jonathancd

Took the opportunity of the first gap in the clouds here in London for 10 days and managed to get 90 minutes imaging the Cygnus Wall region of the North American Nebula. First time I have focussed on this region but done quite a few widefield picture of the whole nebula before. This was taken with my TEC140 and Altair Hypercam 294C and an Altair triband filter. This was stacked in Sequator and tweaked in Photoshop to give it a more Hubble palette look. Really please with how this has come out and hope I might get some more time on it later in the Summer. Cygnus Wall

To my surprise the skies cleared after midnight in London last night and as the transparency was good and Cepheus is rising higher I thought I would have a go at the Iris Nebula. First time imaging using my TEC140 and Altair Hypercam 294C after trying last year with my 80mm Skywatcher and Canon DSLR. Really pleased this combination has given much more detail and colour. 2 hours of 30 second exposures. This is the tweak of a saved live stack image from Sharpcap Pro using Photoshop. Thanks for looking. Iris Nebula - NGC 7023

Managed a quick capture of the sun yesterday with my Lunt 35 and Altair GPCam3 290m. This is a two panel mosaic put together with Microsoft ICE, each is the best 5% of 1000 frames stacked with Autostakkert3, final tweaking in Microsoft Photos. Nice to see the sun is waking up and the new solar cycle getting into the swing of things. Thanks for looking.

Sorry I got the orientation wrong. Here it is below the right way round!

Popped out to quickly grab a few pictures of the sun this morning. Three sunspot groups visible and it is nice to see the sun is waking up from solar minimum. Captures taken with my Baader Herschel Wedge and TEC140 with Altair 174m camera. Best 50 of 1000 frames stacked with Autostakkert3 and tweaked in Microsoft Photos.

My first Moon mosaic for a long time. Seeing was pretty poor so I used the native focus of my C9.25 and Altair 174M camera and an Baader Moon and Skyglow filter. Seven frames in the mosaic each was the best 10% of frames from 1000 stacked in Autostakkert3 and stitched together with Microsoft ICE. Final tweaks in Microsoft photo. Really please how this has stood up given how poor the seeing was. and shows good detail when zooming in.

Had a reasonable few hours of clear skies las night in London and the moon was largely out of the way too. Managed about 3 hours on the Sunflower Galaxy , this was with my TEC140 and Altair GPCam3 290c. I am finding with Sharpcap that I get better results tweaking the live stack rather than stacking the saved subs so this is what I did here. Relatively modest tweaking in Photoshop was needed as with a 3 hour stack the noise was pretty low. Thanks for looking. Sunflower Galaxy - M63

Managed my first Galaxy shots of the season last night. One old friend M64 (Black Eye Galaxy) which I managed 3 hours on and two new ones with just an hour on each NGC2683 and the Cocoon Galaxies NGCs 4485 and 4490. These were taken from East London with my TEC140 and Altair GPCam3 290c. Please with how these came out and looking forward to more this galaxy season. M64 - Black Eye Cocoon Galaxies - NGCs 4485&4490 NGC2683

Took advantage of a clear 90 minute window this evening to image two objects from the Caldwell Catalogue, Hubble's Variable Nebula and the Intergalactic Wanderer (which is our galaxy's most distant globular cluster at 300,000 light years). Both were imaged with my planetary camera, an Altair GPCam3 290c and my TEC140 with a 3.3 reducer. Images are each around 30 minutes of 15 second exposures. Nice to image these although I would like to have had more time but the clouds rolled in. Hubble's Variable Nebula Intergalactic Wanderer

Only had a short window of clear weather here in London but was lucky enough to capture my first globular clusters of the season and my first since buying a dedicated astro camera. As we only had a short time these are both only 10 minutes of 30 second exposures with my Altair Hypercam 294C and TEC140. This is the live stack saved and tweaked in Photoshop. Thanks for looking. M53 M3

Pleased to be able to get out again for a few hours last night. Grabbed what turned out to be the best data I have managed this season on M42 and the Running Man Nebula whilst the moon was still low and then later turned to imaging M108 and the Owl Nebula in the same field. Both targets were imaged with a 102ed refractor and my Altair Hypercom 294c and contain about 2 hours of subs each. I used a triband filter for M42 and a L-pro filter for M108 and the Owl. Rather than stacking separately I tweaked the image saved from a live-stacking session on both using Sharpcap. Imaged from my Bortl

Nice to have a clear night in East London last night imaging under a full moon made easier with an Altair triband and L-pro filters. Here are my pictures of the Monkey Head nebula with my Altair Hypercam 294c and M51 with my GPcam3 290c. The telescope was my TEC140 with a 0.8 reducer for the Monkey Head and 0.33 reducer for M51. Monkey Head was 2 hours of 1 minute exposures and M51 3 and half hours of 20 second exposures. Thanks for looking. Monkey Head Nebula M51

I have tried all of these objects before with a DSLR and have always been frustrated with the image scale. I thought I would have a go with my planetary camera to get in more close and I am happy with the results. All were taken with my Altair GPCAM3 290c coupled with my TEC140 and a 0.63 reducer with a Altair tri-band filter . Each image was stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and tweaked in Photoshop with about an hour of 15 second exposures at 5000 gain. Crab Nebula M76 - Little Dumbbell Nebula Eskimo Nebula

Thanks for comments. If I know it is going to be clear, I normally try for a couple of targets in a night. I have also found as I have to set up each time I want to observe that it is difficult for me to image an object over multiple sessions (mainly as I have yet to fathom plate solving and I don't guide either) that with wanting to keep an object on one side of the meridian that two to three hours is my limit. I have recently (in November) moved to a dedicated astro-camera having previously used DSLRs so very much still learning. Totally agree that the Monkey Head and especially the Con

First clear night for a good few weeks in London and pleased I was able the use the 6 hours of clear weather to image some emission nebula that were new to me. These were all taken with my Altair Hypercam 294c with my Skywatcher 80mm Equinox and a O.8x reducer. Even though there was no moon I used an Altair Triband filter to help with managing light pollution. The image of the Cocoon Nebula and IC410 were each around two hours of 1 minute exposures, the Monkey Head was 45 minutes and sadly clouds meant I only had 8 minutes on the Cone Nebula. Stacked with Sequator and processed in Photosho