I had a little more then an hour left over on a clear sky night and I decided to turn to Markarian’s Chain – A string of galaxies that form part of the Virgo Cluster.
On the left is the picture, which is heavily cropped, that I ended up with and the one on the right is annotated by astrobin.com.
Equipment & Stats Meade Series 6000 80mm Triple APO Refractor Canon EOS Ra Optolong L-Pro Filter Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro Mount ZWO 30mm f4 MiniScope (guide) ZWO ASI224mc (guide)
60 x 60s 20 dark, 50 flat, 50 dark flat and 50 bias frames
After doing a widefield session where I was able to get both M42 and the Horsehead Nebula in one frame, I decided to look at some other targets I could do with my set up and one, or rather two targets umped out right away: The Rosette Nebula and the Cone Nebula.
Both of these targets quickly became favorites of mine, especially the Rosette. I spent five days in January getting almost 12 total hours of data integration and loved every minute of it. The Cone Nebula, which includes the Christmas Tree Cluster started out a little rockier, but with another evening of data beyond my first, came out really well too. This time I was able to get both of the Nebulae in the same frame at the same time!
TPO UltraWide 180 f/4.5 Astrophotography Lens & Guide Scope Canon EOS Ra Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro Optolong L-eNhanced filter ZWO 30mm f4 MiniScope (guide) ZWO ASI224mc (guide)
30 x 300s 20 dark frames 50 flat frames 50 dark flat frames 50 bias frames 800 ISO – Bortle 8
Captured in APT with guiding done with PHD2. Stacked in DSS and processed in Photoshop
Rosette & Cone Nebulae – Annotated by astrobin.com
Ever since I began doing astrophotography, both the Orion Nebula and the Horsehead Nebula were always high interest targets for me. Up until last October, once I got a mount that could track and a telescope with a focal length capable of taking images of these two targets, I had to settle for views through an eyepiece or trying to take a lot of short exposures at really wide focal lengths to try and get an image. Even once I got a mount and a good telescope, I was still restricted in getting one target at a time. I kept seeing people post pictures with both in the field of view, but due to the limitations of my set up, I was unable to do the same… until now!
TPO UltraWide 180 f/4.5 Astrophotography Lens & Guide Scope Canon EOS Ra Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro Optolong L-eNhanced filter ZWO 30mm f4 MiniScope (guide) ZWO ASI224mc (guide)
Do to how my setup is currently with this scope, it is impossible for me to rotate the camera to frame the shot differently, but luckily the framing was good to go how it was! I will be writing a post soon going over how I have it set up with my current gear.
26 x 300s 20 dark frames 60 flat frames 50 dark flat frames 50 bias frames 800 ISO – Bortle 8
Captured in APT with guiding done with PHD2. Stacked in DSS and processed in Photoshop
At the beginning of February I had a decently clear night so I decided to shoot a faint nebula commonly referred to as the Jellyfish Nebula. IC 443 is located in the Gemini Constellation and is a large, and faint, supernova remnant. Below are three different processes.
Initial Process – Deep Sky Stacker Stack
Reprocess #1 – Same data as initial process
HSO Simulated Process – Stacked and channels separated in APP
Both the initial process and the reprocess were stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and processed how I normally process images. The final process was stacked in Astro Pixel Processor. With stacking in APP I am able to separate the individual channels taken and assign them differently from the typical RGB pattern. Because I am using a narrowband filter like the Optolong L-eNhanced this approach is possible to do for really interesting results!
Equipment & Stats Meade Series 6000 80mm Triple APO Refractor Canon EOS Ra Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro Mount ZWO 30mm f4 MiniScope (guide) ZWO ASI224mc (guide)
30 x 240s & 5 x 300s 20 dark, 50 flat, 50 dark flat and 50 bias frames
Above is the Flaming Star Nebula (and some friends!) at two different focal lengths. The more wide shot was taken at 180mm and the more close up shot was taken at 380mm.
The 380mm was taken with the Meade Series 6000 80mm Triplet APO while the 180mm was taken with the TPO Ultrawide 180 f/4.5 Astrophotography Lens & Guide Scope. The plan for the TPO is to mainly use it as a guide scope, but since it is a triplet (like the Meade) I wanted to get some imaging done with it as well. The setup for this, at least for me, was, to say the least, uncomfortable, but I was able to make it work and get some data!
180mm – TPO Ultrawide 180 f/4.5 Astrophotography Lens with Canon EOS Ra 30 x 300s 15 darks, 50 flats, 50 dark flats, 50 biases 800 ISO Instagram Link Astrobin Link
380mm – Meade Series 6000mm Triplet APO with Canon EOS Ra 50 x 240s 20 darks, 50 biases, 50 flats, 50 dark flats 800 ISO Instagram Link Astrobin Link
SNC Astro - Photo 