IC 405

IC 405. This object is commonly named the Flaming star nebula, SH2-229. It lies in the constellation of Auriga at a distance of about 1,500 light years. I took this image on a clear moonless night under heavy light polluted sky conditions. I was 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 and combined them with flat field frames to reduce the effect of vignetting in the
final image. Some of the colour data is a combination of narrowband data and RGB colour data using S11 for red HA for green and O111 for blue. The total exposure times was 60 minutes for H Alpha, 30 minutes for S11 and 30 minutes for O111 filter. However the total exposure times for the RGB colour data was 20 minutes for each filter.

The Tadpole Nebula

IC410 . The Tadpole nebula.This emission nebula lies in the constellation of Auriga at a distance of about 10,000 light years. I took this image under clear moonless sky conditions using my ten inch f/4.8 reflector an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and 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 image. The total exposure times was sixty minutes using a H-Alpha filter, sixty minutes using an OIII filter, sixty minutes using an SII filter and twenty minutes using a blue filter.

NGC6888

These images of NGC6888 was taken on two seperate evenings. using R.G.B. and narrow band filters HA, OIII and SII . I was using my ten inch f/4.8 reflector an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and 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 image. The total exposure time was 40 minutes for each RGB filter, 60 minutes using a H Alpha filter, 30 minutes using an OIII filter and 30 minutes using an SII filter.

The Soap Bubble nebula

PN G75.5 1.7 The Soap Bubble Nebula. This is a very faint planetary nebula in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan. It lies near NGC6888 the Crescent nebula and was discovered in June 2008. Its low surface brightness is the reason why it was discovered so recently. I consider this planetary nebula to be very challenging for CCD imagers especially from a light polluted location. I took this image under clear, moonless sky conditions using my ten inch f/4.8 reflector, an Atik383L 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 image . Thetotal exposure times was sixty minutes using a H Alpha filter, forty minutes using an OIII filter and twenty minutes using a blue filter.

IC 1805

IC 1805 .The core of the Heart nebula. The nebula lies in the constellation of Cassiopiea the Queen at a distance of about 7,500 light years . The sky conditions on this particular evening was not very clear , stars down to mag 4 was only visible . 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. I was using a ten inch F4.8 reflector , an Atik 383L mono CCD camera with P.H.D. auto guiding . The total exposure time was sixty minutes for each narrow band filter , H Alpha, S11 and O111 filters using the Hubble palette for the colour data.

NGC281

NGC281 . This is commonly named the Pacman Nebula in the constellation
of Cassiopeia the Queen at a distance of about 9,500 light years . I
had bright moon light and light pollution to contend with, but with
very steady seeing conditions . The mount was tracking perfectly on
this particular evening , notice the inner core detail . I used five
minute sub frames with matching dark frames combined with flat field
frames to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image. I was
using narrow band filters , S11, HA, and O111. and used the Hubble
Palette for the colour data. The total exposure times was sixty
minutes for S11 and HA filters and fourty minutes for the O111 filter

Detail in the core

NGC7635 The Bubble Nebula.

NGC7635 The Bubble Nebula.
This image of NGC7635 was taken using my ten inch F4.8 reflector, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera with PHD auto guiding. I used five minute sub frames with matching dark frames combined with flat field frames to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image. I used the Hubble palette for the colour data using S11 for red H-Alpha for green and O111 for the blue. The total exposure times was sixty minutes for each filter.

The Jellyfish nebula

IC443. This nebula lies in the star constellation of Gemini the Twins. I took this image using my ten inch f/4.8 reflector, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and 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 image. The colour data I used is the Hubble palette, using Sll for red, H-alpha for green and Olll for the blue. The total exposure times was 40 minutes using a Sll filter, 40 minutes using a H Alpha filter and 20 minutes using an Olll filter.

The Orion Nebula

M42/43. The Orion nebula. This selection of images was taken using a composition of RGB filters combined with narrow band filters: HA, S11 and O111. The colours consists of green for the H Alpha channel , red for the S11 channel and blue for the O111 channel . I was using my ten inch reflector , PHD auto guiding and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. I combined the data with matching dark frames and flat field frames to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image . I also used a composition of exposure times to reveal the nebula's outer and core regions, using sixty second and five minute sub frames combined. The total exposure times were 30 minutes for each RGB colour channel and 40 minutes for each narrow band channel.

RGB

RGB colour, narrowband luminance

Mapped colour plus RGB

Mapped Hubble palette

M33 in Triangulum.

M33 in Triangulum. This galaxy is commonly named the pinwheel galaxy, it lies in the constellation of Triangulum at a distance of about three million light years. This image was taken using my ten inch F4.8 reflector, PHD auto guiding and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera.The sky conditions were very good on this particular evening with only light pollution to contend with. 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 30 minutes using a red filter, 30 minutes using a green filter, 40 minutes using a blue filter and 40 minutes using a H-Alpha filter:

NGC1514, M31, M32 and M52

NGC1514, The Crystal ball nebula. This bright planetary nebula lies in the star constellation of Taurus the bull at a distance of about 600 light years. I was 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 and combined them with flat field frames to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.The total exposure times was sixty minute using an O111 filter, twenty five minutes using a blue filter and twenty five minutes using a red filter.

NGC1514

M31 and M32. This image of M31 clearly show its dust lanes all the way in to the galaxy's core. I was using a ten inch F4.8 reflector, PHD auto guiding and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. I used five minute sub frames combined with making dark frames and flat field frames to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image. The total exposure times were twenty five minutes using a red filter, twenty minutes using a green filter and sixty minutes using a blue filter.

M31 and M32

M52. This open star cluster lies in the constellation of Cassiopeia the Queen, at a distance of about 6,000 light years. I was using my ten inch F4.8 reflector, PHD auto guiding and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. I captured five minute sub frames and combined them with matching dark frames and flat field frames to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image. The total exposure times were 20 minutes using a red filter, 20 minutes using a green filter and 60 minutes using a blue filter.

M52