Our Deep Space

Whirlpool Galaxy

First combined exposures using Bry's Observatory! Equipment: Scope: Celestron Edge HD 9.25 (with 0.7x reducer) Mount: Celestron CGX-L mount Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI 1600mm-Pro camera (Cooled to -20, unity gain 139/50). Off-axis Guider: Celestron OAG with a Touptek Guide Camera Filter/Filterwheel: Astromania Manual Filter wheel, Astromania LRGB Filters 14 x 300s Red 15 x 300s Green 11 x 300s Blue 200 total minutes of integration shot from a Bortle 7/6 zone near Salt Lake City, Utah. Software: PHD2 for guiding Sharpcap for Polar Alignment Sequence Generator Pro for exposure acquisition Celestron PWI for mount interface PixInsight for: Exposure registration and integration Dynamic cropping Mono channel registration Dynamic cropping Background extraction LinearFit to Blue Channel Channel combination Dynamic background extraction ScreenTransferFunction Curves and histogram manipulation to generate contrast SCNR to remove background green and blue noise MultiscaleLinearTransfer to increase detail/sharpness Export as Tiff to upload

Melotte 15

An artistic edit of our first narrowband image, the heart of the heart nebula, shot in h-alpha. This is 39x 600 second exposures shot with an ASI1600mm Pro and Celestron Edge HD 9.25" Telescope (w/ 0.7x reducer) on a Celestron CGX-L Mount. We're waiting for our Oiii filter to arrive so I figured I'd play around with the data we have so far to. Probably will add more to this to reduce noise, this is a "starless" (although not totally, lol) version.

Heart Nebula

I've been working on this shot for a few weeks now, the heart nebula is a tough one to image with a DSLR, signal is faint and any light pollution makes it very tough without narrowband filters. I recently got an Optolong L-enhance filter which has made doing narrowband a lot easier with my modified D5300. This is 50 x 10minute exposures shot with a full-spectrum D5300 and Astrotech AT65EDQ on a Sirius EQ-G mount.

Triangulum Galaxy

Did some imaging of the Triangulum Galaxy with my Astrotech AT65EDQ and Nikon D5300 from our bortle 6 zone house, got 25 x 5 minute exposures at ISO 200 for a little more than 2 hours of total integration. Will probably try and get this up to 6+ hours when the moon allows, not too bad for limited integration time and decent light pollution levels.

Heart and Soul

Over the last month I've been cranking away on my telescope, weather has been cooperative during nights when the moon is up of course. So I've been using my Optolong L-enhance filter with my Nikon D5300, collecting 10 minute exposure after 10 minute exposure. I've collected quite a bit of data on several targets, finally finished a 3 panel mosaic of the Heart and Soul Nebula. Not perfect, still learning how to properly combine bi-color shots with Pixinsight and the Oiii response from a DSLR is very very difficult to integrate. This is a notoriously tough target for a DSLR as well, especially narrowband and especially during a full moon. All in all this is 25 hours of exposure, 3 panels shot with a Nikon D5300 (modified) and Astrotech AT65EDQ telescope on a Sirius EQ-G mount. Each panel is a stack of 50 x 10 minute exposures at ISO 200. All the calibration, stacking, background extraction, stretching, channel combination, and curves manipulation was done in PixInsight. A slight star size reduction was performed in Photoshop.

North America and Pelican Nebula Mosaic

This is a 2 panel mosaic of the North America and Pelican Nebula shot with a modified Nikon D5300 (plus Optolong L-eNhance filter), Astrotech AT65EDQ Telescope on a Sirius EQ-G Mount (Rowan Belt Modified). Each panel is a 50 x10minute stack of exposures at ISO 200, images were acquired with BackyardNIkon/Sequence Generator Pro, guiding performed with PHD2 (dithered every frame), editing performed in PixInsight.

Pleiades

This is a difficult target with moderate amounts of light pollution, from where my mount is setup I only get a ~2-3 hour window to shoot the nebula this time of year and give the light pollution in the area I really need to get 15 hours of integration or more. This is a stack of 87 x4 minute exposures for a little less than 6 hours total, if I get some clear skies during the new moon phase I want to get at least double that to bring the noise down and more of the details out. Nikon D5300 (modified) with an Astrotech AT65EDQ telescope on a Sirius EQ-G mount (Rowan Belt Modified). 87 x5 minute, ISO 400, calibrated with flats and bias, stacked, and edited in PixInsight with final edits in Photoshop.

Flaming Star Nebula

Pelican Nebula

A 50 x 10minute stack of the Pelican Nebula, shot with a Nikon D5300 (modified) and L-enhance filter with an Astrotech AT65EDQ telescope on a Sirius EQ-G mount. Calibrated, stacked, and mostly edited in PixInsight with final touches in Photoshop.