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

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

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

Sun Awakens

 October 17, 2020

October 18, 2020

The Sun's ever changing surface is endlessly fascinating.  These photo sets were taken about 24 hours apart and the changes are stunning.  The increased activity on Oct 17th, after weeks of quiet, was eclipsed by multiple eruptions on the 18th.  The prominences are made of plasma which is electrically charged hydrogen and helium that have become unstable and burst from the Sun's photosphere into the outer atmosphere.

Photo Details

October 17-18, 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

Mars Opposition 2020

 

Mars reached opposition on October 13th and won't be this close again until 2035.  It's amazing what clear skies and moving the subject closer to the lens can do for capturing details.

Photo Details

October 13, 2020

Orion 8" Astrograph on VX Mount

NexImage10 Camera (Color Images)

Image Acquisition iCap2.4 (Color Images)

Y800 Codec (Color Images)

ZWO ASI178mm (monochrome)

Sharpcap (monochrome)

Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Wavelet Filtering in Registax
Final Adjustments in Photoshop