improvement. Still not great on the edges but much better.  In addition to trashing a lot of Ha data, my first set of RGB data was taken on one of those 'fake' clear nights so there were halos in the green channel stars plus it was before I readjusted the corrector plate.  Consequently I redid it another night with much better results.  I decided to use Chuck's 15 second approach for collecting f/2 data.  As a backup I collected a third set of RGB data using the Canon 200mm F2.8 II USM and ASI294MC Pro which came out OK but the stars were noticeably better with the hyperstar.

Processing was very difficult as well because although I did get some Ha, it was not good looking, certainly not what one would normally expect with over 20 hrs. with hyperstar. I had to do a lot of stretching and noise reduction to make it look presentable. I had dreams of getting some nebular detail but so far the only person to do that is Andreas (Equinox). Probably was the best idea going after this with my limited experience with the hyperstar but I am satisfied with it and am ready to move on to something not as challenging.

C14 - Double Cluster in Perseus

Dates: 9-10, 9-11, 9-18, 9-19, 9-24, 9-27, 9-30, 10-1, 10-6, 10-7
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro 
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native) F/1.9 (Hyperstar)
Focal Reducer: Starizona Hyperstar
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: Starizona Filter Drawer
Filter: Baader Highspeed F/2 Ha CMOS, Optolong R, Optolong G, Optolong B 
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Helical Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 138 x 600s, R 99 x 15s, G 98 x 15s, B 99 x 15s
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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NGC 281 - Pacman Nebula

NGC 281 is a gorgeous nebula and a very popular object with astrophotographers. I only imaged it once before many years ago and it was the first object where I used a hydrogen alpha filter (Astronomik EOS Ha-Clip). NGC 281 also goes by IC 11 or Sh2-184 and is a bright emission nebula in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It is 48 light-years across and contains numerous Bok globules visible in the image. Bok globules are small dark nebulae where stars are likely to form. It is nicknamed the Pacman Nebula due to its similar appearance to the popular 1980s video game that I spent many quarters on.

This was the third image I used with the EdgeHD 800/hyperstar and I am quite impressed with how quickly it obtains photons. Although not shown on this image because it is cropped, there seems to be some alignment problem with the corrector plate, collimation, or possibly tilt as the stars on the edge of the FOV are misshapen. Fortunately the stars for most of the FOV are pretty good. 

I also used the IDAS NBZ dual band filter and seems to work really well with the hyperstar and OSC cameras. The processing was not difficult except for adding the stars back but I did spend some time deciding how far to go with color enhancements. In the end I decided not to do much at all as the natural color seems to produce the greatest amount of detail plus I kind of like it.  I really like detail of outer regions of this nebula and also the dark canyon looking region in the lower area of the nebula.

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NGC 281 - Pacman Nebula
Dates: 9-4, 9-6, 9-7
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native) F/1.9 (Hyperstar)
Focal Reducer: Starizona Hyperstar
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: Starizona Filter Drawer
Filter: Baader IDAS NBZ (2-inch)
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: NBZ 121 x 120
Gain: 120
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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NGC 6914 - HaRGB

NGC 6914 is a reflection nebula with a bluish cast located approximately 6,000 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus. It can be separated into three main regions: 1) NGC 6914 in the center a.k.a. vdB 132, 2) NGC 6914a (to the left) a.k.a. vdB 131, and 3) NGC 6914b (to the right). Each bright nebula is being illuminated by one or more massive, young, hot star(s). This reflection nebula lies within a much larger hydrogen gas cloud which is being ionized by the ultraviolet light from the stars in the region. Several dark nebulae composed of gas and dust are also found within the region.

I had intended for this image to be an HOO (w/ RGB stars), however, the stacked oxygen data was out whack. The orientation was a bit off since I removed the camera during one of the sessions and there were terrible gradients that the flats did not remove.  I was imaging the OIII when the moon was out and when it was 'fake clear' nights so I was not surprised by results.  The Ha and RGB data came out really well so I just went with it.  The reflection nebula came out surprisingly well in RGB even without any luminosity. 

If you have been following me you know I have been busy with the Hyperstar lately and have two images posted so far, The Cave Nebula and The Crescent Nebula, however, I have not forgotten this setup.  I was done with this three weeks ago but have been very busy, in fact I have more unprocessed images as well.

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NGC 6914 - HaRGB

Dates: 8-24, 8-25, 8-26, 8-30, 9-2, 9-3, 9-4, 9-6, 9-7

Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO Ha, OIII, SII, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 105 x 240, OIII 101 x 240, R 32 x 60, G 30 x 60, B 31 x 60
Gain: 139
Offset 21
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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NGC 6888 - Crescent Nebula & More

The feature of this image is the Crescent Nebula or NGC 6888 which is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus approximately 5,000 light-years away. It formed when a highly energetic fast moving stellar wind encountered slower moving wind ejected when the star became a red giant over 250,000 years ago. It is currently 25 light-year across. This whole region is loaded with gas and dust as can be seen on the image. In addition to the high amount of hydrogen in and around the Crescent Nebula, a high amount of Oxygen is also present. The hydrogen is represented as red while Oxygen appears as a blue-green color. Also, found on this image is the Soap Bubble Nebula (PN G75.5+1.7). Located on the left side the Soap Bubble Nebula is a planetary nebula and was discovered less than 20 years ago.

This is my second image with the Celestron EdgeHD8 with Hyperstar. I once again used the IDAS NBZ dual band filter and the ZWO ASI294MC Pro. So far I am very happy with the results and look forward to continual use.

I made a video short (< 1 min.) of both the EdgeHD8 and AT115EDT setups if you want to see more.
https://youtu.be/P-CAd85Tz58 

NGC 6888 - Crescent Nebula
Dates: 8-26, 9-2
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native) F/1.9 (Hyperstar)
Focal Reducer: Starizona Hyperstar
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: Starizona Filter Drawer
Filter: Baader IDAS NBZ (2-inch)
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: NBZ 110 x 120
Gain: 120
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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SH2-155 - The Cave Nebula

Located in the constellation Cepheus is a giant cave! The Cave Nebula or SH2-155 also goes by Caldwell 9 and LBN 529 is a star-forming ionized Ha region located approximately 2,400 light-years away. It sits within a larger region of gas and dust containing emission, reflection and dark nebula which is visible on the image. The “Cave” coined by Patrick Moore is the large cavity surrounded by the intense red-orange emission nebula in the center of the image. Another noteworthy part is the blue reflection nebula vdB 155 located just north and east of the Cave Nebula. Many other dark nebulae are scattered throughout this region, some of which are visible on the image.

So this is first light with the Hyperstar and I am really loving the f/1.9 system. I am amazed at how much nebulosity was visible in each 3 minute subframe. This represents 4.65 hrs of total exposure with the EdgeHD8-Hyperstar using the IDAS NBZ filter. About half of the data was collected when the moon was out but it was not in the direction of the nebula. I did a comparison stack without the moon data added to see which was better and using all of the data produced a better starting image.  I was also a bit worried about using the ZWO ASI294 as the scale indicates (2.4") it is on the border of under- sampling but I am happy with the results - many other people have been successfully using this setup.

I am also really liking the Asiair Pro for capturing and there were no issues encountered by switching to the hyperstar. It focused, guided, and plate-solved perfectly. I probably did not even need to guide with the hyperstar (certainly overkill with the ST80) but did it anyway. I also made a new set of flats and dark flats and did encounter an issue. It seems the red LED light on the camera is picked up when making the dark flats so I covered it with tape. This is only an issue with RASA/Hyperstar systems since the camera is located in the front.

Using The ASIAIR Pro For Making Flats & Dark Flats
https://youtu.be/4GAGcnb-m3c 

SH2-155 - Cave Nebula
Dates: 8-27, 8-30, 9-1
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native) F/1.9 (Hyperstar)
Focal Reducer: Starizona Hyperstar 
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: Starizona Filter Drawer
Filter: Baader IDAS NBZ (2-inch)
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: NBZ 93 x 180
Gain: 120
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, Gradient Exterminator, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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SH2-170 - Little Rosette Nebula

The Little Rosette Nebula designated as SH2-170 is also known as the Small Rosette Nebula is located approximately 7,500 light-years away in the constellation of Cassiopeia. In its center is a young star cluster named Stock 18 whose brightest star ionizes the hydrogen gas, thus producing the glow. It resembles the larger and more popular winter object The Rosette Nebula in the constellation Monoceros.  I estimated the diameter to be ~45 ly by doing a trigonometric calculation assuming the angular distance of 0.36 degrees (2/3 lunar diameter) and a distance of 7,500 ly.  For comparison the Rosette Nebula is 130 ly across and 5,000 ly away.

I would have liked to get more data but the weather has not been cooperating at all. This is a good object to use the dual band IDAS NBZ filter since it has lots of hydrogen and a bit of oxygen. I separated the RGB and made 'synthetic' Ha and OIII channels and then recombined it as an HOO image. I also did a bunch other stuff including synthetic luminosity layers and Starnet++. Overall I am happy with the outcome.

This is my last image for a while with the 0.7 focal reducer as I plan to test the hyperstar next.  In fact this may be last image for a while period as summer recess is over.  I did manage to solve the issue I was having with stacking in PixInsight, it seems it was my flats after all. This image and my previous image with the setup of SH2-136 - The Ghost Nebula stacked perfectly with PixInsight using my new flats.

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SH2-170 - Little Rosette Nebula

Dates: 8-15, 8-16

Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native)
Focal Reducer: Celestron .7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Baader IDAS NBZ (2-inch)
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: NBZ 90 x 180
Gain: 120
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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SH2-99 & SH2-100 Region

There is a lot of action going on in this less imaged region of Cygnus. The star features are SH2-99, the bright area a bit right of the center, and SH2-100, the bright area at the center of the image. I could not find much information about the objects, only that Stellarium categorizes them as HII regions. SH2-100 is the brighter of the two and is about 30,000 light-years away with other designations such as NGC 6857 and PK 070+01.2. One of my favorites in this image is the translucent blue and gold wedge part in the top central portion. It is designated as SNR G070.5+01.9 and described as a supernova remnant candidate. There are two other supernova remnants found in this image. 1) The small dense bright orange spot to the left is designated as SNR G070.7+01.2 and 2) the blue stream on the right side is designated as SNR G070.0+02.0. Lastly, the blue-gold arching nebula on the top left is LBN 164, the gaseous region on the bottom center with golden vertical streamers is LBN 159, and the deep blue region on the right is known as LBN 158.

I had not intended to image this over a three week period but the moon and the weather made imaging quite difficult. I started with the narrowband data but then took the camera and unit off mount to do some other stuff. As a result I forgot to carefully align the camera at night. Fortunately it was the RGB data which I was only using for the stars.

As expected, hydrogen was by far the most abundant gas followed by sulfur and oxygen. I spent a lot of time trying to tweak the color but was never truly happy with it until I made adjustments in a totally different way and was able to get something satisfactory. 

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SH2-99 & SH2-100 Region

Dates: 7-19, 7-21, 7-23, 7-26, 8-2, 8-6
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO Ha, OIII, SII, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 76 x 240, OIII 52 x 240, SII 60 x 240, R 28 x 60, G 26 x 60, B 27 x 60
Gain: 139
Offset 21
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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SH2-136 - Ghost Nebula

SH2-136, nicknamed The Ghost Nebula (a.k.a. VdB 141), is a faint reflection nebula in the constellation of Cepheus. The Nebula sits in a heavily dusty region known as the Cepheus Flare molecular cloud complex and is approximately 1,400 light-years away and two light-years across. Star formation is occurring in dense areas of the nebula in fact the bright area with a V-shaped projection on the right end of the nebula is a protostar forming. The projection is believed to be caused by outflow of the rotating accretion disk.

This has been on my someday list but I waited until I had a scope capable of getting some finer detail including some the protrusions pointing upwards which resemble fists with fingers pointed outwards - one of my favorite parts of the nebula. I purposely did not crop it because I wanted to show the even fainter dust which lies on the right side of the main nebula and of course the relatively bright portion on the top of the image. Most of the stars appear slightly yellow being obscured by the dust but some of the large bright blue ones still shine through. Also, I spent some extra star reduction on the larger stars which was a bit tedious but worth it.

This nebula is very faint and really was not in my subframe when imaging with 3-minute exposures. Three minutes is about the maximum I feel comfortable with without using any type of light pollution filter in my neck of the woods. I believe I have found the optimal back focus at 108.5mm for my system at last after several tweaks. I started with the recommended 105mm, then 106.5mm, then 109.5mm, and finally 108.5mm. If you have been following my PixInsight/ASI24MC escapades (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot5x63kya6A&t=3s), I managed to use PI without the artifacts this time. Could be that I have a better system but I'm not sure yet. I have to test it with the NBZ filter to be sure. Lastly, normally I orient objects so north is up but it looks more like a ghost with south being up.

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SH2-136 - Ghost Nebula (VdB 141)

Dates: 8-2, 8-5
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native)
Focal Reducer: Celestron .7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Baader UV/IR Filter (2-inch)
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: UV/IR 124 x 180
Gain: 120
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, Gradient Exterminator, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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NGC 6543 - Cat's Eye Nebula

NGC 6543 or The Cat's Eye Nebula is a small, very bright planetary nebula found in the northern constellation Draco and 3300 light-years from Earth. My image may give the false impression that it is very large, however, The Cat's Eye is actually the bright core of a much larger complex but you really need a much larger telescope than I have to do it justice. It formed about 1000 years ago when a hot bright central star blew its outer layers into a much fainter region of gas believed to have formed from much earlier expulsions between 50,000 and 90,000 years ago. The entire region is three light-years across.

I have been wanting to do The Cat's Eye or at least the outer region for quite some time but I also wanted to wait until I had a big enough scope to make it worthwhile. I still ended up cropping quite a bit but if I did with the refractor I would have had to crop it 4x more just to see a blue blotch.

I tried to bring out some of the central detail of NGC 6543 but it is so much brighter than the faint outer region that it makes it very difficult. I took shorter exposures thinking I would stack them but there were not many stars bright enough for the stacking programs to register. I did some other 'stuff' to bring out some of the central detail and then focused on the rest of the faint regions. I really love the blue structure of the outer region. I also like the multiple red blips that are located within the translucent blue region and just outside on the left. I purposely offset the nebula to the left as I also wanted to show the barred spiral galaxy NGC 6552 on the right. It is pretty small in my image but it was there.

There really was not that many stars in this region so only one round of star reduction was necessary. I however use a different method courtesy of Dark Archon and Adam Block which seemed to work really well!

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NGC 6543 - Cat's Eye Nebula
Dates: 7-21, 7-23, 7-26
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native)
Focal Reducer: Celestron .7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: IDAS NBZ Filter (2-inch)
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Ha/OIII 163 x 180
Gain: 120
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, DSS, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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Solar Activity on 7-23-21

I took a diversion from the deep sky stuff I normally do the other day and imaged the Sun. One of the cool things about the sun is you can actually see these flares and prominences, with the right equipment, and they look just as impressive as the image shows - maybe more so. The equipment in my case is the Daystar Quark Ha Eyepiece solar filter attached to the Orion ED80.

Image 1 shows a massive flame coming out to the left and I put a scale image of Earth for comparison. Image 2 shows looping flares which are relatively low to the surface. Image 3 shows what could be classified as a prominence where the two protrusions are in contact with each other. If I was better at this (like Chuck's Astro) I would have made several separate images of this over an hour to make a video - a goal for some later date. The image also shows what looks like filaments, dark eyebrows, on the lower left. Also in this image is an ejection on the upper middle portion in the dark region. This third image was rotated 180 degrees so it was actually the bottom.

Sun & Solar Flares
Home Monroe, CT
Date: 7-23-21
Camera: ZWO ASI178 MM
Telescope: Orion ED80 F7.5 Refractor
Barlow: Quark 4.3x
Focal Length: 600
f/7.5
Focal Reducer: None
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter: Daystar Quark Chromosphere

Tilt Adjuster: Daystar Interference Eliminator
Exposure: 0.088857
Best 30% of 500
Gain: 255
Processing: SharpCap, PixInsight, Photoshop.

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NGC 6946 - Fireworks Galaxy

NGC 6946 a.k.a. The Fireworks Galaxy is described as a face-on intermediate spiral galaxy bordering Cepheus and Cygnus at a distance 25 million light-years. It is approximately 40,000 light-years across and contains about 100 billion stars. Although it has a small bright nucleus, the galaxy as a whole is very faint as it is close to the galactic plane of the Milky Way. I could barely see it in subframes during imaging. It is classified as a starburst galaxy (star-forming) due to its high rate star formation. It has ten times the star formation as the Milky Way yet is half the size hence the Fireworks nickname. The arms contain many dense areas where star-formation is occurring - the upper-left arm shows a very prominent region where it is occurring.

This is my second image with the new setup (Edge & ASI294MC) and is the first time I ever imaged this object. It was a bit tough to process given the great amount of stars and galactic material in between it and us so a lot of star reduction was in order. I learned a lot since my previous image about this setup and the Asiair so, hopefully there is improvement. I did add another ~1.5mm to the backspace and the stars were not as elongated in the corners on the uncropped raw data. I did try adding 4.5mm for my latest object but that is in process. I believe I have decent autofocus settings now as I get a good V-curve and also checking and performing the collimation is easier now.

I also used the Baader Neodymium Moon & Skyglow filter rather than a plane UV/IR filter since the moon was starting to show itself. I also used the Deep Sky Stacker as PI was giving me horrible results with this camera and flats. I'll have more to say on this issue at a later date!

NGC 6946 - Fireworks Galaxy
Dates: 7-15, 7-19
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native)
Focal Reducer: Celestron .7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Baader Neodymium Filter (2-inch)
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: L 129 x 180
Gain: 120
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, DSS, PixInsight, Photoshop, Gradient Exterminator, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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NGC 6633 - Tweedledum Cluster

Located roughly 1,000 light-years from Earth, NGC 6633, also known as the Tweedledum Cluster (IC 4756 a.k.a. Tweedledee is nearby), is a large open cluster about the same relative size as the full moon in the constellation Ophiuchus. The cluster sits in a very rich starfield and is bright enough to be seen with the naked eye but better observed with binoculars or small telescopes. It contains approximately 38 known stars, most of which are young hot blue estimated to be about 600 million years old.

I am interested in less commonly imaged objects and NGC 6633 certainly falls into that category. It was such a nice diversion to process something that was pretty straight forward for a change meaning no processing gymnastics were needed.

The only mishap was after collection of the luminosity data, I removed the camera and then reattached the next day, however, I forgot to align it properly.  It ended up not making a big difference as I cropped it even more so.  BTW this was done with the AT115 & ASI1600 setup. 

NGC 6633 - Tweedledum Cluster
Dates: 7-5, 7-16
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x 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: L 58 x 60, R 53 x 60, G 45 x 60, B 44 x 60
Gain: 139
Offset 21
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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M57 - Testing 1-2-3

At long last this is First Light with my Celestron EdgeHD 800 Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (SCT). I purchased this specifically for the many small galaxies of galaxy season. I missed that but fortunately there are a plethora of other small objects which I have avoided over the years. Although I have imaged M57 or The Ring Nebula before, I selected it again because it was bright and in an ideal location for me to do all of this testing. I am very happy with the final images especially given the limited exposure time. I was only using this object as a test and will try something that I have not done before if it ever clears up.

If you are interested in more detail, read in between the paragraphs, otherwise skip to the conclusions and image descriptions.

Data Collection
The first night out I successfully did the collimation, autofocus, and tried some imaging using NINA and APT to no satisfaction and plenty of frustration. The problem may be the computer or Microsoft - whatever the case I ditched it for the Asiair Pro. We have had a horrible stretch of weather here so testing has been exceedingly slow. The next time (a few days later) I had the Asiair Pro up and running. Everything worked - slewing, plate-solving, autofocus, autoguiding, meridian flip, and parking the scope. On the second night (7/5) I collected 60 x 90 second frames with no filter. Also on the second night I collected 19 x 180 second frames using the IDAS NBZ filter. In my haste I did not check the collimation beforehand and noticed it may not have been the best it could have been. The third night (7/11) I did collimate the scope and managed to collect 36 x 90 second frames making the total exposure 96 x 90 second or 2.4 hrs.

Brief Discussion
After reviewing the data from both nights, the collimation was not that far off so it was usable although I should check it every night. I replaced the collimation original screws with Bob’s Knobs which are much easier to adjust. The stars turned out much better than I anticipated they would. They were round (in the central region) and tighter than I thought they would be using an SCT with this focal length (I was expecting them to be more bloated). I recently discovered the color astro cameras do not come with built-in UV/IR filters which can add to star bloating which may have contributed to the large stars of my recent Iris Nebula image using the ASI294 and Canon Lens. I used the same setup on the Elephant Trunk Nebula only with the IDAS NBZ filter and no bloat. The stars on corners of the images are pointing towards the center, this is a classic indication that back focus needs more space. It is close so not too much space is needed.

There were problems with the support frames in particular with the flats. After many trial sets I was able to produce a usable set for the unfiltered data. I was never able to produce usable flats for the NBZ filter. I did order a light panel to aid in this effort. What a pleasure it was to use my old autoguider (6 yrs old) the Orion ST80. This is currently sold as part of the Awesome AutoGuider Package by Orion. I had forgotten how pleasant and easy it is to use a ‘real focuser’ rather than the helical focuser.

Lastly, the Field of View (FOV) for the Edge is much smaller even with the focal reducer than the AT115 which translates into more detail for smaller objects. One of my images shows the comparison between the two using the ASI294. Another way to look at it is the ASI294 uses 11.7 Mp to make an image, therefore, the image made with the Edge will be more detailed than the one made with a cropped AT115 image.

Conclusions
- Collimation adjust every imaging session 
- Backfocus is close as is, however, will adjust in an effort to improve
- Dark Frames look good and do their job
- Flats are going to need some work before I use them
- Orion ST80 with ASI120 mini Autoguider setup works well

Descriptions
Image 1: Cropped - unfiltered RGB + IDAS NBZ (partially)
- The NBZ data was not good enough to make a complete image but was able to use a portion of it to accentuate the Ha/OIII gas surrounding the main portion of M57

Image 2: Uncropped - unfiltered RGB + IDAS NBZ (partially)
- The NBZ data was not good enough to make a complete image but was able to use a portion of it to accentuate the Ha/OIII gas surrounding the main portion of M57

Image 3: Cropped - unfiltered RGB

Image 4: Uncropped - unfiltered RGB

Image 5: FOV comparison
- EdgeHD 8” with 0.7 FR and ASI294
- AT115 with 0.8 FR and ASI294

Image 6: Uncropped - unfiltered RGB
- After stacking and ABE

Image 7: with the Dust Bunny Nebula
- For submission to NASA?  I found a UFO pretending to be a dust bunny!

M57 - Ring Nebula

Dates: 7-5, 7-11
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800

Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native)

Focal Reducer: Celestron .7 Reducer Lens 
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: IDAS NBZ (2-inch)
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: No Filter 96 x 90, NBZ 19 x 180
Gain: 120
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, Gradient Exterminator, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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