Jupiter, 7 December 2022
Jupiter, 7th December 2022 with C925 SCT and ASI 224MC camera
I am not experienced with imaging the planets other than the Moon. This image is not going to win any prizes or keep the award winning planetary imagers awake at night! However, it's a first effort at Jupiter and a foray in planetary imaging to give me some other astronomy options since almost always, when it is clear the moon is bright thus rendering deep sky observing and photography impossible
I used my Celestron C925 telescope with a x2 Powermate (a 2" version). I then used an ADC to try and improve colour correction and to this was connected my ASI224MC colour camera.
I tried my very best to "eyeball" the focus the best I could. This is very difficult to do as Jupiter was bouncing around considerably due to quite poor seeing. Jupiter was at about 30 degrees altitude almost at the meridian but was above a neighbour's house and this affected the seeing conditions (heat rising from the house and thus creating air currents that spoil the seeing). Collimation of my scope may not be ideal either and this is something I need to check into.
All this said, many of Jupiter's features are visible in this image - the Northern and Southern equatorial belts, the temperate belts as well as the polar regions. A few of the ovals in the cloud formations are also visible. At this time the Great Red Spot is not visible and is on the hemisphere facing away from the Earth.
Technical Stuff
5000 frames in colour from ASI 174MC camera with C925 telescope on MESU200 mount.
Captured with Firecapture and processed in Aurtostakkert where best 30% of frames used. PixInsight Multiscale Median Transformation used to sharpen up five layers. No other processing at all other than this.
December Moon with TEC140 Refractor
The Moon with my TEC140 December 2022.
Images taken on the 6th and the 7th. The 6th was not quite a full moon and the 7th was just a few hours past full. On the picture on the left you can see that the circle of the moon's disk is not quite full between the 6 and 11 O'clock positions.
Both images were taken with my TEC140 refractor and ASI174M camera through Baader RGB filters.
Each capture was of 5000 frames and the seeing was quite good so that I could utilise the best 50% of frames of each capture run. Because of the Field of View with the combination of the F8 focal length of the TEC140 and the chip size of the AIS174M, each capture run through each filter was comprised of a North and South run. I then stitched the two together in Photoshop.
Weather conditions were extremely cold at about -2C when the captures were taken on the early evenings of the 6th and 7th December. The Moon was very high in Taurus.
From my backyard in Nottingham, UK. My skies are at Bortle 5 in terms of light pollution.
The Moon TEC140 Refractor/ASI174MM
This is a RGB image of The Moon captured at about 20:00 on 15th December 2021 from my observatory in Nottingham using my TEC140 refractor and ASI174MM camera.
I captured two capture runs in each filter and stitched the resultant images together in Photoshop. Each video capture file was 9GB in size.
Sh2-171 with FSQ85 Telescope and G2-8300 CCD camera
Sh2-171 is a star forming region in the constellation of Cepheus in the far northern hemisphere of the sky.
Imaged here with Takahashi FSQ85 and G2-8300 with Astrodon HaRGB filters.
M33 Galaxy in Triangulum FSQ85 with G2-8300
M33 is a galaxy about 2.8 - 3 million light years away in the constellation of Triangulum. Along with M33, it is one of the Local Group of galaxies with which our own Milky Way galaxy shares the local universe. M33 is the most distant object that the human naked eye can see, appearing as a ghostly white smudge on a very dark night from clear skies. It is a magnificent spiral galaxy about half the size of our own galaxy and because of its close proximity to us it appears very large in our skies and is am oft-photographed object by many, myself included.
I've imaged M33 multiple times. For example, with the same FSQ85 telescope here and also at a closer image scale with the TEC140 refractor here.
This time I have set the galaxy in a slightly wider field by utilising the FSQ85 0.73 reducer. I used the Moravian G2-8300 CCD camera and Astrodon RGB filters all binned 1x1. I did not use a separate luminance channel.
The data collected for the image was collected from my backyard observatory in Nottingham, UK on 4/5 and 8th of November 2021 and is a modest data set of 15 x 300s exposures in each of the three filters to give a total integration of nearly four hours. However, because of the proximity of M33 and its brightness this data set has revealed a very pleasing, detailed and colourful result. What do you think?
Image data captured with NINA automation software and processed in PixInsight.
Close Up Study of The Great Andromeda Galaxy M31 with TEC140 and FSQ85
M31 is one of the most favoured and popular imaging targets in the night sky; it is bright, large and very photogenic. I have imaged this galaxy numerous times, for example, in this LRGB version and in this OSC version. Since the galaxy is so large, each of these images is set in a wide field, one of 3 degrees horizontally and 2 degrees vertically across the field of view which equates to six times the diameter of the full moon. Many newcomers do not appreciate how large these objects are in the sky. Large but VERY dim!
The above image is at a resolution of 4.16arcsec/pixel. On such a large object as M31 this allows the entire galaxy to be imaged in one field of view on a wide field refractor such as the FSQ85 but does not allow for a "closer in" and more detailed image.
In order to do the latter, I created a mosaic of four panels to image the right hand side "west" of the galaxy at the greater resolution with my TEC140 and Atik 460. All I needed is the luminance data and then I could use this to blend with the lower resolution OSC data at the top of this post in Photoshop.
Each of the four luminance panels is a total of 90 minutes of 300 sec exposures captured with the TEC140 and Atik460 CCD camera with a Astrodon luminance filter. The luminance image above is a total of six hours of imaging time. I then processed these four images and knitted them together in PixInsight. I then registered this four-panel luminance with the OSC data at the top of the post and then used it as a luminance layer to give the best of both worlds; the colour of the OSC/FSQ85 wide field image with the detail of the TEC140/Atik460 image!
I hope you like it! :)
North American Nebula in a wide field with Samyang 135mm and QHY268C camera
This is my first ever image capture with the excellent NINA software. I used my wide-field rig which consists of the Samyang 135mm lens and QHY268C OSC camera using an IDAS 2" LP filter. The wide angle view brings out the North American nebula (NGC 7000) and The Pelican nebula to its right very nicely. There is also a lot of other background luminosity in the image.
The image set is a modest 18 x 180s exposures captured in August 2021, all the data being binned 1x1. Pre-processed and processed in PixInsight with a few tweaks in Photoshop.
A Set of Images of NGC7000, The North American Nebula. Is Ha data worth it?
A perennial favourite object to image in the summer and autumn months in the Northern Hemisphere. I've imaged this target with multiple equipment combinations over the years. For example, in One Shot Colour (OSC), in widefield and in a very wide field.
As part of the image I used my existing Ha dataset from 2018/2019 which consists of 48 x 600 second exposures. I discuss capture of this image here.
I then captured the RGB dataset in October 2021. This image is my first image set that I captured using the excellent NINA (Nighttime Imaging "N" Astronomy) imaging software. I captured four hours of RGB data through Astrodon 31mm E series Gen 2 filters binned at 1x1. This consisted of 300 second exposures. Seeing and transparency were not good but clear nights have been very infrequent in the UK in the past six months so I went for it regardless.
I am very impressed with the quality of the standard RGB image above. Since the data is binned 1x1, I did not feel the need to capture any luminance channel at all. Indeed the RGB alone is so good that the Ha data addition, whilst it does add some signal, adds so little to the final result that I question the time I spent capturing the Ha data. For sure, the Ha image is a pretty picture all on its own. However, it does add something to the picture as detailed below.
Despite the expense in time of gathering the Ha data, you can see that when it is blended with the RGB it brings out some fainter structures in the nebula. Whether or not a full eight hours is needed though, I doubt.
M108 Galaxy in Ursa Major, TEC140
M108 is a galaxy about 45 million light years away in the constellation of Ursa Major. It is sometimes called the surfboard galaxy because of its resemblance to a surfboard. Note the huge number of tiny, distant galaxies in the background. These are hundreds and in some cases up to two billion light years away from us.
Technical Information
I imaged M108 from my backyard observatory in Nottingham, UK on 4-5 April 2021 (two imaging sessions) when M108 was almost directly overhead. Conditions were very cold and frosty with good seeing and transparency. I used my TEC140 refractor and Atik 460 CCD camera with Astrodon E series Gen LRGB filters (1.25"). There is almost 9.5 hours of data in this image consisting of:
Lum > 42 x 300s; Red > 24 x 300s; Green > 24x300s; Blue 24 x 300s
Everything was binned 1x1.
Image data was captured using Sequence Generator Pro software and the equipment was was guided using OAG on my MESU 200 mount. Processed with PixInsight.
I hope you like it!
Full size image here (opens in new tab).
M3 Globular Cluster in Canes Venatici
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