Thor's Helmet

Here we have data taken using two telescopes, a 4 inch  f/6.3 refractor combined with data taken using a 10 inch f/4.8 reflector.

The Eyes NGC4435 and NGC4438 .

This group of galaxies lies in the centre of the Markarian chain, the heart of the Virgo cluster. I was using a ten inch F /4.8 reflector, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto guiding , an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and a blue filter for the luminance data. I captured 60 minutes of data using the camera set on X1 bin mode with five minute sub frames and 30 minutes of data with the camera set on X2 bin mode taking 1 minute subframes. This data was then combined together with matching dark frames and flat field frames to reduce the effect of noise and vignetting in the final image. Finally I combined  this with old colour data taken using a 4 inch refractor.

The night sky from Newport wetlands

The camera was set on ISO 3200 a Cannon 50 D . The lens was set at 18mm a F4 capturing  8 sets of 4 second exposures . I averaged them together and averaged again calibrating the position of the stars due to the rotation of the earth .

Bootes and Corona Borealis

East Usk Lighthouse and Arcturus

East Usk Lighthouse and Hercules rising

Herculese Bootes and Corona Brealis

Orion setting

Perseus Cassiopeia and Cepheus

Taurus and Auriga

Thor's Helmet

The following images of NC2359. Thor's' Helmet 'was taken on 9 seperate evenings  with additional data added,  an extra  55 minutes using a blue filter, 1 hour using a H Beta filter and 2.5 hours using an O111 filter.  I also used a high pass with an unsharp mask filter to enhance the central detail. Notice the bright star in the centre, a Wolf-Rayet star.

RGB

 Cropped RGB image

Hubble Palette

M42 and Thor's Helmet

This image of M42 contains old and new data. 30 minutes using RGB filters, 6 hours and 10 minutes using a H A filter, 2 hours and 45 minutes using an O111 filter. 2 hours and 10 minutes using a S11 filter and an additional 60 minutes using a H Beta filter . The data were captured using a 4 inch F/6.3 refractor , a Vixen Atlux mount and an Atik 383L mono CCD camera .

NGC2359 . Thor 's Helmet  nebula. This emission nebula lies in the constellation of Canis Major at about 11.000 light years away from us and is about 25 - 30 light years across . I took this image on 4 separate evenings using my 10 inch f/4.8 reflector, a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto guiding, a set of Astronomik RGB and narrowband filters , HA. O111 , S11. I captured 5 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 3 hours 30 minutes using a H A filter, 90 minutes using a S11 filter, 1 hour using an O111 filter and ten minutes using a blue filter. A total exposure time of 6 hours and 10 minutes.

Using a Bahtinov mask for focusing

 A Bahtinov mask in use.

Click on the image to get a closer view.

B33. The Horsehead Nebula.

B33. The Horsehead Nebula. This part of the night sky is my favorite. It lies about 1 degree south of the bright star Alnitak  the most eastern star on Orion's belt at a distance of 1,500 light years. It is also very challenging to see visually. I can only truly say I have seen once on a very clear moonless night up in the Brecon Beacons national park using a ten inch reflector, a 40mm eyepiece and a Lumicon H Beta filter.  However  it is not that difficult to image, especially  when using narrowband filters, evern in an urban site. The equipment I was using when I was imaging was my 4 inch f/6.3 refractor, a Vixen atlux mount. PHD auto guiding, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera and a set of Astronomik narrowband and RGB filters. I set the camera on X2 bin mode To increase the sensitivity of the camera and captured two minute sub frames. I then combined this data with matching dark frames and flat field frames to reduce the effect of noise and vignetting in the final image. The total exposure time was 1 hour using a blue filter, 1 hour using a H Beta filter, 2 hours and 50 minutes using an O111 filter, 3 hours and 50 minutes using an S11 filter and 13 hours and 7 minutes using a H Alpha filter.

RGB plus narrowband colour

RGB combined with the Hubble Palette

Hubble Palette

20.5 hours RGB colour

Signal to noise ratio

Here we have an example of signal to noise.  Notice the greater the exposure time the less noise in the image increasing the dynamic range of the image. 

Closer view

Flat field correction

Here we have an example of taking flat field frames. The first image is of a flat field frame, the second image is an example of B33 taken using light frames and dark frames only and image number three is with flat field correction. 

The Seagull nebula

IC2177, The Seagull Nebula. This large patch of nebulosity lies on the border of Monoceros and Canis Major at a distance of about 3,600 light years. It was discovered by the welsh astronomer Isaac Roberts. The equipment  I was using was my 4 inch f/6.3 refractor,  a Vixen Atlux mount, PHD auto guiding, an Atik 383L mono CCD camera  with a set of astronomik narrowband filters, HA , S11 and O111. I also used a blue filter to try to reveal the colour of the stars. The sky conditions were good with stars visable down to magnitude 5.5. This four section mosaic was taken on three separate evenings. The camera was set on X2 bin mode increasing the camera's sensitivity by four times. I captured two minute subframes 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 30 minutes for each filter. 

Hubble palette

Bicolour

RGB