Gerr

The Pinwheel Galaxy is my first DSO target after some hiatus due to the great British weather. I have not had the opportunity to use my Sky Watcher 200P reflector telescope for over 8 months!!

Conditions were good over the last couple of nights with no wind, rain, clouds or even a bright Moon to spoil the show.

So I pointed the telescope straight up at M101 and started taking light frames with my Zwo Asi294MC pro.

Yes, I had a few issues with trying to remember how to run the various software applications harmoniously together on my 'astro computer'. The only persistent problem was dithering so that was switched off (tracking went haywire after every dither!!).

In the end I managed 7hrs of imaging time on this target and put all the data (including calibration frames) into DSS which produced a fair looking result.

This was put through the Photoshop CS Suite to produce an image that is my best yet of this galaxy!!  Chuffed!!!

Hope you like, CC's welcome.

Image of M101 Pinwheel Galaxy (25 million light years away in Ursa Major): 

Yes - I saw one!!

Over Anglesey this evening from 20:00hrs when the clouds cleared!

I managed a couple of shots and hopefully a Timelapse too. 

ISO 3200 f3.2 and 8 secs.

Canon 6D and Tamron 24-70mm.

Hope u like.

12 minutes ago, FenlandPaul said:

These are fantastic, Ger. My favourite is the selfie, for the human element, but each is great. The processing on the Cygnus MW is lovely.

Interesting that PS did something better than PTGui! So far for me it’s been the other way round (although sadly neither can help correct a missed area of sky in a mosaic!!).

Paul

Thanks Paul, processing is always difficult and having recently  found my monitor is brighter than others I've had to 'guess brightness and contrast' a bit!! Gave me quite a headache trying to get prints looking right!! I was also surprised that photoshops 'photomerge' was superior in blending the images together.  PTGui  gave horrible gradients - maybe does not like light polluted and hazy cloud images.

Looking forward to watching your video later - I haven't seen much aurora around here of late!!

Geraint.

The clouds parted for a couple of hours over the past couple of days which allowed me to get out and about with my star tracker and astro modded Canon 6D with a 50mm Sigma Art lens attached to it.

I wandered over the  headland on the northwest side of Holy Island which is the small landmass on top of  Anglesey. 

This headland is called the Range and looks towards South Stack Lighthouse and The Llyn Peninsula. Looking west over the Irish Sea is nice and dark till you see the city glow of Dublin in Ireland!

My sky shots were tracked and stacked (at least eight for each panel - six panels in total) using ISO1600 f2.8 and 40secs exposure time. The foreground shots were taken last when the moon had come up (giving me more light) and these were at ISO800 f4 and 30secs.

The Selfie shot was done at ISO2000 f1.7 and 10secs.  I also used a hydrogen alpha filter to bring out the nebula in Orion (5 images tracked and stacked at ISO3200 f1.8 240secs).

I also took calibration films; Darks (10), Flats (12) and Bias (20).

The images were stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and then processed in Lightroom and Photoshop CS (Photomerge here was better then PTGui). There was some haze and light cloud about which I didn't notice till processing and this gave me some difficulty with gradients and colour casts in the image composites. HDR toning did help with this on the Orion shots.

It was just nice to see some stars and constellations which is such a rarity of late!!

Anyway the Images!! CC's welcome.

Image 1: South Stack Lighthouse and Ellen's Tower from the Range with the North America nebula and Milky way making a guest appearance!

Image 2: The Llyn Peninsula and Orion from the Range.

Image 3:  Rhoscolyn beacon (the Llyn), Orion and Myself as the 'Guest appearance'

Hi Paul,

Another great video I happily watched and the star trail image was just amazing - love it and the 'hidden nebula' 😄! 

Super well done  !!

36 minutes ago, FenlandPaul said:

Another image that sparks a combination of admiration and envy! Very nicely done - I love the contrast between the airglow and the nebulosity. I hope you’ve got some big walls to have these images printed and hung onto!!

Thanks for the kind comments.  The Calina desert dust showing reddish yellow on the bottom left of the image contrasts nicely with the green airglow on the right. Then all the red nebula in the sky (helped by my hydrogen alpha filter) adds to the vibrancy of the scene. So much to see here and don’t forget Andromeda, Pleiades, Jupiter and Uranus too (good luck with this one)! Yes I am very encouraged to go back out and capture some more scenes like this!!

This is one of the last and most difficult panorama images I took on La Palma. I started this one at 01:30hrs 10th Jan when the Arc was pretty high in the sky over the observatories of Isaac Newton and Jacob Kapteyn  on the Roque de los Muchachos. The sky panel was three rows of 27images!

Fortunately PTGui was able to stitch it all together (just about) without too much distortion for me to sort out. Maybe my tracked sky technique is improving!!

Sky images: ISO1600, f4, 60secs.

Foreground: ISO3200, f2.8, 30secs (Isaac Newton was moving it’s Dome and battery running low).

Processed in Lightroom and blended in Photoshop CS.

Hope you like this one (CC’s welcome).

Winter MW over the Isaac Newton Observatory La Palma;

My Nifty Fifty image is produced by the Sigma 50mm lens and Canon 6D (astro modded).

Shot in La Palma beginning of January. About 1 hrs worth of data using star tracker. ISO1600  40secs f3.2.

The Orion Constellation and neighbouring nebulae;

2 hours ago, FenlandPaul said:

Now that’s a special image! Congratulations - definitely a keeper and a wonderful memory. It’s fantastic. 👌

Thank you. Order has been placed for a canvas print.

The image was also the main reason I went to La Palma - I just had to capture the Winter Milky Way with Orion on the inside of the Arc. Very pleased. 😀

This is where I stayed. Steep track to get to it but lovely place.

1 hour ago, Xilman said:

Shame I didn't know you were coming over because I arrived back in LP on 11 January and we could have met up.

The lights of Los LLanos are visible (they shouldn't be, some people are breaking the law) and my house & observatory is hidden by the small peak to the left of Los Llanos.

Note also the colour and the unusual brightness of the sky to the south, Bortle 8/9 perhaps --- the orange Na glow in particular. We have been plagued by calima (translates as "dust") which blows in from the Sahara. A calima generally brings hot weather (it reached 26C towards the end of January here in El Paso, when 18C is more typical) and rather poor visibility. El Roque is above the inversion layer and so doesn't suffer too much but where I am is 760m above sea level and sometimes the naked eye limiting magnitude is around +1. When only two stars in Orion, Rigel and Betelgeuse, are visible to the naked eye, there's no point in trying to observe anything.

 

Thanks Xilman, unfortunately I had to get the plane back to the UK!  Luckily for me that last night was great viewing with the ‘calima’ effect not effecting the image too much (I don’t mind a bit of red as long as it stays on the horizon level). I really wanted the Winter Milky Way Arc so am chuffed with what I managed. La Palma is a beautiful Island and I will like to return. My Airb&b base was Puntagorda about 800m up. Took 40mins to get to the top of La Palma from there.😀👍

This is one of the highlight images of my recent trip to this beautiful island in the Canaries. There is virtually no chance of me capturing the Milky Way Arc like this in the UK.

I took the image at 3am (10th Jan 2024) on top of the volcanic caldera, Roque De Los Muchachos, 8000ft high.  Canon6D, Rokinon 24mm lens. The sky was tracked. 

Foreground images (six taken in landscape orientation) at ISO 1600 120secs f2.8.

Sky Images (11 images in portrait orientation) at ISO1600 70secs f4.

Hydrogen alpha (4 images taken) at ISO3200 150secs f2.8.

Processed in Lightroom and blended in Photoshop CC.

Hope you like (CC's welcome).

Milky Way Panorama - Roque De Los Muchachos:

Hooray for La Palma weather which allowed me to take an hours worth of subs of this region with my new Samyang 135mm lens!

Many nebula here taken with Canon6D and Startracker. 
ISO1600 f4 60secs.

CC’s welcome;

1 hour ago, FenlandPaul said:

Fantastic detail in the Orion MW and that zodiacal light is super bright! Is that a selfie you’ve managed there too (left of the obsy)?

Looks like a very special place.

Thanks. No selfie (I did do one - see it at www.gr-astro.com) but there is a small scaffold structure there.
More shots to come as it was wonderful doing so much astro in La Palma as weather here in UK too poor for this hobby.

The observatory is visible at the base of the light on the ridge of the Roque de los Muchachos. Orion is on the left of the image.

Taken in La Palma, Canaries.

18 image panorama.

Canon6D Sigma50mm Art lens.

ISO1600 f4 60secs (sky tracked).

ISO1600 f2.8 90secs (foreground).

CC’s welcome;

1 hour ago, Debo said:

Super image.

Interesting (if you zoom in) there seems to be a flurry of faint meteors/satellites in the thick end of the ZL 🤔

Yes - I checked my lens for scratches but there aren’t any! For a 20second exposure I don’t expect to see that many but those faint streaks are definitely in the image. Satellites, plane trails perhaps???

First time I’ve ever seen this eerie glow after Sunset. Of course it was on La Palma (no chance where I live back home!). I couldn’t believe how clear I could see this reflection of interplanetary / cometary dust!! Yes - I captured a shooting star too.
What a highlight on my holiday and I just had to get a selfie too!! 
Canon 6D Rokinon 24mm.

ISO3200 20secs f3.2.

 Hope you like.

Zodiacal Light:

This image was taken on the 4th of Jan at 4am with the  super giant yellow star Suhail in the left of the image. There are a couple of open star clusters visible and the constellation of Vela.

There are nebulous regions here which I  do not know the names of (anyone??) but are seen in the southern part of the Milky Way arc at this equatorial level.

I also think this region is also known as the false cross where navigation is concerned??

There was some haze and cloud in the sky (even though I was 8000feet high) which made the stars really bloat and shine which I scaled down in post processing.

Sky and foreground (2 images each) taken with Canon 6D and Samyang 135mm lens. Combined and processed in Lightroom and Photoshop CS.

ISO3200 f4 60secs for all shots (sky tracked).

Comments welcome.

GTC IC2395 Open Cluster and Southern Aspect of the Milky Way:

This is a Milky Way panorama I did where I stayed in La Palma, Puntagorda. My Finca was next to a farm which had lots of lemon trees. I liked the composition and so here it is:

Foreground: 8 images f2.8 ISO2000 90secs

Sky: 16 images f4 ISO2000 60secs (tracked)

H-Alpha: 6 images f2.8 150secs

Taken with Canon6D and Rokinon 24mm lens

No calibration frames.

Processed in Lightroom (AI noise reduction), combined in PTGui and finished in Photoshop CS.

Hope you like??

I went to La Palma to get some clear night skies as none exist where I live anymore!!

I took with me my new Samyang 135mm lens and coupled it with a Canon 6D and SW startracker 2i. I did a lot of astrophotography there (beautiful island and great skies) and this is one of the first I’ve processed.

40 lights at 90secs ISO1600 f4 (tracked) with 15 darks as calibration frames.

Stacked in Sequator and processed in Photoshop CS.

Orion Nebulae and Witch Head:

Worst year of cloud, rain and wind I can remember!  Only two decent nights since August (I live on Anglesey, North Wales).  Now looking at widefield portable set-ups to take on holiday to get my astrophotography fix!! 

53 minutes ago, nickp87 said:

Very true, I think the image from the video was captured with a pricey canon f2.8 lens

Many thanks Gerr.

Images where shot at iso 1600, I usually shoot at 800 but was trying to some new settings.

Is the noise a symptom of low integration time, iso or something else?

I'll have a look into colour banding and blotching and find causes etc. 

Again many thanks all, it really helps and makes me feel a little less stupid :). 

Yes, high ISO (>3200) means high noise. Battle with longer exposure time before star trails and take many many images!! High ambient temperature adds to sensor noise too!!

I like using ISO 800-1600 on a Canon 6D. Aperture between f2.8 and f4. Aim for at least an hour of integration time.

This is what I've managed with your data. I used photoshop CS and applied levels and curves stretches. This revealed a very noisy image with colour banding and blotching. I used astro flat pro to try and remove the dark noise from this and then from Carboni's tools I used colour blotch and noise reduction.

I also used Camera raw filter to enhance clarity and do some further noise reduction. I used selective mask on andromeda to improve vibrancy and dodge and burn tool to improve contrast. This was just a quick edit.

Not bad considering you used a relatively slow f/5.6 zoom lens at 300mm. What was your ISO setting?

My edit:

Could you sharpen more in Registax? I use linked wavelets and push the first slider all the way to %100. Then use denoise and sharpen adjustments (0.4 and 1.8 work quite well for me) to your liken. 

This is Saturn from last Friday on SW200p and Zwo ASI462 colour camera. Best 1000 frames stacked out of 5000 taken. Frame rate was approx 90fps on tight ROI with Telvue 2.5x Barlow.

32 minutes ago, Richard_ said:

Very nice work! I'm also in a Bortle 5 area in Wales, so maybe I have a chance at this

 

It’s nice and high (not far from the Cygnus region). A large target too (I used a 600mm scope with 0.85 reducer) barely framed it with my equipment! 
Good luck and clear skies but it’s worth it!