Sunday, 26 January 2025

Barnard's Loop SH2-276 and M78, NGC2068

Barnard's Loop SH2-276 and M78, NGC2068.

This lies in the eastern limb of Orion at a distance of about 1,600 light years.

I took this image on two separate evenings with no moon light , stars were visible down to magnitude 5 .

I was using a 200mm f/4 lens attached to an Atik 383L mono CCD camera, piggybacked on my ten inch reflector mounted on a Vixen Atlux mount. I was also using PHD auto guiding and a set of Astronomik RGB and Narrowband filters.

I captured five minute 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 time was 100 minutes using a H Alpha filter, 15 minutes using an O111 filter, 20 minutes using a H Beta filter, 15 minutes using a S11 filter and 10 minutes using a blue filter.

Clicking on the image will give an even closer view

Barnard's Loop and M78



Sunday, 19 January 2025

M42, The Orion Nebula.

This image of M42 was taken on two separate evenings under bright moonlight. On the first evening the sky was reasonable clear  with stars visable down magnitude 4.5 however on the second the sky was effected by fog.

I was using a Pentacon 200mm lens piggybacked on my ten inch reflector mounted on a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto guiding was used with astronomik narrowband filters and RGB filters attached to the camera lens. The camera was an Atik 383L mono CCD camera Set on x1 bin mode.

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

The total exposure time was  140 minutes using a H Alpha filter , 20 minutes using an O111 filter , 30 minutes using a S11 filter and 15 minutes using a blue filter.

M42, The Orion Nebula .

Hubble Palette


RGB

Orion's lower limb . 

This image of the lower limb is a mosaic, two images stitched together using Paint Shop Pro software.

Hubble Palette


RGB



This image mosaic is a composition of data using a Pentacon 200mm f/4 lens with added data using an 80mm f/6.3 refractor and a 4 inch f/6.3 refractor.

RGB


Hubble Palette




Friday, 10 January 2025

Nebulae in Orion's lower limb.

This image was taken on two separate nights under bright gibbous moon light ,stars were only visible down to about magnitude 4.

I was using a 200mm F/4 Pentacon lens piggybacked on my ten inch reflector mounted on a Vixen Atlux mount with PHD auto guiding. The camera was a Atik 383L mono CCD combined with Astronomik RGB and narrowband filters attached to the camera lens.

I captured five minute 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 time was four hours and 45 minutes using a H Alpha filter, 20 minutes using a blue filter, 30 minutes using an O111 filter and 30 minutes using an S11 filter. A total exposure time of six hours and five minutes. 


Hubble Palette

RGB

RGB plus narrowband


Monday, 6 January 2025

Barnard's loop

This image of Orion contains  lots of nebulousity, Barnard's loop. M42 the Orion nebula, The Horeshead Nebula,  The Flame Nebula ,M78 and the Rosette Nebula .

I piggybacked an Atik 383L mono CCD camera with a 35mm camera lens on my ten inch reflector mounted on a Vixen Atlux mount. I captured 60 second sub frames with matching dark frames to reduce the effect of noise in the final image  .

I also attached filters to the lens .

The total exposure time was 90 minutes using a H-Alpha filter, 120 minutes using a S11 filter, 30 minutes using an O111 filter, 25 minutes using a H-Beta filter and 35 minute using a blue filter .

The equipment


Orion nebulosity with Barnard's loop



Friday, 3 January 2025

VDB152 . or Barnard 175.

This cloud of nebulosity lies in the constellation of Cepheus the King. The sky conditions were very clear with no moonlight, stars were visible down to about magnitude 4.7. I was using my ten inch f/4.8 reflector, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto guiding, a set of Astronomik narrowband and RGB filters and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera. I captured five minute sub frames, dark frames, flat field frames and dark flat frames with the camera set on X2 bin mode.

This increases the sensitivity of the camera, therefore reducing the total amount of exposure time.

The exposure time was 80 minutes using a blue filter, 30 minutes using an O111 filter and 150 minutes using a H-alpha filter .

A total exposure time of four hours and twenty minutes.

Barnard 175