Submissions: 2023 May

[starsoverbucks]

The Iris Nebula
Telescope - Celestron RASA f/2
Camera - Zwo ASI 2600 MC Pro
Mount - Celestron CGX
Filter - none
Exposure 200x2min, Gain 100

[Mathieu80]

NGC40 by Mathieu Guinot, sur Flickr

Hi all,

Here is the planetary nebula NGC 40, or Caldwell 2 (also known as the Bow-Tie Nebula), surrounded by a part of CTA 1 (SNR G119.5 +10.2) which is an extremely faint supernova remnant that consists of a 1.5 x 1 degree filamentary shell.
Both of these objects are located in Cepheus constellation, but NGC 40 is approximatively 4,500 years old and at a distance of about 3.500 light-years while CTA1 is approximatively 10000 years old and at a distance of about 5000 light years.
NGC40's apparent size is only about 1 arc minute, but it presents interesting structures and the central star is clearly visible.

42h exposures from March to May 2023 in Amiens, France with :
Telescope Takahashi TOA 130
Mount EQ6r
Camera ZWO 2600mm & LRGBHO filters

HOO – RGB composition made with Pixinsight & Phototshop.

Copyright : Mathieu Guinot

Best regards

[barretosmed]

The open Cluster in Triangulum Australe - NGC 6025


MORE DETAILS
https://www.astrobin.com/full/yoqfr8/0/

EQUIPMENT:
ZWO ASI 6200MC COLED
Esprit 150mm
72X 100"
DATE: from 04/10/2023 to 04/21/203

Location: Munhoz - MG - Brazil
PROCESSING AND CAPTURE:
Adobe Lightroom Classic · Adobe Photoshop · Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight

Author: Fernando Oliveira de Menezes
Email: Barretosmed@hotmail.com
(Organizing author of the book Astrofotografia Amadora no Brasil)
[https://clubedeautores.com.br/livro/ast ... -no-brasil

Click to view full size image

[Bob Dobber]

Hi all - first time trying this so may well not work, but here's the Crescent Nebula NGC6888 in HOO, imaged in my backyard in England, Bortle 6.
8h55m total, 4h30m Ha (ZWO filter), 4h25m Oiii (Antlia 4.5Nm filter) - all 300s subs

Hope you like!!

Scope: SW MN190
Mount: SW NEQ6
Camera: ZWO 533MM-Pro
Image acquisition: NINA and PHD2
Processing: DSS and PI

@dobberastro on Instagram
Bob Dobber on Flickr



Crescent Nebula NGC6888 by Bob Dobber, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/529 ... 8420_o.jpg

[WolfHeart]

Valley of Whales Milkyway Panorama Arch

Valley of Whales Milkyway Panorama Arch by Ahmed Waddah, on Flickr

I finally got to shoot a colorful Milkyway Panorama Arch over the Valley of Whales Mountain in Al Fayoum Desert in Egypt

Image is a composite where sky and foreground were imaged on different nights.

Foreground was shot on the 16th of April during blue hour but it was a windy so taking a pano for the sky would be risky so I came back on the 20th and shot the sky pano a couple of kilos back on higher ground near Al Monfareda Rock to capture the beautiful air glow blocked by the mountain.

Foreground: 1 Row x 3 - D850 - 1/13s - ISO 100 - 20mm f/1.8 @f8 in landscape mode

Sky: 2 rows x 14 Panel - Nikon Z6II (Astro-modified) - Nikon 14-24mm S f/2.8 - 24mm f2.8 in Vertical mode - ISO 1250. 12 vertical panels would be perfect for a 180 pano but having an extra panel on each side makes it easier to crop in post!

Fornax Lightrack III

https://www.astrobin.com/2aoiua/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/waddah.photography
Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/users/WolfHeart/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/waddahphotography/

[the_astronomy_enthusiast]

The Tarantula Nebula by William Ostling, on Flickr

Full write-up here: https://theastroenthusiast.com/the-tarantula-nebula/

The tarantula nebula is probably my favorite region in the night sky. The sheer expansive spread of the nebula, the complexity in the outstretched tendrils, the thousands of different colors, all come together form this incredible spread of gas and dust. This data from telescope live was incredibly deep despite the low integration time, as the sheer brightness of the region makes it really easy to image.

The Tarantula Nebula, also known as 30 Doradus, is more than a thousand light-years in diameter, a giant star forming region within nearby satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud. About 180 thousand light-years away, it’s the largest, most violent star forming region known in the whole Local Group of galaxies. The cosmic arachnid sprawls across this spectacular view, composed with narrowband filter data centered on emission from ionized hydrogen atoms. Within the Tarantula (NGC 2070), intense radiation, stellar winds and supernova shocks from the central young cluster of massive stars, cataloged as R136, energize the nebular glow and shape the spidery filaments. Around the Tarantula are other star forming regions with young star clusters, filaments, and blown-out bubble-shaped clouds. In fact, the frame includes the site of the closest supernova in modern times, SN 1987A, left of center. The rich field of view spans about 1 degree or 2 full moons, in the southern constellation Dorado. But were the Tarantula Nebula closer, say 1,500 light-years distant like the local star forming Orion Nebula, it would take up half the sky.

Website: https://theastroenthusiast.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_astronomy_enthusiast/

[Chris Peterson]

Melotte 15
Melotte 15 is the open cluster that sits at the center of IC 1805, the Heart Nebula, and energizes its emissions.

Details:
QSI 660 camera on 250mm RC, Astronomic H-alpha and [O III] filters
H-alpha 35 x 300s (175 min) mapped to red
[O III] 34 x 300s (170 min) mapped to cyan
Processed with PixInsight and Photoshop
Final image resolution 0.93 arcsec/pixel, 21 arcminute wide field
_

[Chris Peterson]

Messier 51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy
An old standard, always worth revisiting! (Along with NGC 5195, the smaller galaxy with which it is interacting.)

Details:
QSI 660 camera on 250mm RC, Astronomic LRGB filters
Lum 8 hours
RGB 15 minutes each
Processed with PixInsight and Photoshop
Final image resolution 0.46 arcsec/pixel, 21 arcminute wide field
_

[Chris Peterson]

Messier 94
This is an interesting spiral galaxy with a pair of ring structures, the inner one rich in star formation. M 94 appears to have little or no dark matter, so its formation and current structure are not well understood.

Details:
QSI 660 camera on 250mm RC, Astronomic LRGB filters
Lum 6.35 hours
RGB 48 minutes each
Processed with PixInsight and Photoshop
Final image resolution 0.62 arcsec/pixel, 21 arcminute wide field
_

[Chris Peterson]

NGC 7023 - The Iris Nebula
A beautiful reflection nebula (technically, NGC 7023 is the central star cluster, and the nebula is cataloged as LBN 487) illuminated by the bright 6.8 magnitude star dominating its center.

Details:
QSI 660 camera on 250mm RC, Astronomic LRGB filters
RGB 3.7 hours each
Processed with PixInsight and Photoshop
Final image resolution 0.79 arcsec/pixel, 21 arcminute wide field
_

[Ann]

NGC 7023 - The Iris Nebula
A beautiful reflection nebula (technically, NGC 7023 is the central star cluster, and the nebula is cataloged as LBN 487) illuminated by the bright 6.8 magnitude star dominating its center.

Details:
QSI 660 camera on 250mm RC, Astronomic LRGB filters
RGB 3.7 hours each
Processed with PixInsight and Photoshop
Final image resolution 0.79 arcsec/pixel, 21 arcminute wide field
_
NGC7023_cb.jpg

Beautifully done, Chris! Of course I love the blue Iris Nebula - how could I not? - and you have done it beautiful justice! I particularly like the faint, faint shades of pink in some nebular strands near the illuminating star HD 200775. This star is spectral class B2V and "just one spectral class too cool" to ionize an emission nebula. At spectral class B1V, stars are hot enough to ionize a nebula. After all, the Cocoon Nebula is ionized by a star of spectral class B1V.

But the pink strands visible in your picture of the Iris Nebula shows that HD 200775 is "trying to" ionize the gas around itself, but only succeeding where gas has been piled up near the star itself. Ah, but the star is pumping out so much blue light that it lights up a lovely reflection nebula!

Ann

[Ann]

Wow, Chris, there's more! Much more! I just started from the end and saw the Iris Nebula!

So let's start from the beginning with the Heart Nebula. You are probably aware of what I think of mapped color images: they are not my favorites. But your image looks very good indeed. I see to my surprise that your Heart Nebula picture is a two-filter image. Really??? It looks so much better than such images usually do! You have created a rich palette of (natural-looking!!!) colors and a great sense of depth within the nebula. The star colors look very realistic, too.

On to the Whirlpool Galaxy. My first reaction was, oh, another M51 picture, how many have I seen? But on closer inspection, your image looks very good. Really! You have done so many details such great justice without going overboard and overdoing it.

The long yellow tidal tails of old stars emanating from the smaller galaxy NGC 5195 look great. As for M51, I love the subtle colors. There is exactly the right amount of blue, pink, yellow and various shades of dusty brown in your portrait of this iconic spiral. The arms are just the right shade of blue, and the inner-arm region is very beige indeed from old stars mixed with dust, as it should be! And there is just the right amount of pink from emission nebulas in the arms.

A subtle but amazing little detail is that I read somewhere that the original arms of M51 were not at all as long as they are now, and that they have grown longer as a result of the tidal interaction with NGC 5195. Well, in your image we can actually see where "the original arms" ended! One of the arms would have ended at about 8 o'clock and the other at about 2 o'clock! The rest is extensions!

And of course, I love the little barbell-shaped background galaxy at about 4 o'clock.

And now on to the rather amazing-looking M94! It goes without saying that I absolutely love the blue (and pink) ring of star formation. But the entire galaxy looks fantastic, as if it was made up of a series of nested rings. The Hubble picture of this galaxy shows a small inner bar surrounded by an incomplete dust ring. Then there is the brilliant blue ring of young stars, and then, as we can see from your image, there is a large brownish-beige ring reminiscent of a donut, and then there is a ring-shaped gap, and then there is another, faint outer ring! Amazing! By the way, I didn't know that this galaxy is mostly lacking in dark matter, and that astronomers don't really understand its formation or current structure.

I love the colors of your portrait of M94, too. Inside the bright blue ring the galaxy is bright yellow, and outside of the blue ring the galaxy is mostly beige-brown (which is, of course, a fainter, darker shade of yellow). A few little flecks of blue and pink are seen in the the large beige "donut". Amazing!

Great images, Chris, I really appreciate them!

Ann

[Chris Peterson]

Wow, Chris, there's more! Much more! I just started from the end and saw the Iris Nebula!

So let's start from the beginning with the Heart Nebula. You are probably aware of what I think of mapped color images: they are not my favorites. But your image looks very good indeed. I see to my surprise that your Heart Nebula picture is a two-filter image. Really??? It looks so much better than such images usually do! You have created a rich palette of (natural-looking!!!) colors and a great sense of depth within the nebula. The star colors look very realistic, too.

On to the Whirlpool Galaxy. My first reaction was, oh, another M51 picture, how many have I seen? But on closer inspection, your image looks very good. Really! You have done so many details such great justice without going overboard and overdoing it.

The long yellow tidal tails of old stars emanating from the smaller galaxy NGC 5195 look great. As for M51, I love the subtle colors. There is exactly the right amount of blue, pink, yellow and various shades of dusty brown in your portrait of this iconic spiral. The arms are just the right shade of blue, and the inner-arm region is very beige indeed from old stars mixed with dust, as it should be! And there is just the right amount of pink from emission nebulas in the arms.

A subtle but amazing little detail is that I read somewhere that the original arms of M51 were not at all as long as they are now, and that they have grown longer as a result of the tidal interaction with NGC 5195. Well, in your image we can actually see where "the original arms" ended! One of the arms would have ended at about 8 o'clock and the other at about 2 o'clock! The rest is extensions!

And of course, I love the little barbell-shaped background galaxy at about 4 o'clock.

And now on to the rather amazing-looking M94! It goes without saying that I absolutely love the blue (and pink) ring of star formation. But the entire galaxy looks fantastic, as if it was made up of a series of nested rings. The Hubble picture of this galaxy shows a small inner bar surrounded by an incomplete dust ring. Then there is the brilliant blue ring of young stars, and then, as we can see from your image, there is a large brownish-beige ring reminiscent of a donut, and then there is a ring-shaped gap, and then there is another, faint outer ring! Amazing! By the way, I didn't know that this galaxy is mostly lacking in dark matter, and that astronomers don't really understand its formation or current structure.

I love the colors of your portrait of M94, too. Inside the bright blue ring the galaxy is bright yellow, and outside of the blue ring the galaxy is mostly beige-brown (which is, of course, a fainter, darker shade of yellow). A few little flecks of blue and pink are seen in the the large beige "donut". Amazing!

Great images, Chris, I really appreciate them! :D

Ann

Thanks, Ann! Lots of rain and snow here lately, so lots of time working out my processing workflow. PixInsight has a brilliant tool that calibrates the color mathematically using the Gaia spectroscopic database along with the filter and QE curves for my camera. I'm being very careful to use that tool and then to not do any processing that alters the hues, other than playing with saturation somewhat. So I think that the colors I'm getting for the final images make sense both scientifically and aesthetically.

[Oliver64]

Hi everyone,

Yesterday 17th of may i had only 3 hours with clear sky in Averyon France then I try to image in 4 panels the complex of Rhô Ophuichus and the begining of the milky way which it s start to appear on good condition here.

Made with sigma art 85mmand my new canon R6 mod astrodon, and my simple mount eq3-2.
Around 45 frames per panels so in total a bit less of 3h integrtion.

[atomo]

Hi guys, here 51 hrs of NGC3293 region.
Telescope: SharpStar 150 f2,8
Guide Scope:Evoguide
Mount : Skywatcher HEQ5
Imaging camera: ZWO 2600MC
Guiding camera: ZWO 290 MC
Filters: NBZ Idas,Optolong Lpro
Plate solving: SGpro
Imaging software: Sgpro
Guiding software: PHD2
Processing software: Pixinsight
NBZ: 258X600s exposure@100 Gain
Lpro:48X600s exposure@ 0 Gain
Integration: 51hrs

copyright@DavideMancini

Click to view full size image

[Christian G.]

NGC 7023 - The Iris Nebula
A beautiful reflection nebula (technically, NGC 7023 is the central star cluster, and the nebula is cataloged as LBN 487) illuminated by the bright 6.8 magnitude star dominating its center.

Details:
QSI 660 camera on 250mm RC, Astronomic LRGB filters
RGB 3.7 hours each
Processed with PixInsight and Photoshop
Final image resolution 0.79 arcsec/pixel, 21 arcminute wide field
_
NGC7023_cb.jpg

Enchanting!

[AaronW]

Click to view full size image

I live and image in Santa Monica, CA. The sunshine, beach, and ocean are ever present in the lives of those who live here. How fitting, then, to find the very same elements within NGC 1499, colloquially known as the California Nebula. Rusty orange sunsets reflecting their dark orange light onto the beach sand, mountainous ranges, waves lapping the beach, and a tranquil transition into the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean. It’s all here in this 110-megapixel, 2-panel mosaic, Hubble palette rendition of the California nebula.

The H-alpha signal is very strong, but substantial time on OIII allowed me to bring out more of the faint dust surrounding the nebula and recreate a scene that felt like home, even though this object is ~1,500 years away.

Taken over 13 nights in late 2022, this image comprises over 90 hours of integration (36 of which are OIII), and was taken from my backyard in Santa Monica, CA under Bortle 7 skies. Processing was done entirely in PixInsight, and the gear used was as follows:

Camera: ZWO ASI6200MM-pro
Scope: William Optics Fluorostar 132mm Refractor
Mount: Astro-Physics Mach2GTO
Filters: Chroma 3nm Ha/SII/OIII 50mm
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI174MM-mini
Accessories: ZWO OAG-L, Pegasus Powerbox Advance

Additional detail is available at the following link:

https://www.astrobin.com/92y26t/0/
https://cdn.astrobin.com/thumbs/Y3irFB8 ... 2QpFNw.jpg

Respectfully submitted,
Aaron Wilhelm

[barretosmed]

MINERAL MOON (MOON IN FALSE COLOR)


MORE DETAILS
https://www.astrobin.com/full/3bpwv3/0/


The Moon is usually seen in subtle shades of gray or yellow.
The different colors are recognized as corresponding to real differences in the chemical composition of the lunar surface.
The blue tones reveal areas rich in ilmenite, which contain iron, titanium and oxygen, mainly titanium, while the orange and purple colors show regions relatively poor in titanium and iron. The white/gray tones refer to areas with greater sun exposure.

EQUIPMENT:
ZWO ASI 6200MC COLED
Esprit 150mm
Baader Lunar Filter

Date: 05/01/2023
Location: Munhoz - MG - Brazil


PROCESSING AND CAPTURE: Software: Adobe Photoshop, SharpCap, AutoStakkert AutoStackert and Registax 6.
Copyright: Fernando Oliveira de Menezes
Email: Barretosmed@hotmail.com
(Organizing author of the book Astrofotografia Amadora no Brasil)https://clubedeautores.com.br/livro/ast ... -no-brasil

Click to view full size image

[df_astro]

Blue Horsehead Nebula
https://www.facebook.com/df.astrophotography
Copyright:

https://i.imgur.com/Vw3Salt.jpg


The Blue Horsehead Nebula, also known as IC 4592, is a reflection nebula in the Scorpius constellation and is located about 400 light years from Earth.
This image was the result of my first trip with my astrophotography setup to a Bortle 1 location. Despite the cold weather it was definitely worth it.
9 hours of integration with LRGB filters in Bortle 1 skies from Lake Grace, Western Australia.

Equipment
Telescope: William Optics RedCat51
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI294MM Pro @ -10C, 121 Gain, Bin 2
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290MM Mini + ZWO OAG
Mount: Sky-Watcher NEQ6 Pro
Filters: Astronomik LRGB

Acquisition
69x120s Blue
69x120s Green
66x120s Luminance
68x120s Red

Processed in PixInsight

[Astrodude13]

Lagoon & Trifid Nebula by Blake Estes, on Flickr
Exposure data:
Celestron 14" Edge HD With Hyperstar V4
ZWO 6200MC
Paramount ME
260x120 Sec Exposures

[Oliver64]

Good evening
Back on astrophotography after a lot of months of disastrous weather, I manage yesterday to shoot with the 3 sets up that I will use in the evening from now !
One week on holiday with the AAV association for astronomy, we are in the Aveyron (France) with a bad weather however, this morning around 1am miraculously we had 3 hours of clear night and especially without light cloudy sail!
So I took out the 3 sets up urgently after the clouds so here I shot Rhô Ophiuchus present next to the bulb of the Milky Way with the redcat 51 at 250mm focal length.
Photo made with the collaboration of Philippe Bernhard for the treatment.
https://astrob.in/0pskb3/0/rawthumb/hd/get.jpg?insecure



Technical details:
Redcat51 Lens
Canon 6d camera defiltered Photomax
Heq5 goto pro mount
54 exposures of 3min
Bortle 3
Have a good sky !

[Kinch]

Stars (In way of SH2-54)

Click on above to enlarge.

Higher Resolution @ https://www.astrobin.com/x5jkma/B/

[barretosmed]

The globular cluster in the constellation Ara- NGC 6397


BEST DETAILS
https://www.astrobin.com/full/euqdd4/0/

EQUIPMENT:
Esprit 150mm triplet
zwo asi 6200mc
Mount CEM120
Frames 189X100"

LOCATION: Munhoz - MG - Brazil
DATES: 05/05/2023 to 05/11/2023

PROCESSING AND CAPTURE:
Adobe Lightroom Classic Adobe Photoshop Han K. Astrometric STAcking Program (ASTAP) Main Sequence Software Sequence Generator Pro (SGP) Open PHD Guiding Project PHD2 Pavel Mráz SkytechX Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight

Author: Fernando Oliveira de Menezes
Email: Barretosmed@hotmail.com
(Organizing author of the book Amateur Astrophotography in Brazil)
https://clubedeautores.com.br/livro/ast ... -no-brasil

Click to view full size image

[ethanwyh96]

NGC 5367: A Southern Blue Snowball

Click to view full size image

NGC 5367, a captivating celestial object, reveals its wonders against the backdrop of pristine Bortle 1 skies. Situated in the vast expanse of the cosmos, NGC 5367 is a nebula that showcases a complex interplay of cosmic phenomena. At its core lies the origin of the ethereal dust, a result of intricate processes and astronomical events. The interstellar medium gives rise to this captivating feature as a product of stellar birth and death, as massive stars reach the end of their life cycle and expel their enriched material into the surrounding space. These dust particles, suspended in the cosmic abyss, scatter and reflect starlight, creating a mesmerizing tapestry of colors and textures that draws the viewer into the enigmatic depths of the universe.

Imaged in Yalgoo, Western Australia
Stacked and processed in Pixinsight, final tweaks in PS CC6

Imaing details and higher resolution can be found here: https://www.deep-space-project.com/ngc5367

[Naztronomy]

The Milky Way Galaxy
https://www.Naztronomy.com
Copyright: Nazmus Nasir

Higher resolution image here: https://www.naztronomy.com/images/portf ... galaxy.jpg (even higher can be provided)

Taken in June 2022 from the Catskills in Upstate NY, this is only a 29 minute exposure of the milky way. Stacked and processed using Sequator and Photoshop (how to here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3-_4FDF494).