Horsehead, Flame, and Pacman

Some rough weather over the weekend led to beautifully clear skies Sunday night and I was able to capture the Horsehead, Flame, and Pacman nebulae with Star2-D2.  The Horsehead and Flame are located near Orion’s Belt and the brightest star in the image is Alnitak.  Pacman is located near Cassiopeia.  They all are interstellar clouds of dust and gas.

Winter Gems

 

Messier 103

Double Cluster in Perseus

NGC 457 (Owl Cluster)

Messier 34

Another great winter night and it was time to capture some beautiful star clusters.  These are some of the most famous.

Pleiades and Orion Nebula

 

The first night of the holiday break and was blessed with beautifully cold and clear skies.  Decided to try out Star2-D2 on a couple of my favorites; the Pleiades and the Orion Nebula.  The little scope that could did not disappoint!

Revisiting the Pleiades (M45)

 

The Pleiades (Messier 45) is one of my all-time favorites.  This is my 4th attempt at photographing this beautiful asterism.  My first try was over 10 years ago on October 24, 2013 with much different equipment, skill, and patience.  I'm glad to say the results are improved and look forward to my next attempt! 

Photo Details

December 20, 2024

Orion 8" Astrograph on CGEM II Mount

SBIG STF-8300C Camera

Skyglow filter

36 subframes at 3 minutes/frame

Total Exposure Time = 1 hours 48 minutes
Image Acquisition in CCDOps
Image Stacking in Deep Sky Tracker
Image Processing in PhotoShop