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Hi All, My latest Rosette Nebula image... This images total exposure time was 7 hours and 40 minutes, consisting of 15 x 600 second 7nm narrowband H-Alpha subs for the luminance channel and 15 x 180 second red, 15 x 300 second green and 19 x 600 second blue subs for the color data... color data was exposed during a full moon. It's amazing that I had those few night to image this object in what seems to be perpetual overcast weather. Taken through a 80mm Refractor @ f6.25, on a hypertuned CGEM mount with QHY268M camera. Clear Skies. Mariusz

Hi! Here is my latest SHO image, it was a pain to acquire the data because this target sets below treeline from my observatory very early but I managed to pull off ~two hours per night. Its almost spring so imaging season is coming to an end soon. I hope I can finish other SHO projects too in the coming weeks before astronomical darkness ends here in Finland. 27x300s SII, 30x300s Ha, 29x300s OIII. 10x120s R/G/B, total exposure time is approx. 8 hours. Larger version: https://www.evenfall.space/post/cosmic-bloom

Qsi660wsg-8, TSQ65 refractor, AZEQ6GT mount. Guiding Lodestar x2 PHD2. N.I.N.A. Capture software. Processed in Pixinsight. 34x300sec Ha, 33x300sec OIII and 32x300sec SII. 65 darks. No flats or bias yet. This was a quick process just to see what I’d got. Needs some work but pleased so far. Outlet 4, SW France. Any helpful processing tips much appreciated.

Here's a close-up of the chain of dark clouds of the Rosette Nebula using public domain data. I've used IPHAS survey H-alpha as luminance with a colour layer derived from the Digitized Sky Survey red/blue channels (transformed to a SHO style turquoise/gold colour layer). My own 8'' GSO RC version (last image below) was the inspiration (shown for low-res comparison). Some people see "animals" formed from the dark clouds... I see a leaping jaguar top right (or spanner!) and an ostrich bottom left. The tiny dark circles to the left of the jaguar's head are referred to as globulettes in Gahm et al (2007). The smaller circles are estimated to have masses of about 1-2 times that of Jupiter and a radius of about 2,000 AU and are speculated to result in the formation of free-floating interstellar planetary-mass objects. Processing: -Photoshop (with Google Nik Collection for output sharpening and noise reduction) -Defect cleaning from the IPHAS frames, stacking and mosaic re-mapping using my own software (which occasionally seems to work) -Again, my own processing software to do the red/blue to SHO-style colour mapping and also to make a local contrast layer Data acknowledgements: -H-alpha survey from the 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope (www.iphas.org/data.shtml), 120 second frames -Red and blue from the ESO Digitized Sky Survey archive DSS2 (archive.eso.org/dss/dss) -Star colours from GAIA DR2 Archive (gea.esac.esa.int/archive) Unprocessed data here Cheers, Sam

I went to my family house in the countryside and was able to take some pictures during xmas eve. Total exposure: 6h H_Alpha: ~3h (730x15s) --> R, G Oxigen III: ~3h (710x15s) --> B, G I didn't have a view on Polaris and could not spend too much time drift aligning (it was xmas eve after all :D) hence the short exposures. Moreover I dont have the proper connection rings to put my flattener on my mono camera so all stars off center are a mess :_(.

The Rosette Nebula and Cluster ( NGC 2237 and 2244 ) in the constellation Monoceros edit: updated 30th Dec with improved colour balance and slightly increased brightness ... ...... original: ( please click / tap on image to see larger and sharper ) Still a work-in-progress really... with only 10 x 4min exposures for the main 'lights' before the clouds came over. I will try to add some more data when the moon has gone I am still experimenting with how to get the best out of the D7500. With the very warm nights ( low to mid 20s all night ) the 'warm pixels' are very noticeable so I reverted to my old practice of in-camera dark subtraction. This worked quite well and produced a nice smooth noise floor in the integrated images - albeit at the expense of more exposures. ................. Identification: The Rosette Nebula ( NGC 2237 ) is a large, circular emission nebula in the constellation Monoceros. It surrounds a cluster of hot, young stars known as the Rosette Cluster ( NGC 2244 ). ( SkySafari ) NGC 2237, 2244 Caldwell 49, 50 North is up. .................. Capture Details: Telescope: Orion Optics CT12 Newtonian ( mirror 300mm, fl 1200mm, f4 ). Corrector: ASA 2" Coma Corrector Quattro 1.175x. Effective Focal Length / Aperture : 1400mm f4.7 Mount: Skywatcher EQ8 Guiding: TSOAG9 Off-Axis-Guider, Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2, PHD2 Camera: Nikon D7500 (unmodified) (sensor 23.5 x 15.7mm, 5568x3712 @ 4.196um pixels) Location: Blue Mountains, Australia Moderate light pollution ( pale green zone on darksitefinder.com map ) Capture ( 23 Dec 2017 ) 9 sets of sub-images with exposure duration for each set doubling ( 1s to 240s ) all at ISO400. 10 x 240s + 5 each @ 1s to 120s imaged ~ +/- 1.5hrs either side of meridian maximum altitude ~ 51.3 deg above north horizon Processing ( Pixinsight ) Calibration: master bias, master flat and in-camera dark subtraction Integration in 9 sets HDR combination Image Plate Solution =================================== Resolution ........ 0.633 arcsec/px ( full size image ) Rotation .......... 0.181 deg Focal ............. 1367.90 mm Pixel size ........ 4.20 um Field of view ..... 58' 59.4" x 39' 15.0" Image center ...... RA: 06 31 55.638 Dec: +04 56 30.84 ===================================

Been quite awhile since my last post. Such a brutal winter! Hope this post is finding your skies clear and views amazing. Still capturing whenever I can which is much too few and far between but it's getting better now that Spring is finally here. Finally!! To warm things up a bit more here's a little bit closer look at the Heart of the Rosette Nebula for you. Stellarvue SV80ED, AT2FF Hutech spectrum enhanced Canon T5i Atlas Pro AZ/EQ-G 6-600 second lights, 25 darks, 25 flats, 25 dark flats. Stacked in DSS median and Mosaic method. Edited slightly in Adobe Camera RAW. Let me know what you think of the processing and final outcome.

I am starting to process the Rosette Nebula, that I just shot this weekend. My first attempt at Deep Sky photography. I am attaching a jpeg version of the autosave file DSS generated after stacking. I corrected the levels just to the point that there is no clipping and I brought up the exposure a lot in Curves. I did not go any further because of these lines in the photo and the blurry stars on the right. My original lights do not have the curved lines. They also are not blurry on the right side as this image is. I am thinking that I messed up on my flats. When I went out at 3:00 am my camera and lens were actually pointing down since the nebula had set. I straightened the camera to shoot my flats, forgetting that I needed to shoot in the same orientation. I may not have been in the same orientation. I will process in Deep Sky Stacker again w/o the flats to see if that is the source. Any suggestions? This is my first ever attempt at this type of subject. I have been shooting the Milky Way and other landscape astrophotography stuff but really want to shoot the Deep Sky objects. Modified full spectrum Canon 5d MK iii, Canon 300mm f4, Sky Watcher Sky Adventurer, ISO 1600, 1 min 128 lights, 20 darks, 28 flats, 23 biases Thank you

Hello all I had a attempt again at the Rosette Nebula with my unmodded 550d and when computing the stars on DSS was getting over 1500 stars in the count. In fact I thought it was a mistake! Anyway here is my modest attempt no autoguider and just modest processing in Lightroom. Im very pleased with it please let me know your thoughts http://www.astrobin.com/full/275591/0/?nc=user By the way wishing all a happy and Blessed Christmas to all Gerry

Hello all My first attempt. No guiding on a Skywatcher 150pds and Canon 550d. I wanted more frames but the moon was out and didn't set till late! Anyway there are only 6 frames of 180 with 9 darks. I haven't checked what others have done but please post yours too. http://www.astrobin.com/full/275591/0/ Let me know your thoughts and comments Gerry

The Rosette Nebula taken in Cathedral City, CA I've wanted to image the Rosette nebula for some time now, but with my Celestron 6se telescope it was not really feasible due to the large focal length of the scope. The Rosette nebula is huge! I decided to give it a try with my new Orion ST80, and I could not be happier with how it turned out. It is certainly not a Hubble image, but I did the best I could under light polluted skies, and man does it look beautiful. 5 hours total exposure time Canon 450d Orion ST80 Orion Skyglow filter Celestron AVX mount Stacked in DSS Edited it CS6 and LR http://coachella-astronomy-astrophotography.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-rosette-nebula.html

Seasons greetings, all! HiloDon and I are at it again with another seasonal delight for our friends here at SGL! HiloDon provided the stellar images and I created the musical landscape and produced the video. There's a little surprise near the end! Hope you enjoy! For all who observe, have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Reggie

My little Heritge-100p scope hasn't had much of a chance to get out after Mrs WaveSoarer bought it for me as a garb-and-go scope at Christmas. I've been reluctant to go anywhere with my 200p and EQ5 as it's fine in the back garden - though adjacent houses and trees limit some regions of the sky - and taking it to the dark sky places we go on holiday would be out of the question. The 100p, cute that it is, will be perfect to pack an take with us, Anyway, it was beautifully clear last night and, while the 200p was busy imaging, I set up the Heritage-100p on a stool (a 1 minute job) and started to have a very rewarding observing session. NGC 2244, Rosette nebula I used my 20 mm EP with an OIII filter, more in hope than expectation, and I lined up in the right general location with the red dot finder. A quick nudge and I was centred up on the statellite cluster and, much to my delight, there was the unmistakable milky glow of the nebula. The edge of the hole in the centre was very clear with the rectangle of the satellite cluster sitting slightly off centre. The wide view offered by the 100p, at F4, allowed the entire circle of the Rosette to be seen as it faded off towards the edges. I was really delighted to see this as the FOV with the 200p is a little too tight even when I use my 32 mm plossl and its all too easy to see straight through the Rosette as it's so large. M31, Andromeda galaxy This is an easy spot in binoculars and I can even see it naked eye from my garden. In the 100p, with the 20 mm EP, the extent of the galaxy can be appreciated though it wasn't going to yield much in the way of detail. M33, Triangulum galaxy Rather than use the red dot finder, I just nudged the scope in the right direction and the galaxy popped into view fairly readily. There wasn't much to see, other than the diffuse patch of glow, but again the extent of the galaxy was fairly evident. M81, Bode's nebula, and M82, The cigar galaxy This is one of my favourite pairs of galaxies. It's a fairly easy star hop to them and they sat easily within the field of view with my 20 mm EP. The shapes of the galaxies were also easy to make out. M42, The Orion nebula One of the wonderful things I'm finding with the dob mount is that it's easy to go to completely different places in the sky without the awkward need to twist the scope round in the rings of the EQ mount to keep the eyepiece at a comfortable position. This is something that I've never really rsolved with the 200p as I need to loosen the tension on the rings to twist the scope round and try to prevent it slipping. Anyway, the move from M81 and M82 to M42 only took a few seconds and I was then looking at a magnificient and completely different object. The whole complex was safely in the FOV and even the faint glow of the running man was visible. M78, nebula This was an easy nudge from Alnitak. There wasn't a whole bunch to see but the glow was very obvious and it has been occasionally tricky with the 200p under less than ideal conditions, Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) Before I packed up, I realised that the comet was above the horizon and should have been just about visible from the garden. I needed to move the scope to a different location as the garage was in the way, which would have required setting up the 200p all over again, but I could scoop up the 100p and stool in one go and within seconds I was hunting down the comet. The star hop was a little tricky, due to the LP in the direction of Oxford, but sure enough, and as as predicted by Stellarium, the comet appeared as a fuzzy point next to the star HIP 69118. I was very pleased to see this as I was expecting that I might miss it completely given the limited number of clear nights we've had over the past few months. After Mrs WaveSoarer had come out into the cold to have a look for herself, it took all of a two minutes to get the scope (and stool) back in the house. The Heritage-100p is proving to be a great little scope and will be ideal for those nights when the weather is a bit iffy and there is no point in taking twenty minutes to get the 200p, setup and polar aligned. The dobs mount is very easy and the red dot finder is good for getting you in just about the right place. I think that I still prefer the 200p's finder scope for aligning on the location of really faint objects. I've found that it's good to have the finder scope to accurately align the main scope so that I can concentrate like a crazy thing to see the object on the main scope. Anyway, I'm looking forward to some more impromptu obseving sessions and the 100p will be coming with us along with my binoculars, to the Scilly Isles this summer.

A couple of shots taken last week. WO FLT 98 APO, EQ6PRO,QHY8L,IDAS LP, FF/R TV 08X. M45 - 40X600SEK Double cluster - 40x300sek Rosette nebula - 18x600 sek.

2 weeks of rain and finally a break. Needless to say the rig came out and my new SV80 needed to be tested some more to compare to my AT65EDQ. It's turning out to be one amazing scope. 16 lights 5 darks at 300 seconds 10 bias ISO 800 here. Let me know what you think of the processing.