M42, The fishes mouth

I took this image uder very clear sky conditions with no moonlight. It is the core region of the Orion nebula. I capture this image using Barlow projection with a 2" x2 Altair Barlow lens, with an Atik 383L mono CCD camera, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto guiding, a 10" f/4.8 reflector and a set of Astronomik narrowband filters.

I captured sub-frames of 10s and 30s with matching dark frames and combined them with flat fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

The total exposure times were 10 minutes for each colour channel, SII, H-alpha, OIII and blue.

Click on an image to get a closer view

Hubble palette, 10s sub frames

Narrowband luminance, RGB colour, 30 and 10s sub frames

Hubble palette, colour and luminance, 30 and 10s sub frames

Hubble Palette, colour, 30 and 10s sub frames, cropped.

NGC 891

 This edge on galaxy lies in the constellation of Andromeda

I captured this image with my 10" f/4.8 reflector, A vixen, Atlux mount, PHD autu guiding, An Atik 383L mono CCD camera and a set of Astronomik RGB filters.

The exposure times were 60 minutes for each filter, for each filter capturing five minute sub frames with matching dark frames. I then combined them with flat fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

Click on an image to get a closer view

NGC 891 RGB

NGC891 cropped

The Medusa nebula with a 10" reflector

 This image was captured using my 10" f/4.8 reflector, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and a set of Astronomic narrowband filters, H-alpha, SII and OIII.

I captured five minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

The total exposure times were 60 minutes for each narrowband filter H-alpha, OIII and SII and 15 minutes using a blue filter.

Click on an image to get a closer view.

Narrowband luminance with RGB colour

Hubble palette

Hubble palette with RGB colour

Bi colour

Simels 147 (SH2-240)

 This supernova remnant lies in the constellation of Taurus the Bull and is often overlooked.

I took this image using my 80mm, f/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and a set of Astronomic narrowband filters, H-alpha, SII and OIII.

I captured five minue sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

The total exposure time were 90 minutes using a H-alpha filter, 60 minutes using an OIII filter, 50 minutes using a SII filter and 15 minutes using a blue filter.

Click on an image to get a closer view

Narrowband luminance with RGB colour

Hubble palette

The Medusa nebula P205.1 +14.2

 This image of the Medusa nebula was taken under clear sky conditions with the first quarter moonlight to contend with. It lies in the constellation of Canis Minor.

I captured this image using my 80mm, f/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and a set of Astronomic narrowband filters, H-alpha, SII and OIII.

I capture five minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

The total exposure times were 60 minutes for each narrowband filter and 20 minutes for a blue filter.

Click on an image to get a closer view.

Narrowband luminance with RGB colour

Narrowband Hubble palette

RGB and narrowband colour

Bi colour

VDB 141 The Hanging Ghost nebula

This image of VDB 141 was taken under moonlight with very clear sky conditions. It lies in the constellation of Cepheus near the Iris nebula. I was using my 80mm, f/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and a set of Astronomic narrowband filters, H-alpha, SII and OIII.

I capture five minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

The total exposure times were 90 minutes using a H-alpha filter, 40 minutes using an OIII filter, 35 minutes using a SII filter and 20 minutes using a blue filter.

Click on an image to get a closer view

VDB 141

A two section mosaic

NGC 7023 The Iris nebula

This bright reflection nebula lies in the constellation of Cepheus the king.

I took this image using my 80mm, f/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and a set of Astronomic narrowband filters, H-alpha, SII and OIII. I capture five minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

The total exposure time were 60 minues with a H-alpha filter, 40 minutes with a SII filter, 35 minutes with an OIII and aso 15 minutes using a blue filter.

Click on an image to get a closer view

Narrowband luminance with RGB colour

Data from two telescopes, a 10" reflector and an 80mm refractor.

The Coathanger, Brocchi's Cluster

On this evening the clouds were closing in fast, so I only managed to capture a total of 30 minutes of data. The total exposure time was 10 minutes using a H-alpha filter for the red channel, 10 minutes with a OIII filter for the green channel and a blue filter. I also took matching dark frames and flat fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

The telescope was an 80mm refractor with a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD autoguiding, an Atk 383L mono CCD camera and a set of Astronomik filters.

Click on the image to get a closer view

The Coathanger 

IC 5146 The Cocoon nebula

IC 5146 lies in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan. I took this image using my 80mm, f/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and a set of Astronomik narrowband filters SII, OIII and H-alpha.

I captured five minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

The total exxposure times were 60 minutes using SII and OIII filters and 90 minutes using a H-alpha filter.

Click on an image to get a closer view

RGB colour with narrowband luminance

Hubble palette

Narrowband colour with RGB colour

M27 The Dumbbell nebula

This bright planetary nebula lies in the constellation of Vulpecula the fox.

I took this image using my 80mm, f/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and a set of Astronomic narrowband filters, H-alpha, SII and OIII.

I captured five minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat fields to reduce the effects of vignetting in the final image. The total exposure times were 40 minutes using H-alpha and SII, and 60 minutes using an OIII filter.

Click on an image to get a closer view

Bi Colour image

Hubble palette

Fish on the Platter (Cygnus X1 Region)

This patch of nebulosity lies deep within the constellation of Cygnus the swan.

I captured this image using my 80mm, f.6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera with a set of Astronomik narrowband filters, Sll, Olll na H-alphs.

I captured five minute sug 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.

Click on an image to get a closer view.

RGB colour with narrowband luminance

 Hubble palette

Hubble palette plus RGB

NGC 6960 and NGC 6992 The Cygnus Loop

I took these two images using my 80mm f/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera, a set of Astronomik narrowband filters and PHD autoguiding.

The images were taken on separate nights with the camera set on x2 bin mode. I captured 2.5 minute sub-frames and combined them with Flat fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image. These data were then combined with old data taken with the camera set on x1 bin mode.

The total exposure times were 30 minutes for each narrowband filter on x2 bin mode and 60 minutes for each filter on x1 bin mode. All data were captured with matching dark frames.

Click on an image to get a closer view.

NGC6960

NGC6992

Cygnus loop mosaic, Hubble Palette

Components of the Cygnus Loop