NGC7293. the Helix nebula

NGC7293. the Helix nebula . This image of the Helix nebula contains extra data, a total of 122 minutes using a H Alpha filter, 30 minutes using an O111 filter and ten minutes using a blue filter. The camera was set on X2 bin mode using sixty second sub frames with matching dark frames and flat field frames reducing the effect of noise and vignetting in the final image. 

The telescope was my 4 inch F/6.3 refractor mounted on a Vixen Atlux mount with an Atik 383L mono CCD camera ..

Notice the reduction of noise  in the image due to the extra exposure time. 

The Helix nebula

The Helix nebula and M33

The Helix nebula. Here we have additional data added from three separate evenings, 44 minutes using a H Alpha filter and 17 minutes using an O111 filter. The camera was set on X 2 bin mode capturing 60 second sub frames with matching dark frame and flat field frames. I was using my 4 inch f/6.3 refractor mounted on a Vixen Atlux mount and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera.

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M33. This face on Galaxy lies in the constellation of Triangulum. I set the camera on X2 bin mode capturing 60 second sub frames with matching dark and flat field frames. I used my 4 inch f/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. I also used a set of Astronomik narrowband filters HA, O111 and blue. I then combined these data with some old luminance data, the camera was set on X 1 bin mode revealing the final result. The total exposure time was 33 minutes using an O111 filter, 40 minutes using a HA filter and 20 minutes using a blue filter. The old luminance data however I captured had five minute sub frames using an IDAS filter with a total exposure time of 120 minutes. 

Helix nebula

 NGC7293, The Helix Nebula.  On this particular evening I had bright moonlight, light pollution, cloudy weather and a 25-minute time slot to contend with as it drifted between the rooftops.  I could only capture 60 second sub frames so I set the camera on X2 bin mode. The total exposure time was 8 minutes using a H Alpha filter, 6 minutes using O111 filter, 2 minutes using a S11 filter and 60 seconds using a blue filter. I captured 60 second sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat field frames to reduce the effect of noise and vignetting in the final image. The telescope was a 4-inch f/6.3 refractor on a Vixen Atlux mount and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera.

The time-slot

The Helix nebula appearing over the rooftop

The Helix nebula

M31

M 31, The Andromeda galaxy. This galaxy lies at a distance of about 2.3 million light years, the light possibly left this galaxy before the first human beings walked on this planet. This image is a five-section mosaic stitched together using Paint Shop Pro software. I was using my 4 inch f/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto guiding, Astronomik filters, H Alpha, O111, and Blue. The camera was an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. I also combined 60 minutes of some old H Alpha data taken using an 80mm f/6.3 refractor to reveal some of the nebulosity in the spiral arms. I captured five-minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat field frames and bias frames to reduce the effect of vignetting and noise in the final image. The total exposure time for each mosaic section using the 4 inch refractor was 10 minutes using a H A filter, 10 minutes using an O111 filter and 40 minutes using a blue filter.

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NGC 7331 and Stephan's Quintet.

NGC 7331. This galaxy lies in the constellation of Pegasus. Looking about one degree to the south west we have a group of galaxies NGC7320, NGC7319, NGC7318 and NGC 7317, commonly named Stephan's Quintet, which was discovered back in 1877.  I captured this image on three separate evenings under very hazy sky conditions with stars only visible down to magnitude 3.5. The telescope I was using was a 4 inch F/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto guiding, a set of Astronomik filters and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. I captured five minute and 60 second sub frames and combined them with matching dark frames, flat field frames and bias frames to reduce the effect of noise and vignetting in the final image. The exposure time was 110 minutes using a H Alpha filter, 50 minutes using an O111 filter and 145 minutes using a blue filter. A total exposure time of 5 hours and 5 minutes. 

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IC1396 Hubble palette

Here we have the final composition of IC1396 with colour correction and noise reduction.

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IC1396 The Elephant Trunk nebula

This 7 section mosaic of IC1396, commonly named the Elephant Trunk nebula lies in the star constellation of Cepheus the King. I collected the data on six separate evenings under clear sky conditions with only light pollution to contend with. The telescope was a 4 inch F/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and a set of Astronomik narrowband filters. I captured 60 second sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat field frames to reduce the effect of noise and vignetting in the final image. The total exposure times for each section with the camera set on  X2 bin mode were 60 minutes using a  H Alpha filter, 20 minutes using an O111 filter, 20 minutes using an S11 filter, 15 minutes using a H Beta filter and 15 minutes using a blue filter.

 

IC1396, The Elephant trunk nebula.

IC1396, The Elephant trunk nebula. This patch of nebulosity lies in the constellation of Cepheus the king. I took these images on two separate evenings under clear moonless sky conditions with stars visible down to magnitude 5. On this occasion I was not using auto guiding and only using 60 second sub frames with the camera set on x 2 bin mode. I then combined the data with matching dark frames and flat field frames to reduce the effect of noise and vignetting in the final images making the two sections mosaic. The telescope I was using was an f/6.3, 4 inch refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, a set of Astronomik narrowband filters and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. The exposure times were 60 minutes using a H A filter, 20 minutes using an O111 filter, 20 minutes using an S11 filter, 15 minutes using a H beta filter and 15 minutes using a blue filter.

SH2-101, The Tulip nebula and M56, globular star cluster.

SH2-101, The Tulip nebula. Ths nebula lies in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan in a region named Fish on the platter. I was using my four inch F/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto guiding, a set of Astronomik narrowband filters 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 time was 65 minutes using a H Alpha filter, ten minutes using a blue filter, 20 minutes using an s11 filter. The O111 filter was taken using 60 second subframes with matching dark frames with a total exposure time of 45 minutes. The arrow indicates what I believe to be the location of Cygnus X-1 

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The Tulip nebula

Hubble palette

RGB

RGB + Hubble palette

M56. This globular star cluster lies in the constrellation of Lyra the Harp. This image was taken using a 4inch F/6.3 refractor, a vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto guiding, a set of Astronomik narrowband filters 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 exposure time was ten minutes using a blue filter, ten minutes using an O111 filter and 50 minutes using a H Alpha filter.

M56

M16, The Eagle nebula.

M16, The Eagle  nebula. This image was taken on two separate evenings, 90 minutes using a H Alpha filter . ten minutes using an O111 filter, 15 minutes using an S11 filter and 15 minutes using a H Beta filter. I was using my 4 inch F/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount PHD auto guiding, a set of Astronomik narrowband filters and a Atik 383L mono CCD camera. I captured five minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat field and bias frames to reduce the effect of noise and vignetting in the final image.

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The Eagle nebula

RGB plus Hubble Palette

IC443, The Jellyfish nebula

This image was taken using my 4 inch f/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD  auto-guiding, a set of Astronomiik narrowband filters, S11, O111 and H Alpha, with an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. I captured five minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with bias and flat field frames to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image. The H Alpha luminance data was taken on two separate evenings, combined with some old narrowband colour data. The total exposure time was 60 minutes using O111 and S11 filters and 120 minutes using a H Alpha filter.

RGB image

Hubble Palette

Hubble Palette + RGB

More renderings of the Rosette nebula

Here are another two versions of the Rosette nebula image using H-Beta and O111 as the blue channel combined with H-Alpha as the red channel.  The image is Bi colour whereas the second image is Bi colour combined with the Hubble palette

Bi Colour

Bi colour combined with the Hubble palette

The Rosette nebula

NGC2244.Two of these three images of the Rosette Nebula reveal extra data taken using an Astronomik H Beta filter. I was using a 4 inch F /6.3 refractor , a Vixen Atlux mount , PH auto guiding , a set of Astronomik narrowband filters , HA , S11, O111 and H Beta . with an Atik 383L mono CCD camera . I captured five minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat field and bias frames to reduce the effect of noise and vignetting in the final image. The total exposure time was 30 minutes using an S11 filter , 30 minutes using an O111 filter , 60 minutes using a H Alpha filter and 65 minutes using a H Beta filter

H-alpha H-beta bicolour

Hubble palette

Hubble palette plus H-beta

The Coma cluster

NGC4872. The Coma cluster. This group of galaxies lies in the constellation of Coma Berenices. I took this image using my four inch f/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto guiding, with  a set of Astronomik R.G.B. filters, an IDAS filter, and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. I captured five minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat field frames and bias frames to reduce the effect of noise and vignetting in the final image. The total exposure time was ten minutes for each colour filter and two hours for the luminance channel using the IDAS filter.

This image of the Coma cluster contains data from two telescopes , a 4 inch refractor and a ten inch reflector.

M105. NGC3389

M105. NGC3389. This group of galaxies lies in the northern part of the constellation of Leo. I was using my 4 inch f/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto guiding and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. I used an Idas filter for the luminance data and RGB filter for the colour data. I captured five minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat field frames and bias frames to reduce the effect of noize and vignetting in the final image. The total exposure time was 60 minutes using the Idas filter and ten minutes for each RGB filter.

B33

Here is an image of B33 taken using a blue filter on two separate evenings. To prevent the stars from saturating I only captured 60 second sub frames with matching dark frames. I then combined them with flat field frames and bias frames to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image. The total exposure time was two hours. The colour data were taken using H-alpha for red O111 for green and aditional blue filter for blue. plus a combination of old RGB data.

Captured through a blue filter

Final colour image

Southern skies

These camera on tripod shots was taken from a Cape Verde resort using 4 x 20 second exposures, stacked together with the camera set at ISO 3200. The camera was a Cannon 50D and a Tamron 18mm - 270mm zoom lens. The images show the Southern Cross, Centaurus, Omega Centauri NGC5139 and the Jewel box cluster.

Southern Cross

Centaurus Crux

M78

M78. This image of M78 was taken on four separate evenings. On the first evening I used an IDAS filter to collect 90 minutes of general luminance data. On the second evening I captured two hours of O111 data, on the third evening I captured four hours and ten minutes of data using a H Alpha filter and on the fourth evening three hours of data using a blue filter a total exposure time of 10 hours and ten minutes. I was using my four inch F/6.3 refractor. a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto guiding, A set of Astronomik RGB and narrowband filters and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. I captured five minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat field and bias frames to reduce the effect of noise and vignetting in the final image.

Cygnus loop with 3 telescopes

Cygnus Loop. This image contains data taken from three telescopes, a ten inch reflector ,  a four inch refractor and an 80mm refractor.

 

NGC6960 and Pickerings Triangle

NGC6960 and Pickerings Triangle. This image was taken on three separate evenings because the constellation of Cygnus was low in the western sky setting with only about one hour of imaging time. I was using my 4 inch f/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto guiding, Astronomik narrowband and RGB filters and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. I captured five minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat field and bias frames to reduce the effect of noise and vignetting in the final image. The total exposure time for each filter was 60 minutes using a H Alpha filter, 40 minutes using an O111 filter, 35 minutes using an S11 filter and ten minutes using each RGB filter.

RGB image

Bi-colour image

Hubble Palette

The Rosette nebula

NGC2244, the Rosette nebula. This bright patch of nebulosity lies in the constellation of Monoceros. I was using my 4 inch f/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount PHD  auto guiding, a set of Astronomik RGB and narrowband filters and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera, I captured five minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat field and bias frames to reduce the effect of noise and vignetting in the final image. The total exposure time of each filter was 60 minutes using a H Alpha filter, 30 minutes using an O111 filter, 30 minutes using an S11 filter and five minutes for each RGB filter.

RGB image

Bi colour image

Hubble palette