Saturday 27 December 2014

IC443 The Jelly fish nebula and NGC1435 Meropes nebula


IC443 The Jelly fish nebula. This patch of nebulosity is a supernova remnant that lies in the constellation of Gemini at a distance of about 5,000 light years. I was using my ten inch F 4.8 reflector, PHD auto guiding and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. I captured five minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat field frames to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image. The total exposure times was ten minute fo each RGB filter, 15 minutes using an O111 filter and 60 minutes using a H Alpha filter . I used the narrow band data for the image luminance and the RGB data for the colour.



NGC1435 Meropes nebula.   Lying at a distance of about 450 light years this faint patch of nebulosity surrounds the 4th magnitude star Merope, located in the open star cluster M45 the Pleiades. It covers an area of sky about half a degree, the size of the full moon with a low suface brightness of about 15 - 16th magnitude . This image was taken under very clear sky conditions with only a cresent moon .I was using ten F4.8 reflector, PHD auto guiding and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera.I captured five minute sub frames and matching dark frames and combined them with flat field frames to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image. The total exposure times was 20 minutes using a red filter, 40 minutes using a green filter and 100 minutes using a blue filter.



Tuesday 16 December 2014

M29

M29. This open star cluster lies deep with in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan. I took this image under very clear sky conditions and bright full moon light. I was using a ten inch f/4.8 reflector, PHD auto guiding and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. I captured five minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat field frames to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.The total exposure times was 30 minutes for each RGB filter and 60 minutes using a H Alpha filter.

Sunday 30 November 2014

NGC 507 and NGC 708 galaxy groups

NGC 507 Galaxy group . This group of faint galaxies lies in a chain in the constellation of Pisces at a distance of about 213 million light years. This image was taken using a ten inch F 4.8 reflector, PHD auto guiding with an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. Five minute sub frames and dark frames was captured and combined with flat field frames to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.The total exposure times was 60 minutes using a red filter , 60 minutes using a green filter and 50 minutes using a blue filter.




NGC708 group . This group of galaxies lies deep in the constellation of Andromeda. I was using a ten inch F4.8 reflector, PHD auto guiding and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. I captured five minute sub frames and matching dark frames and combined them with flat field frames to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.The total exposure times was 60 minutes using a blue filter, 60 minutes using a green filter and 30 minutes using a red filter.



Wednesday 10 September 2014

M13 The great globular cluster in Hercules

This globular star cluster is visible to the naked eye shining at magnitude 5.8. It lies in the constellation of Hercules at a distance of about 22,000 light years .The sky conditions were hazy with  a bright full moon. I captured a composition of sub frames, five minutes and sixty seconds . I combined them together to avoid core saturation revealing inner and outer detail through out the entire image . I also took matching dark frames and flat field frames to avoid vignetting . I was using a ten inch f/4.8 reflector , PHD auto guiding and an Atik 383L CCD camera. The total exposure times were twenty minutes for each colour filter.


Sunday 7 September 2014

NGC7317. Stephans Quintet

This group of galaxies lies in the constellation of Pegasus shining at about magnitude 14.5. I took this image using a ten inch F4.8 reflector , PHD. auto guiding and an Atik mono 383L CCD camera. I captured five minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat field frames to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image . The total exposure times were 50 minutes using a blue filter, 25 minutes using a red filter and 15 minutes using a green filter.


NGC 7331 was included in this composite image:

Sunday 31 August 2014

M71 Globular cluster in Sagita.

M71. This globular cluster lies deep with in the constellation of Sagitta at a distance of about 13,000 light years . It shines at about magnitude six and is easily visable through a small telescope. I took this image using my ten inch F4.8 reflector , PHD auto guiding and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera . I captured five minute sub frames with matching dark frames. I also captured twenty flat field frames for each colour channel to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image. The total exposure times was 40 minutes for each colour filter:



Sunday 10 August 2014

M11 The Wild Duck Cluster

This open star cluster lies in the constellation of Scutum at a distance of about 6,000 light years.I was using my ten inch F4.8 reflector, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera with PHD auto-guiding. I captured five minute sub-frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat field frames to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final composition. The total exposure times was 35 minutes in red, 20 minutes in green and 30 minutes using a blue filter:


Friday 8 August 2014

NGC7331 in Pegasus

This spiral galaxy lies at a distance of about 40 million light years. Notice the number of surrounding galaxies including Stehans Quintet to the upper left. I took this image under very clear sky conditions with a first quarter moon  to contend with. I was using my ten inch F4.8 reflector, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera with PHD auto guiding. I captured five minute sub frames and dark frames with flat field frames to reduce vignetting in the final compsition. The total exposure times were 50 minutes in blue, 30 minutes in green and 20 minutes using a red filter.




Thursday 17 July 2014

NGC 7000 The North America nebula

This patch of nebuosity lies in the constellation Cygnus the swan . I was using a ten inch F4.8 reflector , PHD auto guiding and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera . I captured ten minute sub frames and matching dark frames and combined them with flat field frames to reduce vignetting in the final image . The total exposure times was 60 minutes using a H Alpha filter , 30 minutes using an O111 filter and 10 minutes for each colour filter:
Narrowband luminance with RGB colour:

Narrowband plus RGB:

Bicolour:

Thursday 3 July 2014

The Leo triplet

The Leo Triplet . Commonly named the M66 group in the constellation of Leo the Lion . It lies at a distance of about 30 million light years . This image was taken using an Atik 383L mono CCD camera, PHD auto guiding and a 4 inch F7 refractor with a focal reducer making it F 6.3. I captured ten minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them making total exposure times of sixty minutes for each colour filter:


Monday 31 March 2014

NGC4565 and flat fields

This image of NGC4565 was taken under very clear sky conditions. It lies deep with in the constellation of Coma Berenices at a distance of about 42 million light years. Ay ten inch F4.8 reflector was used, with an Atik 383 mono CCD camera and PHD auto guiding. Astronomik RGB filters were used for the colour information with total exposure times of sixty minutes for each filter using five minute sub frames with matching dark frames. Flat field frames with matching dark frames were used for each filter. This reduces the effects of dust specks and vignetting showing on the CCD chip. The Flat field screen is shown on the end of the Newtonian:


This image shows an uncorrected and a flat field corrected image. Notice the correction for vignetting as a result of flat field correction.


The final processed image of NGC4565



Wednesday 29 January 2014

M42 with much nebulosity

This image of M42 was taken under very clear sky conditions . Notice the surrounding faint nebulosity in the hydrogen alpha regions . An 80mm refractor was used , PHD auto guiding and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera . The total exposure times were 90 minutes using a H-alpha filter, 20 minutes using an O111 filter and ten minutes using RGB filters: