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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