M17 The Swan Nebula

This image was taken under clear, moonless sky conditions with stars visible down to magnitude 5.3. I was using my 10 inch, f/4.8 reflector, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding and an Atik 383 L mono CCD camera.

I captured 5 minute sub-frames with matching dark-frames and used flat-fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

The camera was set to x1 bin mode for all of the data.

The total exposure times were 20 minutes using an OIII filter, 10 minutes using an H-alpha filter and 20 minutes using a SII filter.

M17 narrowband luminance with RGB colour data

M17 Hubble Palette

Old and new data combined

M87

This image of M87 was taken  using my 10 inch, f/4.8 reflector, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding and an Atik 383 L mono CCD camera.

I captured 5 minute sub-frames with matching dark-frames and used flat-fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

The camera was set to x1 bin mode for the luminance data using an IDAS filter. For the colour data, the camera was set to x2 bin mode.

The total exposure times were 60 minutes using an IDAS filter, 10 minutes using an OIII filter, 10 minutes using an H-alpha filter and 5 minutes using a blue filter.

M87 new data

Old an new data combined

M16 the Eagle Nebula

This image was taken under clear, moonless sky conditions with stars visible down to magnitude 5.3. I was using my 10 inch, f/4.8 reflector, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding and an Atik 383 L mono CCD camera.

I captured 5 minute sub-frames with matching dark-frames and used flat-fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

The total exposure times were 15 minutes using an OIII filter, 30 minutes using an H-alpha filter and 25 minutes using a SII filter, and 10 minutes using a blue filter.

RGB Colour data

Narrowband colour data (Hubble palette)

Old and new narrowband data combined

The Pillars of Creation

M104 the Sombrero Galaxy

This image was taken under clear sky conditions with stars visible down to magnitude 5. I was using my 10 inch, f/4.8 reflector, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding and an Atik 383 L mono CCD camera.

I captured 5 minute sub-frames with matching dark-frames and used flat-fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

The camera was set to x1 bin mode for the luminance data using an IDAS filter. For the colour data, the camera was set to x2 bin mode.

The total exposure times were 60 minutes using an IDAS filter, 10 minutes using an OIII filter, 10 minutes using an H-alpha filter and 5 minutes using a blue filter.

The Sombrero galaxy

Using old and new data

NGC 4565 The Needle Galaxy

This almost edge on galaxy is a spiral galaxy. I took this image under very clear conditions with no moonlight and stars visible down to magnitude 5. 

I was using my 10 inch, f/4.8 reflector, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding and an Atik 383 L mono CCD camera.

I captured 5 minute sub-frames with matching dark-frames and used flat-fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

The camera was set to x1 bin mode for the luminance data using an IDAS filter. For the colour data, the camera was set to x2 bin mode.

The total exposure times were 60 minutes using an IDAS filter, 5 minutes using an OIII filter, 5 minutes using an H-alpha filter and 5 minutes using a blue filter.

NGC 4565

NGC 4565 cropped using old and new data.

M64 The Black Eye Galaxy

This image was taken under clear, moonless sky conditions with stars visible down to magnitude 4.7. I was using my 10 inch, f/4.8 reflector, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding and an Atik 383 L mono CCD camera.

I captured 5 minute sub-frames with matching dark-frames and used flat-fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

The camera was set to x1 bin mode for the luminance data using an IDAS filter. For the colour data, the camera was set to x2 bin mode.

The total exposure times were 60 minutes using an IDAS filter, 10 minutes using an OIII filter, 10 minutes using an H-alpha filter and 5 minutes using a blue filter.

M64

M64 cropped

The Coma Cluster

 This image was taken under clear, moonless sky conditions with stars visible down to magnitude 5. I was using my 10 inch, f/4.8 reflector, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding and an Atik 383 L mono CCD camera.

I captured 5 minute sub-frames with matching dark-frames and used flat-fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

The camera was set to x1 bin mode for the luminance data using an IDAS filter. For the colour data, the camera was set to x2 bin mode.

The total exposure times were 80 minutes using an IDAS filter, 10 minutes using an OIII filter, 15 minutes using an H-alpha filter and 5 minutes using a blue filter.

The Coma Cluster

New and old data combined

M105, NGC 3388 and NGC 3389

This image was taken under clear, moonless sky conditions with only light pollution to contend with. Stars were visible down to magnitude 5.

I was using my 10" f/4.8 reflector, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding and an Atik 383 L mono CCD camera.

Five minute sub-frames were captured with matching dark-frames. Flat-fields were used to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

For luminance data the camera was set to x1 bin mode and for the colour data the camera was set to x2 bin mode.

The luminance data had a total exposure time of 45 minutes using an IDAS filter. The exposure times for H-alpha, OIII and blue were 10 minutes for each filter.

M105, NGC 3388 and NGC 3389

NGC3115 The Spindle Galaxy

This image was taken under bright moonlight to contend with. I was using my 10 inch reflector at f/4.8, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera.

I captured 5 minute sub-frames with matching dark-frames and used flat-fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

The total exposure times were 45 minutes using an IDAS filter for luminance, with the camera set on x1 bin mode. The colour data however, were captured with the camera set to x2 bin mode, using exposure times of 10 minutes with a H-alpha filter, 10 minutes using an OIII filter, and 5 minutes using a blue filter.

NGC3115 The Spindle galaxy

M106

This image was taken under bright moonlight with stars visible down to magnitude 4. I was using my 10 inch reflector at f/4.8, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera.

I captured 5 minute sub-frames with matching dark-frames and used flat-fields to reduce the effect of vignetting in the final image.

The total exposure times were 60 minutes using an IDAS filter for luminance, with the camera set on x1 bin mode. The colour data however, were captured with the camera set to x2 bin mode, using exposure times of 10 minutes with a H-alpha filter, 10 minutes using an OIII filter, and 5 minutes using a blue filter.

M106