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By Hughsie
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
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By Lead_weight
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
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By MikeODay
The Great Barred Spiral Galaxy ( NGC 1365 ) in the Constellation Fornax
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( edit - star chart added )
The Great Barred Spiral Galaxy ( NGC 1365 ) - Chart ( please click/tap on image see larger and sharper version )
A full size ( 6200 x 4407px ) image can be downloaded from here.
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Details:
Below the equator, not seen from much of the Northern hemisphere, NGC 1365 passes very nearly directly overhead an observer situated near Cape Town, as Sir John Herschel was in November of 1837 when he discovered this “remarkable nebula” that is numbered 2552 in his book of observations from the Cape.
Not called a “nebula” now, of course, this striking object is one of the nearest and most studied examples of a barred spiral ( SB ) galaxy that also has an active galactic nuclei resulting in its designation as a Seyfert galaxy.
At around 60 M light years from Earth, NGC 1365 is still seen to occupy a relatively large area ( 12 by 6 arc minutes ) due to its great size; at some 200,000 light years or so across, NGC 1365 is nearly twice as wide as the Milky Way and considerably wider than both the Sculptor and Andromeda galaxies.
This High Dynamic Range ( HDR ) image is built up from multiple exposures ranging from 4 to 240 seconds with the aim of capturing the faint detail in the spiral arms of the galaxy whilst also retaining colour in the brightest star ( the orange-red 7th magnitude giant, HD 22425 ). Also, scattered throughout the image, and somewhat more difficult to see, are numerous and far more distant galaxies.
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Identification:
The Great Barred Spiral Galaxy
New General Catalogue - NGC 1365
General Catalogue - GC 731
John Herschel ( Cape of Good Hope ) # 2552 - Nov 28, 29 1837
Principal Galaxy Catlogue - PCG 13179
ESO 358-17
IRAS 03317-3618
RA (2000.0) 3h 33m 37.2 s
DEC (2000.0) -36 deg 8' 36.5"
10th magnitude Seyfert-type galaxy in the Fornaux cluster of galaxies
200 Kly diameter
60 Mly distance
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Capture Details:
Telescope: Orion Optics CT12 Newtonian ( mirror 300mm, fl 1200mm, f4 ).
Corrector: ASA 2" Coma Corrector Quattro 1.175x.
Effective Focal Length / Aperture : 1375mm 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 3.9um pixels)
Location:
Blue Mountains, Australia
Moderate light pollution ( pale green zone on darksitefinder.com map )
Capture ( 3, 7 & 8 Dec 2018 )
7 sets of sub-images with exposure duration for each set doubling ( 4s to 240s ) all at unity gain ( ISO 250).
140 x 240s + 10 each @ 4s to 120s
total around 9.7 hrs
Processing ( Pixinsight )
Calibration: master bias, master flat , master dark
Integration in 7 sets
HDR combination
Links:
500px.com/MikeODay
photo.net/photos/MikeODay
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike-oday">www.flickr.com/photos/mike-oday</a>
Image Plate Solution
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Resolution ........ 0.586 arcsec/px ( full size image )
Rotation .......... -0.003 deg ( North is up )
Field of view ..... 58' 37" x 38' 55"
Image center ...... RA: 03 33 36 Dec: -36 08 27
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By Toxophilus
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.
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By MikeODay
The Cat's Paw Nebula ( NGC 6334 ) in Scorpius
updated ( slight tweak to colour balance, a little brighter and tad more contrast )
( please click / tap on image to see larger and sharper - a full size image can be seen here )
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original:
( please click / tap on image to see larger and sharper - a full size image can be seen here )
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Also known as the Bear Claw Nebula, NGC 6334 is an emission nebula near the scorpion's tail in the Scorpius constellation.
Image details:
Image centre ...... RA: 17 20 08.185 Dec: -35 52 30.91
Field of view ..... 57' 37.8" x 38' 51.8"
Rotation .......... 0.00 deg ( North is up )
Resolution ........ 0.586 arcsec/px
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 3.9um pixels)
Location:
Blue Mountains, Australia
Moderate light pollution ( pale green zone on darksitefinder.com map )
Capture ( July 2018 )
6 sets of sub-images with exposure duration for each set doubling ( 4s to 240s ) all at ISO 250.
168 x 4 min frames plus ~10 frames each for the shorter exposures
Processing:
Calibration: bias, dark and flat
Integration in 8 sets
HDR combination
Pixinsight July 2018
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