I decided to image the eagle nebula next. I was able to get about an hour of Ha data last night as I wrapped up the elephant trunk nebula. I had a couple clear nights in a row and was able to capture 50 300s … continue readingsh2-49: eagle nebula
Here is my SHO processed image of the elephant trunk nebula. It took me over two weeks to capture this due to an unusually large dust cloud that crossed the atlantic from the sahara desert and then a series of storms in the southeast USA. … continue readingsh2-131: elephant trunk nebula
I’ve made a few equipment changes for the summer season. Everything in my current kit is listed below: imaging telescope explore scientific ed102 apo flattener/reducer stellarvue sffr102-2 focuser stock 2” + zwo eaf filter wheel zwo efw 8 x 1.25” filters optolong 1.25 ha, sii, … continue readingsummer 2020 gear update
Several new items finally arrived this week. I ordered the 1600MM Pro and ZWO 8 position 1.25″ electronic filter wheel from optcorp.com. I also ordered the optolong 1.25″ narrowband set and l-pro filter from highpointscientific.com. Setting up this camera was simple in part because ZWO … continue readingfirst light ZWO ASI 1600MM PRO
I wanted to remove the compression fitting in my imaging train for a while. It was surprisingly difficult getting an all-threaded setup with my Explore Scientific ED102 due to the male M54 x 0.75 threads on the focuser draw-tube and same male M54 threads on … continue readinggoodbye compression fittings
The horsehead nebula is another winter target easily found next to alnitak, which is a bright star in orion’s belt. I photographed this target on two recent occasions. Once before and again after making some equipment modifications. For both of these imaging sessions, I used … continue readinghorsehead nebula – DSLR astro-mod comparison
On christmas eve, I was able to capture both orion nebula and the pleiades cluster. This was great because I could recycle darks, flats and bias frames in processing both images. I was still using the Nikon D300 at the time and quickly saw it … continue readingm45 – pleiades cluster
The orion nebula is a very bright object in the winter sky. This is a perfect target for my nikon d300 with short exposures. Setting up is still a bit of a pain with no automation in my process yet. I 3d printed a bahtinov … continue readingm42 – orion nebula
Now that I have a telescope and proper mount, I decided to re-attempt the m31 – andromeda galaxy photo. I’m still using the Nikon D300 which is limited to 30 second exposures, but I have also added PixInsight to my image stacking and processing toolkit. … continue readingm31 – take two
This summer, I attempted to get my first astronomy photo that shows some interesting detail. After about a month of unsuccessful nights, I got the process worked out to produce this stacked photo of the Andromeda galaxy. I had to limit exposures to 10 sec … continue readingm31 andromeda galaxy