emyliano2000

My second aurora photo was shot with the exact same gear and using the exact same settings but the camera was pointing North rather than NE like my previous one.

Emil

And here is my take on the aurora shot on Friday the 10th of May at Cuckmere Heaven, Seaford

For this photo I used a Canon RP camera with my Tamron 15-30mm f2.8 

ISO 1600, 15mm, f2.8, 2.9sec

Emil

And finally, my 3rd and last photo is with the same Portland Bill Lighthouse but shot from a different angle.

While scouting for a good composition, I noticed the little flowers growing on the edge of the cliff and I immediately stopped for a few photos.

Even though there are lights everywhere around Portland Bill lighthouse, this particular place was quite dark. To brighten up the foreground I used my head torch for a fraction of a second which turned out to be just enough to make the flowers pop.

Again, the equipment used is similar to my other 2 photos.

The foreground is a single 30sec and the sky is a stack of 13x120sec photos blended in position with the help of photoshop.

Even though the details in the Milky-Way are not as great as in my other 2 photos because the Milky-Way core was only coming up from behind the horizon, I am still very pleased with thee photo.

I hope you like it too!

Emil

The second photo I took on he same night is shot from the cliffs, not far away from the lighthouse.

I always wanted a selfie with the Milky-Way in the background and what better place to do that than the Dorset's Jurassic Coast.

Same as the previous photo, the equipment used was the modified canon 6d, Sigma Art 24-35mm f2 lens and the iOptron Sky-Guider Pro tracker.

The foreground is a single 30sec ISO1600 @24mm f2.8 and the sky is a stack of 10x120sec shot with the same settings.

The editing was done in Lightroom Classic, Pixinsight and Photoshop and the blending with the final touches in Photoshop.

Emil

Night-time at Portland Bill Lighthouse

Knowing that this weekend was going to be a Bank Holiday weekend, with 3 days off and no moon about to mess things up, I really hoped to have at least one clear night to go out and try my luck at some Milky-Way shots before the UK will be losing the astronomical darkness.

The forecast looked good for Friday night and because the last time I went to Portland Bill I didn't manage to get home with anything good, I thought of giving it another go. Even though it was a 4 hour drive from my house, I'm over the moon I went there because I haven't seen the sky so nice and clean in a very, very long time, it was just perfect.

As always, I used my Astro-modified Canon 6d that never disappoints, but this time I used it with the Sigma Art 24-35mm f2 lens at 24mm f2.8 and the Optolong L-Pro clip-in filter for Canon full frame.

The foreground is a single image, 5sec, ISO 1600, 24mm f2.8 and the sky is a stack of 13 x 120sec, ISO 1600, 24mm f2.8 tracked images using my iOptron Sky-Guider Pro star tacker.

The editing was done in Lightroom Classic, Pixinsight and Photoshop and the blending with the final touches in Photoshop.

I hope you like it!

Emil

2 hours ago, wimvb said:

Very nice, especially with the addition of Oiii. In my own experience, I find that galaxy images gain a lot when narrow band is added. Unfortunately, I don't have room for an additional filter in my filter wheel.

Thank you! I am actually thinking of doing the Triangulum in full narrowband at some point. Hoping to put my Orion Optics CT8 and the ASI294MM into play soon because with this combination, M33 is filling up the whole image and the nebulae inside it should come out really nice.

Emil

2 hours ago, Laurin Dave said:

Fabulous image of what must be a very tough target from your location.. well done

Dave

Thank you Dave. It's not too bad when the target is high in the sky. I originally planned a LRGB photo but just when I finished with them, someone posted a HaOiiiLRGB photo that looked so good and I thought I should give it a try and see what comes out of it.

It's nothing compared to the photo that I saw but the guy was using an f2.3 scope under bortle 3 skies so I can't really complain.

Emil

Well, here's something I've never done before.

Tough target for my f6.5 scope under suburban skies. Took me a while and I think it could be much better with some more data shot under dark skies but overall I'm happy with it.

55 hours and 50 minutes

Barnard 11 and Barnard 13 are dark nebulae in the constellation Camelopardalis, located in the south of this constellation. The nebulae are part of the Southern Giraffe Clouds. Also, in this photo, you can see the following nebulae: LDN 1399, LDN 1400, LDN 1401, LDN 1402, LDN 1404 and LDN 1408.

The image is illuminated by the Hydrogen-Alpha signal shown as the red background. I had an attempt to capture some of the extremely faint Oiii signal too (shown in blue in the lower right and center part of the image) but even after 100 x 600sec exposures I didn't get any structure in the fillaments.

Mount: StellarDrive GT6

AstroTech 106LE f6.5 with upgraded Moonlite focuser

TSFlat 2" field flattener

ASI294MM Pro Cmos camera, cooled at - 15°C

8x1.25" ZWO USB filterwheel

Chroma 1.25" RGB, Chroma 1.25" LoGlow filter and Chroma 1.25" 3nm Ha and Oiii filters

Qhyccd QHY5L-IIM guide camera

OpticStar AR90 as guidescope

Chroma Blue 1.25": 50×180″(2h 30′)

Chroma Green 1.25": 50×180″(2h 30′)

Chroma H-alpha 3nm Bandpass 1.25": 100×600″(16h 40′)

Chroma LoGlow Light Pollution 1.25": 300×180″(15h)

Chroma OIII 3nm Bandpass 1.25": 100×600″(16h 40′)

Chroma Red 1.25": 50×180″(2h 30′)

Emil

I love this little galaxy, it looks so much like M33 with all the star formation regions. I don't have a big scope for a closer look and increased detail but I hoped that drizzle x2 will help me crop the image without loosing out too much.

Here's NGC2403 or Cadwell 7, a galaxy in Camelopardalis that I've been wanting to image for a long time.

I was very lucky to have a week of good weather in January and this allowed me to gather 26 hours and 40 minutes of data.

I was hoping for a little more Oiii for the star formation regions but it looks like the little amount that I shot was enough to give me a little bit of blue.

Mount: StellarDrive GT6

AstroTech 106LE with upgraded Moonlite focuser

TSFlat 2" field flattener

ASI294MM Pro Cmos camera, cooled at - 15°C

8x1.25" ZWO USB filterwheel

Chroma 1.25"Lo-Glow, RGB and Chroma 1.25" 3nm HO filters

Qhyccd QHY5L-IIM guide camera

OpticStar AR90 as guidescope

Chroma Blue 1.25": 60×180″(3h) bin 2×2

Chroma Green 1.25": 60×180″(3h) bin 2×2

Chroma H-alpha 3nm Bandpass 1.25": 45×600″(7h 30′) bin 1×1

Chroma LoGlow Light Pollution 1.25": 100×300″(8h 20′) bin 1×1

Chroma OIII 3nm Bandpass 1.25": 11×600″(1h 50′) bin 1×1

Chroma Red 1.25": 60×180″(3h) bin 2×2

I hope you like it!

Emil

Absolutely incredible! 😍😍

Emil

I miss the good old times when I was only using an astromodified DSLR and a very good modified 200p telescope. I was shooting 900sec without problems and everything was very simple and easy. I wasn't even using PHD2 for guiding, I was only using a Lacerta Mgen II but it worked. The nostalgia made me return to the data shot in 2017. I might go back to other targets shot back then.

Equipment
Imaging Telescopes: Sky-Watcher Explorer 200P

Imaging Cameras: Canon EOS 700D / Rebel T5i / Kiss X7i (modified)

Mounts: DarkFrame Optics Stellardrive 6 (N/EQ6)

Filters: IDAS LPS-D1 EOS APS-C

Accessories: Baader Diamond Steeltrack Focuser × · Baader Steeldrive II motor focuser with Controller × · Lacerta MGEN-2 standalone autoguider · TS-Optics Off-axis guider for Canon EOS cameras (TSOAG11)

Software: Adobe Photoshop · Aries Productions Astro Pixel Processor (APP) · Distinct Solutions Ltd Astro Photography Tool (APT) · Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight · Russell Croman Astrophotography BlurXTerminator · Russell Croman Astrophotography NoiseXTerminator

Guiding Telescopes Or Lenses: Sky-Watcher Explorer 200P

 Dates: 26 Aug 2017

Frames: IDAS LPS-D1 EOS APS-C: 13×900″(3h 15′) ISO400

Total integration: 3h 15′ 

Emil

Wasn't sure if it will be cloudy on Christmas night, when he will become a naked eye object, so I took the opportunity of capturing him yesterday when he was coming out of the Christmas tree cluster.  
I had to use the HoHoHo pallette because until this week he was quite hard to capture, but the merrier and jolly he becomes the easier it is to see him flying across the galaxy. 
Some people spotted him flying around the Horsehead nebula area of the sky, so keep your eyes peeled until NORAD starts tracking him on Christmas night, while he delivers the presents to all the girls and boys.

Merry Christmas to all! 🎅🦌🎄🎁🔭

On 28/11/2023 at 16:32, Magnum said:

I really like that Emil, I normally find the California a boring object but the high resolution has picked up so much detail. 

Mono still has the edge in terms of smoothness and final detail .

 

Lee

Thank you! Yeah, I didn't think much of it when I shot it in HaRGB with a colour camera but after seeing the  California image that won the Stars and Nebulae category of the APOTY in 2021, I made it my plan to try and shoot it in full narroband too and to be honest I prefer mine to that one 🫣

Emil

The time has come to go back and shoot the California nebula in full narrowband.

The last time I have done it was in 2019 with a colour camera.

I really love how it came out and I consider it to be one of my best photos to date.

To make a good use of Blur Xterminator, I drizzled the stack which gave me a pixel scale of 1.26 "/px

Full resolution and technical details on Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/817iqz/ (Warning: very large file)

I hope you like it!

Emil

Thank you very much.

A few days ago, a friend asked me if I could mark the globular clusters in the galaxy. I went the extra mile and annotated it in Pixinsight too.

Emil

More details and full resolution on my astrobin account:

https://www.astrobin.com/5m9zuw

Emil

Hi guys,

Does anyone have an idea where I can source a replacement motor for my High resolution stepper drive?

Mine just decided to stop working.

A new one is $120 and it's in the US, I was hoping to find a cheaper option hete in the UK but I can't find anything. 

Thanks

Emil

Cygnus mosaic (18 panel) in SHO-RGB

This is the first time I properly use my Samyang 135mm F2 lens with one of my mono cameras and I thought it would be a good opportunity to take on a big project that I've been planning for quite a while.

Because of the lack of astronomical darkness in the UK during the summer months, a lot of people stop imaging but I never do, and despite that, I used the lens wide open at F2 to collect a lot of data in a short period of time. Most of the panels are done in a single night, because a single panel has 2 hours and 45 minutes worth of data and the nautical darkness only lasts for about 3 and a half hours.

I shot 10 subs for each filter, 5 min for the narrowband and 30sec for the RGB stars.

I initially started with the Sadr region which was processed separately, and after seeing how easy it is to collect the data during a single session, I started adding panels to make my largest mosaic to date.

Equipment used:

Mount: Dark Frame hypertuned EQ6

Samyang 135mm F2 lens

QHY294M Pro Cmos camera, cooled at - 10°C

QHYCCD QHYCCD CFW3M-US 36mm filterwheel

antlia 36mm 3nm Ha, Sii and Oiii filters

antlia 36mm RGB filters

Deep Sky Dad AF3 autofocuser

Qhyccd QHY5L-IIM guide camera

Qhyccd Polemaster

Software used:

Eqmod, SGP - Sequence Generator Pro, PHD2, Stellarium with stellariumScope, SharpCap for polar alignment

Date: 20.05 to 26.06.2023

Location: Hemel Hempstead, bortle 5

Frames:

Antlia 3nm Narrowband H-alpha 36 mm: 180×300″(15h)

Antlia 3nm Narrowband Oxygen III 36 mm: 180×300″(15h)

Antlia 3nm Narrowband Sulfur II 36 mm: 180×300″(15h)

Antlia V-Pro Blue 36 mm: 180×30″(1h 30′)

Antlia V-Pro Green 36 mm: 180×30″(1h 30′)

Antlia V-Pro Red 36 mm: 180×30″(1h 30′)

Integration:

49h 30′

Stacked in AstroPixel Processor and processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop CC 2023

I hope you like it.

Emil

Not too long ago I finished a photo of the NGC4725 galaxy and very soon after, a friend  told me about the LoTr5 planetary nebula located close by in the night sky as seen from Earth. Obviously, the distance between the 2 is astronomical, the planetary nebula is in our Milky-Way galaxy at 1650 light-years from us and the NGC4725 galaxy at 41 million light-years away.

The following month, after I finished shooting the galaxy, was spent to gather enough data for LoTr5 so I can make a 2 panel mosaic which would include both the nebula and the galaxy.

LoTr 5 is a large, faint planetary nebula in the constellation of Coma Berenices. In 2018, its parallax was measured by Gaia, giving a distance of about 1,650 light-years (510 parsecs).

Technical details on astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/6kzyie/0/

Emil

I don't know why I haven't done this earlier because I had the Samyang 135mm lens for quite a while.

Last week I finally put it on my qhy294m. I had a Deep Sky Dad autofocuser too so I managed to pair it up with the combo. This week I had my first session and I used the lens wide opened at f2 to collect as much data as I can in a 5 min exposure.

I ran it for 2 and a half hours on the Sadr region and I absolutely love it. I added another 15 panels on this so it will probably take me 16 clear nights to finish it off but for now, here's my take on the Sadr region in SHO.

Emil

Blast from the past - Back to the beginning

In 2016 I bought my first telescope that I used a while for visual astronomy. Shortly after, when I discovered astrophotography I upgraded my mount and in the first photo you can see my first astrophotography setup:

Eq6 Pro mount

Skywatcher explorer 200p, f5 newtonian

Astromodified Canon 700D

Astronomik CLS-CCD clip in filter

Baader mpcc coma corrector

Lacerta Mgen standalone autoguider

TS09OAG off axis guider for EOS.

It took a while to learn how to use the equipment properly and only at the beginning of 2017 I started to take my first deep sky photos that I was proud of.

One of the tergets was the Leo triplet shot in Bushey, Hertfordshire between 24 and 31 March 2017

The second photo is my first ever edit of these 3 beautiful galaxies.

This week I went back to the data to see if I can bring an improvement and you can judge that for yourself (3rd photo) but I suggest you go to the full resolution photo on my astrobin account https://www.astrobin.com/3wvz7p/D/ where you will also see the capturing details.

Emil

Shot in December but only recently had the time to edit it.

Equipment used:

Mount: Dark Frame hypertuned EQ6

Telescope: TS65Q quadruplet Apo refractor

#QHY294M Pro Cmos camera, cooled at - 10°C

#QHYCCD QHYCCD CFW3M-US 36mm filterwheel

#antlia 36mm 3nm Ha, Sii and Oiii filters

#antlia 36mm RGB filters

Qhyccd QHY5L-IIM guide camera

Qhyccd Polemaster

Software used:

Eqmod, SGP - Sequence Generator Pro, PHD2, Stellarium, SharpCap for polar alignment

Date: 09.12 to 26.12.2022

Location: Hemel Hempstead, bortle 5

Acquisition details

Frames:

Antlia 3nm Ha 36 mm: 61×300″(5h 5′) (gain: 1600.00) -10°C bin 1×1

Antlia 3nm OIII 36 mm: 60×300″(5h) (gain: 1600.00) -10°C bin 1×1

Antlia 3nm SII 1.25": 60×300″(5h) (gain: 1600.00) -10°C bin 1×1

Antlia V-Pro Blue 36 mm: 20×60″(20′) (gain: 1600.00) -10°C bin 1×1

Antlia V-Pro Green 36 mm: 20×60″(20′) (gain: 1600.00) -10°C bin 1×1

Antlia V-Pro Red 36 mm: 20×60″(20′) (gain: 1600.00) -10°C bin 1×1

Total Integration: 16h 5′

Emil

And with the galaxy season upon us, here is my first for this year.

Because both of my cameras were out for repairs, this galaxy was shot with a friend's ASI183M who was very kind to lend it to me so won't be out of action.

NGC 2903 (cropped photo, had some problems with the flats)

Stacked in AstroPixel Processor and processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop CC 2023

 

A bit more luminance with no moon would've helped a bit but I'm happy with what I got so far.

 

Emil

 

 

Thank you very much, I really lile how it came out, I consider it one of my best photos 😊

Emil

Another over looked target that doesn't draw much attention because of a famous neighbour but this time it's SH2-284 in Monoceros.

I call it The Ring of Fire nebula

It also resembles the alien writting from the Arrival movie

Sh2-284 is a HII star forming region of gas and dust located approximately 15 thousand light years from the Earth.

It is observed in the central-eastern part of the constellation, about 5° southeast of the famous Rosette Nebula.

Mount: StellarDrive GT6

AstroTech 106LE with upgraded Moonlite focuser

TSFlat 2" field flattener

ASI294MM Pro Cmos camera, cooled at - 15°C

8x1.25" ZWO USB filterwheel

Chroma 1.25" RGB and Chroma 1.25" 3nm SHO filters

QHY294M Pro Cmos camera, cooled at - 15°C

QHYCCD QHYCCD CFW3M-US 36mm filterwheel

Antlia 36mm 3nm Ha filter

Qhyccd QHY5L-IIM guide camera

OpticStar AR90 as guidescope

Qhyccd Polemaster

Date: 17.01.2022 to 17.12.2022

Location: Bushey, Hertfordshire, Bortle 7 and Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, bortle 5

Frames:

Antlia 3nm Narrowband H-alpha 36 mm: 41×600″(6h 50′)

Chroma Blue 1.25": 10×60″(10′)

Chroma Green 1.25": 10×60″(10′)

Chroma H-alpha 3nm Bandpass 1.25": 49×600″(8h 10′)

Chroma OIII 3nm Bandpass 1.25": 40×600″(6h 40′)

Chroma Red 1.25": 10×60″(10′)

Chroma SII 3nm Bandpass 1.25": 38×600″(6h 20′)

Total integration time 28 hours and 30 minutes

Stacked and calibrated in AstroPixel Processor and processed in Pixinsight (with help from Blur Xterminator, Star Xterminator and Noise Xterminator) and Photoshop CC 2023

https://www.astrobin.com/qp86tv/

Emil