M31 - The Great Galaxy in Andromeda
Known since ancient times as a nebulous blob in the autumn and winter sky, M31 was the first galaxy to be recognised as a completely independent "island universe", wholly separate from our own Milky Way galaxy. This nature of M31 was only discovered in 1924.
M31 is slightly larger than our own galaxy and is located about 2.2million light years away.
The abovr image is comprised of a series of 600s exposures taken during 2017 and 2018 and is approximately ten hours worth of data through Baader LRGB and Ha (7nm) filters with a Takahashi FSQ85 telescope at native focal length and with G2-8300 camera.
SADR Region of Cygnus
SADR is the central star of the Cross of Cygnus, between the arms of the cross. The constellation of Cygnus is supposed to represent a swan but to most people looks much more like a cross and consequently is often called The Northern Cross. The whole area abounds in nebulosity that is very easy to capture with a camera.
This image is taken with a Samyang 135mm DSLR lens and subtends a field of view of about 8 x 6 degrees across the sky and so the long axis of this image is about sixteen moon widths wide. This is a very large area of sky to capture in one image. It is was made from 12 x 3 minutes exposures in each of the Red, Green and Blue and also a luminance of 24 x 3 minute Hydrogen Alpha 3nm exposures to give a total integration (exposure) time of about three hours. The camera I used is the Moravian Instruments G2-8300 loaded with 31mm Astrodon LRGBHa3nm filters.
I captured it in my back yard on 26th April 2019 with my wide-area autofocus rig mounted atop a NEQ6 mount. The data was captured with SGP and processed with PixInsight and Photoshop.
I hope you like it! :)
Sun 29th May 2020
TEC140 refractor, Baader Herschel Wedge, ASI 174MM camera. Captured with Firecapture, Stacked with AutoStakkert, developed with PixInsight and Photoshop.
Cassiopeia
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A far Northern constellation - circumpolar from my location in Nottingham - Cassiopeia lies in the middle of numerous star fields and nebulae fields, looking out from the core of the galaxy. The famous "W" shape is very recognisable and one of the first constellation that beginners to astronomy learn. It is rich in interesting nebulae, star clusters and other objects.
Image above was taken at the beginning of March 2020 when Cassiopeia was setting towards the North West. Conditions were not very good with the seeing and transparency being quite poor. Nevertheless, I managed to grab 45 x 60s exposures at ISO 800 and F4 with Canon 1100D and 50mm lens. Quite a quick and dirty picture and more exposure time would reveal much finer detail and nebulae details.Even in this image, you can see the huge number of objects withing the constellation, especially nebulae in the Sharpless Catalogue (Sh2).
Below is an annotated version of the above picture, showing some of the interesting objects and also an inverted view.
Auriga - The Charioteer
Auriga -
A famous constellation in the winter Northern Hemisphere sky, Auriga contains many very interesting objects and nebulae. Arguably the most important of these objects are the famous Open Clusters M36, M37 and M38, all of which I have imaged individually.
This image was taken in January 2020 from my backyard in Nottingham, UK on my modified (i.e. with the IR filter removed) Canon DSLR 1100D and a Canon 50mm lens. It is composed of 80 x 90s exposures at ISO 800 at F4, mounted on a Skywatcher Star Adventurer sky tracker mount. Astrophotography does not have to be expensive and you can achieve great things with a DSLR and a tracking mount!
Below, to the left, is an annotated version of the above picture and it shows many of the interesting objects present within the constellation of Auriga. You can see the many Sharpless catalog (Sh2) objects as well as the more famous Messier open clusters. To the right is a high contrast inverted view of the image.
I hope you like this page and found it useful.
Orion
Orion
Dominating the Winter sky in the Northern Hemisphere, Orion is probably the most recognisable of constellations. It is full of very important and popular astronomy objects and stars.
The image here is a stack of 80 x 80 second exposures at F4 and ISO 800 taken in January 2020 from my backyard in Nottingham with a modified Canon 1100D and a 50mm lens. The camera followed the sky with a Star Adventurer tracker. It was cold and windy at the time I took the exposures. I stacked them with Deep Sky Stacker and processed with PixInsight and Photoshop.
You can see the arc of Barnard's Loop and The Orion Nebula and Horsehead Nebula. Also visible glowing faintly to the bottom right is the ghostly outline of the Witch Head Nebula.
Below is the annotated version showing many of the interesting stars and objects within Orion. Very obvious is the Great Orion Nebula and Barnard's loop.
M45 The Pleiades
Introduction
Presented here is M45, the famous Pleiades Open Cluster of stars. Image was captured in one imaging run on the night of 18th December 2019. This image shows a small sub-section of The Pleiades, the "head". This main triangle shape of the bright stars Maia, Electra and Taygeta is visible to the naked eye.
Known since ancient times from cultures all over the world and even featured in prehistoric cave paintings, The Pleiades is a large, open cluster of stars in Taurus, visible late autumn and winter in the Northern Hemisphere
The Pleiades are actually composed of hundreds of stars, about 470 light years away. The cluster is vert young, about 20 million years, and is moving through a cloud of interstellar gas and dust. At some point many millions of years in the future, the stars will lose their mutual gravitational attraction an d will slowly disperse and start life on their own, orbiting the centre of the galaxy.
Technical Information
T: TEC 140 refractor
M: MESU200
C: ATIK 460 with Astrodon RGB
Twelve exposures in each filter, three minutes in length.
Total Integration time of 108 minutes, binned 1x1.
M36 Open Cluster in Auriga - FSQ85
M36 is an Open Cluster of stars (as opposed to a Globular Cluster) in the Constellation of Auriga. M36 is high overhead in Europe during the nightimes of winter months and is one of three Messier Open Clusters in Auriga, the others being M37 and M38. All of these are visible in a small pair of binoculars as nebulous and fuzzy blobs. M36 and the other clusters make a fine site in a telescope and dozens of stars can be seen. Note also the Red nebula to the top left - NGC 1931 (Sh2-237). There are some tiny PGC catalogue galaxies, billions of light years away in this image.
This image was taken from by backyard in Nottingham, UK on the 24th January 2018 with my Takahashi FSQ85 refractor and Moravian instruments G21-8300 CCD camera with Astrodon RGB Generation 2 E series filters on MESU 200 mount. All data was binned 1x1.
Red > 12 x 120s ; Green 12 x 120s ; Blue 12 x 120s
Total Integration is about an hour and twelve minutes. Data captured with Sequence Generator Pro and processed in PixInsight and Photoshop.
Astrobin Image here: https://www.astrobin.com/fersyj/