Christmas tree cluster and the Rosette Nebula

This two section mosaic images of the Christmas tree cluster and the Rosette Nebula were taken piggybacking  a 135mm lens combined with data taken using an 80mm F/6.3 refractor.

NGC2264, The Christmas Tree Cluster

NGC2264, The Christmas Tree Cluster.

This image was taken under moonless clear sky conditions with stars visible down to about magnitude 4.7. I was using a 135mm lens piggybacked on a ten inch reflector  mounted on a Vixen Atlux mount  with PHD auto guiding. I also used an Atik 383L mono CCD camera with Astronomik filters attached to the camera lens. I captured five minute subframes 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 90 minutes using a H Alpha filter, ten minutes using an O111 filter and twenty minutes using a blue filter.

Two images stitched together using Paint Shop Pro software.

NGC 2244 , The Rosette Nebula

This image was taken on two separate evenings under clear sky conditions, stars were visible down to magnitude five.

I was using a 130mm lens piggybacked on my ten inch reflector, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera , a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto guiding and  a  set of Astronomik narrowband filters.

I captured five minute seb 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 90 minutes using a HA filter, 30 minutes using an O111 filter, 30 minutes using a S11 filter and 10 minutes using a blue filter.

The Rosette Nebula

RGB

Hubble palette

Orion over the East Usk Lighthouse.

Orion over the East Usk Lighthouse.

On the 28th of Feb 2025 me and a friend walked through Newport wetlands.

I carried my tripod and camera and took these images using an 18mm lens on a Canon 50D.

The settings were 10 second exposures set on ISO 3200. I took an average of 8 exposures on the constellation of Orion and and average of 4 exposures on the planet Venus. 

Venus

Orion

Orion