Starship Asterisk*

M31 Andromeda Galaxy
Shot here in Ha RGB from my garden in St. George VT
Celestron RASA 11"

The ghost of cassiopeiae/Gamma cas nebula IC59/IC63/LBN623/Sh2-185 (c-lsho)

Also includes: gamma cassiopeiae

Total integration: 53.8 hours/3225 minutes (221x5m = ~18.4h for S2 + 297x5m = ~25h for Ha + 127x5m = ~11h for O3).

Camera: QHY163M (16mp mono) CMOS cooled to -15 degrees C.
Telescope: Takahashi FC100DF Steinheil fluorite doublet apochromat refractor @ f/7.4.
Reducer: None.
Mount: Paramount MyT.
Filters: Astrodon 5nm Ha, 3nm O3, 3nm S2.
Software: TheSkyX Pro, SharpCap, PixInsight, Topaz Studio 2.
Inline image with reduced quality uploaded to the forum. Full resolution images for the entire series are available at https://www.astrobin.com/nouak1/ and the main image only at: http://ram.org/images/space/scope/1.7.4 ... _53.8h.jpg

The gamma cas nebula gets its name from the bright star gamma cassiopeiae (aka Navi) observed in the bottom right quadrant in the image. It is part of the well-known W-shaped asterism in the Cassiopeia constellation and located 550 years from earth.

The singular nebula actually consists of two distinctive emission nebulae, IC59/Sh2-185 (center and right) and IC63 (lower left). They are strikingly illuminated by the bright blue star which is 34,000 times more luminous and has 17 times our Sun's mass. The 1.5-3 magnitude star's energy, caused by its extremely rapid rotation rate that distorts its appearance, is also responsible for pushing and dispersing the emissions of these nebulae into the interstellar medium even though they are located light years apart.

This series of images were taken without my FC35 reducer, going from the normal f/4.9 to f/7.4. As a result, there is a large number of stars captured which I had to repeatedly reduce the size of to make it less busy. The series contains a Ha-only image (A); PixInsight-only processing with (B) and without (C) star reduction, TopazStudio 2 processing with increasing blue tone without star reduction (D) and with (E-H). There's also one with more traditional colours (J).

There is some reflection signal in here that I hope to come back to without narrowband filters and will try to overlay all the channels. I chose to use pale colours rather than the traditional bright golden-blue Hubble palette since there was a strong overlap of the Ha and S2 signals, overwhelming the O3, and I also wanted to choose a processing style that fit the "ghost nebula" monicker this deep sky object is known by.

As always, thanks for looking!

I would like to share with you my recent work on the C/2022 E3 comet while it was crossing an interesting field of galaxies the night of the 23rd of January 2023.

https://astrocat.info/comet-2022-e3-acr ... axy-field/




Thanks so much,

Aleix Roig

Whales Valley Winter Milky Way Panorama

Whales Valley Winter Milky Way by Ahmed Waddah, on Flickr

This is a 180-degree panorama of the winter milky way over valley of whales where I usually do my astrophotography. The panorama captures the night sky over one of my setups and setups of my fellow astro-firends as we work our way in the darkness. This is the Pano stitch; no compositions were made. No filters were used!

2x13
Nikon Z6II - Stock - Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 @f/2.8 - 120" - ISO 1600
Fornax Lightrack II

https://www.astrobin.com/y3jcbe

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/waddah.photography
Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/users/WolfHeart/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/waddahphotography/

The open clusters King 10 and King 18

http://www.distant-lights.at/king10-2020_08_21.htm
Copyright: Thomas Henne

The most popular object, the Open Cluster NGC 7380 and it's surrounding emission nebula, also known as the Wizard Nebula, is located in the lower right of the image. Besides fine emission nebula filaments there are some smaller Sharpless objects, dark nebulae, molecular clouds, faint reflection nebulae and the open star clusters NGC 7429 and Teutsch 54.

NGC 1955
110 hr total frames SHORGB
Full : http://www.cielaustral.com/galerie/photo148.htm

Team Cielaustral
http://www.cielaustral.com/

NGC 1365 and part of the Fornax Galactic Cluster


MORE DETAILS
https://www.astrobin.com/full/d63m1h/D/

EQUIPMENTS:
ZWO ASI 6200MC COLED
Esprit 150mm
DATES: 10/21/2022 to 11/24/202
Location: Munhoz - MG - Brazil

PROCESSING AND CAPTURE:
Adobe Lightroom Classic · Adobe Photoshop · Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight

Author: Fernando Oliveira de Menezes
Email: Barretosmed@hotmail.com
(Organizing author of the book Amateur Astrophotography in Brazil)
https://clubedeautores.com.br/livro/ast ... -no-brasil

Dust lanes in the Sculptor Galaxy by William Ostling, on Flickr

Full write-up here: https://theastroenthusiast.com/dust-lan ... or-galaxy/

Here’s another image from telescope live: NGC 253. This was a really challenging but also really rewarding dataset to wrestle with. The biggest problem with the data was that half of it was at BIN2, which meant that registration introduced a lot of weird artifacts around the stars, and drizzle couldn’t really get rid of them. I had to pioneer a Multiscale approach to the stacking of the dataset, which got rid of most of the bad areas. The end result was totally worth it – the detail in the core of the galaxy and dust lanes is really just incredible.

I really recommend zooming in to see the smaller background galaxies in this image – some of the spirals are large enough to actually have some detail!

NGC 253 is not only one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible, it is also one of the dustiest. Discovered in 1783 by Caroline Herschel in the constellation of Sculptor, NGC 253 lies only about ten million light-years distant. NGC 253 is the largest member of the Sculptor Group of Galaxies, the nearest group to our own Local Group of Galaxies. The dense dark dust accompanies a high star formation rate, giving NGC 253 the designation of starburst galaxy.

Website: https://theastroenthusiast.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_astronomy_enthusiast/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/197387915 ... ed-public/

Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/197387915 ... ed-public/

NGC 3576 is a nebula which drifts through the Sagittarius arm of our galaxy and is located about 9,000 light years from our homebase. A popular nickname is "The Statue of Liberty Nebula" because of the distinctive shape in the middle of the nebula. Within the region, episodes of star formation are thought to contribute to the complex suggestive shapes.   
 
To get such a beautiful bicolor palette (I processed it, so I very much like it , H-alpha (Hα) & O-III (Oxygen III) filters were used. While processing it, I focused mainly on the core so that the distinctive shape resembling to the very well-known symbol of liberty is clearly noticeable.   
 
Image processing: @ae_astrophotography  
Photons gathered by @mattdieterich  
Ha, Oiii, 18 x 1200, 13 x 1200  
CDK 24”  
FLI Proline 16803  
Chile  

M94 (revisited). KG Observatory, Julian, CA.

With very few clear nights in Julian, CA in March, I decided it may be best to wait and collect high-quality luminance or color to enhance a prior image.

Looking back through my images, I noticed the Luminance for my M94 in 2021 https://www.astrobin.com/a9jzyw/B/ appeared a bit washed out when compared to other images on Astrobin.

Fortunately M94 is a great shot this time of the year. I could easily collect 6+ hours in one night.

Fortunately I had one very clear night after waiting over a week. And MOST fortunately, the sky was very dark, clear and steady during that night. (-:

So here's my revisit: color collected during my 2021 attempt with 6 hours of new luminance with FWHM between 1.9" and 2.7".

https://www.astrobin.com/15dl6a/

Also known as Praesepe and Beehive cluster, M44 is one of the closest star clusters to our solar system. It is an open cluster in the Cancer Constellation. Initially thought of as a faint cloud, the cluster was only resolved when telescopes became available in 1609.. many thanks to Galileo. Charles Messier added it to his catalog in 1769 after measuring its position in sky. It has very young stars of 600 million years in age. M44 has around 1000 stars with yellowish cool red giants spread across the field of brighter hot blue stars.

9h30m of 180s broadband subs using ASI2600mcpro connected to SkywatcherEsprit100ed mounted over ZWOAM5 mount. Stacked and processed in PixInsight and photoshop
Higher resolution: https://astrob.in/42b90b/0/

Yellow-Red Solar Corona
Photo description:
Alishan's(阿里山) sunrise is a very famous landscape in Taiwan. In the early morning of March 19, the sun rose over Yushan(玉山), Taiwan's tallest mountain, amidst a fast-moving mist. Surprisingly, the solar corona with the sun rising turned out to be a very bright red-yellow halo! This is because the position of the sun was still very low at that time, and almost all the blue-green light was scattered, so the diffraction of sunlight by water droplets left only yellow-red. I have never seen such a bright yellow-red solar corona, and there is a faint sun dog on the right side of the sun. This special color solar corona is really amazing!

Equipment Details: Canon R7 + 18mm Lens
Location : Alishan, Chiayi, Taiwan
Time: March 19, 2023 at 6:25 am
Photographer : Meiying Lee (李美英)

Single shoot astrophotography with my brother, and orion constellation

Hi there ! Meet & Greet the Comic Monster.

The main “eye-catching” object in this picture features an immense gas cloud known as a cometary globule. As most of the celestial objects surrounding us, globules are known to be the birthplaces of stars, many, many stars. From a creative point of view, we may think that this comic monster (the cometary globule) is after the tiny, small galaxy just located above it. The truth is that this respective galaxy is quite big but due to the far distance between the two objects, we maybe easily misleaded in our conclusion.

With regards to the color, this is a combination of “true colors” (LRGB filters) and “false color” (H-alpha). The overwhelming “reddish” color is the result of the hydrogen alpha in the field of view. Colors of the stars are obtained by thoroughly pulling out the true colors from the above LRGB filters.

Acquisition details:
Copyright: Aygen Erkaslan (@ae_astrophotography) / Telescope Live
Scope : ASA 50 N located at El Sauce Observatory in Chile
Filters: HaLRGB

I hope you will like it.

Warm regards,
A.

Original Version : https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/527 ... 4adb_h.jpg
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/197387915 ... ool-apods/

Starless Version : Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/197387915 ... ool-apods/

Close up Version : Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/197387915 ... ool-apods/

M42 Orion & NGC 1977 Running Man Nebulas



Full size image: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/527 ... f34d_o.jpg

Copyright: Alexandros Frantzis
From: Sounion (South suburbs of Athens), Greece
Date: 2023-3-14

Telescope: Lunt130MT
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC
Mount: Skywatcher EQ6-R
Guiding: OAG and ZWO ASI174 mini
Lights: 62x10s + 58x60s, Lunt130MT, ASI2600
Capture/Processing: N.I.N.A., PixInsight

Best wishes,
Alexandros

starless version


Integrated Flux Nebula near M81 and M82

Location: Animas, New Mexico
Date: December 20, 2022

Canon Rebel T5i, Samyang 135mm f/2 lens at f/2.8
59x300 sec
Star Adventurer GTi, ZWO 30mm f/4 guidescope, ASI120MM Mini guidecamera, ASIAIR Pro

Copyright: Imran Sultan

Sphinx Milkyway in White Desert

Sphinx Milkyway in White Desert by Ahmed Waddah, on Flickr

Image is a composite of the iconic rock formation in the White Desert National Park known as The Sphinx in Farafra Oasis in Egypt. The rock was imaged just before sunset and the sky was imaged later that night behind and beyond the Structure. Image was taken in May of 2022 but an unfortunate due to data loss and recovery process last year I was just able to reorganize and process my data.

Sky: 1 Single exposure for sky
Nikon Z6II - NikonZ14-24mm F2.8 S - Sky Watcher Star Adventurer 2i - 90" - ISO 2500 - f/2.8 @14mm
Foreground:
Nikon Z6II - NikonZ14-24mm F2.8 S - multiple HDR base exposure: ISO100 - f/8 - 1.6" @20mm

28 May, 2022

https://www.astrobin.com/38jo8y/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/waddah.photography
Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/users/WolfHeart/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/waddahphotography/

ngc 7497 + LBN 419 by georges chassaigne, sur Flickr

NGC 7497is an edge on galaxy located at a distance of 59 million light years. In this astrophoto, the galaxy is seemingly surrounded by beautiful faint nebulosity. As it happens, the nebulae is actually about 60,000 times closer to us.
Full data and image
https://www.georges-chassaigne.fr/433170348/453215267

LDN 1622 HaRGB 17h10mn VF by georges chassaigne, sur Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/527 ... 68f1_k.jpg

The silhouette of an intriguing dark nebula inhabits this cosmic scene. Lynds' Dark Nebula (LDN) 1622 appears against a faint background of glowing hydrogen gas only easily seen in long telescopic exposures of the region. LDN 1622 lies near the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, close on the sky to Barnard's Loop, a large cloud
Full image and data
https://www.georges-chassaigne.fr/433170348/ldn-1623

sh2-232 Harvb 19h05mnV2ps by georges chassaigne, sur Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/526 ... 2a0f_k.jpg

Sh2-232 (centre) and Sh2-235 (lower left) are large, faint regions of Ha-nebulosity in the constellation Auriga. But they aren’t the only objects in the image. The small oval structure just left of centre of Sh2-232 is a planetary nebula, PN G173.5+03.2. Another faint planetary appears as a small yellowish haze around a star just above Sh2-235.
Full image and data
https://www.georges-chassaigne.fr/433170348/sh2-232

https://cdn.astrobin.com/thumbs/vWuLKD6 ... TZ0INm.jpg

Here is the seahorse nebula - LDN1082

This is dark nebula located 1200 light years away. It is visible in the constellation Cepheus near the flying bag and the squid nebula.

Full : https://www.astrobin.com/f9h18l/B/

R : 56 x 120″
G : 40 x 120″
B : 40 x 120″
L : 247 x 120″
Takahashi Epsilon 160ED
Ioptron GEM45
ZWO ASI 2600MM-Pro
Baader Filters

H-alpha sun - Dancing prominences

Nothing special, just dancing prominences.

Copyright: Rafael Schmall
https://www.astrobin.com/users/Rafeee/

Image Details:
Equipment: ZWO ASI290MM, Lunt-LS100, Fornax 150
Exif data: exp: 0,9ms, gain:100, 1perc 10%
Processing: Lightroom, Photoshop

Location: Hungary, Zselic Starry Sky Park, Zselic Park of Stars