Starship Asterisk*

IC 2177 The Seagull Nebula by XiangHao Ma


astrobin:https://astrob.in/f70z96/0/
IC 2177 The Seagull Nebula

Copyright: XiangHao Ma(Astro_m)
Time: Jan. 13, 2021
Location: Chile

Imaging telescopes or lenses: ASA 500mm Newtonian
Imaging cameras: FLI Proline 16803
Mounts: ASA DDM85
Software: Pixisight

This image was taken at the Remote Observatory :ChileScope(http://www.chilescope.com/) use Chilescope T2 on Jan. 13, 2021

Copyrights: Raul Villaverde, Domingo Pestana y Nicolas Romo
Andromeda_2021 by Raul Villaverde, en Flickr

IC 4592 2hrs 13min
C8 with Hyperstar
ASI294MC Pro with UV/IR Filter
From Bortle 5 in Arizona

IC 4592 by Kenneth Hawkins, on Flickr

Happisburgh Lighthouse Norfolk Uk
i spent 2 nights last week April 18th 19th capturing this blended stacked tracked panoramic of the North Norfolk skies
i did the foreground in 3 panes , had to return the following night to do the sky. Conditions were perfect , i did 10 x 60 sec stacks , set of 6 to cover the sky
got an aurora also
Canon 6D modded
24 mm L lens
f2.8
60 sec for sky stacked
30 second f2.8 for foreground

M63 by James, on Flickr

M63
294m Lum,
77m R,
63m G,
87m B

Skywatcher 200pds, ASI1600mm
Processed In PixInsight
Central Scotland, UK.

M51 - THE WHIRLPOOL GALAXY
Copyright: Drew Evans
Note: full resolution versions here - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fupdexrvt3ci ... ebjta?dl=0
The Whirlpool Galaxy is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy.It's companion galaxy, NGC 5195, (seen to the left) is being ripped apart by the huge gravitational disturbance of M51.

The distance of M51 is estimated to be about 37 million light years. The diameter is approximately 100,000 light years and the total mass is estimated to be the equivalent of 160 billion suns.M51 can easily observed with binoculars in darker skies.

OTA: Explore Scientific ED152 Air-Spaced Triplet with 3" Field Flattener .7x Focal Reducer, 851mm focal length⁣ f/5.6
Mount: Celestron CGX-L
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
Gain: 100
Cooling Temperature: -10 Celsius
Auto-guiding: ZWO ASI174MM Mini and ZWO M68 OAG
Control: ZWO ASIAIR Pro
Filters: 2" Astronomik L3, RGB (CCD), Ha (12nm)

Acquisition:
L 51 x 180s = 2.55 hours
R 31 x 300s = 2.58 hours
G 30 x 300s = 2.5 hours
B 30 x 300s = 2.5 hours
Ha 37 x 600s = 6.2 hours
16.33 hours total over 3 evenings in April 2021

Flagstaff, AZ - Bortle 4 skies
Calibrated in Astro Pixel Processor⁣ with darks and flats
Processed in Pixinsight and Lightroom

Carina, Liberty nebulae & friends
Full version : https://cdn.astrobin.com/thumbs/OQdVuFx ... muqi8S.jpg

The Carina Nebula is one of the largest known HII areas in the galaxy, spanning over 300 light years.

Although located 8,500 light years away, it has an apparent size of 120 ′, which is 16 times the diameter of the full moon. In comparison, the Orion Nebula is a featherweight figure, with an actual size more than ten times smaller (and an apparent size 4 times smaller).

This nebula contains the 3 brightest stars known in our galaxy, including the very active η Carinae in its central region: a variable and eruptive blue hypergiant star, 120 times more massive than the Sun and whose luminosity exceeds 5 million times that of our star!
These interactions lead to a spectacular distortion of the spiral arms of NGC 1532, the creation of unusual plumes above its disk, and have triggered starbust formation.

Setup : Nikon 200mm f/2 - 10microns 1000HPS - FLI Prolone 16200 - Astrodon filters - Chilescope remote facility
RGB + Ha + OIII
Total integration : 8,5h

Copyright: Jean-Baptiste Auroux
https://millenniumphoton.com/
https://www.astrobin.com/users/Jean-Baptiste_Paris/

Good weather and nice solar activity for today's solar transit of the ISS and Crew Dragon 1 hour after docking



http://www.astrophoto.fr/iss_crewdragon ... 4_crop.jpg

20210423 ISS 2 days before Crew-2

More images/animations here:
http://hkastroforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=38219

Winter hexagon over Gran Canaria
Copyright: Pavel Váňa

Winter hexagon is an asterism (not a constellation) of the brightest stars which are visible during winter (Rigel, Aldebaran, Capella, Pollux, Procyon and Sirius). Thanks to this asterism you might be able to find some constellations like Orion, Cannis Major, Taurus, etc.
In this picture which was taken in Gran Canaria you can find this asterism, zodiacal light, red airglow and waxing crescent.
Panorama made of 52 single shots with exposure time 13 seconds each at ISO 8000. I used Canon EOS 6D (Baader mod) with Sigma Art 24mm f/1.4@2.5.

Winter hexagon over Gran Canaria by Pavel Váňa

http://halfa.webcindario.com/IC1396-REC ... NOMBRE.jpg

Estos son los datos:
TOMAS:
H alfa: 20 Light de 900 segundos; 30 flats, 20 darks y 50 bias
OIII: 17 Light de 900 segundos; 30 flats, 17 darks y 50 bias
PALETA:
H-alfa=rojo
Olll=verde
Olll=azul
TEMPERATURA: -10 GRADOS
TUBO: FSQ 106 ED
CCD: SBI G ST-8300M
MONTURA: CGEM
CCD guiar: QHY5II

Lugar:LAS INVIERNAS (GUADALAJARA)

M101 - 13.7hr by James, on Flickr

M101
516m Lum,
112m R,
100m G,
96m B

Skywatcher 200pds, ASI294mm
Processed In PixInsight
Central Scotland, UK.

Here is an image of the Flame and Horsehead Nebula in Orion. This was taken with my astromodified DSLR from my home in The Netherlands, Bortle class 5.

I hope you like it!


The details:


RGB 48 x 180 sec ISO 1600


🖥 Edited in AstroPixel Processor, Starnet++, Photoshop and Lightroom
.
Sky-watcher HEQ5, TS Optics115mm Triplet APO, Svbony 60 mm guidescope with a ZWO ASI120MM guidecamera.

🕹ZWO ASIAIR Pro

astromodified Canon EOS 6D


Kind regards,

Thomas Röell

Instagram: @pilot_astro

73-panel mosaic of the milky way over La Palma island's southern volcanoes

Credits: Adrien Mauduit

Here’s my latest submission to APOD. It’s the result of a one-year project trying to get an ultra-detailed panorama of the milky including its original/native foreground. The challenge here was not only to get as many details and colors as possible in the short window of time I had before the milky way set (so also do it in one and same night), but also to include the foreground from where I shot the mosaic, as it has rarely been attempted before at that resolution (135mm). Here is the image in low res. I can provide a high res file upon request (12k x 18k pixels, 5Gb file).

Story:

My most achieved image of the milky way to date. I had been waiting a whole year to realize and complete this project I had in mind for some time. I was trying to find ways to produce an extremely detailed and colorful picture of the milky way. As I have done many 50mm panorama in the past, I wanted to try something even more challenging and crazy, so I decided to not use an 85mm but go all the way to 135mm, as well as including the original foreground. Since the Samyang 135mm f2 is one of the best lenses for astrophotography (minus the weird halo at the center), I used it with my astromoded 6D and headed to La Palma island (Bortle 1-2) to get this Mosaic. But this wasn't a piece of cake. Out of the 10 days I was there, only a few had no calima, this haze coming from the Sahara desert. On the shooting night, it wasn't a done deal either as I had to battle with the wind, 100’s of blood-thirsty mosquitoes and altitude sickness (2400m) during the alignment and positioning of my multiple one-minute exposures! Then, I had no guiding or pano head (as the camera was on a tracker) so I shot the 73 pictures just using the view finder for star alignment and hoping I got enough overlap! Some frames with bright stars were easier than others, but many didn’t contain many reference stars to align one panel to the next, so I had to use a lot of luck and patience. Also, I had to make sure all panels were in focus in between, and the back and forth with bright LCDs and dark view finder is not easy for the eyes to handle. I strategically started the panorama in the lower right-hand side of the sky to make sure I got the data in time before that part set. It took me 2 hours to complete the 56 light frames, after which I shot the 17 frames for the foreground back-to-back from same tripod location but with the tracker and light pollution filter off. I also shot calibration frames right afterwards to improve image quality.

The post processing took me hours and days to achieve, as some areas didn’t have much overlap, and the first two columns were started at the end of astronomical twilight, so I had to manually adjust the white balance and exposure for about 15 pictures. I also had aberration, gradient and artifacts problems, which I had to solve one by one in pre-process.

Pano of 73 shots, Canon 6D modded + Samyang 135 mm f2 + Star adventurer Pro tracker + Kase LP filter. Foreground is untracked, background is tracked.
Sky: 5 columns of 11 shots in landscape orientation. 56 x single 1-minute exposure frames at ISO 3200, f2.8 + calibration frames, light pollution filter, tracked.
Foreground: 17 x 1 minute at ISO 6400, f2, no LP filter, untracked.
The same gear and tripod position were used, the shots were taken back to back. The sky was blended as it was with the foreground as I started shooting the pano.
Light frames pre-processed in Nebulosity 4 with calibration frames subtracted to single images. Sky and foreground both stitched in PtGui Pro. The sky was edited in PixInsight, blended to the foreground in Adobe Ps and the final touches were made in Adobe Lightroom.

"The nebula behind the Rosette Nebula, NGC 2237"

https://www.astrobin.com/full/nhl7ri/B/?nc=user

Credit: Aleix Roig



The Rosette Nebula, NGC 2237, is an amazing large HII region located in the Monoceros constellation. We call this object a "star nursery" because new stars are being born in it.

The nebula lays some 5.000 light years away from us and measures 130 light years in diameter spanning over 5 times the angular diameter of a full moon.

In the core of the Rosette Nebula can we find the open cluster NGC 2244 that sculpts, with its strong winds and radiation, the entire nebula creating this characteristic and aesthetic shape.

This starless image, with a total exposure of 13.5 hours, is the result of combining narrow band data, with the use of [SII], Hα, [OIII] filters, and broad band data, with the use of Red, Green and Blue filters. The blue colors correspond to the oxygen emissions, while the reddish regions correspond to the hydrogen and sulfur emissions.

Full image details: https://www.astrobin.com/full/nhl7ri/B/?nc=user

Messier 51 imaged from Namibia (23 Deg South!!!)


The Flame nebula and Alnitac:


Full resolution and imaging details:
https://pbase.com/tango33/new_images

Thanks,

Kfir Simon

Abell 1185 Galaxy Cluster

Abell 1185 is a galaxy cluster visible through the southwest edge of Ursa Major. The cluster contains at least 82 galaxies at a distance of about 400 million light-years from Earth. The most prominent galaxies in this image are elliptical galaxies, but many spiral, lenticular, and irregular galaxies are also seen. The blue structure at lower right is part of Abell 1185 and is also listed in Halton Arp’s Catalog of Peculiar Galaxies as Arp 105. This structure is reported to be formed from the collision of a spiral (NGC 3561A) and an elliptical (NGC 3561B) galaxy. This merger apparently created star–forming tidal dwarf galaxies at the ends of the tidal tails emanating from the spiral. Arp 105 is often called “The Guitar” as it appears to have been designed by guitar innovator Leo Fender (who remarkably never learned to play the guitar). The Hubble Space Telescope confirmed the presence within Abell 1185 of many globular star clusters that are not gravitationally bound to any individual galaxy. These star clusters are known to be roaming around Abell 1185 in search of the concert that Fender will never play.

Nick Pavelchak
https://www.astrobin.com/ski07p/?nc=user

Links to online references used in this narrative:
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap051122.html
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/ ... .111...64M
https://britastro.org/node/21226
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/pdf/2 ... 939-10.pdf
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Arp27.html
https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/bitstream/hand ... sequence=1

M83 by Logan Carpenter, on Flickr

The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy

Credit: Logan Carpenter
Location: Lang's Beach, Northland, New Zealand
Dates: 14th to 22nd April 2021

HaLRGB
Total integration : 7.2 hrs

Telescope: Skywatcher Esprit 120ED
Camera: ASI1600mmPro
Mount: iOptron CEM60
Guidescope:ASI290mini mono

Processed in AstroPixel Processor, Pixinsight and Photoshop

NGC 3981 - Spiral Galaxy

https://www.astrobin.com/users/YovinRY/
Copyright: Yovin Yahathugoda
Full quality version here: https://cdn.astrobin.com/images/86236/2 ... d51d27.png

Telescope - ASA 1000mm Richey-Chretien
Camera: FLI PL16803
Filters: Astrodon E-series LRGB
Software: Photoshop 2020, PixInsight, Topaz Denoise AI
Location - El Sauce Observatory, Chile
Dates - February 2020 - June 2020

Lum - 32x1200s
R - 24x1200s
G - 21x1200s
B - 25x1200s
Total Exposure time - 34.0 hours

Full acquisition details at https://www.astrobin.com/dbtknx/0/

Pink Moon
Click on above to enlarge.

Full info @ https://www.kinchastro.com/pink-moon-apr2021.html

Eagle by William Ostling, on Flickr

A widefield shot of the Eagle and Omega Nebula using a sigma 200mm F4 lens and an Astro-Modified Nikon D90.
Taken across two nights from a mountain in Sharon, CT.

Full Resolution Fits file (14213 x 9775) is available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hLcTBz ... sp=sharing
Instagram: www.instagram.com/the_astronomy_enthusiast/
Website: https://theastroenthusiast.com/

Hello folks something different , Rho_Ophiuchus starless
Telescope: SharpStar 150 f2,8
Guide Scope:Zwo Mini Guidescope
Mount : Skywatcher HEQ5
Imaging camera: ZWO 2600MC
Guiding camera: ZWO 120MM
Filters: None
Plate solving: SGpro
Imaging software: Sgpro
Guiding software: PHD2
Processing software: Pixinsight
Frames: 80 X 180s exposure @ 0 Gain.
Integration:4 hrs
Copyright: Davide Mancini