Your image of the year

[cajen2]

I'm no imager, but I love seeing what all you clever /persistent people have done.

Please post one image that you've taken in 2022, which is the one you're most proud of.

[knobby]

Happy new year 🙂

Monkey head nebula taken in March ... Seems so long ago !

[cajen2]

Nice, Knobby. Keep them coming, folks!

[Guest]

Well since the only AP i can really do is by holding my cell phone up to the eyepiece the moon is about all i can really do.  However i will also include a picture of Jupiter and moons that i was able to get as well.  I apologize for the focus on the moon.  I was still learning how to focus at the time 

Edited January 1, 2023 by Mike Q

[Ratlet]

Delighted with how this one turned out as it was something like 90% lunar illumination at the time.  Taken with my cheapo 200mm takumar lens and 533 hypercam

[Scott Badger]

A Halloween pair, Witch’s Broom and Ghost of Cassiopeia.

[glafnazur]

Due to one thing or another after a good start to 2022 I didn't manage to get out imaging much after March but I did capture this in August taken with a Nikon D750 and using my ZS61 for the first time.

 

Edited January 1, 2023 by glafnazur
Typo

[DaveS]

Part of the Coma galaxy cluster during "Galaxy Season". It's not as good as I'd like as I've been having no end of problems with Flats calibration so had to push the background down further than I should like.

Edited January 1, 2023 by DaveS

[carastro]

I think over the year this one l am most proud of as l was surprised to get such a lot of detail in the separate narrowband channels.  Probably some of the surprise was due to this target not being imaged much on it’s own, so nothing much to go by.  
 

It is LBN251 and someone affectionately called it the Space Shuttle Nebula because if its shape.   it is in Cygnus and often included alongside the Butterfly Nebula as a small target.  
 

Carole 

Edited January 1, 2023 by carastro

[wesdon1]

1 minute ago, carastro said:

I think over the year this ine l am most proud of as l was surprised to get such a lit if detail in the separate narrowband channels.  Probably some if the surprise was due to this target not being imaged much on it’s own so nothinh much to go by.  
 

it is in Cygnus and often included alongside the Butterfly Nebula as a small target.  
 

Carole 

Absolutely stunning image! 

[wesdon1]

I can't find my Cassiopeia image anywhere, so here's my latest Jupiter image. I really really struggled with processing, imaging etc etc so I am quite proud of how far i've come, and look forward to what this year will bring, what I will manage!? Exciting times for us all! for comparison, here's my first image of jupiter, and my second one. A small improvement, which is all I want! ( sorry! The top image of Jupiter is my second, improved one! I got them the wrong way around when doing this post! LOL ) 

"Progress-feeds-motivation-feeds-progress!"

( and yes! I did just create that saying! LOL )

Edited January 1, 2023 by wesdon1
forgot to put pic in

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Terrible year for me due to weather, I don't really have a setup for smaller galaxies so normally do nothing much anyway in galaxy season and rest of year, even though we had one of the direst summers on record most nights either side of summer seemed to have some clouds. 
This was probably my best image (only really managed 3).

In all honesty I really should have another go at processing it as I think the data is better than the image i managed.

IC443 Jellyfish Nebula

Steve

[carastro]

Jellyfish is not one of my favourite targets, mainly because l never really got a good result with it   But you have some really nice colour there and well framed  

Carole 

Edited January 1, 2023 by carastro

[cajen2]

2 hours ago, Scott Badger said:

A Halloween pair, Witch’s Broom and Ghost of Cassiopeia.

That's two, Scott - cheating! Nice, though.

[mcrowle]

Of mine, no one image stands out particularly, though I was quite pleased with this Heart Nebula capture (despite the inevitable coma and tilt issues).

2022 was significant in 2 imaging respects, though, as I finally took up autoguiding after decades of guiding manually and obtained my first good planet image using the 12" Newtonian that I've owned for 10 years.

Regards, and happy New Year, Mike.

[Lee_P]

Ooh that's a tough one! I think I'll go for this photo of The Shark Nebula. It isn't the most visually stunning, but I'll pitch it because it was taken from a Bortle 8 city centre using an OSC camera and no filters whatesoever.

[Priesters]

Bit noisy and had a problem with pinched optics but I was quite pleased with my M33 taken an couple of weeks ago with an Altair 183C and WO GT81.  1hr 45mins of capture time.  Still a lot to learn about processing 🙂.

 

[Elp]

I would like to say the widefield of my profile pic but assessing them further, I'd say my M16 from August.

The reason for this is because I've spent years putting together portable setups, and this pic justifies how easy it was to just pick up the equipment and go, it was all done off site, including once at a dark site and all in a short space of days. I like it also because it is such a short integration time yet there's quite a bit of detail to it and the nature of the target, it draws your eyes into the centre so it makes for an excellent naturally occurring composition. Add to that there's no major noise reduction applied either and it still looks good in my eyes. One I'm definitely going to add to when time allows.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

13 minutes ago, Priesters said:

Bit noisy and had a problem with pinched optics but I was quite pleased with my M33 taken an couple of weeks ago with an Altair 183C and WO GT81.  1hr 45mins of capture time.  Still a lot to learn about processing 🙂.

 

Lovely Image 🙂  

I wonder what BlurXT would do for this image, it seems to work extremely well on galaxies, downside is you almost have to start from the beginning of post processing before any noise reduction but might be worth it for this wonderful image.

Steve

[tomato]

This isn’t very impressive visually but it’s the image I’m most proud of from 2022.

I don’t usually attempt to image transient events, but I couldn’t resist trying to capture the JWST 750k miles out on its way to it’s parking orbit. I nearly missed it, on the first attempt I was pointing the scope in the wrong place, and my only other chance was hindered by cloud. That’s why the trail is not of even brightness. 
 

 

[Paul M]

A very sparse year for me. Looking back there are a few images I was pleased with but perhaps my favorite is a gravitationally lensed supernova, only visible due to the lensing.

The target is the very few pixels ust above the noise directly at the end of the tick.

From this thread:

 

 

[carastro]

50 minutes ago, Lee_P said:

Ooh that's a tough one! I think I'll go for this photo of The Shark Nebula. It isn't the most visually stunning, but I'll pitch it because it was taken from a Bortle 8 city centre using an OSC camera and no filters whatesoever.

That’s amazing from Bortle 8 with a OSC. 
 

Carole

[Gary Clayton]

Soul nebula for me, OSC processed as HOO and around 8 hours from bortle 4 skies.

[Priesters]

36 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Lovely Image 🙂  

I wonder what BlurXT would do for this image

Thanks Steve, much appreciated.  Have to say that if I'd have produced your image of the JellyFish I'd be printing it up and insisting it goes on my Living Room wall 👍

Unfortunately my post processing is currently limited to DSS and GIMP so the BlurXT experiment will have to wait 🙂. 

[geoflewis]

The lunar occultation of Mars is the one for me. I'd been waiting 2 years for this one, then a few days before the event I caught my 2nd bout of Covid of 2022. Out in the freezing cold before 5am in the morning, feeling crap with clouds ruining the view, I wondered why I bothered, but then there was gap for about 5 minutes which allowed me to grab this, despite very little time to focus, hence the somewhat fuzzy result...