Tag: astro photo

Messier 22

Messier 22 or M22, also known as NGC 6656, is an elliptical globular cluster of stars in the constellation Sagittarius, near the Galactic bulge region. It is one of the brightest globular clusters visible in the night sky. The brightest stars are around magnitude 11. Image (click for full size): Equipment Nikon D90 (Astro-Mod) Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Sky-Watcher Tripod AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6 Bahintov Mask Intervalometer Laptop All Sky Plate Solver Sharpcap Stellarium Acquisition: ISO 800 f/5.6 Bortle 2-4 Taken on 7/22/2021 183 light frames x 1 […]

Read more

M16 – The Eagle Nebula

The Eagle Nebula is perhaps the most famous nebula in the night sky. Made famous by Hubble’s stunning image of the pillars of creation, the Eagle nebula is one of the most interesting nebulae for astronomers to study. Image: Equipment: Nikon D90 (Astro-Mod) Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Sky-Watcher Tripod AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6 Bahintov Mask Intervalometer Laptop All Sky Plate Solver Sharpcap Stellarium Acquisition: ISO 800 f/5.6 Bortle 2-4 Taken on 7/11, 12, 13 in 2021 732 light frames x 1 minute (taken across three nights) 500 bias […]

Read more

The Strawberry supermoon – 2021

Image: Equipment: Nikon D90 (Astro-Mod) Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Sky-Watcher Tripod Rokinon 135mm f2 AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E Acquisition: Taken 6/24/2021 from Sharon CT Taken from a bortle class 2 zone ISO 100, F2.8, 1/320 second 1505 total frames, stacked the best 35% 100 dark frames Processing: Pre-processed to tif in PIPP Stacked with 1.5x drizzle in Autostakkert Linearfit RGB to get better color in pixinisight SNCR green Sharpened in registax Blended sharpened and unsharpened version to get nice halo in pixinisight invert+sncr to get rid of purple […]

Read more

Corona Australis molecular cloud

Image: Equipment: Nikon D90 (Astro-Mod) Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Sky-Watcher Tripod Rokinon 135mm f2 Bahintov Mask Intervalometer Laptop All Sky Plate Solver Sharpcap Stellarium Acquisition: Taken 6/20/2021 from Sharon CT Taken from a bortle class 2 zone Iso 800, F4.0 82x 3″ light frames – total 4.1 hours 15 dark frames 83 flat frames 128 bias frames Processing: Manually stacked in pixinsight Crop to remove stacking artifacts Image solver DBE Photometric Color Calibration Noise Reduction (TGV + MMT) HSV reparation Masked stretch Masked histogram stretch curves Star reduction […]

Read more

The Eastern Veil Nebula

The Eastern Veil nebula (also known as Caldwell 33) is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation of Cygnus and is located at around 1470 light-years from Earth. It is part of the Cygnus Loop which is a faint supernova remnant that exploded aproximately 7000 years ago. From the moment the source star exploded and until now, the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant expanded to a diameter of roughly 3° on the sky (that almost 6 full moons). The red hues in this […]

Read more

IC 1396 – the Elephant’s trunk nebula

Image: Equipment/software: Nikon D90 (Astro-Mod) Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Sky-Watcher Tripod Sigma 300mm F2.8 lens Bahintov Mask Intervalometer Laptop All Sky Plate Solver Sharpcap Stellarium Acquisition: 102 x 2′ Frames – total around .43 hours integration time 199 bias frames 34 flat frames 12 dark frames Processing: Manually stacked in pixinsight Crop DBE Photometric color calibration deconvolution John Rista Denoise EZ soft stretch Starnet EZ soft stretch sharpening with MLT curves with range mask to push nebulosity curves with color mask to adjust colors Local Histogram Equalization added […]

Read more

LBN 534 – Faint dust in Andromeda

Image: Equipment/Software: Nikon D90 Nikon 100 F2 Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Star Adventurer tripod Intervalometer Bahintov mask Laptop Stellarium All Sky plate solver Aquisition: 229 x 3′ light frames, total around 11.5 hours (taken across 2 nights) 47x darks – taken across 2 nights, temperature matched 500 bias 200x flats each nights, matched to each session Processing: Calibrated each light frame with the correct dark and flat frames stacked manually in pixinsight Dynamic crop DBE Photometric color calibration Deconvolutino Noise reduction Histogram stretch Masked Stretch to finalize Star […]

Read more

Gas and Dust around Scorpius

The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is a dark nebula of gas and dust that is located 1° south of the star ρ Ophiuchi of the constellation Ophiuchus. At an estimated distance of 131 ± 3 parsecs, it is one of the closest star-forming regions to the Solar System. Image: Equipment/software: Nikon D90 Nikon 85mm f1.4 Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Star Adventurer tripod Intervalometer Bahintov mask Laptop Stellarium All Sky plate solver Acquisition: Bortle 2 for 2 panels, bortle 3/4 for the other 2 4 panel mosaic – around […]

Read more

The Cygnus Loop

The Cygnus Loop (radio source W78, or Sharpless 103) is a large supernova remnant (SNR) in the constellation Cygnus, an emission nebula measuring nearly 3° across. Some arcs of the loop, known collectively as the Veil Nebula or Cirrus Nebula, emit in the visible electromagnetic range. Radio, infrared, and X-ray images reveal the complete loop. Image: Equipment/software: Nikon D90 Sigma 300mm prime lens Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Star Adventurer Tripod Bahnitov Mask Intervalometer DIY diffraction spikes so that 52 cyg wasn’t horrible to look at Stellarium All Sky […]

Read more