Astro
Comet Lemmon from last night. Nice coma and tail can be seen.
Taken with Nikon Z6 with 70-300 lens at 300mm f/5.8. 30x10sec exposures stacked in Siril. Focus wasn’t perfect. Will try again tonight with a refractor.
Learning about different color palettes that are used in processing Hubble images. That process can be applied to amateur one-shot color astrophotos too and there is a SIRIL script to do that. Here is the same data for Wizard nebula that I posted earlier in SHO palette.
The Wizard nebula (NGC7380) is an open star cluster and star-forming region, located about 7,000 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. More details at Wikipedia.
This image is a stack of 82 five-minute exposures taken with a refractor attached to an astrophotography camera.
North American and Pelican nebulae. I really like the intricate details in the dark nebulosity that lies between them. The total exposure time for this image is 6 hours (72x5min). For the first time, I kept my scope imaging all night while I slept. 😄
Night sky is quite dark in Acadia NP. This Milky Way photo was taken at Eagle lake with iPhone15. Will process the images from other camera when I get home.
The Crescent nebula (NGC6888) from Cygnus with lots of nebulosity around it.
Total exposure was 2 hours (40x3min) for this image taken with William Optics UltraCat108 attached to ASI2600MC-Duo with Optolong LeNhance dual band filter. Processed using SIRIL and Photoshop.
The Veil nebula from the constellation of Cygnus. This is a 2 frame mosaic with 2 hours of data capture (40x3min) for each frame. Taken with William Optics UltraCat108 attached to ASI2600MC-Duo with Optolong LeXtreme dual band filter. Processed using SIRIL and Photoshop.
Veil nebula is a supernova remnant - an expanding cloud of gas resulting from the explosion/death of a massive star. This image shows only the western part of this large nebula (covers ~6 full moons) which lies at about 1500 light years in the constellation of Cygnus.
Details in Alt text.
Conditions are quite good for astrophotography tonight. Able to get 2 hours on western veil so far. The forecast says clouds by midnight. Hope to catch one more quick target before that happens.
Lobster claw nebula (Sh2-157) is a large emission nebula in the constellation of Cassiopeia at about 11000 light years. It is a stellar nursery and is shaped by radiation and stellar winds from a young massive star at its center.
🔭WO UC108 📷ASI2600MC duo; LeNhance filter 35x5 min; SIRIL, PS
Last night, took another crack at capturing the supernova SN2025rbs in NGC7331. It shines as bright as the galactic core. Other bright stars are the ones in foreground much closer to us and not from that galaxy.
This image is from 90 minutes of data.
New supernova in NGC7331 (49 million light years away) was discovered last week. I could get only 5x1min exposures last night through the clouds. Even in this crappy image the supernova (above red arrow) is obvious on the right side of the galactic core.
Cygnus wall in NGC7000. Really like how all the details of dark nebulosity showing here.
🔭WO UC108
📷ZWO ASI2600MC-Duo
Optolong LeNhance dualband filter
35x3 min
Processed using SIRIL
Single 3 minute frame of the Ring nebula (M57) in Lyra. This is a shell of gas expelled by a dying star. In the cropped version the remains of that star, a white dwarf, can be seen at the center of the ring.
M13 aka the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules is a cluster of several hundred thousand stars that is part of our galaxy at a distance of about 22,000 light years. The little smudge at the top is a galaxy (NGC6207) that is much farther away at 50 million light years.
Last night’s astronomy outing was so much fun! Just three of us with a 14" SCT and a night vision attachment for the eye-piece. We spent a few hours hoping from galaxy to galaxy with a few clusters. And the astronomy chatter was priceless. Don’t know when something like this will happen again.
M51 aka the Whirlpool galaxy.
🔭 William Optics Megrez 90 📷 ZWO ASI2600MC Duo 97 x 1 min exposures stacked in SIRIL and further stretched and processed in Photoshop
Planning for May 2nd to 4th for an opportunity to capture Mars in Beehive cluster. On May 3rd, the moon will be close by to be in the same frame.