The Crescent Nebula is an object worth coming back to year after year, and I’m much happier with this year’s version than any other. The improvement is due to better collimation of my AstroTech AT8RC, thanks to TS Optics TSRCKOLLI (review soon), as well as dedicating a lot of time to the OIII channel. I … More NGC6888, The Crescent Nebula
Okay, so technically this wasn’t first light for this camera, but it is the first image I’ve processed. The ASI2600MM arrived just as galaxy season was beginning, so M106 was an obvious target. I had a string of clear, but windy, nights recently, so there’s a backlog of data to process. I took almost 15 … More M106 (ZWO ASI2600MM first light)
After imaging IC410, the next logical thing to image was its bigger companion, IC405. Known as the Flaming Star Nebula, it’s the other bright nebula within the hexagon of Auriga’s stars. The ripples at right are really nice (easily enhanced with LocalHistogramEqualization), but IC405 lacks the color contrast of IC410. The SII and H-alpha overlap … More IC405, The “Flaming Star Nebula”
Late clouds have rolled in for most of the past few nights, but there was still an opportunity to get some imaging done. Over four nights, I managed to get just under 19 hours of narrowband data on IC410. I think the result goes to show that it’s worth imaging, even when you don’t always … More IC410 and “The Tadpoles”
I’ve been so busy writing and processing images that I haven’t even posted my recent APOD. We had two nice comets swing close to earth in November: Comet ATLAS (C/2020 M3) and Comet C/2020 S3 (Erasmus). Erasmus wasn’t very bright, but ATLAS M3 got up to around magnitude 7. More importantly, it went (from our … More APOD: Comet ATLAS (C/2020 M3) and the Nebulae of Orion
As the season turns to autumn, many of my deep-sky favorites start to come into view. I haven’t imaged the California Nebula in a couple of years, so it was great to be able to dedicate a few nights to it. I actually shot four nights of data, but ended up throwing out the first … More Really deep view of NGC1499, The California Nebula
Okay, the world doesn’t need any more pictures of M45, right? Or do they? It’s one of the brightest and prettiest objects in the night sky, so it deserves many looks. This is also one of my first images with the ZWO ASI2600MC, so I figured it would be helpful to share it. Exposures: 355×60s … More The Pleiades with the ASI2600MC
Sh2-126 is rarely imaged due to its huge size and faintness. This field of view is about 7 degrees across (~14 full moons). In addition to the H-alpha emission nebula, there are some faint reflection nebulae/molecular clouds in the area. These were hard to bring out of the luminance data, but they add depth to … More Sh2-126: The Scarlet Letter A?
Another image from the recent stretch of clear nights we had. The Tulip is a surprisingly difficult object to process. There is a lot going on in H-alpha, but not a lot of distinct edges, and the background is a soup of ionized gas. In retrospect, I would have framed this image differently, but once … More The Tulip Nebula (Sh2-101) in Narrowband
With quite a few clear nights this spring, I’ve been able to get the AT8RC out for several multi-night projects. The first was the Elephant’s Trunk feature within IC1396. Years ago, I did a widefield version, but I’ve always wanted to go back and zoom in on this part of the object. Having a pier … More The Elephant’s Trunk in IC1396
