Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Messier 45 - The Pleiades

 


The arrival of the Seven Sisters (Messier 45 - The Pleiades) in the early night sky means we're heading into winter.  Visible to the naked eye, this beautiful open cluster really takes on a mythical quality under long exposures when the interstellar gas becomes visible.  

Photo Details
November 18, 2020
Orion 8" Astrograph on VX Mount
SBIG STF-8300C Camera
Baader MPC Mark III Multi-Purpose Coma Corrector
Skyglow filter
35 subframes at 3 minutes/frame
Total Exposure Time = 1 hours 45 minutes
Image Acquisition in CCDOps
Image Stacking in Deep Sky Tracker
Image Processing in PhotoShop

Monday, November 23, 2020

Sustained Solar Activity

 







The sun is definitely entering a period of greater activity and we've luckily had reasonably clear skies at the same time.  The fountains of plasma erupting from the surface are some of the most intriguing structures to watch over time; often changing during a single imaging session (less than a couple of hours).

Photo Details
November 14, 2020
Lunt 60 mm Pressure Tuned Telescope
ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Wavelet Filtering in Registax
Final Adjustments in Photoshop

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Halloween Moon

 

























We had a beautifully clear sky Halloween night which made for good conditions for imaging the nearly full moon.

Photo Details
Orion 8" Astrograph on VX Mount
ZWO ASI178mm
Sharpcap
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Wavelet Filtering in Registax
Final Adjustments in Photoshop