Avdhoeven

Soon I will get a pillar in my garden and I was looking for a solution to put up my equipment in a quick and repeatable way, without leaving everything outside. A good acquaintance who is a very good metal worker and also into astronomy made this. It's so nice. I have to align it once to the pole when the pillar is placed, and then fix the screws on the underside (the small azimuth screws are only necessary for first alignment) and then I can just put it up and take it off and be pole aligned within seconds... So happy and such a nice piece of work.

Some results from the past 2 nights taken using the Spacecat 51 and my Nikon D810a and QSI583ws camera's. I was quite happy to make some imagery again.

The WO Spacecat is really a great performer and gives very nice results even with the full-frame D810a.

I also like the view of M27 a lot in the huge starfield. This shows how these objects are almost like pasted on the starry background.

NGC1499 California Nebula:

24x1200s Ha - QSI583ws / Spacecat 51

SH2-119 (near NGC7000):

5x1200s Ha - QSI583ws / Spacecat 51

M27:

10x300s RGB - Nikon D810a / Spacecat 51

This image of the Andromeda galaxy is a combination of imagery taken with my D810a and with a dedicated astro-camera (QSI583ws). In total 17 hours of exposures were used to catch this beautiful galaxy in all its glory.

The Andromeda galaxy is the closest sister galaxy of our Milky Way and will merge in the far future with our own galaxy. In the sky this galaxy is about the size of 6 full moons and can be seen with the naked eye from dark locations.

Telescope: TMB92ss / WO Spacecat 51

Camera: QSI583ws / Nikon D810a

Exposures: 19x300s L / 85x300s RGB

3x300s B / 9x300s R,G / 9x900s Ha / 12x1200s Ha

M31 Andromeda galaxy by Andre van der Hoeven, on Flickr

I even dare to challenge the Annie Maunders prize that is awarded.

The rules state that the contender should have processed the image from raw data:

The image is just downloadable here:  https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1242a/

I doubt if the artist of this photographed artwork did process the images herself. If you look at the size of the image and resolution I'm almost sure it was just downloaded and made into an artwork.

9 hours ago, JamesF said:

A bit more:

https://juliehill.co.uk/Dark-River

https://juliehill.co.uk/Dark-River-I

https://juliehill.co.uk/Dark-River-II

https://juliehill.co.uk/Dark-River-III

James

So basically a photo of an art work has won the category? Sorry, I give up... 

Thanks. I fully agree if there would be a separate category. Then it would be clear and much more legitimate. Now it doesn't do right to the astrophotography community in my opinion.

12 minutes ago, AbsolutelyN said:

Another creative image. Thinking outside the box at how you can visually interpret Sirius.  Its a competition, they want unique images. 

Just don't call it astrophotographer of the year then, but astro artist of the year... If a jury can't judge quality the competition is doomed. 

9 minutes ago, AbsolutelyN said:

Give the guy a break please. It may not be everyone's cup of tea but is still a striking image, a creative approach to a familiar subject and an image that will capture the imagination of many people. It's not some beginner image with a Photoshop filter applied, it took skill and creative thought to create the image entirely in camera. Hopefully it will inspire people to learn about astronomy and look up at the sky. Take a look at his website, he's a  deserving winner in my opinion. I love his halo image of Venus. 

 

I don't have anything against the photographer in any way. And his site looks ok. The problem is that the jury choose this image as a winner, which is just not what the contest is about. It's this one image which is selected not all his imagery. I'm sorry, but the jury should have done a better job in my opinion. And this is not the first time. Just look up the 2016 winner and you will understand what I mean...

This was it btw:

Just now, david_taurus83 said:

Bit of harsh criticism on here? Im sure the author could have produced a more 'traditional' M31 if he wanted but he choose to do something different and he probably enjoyed capturing and producing it..

..and isn't that the whole point?

 

He probably had fun. That's not the issue. The issue is that a jury chooses this as astronomy image of the year... 

9 minutes ago, tomato said:

Wow, is that the winner's original M31 data? I take it all back...😜

No, this is my M31 image 😜

Bad thing is that it is even not original at all. It's just a copy of an earlier idea  I really think the judges should reconsider their decision...

Just look here (from 2013)

and here

https://petapixel.com/2013/12/18/tilt-shift-effect-applied-photographs-cosmos-create-tiny-universe/?fbclid=IwAR3mPah3q5BOq4i8f7ntXuZJ5ES_NeoLQ07jX8Zz9mwnmN0jOmQIGMnYVwU

or here:

https://imgur.com/a/yZcOB 

Btw, this is 2 minutes of photoshop work:

Found even more data and combined it all together in this 21 hour exposure:

This image shows a nice overview of all images I took in the region surrounding the Cepheus constellation in the past years. I overlaid the images on a starmap to give an idea of the sizes of the objects. It's only now I realize for example that the Shark Nebula is about the same size as the North America nebula. This puts things a bit in perspective.

The last night of my holiday it unexpected became clear. So I was able to catch more data then expected and extend from 2,5 hours to 7 hours total data. The result is astonishing. This clearly shows how much images can improve by having enough integration time.

The top image shows 2,5 hours and the bottom 7 hours in the raw stack without any processing except a stretch in Astropixelprocessor.

This is the result using just D810a data which I'm quite happy with:

7 hours ago, Filroden said:

Beautifully captured. Would love to know how you created the black speckled border effect in the frame. Is that just a second image behind it or do you create the black border using the original image itself?

I used this action set that can be found for photoshop: https://www.behance.net/gallery/15470885/Simple-Beautiful-Borders-Free-Photoshop-Actions

I updated the image using data from the 2 Dark nebulae that I took in the previous years during my holidays in the same location. It became a nice blend I think.

These are my best Neowise images from the last 2 weeks. I went to different places to see if I could catch it and succeeded a few times.

All images with a D810a and a Tamron 24-70mm lens.

No filters used  I just received an Optolong L-pro so will try that next time

I did some further processing and also took some (only 3x900s) Ha data with my QSI with the spacecat and combined this data. I like this result even more:

I do understand the issues with Starlink (I hate it myself also), but all is relative. This is pretty easy to take out with the proper rejection algorithms. Last night I drove to a dark site to do imaging and 2 planes went overhead just before I arrived. They left contrails and because of the low winds and bad conditions they spread out during the next 3 hours until they covered almost 40% of the sky. Result is that I could almost completely forget my imaging session. But nobody is complaining about that in the astrophotography world. I think we should put our priorities right and fight Starlink, but even more fight what is going on closer to the surface of the Earth to be honest...

Image of the North America Nebula (NGC7000) taken with a Nikon D810a and a WO Spacecat 51. This image was taken from my backyard from a light-polluted Bortle Class 7 sky. I was quite happy to see this result with 'only' 76x180s exposures, totaling 3.8 hours. It was also my first experience using the Asiair. What a relief! So nice to be able to work stand-alone.

NGC 7000 North America Nebula by Andre van der Hoeven, on Flickr

Last year my son won the Young astrophotographer of the year competition in London with an image of NGC2237 aka the Rosette Nebula. I on purpose did not process this data before because I wanted it to be his image with his own processing. 

Now after a year I picked up the data and processed it myself to see what I could get out using my own techniques. I'm pretty happy with this dataset to be honest...

Taken with a TMB92 with a QSI583ws camera. 

Tycho crater on the moon. Yesterday I put my Celestron C11 telescope outside to take some moon imagery again since a long time. This was my first telescope and I'm still so happy with it... Taken at f/10 (2.8m focal length).

Mosaic made with an ASI174mm @ 60fps 1024x768 (larger my computer can't handle  ) Stacked with autostakkert and sharpened using astra image software.

This colorful skyscape features the dusty, reddish glow of Sharpless catalog emission region Sh2-155, the Cave Nebula. About 2,400 light-years away, the scene lies along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the royal northern constellation of Cepheus. 

Astronomical explorations of the region reveal that it has formed at the boundary of the massive Cepheus B molecular cloud and the hot, young, blue stars of the Cepheus OB 3 association. The bright rim of ionized hydrogen gas is energized by the radiation from the hot stars, dominated by a bright blue O-type star. Radiation driven ionization fronts are likely triggering collapsing cores and new star formation within. Appropriately sized for a stellar nursery, the cosmic cave is over 10 light-years across. [Source: APOD]

Telescope: TMB92SS
Camera: QSI583ws
Mount: Skywatcher NEQ6

Exposures:
90x300s/21x600s L
42x1200s Ha
9x600s R,G,B

Total: 29,5h

SH-155 Cave Nebula by Andre van der Hoeven, on Flickr