The Leo Triplet

M65, M66, and NGC3628. This group of galaxies lies in the constellation of Leo the Lion. I was using my 4 inch f/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto guiding, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and an IDAS light pollution filter for the luminance data. The colour data however was taken from an old image using RGB colour filters. 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. Total exposure time was 60 min.

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The Leo Triplet

M81 and M82 with two telescopes

 M81, M82 Data from two  telescopes, a ten inch reflector and a four inch refractor.

M81 and M82

Galaxies M81, M82. I took this image under hazy sky conditions with stars only visible down to magnitude 4.3. I was using my 4 inch f/6.3 refractor, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD autoguiding 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 90 minutes using an IDAS filter, ten minutes using a H-alpha filter and ten minutes using an O111 filter.

M81 and M82

M78

M78 . In Orion . This image of M78 was taken under clear moonless sky conditions with stars visible down to magnitude 4.7. I was using my f/4.8 reflector, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto guiding 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 times was 60 minutes using a blue filter , 40 minutes using an O111 filter and 30 minutes using a H-alpha filter.

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NGC2346

NGC2346. This butterfly-shaped planetary nebula lies in the constellation of Monoceros. 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. I was using my ten inch f/4.8 reflector, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto-guiding, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and a set of Astronomik narrowband filters, S11, O111, and H-alpha. The total exposure times were 35 minutes for each filter.

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Bi-colour image

Hubble Palette

Lunar mosaic.

This image was taken under steady seeing conditions with stars still visible down to magnitude 4. I was using my ten inch f/4.8 reflector, a Vixen Atlux mount, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera, a Tele-Vue x2 Barlow lens and an Astronomik H-alpha filter. I captured twenty, one thousandth of a second exposures and averaged them together using Registax software.

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The Orion nebula

 M42/43; The Orion nebula.  This image is a two section mosaic taken on two separate evenings under very clear moonless sky conditions. Stars were visible  down to magnitude 5 with the air being very steady.  I was using my ten inch f/4.8 reflector, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto guiding , an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and a set of Astronomik narrowband filters . The filters were H-alpha, S11 and O111. 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 times was 120 minutes for each narrowband filter.

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Example of the light-pollution level

RGB image

Narrowband

Narrowband + RGB luminance and colour

The moon and earthshine. This image was taken using a ten inch f/4.8 reflector, a Vixen Atlux mount, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and an Astronomik H-alpha filter. The exposure times were very short; twenty, one thousandths of a second exposures. The data were then averaged using Registax software.

NGC1491

NGC1491. This patch of nebulosity lies in the constellation of Perseus. I was using my ten inch f/4.8 reflector, a Vixen Atlux mount PHD auto guiding, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and a set of Astronomik narrowband filters. 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 times was sixty minutes for each filter.

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RGB image

Hubble Palette

RGB + Hubble Palette

Focus test

Focus test ; The Moon. By capturing twenty, one thousandth of a second exposures averaging the data was the best option using RegiStack software . I was using a Ten inch reflector , a Vixen atlux mount , an Astronomick H-alpha filter and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera.

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