NGC 1491 (2018-19)

This is 21/9/6x1800" in Ha/O3/S2, for a total of 18 hours.  One version is processed to give something like natural colors in the nebula, and the other is processed in something like the Hubble palette.  Both are merely narrowband images.  Camera was the SXVF-H9.  Telescope was the Synta-ONTC Newtonian at f/4.95.  Mount: Takahashi NJP. Data was gathered in 2018 and 2019.

NGC 896 Hubble Palette (Nov. & Dec. 2019)

I was able to collect SII, so here is a version in Hubble palette.  This is now 11/8/10x1800" in Ha/O3/S2, for a total of 14.5 hours of exposure.  Taken with the SXVF-H9 through Astronomik filters through a Baader MPCC Mk II and Synta-ONTC Newtonian telescope, guided on a Takahashi NJP.

NGC 896, the Fishhead Nebula in H-a and O3 (Nov. 2019)

This is a two-color with a synthetic green channel added.  To the H-a below, I added 8x1800" in O3.  Telescope was the 203mm Synta-ONTC Newtonian at f/4.95.  Camera was the SXVF-H9.

Comet 2017T2 Panstarrs on 11-16-2019 from 9:22-9:46 UTC

This is 20 minutes through an Astronomik CLS filter on Comet 2017T2 Panstarrs early in the morning of 11-16-2019.  The comet appeared in the constellation Auriga.  The brighter stars in the upper left are from Collinder 62, an open cluster the comet appeared to be passing.  Frames were taken with the SXVF-H9 and the 203mm Synta-ONTC Newtonian telescope at f/4.95.  The movie shows the comet moving among the stars during the 20 minutes of filming.  The lower image shows the comet frozen with the stars moving as streaks.  The point of the lower image is to show the extent of the comet's tale, which is not as visible in the movie.

NGC 896, the Fishhead Nebula (also IC 1795) (Nov. 2019)

11x1800" with the SXVF-H9 through the Synta-ONTC Newtonian telescope at f/4.95, Astronomik 6nm Ha filter, Baader MPCC (II). 

Cave Nebula, Hubble Palette (Oct.-Nov. 2019)

With the S2, we are now at 8, 9, 9 x 1800" for Ha, O3, S2, so 13 hours total.  Taken with the SXVF-H9 through the Synta-ONTC Newtonian telescope at f/4.95.

Cave Nebula Bi-color (Oct. 2019)

I was able to add 9x1800" in O3 to the 8x1800" I have in H-alpha.  The two were combined to create a synthetic green channel, then O3 was assigned to B and H-alpha to R.  The subframes were taken with the SXVF-H9 through my Synta-ONTC Newtonian telescope.

Cave Nebula, H-alpha (Oct. 2019)

This is 8x1800" with the Synta-ONTC 203mm Newtonian at f/4.95 and the SXVF-H9, through a 6nm Astronomik H-alpha filter.  This target is very dim.  It could use 12 hours, I suppose.  Nice area, though.  Actually none of this field is merely black sky; it is all covered with faint nebulosity.

NGC281 again (Oct 2019)

This is just 5x1800" in H-alpha with the Synta-ONTC 203mm f/4.95 Newtonian and the SXVF-H9.

Sh 2-132 Hubble Palette (Sept.-Oct. 2019)

This is 16.5 hours of narrowband in equal amounts taken with the SXVF-H9 through the 203mm Synta-ONTC Newtonian at f/4.95.

Sh 2-132 Bi-Color (September 2019)

This image is 11x1800" in H-alpha and 11x1800" in OIII, taken with the SXVF-H9 and the Synta-ONTC 203mm f/4.95 Newtonian.

Flame Nebula (Winter 2019)

This is data from Australia taken with a 17" Planewave CDK and SBIG 11000 monochrome camera.  The total data is relatively short, about an hour on each color and 3 hours of H-alpha.  After mixing the starless H-alpha and red, I combined as HaR-G-B.  The image is shrunk enough to fit on my laptop in its complete form. Of course, the blue glow to the right is from the star Alnitak, the most eastern of Orion's three belt stars.

SH2-132 (Sept. 2019)

Honestly, I did not know this existed till I went looking for a target.  I noticed  some nebulosity on some pictures here: https://www.mdwskysurvey.org/.  I found the spot in SkySafari, determined there was something bright enough to catch in a night, and aimed the camera there.  There is quite a lot to see!  This is 11x1800" in H-alpha with the SXVF-H9 through the Synta-ONTC 203mm f/4.95 Newtonian.

IC 63 (Sept. 2019)

This is 11x1800" in H-alpha with the SXVF-H9 and the Synta-ONTC 203mm f/4.95.

The Elephant Trunk (Sept. 2019)

This is 13x1800" through an Astronomik h-alpha filter and Synta-ONTC Newtonian imaging scope, with Baader Mk II MPCC, taken with the SXVF-H9. 

Tulip Nebula, Sharpless 2-101 (June 2019)

The Tulip Nebula is an area of gas excited by a type O6.5 star, HD 227018, and some other type O stars nearby.  HD 227018 is the blue-white star just right of the nebula's center, the one that shows a bow-shock.  It's not the brightest star visually, but it's the hottest star, and its UV light ionizes the local hydrogen, making it glow.  It's the instigator of most of the glow you see here.

Notice that the blue star at the upper left has two sets of horizontal diffraction spikes.  It's a double star!  That's why.

This is two-color image, H-alpha (9x1800") and O-III (7x1800"), with a synthetic green channel constructed of the two colors.  I plan to collect SII when I can, to make a Hubble palette version.  The telescope was the Synta-ONTC 203mm f/4.95 Newtonian with Baader MPCC and the SXVF-H9 through Astronomik filters.

M8 (Spring 2019)

This image was taken with an SBIG STXL 11002 camera through a Planewave 17" CDK.  The stacks were HaR/G/O3B as follows: 8x1800" 9x1200" /  9x1200" 6x1800" 7x1200".  Total time is 15 hours 20 minutes.

Hercules Cluster of Galaxies (well, part of it) (April 2019)

This cluster of galaxies is >500 million light years away in Hercules.  I count four Arp galaxies in this frame alone.  It's like a managerie of galactic curiosities.  This was a lot of fun to shoot.

I confess to not knowing this was here or that I could even image such a distant cluster.  I was looking for an interesting target in Hercules, or at least eastern Bootes.  I saw a galaxy in SkySafari, NGC 6045A, that had an interesting description and figured, why not?  Hmm.  I should have shifted the scene slightly south.  Oh, well.  The subs for this image were taken in the dead of night, from 1 am to around 4.  The air was super-still the first night.  We have some good depth. The deepest stars here are dimmer than mag 18.  This is 41x600" with the SXVF-H9 and Astronomik CLS filter through the Synta-ONTC 203mm f/4.95 Newt.

NGC 4438, 4435 (Arp 120) (April 2019)

These two are the most interesting in Markarian's Chain of galaxies near the heart of the Virgo-Coma  Galaxy Cluster. These two galaxies are about 52 or so million light years away. The background galaxies are much farther, as deep as 3 billion light years.  This image is 38x480" with the SXVF-H9, an Astronomik CLS filter, and the 203mm f/4.95 Synta-ONTC Newtonian. This is about as much galactic light as I can wrangle from the light pollution level of my backyard.

M56 (April 2019)

This image is 48x240" with the SXVF-H9 through an Astronomik CLS filter and the 203mm f/4.95 Synta-ONTC Newtonian. On a couple of imaging nights at 4 am, I needed just one more interesting target to call it a night, and here was M56 hanging over the trees.  With exposures of only 4 minutes each (to avoid over-exposing the stars), I could collect many exposures very quickly.  Here's the monochrome result.

NGC 4395 from the Suburbs (April 2019)

This image is 58x600" with the SXVF-H9C through the 203mm f/4.95 Synta-ONTC Newtonian. Notwithstanding the long exposure, the galaxy is dim, difficult to see against the background. That is because this galaxy is, in fact, very dim. The skyglow in my backyard is actually about the same brightness level as the galaxy's dimmer extensions, so this is probably the best I can do from the 'burbs. The image would be much better from a dark sky site. I've always wanted an image of this galaxy. Now I want a better one.

M65 (Spring 2019)

Here is M65 in Leo, from the backyard.  This is 33x600" with the SXVF-H9C through a Baader Mark II MPCC and the Synta-ONTC 203mm Newtonian at f/4.95.

Vela Supernova Remnant Fragment (Winter 2019)

A fragment of a remnant?  Yup.  This is a bi-color image with data from down under.

NGC 2359, Thor's Helmet (Winter 2018-19)

The brightest star inside the filamented blue box is HD 56925, a Wolf-Rayet star well on its way to blowing up as a supernova.  A Wolf-Rayet is a very large (10-80 solar masses) star that has become unstable in its advanced age. W-R stars burn very hot on their surfaces, as hot as 50,000 C. In this image, HD 56925 ionizes the local gas, here mostly hydrogen (reddish) and oxygen (bluish). The star has also blown out a bubble around itself, hence the box. There is much more to this nebula than a hot star in a box, though. At least some of the gas has been expelled from the star itself, while some of it is just interstellar gas that HD 56925's hot stellar wind has stirred up and energized.

This data is 9 hours of Ha and 7 hours of OIII with a 17" CDK and SBIG STXL 11002 through Astrodon filters, gathered by MPAstro in Australia.

Corona Australis Molecular Cloud, NGC 6726, 6727, 6729, IC 4812, Globular Cluster NGC 6723 (2018)

The Corona Australis Molecular Cloud produces new stars, hot and blue, that light up the dust like two eyes of a ghostly alien.  Each eye of this alien is two stars (not double stars, but aligned from our line of sight), yet each of the four is also a close double or multiple star.  Just below the left eye is fan-shaped nebula NGC 6729.  At the fan's point is R CoA and following up closely is T CoA, both very young stars. Just to the right is curly HH100, an Herbig-Haro object spewed from a newly forming star. Appearing above the nebulosity is NGC 6723, a background globular cluster some 30,000 light years away. This is from data obtained by Martin Pugh with a Tak FSQ106.

Lunar Eclipse Mosaic (January 2019)

Taken through the Synta-ONTC 203mm f/4.95 Newtonian with a Canon T3i and Baader MPCC II.

Lunar Eclipse - First Light (Jan. 2019)

Here is a preliminary of the lunar eclipse last night.  It was a stunning show! This is just a few seconds with the Canon T3i through a Baader MPCC and my Synta-ONTC 203mm Newtonian at f/4.95.  Through the telescope, we could see stars all around the copper moon.

M1 with the CFF290 Classical Cassegrain (Jan. 2019)

This is 37x720" with the CFF290 Classical Cassegrain reduced from f/13.5 to eff. f/8.1, taken with the SX-H9C and the Astronomik CLS filter.