M51 (May 2016)

This is another set of Luminance subs from DSW, 24x900" plus 1x1200".  Of course, I've imaged this before, but this is the deepest data I've processed.  This image is about 80% of full size because I wanted it to sort-of fit on the screen.  Notice the numerous little galaxies in the background, and some galaxy clusters.

Leo Trio (April 2015)

I am just getting around to processing this 8 hours of luminance data from DSW in New Mexico.  As you can see, the skies there are great and equipment superb.  The telescope is a Tak FSQ 106.  The 8300-chip camera leaves slight blooms on stars that mimic diffraction spikes, an aesthetically pleasing failure of the camera's anti-blooming gate.

This is a great part of the sky, and this image allows one to fall into it several hundred million light years.  The big galaxies are about 35 million light years away (give or take 10 million). The smallest galaxies are hundreds of millions of light years distant.  See if you can spot clumps of those little dust motes in the distant background.

Horsehead Nebula (Jan. 2017)

OK, another Horsehead, but I had a lot of fun taking it.  This is 7x600" with the SXVF-H9 through the CCF290 Classical Cassegrain at f/7.93.