M57 (April 2020)

This is 12x360" with the Atik 460EXC through the 203mm f/4.95 Synta-ONTC Newtonian.  OK, another Ring Nebula---I will say this, though.  While I was shooting, I was also observing the Ring with my 6" Spooner Parallax Newtonian.  The Ring looked magnificent in the 6", though I could see no color.  Here's a monochrome image that is deeper than I could see but in some ways similar.  I used it as Lum for the image above.  Stars are pretty deep here, down to around mag 18.

Helix Nebula in SHO (Summer 2018)

The Helix never ceases to amaze.  This data is from a 12" RCOS telescope from New South Wales.

M13 (not deep) — First Light with Atik 460ex Color (April 2020)

This is M13 again.  I spent most of the night on something else, but it seemed a shame to waste the darkness when I could still be shooting, so I took 3x360" on M13.  It's not deep.  One can barely spot IC 4617, but this was a pretty good test.  I took this picture through an Astronomik CLS filter, a Baader MPCC (the first version), and the 203mm f/4.95 Synta-ONTC Newtonian. 

NGC 2442 (April 2019)

NGC 3953 (April 2020)

OK, so this is a galaxy just southeast of the Big Dipper's bowl.  It looks a lot like M109 and might actually be the galaxy discovered that we now call M109 (whose position was disputed for a long time).  NGC 3953 is a lovely spiral about 61 million light years away.

The image is a time machine looking back into the past.  Find the following beginning at NGC 3953 in the center:

Two galaxy lengths down and left, PGC 37256. No idea how far this one---perhaps it is near NGC 3953.

Above and a little left of NGC 3953, PGC 213900, mag 16.76, 710 million light years.

Below and a little right, PGC 2412642, mag 16.58, 710 million light years.

Immediately left of the galaxy, the small, horizontal "seed" shape, PGC 213899, mag 17.84, 340 million light years.

Below the galaxy, nearly at the bottom of the frame, PGC 2411483, mag 17.30, 970 million light years.

Directly far left of NGC 3953, elliptical, PGC 2407838, mag 17.85, 1.4 billion light years.

In the upper left corner, there are three galaxies.  Beginning at lower left, PGC 2406768, mag 16.69, 1.2 billion light years. Directly above that, PGC 2406922, mag 18.26, 1.2 billion light years. To the right and above that, PGC 2408846, mag 17.87, 1.6 billion light years.

In the bottom right, 1 galaxy length in from the bottom and 1 from the right, PGC 2415838, mag 17.96, 1.7 billion light years.

This image is 49x360" through a light pollution filter.

NGC 2841 (Jan. 2020)

NGC 2841 is found in Ursa Major, mostly down the bear's front leg.  Apparently this galaxy, about 46 million light years distant, is 150,000 light years across, half again larger than our own galaxy.

This image is 34x360" with the 203mm f/4.9 Synta-ONTC Newtonian telescope and the SXVF-H9 camera.

Comet C\2019 Y4 (ATLAS) (1:37-1:58 UTC on 4-1-2020)

And a single frame taken at 1:44 UTC:

Taken with the SXVF-H9 through the Synta-ONTC 203mm Newtonian at f/4.9.  Each exposure was 30 seconds through an Astronomik CLS filter.