ShineOn

I read a comment the other day where someone (jokingly) suggested that Russell Croman’s Blur Xterminator tool was merely platesolving your image and replacing it with Hubble data. The results it gives are not quite that good….but it’s very good! What he has achieved with this and his other tools has made the processing of Astro images a far more straightforward and rewarding process and helps bring out the best in your hard won data.

So this is 10 hours of SHO data on (most of) The Heart Nebula, taken with the Esprit 150 reduced by 0.77x to 808mm focal length @ f5.4 with the ZWO 2600MM Pro, Antlia 3nm filters, shot over 2 nights during the recent UK cold spell.  The stars were provided by 10 minutes each of RGB data. Flats and Dark Flats were taken. I didn’t have a set of darks at -30C but I don’t think this image has suffered for that.

It’s processed entirely within Pixinsight. After an initial crop to reduce stacking artefacts and DBE per channel, I let BXT do it’s thing.  I supplied it with an accurate PSF profile by using the Pixinsight script from https://www.skypixels.at/pixinsight_scripts.html. What it did with the stars was remarkable – I’ve never had such tiny RGB stars!  I did dial back the non-stellar sharpening from default but improvements were obvious, especially when zoomed in.

I then did an EZ soft stretch on the 3 narrowband stacks followed by StarXterminator on all 3.  An LRGB combination followed using 50% of Ha as Luminance and 75% Ha in the Green channel, to give a Cuiv style Hubble palette blend.  Inverting the image and using SCNR removed a slight magenta background.  I then played around with curves to give a colour balance I was happy with.  Some gentle LocalHistogramEqualization and DarkStructureEnhance were used to add a bit of contrast.  I then used NoiseXterminator and finally added back the RGB stars using the Rescreen pixelmath method.  

So in summary I’d heartily recommend BlurXterminator as an additional processing tool – it really is a game changer.  If nothing else, it’s probably just killed Topaz stone dead!

Thanks for looking, Simon

Higher resolution: https://www.astrobin.com/54q3lv/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sportysi/

In the year 1054AD, Chinese observers witnessed and documented a supernova in our night sky. The explosive fallout from this shone so brightly it was even visible in the daytime for many days.  The remnants of this event formed what we now call the Crab Nebula as seen in this photo I took.  It also happens to be the first object that the French astronomer Charles Messier catalogued as part of his list of objects to avoid being mistaken for comets, when he independently discovered it in 1758.  Hence it's designation of M1. The Crab lies some 6500 light years away, so the actual moment of supernova occurred around 5500 BC.  Unusually for a deep sky object it is possible to see changes in it's appearance over a few years, as the nebula is still expanding at around 1000km per second.   Have a look at this 10 year timelapse movie showing this! (https://www.astrobin.com/327338/0/)

RGB data was collected to produce natural star colours but the bulk of the photons were collected through 3nm Antlia narrowband filters.  The Sky-Watcher Esprit 150 is starting to earn it's keep now!

Gear used:
Imaging telescope: Skywatcher Esprit 150ED Pro
Imaging camera: ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro
Mount: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro
Guiding camera: ZWO ASI224 MC
Accessory: ZWO EAF Electronic Auto Focuser 
Switch: Pegasus Pocket Powerbox Advance

Image details:
Antlia 3nm Ha: 24 x 600 secs
Antlia 3nm Oiii: 19 x 600 secs
Antlia 3nm Sii: 21 x 600 secs
Antlia RGB: 5 x 60 secs per filter (for stars)
Gain 100 @ -25C bin 1x1
Total integration: 10 hrs 55 mins
Darks: 30
Flats: 30 per filter
Flat darks: 30 per filter
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 4.00
Imaging dates: Several dates between 20/01/22 and 20/03/22
Imaging location: Bakewell, Derbyshire, UK
Data acquisition: NINA
Processed: Pixinsight, Photoshop, Topaz Denoise
Higher resolution: https://www.astrobin.com/yyffnk/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sportysi/

The Crescent and Soap Bubble nebulae in Cygnus. Many hours of imaging time were spent on this object over the course of multiple nights in May, using my dual imaging rig. Narrowband filters were used to create an HOO base image (minus the stars) and RGB data was used for the stars. The Soap Bubble nebula (bottom right) is a planetary nebula and is so faint it was only discovered in 2007.

Image details:

Takahashi FSQ85 / Atik 460ex
Ha - 35 x 20 mins
Oiii - 35 x 20 mins

Skywatcher MN190 / ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro
RGB - 299 x 5 mins

Total image time: 48 hours 15 mins

Guided with ZWO ASI 224 MC / phd2
Data captured with Sequence Generator Pro
Stacked with DSS
Aligned with Registar
Processed with PS CS5

The bright central core of the Ring Nebula, M57, is a famous planetary nebula easily observed in a small telescope.  It’s the remnants of a dying star, shedding material into space.  Recently though I set myself the challenge of capturing the much less often imaged outer halos of M57.  With a lot of deep narrowband exposure time over 4 different nights and almost as much processing afterwards, I was very happy to have achieved this.

The inner halo (discovered in 1935) surrounds the familiar bright core and is around 5 times fainter than it.  The outer halo is some 5000 times fainter than the central ring and was only recently discovered when space telescopes like Hubble were pointed at the object.  You can make out faint wisps of this to the left and below the inner halo in particular. The galaxy in the top right is IC 1296, some 220 million light years away.

The image is a combination of LRGB broadband filters for the bright core and Ha and Oiii narrowband filters for the outer halos, for a total of over 18 hours imaging time.  As the object is very small I used the 2x drizzle function in DSS. Each stack was then processed separately and then combined in photoshop for further processing.

For other astro photos follow my instagram @sportysi:
https://www.instagram.com/sportysi/

Image details:
Lum - 26 x 3 mins 
Red – 19 x 3 mins
Green 24 x 3 mins
Blue – 25 x 3 mins
Ha – 30 x 20 mins
Oiii – 12 x 20 mins
Total image time: 18 hours 42 mins
Skywatcher MN190 / Atik 460ex
Guided with ZWO ASI 224 MC / phd2
Data captured with Sequence Generator Pro
Stacked with DSS using 2x drizzle 
Aligned with Registar
Processed with PS CS5
 

1 hour ago, tooth_dr said:

That’s a nice field of view. 

Full frame sensor + Redcat = HUGE!

The North America Nebula and Pelican Nebula, in Cygnus. For the North America region I used my Ha data from 2016 taken at higher resolution, aligned it with Registar and combined as a luminance layer.

Imaged over 2 nights last week:
424 x 60s at ISO 1600 unguided
Total image time – 7 hours 4mins
Modified Sony A7s
William Optics RedCat 51
Optolong l-Pro clip in filter
iOptron Sky Guider Pro
Stacked in Sequator,
Processed in PS CS5

The Veil Nebula in Cygnus is one of the best known supernova remnants in the sky, the star that caused it exploding around 7000 years ago. It’s a huge object (about 6 full Moon widths) and although I’ve imaged separate parts of it before, I haven’t had the gear to capture it all in a single frame. But this is possible now with the 250mm focal length Redcat and the full frame Sony.

Imaged over 2 nights:

142 x 120s at ISO 1600 unguided
34 x 240s at ISO 1600 guided with ASI 224MC / phd2
Total image time – 7 hours
Modified Sony A7s
William Optics RedCat 51
STC Duo narrowband clip in filter
iOptron Sky Guider Pro

Stacked in Sequator,
Processed in PS CS5

The obvious benefit of running a dual rig setup is that you can image the same target with two different telescope / camera combinations simultaneously. The data for these widefield views of M51 was captured at the same time as the close up image I posted a couple of days ago.

I could have combined the data but I knew I had enough from each setup to simply produce a 2nd, very different image. The galaxy doesn’t have quite the resolution but I prefer the colours in this version and the way M51 appears to float in its surroundings.

The APS-C sized chip of the ZWO camera coupled with the Tak gives a field of view of 3 x 2 degrees, so even the wider view of M51 seen here is still a fair crop.

Simon

Image details:
154 x 5 mins 
With Takahashi FSQ85 @f5.3 / ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro
Total image time: 12h 50mins

Guided with ZWO ASI 224 MC / phd2
Data captured with Sequence Generator Pro
Stacked with DSS
Processed with PS CS5

33 minutes ago, alan potts said:

A beautiful image you have captured there. I have a M/N 190mm maybe I should have a go with it, do you need any special extensions for the focuser, I still the original connection fitting, which I think is for a camera, I have two OSC's 183mc and a 071.

Alan

 

Thanks Alan - the best thing I did for my 190 was replace the stock focuser with a Moonlite - but the connection is still a standard nosepiece into the tube connected to my Atik EFW  

42 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

Simon, that's a great image and excellent research. You got me looking at my recent M51 image too and see that I also got it, so I then had a look at SIMBAD to confirm your identification 👌, but where did you get the distance information please?

Thanks Geof - yes I've seen it on your superb M51 too, much clearer in fact.  I googled it's catchy name and it threw up a couple of amateur sites having the distance as stated or similar.  The NED has it at 11.036 Gly http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/objsearch?objname=SDSS+J133004.71%2B472301.0&extend=no&hconst=73&omegam=0.27&omegav=0.73&corr_z=1&out_csys=Equatorial&out_equinox=J2000.0&obj_sort=RA+or+Longitude&of=pre_text&zv_breaker=30000.0&list_limit=5&img_stamp=YES 

This is M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy….THE grand design spiral galaxy! Or more accurately it’s M51 and NGC 5195, as both galaxies are interacting with each other some 25 million light years distant, connected by a dusty tidal bridge.
Captured over several nights last week, I framed the image to include IC 4263, the galaxy in the top right corner.

Image details:

Luminance – 50 x 5 mins and 5 x 10 mins
Red – 18 x 5 mins
Green – 27 x 5 mins
Blue – 26 x 5 mins
Ha – 17 x 10 mins
With Skywatcher MN190 / Atik 460ex
Total image time: 13h 45mins
Guided with ZWO ASI 224 MC / phd2
Data captured with Sequence Generator Pro
Stacked with DSS
Aligned with Registar
Processed with PS CS5

Upon researching some of the faint fuzzies also captured, I came across reference to Quasar SDSS J133004.71+472301.0, located nearby.  Scanning my image I was very pleased to locate this object, which according to info on the web is very faint at Mag 20.3 and some 11.8 billion light years distant, making it the furthest object I have recorded.  The attached inverted luminance stack shows it up easiest….check your M51s!

Simon
 

17 hours ago, Hallingskies said:

That is excellent!  My old MakNewt was a pig to collimate, you clearly have no problems on that front. The core detail is razor sharp.

Thanks everyone. I have to set up / tear down after each dry/clear spell and always need to collimate at the outset.  But using a hotech laser collimator is a pretty quick and straightforward process.

This is M94, the Croc’s Eye or Cat’s Eye Galaxy in the constellation of Canes Venatici, around 15 million light years away. It was an interesting one to process with it's bright central core but much fainter outer halo. Layer mask techniques were used to selectively process and expose this halo whilst retaining detail in the galaxy core and dust lanes. Quite a few faint fuzzies in the background too.

Image details: Luminance – 37 x 5 mins with Skywatcher MN190 / Atik 460ex 
RGB – 7 x 5 mins per channel with Skywatcher MN190 / Atik 460ex 
Total image time: 4h 50mins 
Guided with ZWO ASI 224 MC / phd2 
Data captured with Sequence Generator Pro 
Stacked with DSS 
Aligned with Registar 
Processed with PS CS5

45 minutes ago, Xplode said:

here's an image from the beginning of march taken of M51 taken through a "smallish" refractor

I'd like a "smallish" refractor like that! 😆, Great image.

One swallow may not make a summer but the appearance of bright nebulae in the Cygnus region may well!  This is a widefield view of some of the jewels to be found in that region of the sky, shot from my back garden in the early hours of 16th April using my ‘grab and go’ set up.  

In the photo you can see the North American Nebula on the left, with the Pelican nebula immediately to its right.  Just right of centre is the Butterfly Nebula and further right is the Crescent Nebula, looking tiny at this focal length.  Plus a lot of stars, as we look towards the densely packed galactic core.  

Image details:

101 x 60secs at ISO 1600 unguided
Modified Sony A7s
Samyang 135mm f2 @f2.8
Optolong l-Pro light pollution clip in filter
iOptron Sky Guider Pro
Stacked in Sequator
Processed in PS CS5
 

Galaxy season continues apace… This is M104, the Sombrero Galaxy, some 30 million light year away in the constellation of VIrgo.  It’s always fairly low from UK skies but I had 2 nights this week to go at it with the dual rig.

Image details:
Luminance – 43 x 5 mins with Skywatcher MN190 / Atik 460ex
RGB – 7 x 5 mins per channel with Skywatcher MN190 / Atik 460ex
RGB – 59 x 5 mins with Takahashi FSQ 85 / ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro
Total image time: 10h 15mins
Guided with ZWO ASI 224 MC / phd2
Data captured with Sequence Generator Pro
Stacked with DSS
Scaled and aligned with Registar
Processed with PS CS5 
 

3 hours ago, lux eterna said:

Nicely processed, and still lots of details in the outskirts of the galaxy. Could be even better with colour...

I have done it myself but did not reach as far out as you have done.

Ragnar

Thank you Ragnar.  Yes, hoping to add some RGB this week

One of the benefits of doing my recent ‘Messier Marathon’ was that it highlighted objects I’d not imaged before.  Once such is M63, the Sunflower Galaxy which I captured on Saturday evening.  It’s some 27 million light years distant in the constellation of Canes Venatici.  It’s known as a ‘flocculent’ galaxy as it’s arms appear patchy and discontinuous, thus somewhat resembling a sunflower. Possibly.

Image details:
Luminance – 56 x 5 mins using MN190 / Atik 460ex
Total image time: 4h 40mins
Guided with ZWO ASI 224 MC / phd2
Data captured with Sequence Generator Pro
Stacked with DSS
Processed with PS CS5 / Topaz Denoise
 

4 hours ago, pietervdv said:

Very nice, I'm impressed you got so many in a single night! 

Pieter 

Thank you Pieter.  It was only when I started looking through Stellarium the day before that I realised just how many were within reach in one night.  I'm helped by 'sky availability'

1 hour ago, astroman001 said:

Hi Simon, what would be interesting is seeing the results at all the same image scale. I believe for this you expanded to fit the cropped image size?

Peter

Hi Peter, the original FITS files produced by this set up were 1374 pixels wide, so I was careful not to crop by more than two thirds to achieve a 400px wide image.  But a lot of the images, especially the wider clusters didn't require too much of a crop.  Have attached resized 100% crops of M51 and M57 as examples (no processing).

The night of 6/4/20 was clear but with a 98% illuminated moon. With a paucity of narrowband targets to go at, I attempted something a little different.

This image represents my effort to image as many of the Messier objects over the course of one night, from my location in Bakewell, Derbyshire, England @ 53 degrees N. I managed a total of 90 (including ‘M51b’ and ‘M109b’).

I used Sequence Generator Pro to create a sequence, based upon the objects position in the sky at various points through the night (I am lucky enough to be able to image from my balcony which has excellent sky visibility from the NE to the W, and northwards to the altitude of Polaris).

All images were taken with my Atik 460ex mono attached to a Skywatcher MN190 using a Baader Luminance filter. Exposure lengths ranged from 5 seconds to 120 seconds depending on the target / proximity to the Moon and binned 2x2. Originally, I had hoped that SGP would handle the sequence automatically, but when I was confronted with a new error message and several early software crashes, I decided I needed to 'babysit' the process through the night.

Minimal post processing was done on each image in Photoshop to include levels and curves adjustments, gradient removal using Gradient Exterminator and noise reduction using Topaz Denoise. Each image was cropped / resized to 400px by 320px. Finally the processed images were assembled on a large blank canvas in PS.  The full resolution image can also be viewed here:

https://www.astrobin.com/full/8tnsnj/0/?nc=user

It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, spanning 3 days in the planning, execution and processing phases. I hope you enjoy, Simon.

6 minutes ago, Wyvernp said:

Wow, that is really lovely. May I ask what focal length this was taken at?

Thank you!  The RGB was taken with the Skywatcher MN190 at a focal length of 1000mm and the luminance with Takahashi FSQ 85 at a native f5.3, giving 450mm focal length.  Using the ASI 2600MC on the MN190 and the Atik 460 on the Tak I can achieve a similar field of view in terms of scale but at the moment I am not aligned too well.  I have a JTD tilt adjuster on order from FLO to correct this 🙂 I've attached 100% crops (single slightly streched subs) of how the RGB and Lum shots currently look off the camera

Another dual rig effort from last week.  The main feature here is NGC 3718, a warped spiral galaxy in Ursa Major.  It’s ‘sweetie wrapper’ appearance is thought to derive from ongoing interactions with the spiral galaxy NGC 3729, lower left.  This pair are a mere 150,000 light years apart.  Also of note is the small cluster of galaxies shown centre right.  This group is named Hickson 56 and the central three appear to be in contact and interacting.  They are estimated to be around 425 million light years distant.  The universe is big!

Full image details:

RGB – 47 x 3mins using MN190 / ZWO ASI 2600MC

Luminance – 35 x 5 mins using Tak 85 @ f5.3 / Atik 460ex

Total image time: 5h 16

Guided with ZWO ASI 224 MC / phd2

Data captured with Sequence Generator Pro

Stacked with DSS

Data sets aligned with Registar

Processed with PS CS5

This was my main project during last week’s clear skies. Collected over 3 nights, it acted as a 'first light' with my dual imaging rig and also the ZWO ASI 2600MC. allowing me to capture data simultaneously using different filters. As I was able to collect around 24 hours worth of data, I was very happy to discover a faint wisp of the Integrated Flux Nebula in processing. These patches of diffuse gas and dust lie within our own galaxy and can (hopefully!) be seen on here as faint bands between the galaxies and above and to the right of M81.

Although the respective fields of view are quite similar with these scope / camera combos, my alignment is not quite true so I had to carefully frame the object so as to capture both galaxies on both chips.  Consequently I had to crop quite a lot of sky which was a shame.  Might need to consider some kind of tilt adjusting device to achieve perfect alignment.  This one looks like it could do the job if anyone has any experience?

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/misc/jtd-dual-rig-telescope-alignment-saddle.html

Full image details:

RGB  – 264 x 3mins using MN190 / ZWO ASI 2600MC

Luminance – 105 x 5 mins using Tak 85 @ f5.3 / Atik 460ex

Ha – 14 x 10 mins using Tak 85 @ f5.3 / Atik 460ex

Guided with ZWO ASI 224 MC / phd2

Data captured with Sequence Generator Pro

Stacked with DSS

Data sets aligned in Registar

Processed with PS CS5

It's been a while since I've posted but the recent acquisition of some new gear has reinvigorated my passion!  The object in this photo is one I’ve wanted to image for a long time but it’s faintness and sheer size in the sky (it’s about 6 full moon widths wide) have put me off. But armed with a full frame dslr combined with the 250mm focal length of the William Optics Redcat made it a possibility.

This is Simeis 147, otherwise known as the Spaghetti Nebula – it’s a supernova remnant adjacent to the constellation of Taurus. It’s around 3000 light years away and about 100 light years in diameter. The supernova explosion that left the nebula behind happened around 40,000 years ago.

I imaged this on 4 separate nights this week for a total integration time of over 10 hours using the STC Duo filter. Ha and Oiii emission lines were processed separately and then combined into the final image. The details:

312 x 120s at ISO 3200 unguided

Modified Sony A7s

William Optics RedCat 51

STC Duo narrowband clip in filter

iOptron Sky Guider Pro

Stacked in Sequator,

Processed in PS CS5