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I finally got round to testing my new configuration using a Pegaus Ultimate Power Box. So now only 2 cables going to the mount for everything instead of a tangled spiders web. I'm pleased with the results so far, just have a few minor things to change but I just randomly picked a target of Messier 39 to test it all with and was not expecting much. But I was delighted with the result for something that was only going to be a basic test.

The ongoing deluge continues in my neck of the woods so, instead of enjoying the lack of a moon, I’ve scanned my first sketch, made this past October: Open Cluster IC 4996, in Cygnus. I’ve got a long way to go, especially with getting the scale right, but I definitely enjoy the almost Zen like state of focus that I fall into while spending 30+ minutes on one DSO. It’s also made me spend more time on each object while not sketching; its incredible the details that pop out after 15+ minutes, even in light polluted skies.

This one of M35 uses 6 different live photos, and three masks to fool around with exposure at different locations. The additional photo layers really helped to calm the blue noise. January 13, 2018 Memphis, Tennessee, USA iPhone 8+ Orion SteadyPixEZ 10” Dob Bluetooth shutter remote Photoshop Mix iOS app

Not been on here recently so thought I'd post something again. I really like open clusters - they're just an honest bunch of stars, no messing around with nebulosity trying to work out how it should look. Back to using my old trusty C80ED and Canon 600D combination on EQ6. Also not used this combo for years either. There's also an interesting little asterism(?) in the image which I'd never seen before. 30x30s lights 10x30s darks unguided IDAS P2 LP filter Processed in Nebulosity, Photoshop and Lightroom Cheers Mark

NGC 1528 at 150x Spent just under 45 minutes at the eyepiece, so ran up against the issue of field rotation (really for first time in my limited sketching experience) and realized the importance of not only anchoring features to certain areas within the eyepiece, but also (and probably more importantly) using the relative locations between 3 and 4 stars at a time to make as accurate a sketch as possible.

Spent the last three nights imaging these three objects. Managed to get them all in the same frame of my ES 102mm FCD100 scope. Pretty happy with how it turned out. I would have liked to have grabbed a little more SII data. When I originally captured it, I thought I might only have two clear nights, so I imaged it as HA/OIII. Turns out there's almost no OIII. On the third night, clouds were supposed to roll in about 4am, cutting the imaging session short, but it stayed clear the whole night, and I got a full night of data with the exception that I got a late start due to technical issues when I first started imaging. The ASI1600's halos are rearing their ugly heads on the two brightest stars. I tried to tone them down some by desaturating the colors around both stars...it worked a bit. Another 15 hours and I could probably get rid of any remaining grain, but just don't have the clear nights to get it done. 15.8 hours total imaging time. Equipment: Celestron CGX Explore Scientific 102mm FCD100 ZWO ASI1600MM-C ZWO Filter Wheel with Astrodon 5nm filters ZWO ASI290MM Mini guide camera Stellarvue F50G guide scope

As open clusters go NGC 2281 doesn't have much to shout about when comparing it to the Beehive Cluster or Pleaides and appears not to be a common target for Astrophotographers. However, what it does have is a name which accurately depicts what you see. It's a bit of a magic eye moment, but stare at the bright star in the centre of the frame. This is the 'point' of the heart which sits above it. 20 light frames of 100 s each. 15 dark frames, 25 flat and bias frames. Taken with a William Optics Z61, ZWO ASI294MC Pro Cooled set at -15 degrees and unity gain all atop a Celestron AVX mount. Thank you for dropping by. John

Howdy. I got out of my depth on this one, surprisingly hard to process and the colour data was rubbish, not to mention all the other stuff that is wrong with the image! We are our own worst critics! Anyway, the image is loosely centered on open cluster Pismis 4 backed by part of the Vela Supernova Remnant. Telescope: William Optics FLT132 Guide Scope: QHY OAG Camera: QHY9 Mono @ -20c Filter Wheel: QHY 7 position Ultra Slim Filters: QHY 36mm unmounted L R G B HA OIII SII Guide Camera: QHY5L-II Mount: AZ-EQ6 Mount Control: EQASCOM Focusing: SharpSky Pro and Sequence Generator Pro 3 (automated) Bahtinov Mask: Yes (initial focus) Capture Software: Sequence Generator Pro 3 Guiding Software: PHD2 Calibration and Stacking Software: PixInsight Processing Software: PixInsight Number and Type of Data Frames: L= 18X10 min, R= 6x7 min, G= 6x7 min, B= 6x7 min Ha= x , SII= x , OIII= x . Binning: 1x1 Total Image Time: 306 minutes Location: Lockleys Observatory B, Tanunda, Sth Australia Light Box by Exfso Thanks for looking.

This is open cluster Pismis 4 in the Vela constellation and backed by part of the Vela supernova remnant. Some information regarding Paris Pismis and her catalogue can be found on this link. http://sandandstars.co.za/2018/01/25/paris-pismis-and-her-catalogue-of-open-clusters/ Telescope: William Optics FLT132 Guide Scope: QHY OAG Camera: QHY9 Mono @ -20c Filter Wheel: QHY 7 position Ultra Slim Filters: QHY 36mm unmounted L R G B Guide Camera: QHY5L-II Mount: AZ-EQ6 Mount Control: EQASCOM Focusing: SharpSky Pro and Sequence Generator Pro 3 (automated) Capture Software: Sequence Generator Pro 3 Guiding Software: PHD2 Calibration and Stacking Software: PixInsight Processing Software: PixInsight Number and Type of Data Frames: L= 18X10 min, R= 6x7 min, G= 6x7 min, B= 6x7 min Binning: 1x1 Total Image Time: 306 minutes Location: Lockleys Observatory B, Tanunda, Sth Australia Light Box by Exfso

Hi thought you might be interested in this. The Jewel box sits in Crux and is pretty spectacular in an eyepiece. This was captured using MaximDL and processed in PixInsight. Not much was done in terms of processing but as the stars are fairly young I boosted the blues a little as in its basic processed state they were pretty much white (so shorter subs needed?) location - Sydney gear GSO RC10a Truss (first light) Moravian G2 8300 with astronomiks filters AP900 mount Image data, RGB 24:24:24 in 3 minute subs Cheers

Shimmering like a pearl to the naked eye, this open cluster of mostly young blue stars ( known as the "Pearl Cluster" ) is approximately 5500 light years from Earth and was discovered by Abbe Lacaille in 1752 from South Africa. A Cluster of Pearls in the Southern Skies ( NGC 3766 " The Pearl Cluster" ) ( please click / tap on image to see larger and sharper - a full size image can be found here ) This HDR image is constructed from 11 sets of exposures ranging from 1/4 sec ( to capture the centre of the brighter stars ) through to 240 seconds ( for the fainter stars of the Milky Way ). Total exposure time was around 5 hours. ..... Image details can be found here

21st April: Re-processed to better show the colour of the fainter stars ... ....... Shimmering like a pearl to the naked eye, this open cluster of mostly young blue stars ( known as the "Pearl Cluster" ) is approximately 5500 light years from Earth and was discovered by Abbe Lacaille in 1752 from South Africa. This HDR image is constructed from 11 sets of exposures ranging from 1/4 sec ( to capture the centre of the brighter stars ) through to 240 seconds ( for the fainter stars of the Milky Way ). Total exposure time was around 5 hours. A Cluster of Pearls in the Southern Skies ( NGC 3766 " The Pearl Cluster" ) ( please click / tap on image to see larger and sharper - a full size image can be found here ) 12 April 2018 ..... Image details: Field of view ..... 58' 49.8" x 39' 36.4" Image center ...... RA: 11 36 03.890 Dec: -61 35 30.17 Resolution ........ 0.586 arcsec/px ( full size image ) Orientation: North is up Telescope: Orion Optics CT12 Newtonian ( mirror 300mm, fl 1200mm, f4 ). Corrector: ASA 2" Coma Corrector Quattro 1.175x. Effective Focal Length / Aperture : 1470mm f4.7 Mount: Skywatcher EQ8 Guiding: TSOAG9 Off-Axis-Guider, Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2, PHD2 Camera: Nikon D5300 (unmodified) (sensor 23.5 x 15.6mm, 6016x4016 3.91um pixels) Location: Blue Mountains, Australia Moderate light pollution ( pale green zone on darksitefinder.com map ) Capture ( 12 April 2018 ): 11 sets of sub-images with exposure duration for each set doubling ( 1/4s to 240s ) all at ISO250. ( 70 x 240sec + 10 each forthe other durations ) Processing: Calibration: master bias, master flat and master dark Integration in 11 sets HDR combination Pixinsight April 2018

Image captured 15th April 2018 from my back garden in Birmingham Multiple 130s exposures at ISO 800 - Canon 200D with CLS filter. approx 20 mins exposure in total. Darks and flats applied. Telescope : SW ED80 DS pro Mount : HEQ5 pro - belt modded unguided stacked in DSS and processed in Star Tools

1st February 2016 (9:00/9:30pm CET) Clear night, semi rural skies in South Spain (my patio). Binocular TS Marine 15x85 with tripod. Nice view today with clear skies of NGC 2264,the large brilliant open cluster with the stellar pattern of a Christmas tree. Amazingly, this very young cluster (only 3 million years) was never included in the Messier list. Nearly all of of its 20 stars are visible in medium size binoculars. 15 Monocerotis is the brightest star of the cluster, and it marks the half-degree base long of the tree, pointing to the North. Through 15x85 binoculars the 8.2 mag orange star on the East side of the tree is easily visible. The wedge-shaped Cone Nebula (invisible through medium size binoculars) forms the apex. Although the southern stars form the tree’s top, they don’t belong to this cluster. That is, they’re not moving through space with the main cluster. 3 degrees North from the Christmas tree, in the same FoV of stars Alzirr and 30 Gem, there is a small asterism (see image). I never read before about this asterism, but this little Christmas tree just jumped in my FoV. It’s formed with just 4 stars, shining at 5.9, 7.6, 8.1 and 8.5 mags. The asterism distinctive stellar pattern reminds a little Christmas tree, mainly after observing the big one. The brightest star HIP 31876 is actually a double star with a companion shinning at 9.3 mag separated just 10 arc seconds. Both of them form the apex of the Christmas tree. Overall, this asterism looks like a nice “little Christmas tree”. The last Christmas tree is just NGC 2232. It’s perfect 45 arc min conic shape reminds another Christmas tree. The blue-white central star is10 Monocerotis, which shines at 5.1 mag. Most of its other 20 stars range between 8th and 10th magnitude. This is one of the nearest open cluster to us. Only about 10 of the 1500 open clusters in our galaxy are closer. In summary, we should enjoy three Christmas seasons per year.

Reprocessed an image from March. (What else can you do with this weather? ) 43 x 45 seconds (32 minutes total time on target) at ISO 1600 Pentax K20D & SW 150P on EQ3 Pro (although exif says that FL was 135 mm, clearly an old entry) No guiding, so slightly elongated stars bias & flats but no darks As usual, processed in PixInsight I think that stars are a little too blue, but I'll leave that for a re-reprocess

I grabbed the frames for this image on the night of the 5th Nov as a quick target after having got a lot more data on the Bubble. ST2000XM, with a WO FLT110 at f5.7 - R:G:B = 35:35:35 (5min subs) at 1x1. Processed in Pixinsight - it's tricky to hold the colour in the stars for these images - but really like the colour of the deep red carbon star V358 Aur (colour index ~1.57, V mag 12.something) in the lower portion of the image. Thanks for looking!

  Observing Information DSO - M13,M52 Date - 15/08/16 Time - 00:30-01:30 Lunar Phase - Waning Gibbious 79% Luminosity Seeing - Excellent Equipment - Celestron Nexstar 6SE, No filters used Eyepieces - Pentax SMC 8-24 Zoom Eyepiece. M13-17.5mm, M52-24mm. Additional info - What a beautiful night of observing, I purposely chose 2 targets furthest away from the moon and found they offered some really good detail especially M13. The longer I observed the more stars and structure it yielded, I honestly could have spent another hour adding to it but felt with the moon being so bright I wasn't going to get much more. M52 was another object enough away from the moon to show some lovely detail and I was impressed with how many stars I could observe and how many levels of brightness and detail in the stars I could discern, it really was a challenge but I loved every minute ? I hope you enjoyed viewing my sketches as much as I enjoyed sketching them ☺️ Clear skies ✨???? Richard

Hi, I was asked on a Swedish forum to put an "Astronomical Dictionary" on my homepage. I have made a test page in an easy form. Astronomical related words linked to wikipedia. It aims to the beginners in astronomy so it should not be too complicated words. http://astrofriend.eu/astronomy/astronomical-dictionary/astronomical-dictionary.html Let me know if it's useful and and I shall add more words. /Lars

After seeing the conjunction Venus - Jupiter, the sky was slowly but constantly becoming cloudy. So I turned my telescope at Cygnus. The sky there was clear and the region was the least affected by the Moon brightness. Cygnus (Cyg) is one of the best summer constellation and is full of treasures to discover and see. Last night I chose to observe some open cluster located on the "Cygnus body" near Sadr (Gamma Cyg). I attached my report for these targets. Thanks for reading, Piero Seeing: 3 - Moderate seeing Transparency: 4 - Partly clear Telescopes: Tele Vue 60 F6 Eyepieces: Nagler 13mm giving 28x, 2.2mm ex. pup., and 2.80 degrees NGC6910 (Cyg, Opn CL) From Deneb (Alpha), I moved to Sadr (Gamma). This open cluster is on the line between these two stars, but on the side of Sadr. Its size is only 8', but is sufficiently bright (magnitude 7.4, surface brightness 11.7). It is formed by few bright stars and I could count about 7-8 dim stars. Apparently, many of these stars are variable. Very beautiful to me. M29 (Cyg, Opn CL) Cooling Tower. From Sadr (Gamma), this cluster is East - South-East. The main six stars forming a little tower, or an academic hat, were easily visible. No dim star was detectable likely due to the Moon. This is a nice cluster which might be interesting to see at higher power (e.g. 51x). IC4996 or Cr418 (Cyg, Opn CL) From M29, I moved South. This is a quite small open cluster which is detectable at this low power, but would benefit of higher power. It is on a separate star near three pairs of aligned stars. Three - four stars were detectable apart from the main one. NGC6883 or Cr415 (Cyg, Opn CL) From IC4996, I moved South, using as a reference a group of stars reminding me of a pan and a long handle. NGC6883 is located below a line of 3 stars. It is quite easy to find. There are lovely double stars in this area, and in this beautiful little cluster. I counted 3-4 pairs forming this cluster. All these are well separated at 28x. Beautiful.

I got my telescope set up as soon as it got dark to do some imaging of the galaxy NGC 925, which was just visible in my 200p as a faint glow with a slight grainyness to it. While my camera was clicking away, I started hunting around with my binoculars. Just above the naked-eye star beta-Tri (or tracing a path in the opposite direction from the line through beta-Tri to the galaxy) there was a very pleasing looking open cluster. It appeared in my 10 x 50s as a two faint glowing patches with a misting of faint point like stars sprinkled over the dim milky light. It was safely within the FoV and it provided a very pleasant and rewarding view. I later checked with Stellarium and found that it was C28 (NGC 752). A wonderful surprise and a very nice object to just stumble upon. I had a quick view of the cluster through my 200p with my 20mm EP. The FOV was just filled with stars and I'll try again with less magnification once I get the chance. I eventually packed in once I got very cold and ice started forming on the tube of the scope.

Second stargazing trip of 2013 logged while in on business in Las Vegas, USA. Location was the Pahranagat Wildlife Area about 70 miles north of Las Vegas - a good Bortle 2 location! Arriving just after sunset the Milky Way was dominant overhead and was SO bright as twilight faded. To my surprise accompanying the Milky Way were the Zodiac Lights...which nearly rivaled the Milky Way forming the southern arm of a V with the MW forming the northern arm. The lights were bright for about a good 90 minutes after sunset...and extended nearly to zenith. I've previously never seen the Zodiac Lights so this was an unexpected treat! Temps dropped quickly from the high 50s (F) to the low 40s (F) so I donned my heavy winter clothes to get ahead of the chills - I was prepped for skiing as much as stargazing - and with a cloudless sky I was eager for true darkness to fall. While waiting for conditions to get dark enough to start deep observing I hit old friends that I could find without the use of my laptop - my attempt to keep the battery up for as long as possible. During this time I spent some time with Jupiter at 120x and 240x - Io was crossing in front of the planet and seeing was pretty good so I was easily able to pick out the shadow of Io about 4/5 of the way across the planet...it stood out so well I was truly shocked. Rare is the day I can see the planets that clearly. Still missed the Great Red Spot as it didn't rise during my time out (hopefully later this week!). New finds Old friends Missed targets Other old friends I checked in on - M1 - 120x/240x - UHC filter on and off - best views at 120x ...and just a hint of structure visible with the filter M31/M32/M110 - stood out naked eye and was BIG in the finder scope M42/M43 - stunning at 120x...as usual...trapezium popped out NGC2024 (flame nebula) - stood out nicely at 120x M35/NGC2158 - such a pretty contrast of clusters...big/small...bright/dim M36/M37/M38 - easily found in the finder scope...all nice views at 120x - M37 is my favorite M81/M82 - both were beautiful views...just a hint of a spiral arm on M81...and what appeared to be a faint dark lane in the heart of M82 After this the sky had sufficiently darkened to allow the laptop to be fired up...so the goals for the night were set: #1 - observe SN2012fr #2 - observe the CAS clusters described in Star & Telescope a few months ago #3 - observe the MON objects described recently in S&T off I went... SN2012fr is located in NGC 1365 located in the southern part of FOR. The star hop is not too tough if you can see ERI. This night my guide stars stood out just above the distant light dome of Las Vegas and the hop was very easy. Low and behold NGC1365 was very easily seen as a faint fuzzy not far from a mag 11 guide star...and SN2012fr was easily seen glowing just south of the brighter core of NGC1365. The Sn is still listed at mag 12.8 but I'd argue that it's fallen below that as it was very dim and numerous mag 12.5 stars in the vicinity were much easier to see. I could pick out mag 13.x stars in the vicinity as well...so I think the SN is in the mag 13.2(ish) range now. Yeah...another SN notch added to the belt! That's #7! On to task #2 - CAS clusters I was suprised how easily many of the clusters stood out in the dark skies despite the bulk of the Milky Way passing around Casseopia. Here's my collection for in CAS this night (not in order of observing): NGC 609 - OC - mag 12.7 - This was a FAINT OC. Just a haze patch in the FOV of 2 mag 9 stars...mag 12 nearby stars stood out much brighter than this OC. The haze had a hint of graininess...like an GC does under good skies and magnification. NGC 637 - OC - mag 7.3 - Intersection of a lazy X of star streams...had the impression of a person swiimming when i saw it. Body + two arms stroking + two legs kicking. Odd observation...I know. NGC 559 - OC - mag 7.4 - A lot of faint stars visible...arcs of stars...i could even pull out a smiley face in the cluster. NGC 654 - OC - mag 8.2 - A pretty little cluster - like a 'hat' on top of the mag 7 anchor star...mag 11 stars outline the hat and mag 12-13 stars fill it in. MANY stars visilbe. Hat could also be the Android mascot's head...with the little antenae sticking up. IC 166 - OC - mag 11.7 - I think i saw this...despite what the finder charts say. a VERY faint hazy background cluster...maybe in a triangle...or sail shape. Not far from HD11162 a hazy patch is visible...averted only. A lot of very faint (but brighter than the haze) stars are visible in the proximity of where teh charts shows IC166 to be...I'm assuming I'm seeing the OC and then some more. Neeed to look at a DSS image of this area. ** after checking the DSS image - yes, i was indead seeing IC166 - very faint stars make up this cluster deeper than the charts show. Czernik 4 - OC - mag ?? - Not sure what this cluster is supposed to look like...but I was there at 120x and 240x. Looks like a tree with three branches joining there. Mag 14.x stars clearly visible...no nebulosity and no faint fuzzy background stars. ** after rereading the S&T section...there wasn't more to see...it's just an intersection of a few stars (boring). Trumpler 1 - OC - mag 8.9 - Looked to be about 7-8 stars...not overly bright but stood out from the background pretty well. Sort of looked like a big fish mouth opening to the W in my EP. Open mouth area must have been the dark nebula showing on the charts. NGC 663 - OC - mag 6.4 - A very pretty cluster...looked like a V with LOTS of stars visible. NGC 659 - OC - mag 7.2 - Nice little cluster ... about 8-12 mag 10.x stars with many fainter stars fleshing out the cluster. M 103 - OC - mag 6.9 - A most UNimpressive messier object at first. Bright-ish top and bottom anchor stars...but well in the middle of the EP at 120x. Sort of light a K or a fountain with the bright stars being the base. That completed goal #2...and it took a while. On to #3...or would have been if something hadn't triggered my fight/flight response ... real or imagined ... I thought I head something walking in the sand not far away that I couldn't see...I started talking more and whistling But my 'mood' had been broken and I ended up packing up and calling it a night. I don't know about the rest of you - but after a few hours in the dark and as the brain starts to get tired I get easily startled and lose the desire to be alone in the pitch black. I'm sure the noise was just a deer...but I was only about 70 miles from "Area 51" so you never know what's sneaking around in the dark. So I never attempted goal #3...nor the Horsehead Nebula...nor the Great Red spots return. Oh well - later this week I'll be spending the night in one of North America's darkest locations - a true Bortle 1 location! I just hope the clouds cooperate. Happy hunting!

Came across this one by accident while moving the telescope around in CdC. A rather nice cluster don't you think? RC8 f/8 14x120s 350D modded More details here. Mark

Finally had the right mix of work trips, dark skies, and time to get out and spend some time under the stars. My 'normal spot' was cloud covered with a second day of thick 'monsoon' moisture pushing into the US SouthWest and hanging out over the mountains. I tried out a new stargazing location 10 minutes from my hotel...it provided good skies to the east and south...north was washed out from local businesses and west had sky glow for quite a while. That said...the Milky Way was beautiful and nearly stretched from horizon to horizon (sky glow to the north stopped it in that direction). Lagoon Nebula/Butterfly Cluster were obvious and M31 was just visible (averted) once it was high enough. So overall conditions were pretty decent. Location: Tehachapi, CA, USA Elevation: ~4300' MSL Time: 21:00-00:30 Observing was done primarily with my 10mm EP for 120x but for some targets i also used the 26mm EP for 46x. UHC filter was used for nebula. I went out with SkyTools3 and sorted my Hershell 400 list to show only objects in SCO and SGR. Here's the list of objects observed from that quick sorting: NGC6451 (Tom Thumb Cluster) - OC - shape looked roughly like a heart NGC6544 - GC - a tight, dusty snowball NGC6520 - OC - looked like a thumb...dark vein in MW surrounding NGC6624 - GC - compact cluster...nearly solid core with dusty 'corona' NGC6553 - GC - faint...somewhat trapizoidal shaped...no detail NGC6569 - GC - even, dirty textured snow ball NGC6645 - OC - nothing memorable...a grouping of stars in the MW...easy find NGC6568 - OC - another bunch of stars a little closer than others...nothing memorable NGC6818 (Little Gem) - PN - a fuzzy star a bit bigger than the rest - perhaps a slight blue hue? NGC6583 - OC - a faint little OC that stood out enough to make me figure out what it was...shaped like a fuzzy triangle NGC6540 - GC - a ghost of a GC...very faint...averted best NGC6558 - GC - small, faint GC NGC6547 - OC - hard to pin down...non-descript but the field was right Then moving over to the Messier List I observed M25 - OC - easy target M55 - GC - not an easy star hop but a nice cluster once there...100+ stars visible M75 - GC - tight GC with a bright core which quickly diffuses to about 3x the core width...a fuzz ball M15 - GC - WOW! Nice GC...bright with lots of tendrils running away from the core M30 - GC - a right GC that looked like it had 2-3 legs coming off it...more like and oC than a GC M72 - GC - dirty snowball...not bright M73 - OC - difficult star hop for me... to see...4 stars(?)...blah. Then I finished the night with two new friends and two old ones: NGC7000 (North American Nebula) - Diff Neb - UHC filter - saw the Gulf of Mexico area pretty easily...haze only in the rest of 'North America' Will have to revisit under darker skies. IC5070 (Pelican Nebula) - Diff Neb - UHC Filter - could just see the largest/brigtest section with averted vision...and just barely. Will have to revisit under darker skies M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) - GX - beautiful first view in months M110 - GX - Andromeda's little partner...pretty M33 (Pinwheel Galaxy) - just searched for it for the fun of it...just faintly visible with no detail. Need darker skies. A very good night by all standards. 22 new finds, a few old friends and I finished the Messier List!!! Yeah! Happy Hunting!