CCD Images

NGC281 – Pacman Nebula in Hubble Palette Narrowband

Leave a comment

NGC281 – Pacman Nebula

NGC 281 is located in the constellation of Cassiopeia and part of the Perseus Spiral Arm. It includes the open cluster IC 1590, the multiple star HD 5005, and several Bok globules. Colloquially, NGC 281 is also known as the Pacman Nebula for its resemblance to the video game character.

The Image consists of
21x600S in SII – Mapped to Red
21x600S in HA – Mapped to Green
21x600S in OIII – Mapped to Blue
25 Darks and Flats

The HA Channel was also used as a Luminosity layer

Equipment Used
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8 Pro
Imaging Camera: Atik Cameras 383L+ Mono CCD Cooled to -20C
Imaging Scope: Sky-Watcher Quattro 8-CF 8″ F4 Newtonian
Coma Corrector: Sky-Watcher Aplanatic Coma Corrector
Guide Camera: Qhyccd QHY5L-II
Guide Scope: Celestron Telescopes C80ED Refractor
Filter Wheel: Starlight Xpress Ltd 7x36mm EFW
Filters: Baader Planetarium 7nm HA, OIII and SII 36mm unmounted

Software Used:
Image Acquisition: Main Sequence Software Sequence Generator Pro
Guiding: PHD2
Stacking and Pre-Processing: Maxim-DL
Post Processing: Photoshop, Noise Ninja

CCD Images

NGC6960 – Witch’s Broom in HA+OIII+OIII

Leave a comment

Here’s my NGC6960 – Witch’s Broom Nebula in HOO

Image Details
15x600S HA as Lighten Layer in Red Channel
15x600S OIII as Lighten Layer in Both Green and Blue Channel

Equipment Used:

Imaging Scope: Sky-Watcher Quattro 8-CF 8″ F4 Newtonian
Guide Scope: Celestron Telescopes C80ED Refractor
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8 Pro
Imaging Camera: Atik Cameras 383L+ Mono CCD Cooled to -20C
Guide Camera: Qhyccd QHY5L-II

Image Acquisition: Main Sequence Software Sequence Generator Pro
Guide Software: PHD2

Processing:
Pre-Processing: Maxim-DL for Stacking, Darks and Flats Subtracting and Alignment of Colour Planes
Post Processing: PixInsight

CCD Images

NGC6960 – Witch’s Broom Nebula in Hubble Palette Narrowband

1 Comment
NGC6960 - Witches Broom
NGC6960 – Witches Broom

How Fitting for Halloween……My latest image – NGC6960 – Witch’s Broom in Hubble Palette Narrowband

Commonly referred to as the Witch’s Broom or the Western Veil of the larger Veil Nebula, this lies approximately 1470 Light years away.

In my opinion this is not an easy subject to image, and even more difficult to process, the image details are as follows:

15x600S in 7nm HA
15x600S in 7nm SII
15x600S in 7nm OIII
25 Darks
25 Flats

The HA was also used as a Luminance Layer

Equipment Used:
Imaging Scope: Sky-Watcher Quattro 8-CF 8″ F4 Newtonian
Guide Scope: Celestron Telescopes C80ED Refractor
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8 Pro
Imaging Camera: Atik Cameras 383L+ Mono CCD Cooled to -20C
Guide Camera: Qhyccd QHY5L-II
Image Acquisition: Main Sequence Software Sequence Generator Pro
Guide Software: PHD2

Processing:
Pre-Processing: Maxim-DL for STacking, Darks and Flats Subtracting and Alignment of Colour Planes
Post Processing: Photoshop CS5, Noise Ninja

CCD Images

NGC7380 – Wizard Nebula in Hubble Palette Narrowband

Leave a comment

Image Details:
22x 600S – 7nm HA
19x 600S – 7nm OIII
19x 600S – 7nm SII
25 Darks and 25 Flat frames for each filter

Equipment Used:
Imaging Scope: Sky-Watcher Quattro 8-CF 8″ F4 Newtonian
Guide Scope: Celestron Telescopes C80ED
Imaging Camera: Atik Cameras 383L+ Mono CCD Cooled to -20C
Guide Camera: Qhyccd 5L-II
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8 Pro
Capture Software: Main Sequence Software Sequence Generator Pro
Guide Software: PHD2
Dark/Flat Subtraction and Stacking: Maxim-DL
Post Processing: PixInsight

CCD Images

IC1396 – Elephant’s Trunk Nebula in Hubble Palette Narrowband

Leave a comment

IC1396 – Elephant’s Trunk Nebula in Hubble Palette Narrowband

Image consists of
15x 600S – 7nm HA
15x 600s – 7nm OIII
15x 600s – 7nm SII

HA Layer was also used as Luminance and Overlay layer

All data was obtained over five nights, 7th and 8th September 18th September, 22nd September and 23rd September 2016

Equipment Used:
Imaging Scope: Sky-Watcher Quattro 8-CF 8″ F4 Newtonian
Guide Scope: Celestron Telescopes C80ED
Imaging Camera: Atik Cameras 383L+ Mono CCD Cooled to -20C
Guide Camera: Qhyccd 5L-II
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8 Pro
Capture Software: Main Sequence Software Sequence Generator Pro
Guide Software: PHD2
Dark/Flat Subtraction and Stacking: Maxim-DL
Post Processing: Photoshop

To date I think this is my best image so far, I am very happy with the results of the image and the colour balance obtained

CCD Images

IC1396 – Elephant’s Trunk Nebula

Leave a comment

IC1396 – Elephant’s Trunk Nebula

The Elephant’s Trunk nebula is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396 located in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light years away from Earth

Image consists of
18x 300S – Luminance
18x 300S – Red
18x 300S – Green
18x 300S – Blue
8x 600S – Hydrogen Alpha (As lighten layer in Red Channel)

All data was obtained over two nights, 7th and 8th September 2016

Equipment Used:
Imaging Scope: Sky-Watcher Quattro 8-CF 8″ F4 Newtonian
Guide Scope: Celestron Telescopes Telescopes C80ED
Imaging Camera: Atik Cameras Cameras 383L+ Mono CCD Cooled to -20C
Guide Camera: Qhyccd 5L-II
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8 Pro
Capture Software: Main Sequence Software Sequence Generator Pro
Guide Software: PHD2
Dark/Flat Subtraction and Stacking: Maxim-DL
Post Processing: Photoshop, GradientXterminator, NoiseNinja

CCD Images

NGC7635 – Bubble Nebula

Leave a comment

NGC7635 – Bubble Nebula
Image consists of
18x 300S – Luminance
14x 300S – Red
14x 300S – Green
14x 300S – Blue
20x 600S – Hydrogen Alpha (As lighten layer in Red Channel)

Equipment Used:
Imaging Scope: Sky-Watcher Quattro 8-CF 8″ F4 Newtonian
Guide Scope: Celestron C80ED
Imaging Camera: Atik Cameras 383L+ Mono CCD Cooled to -20C
Guide Camera: Qhyccd 5L-II
Mount: Skywatcher EQ8 Pro
Capture Software: Main Sequence Software Sequence Generator Pro
Guide Software: PHD2
Dark/Flat Subtraction and Stacking: Maxim-DL
Post Processing: Photoshop, GradientXterminator, NoiseNinja

CCD Images

My first image with the Skywatcher Quattro 8-CF F4

Leave a comment

NGC7023 – Iris Nebula
The Iris Nebula, also NGC 7023 and Caldwell 4, is a bright reflection nebula and Caldwell object in the constellation Cepheus. NGC 7023 is actually the cluster within the nebula, LBN 487, and the nebula is lit by a magnitude +7 star, SAO 19158.[1] It shines at magnitude +6.8. It is located near the Mira-type variable star T Cephei, and near the bright magnitude +3.23 variable star Beta Cephei (Alphirk). It lies 1,300 light-years away and is six light-years across

This is the very first time I have imaged this object, and it is the first object ot be imaged with my new Skywatcher Quattro 8-CF F4 telescope, I am extremely happy with the results

The image consists of the following:
Luminance: 19x300S
Red: 13x300S
Green: 13x300S
Blue: 13x300S

All frames have 25 darks and 25 flats applied also

Gear Used
Mount: Skywatcher EQ8 Pro
Imaging Scope: Skywatcher Quattro 8-CF F4 Newtonian
Guide Scope: Celestron C80ED
Imaging Camera: Atik 383L+ Mono CCD Cooled to -20C
Filter Wheel: StarlightXpress 7x36mm USB Filterwheel
Guide Camera: QHYCCD 5L-II

Software Used
Image Acquisition: Sequence Generator Pro
Guiding: PHD2
Telescope Control: EQMOD

Image Processing:
Pre-Processing: Nebulosity 3
Stacking: Maxim-DL
Post Processing: PixInsight

DSLR Images

Horsehead through the AT8RC

Leave a comment

The following image of IC434 Horsehead Nebula was taken with a Modified and Cooled DSLR through an Astro-Tech AT8RX 8″ Ritchey Chretien telescope

horsehead-nebula

The image consists of:

13x 10 Min Exposures
19x Dark Frames
53x Flat Frames
Equipment Used:
Mount: Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro
Imaging Scope: Astro-Tech AT8RC
Imaging Camera: Canon 500D Modified and Cooled
Guide Scope: Celestron C80ED
Guide Camera: Orion Starshoot Autoguider
Image Acquisition: BackyardEOS
Ambient Temperature: 2 Degrees Celcius
Sensor Temperature: -19 Degrees Celcius

I was extremely proud when this photograph won photo of the month in BBC Sky at Night Magazine
8655240494_cb7b044631_o

DSLR Images

Horsehead and Flame Nebula – Modded versus Unmodded

Leave a comment

This was one of my very first images taken with a DSLR, firstly it was taken with an unmodified Canon 40D and the same target with a  modded 450D to make it more sensitive by means of replacing the band pass filters with clear glass, here’s the unmodded version:

horsehead-and-flame-unmodded

And with the Modded 450D:

horsehead-and-flame

As you can see making the modifications to the DSLR makes a huge difference

Both of these images were taken using a Celestron C80ED Refractor on a Celestron CG5 Mount on a field tripod in a very good dark sky location at Rocky Bay, Cork, Ireland