Looking at Cygnus

Milky Way season has officially begun and that means we get to start observing and photographing beautiful nebulae. One of the most popular regions that gets looked at towards the end of Spring and the start of Summer is the constellation Cygnus. Famous constellations that include The North American Nebula, The Veil, the Crescent Nebula, and more can be found in this constellation. So far, I have been able to capture the North American and Pelican Nebulae together, which is close to the bright star Deneb, as well as the Sadr Region which includes the Crescent Nebula. Deneb and Sadr make up the two brightest stars in the Swan constellation, and around both of them is a lot of beautiful nebulae and stellar dust.

Above is the Sadr and its surrounding sky which features such Nebula like the Crescent. This area is full of rich Ha and comes out beautifully. The shot above is a total of 3 hours and 50 min integration time in one session.

Here we have the North American and Pelican Nebulae which are near the star Deneb. This is one of my favorite nebula in the night sky period. Previously, I posted these images processed as a simulated SHO. This shot is a total of 3 hours and 35 minutes integration time in one session.

I shot both of these targets with a Canon EOS Ra through the Radian Raptor 61 using and Optolong L-eNhanced filter. This is the second time I have been able to use the Raptor for what I intended it for and will be will be writing something on it soon!

Clear Skies!

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Orion & Horsehead Nebulae – SHO Palette

I decided to go back and rework some of my data from March and see what I could come up with. After reprocessing my Rosette & Cone wide field image in a simulated SHO palette, I decided to try and do the Orion and Horsehead wide field shot.

I did the stacking, channel combining and initial processing in Astro Pixel Processor then took the image over to Photoshop. I had to do it separately for the longer exposure and then the shorter exposure to create two separate images to use to try and combine them to soften the blown out core a bit. I believe my long exposures where simply too long to be real effective, but I was able to soften it a bit. I needed the longer exposure to pull out the detail in the Horsehead and Flame Nebulae, so I will need to research a bit more if I try this again in the future. I am thinking I may need to take three different data sets at different exposures and combine them over two. For reference, I have been using AstroBackyard’s Tutorial on HDR Composites. As always, Trevor Jones provides a lot of good information!

Image Information:

120 x 60s
60 x 10s
Darks, flats, dark flats and biases for both sets
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TPO Ultrawide 180 Astrophotography Lens
Canon EOS Ra
Optolong L-eNhanced Filter
ZWO 30mm f4 MiniScope (guide)
ZWO asi 224mc (guide)

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North American Nebula – SHO (Simulated)

A miracle happened, I finally got some clear skies on a weekend night when the moon was not up or bright. It just so happened that Milky Way “season” has just begun so I was finally able to put my new scope – the Radian Raptor 61 – through its paces and image something I have been waiting to image since last November – The North American Nebula (NGC 7000).

Image 1 – Starless
Image 2 – Negative
Image 3 – Inverted
Image 4 – Final Process

45 x 240s
7 x 300s
(3 hours, 35 min total integration)
20 darks, 25 flats, 25 dark flats, & 50 biases
800 ISO – Bortle 8
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Radian Raptor 61
Canon EOS Ra
Optolong L-eNhanced Filter
Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro
ZWO 30mm f4 MiniScope (guide)
ZWO ASI224MC (guide)

Imaging Notes:
I felt like the focus was a little soft. I realized this about 3/4 of the way through the session and decided to roll with it and keep my fingers crossed it would end up alright.
I was able to get 3 hours and 35 minutes of total integration – essentially from the moment it rose above the trees to the East until the ambient light from the pending sun rise began to wash out the nebula.

Processing Notes:
Stacked and channels separated in Astro Pixel Processor –
– Extracted Ha & Oiii, simulated Sii with Ha-Oiii Mono
Processed in Photoshop

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North American Nebula – NGC 7000

Last fall, in October, I finally got a telescope for nebula photography along with a mount that would enable me to track for long exposure. My first targets I attempted included both the North American Nebula in the Cygnus constellation and the Andromeda Galaxy. Both of these came out “okay” but I was never really happy with my results. Partially, this was due to me being new and also partially due to me not having certain filters that would help me get a better image. Instead of putting a good focus on trying to process what I had really well, I did quick and dirty processes to get something out.

In November of 2020, I took my last real images of the North American Nebula. The first 60 or so where before a meridian flip and the last 40 or so where after. I did not rotate my scope and because of my inexperience I assumed I was stuck stacking and processing both sets separately. I later realized, while doing some Orion Nebula stacks, that Deep Sky Stacker would auto rotate the images while stacking, but I had completely forgotten about my NGC 7000 data, that was until a week or so ago.

I went back, found my data and stacked. This gave me 99 exposures at 120s – just over 3 1/4 hours. I then took it into Photoshop and processed and my results where a lot better then the original I did. This was in part due to the additional data, but also from what I have learned as I continue to grow in the area of processing.

NGC 7000 – November 2020

The North American Nebula, along with a lot of other neat targets, are begin to rise really late (or early depending on how you look at things) and I will soon be able to go after these targets with some different equipment and filters then before. As I did with the Rosette Nebula in January, I am planning on going after this as my next real project. I don’t know how much time I am planning on getting with it, but I plan on going after as much as I can without neglecting some other interesting targets over the late Spring / Summer.

99 x 120s
20 darks; 50 flats, dark flats & biases
ISO 800 – Bortle 8
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Meade Series 6000 80mm Triplet APO
Canon EOS Ra
Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro
ZWO 30mm f4 MiniScope (guide)
ZWO ASI224MC (guide)
No filter, no flattener

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M13 – The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules

Friday night finally brought clear skies to me, but it also brought a bright moon at around 82% luminosity. Because of this and also because I do not have any clear view points on any bright nebula, I decided to do something different. We are currently in what is called “Galaxy Season” in the Northern Hemisphere – a time when a lot of popular nebula are below our horizon or rising really late / early in the morning. For reference, I can now begin shooting the Cygnus regions around 2:30am. Since I had a bright moon and because of my current focal lengths (380mm / 480mm depending on my flattener) I decided to do something other then galaxies – globular clusters.

I had never shot a globular cluster before, and with my focal length coupled with the bright moon and my bortle 8 skies, it presented a challenge. I have been using the L-Pro filter by Optolong for my broadband targets, but I have had issues with achieving good focus consistently as well as light transmission. I am under a firm belief now that my best bet in shooting targets like this, and even galaxies, should be done with no filter at all.

I began the night shooting M3, a globular cluster in Canes Venatici, and then moved to M13 once it had risen above the tree line. On both targets I was able to get right at a hour and a half of integration time. My initial processing of M13 had me blowing out the core really bad so I went back and made some adjustments, mainly in how I did the curves in Photoshop. I posted the images on Instagram but I was still not totally happy with my result. I went back and started from scratch to get my current result. With my focal length, bright moon and light pollution, I am happy with the results.

60 x 90s
20 darks; 50 flats, dark flats and biases
400 ISO – Bortle 8 – Lunar Luminosity 82%

Meade Series 6000 80mm Triplet APO
Canon EOS Ra
Ho-Tech Field Flattener
No Filter

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Betelgeuse

We were blessed to be able to go on a quick two week trip down south from New England to see some of my wife’s family and some of mine. Unfortunately, even though I brought my entire astrophotography rig down, I did not very many clear nights. The one good night I did get, I was not in a good place to setup my entire rig (could not see Polaris to polar align, a lot of trees, etc). However, I still was able to get out and do some experimenting by taking one second exposures with the Canon EOS Ra attached to the TPO 180 Ultrawide Astrophotography Lens. One of the targets I choose to hit up was Betelgeuse. Late last year I promised a friend that if I ever had a chance to set my camera to Betelgeuse i would and I hate to admit that I simply never took the time to do so, until now.

Above is Betelgeuse with some surrounding sky with no annotation, annotated and in negative. I really had a good time experimenting while getting this shot. This data was collected in Griffin, GA.

100 x 1s (1600 ISO)
50 x 1s (3200 ISO)
20 / 20 darks, flats, dark flats and biases
Bortle 6
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TPO Ultrawide 180 Astrophotography Lens
Canon EOS Ra
Tripod with Orion Panhead

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Markarian’s Chain (Partial)

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

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The Rosette & Cone Nebulae

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

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The Orion & Horsehead Nebulae

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!

Thanks to the TPO UltraWide 180 f/4.5 Astrophotography Lens & Guide Scope I was able to get both targets, and more, into the same frame!

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

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Jellyfish Nebula – IC 443

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

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