Posted inAstronomy Astrophotography

M42 The Orion Nebula

https://flic.kr/p/2qNqRRw

I’m pretty amazed how nice this one came out. I started the image really late in the season so by 9pm I would already be doing a meridian flip. Plus weather and mount issues (tracking on the west side), made this one a challenge.

  • Taken from a Bortle 5 suburban back yard.
  • Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 at f/3.6 with the CR Reducer 0.73x.
  • SBIG ST-8300M at 1×1 binning, with the FW5-8300 5 position filter wheel. (The halos around brighter stars are due to the camera)
  • IDAS LPS-D3 36mm unmounted filter for luminance and Astronomik Deep-Sky 36mm unmounted RGB filters.
  • Losmady G11 Gemini 2, guided with a piggybacked AstroTech 65EDQ and an Orion StarShoot autoguider.
  • Software included PHD2 for guiding, Sequence Generator Pro for acquisition, and PixInsight for image processing.
  • 70 x 300s luminance integrations (IDAS LPS-D3)
  • 70 x 300s each red, green and blue filters

Total exposure time of just over 23 hours

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Posted inAstronomy Astrophotography

M33 Triangulum Galaxy

https://flic.kr/p/2qqnCQH


A small break in the weather finally allowed me to complete my M33. The difference from my first attempt with only 15 RGB frames [https://flic.kr/p/2qqnCQH] is really amazing.

  • Taken from a Bortle 5 suburban back yard.
  • Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 at f/5.
  • SBIG ST-8300M at 1×1 binning, with the FW5-8300 5 position filter wheel.
  • IDAS LPS-D3 36mm unmounted filter for luminance and Astronomik Deep-Sky 36mm unmounted RGB filters.
  • Losmady G11 Gemini 2, guided with a piggybacked AstroTech 65EDQ and an Orion StarShoot autoguider.
  • Software included PHD2 for guiding, Sequence Generator Pro for acquisition, and PixInsight for image processing.
  • 70 x 600s luminance integrations (IDAS LPS-D3)
  • 45 x 600s each red, green and blue filters

Total exposure time of 34 hours.

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Posted inAstronomy Astrophotography

M31 The Andromeda Galaxy

https://flic.kr/p/2qmBPdK


It’s Andromeda season! My latest attempt at m31, with a nearly 15-year-old SBIG ST-8300M camera. I’m amazed at how this camera is still ticking along, but I think it may be time for an upgrade soon. lol!

  • Taken from a Bortle 5 suburban back yard.
  • Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 at f/3.6 with the 0.73x CR Reducer.
  • SBIG ST-8300M at 1×1 binning, with the FW5-8300 5 position filter wheel.
  • IDAS LPS-D3 36mm unmounted filter for luminance and Astronomik Deep-Sky 36mm unmounted RGB filters.
  • Losmady G11 Gemini 2, guided with a piggybacked AstroTech 65EDQ and an Orion StarShoot autoguider.
  • Software included PHD2 for guiding, Sequence Generator Pro for acquisition and PixInsight for image processing.
  • 66 x 600s luminance integrations (IDAS LPS-D3)
  • 30 x 600s red channel integrations
  • 30 x 600s green channel integrations
  • 30 x 600s blue channel integrations

26 hours total exposure time

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Posted inAstronomy Astrophotography

Rosette Nebula with Narrowband filters

https://flic.kr/p/DTmNgM


My first shot of the Rosette Nebula with my new set of Baader narrowband filters.

The image was combined using SII (ionized sulphur) for the red channel, Ha (hydrogen alpha) for the green channel and OIII (ionized oxygen) for the blue channel. This combination is known as the “Hubble Palette” and is the same method used by NASA for the famous Pillars of Creation image.

The exposure breakdown is:

Ha 25 x 10 min
OIII 34 X 10 min
SII 33 x 10 min

For a total exposure time of about 15 hours.

AstroTech AT65EDQ telescope, Losmandy G11 mount, SBIG ST-8300M camera + FW5 filter wheel, Baader Narrowband filter set.

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