My widefield Horsehead, Flame, Running Man and Orion Nebulae

I tried something new that I have not done before and that was to piggy back my 200mm lens with the Canon 60Da camera onto the 14".  I had planned on guiding but the coldness of mid 20*F kept me from that extra bit of setup.  I found that the 200mm at f/4 and 1600ISO on the 60Da did pretty well up to 2min unguided and even roughly aligned.

Here's a 1900x1200 HD version that will fit your screen pretty well http://i.imgur.com/4hYb6LM.png

Here's the monster full res version of 5200x3400, from the camera's resolution!  http://i.imgur.com/OUeiMQU.jpg


Next time I will try guiding but I think there might be a portion of my finder in the lower areas of the frame that is reflecting some light into the lens.  I'd like to look at resurrecting my old 6" with 4" guide scope onto a new mount for these types of shots as it is VERY fun and rewarding to use a one-shot color camera on nebula.  Nextime I will work harder to mask the brighter areas of the Orion Nebula too, as it's a bit washed out in some areas.

Thanks for looking,

Mike

A very **UNFAIR** comparison of CCD to DSLR!

This is a very **UNFAIR** comparison of CCD to DSLR!  It's unfair because of the following.

Differences

1. Taken on different nights
2. Guiding methods - 50mm finder guiding on DSLR and OAG for CCD
3. Coma corrector on CCD, NOT used on DSLR
4. 2x2 binning on the CCD, native iso6400 on DSLR

Similarities

1. Same telescope, +Akule my custom 35.6cm f/4.5 Newt
2. Similar processing routine

Also of note, the image scales are quite different and were somewhat difficult to line up.  I got 'close enough' and stopped getting precise alignment.  I don't think this a valid or fair comparison but a nice contrast to both style of cameras.

Here's a three frame animation comparing.

1) RGB via the DSLR only

2) Lum via the CCD and no filters at all

3) A standard LRGB combination of the filterless CCD as lum and the one-shot color as RGB.

Here's the DSLR ONLY

Here's the filter-less CCD 'lum' shot only

Finally the LRGB combination

Perhaps it not even a comparison at all, but the lack of clear skies and poor planning had me running over the same objects within a week's span or so and having used different cameras got me hankering for a comparison even it wasn't like for like

Hope you enjoy and feel free to comment or critizice!!

October saw some great clear skies - part 2, the nebula edition

This edition is very nebula heavy.  Nebula are interesting in their aesthetics and beauty but are foreboding, inhospitable places.  In sharp contrast I love galaxies, they're tiny, life bearing universes unto themselves.  They are like turning up a rock and finding varied things of all kinds, rocks, bugs, worms.  Each galaxy too is unique, but i get ahead of myself thats post 3 of my wonderful start to fall deep sky observing!  Also be sure to check out part 1

IC 1848 the Soul Nebula

I had previously shot this area last year   One major difference that jumps out is the B&W vs false color from this year.  The color in all my newer nebula shots is false, created in photoshop where I turn the white areas of the nebula 'red' and the bright stars 'blue'.  The other things to notice are the duration of subs/total as well as the roundness resulting from better guiding, which is a combination of better guide cam and better overall polar alignment techniques.  Also the collimation was a bit better for this years attempt!


Second up is NCC 281 or the Pacman Nebula.

Here's a link to the 1920x1080 wallpaper edition!


Finally batting clean up for round 2 of my fall, clear and deep sky collection...

NGC 1499 the California Nebula.  I think this is the area around the San Francisco Bay area!  :)

Thanks for looking and be sure to check out all my Astronomy related images and follow me on Google Plus, Twitter or Facebook!

October saw some great clear skies -- Part 1

This month was full of many clear days.  I took advantage


First up is NGC 100, which according to http://cseligman.com/text/atlas/ngc1.htm has "a mere apparent size of 6.2 by 0.6 arcmins." It is also described as "exceptionally elongated galaxy, with a very small nucleus in comparison to its overall size. Such galaxies are sometimes called "superthin" galaxies." Nearby is PGC 1509358 a 17.9th mag galaxy.

Also in the lower left is UGC00219 a bright 15.5mag at a distance of 240,700,000 LY



Come poke around the full 1:1 resolution here


Next up is NGC 7814, another edge on galaxy. The one sports a nice dust lane and in contrast to the above galaxy, NGC100, this galaxy, NGC 7814 is a spiral. It "is sometimes referred to as "the little sombrero", a miniature version of Messier 104." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_7814) Edge on galaxies are very fun and the reddish orange core might be slightly exaggerated in this photo unintentially as I had a color balance issue.






Here's a link to the full 1:1 resolution

In the high res photo, the most astounding thing I've found to date is SDSSJ000302.45 or PGC3377433 in another catalog. At mag 20+ this tiny galaxy has a measured recessional velocity of 115421 km/s in converted distance it's 5.3 BLY away!!! WHAT?!!

Between the galaxy NGC7814 and the three bright starts to its right is the faint galaxy in question. Here's a closer look.

Labeled

Unlabeled

Blink Animation

Finally up a a face on galaxy and part of the Messier catalog, M74.  It's two main spiral arms make it a Grand design spiral galaxy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_design_spiral_galaxy ).

Full res here!!!



My full album of all galaxy photos - https://plus.google.com/photos/+MichaelAPhillips/albums/5825355202588613809?banner=pwa

All deep sky photos are here - http://maphilli14.webs.com/mike-s-deep-sky-photos

All photos are taken with my custom 14" f/4.5 Newtonian ()

A refreshed Little Dumbbell - M76

I had previously shot this target on the same telescope ( +Akule  ) last year but used a DSLR.

Here's my more recent effort with a CCD.

Astrobin has the full 1:1 resolution


The full 1:1, HD (1920x1080) resolution for your desktop wallpaper 

Now for the somewhat unfair side by side CCD vs DSLR

The DSLR, a Canon 7D is on the left from last year.  The new SBIG STF-8300M is on the right.

What is really unfair is that the integration times are MUCH different.

Still to me, there is a HUGE difference and I wouldn't want to use a DSLR as my main camera for this type of work.

The most fun was that I was inside playing games while the image was taken using Sequence Generator Pro and monitored via teamviewer.  The clouds started to pass but the guiding held up so I kept going!

A few more for the Messier colletion

I struggle with trees in my yard that obscure a large portion of my night sky. I setup my 14" telescope in one of the only areas that get to -30° dec or better and waited for my targets to clear the treetops. In most cases the target barely cleared and there are dark artifacts where the trees obscured rich star fields near the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

I really wanted to get all the Messier objects from my own house and in this particular spot I cannot see the North Celestial Pole (NCP), which meant I had poor alignment and instead of fixing I limped along in a rush to catch my window. That meant that most of these are unguided shots.

First up on my remainder of the collection is M69.

Astrometry.net solved - http://nova.astrometry.net/user_images/377725#annotated 

M70 is at a distance of about 29,300 light years away from Earth and close to the Galactic Center. It is roughly the same size and luminosity as its neighbour in space, M69.
(ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_70)

Solved - http://nova.astrometry.net/user_images/378523#annotated

A photo I've already done, but I have to shoot when the skies are clear. Here's open cluster, M23.


Solved - http://nova.astrometry.net/annotated_full/815988

Next up is a tiny open cluster, Cl Berkeley 90, C 2033+466, Ocl 196 (ref - http://www.docdb.net/show_object.php?id=berkeley_90)

Astrometry.net (http://nova.astrometry.net/user_images/378121#annotated) didn't have labels for this, but I had identifed it via Cartes du Ceil's default catalogs and did find the above link and do see something faint.  This was more of a finding a guide star test.

Next up is another guiding test/time killer.  This didn't come out nicely at all, but here's NGC 6445, the Little Gem - or is it the Box Nebula? (http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/472894-confusing-ngc-object-naming/).

Solved - http://nova.astrometry.net/annotated_full/816041

The last cluster I have shot before.  M54 is unique in the Messier catalog in that it was "Previously thought to belong to our Galaxy at a distance from Earth of about 50,000 light-years, it was discovered in 1994 that M54 most likely belongs to the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy (SagDEG),^[7] making it the first globular cluster formerly thought to be part of our galaxy reassigned to extragalactic status, even if not recognized as such for nearly two and a quarter centuries." (ref - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_54)

Solved - http://nova.astrometry.net/user_images/378518#annotated

Finally as a special treat for you sticking with all these poor quality images, I present a rushed M17, 

The Omega Nebula, also known as the Swan Nebula, Checkmark Nebula, Lobster Nebula, and the Horseshoe Nebula is an H II region in the constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745. Wikipedia. (ref - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_Nebula)
Here's my previous attempt in my 6"

And Via my 14", +Akule

Here's a recent shot of my scope and if you want to learn more ask +Akule

Lastly you can see all my Messier objects I've shot to day here - http://maphilli14.webs.com/mikesdeepskyphotos.htm

I have only 5 left to go!

M14 and another for the Messier collection!

I don't know where to keep good, unlimited, full-res photos.  Even Picasa/Google/Plus keep shrinking them down as does Multiply.  Perhaps I need to put the thinking cap on.  Either way, here's one more for the Messier collection.

:)

Akule's turn DSO

Guiding works well, 7D works well... Galaxy, M90 acquired!

M78 DSO Catch up

A few things to note.  I have a 65 lbs scope mounted on a CGE and I can guide and DSO image!  More on that in the future.  Here's quick test.

Secondly I have a new noise filter to play with thanks to Chris Go's advice, Topaz Denoise!

Enjoy!

Mike

Deep sky work catchup #1

Be sure to click all thumbnails to see the larger view!

Super duper old one from 2009, but recently reprocessed and never posted

Old one from May

M3

From the All nighter...

M5

M4

M12

M24 - neat area near the galactic core with dark lanes

M26

NGC 6755/6756

M71 - This one came out best, not sure why?!

Happened upon M2 and wasn't on my list!

Fall 2010

Crescent Nebula (This was a tough target, even at 2+ hr)

Simple 30min M8 Lagoon Nebula

The whole of lower ecliptic is rarely above the trees in my primary observing location, so this was about it for a single night.  I really worked the processing with some tips from the fine folks at Cloudy Nights!

Click the thumbnail to see the full size

Check out the rest of the Messier 'Sprint' I'm working on while Akule is built!

Witch's Broom Nebula

Ton's of great Astro weather here of late.  Here's the coolest Deep Sky Object I got from last night.  I got some other's and LOTS of Jupiter photos to get to, but thought this was worth a post of it's own!

Blackeye Galaxy

Fun one, I think I've seen a glimpse of he small dark lane that is the black eye, but this was a refreshing look...

M51 Whirlpool

Almost 4hours of time on this in almost a single night.  Grabbed a few strays on the 2nd night but spent more time on M63 the next night.  Enjoy, I did!

FULL RES HERE: http://www.astrophotogallery.org/showfull.php?photo=5319

Galaxies galore!

Check out the mouse over version for labels!

http://maphilli14.webs.com/Astronomy/8-Webs/DSO/Galaxies/MAP-M84-M86-201000308-large.jpg

Catchup on some DSLR processing - more coming!

Pacman nebula - I didn't think this was enough data and was going to hit it up another night, but it slipped and well, here it is with 1 hour:



IC 342 / Caldwell 5 is a small galaxy.  I think I need better planning software, this was a bit of a tough target but I was happy to see it in the end...

My simple M109 - barred spiral galaxy

I saw the Cloudy Nights (http://www.cloudynights.com/) challenge the other month and was immediately struck by how cool this barred spiral looked.  I had to try and it turns out to be a somewhat hard target at 10th magnitude and small to boot.  Here's my shot.  I wasn't even sure I had in a single 1-2 min test shot and conditions we just average on the transparency with a waxing moon early in the session.  I'm still pretty happy with the result!

Owl Nebula (M97) & M108 Galaxy

This is my single most amount of DSLR data in a single session or night to date.
5min (300s) x 42 = 3.5 hours at ISO 1600

For those not yet introduced to this part of the sky.  M97, the Owl Nebula, is a planetary nebula with a small (visible in this image) 16th mag central star that has gone supernova.  It has pushed out two lobes of space amongst the shell of gas that make the nebula appear like owl eyes.

In the lower right is a nearly edge-on galaxy, Sc type galaxy and about 45 million light years distant.

Optics: Meade LXD55 6" Schmidt Newtonian OTA
Mount: CGE mount on JMI Wheely Bars
Camera: Canon XTi with Hutech LP Filter (LPS-P2-FF)
Focusing Aid: STI focuser
Shutter control: Hap Griffin long exposure cable
Software: MaximDL
Guiding: DMK21AF04 with a piggybacked 4" SkyWatcher via PHD and ASCOM drivers
Operating System: WinXP Lenovo T61 driven via RDP remotely
Pre-Processing: Iris per automated Jim Solomon's Cookbook
Post-Processing: PS CS2 with tips from Jerry Lodriguss

Small PS, the AAPOD today is the same field of view, but much better done!  'Grats!

http://astronomy.fm/aapod/2010-02-20_M108-and-M97-widefield.html

Recent Deep-Sky Astronomy work

4 nights in December, most of which had bad seeing.  2 of them, I started with the CGE aligned and the white, 6" Schmidt-Newt on top and changed it out at midnight or later, in freezing temps (20*F) for the Orange 8" SCT.  Phew.  It wasn't very fruitful, but felt good to be able to field switch as the single armed fork C8i mount was still in the shop.

Ok, here's the totals:

4 nights
6 hr and 29 minutes of *Stacked* images represented here.  Some were thrown away and or not processed yet!
I also got my dad some time on M31 with his Canon 50d at ISO 3200  :)  - too bad the tracking wasn't better for ya dad!

M34:





M1:






M45:



Horsehead and Flame Nebulae - at a whopping 3.2 hours of stacked data!  I'd like to add more to reduce the noise!  Any tricks?!  Lots of varied subs, but perhaps too long or too high an ISO?

I like it and it's perhaps my longest yet...



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