jonathancd

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 Bortle 7/8 skies in East London. Thanks for looking. M42 and the Running Man Nebula M108 and the Owl Nebula

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 Cone, need much more time so hopefully with clear skies, I can try them again over the Winter.

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 Photoshop. Really pleased with these and looking forward to spending more time with the Cone and Monkey Head Nebulas later in the winter. Thanks for looking Cocoon Nebula IC410 with tadpoles Monkey Head Nebula Cone Nebula with Hubble's variable nebula in the top right too

Updated version with Comet Neowise added!!

Feel very lucky to have been able to image all of the planets (Mercury out to Neptune) this year along with the moon and the sun. These were all taken with my TEC140 along with my Altair GPcam3 290c. Thanks for looking.

Really pleased that it has stayed clear today so I could catch this fantastic sunspot group! Must be the biggest for at least 3 years. Picture taken with TEC140 and Baader Herschel Wedge, camera is Altair GPcam3 290m. Best 4% of around 4000 frames captured and processed with Autostakkert 3 and colourised in Microsoft photo. Thanks for looking.

The telescope I used is a TEC140. It is quite a high end triplet refractor. It is good for planetary imaging, particularly when the seeing is less than perfect, to extend the focal length I also used a GSO 2.5x barlow lens

Here's another from about an hour later, same equipment as above. Mars

After two weeks of cloud and rain, I was really pleased to get out tonight to image Mars. Seeing was reasonable too so managed to get some nice surface detail. Imaged using an Altair GPCam3 290C and TEC140 with 2.5 barlow. Processed with Autostakkert3 and Microsoft photo, best 5% of 4000 frames. Thanks for looking. Mars

Dan, I have been keeping the gain low for these planetary images (around 200 in Sharpcap) and a shutter speed that gives me around 40 frames a second.

Hello, Just wanted to share my images of Mars, Uranus and Neptune from last night. All images were using a C9.25 and an Altair GPCam3 290C. They were processed with Autostakkert3 with wavelets in Registax. Mars is looking good and showing lots of detail now, really pleased to have some colour on Uranus and Neptune though no details! Managed now to have imaged all the planets now this year which is a first for me! Mars Uranus Neptune

Here are images of the two active regions on the sun at the moment in white light. They were taken using my TEC140 at prime focus, Baader Herschel Wedge and an Altair Astro GPCam3 290M. Each image was a the best 15% of around 2,500 frames process in Planetary System Stacker and Microsoft photo. First time using this camera for solar and please with how the granulation has come out. Good to see the sun seems to be moving out of solar minimum.

Fabulous prominence today along with separate solar disk surface image. Captured with GPcam3 290m and processed with Autostakkert.

Lucky to get another night out using Sharpcap live stacking and my Altair GPcam3 290c. Telescope was again my TEC140 with a Meade 0.33 reducer (at about 0.4) so the scope was operating around F2.8. The globulars were 15 second exposures and the nebula 30 seconds all the stacks were 5-7 minutes in total except for M16 where I went for 15 minutes. They were saved as seen PNGs then tweaked a little in photoshop. The new camera has helped me fulfil an ambition to image the Pillars of Creation. M13 M92 M16 M27 M11 M71

Hello, I live in NE London (Walthamstow) under Bortle 8 skies though these do not cause too much of a problem when imaging the brighter planets thankfully! Jupiter and Saturn are still very low at the moment (about 16 degrees above the horizon at their highest) so looking forward to them getting higher and better for imaging over the next few years. Mars will be good though in October and will reach around 40 degrees at opposition. Yes it is a colour camera. It is an Altair Astro GPCam3 290c. the ZWO ASI 290c is more or less the same camera. thanks for the positive comments.

First night of imaging with my new planetary cam, an Altair GPCam3 290c, telescope was a TEC140 with a 2.5x barlow. Each picture is the best 15% of frames from around 1 minute, 2500 frame stacks. Stacked in Autostakkert with wavelets sharpening and colour balance in Registax. Seems a really versatile camera as I was able to use the same camera and scope to do some DSO live stacking (pictures in the EAA observations section). Thanks for looking. Jupiter with Callisto shadow transit Saturn Mars

First night out using Sharpcap live stacking and my new Altair GPcam3 290c. Telescope was a TEC140 with a Meade 0.33 reducer (at about 0.4) so the scope was operating around F2.8. The globulars were 8 second exposures and the galaxies and nebula 18 seconds all the stacks were 5-7 minutes in total. They were saved as seen PNGs. I tweaked them a little in photoshop but I was pleased to see how low the noise was without any calibration frames given it was a mild night. Really versatile camera and I look forward to using it more. Also took some pictures of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars with the same camera but with a 2.5x barlow instead of the reducer, I am putting these pictures in the planetary imaging section. M2 M15 M27 M31 core NGC891 NGC7331