HunterHarling

Thanks, Tom and Olly.

This is incredible! The detail of the stars and nebulae is outstanding. You should submit it for APOD.

This is a 20 hour LRGBHa exposure of The Fireworks Galaxy that I captured part from the end of July, and last two nights. I was able to pull out some of the dim dust around the Ghost Brush Cluster and some small galaxies. Some of the galaxies in the image: PGC 166192 - MAG 15.15, PGC 64824 - MAG 17.00.

Exposures:

L: 60x300s

R, G, B:  40x300s each

Ha: 50x360s

Total~20 Hours

ZWO 1600mm

FSQ106 ED

Questions / comments / processing advice much appreciated!

Thanks for looking

Thanks, Ouroboros, Carole and Mars.

Thanks, Bob, Rodd and Emyliano! This has actually been on my list of targets for some time. I still want a close-up image of it with my C8...

I captured this beautiful nebula the last couple of days. I'm surprised that there are so few images of this one, as it seems a perfect target with the reflection nebula, star cluster, dark nebula, and faint galaxies behind the dust.

I was able to pull out some faint nebulae in the background due to my ~30 hours of exposure. I was especially surprised by the interesting H-alpha region covering NGC 7142. Some of the galaxies I've found in this image are PGC 97261 - Mag 12.87, and PGC 168082 - Mag 13.52. 

FSQ 106 ED

ASI 1600mm

L: 72x300s

RGB: 50x300s each

H: 110x360s

Total = 29.5 hours

Questions and comments much appreciated! 

Hunter

H-alpha channel:

Just now, MarsG76 said:

Very nice..

 

Thanks, Mars.

2 hours ago, Gina said:

Am I wrong or should the image be a single 30s image?  Beautiful image though.

I wouldn't be able to have a RGB image though... the individual channels are singe 30s. Also, the images aren't stacked, just color combined.

1 hour ago, maw lod qan said:

Very nice!

Oh how nice it would be to put your eye to an eyepiece and actually see that!

That's what I thought also. I'll have to do some observing when m31 is a bit higher.

2 hours ago, Scooot said:

That’s very impressive  

1 hour ago, Nigella Bryant said:

That's impressive for 30's for each RGB. Well done. 

The Andromeda Galaxy is a great target for this challenge. Big and bright...

This is composed of a single 30s exposure unguided through each filter (RGB) to make a color image. The noise in this image was very difficult to deal with... but that's what happens when you don't stack🙃 For processing I did lots of noise reduction using TGV denoise, MML, and ADCNR in Pixinsight, stretch image, and curves transformation. 

Captured 29 July 2019

FSQ 106

ZWO1600 mm

Hunter

On 29/07/2019 at 11:11, Whistlin Bob said:

Epic!

If I'd taken that shot I would now be spending a bit of money on a high quality print and hanging it up on my wall!

I've just had a pleasant few minutes exploring it for various objects- it really is wonderful, thanks for sharing.

Thanks! I'm definitely going to print this one. I'm glad you like it.

It looks a bit purple to me also. You can make it more blue by using a mask of the OIII and reducing the red saturation in it.

Beautiful color... especially the stars.

It's interesting how there isn't more OIII though. I captured this image with 9 hours of OIII last year and it had quite a bit of OIII. Maybe you could stretch the Oxygen channel more?

Thanks, Frank, Olly, and jjosefsen, I'm glad you guys like it!

Here's with some green subtracted... 

I managed to get a bit of exposure in between sunset and moonrise, so I decided to image M17. This image is only 2.4 hours of exposure and a 'rough' process of M17, but I'm happy with it as it's the first time I've imaged the Swan Nebula. No lum data yet...

ASI1600mm

FSQ106

Atlas Pro AZ-EQG

ZWO RGB: 180sx16 each, 2.4 hours total.

There seemed to be a large amount of green in/near the center. I'm not sure if the green is accurate...

Questions/comments always welcome.

Thanks, Carole, Mars, and Alan.

10 hours ago, carastro said:

Excellent image. 

Are you going to go for the full Monty and add the Eastern veil as well?

Carole

I'm thinking I will, but I'm now working on another image, so it might be a week or so...

8 hours ago, davew said:

Now that is a beauty ! 

Not only is the arch as good as it gets but the colours are gorgeous. I like the few clouds that have sneaked in and the sky glow.

Dave 

Thanks! I also like the clouds and glow:)

7 hours ago, geoflewis said:

Wonderful image Hunter, thanks for sharing it. I keep thinking I'll try a Milky Way shot, but just never get around to it. Really I need to invest in a widefield prime lens for my astro-modified Canon to do it justice, but perhaps my 18-200mm Nikor lens at 18mm might be worth a try, even though my Nikon camera isn't modified, though it does suffer with serious amp glow at even a few seconds exposure.

Cheers, Geof

Thanks, Geof. I've found milky way astrophotography to be really rewarding. It's also fun in a dark sky because you don't have to bring the full setup to get some images! I think you'd be able to get some great images with the modified Canon and any lense less than 25mm would probably work. If you do get a widefield lense, the Tokina ATX 11-16 mm is great for Canon. And the Nikkor 14-24 is great for Nikon...

2 hours ago, banjaxed said:

That is a superb image Hunter, thanks for sharing.

Thanks

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Amazing shot Hunter, must have been quite a sight!

Thanks Stu, it was! Joshua Tree is now #2 on by best skies list, with only Yosemite above it.

Here's a revision:

I captured this image while out at Joshua Tree this month. Despite being quite hot and a setting moon, the sky was incredible. This was really the first time I've seen the core of the milky way from a very dark location, because the other times I've been in a good location, the core wasn't visible (wrong time of year or hidden by mountains+trees🙃). This is a 6-panel mosaic captured around midnight PST. There are some light domes near the horizon, along with green/red air glow and clouds.

Jupiter and Saturn are visible in the image along with the summer triangle, M8, M20, M16, M17, NGC7000, IC1396, the Rho Ophiuchi Complex, and the Andromeda Galaxy.

Equipment / exposure info: Nikon d810a, static tripod, Nikkor 14-24mm. f2.8 ISO3200. 6-30 second images stitched with Microsoft ICE. July 7 2019 ~12:00 PST.

Hunter

On 18/07/2019 at 23:39, Nikolas74 said:

EXCELLENT !!!!!!!

Thanks

On 19/07/2019 at 01:01, Mr niall said:

wow...

Thanks.

As one of my favorite parts of the sky, I decided to to a mosaic of the Veil nebula. I may add two more panels to include NGC 6995, however, I decided to process what I have at the moment.

FSQ 106

ASI1600mm

Panel #1 and #2:

ZWO Ha: 330s x 52

ZWO OIII: 330 x 70

This is a two panel mosaic (actually my second deep sky mosaic), stitched and processed in Microsoft ICE and Pixinsight.

Visible in this image is the Witch's Broom Nebula, Pickering's Triangle, NGC 6979, and NGC 6974. I would like more annotations on the dimmer nebulae, but perhaps they do not have catalog numbers. Below is an annotated version:

And a gray-scale image:

I was quite surprised by the amount of OIII signal in NGC 6960, but I've never imaged it with narrow band before🤔

Thanks for looking and as always🙃 comments/ questions appreciated.

Hi all, this was taken 7th of July at Joshua Tree National Park CA. 

Nikon d810a

Static tripod

Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8

30 seconds 

ISO3200

f2.8

Processed in LR and Pixinsight (curves, saturation, brightness, vignetting correction).

Thanks for looking.

1 hour ago, Rodd said:

Nice looking shot.  For the blue halos--try making a loose fitting star mask then apply it to an inverted image--then use SCNR.....what ever the color will be.  When you invert the image the colors are opposite, so blue turns to red I think--whatever it is--SCNR will remove the halo only.  This work for me often--not always of course

Rodd

Thanks, I believe the halos are from my ZWO filters...