Deep sky astrophotography and telescope processing
Deep sky astrophotography and telescope processing
This target is such a cool target to me – the question mark top is already incredibly interesting, and the little dot below is icing on the cake. NGC 7762 is the big curvy part of the question mark, and SH2-170 is the little dot at the bottom. This target is so big that I actually had to do a two panel mosaic! All the red in this image is caused by hydrogen gas being ionized by the large stars near it, causing the gas to glow […]
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This was a tough image to process – there were a bunch of tiny dark gaps and hot pixels scattered throughout the image. The image file sizes were also quite big, so processing took a long time. Nevertheless, I got a result that I am proud of! The data is just too good to process badly. I have to give so much credit to the HLSP team – they really did a phenomenal job creating this mosaic. These towering tendrils of cosmic dust and gas sit at […]
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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 […]
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Equipment Sony Rx10iv Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Star Adventurer tripod Bahintov Mask Intervalometer Acquisition ISO 800, f4.0 26×2″ exposures – total integration time 52″ 100 bias Processing Background extraction TGV denoise apply luminance layer Image with objects
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Equipment Sony Rx10iv Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Star Adventurer tripod Bahintov Mask Intervalometer Laptop for plate solving Acquisition ISO 800, F4.0, 380mm 123×2′ exposures – total 2 hours 3 mins 100 flats, 100 bias Processing Stacked with siril Deconvolution, TGV denoise, Dynamic background extraction, extracted and reapplied luminance (All in pixinsight) About the image This image contains two star clusters and a planetary nebula. The top star cluster is M46, and within it lies planetary nebula NGC 2438. The bottom cluster is M47.
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This star cluster is one of my favorite objects in the night sky. Equipment Sky-watcher Star Adventurer Sony Rx10iv Sky-watcher tripod Acquisition 59x2min exposures 30 darks 50 flats 50 bias iso 1600 f/4.0 540mm Stacking Stacked in DSS Editing stretched in gimp combined starless, non-starless, and original versions to preserve stars and nebulosity. Did you like this image? Let me know in the comments what I should image next!
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Next week’s night sky: When the moon reaches its third-quarter phase at 8:30 p.m. EST on Friday, March 5 (or 1:30 GMT on Saturday, March 6), it will rise in the middle of the night, and then remain visible in the southern sky all morning. At this phase, the moon is half-illuminated, on its western side – towards the pre-dawn sun. Third-quarter moons are positioned ahead of the Earth in our trip around the Sun. About 3½ hours later, Earth will occupy that same location in space. […]
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Next week’s night sky: Tuesday is the last quarter moon. This is a great time to focus on the terminator to see minuscule detail in the surface of the moon. The terminator is the line that divides light from dark. On Monday, December 14, the Geminids meteor shower peaks! This is usually the most spectacular meteor shower in December. Meteor rates can reach up to 120 meteors an hour! Combined with the new moon, this whoer should be a terrific finishing point for the astronomy of 2020. […]
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Next week’s night sky: On Monday the 16th, the Leonids Meteor shower peaks! The shower’s peak will occur at 6 PM, and will reach up to 20 meteors per hour!Also, the moon will be just a faint sliver, leaving the sky nicely dark for the meteors. Saturday the 21st is the first quarter moon. Observe the terminator (the line separating dark and light) to find details on the surface of the moon! Smoother Dark matter Analysis of a giant new galaxy survey by VLT suggests that dark […]
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Next week’s night sky: On November 5, the Southern Taurids Meteor Shower peaks just after midnight! Stay up that late and you will be rewarded with almost 10 colorful meteors an hour! On Saturday, November 7, the moon will not rise for a few hours after sunset. This is a great time for some casual stargazing, as the moon will not ruin the view. Water on the Moon NASA’s flying Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has detected water molecules on the surface of the moon! Researchers […]
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