alan4908

The centre of the Heart Nebula (IC1805). The image is a bicolour narrowband image with HII mapped to red and OIII mapped to green and blue, acquired with my Esprit 150.   To obtain realistic star colours,  I eliminated the narrowband stars with StarXterminator and replaced them with RGB data that I had previous acquired with my ED80.  In total the image represents 15 hours of integration time.

Alan

LIGHTS: R:10, G:14, B:9 x 600s; HII:9, OIII:10 x 1800s.

On 26/01/2022 at 18:10, Craig a said:

That’s a beauty,  galaxys are my fave 

Thanks Craig !

On 27/01/2022 at 22:37, Adam1234 said:

Great image

Thanks Adam 

15 hours ago, Datalord said:

Impressive image! What camera did you use?

Thanks for the comment. I used my SX Trius 814 camera which gives me 0.7 arc seconds/pixel with my imaging set up.

Alan

Discovered in 1788 by William Herschel, the field galaxy NGC2683 is about 30m light years distant in Lynx. It is inclined at 78 degrees to Earth and has a classic “flying saucer” appearance and so, not surprisingly, it is also known as the UFO galaxy. It has low luminosity with a low rate of star formation. Dust lanes are clearly visible around the spiral arms.  A large population of old yellow stars form a relatively bright core, whilst much younger blue stars can be seen in the star forming region at the top right. Various background galaxies are also visible. 
The LRGB image below was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents just over 13 hours integration time.

Alan

LIGHTS: L:34, R:16, G:15, B:14 x 600s all at -20C. 
 

IC348

IC348 is located about 1000 light years away in the Perseus constellation and consists of an open star cluster of about 400 stars. These stars illuminate the surrounding dust and gas to produce a blue reflection nebula about 15 light years across. The cluster is estimated to be only 2m years old. More than half the stars have ring shaped disks, indicating potential planet formation. Thirty brown dwarfs have been discovered within the cluster, with three having a mass as low as 10 times that of Jupiter. In 2013, a very rare object (LRLL 54361) was discovered near the reflection nebula.  This emits a flash of light every 25.34 days and is believed to be a pair of proto-stars orbiting each other. The stars attract dust and gas as they orbit each other and dump the matter into the growing stars as they near each other in their orbits, resulting in a short blast of intense radiation. IC348 is embedded in a star forming region known as the Perseus molecular cloud.  This is mainly visible in the mid and far infra-red wavelengths, however, in visible light it’s almost invisible.

The LRGB image below represents c11 hours integration time and was taken with my Esprit 150. The image has a very high dynamic range and is not helped by the very bright star Atik which scatters light rays everywhere. It certainly makes processing a challenge !

Alan

IC348

IC348 (annotated)

LIGHTS: L:27, R:12, G:16,B:13 x 600s.

The spectacular M33 Triangulum galaxy contains some of the largest known stellar nurseries, the most prominent is NGC 604 which is about 1500 light years across.  The hydrogen gas within the nebula is ionised by ultra violet radiation from a cluster of about 200 massive blue stars (if you look very closely at the image below you can almost see some of them ). Since I couldn’t fit M33 into my field of view, I decided to centre the image on this object.

Some of the other prominent HII regions within M33 are also marked in the annotated image below.

The LRGB image below was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents about 8 hours integration time.

Alan

LIGHTS: L:18, R:13, G:9, B:9 x 600s all at -20C.

21 hours ago, Richard_ said:

Beautiful close up image there, Alan. Lovely colours, but I was surprised to read that this image uses an HOO pallette since typical examples I've seen look more orange and blue, than red and blue. 

Also, 1800s subs?! That's amazing! 

Thanks for the comment Richard.

For this image,  HOO tends to give red and blue(ish) colours, however if you like orange you can change the green channel by mixing in some Ha - so typically you might go for say k1*OIII+ k2*Ha where k1 = 0.9 and k2 = 0.1. For narrowband images, I tend to start from a pallet that gives a generally pleasing appearance and then manipulate the hues during post processing.

Alan

21 hours ago, simmo39 said:

V Sharp!

Thanks - the apparent sharpness and contrast was probably helped through use of 3nm narrow band filters.

21 hours ago, DaveS said:

Some lovely colour and detail in there.

Thanks - I decided to separate the starfield out from the nebula to increase the impact of the nebula. StarXterminator does an excellent job !

18 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Wow, the contrast and detail are beautiful!

Thanks 

Flemming’s Triangular Wisp is part of a supernova remnant in the constellation Cygnus. It was discovered in 1904 by Williamina Fleming but was credited to Edward Pickering, the director of the observatory and so is commonly known as Pickering’s Triangle. The object is part of a larger Cygnus Loop which occupies about 36 times the area of the full moon. It is estimated to be about 2400 light years distant and was formed about 15000 years ago.
The narrow band image below is a bi-colour representation with Ha mapped to red and OIII mapped to green and blue. It represents 16 hours integration and was taken with my Esprit 150.

Alan

LIGHTS: Ha:16, OII:16 x 1800s at -20C. 
 

Vdb-130 is a blue reflection nebula located in Cygnus and is about 5000 light years away from Earth.  The nebula is associated with a young star cluster and is embedded within a red emission nebula. 

I found the image challenging to process since it is not only relatively faint but that is almost consumed by the brighter red emission nebula. 

The image represents approx 14 hours integration time and was taken with my Esprit 150.

Alan

LIGHTS: L: 32, R:18, G:19, B:14 x 600s.

On 10/11/2021 at 14:21, MartinB said:

Excellent.  There is something very special about seeing small galaxies like this against a large starfield.  I love the 2 faint trails coming from the galaxy

Thanks for the comment Martin.  

I normally go for a cropped images on galaxies to create a greater impact. This time, I opted for a much wider field of view with the starfield processed separately in order to make the stars less distracting.

Alan

NGC 1961 (aka Arp 184, IC2133) is situated close to the celestial pole and so is visible for most parts of the year from the northern hemisphere. It’s an intermediate spiral galaxy about 200 million light years away with an angular size of 4.6 arc minutes, representing a diameter of 240,000 light years. The galaxy is the central member of a group of nine galaxies known as the NGC 1961 group.

The image of NGC 1961 below shows regions of hot blue stars and large HII regions indicating active star formation. Three faint outward pointing arm structures can also be seen. Although the galaxy appears distorted, there is no obvious evidence of past interactions. However, it is speculated that the galaxy is an intruder into the region, perhaps encountering an object in the distant past, which compressed the gas and dust on one side of the galaxy, leading to the observed distortions. Three supernovae have been observed, the latest in 2021. The image does not show the latest event, (discovered on 5^th August 2021) since the sub-frames where acquired before this time.

Some smaller galaxies are also visible in the image and I’ve annotated these via Pixinsight. I was pleased that some details of these smaller galaxies are visible, in particular PCG17675 (bottom left).

This LRGB image was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents approx 11 hours integration time.

Alan

NGC 1961

NGC 1961 (annotated)

LIGHTS: L:21, R:14, G:16, B:14 x 600s all at -20C.

On 03/11/2021 at 09:43, Boki Aristarh said:

Very nice object. It would be one of next targets for imagining,

Alan, excellent work.

Thanks ! 

Alan

21 hours ago, simmo39 said:

Nice, not seen this one before/ Added to my list of targets.

Thanks - it is an unusual target.

16 hours ago, Rodd said:

that is about teh best I have seen....excellent!

Many thanks for the comment Rodd. 

Located in Cygnus, SH2 106, is an emission nebula and a star forming region c2000 light years distant, it’s estimated to be c5 lights years long and c0.5 light year wide.  It has a small apparent size of about 3 x 3 arc minutes and is rarely imaged.

The most interesting object within SH2 106 is a newly formed massive star named S106 IR. This is only c100,000 years old and is estimated to be c25,000 times the mass of the Sun. The star is a source of infra-red radiation and ejects hot gas from its poles forming a bipolar dust structure. It is rapidly rotating, which twists its magnetic fields, resulting in matter being blasted out at high speeds in opposite directions. The hydrogen gas near the star is ionised, making it glow red, whilst further away the dust reflects star light. Within this gas, c600 brown dwarfs have been detected, which have less that 10% of the mass of the Sun and so are incapable of sustained nuclear fusion. S106 IR is obscured by the dust it’s ejecting, so I’ve marked its position on the annotated image.

This LRGB image was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents 9 hours integration time.

Alan

SH2-106

SH2-106 (annotated)

LIGHTS: L:23, R:10, G:12, B:9 x 600s all at -20C.

5 hours ago, Spitfire said:

Very nice image.

Tracking looks spot on with 1800sec exposure for the OIII. Which one of the mounts did you use for this?

Have tried this myself with a 6inch RC but only have a few hours on it..........not a patch on yours!

Geoff

Thanks for the comment Geoff.

I use my 10micron mount in unguided mode for all my imaging now. I gave up guiding mainly due to my desire to improve my  imaging productivity from UK skies - at least I don't loose guide stars anymore 

Alan

On 23/10/2021 at 10:52, tomato said:

Great image, all 17 hrs on the 150 showing through on this one. 
 

I bet some of those tiny unmarked galaxies are at a serious distance from us.

Thanks - yes - I also bet that the field of view contains objects that are even further away eg quasers. 

On 23/10/2021 at 11:01, teoria_del_big_bang said:

What a great image and a new one on me

Thanks ! 

On 23/10/2021 at 11:39, Sp@ce_d said:

Nice one, that stands out very well 

Thank you for the comment.

On 23/10/2021 at 11:54, Craney said:

This object always reminds me of the time that I committed 6 hours of Hydrogen Alpha to it....   when clear nights were as rare as teachers' pay rises.

Only to find out ........

Nice picture btw....

Thanks . I've sometimes wasted even greater amounts of time on imaging due to incorrect selection of filters - I have an automated set up and image many different objects per night through I only tend to check the results once my set up has finished a particular image. 

On 23/10/2021 at 20:38, Tom OD said:

Super. Looks great just floating there in the centre.

Tom

Thanks Tom. I did think of giving it a severe cropping but decided it looked better in the wider field perspective.

Alan

23 hours ago, Adreneline said:

Wow! Excellent image and a great, concise description.

Thanks for sharing.

Adrian

Thanks for the comment Adrian..

23 hours ago, geeklee said:

Superb image Alan.  Thanks for the description and annotated copy as well, helped pick up those faint galaxies.

Thanks - yes, those faint galaxies are quite interesting and very far away. 

16 hours ago, ONIKKINEN said:

Very nice! Never seen this one before, a very odd looking perfect sphere.

A bunch of galaxied in the background on top of the annotated ones it looks like.

Thanks - I agree, it is very odd looking ! 

15 hours ago, simmo39 said:

Thats very nice!

Thanks !

15 hours ago, Dinglem said:

To be honest I have never heard or seen this object before, so I had to look on the internet as my first impression was you'd layered a blue circle over a starfield.

I'm now extremely impressed with your capture and determined to improve my knowledge and skills to achieve something half as good as this.

Thanks for the comment -  and good luck with your own attempts.  

Alan

Abell 39  is a low surface brightness planetary nebula located in Hercules. At the centre is a blue/white dwarf star at the end of its life. About 20,000 ago, this star expelled a glowing shell of gas creating the near spherical gas cloud that can be seen today. This is estimated to be 5 light years across and about 6000 light years away.   Over time, the gas will spread over a very wide area of space and will eventually be used for creating new stars.   

Very distant background galaxies can also be seen in the image, including one that is visible through the translucent gas of the nebula (see annotated image).

This LRGB image was taken with my Esprit 150 and also has an OIII blend into the blue channel, it represents approximately 17 hours integration time.

Alan

Annotated

LIGHTS: L:18,R:17,G:15,B:19 x 600s; OIII:10 * 1800s all at -20C.

On 14/10/2021 at 13:14, Roy Foreman said:

Very Nice - I like it.

Thanks ! 

On 14/10/2021 at 14:36, Tommohawk said:

Lovely image, nice detail - another new one on me too!

Thanks I was happy with the detail given the vagaries of the UK sky. 

Alan

23 hours ago, megrez said:

That's great detail and colour indeed! Very striking image. Thanks for pointing out that script.

I'm glad you liked it ! 

FYI the script can be downloaded at:  https://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?threads/color-corrected-hdrmt.15769/

Alan

16 hours ago, mackiedlm said:

Thats a beauty. Great colour and detail.

Thanks for the comment !  

Alan

Orientated nearly face on to Earth and situated close to the northern celestial pole, NGC 1530 has a low surface brightness and is classified as a barred spiral galaxy. It is estimated to be between 80 and 113million light years away and receding at over 2400km/s.  

Whilst not often imaged by amateurs, it is one of the most examined galaxies by the professionals. Many of these studies focus on mechanisms for star formation, which is rare amongst galaxies with a prominent bar. The strong HII emissions, seen in the image, are evidence of star formation.  

The galaxy is relatively isolated, so I decided to crop the image to better reveals the galaxy’s details. To enhance the spiral structure of the core, I used Russell Croman’s (free) ColorCorrectedHDMRT PI script that corrects for Hue changes whilst compressing dynamic range.

The LRGB image was acquired with my Esprit 150 and represents approximately 11 hours integration time.  

Alan

LIGHTS: L:24, R:10, G:12, B:18 x 600s. BIAS: 80, DARKS:23, FLATS:10 all at -20C.

12 hours ago, assouptro said:

Love the star colour! 
great job Alan 

thanks for sharing 

Bryan 

Thanks for the comment Bryan. 

Yes - lots of stars, so I spent a bit of time trying to bring out their various colours.  I always find this a bit of a challenge, particularly when you have blue stars embedded in red nebulosity.

Alan

22 hours ago, Laurin Dave said:

Very nice Alan.. I agree,  the NSG script is great, as you say it makes gradient removal easier and also helps brings out faint details.. 

Thanks for the comment Laurin.  Yes, the NSG script is definitely impressive and it will now form part of my standard processing in PI.

Alan

The Tulip Nebula (aka Sh2-101) is about 6000 light years away in Cygnus and consists of a collection of hydrogen, oxygen and sulphur gases. Ultraviolet light from nearby young stars ionise the gas creating red, green and blue colours, making it a popular narrowband target. In particular, the very bright blue/white star HDE 227018 shown near the centre of the image creates a bluish/violet bubble within the nebula.

Since I prefer natural colours, I decided to image using LRGB techniques but to enhance details and contrast, I also decided to capture HII emissions via an Ha filter which I subsequently blended into the red and luminescence channels.  The result is below represents 19 hours integration time and was taken with my Esprit 150.

For those that may be interested: after watching Adam Blocks tutorials on the Pixinsight script Normalize Scale Gradient www.adamblockstudios.com/categories/PixInsight - this is my first image using this script – it really does appear to give more realistic sub frame weightings and facilitates easier removal of light gradients.  

Alan

LIGHTS: L:21, R:17,G:15,B:13 x 600, Ha: 16 x 1800s; BIAS:100; FLATS:40; DARKS:30 all at -20C.