Your image of the year

[teoria_del_big_bang]

2 minutes ago, Priesters said:

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 🙂. 

Thanks for those kind words.

Personally I found Gimp quite hard to use, maybe it has vastly improved some 4 or 5 years on but if not then that's  actually some great processing.
I must admit when I took up AP I had no idea that  processing would be as hard (perhaps on refection even harder) than the acquisition of the data itself and its always worth keeping all data for either further processing attempts later when you learn other techniques , or other software is available or just to add further data to it.
It seems that processing wise things are always changing and you never really seem to master it as you continue to learn with each new image. PArt of the fun I guess 🙂 

Steve

 

 

[windjammer]

That Mars occultation is a cracker

[Mart29]

It has to be Mars for me but will throw Uranus in there also . 

Both with mobile phone and no editing. 

[Skipper Billy]

Shocking weather and injury means I have only produced three images this year!

This is my favourite.

 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

1 minute ago, Skipper Billy said:

Shocking weather and injury means I have only produced three images this year!

This is my favourite.

 

Ah well if you are only going to get 3 images make them good uns, and that's a cracker 🙂 

Steve

[Padraic M]

A really poor year generally with one cracking spell over the summer holidays in August which I spent fettling a new OSC setup based on a SW 150PDS and a ASI533MC Pro. Got a selection of images (and very little sleep) that week, but this IC5146 Cocoon Nebula is my favourite. I've had practically no imaging nights since then due to weather

 

[wesdon1]

1 minute ago, Padraic M said:

A really poor year generally with one cracking spell over the summer holidays in August which I spent fettling a new OSC setup based on a SW 150PDS and a ASI533MC Pro. Got a selection of images (and very little sleep) that week, but this IC5146 Cocoon Nebula is my favourite. I've had practically no imaging nights since then due to weather

 

Goodness me!!?? This is absolutely gorgeous! Just beautiful!! Sooo many stars!! And the gorgeous Neb' too!! Magical springs to mind!! 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

It has not been a very good year for imaging (or observing). My best DSO shot is probably the Spaghetti Nebula effort (over 12 h of data)

Still needs more data, I feel. Another contender is the H-alpha mono North America Nebula and Pelican

For solar, I have had a couple of pretty good shots

[tooth_dr]

This is my favourite image of 2022.  I lost my desire to process my data from winter 2021 until a few weeks back so I am delighted with getting back into it again, and more so with this lovely dark nebula in Cepheus  

[ollypenrice]

A year of change, for me, collaborating with Paul Kummer and a joint RASA/OSC CMOS/Avalon Linear rig under Paul's robotic control. I'm just the on-site mechanic and do the post-processing. The RASA has opened up new targets (very faint ones) but the best we've done, technically at least, is this widefield Pleiades.

It's a large image so, to see the real point of it, you'd need to follow this SmugMug link, go to full screen and then click to enlarge. https://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/DUSTY-DARK-AND-MILKY-WAY-TARGETS/i-RXwsZdg/A

Huge thanks to Russ Croman, author of StarXterminator, BlurXterminator and Noise Xterminator, software packages which have transformed post-processing.

Olly

[Padraic M]

3 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

A year of change, for me, collaborating with Paul Kummer and a joint RASA/OSC CMOS/Avalon Linear rig under Paul's robotic control. I'm just the on-site mechanic and do the post-processing. The RASA has opened up new targets (very faint ones) but the best we've done, technically at least, is this widefield Pleiades.

It's a large image so, to see the real point of it, you'd need to follow this SmugMug link, go to full screen and then click to enlarge. https://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/DUSTY-DARK-AND-MILKY-WAY-TARGETS/i-RXwsZdg/A

Huge thanks to Russ Croman, author of StarXterminator, BlurXterminator and Noise Xterminator, software packages which have transformed post-processing.

Olly

Wow! Amazing depth.

[tomato]

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...

Superb, reminds me of Earthrise from Apollo 8 but a different celestial body.

Edited January 1, 2023 by tomato
Inserted original post

[bomberbaz]

My best are the Wizard, Tarazed dark nebula and the entire veil. (best viewed on a larger screen and sat back as it's a wide field setup)

Re the veil, I was still getting the hang of colours so a little oversaturated. However I was very pleased with the framing and overall structure.

OOPS, nearly forgot the Aurora from my trip to Galloway. 😁

 

[Fegato]

I guess this is my favourite

[Mandy D]

4 hours ago, Gary Clayton said:

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

Nice! Looks like an upside down panda. So, extra points for cuteness.

[WolfieGlos]

Some incredible images in this topic! My first full year of imaging has resulted in these two favourites:

Milky Way over Uluru whilst on honeymoon…during a Full Moon. Untracked and unmodded camera.

 

First mosaic (only 2 panels) in December.

 

[Kon]

For me it has to be Jupiter with Io transiting back in October.

 

[Xsubmariner]

Given the awful skies this year, It’s no surprise most of the images are narrowband. Not my best but most enjoyable image experimenting with different colours to highlight Nebulosity layers.

 

[davew]

I can't say this was my best image but it turned out to be the most fun. Shot at around 4.30 am from Kielder viaduct just after the mist had finally lifted. We, James and I that is, had stood for what felt like hours for the mist to clear off. Who would have guessed the country's largest reservoir could have a bit of mist around it ?

I made sure James kept a red light on at all times as he had a large bag of Maltesers and a few bags of crisps hidden around his person and I wasn't about to let him slink off and devour them !

What you may not be able to tell is that we were both covered in frost as standing around in the mist had soaked our clothes and we were both a rather fetching sparkly white. That's why he was going nowhere with those Maltesers !

Dave.

[CCD-Freak]

NGC7129 The Rosebud Nebula , LBN497,  NGC7133  and NGC7142 to the lower left.

Edited January 2, 2023 by CCD-Freak

[wimvb]

According to my Astrobin page, I managed to collect data for 23 images in 2022. All in all not a bad year. There are several images that I'm proud of, certainly those of difficult to catch objects. But the one image that I was never really satisfied with was ngc7331 and Stephan's Quintet. I find it very difficult to get the right balance between Ha regions and the blue outer arms of ngc 7331.

Finally yesterday I got something that comes close to what I had intended. The only part that still nags me is the ifn that is in this image. But it's too close to the noise floor and I really need more data to do it justice, so I didn't push it in this version.

 

[CraigT82]

Due to a new house and new kids I only managed a sum total of 4 images this year, of which this one is my favourite…

One thing I did manage to capture- which I’m really glad I did - was the lunar occultation of Mars. I captured a load of data but haven’t manage to process it yet so that may well turn out to be my pick of the year, if I ever get around to it. Single frame below as a teaser but it would be a composure of two images once done…

 

[The Lazy Astronomer]

On 01/01/2023 at 11:53, Scott Badger said:

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

What equipment were these taken with? The detail is amazing!!

[The Lazy Astronomer]

My, oh my, there are some absolute crackers in here! Personal highlights for me are two lunar occultation shots from @geoflewis and @CraigT82 (very much looking forward to seeing the finished processed result).

In terms of my own imaging; very easy choice for me - it has to this crop of the ever-iconic central region of M16. An attempt at a Hubble recreation that turned out much better than I ever thought its ~6 hours of integration time would have allowed.

[Craney]

Not been a great year in terms of progression but have still enjoyed the turning of the heavens and photographing less visited areas of the sky.

I have found it hard to invest the required time and tweak the inevitable 'issues' but hey-ho, othr things to do.

I would not have included a post here ... but ..... went to Iceland over New Year and got this... on December 30th.

 

-22'C ( that's colder than the temperature I set on my Atik 414 !!!! )  and a breeze.   Respect to those who venture out into the high latitudes to do astro-photography. 

Anyway, looking forward to 2023 .... Happy New Year everyone.      ( now where's that comet ??)