More Deep Sky Images
Here are some images I took on the night of April 14/15, 2017. I used my ZWO ASI224MC camera, converted to B&W and darkened the images to remove some noise and highlight the nebulosity. The telescope I used was a Nexstar C8 mounted on an Ioptron ZEQ25 EQ mount.
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Here are some images I took on the night of April 23/24, 2017 at my rural location in Weston, MA. The clouds were coming and going. Clear Sky Clock showed it was going to be clear all night long. Clear Sky Clock is only right 50% of the time. So me and my friend John, endured about 2-3 hours of intermittent clouds until it finally cleared out at about 11 pm. I believe I managed to gather about 50 images of deep sky objects using my ASI224MC camera, taking between 8s-15s captures in SharpCap. I stacked about 2 min worth of images for each object I looked at. I adjusted the images on the fly, so no post processing, to darken the images and add notations.
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Here are 22 new pics I took on Sunday morning, April 30, 2017. It turned out that after 11:00 PM, the skies turned clear, however, there was a gusty NW Wind, with gusts of about 10 mph, with a constant wind of around 3 mph. There were times of no wind and I managed to capture about 20 more images of planetary nebula and galaxies. My equipment used was a Nexstar 8se OTA, iOptron ZEQ25 mount, ZWO ASI224MC camera using SharpCap 2.9 Live Stacking software and exposures of 8 seconds up to 15 seconds for between 10 to 20 frame stacks.
Some images may show more noise than normal, due to the fact that the object is dimmer than usual. Some images may contain trailed stars because of the wind.
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Here are some images taken on May 20th, 2017, using my Nexstar C8 and ASI224MC camera. It was somewhat clear and transparent for most of the night. I managed to stay out until 5 am.
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These are some pics from June 14/15, 2017. It was a marginally clear night, temps dipped into the 40's (yes, he said 40's), with a mild dew, a little wind, and some high thin clouds soon after midnight. I used my normal set up, Nexstar 8se OTA, ZEQ25 mount, ASI224MC camera, F/5 focal reducer.
July 20, 2017
On the night of July 4 and 5, I took some images of a few well known deepsky objects using my ASI224MC camera and my Nexstar mount and C8 OTA. I used Sharpcap 2.9 to stack the images, then took a screen capture of the displayed image. All images are 8s x 20 subs.
September 17, 2017
I managed to get out last night. It was just after midnight. The skies looked clear and transparent, however, there was a trace of fog in the air. It made for steady seeing. I thought I could get a good 4.5 hours of EAA (Electronic Assisted Astronomy), but the fog rolled in heavy and thick around 3:00 am. Needless to say, my astro-imaging was cut short. These are the 7 pics I managed to get in the short time I had. I had to turn on the Dew Heater as soon as I set up, because the dew was thick in the air. It was warm, about 69 degrees F, but the dew was almost 100%. Each pic is notated with capture info, data and exposure times.
I managed to get out last night. It was just after midnight. The skies looked clear and transparent, however, there was a trace of fog in the air. It made for steady seeing. I thought I could get a good 4.5 hours of EAA (Electronic Assisted Astronomy), but the fog rolled in heavy and thick around 3:00 am. Needless to say, my astro-imaging was cut short. These are the 7 pics I managed to get in the short time I had. I had to turn on the Dew Heater as soon as I set up, because the dew was thick in the air. It was warm, about 69 degrees F, but the dew was almost 100%. Each pic is notated with capture info, data and exposure times.
February 26, 2018
I spent about 4 hours out last night, with my new ASI290MM camera. Took me awhile to get the hang of using a dedicated monochrome camera. I used it to image some deep sky objects. At first my Nexstar mount kept powering on and off repeatedly. I got frustrated and put it away. I don't think it likes the cold very much. Then, I set up my iOptron ZEQ25 mount with my brand new hand controller and everything worked fine. Goto pointing was a bit off, so after doing some Sync to Target, it worked when the DSO was close or nearby to a star.
I got four images of some well known DSO's. Turns out, the 290MM is very good for mono imaging. It has been touted by many astronomy friends as being a very sensitive imaging camera, mostly do to the fact it has no Bayer matrix, just shades of grey.
I got four images of some well known DSO's. Turns out, the 290MM is very good for mono imaging. It has been touted by many astronomy friends as being a very sensitive imaging camera, mostly do to the fact it has no Bayer matrix, just shades of grey.
OK, so I got out recently, two nights, April 20 and April 23, 2018. The weather was good on Friday night, but a bit too chilly, but I stayed out until 4:30 am. Monday night, however, was clear to start off with at 8 PM but the clouds came in around midnight and I packed it up around 3:30 AM. The weather forecast models showed clear skies all night long. Something freaky going on with the weather gods!
Here are my images from both Friday night and Monday night. I used my ZEQ25 mount, Nexstar 8 OTA, ASI385MC camera, SharpCap 3.1 with screen capture software on my Toshiba laptop and a 10" tablet running Sky Safari Pro 5.
Here are some images from Monday night 4/23/2018
Here are some images from Friday night 4/20/2018
(I used my AT60ED apo telescope for these images)
(I used my AT60ED apo telescope for these images)
Tuesday May 8/9 2018
I went out for a second time this week. While Monday night was excellent seeing, Tuesday night was very good transparency. I tried to image Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, but Mars and Saturn were in the soup in the east and had not even broke the meridian. Jupiter passed the meridian and I caught it before it passed the meridian with mediocre results. However, the DSO imaging was pretty good, as illustrated by my results in the images I am showing here.
Saturday night, May 12, 2018
Here are some images I took of some objects I had never seen before, in and around the region of Ursa Major and Leo. They are all galaxy pics, except for M97, the Owl Nebula.
Sunday May 21, 2018
Another good night for imaging. The seeing was not so great and my Jupiter pics were not that great. However, the transparency was very good and I managed to get a lot of never before seen galaxy pics. As always, my equipment was a ZEQ25 mount, Nexstar C8, ASI290MM camera, Sharpcap 3.1 and a screen capture app.
Thursday May 24 & Friday May 25
I was hoping this evenings tally of galaxy pics would have been good, however, the was plentiful Moon light, below average transparency and a good amount of skyglow. Needless to say, I persevered and imaged a few galaxies and galaxy clusters through out the evening. There was a 7 mph wind, with cool temps. I had problems trying to align stack, as I could not get enough stars for alignment while stacking. Proved to be a pain in the ass last night.
Monday June 11, 2018
Monday night was a great night. The transparency was off the charts! It was very clear, a great night for DSO imaging. However, I was concentrating on Jupiter, using my new ADC (atmospheric dispersion corrector). I did get three pics of some popular, but mundane Messier objects. I would have stayed out later, but the weather was very cool, around 47 F. Also there was a chill wind and I had to show up at work too, so that put a damper on my staying out all night.
Friday Night 6/15 & Saturday night 6/16 2018
Well, I had my first taste of Bortle 2/3 skies this year. I had been there a few times before, but not in the capacity of deep sky imaging before this. I had gone up to Starport, my friend Barrie Sawyers place near Rumney, NH, up on a small 1800 foot mountain. It is desolate up there, homes scattered 1/2 mile in all directions. I was in the company of 6 other astronomers, each with their own scopes. Barrie's scope Godzilla was set up, a huge 36" beast of a dob. I did partake in a few viewings, however, my dark adapted eyes were not dark adapted and I could not see any fine details. Staring at a computer screen all night long, ruins what I had of dark adapted eyes. Needless to say, I set up my Nexstar 8 ota, ZEQ25 mount, ASI385MC camera, SharpCap 3.1 and screen capture app. These are my pics from that weekend.
Tuesday night, June 26, 2018
I had a chance to go out on Tuesday night to do some imaging. It was nearly a full moon complete with moon glow and light pollution at my local imaging site. There was also a lot of dew, so I had to power my dew heater controller for a good portion of my session. My laptop battery was slowly running out of juice, so I opted to charge the battery and let the dew heater idle and let the corrector plate siphon off what heat was left. I used my usual set up, Nexstar 8SE OTA, ZEQ25 mount, ASI290MM camera, SharpCap 3.1 Pro and a screen capture app.
June 12, 2019
It's been a while since I posted anything on here. I have been accumulating a few more telescopes and cameras. I believe my picture taking techniques have improved a bit and I learn something new every time I go out. Lately, the weather has been pretty good in 4 out of the last 7 days, which is pretty remarkable. Here are my pics from the last 6 months, in no particular order. I used my new 120mm Refractor, Meade 2080 SCT, Nexstar 8SE, AT60ED and Nexstar 6SE scopes, ZEQ25 Mount, ASI294MC camera and SharpCap 3.2 Pro. Galaxies and globular clusters are all without a filter. The nebula pics are done mostly with a UHC filter.