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
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”
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
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?
The Astrophotography Sky Atlas is now available at Amazon! I spent two years coding, researching, and writing this book with a simple goal: to create a compact, reasonably-priced atlas designed for the imager. Over 2000 deep-sky objects are plotted in their correct size and shape, including many faint nebulae not shown in other atlases. Stars … More The Astrophotography Sky Atlas
This is one of my favorite deep sky objects, especially for narrowband. It just fits on an KAF-8300 chip at 350 mm focal length. The small cluster in the core is Melotte 15. I took three nights of exposures, which were spread over 41 days due to poor weather and holiday trips. Maybe next year … More The Heart Nebula, IC1805, in Narrowband
Between snow storms, I’ve been able to squeeze in the occasional night of imaging. It was a less than ideal night–poor seeing and all sorts of polar alignment issues plagued me–but I’m please to finally have an image of the Cone Nebula… or Fox Fur Nebula if you prefer…or Christmas Tree Cluster. Whatever you call … More The Cone Nebula/Fox Fur Nebula/NGC2264 Area
There is an area on the border of Cassiopeia and Cephus that’s packed with deep-sky objects, including the assortment shown here. The main nebula here is the Lobster Claw, Sh2-157. Above it and to the right is the famous Bubble Nebula, NGC7635. In the upper right is the cluster M52. The nebulae at middle right … More The Bubble and the Lobster Claw
The Cave Nebula is probably better suited for 600 mm of focal length, but I thought I’d try a wide field view of the area. The whole nebula is fainter than I expected, especially the diffuse OIII spread about the region. 20- or 30-minute sub-exposures would do a much better job of revealing it, but … More The Cave Nebula (Sh2-155)
