NGC 7635 The Bubble Nebula

Lying in the constellation of Cassiopeia the Queen are NGC 7538, a diffuse nebula, NGC 7635, the Bubble nebula and M52 a bright open cluster.

I took this image using an 80mm refractor at f/6.3, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD autoguiding and an Atik 383L monochrome CCD camera. I was also using  a set of Astronomik narrowband filters, SII, OIII and H-alpha.

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Bi-colour image

On the first evening I set the camera on x2 bin mode, capturing 2.5 minute sub-frames. The total exposure time for each filter was 30 minutes. On the second evening, I set the camera to x1 bin mode for the luminance data using a H-alpha filter; capturing 5 minute sub-frames, and matching dar-frames. Flat fields were used to reduce the effects of vignetting in the final image. The total exposure time in H-alpha was 120 minutes.

Hubble Palette

This image of the Bubble nebula contains data from two telescopes, an 80 mm refractor and a 10 inch reflector.

This image is a reprocessed old image captured in 2016, revealing a large amount of core detail

The Cave Nebula (Sh2-155)

This emission nebula lies deep in the constellation of Cepheus the King. Its structure resembles the shape of a cave in space.

RGB image

I took this image using my 80mm f/6.3 refractor, a vixen Atlux mount, PHD autu-guiding and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera with a set of Astronomik narrowband filters.

On the first evening I set the camera on x2 bin mode, capturing 2.5 minute sub-frames with total exposure times of 30 minutes for each of the filters, SII, OIII and H-alpha.

Bi-colour image

On the second evening I set the camera on x1 bin mode, capturing 5 minute sub-frames using a H-alpha filter. The total exposure time using the H-alpha filter was 120 minutes.

Hubble palette

Nebulae in the Andromeda galaxy.

This image was taken under a moonless clear sky with just light-pollution to contend with.

I used an 80mm f/6.3 refractor, and Atik 383L mono CCD camera, and a Vixen Atlux mount with PHD autoguiding.

I captured 5 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 were 60 minutes using a H-aalpha filter, 60 minutes using an OIII filter and 60 minutes using a blue filter.

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This image is a composition of data captured using three telescopes, an 80mm refractor, a 4 inch refractor and a 10 inch reflector.

In St Davids, west Wales on September 17th. The sky was very dark and clear.

I captured these images with a Canon D50 DSLR and an AstroTrack mount using an 18mm to 270mm zoom lens.

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A single, 5 minute exposure of the Milky Way

A composition of 4 x 5 minute exposures

Single, 5 minute exposure of M31 revealing the darkness of the night sky

Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE reprocessed

 These reprocessed images of Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE reveal the comet's faint ion tail.

Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)

On July 11th 2020 I drove out to the Keeper's Pond at Blaenavon.

I used an AstroTrack mount, a Canon 50D DSLR camera with a Tamron 18mm to 270mm zoom lens.

The lens was set at f/6.3 with the camera ISO set at 800.

I captured sets of three, two minute exposures which were averaged together to reveal the final results.

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Using the Larson-Sekanina filter to reveal more of the ion tail

NGC6820 - NGC6823

This lies in the constellation of Vulpecula the Fox. I was using an 80mm refractor at f/6.3, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD autoguiding, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and a set of Astronomik narrowband filters, SII, OIII and H-alpha.

I captured 2.5 minute sub-frames with the camera set on times 2 binning mode. I then took matching dark-frames and flat field frames. The total exposure times were 30 minutes for OIII, 30 minutes for SII and 80 minutes using the H-alpha filter.

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Bi-colour

Hubble Palette

RGB

RGB plus Hubble Palette

M11

This image of M11 was captured using my 80mm refractor at f/6.3, a Vixen Atlux mount and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera.

I captured 5 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 80 minutes using a H-alpha filter, 30 minutes using an OIII filter and 25 minutes using a SII filter.

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M11

 

M57

This image of M57 reveals its location between the two stars Sulafat and Sheliak in the constellation of Lyra. I captured this immage under hazy sky conditions with stars only visible down to magnitude 3. The telescope I was using was an 80mm refractor at f/6.3 mounted on a Vixen Atlux mount. PHD autoguiding was used and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera was used with narrowband filters; SII, OIII, and H-alpha. Total exposure times were 40 minutes for each filter. I captured 5 minute sub-frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat-fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

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M57 

Imaging M17 with a very narrow window of opportunity

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This image shows the narrow time-slot for imaging M17 between two rooftops. There is a 12 degree window giving me only 40 minutes of imaging time.

M17 rising from the rooftop. In this image the camera was set to times two bin mode to increase the sensitivity. The total exposure time was 60s.

This image was taken using an 80mm refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. The camera was set to times two bin mode, capturing 60s sub-frames. The total exposure time was 10 minutes for each Red, Green and Blue filter.

This is a bi-colour image of M17 using H-alpha for Red and OIII for Blue. The total exposure times were 20 minutes for each filter, capturing 60s sub-frames.

This is an image of M17 using the Hubble palette, with total exposure times of 20 minutes for each filter, using 60s sub-frames with the camera set on times two bin mode.

Trials and tribulations of imaging M16 from a suburban observatory

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This image reveals the narrow time slot I have for imaging M16. I have an imaging window of about 16 degrees, that is, about 50 minutes of imaging time.

This is a single, 60s sub-frame of M16 rising above the rooftop. The camera was set on 2 times bin mode to increase the sensitivity of the camera.

This image of M16 is a composition of R,G,B colour data with narrowband luminance data

I was using my 80mm refractor at f/6.3, a Vixen Atlux mount and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. The data for this image were captured on three seperate evenings. On the first evening I captured 5-minute subframes with matching dark-frames and combined them with flat fields with the camera set to times one bin mode. I captured three sub-frames for each narrowband filter SII, OIII and H-alpha.

On the second evening I set the camera to times two bin mode to increase the sensitivity of the camera using a H-alpha filter for luminance.

On the third evening I captured 30 minutes using a SII filter, and 25 minutes using a OIII filter using 60s sub-frames.

This image is a composition of data taken from three different telescopes, a 10" reflector, a 4 " refractor, and an 80mm refractor.

This is an image of M16 taken with a 10" reflector with colour data obtained with an 80mm refractor

M64, the Black eye galaxy

I captured this image under moonless sky conditions with stars visible down to magnitude 4.6. I was using an 80mm, f/6.3 refractor with a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD autoguiding and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera.

I captured ten-minute sub-frames with matching dark frames, and flats to remove the effect of vignetting in the final image.

The total exposure times were 60 minutes for each filter, H-alpha, SII and OIII. I sued H-alpha for Red, SII for green and OIII for blue.

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M64

Cropped

M44 The Beehive Cluster

This iamge was taken with my 80mm refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD autoguiding and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera.

I captured ten-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 20 minutes using a H-alpha filter, 10 minutes using a SII filter and 20 minutes using an OIII filter. I used H-alpha for the red channel, SII for the green channel and OIII for the blue channel.

M44

M13

This image was captured under a Full moon with very clear sky conditions.

I was using a Vixen Atlux mount, an 80mm refractor at f/6.3, PHD autoguiding 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 were 60 minutes for each filter, Ha, OIII and Blue.

M13

Closer view