Starship Asterisk*

The Copeland Septet - or the poor man's Hubble Deep Field from the back garden

I’ve always wondered how “deep” I can see into the Universe with an amateur equipment, this image is the result of the experiment.
Leo is full of galaxies anyway, so I was hoping that other than the seven / eight members would be seen.
The end result was 38 galaxies for my astonishment and joy, some of which are so faint I didn't find them in any of the catalogs I know.
The limiting magnitude of the image is around 22.
The more I look at the picture, the more I realize how insignificant and little I am with the whole Planet Earth, so I rather stopped looking.

Equipment:
351*2 min light frames (=11,7h) in April 2020., 30 flat and bias (didn't need darks)
Scope: Celestron NexStar 8SE + f/6.3 reductor+ AVX GEM
Main camera: Starlight Xpress H9C + Optolong UV/IR cut filter+ Sequence Generator Pro
Guiding: Celestron Off-axis guider + Starlight Xpress Lodestar + PHD2
Bortle 5 sky
Processing: PixInsight and for the annotation: GIMP

Attached the original full picture and an annotated one as well.

Dear All, I wish you Very Happy Holidays in advance!!

Krisztian from Hungary

The Great Conjunction

Copyright: Behyar Bakhshandeh, Carlsbad, CA
http://www.deepskyobjects.com/

Dec 21st, 2020 The 4 day approach

drbilbobaggins wrote: ↑Tue Dec 22, 2020 2:21 pm The Copeland Septet - or the poor man's Hubble Deep Field from the back garden

I’ve always wondered how “deep” I can see into the Universe with an amateur equipment, this image is the result of the experiment.
Leo is full of galaxies anyway, so I was hoping that other than the seven / eight members would be seen.
The end result was 38 galaxies for my astonishment and joy, some of which are so faint I didn't find them in any of the catalogs I know.
The limiting magnitude of the image is around 22.
The more I look at the picture, the more I realize how insignificant and little I am with the whole Planet Earth, so I rather stopped looking.

Equipment:
351*2 min light frames (=11,7h) in April 2020., 30 flat and bias (didn't need darks)
Scope: Celestron NexStar 8SE + f/6.3 reductor+ AVX GEM
Main camera: Starlight Xpress H9C + Optolong UV/IR cut filter+ Sequence Generator Pro
Guiding: Celestron Off-axis guider + Starlight Xpress Lodestar + PHD2
Bortle 5 sky
Processing: PixInsight and for the annotation: GIMP

Attached the original full picture and an annotated one as well.

Dear All, I wish you Very Happy Holidays in advance!!

Krisztian from Hungary

Copeland septet c.jpg

Copeland septet annotated c.jpg

That's very well done capturing this faint galaxy group in such fine detail, Krisztian! As a lover of all blue things, I'm particularly happy that you managed to bring out the knotty bluish ring of NGC 3754! And of course, I love your portrait of NGC 3753 too, this weird edge-on spiral that seems to have suffered a "fracture" at one end of its disk, and it seems to be "spitting out" a diffuse tidal tail out of its gaping "mouth"!

You have done a splendid job of capturing the delicate arms of barred spiral galaxy NGC 3746, too.

Again, that's a lovely picture. Welcome to Starship Asterisk*!

Ann

Reprocess of SH2-114 - The Flying Dragon.
Imaging telescopes or lenses: Takahashi FSQ130ED
Imaging cameras: FLI ML16200
Astrodon Ha 72 x 10'
Astrodon SII 42 x 10'
Astrodon RGB 3 x 30 x 3'
​Total Time: 23½ Hours
Full info @ : https://www.kinchastro.com/sh2-114---th ... ragon.html

Yep...
One more conjunction to the arsenal...

Imaged by Chilescope 1M RC @ F6.8
Processed by me,

Kfir Simon

https://pbase.com/tango33/image/171292372

The Spider Nebula. KG Observatory, Julian, CA.

https://www.astrobin.com/x953my/B/

Ann wrote: ↑Tue Dec 22, 2020 8:10 pm

drbilbobaggins wrote: ↑Tue Dec 22, 2020 2:21 pm The Copeland Septet - or the poor man's Hubble Deep Field from the back garden

I’ve always wondered how “deep” I can see into the Universe with an amateur equipment, this image is the result of the experiment.
Leo is full of galaxies anyway, so I was hoping that other than the seven / eight members would be seen.
The end result was 38 galaxies for my astonishment and joy, some of which are so faint I didn't find them in any of the catalogs I know.
The limiting magnitude of the image is around 22.
The more I look at the picture, the more I realize how insignificant and little I am with the whole Planet Earth, so I rather stopped looking.

Equipment:
351*2 min light frames (=11,7h) in April 2020., 30 flat and bias (didn't need darks)
Scope: Celestron NexStar 8SE + f/6.3 reductor+ AVX GEM
Main camera: Starlight Xpress H9C + Optolong UV/IR cut filter+ Sequence Generator Pro
Guiding: Celestron Off-axis guider + Starlight Xpress Lodestar + PHD2
Bortle 5 sky
Processing: PixInsight and for the annotation: GIMP

Attached the original full picture and an annotated one as well.

Dear All, I wish you Very Happy Holidays in advance!!

Krisztian from Hungary

Copeland septet c.jpg

Copeland septet annotated c.jpg

That's very well done capturing this faint galaxy group in such fine detail, Krisztian! As a lover of all blue things, I'm particularly happy that you managed to bring out the knotty bluish ring of NGC 3754! And of course, I love your portrait of NGC 3753 too, this weird edge-on spiral that seems to have suffered a "fracture" at one end of its disk, and it seems to be "spitting out" a diffuse tidal tail out of its gaping "mouth"!

You have done a splendid job of capturing the delicate arms of barred spiral galaxy NGC 3746, too.

Again, that's a lovely picture. Welcome to Starship Asterisk*!

Ann

Thank you for your kind words!
Krisztian

The chromosphere during the Great Patagonian Eclipse

Diamond rings, Baily's beads, and a view near maximum eclipse, to display the variety of prominances and other chromosphere treats during the total solar eclipse of 14th December.

Canon T3i, Tamron 18-270
Pichi Picún Leufú (Neuquén, Argentina)

Guillermo Abramson

The day of the great conjunction finally arrived, and I was able to take this picture combining 4 different exposures in near IR light. Jupiter can be seen with its four main moons (Europa, Ganymede just starting to transit Jupiter, Io and Callisto) and below Saturn Titan can be seen. Taken from Monterrey, Mexico.
Telescope Celestron Evolution 8, camera ZWO ASI183MM, Baader IR pass filter of 685nm. Processed with AutoStakkert!3, Registax and Photoshop. https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=101 ... 1335175844

During the past week I was able to witness this amazing phenomenon, the Total Solar Eclipse. Between 2:06 minutes of totality, I was able to take some captures using my Newtonian telescope and my reflex camera. I share with you some photos taken at the end.

Hope you like it.

Shining Diamond Ring
Location: Valcheta, Río Negro, Argentina - 14/12/2020
Telescope: Hokenn 150/750 - SW Eq5 mount
Camera: Nikon D80
Copyright: Maxi Falieres

Abell 78: A planetary nebula with 'born-again' progenitor star
Copyright: Luca Marinelli
Location: Schenectady, NY

Abell 78 (PK 081-14.1, PN G 081.2-14.9) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Cygnus discovered in 1966 by George Abell. It spans 1.4 light years in diameter and is located roughly 5,300 light years away. Planetary nebulae are formed by the expanding gas shell around a white dwarf progenitor star, the late-stage evolutionary phase of small to medium size stars, not massive enough to explode into a supernova. Having exhausted the nuclear fuel in their cores, these stars collapse to become dense white dwarfs.

What is unusual about the white dwarf star visible at the center of Abell 78 is that it has reignited and come back to life, hence the moniker 'born-again star'. Only a handful of such born-again stars have been discovered. Although nuclear burning of hydrogen and helium had stopped in the core of the dying star, some of the star's outer layers became so dense that fusion of helium resumed there. The renewed nuclear activity started another much faster stellar wind, blowing more material away. The interplay between the old and new outflows has shaped the cloud's complex structure.

Abell 78 is a small planetary nebula (113"x88"). In spite of its reasonable brightness, I collected a significant amount of data to allow me to stretch the background and select low-FWHM subs to highlight the intricate structure of this small DSO.

High-resolution image and full details: https://astrob.in/0kfoht/0/

References:
http://www.esa.int/E...lanetary_nebula
J.B. Kaler & W.A. Feibelman, The central star of the planetary nebula Abell 78, Astrophysical Journal 282 (1984), 719-727.

Equipment:
TS ONTC 10in f4 Newtonian
TeleVue Paracorr Type 2
ZWO ASI1600MM Pro
AP1100GTO
Astrodon 3nm Ha, OIII and RGB filters

Total integration time: 42 hours

Software:
SGP v3 and v4
PHD2
APCC Pro
Pixinsight 1.8
Photoshop CC
Topaz DenoiseAI

Geminids Meteor Shower 2020

In the image there are 94 of the biggest metoer shot during the night peak 13-14 December, selected from 1265 photos. I spent all the night photografing about 170 meteors in total. Hope you like it.

Meteors: 15s f/2 ISO 3200
Landscape: 60s f/2.8 ISO 1250
Lightpainting: 60s f/5.6 ISO 2000
Selfie: 10s f/5 ISO 2000

Copyright: Folle Pierandrea
Geminids Meteor Shower 2020 by Pierandrea Folle, su Flickr

A Christmas Tree Ornament -Simeis 147
4 panel HARGB image with 60 hours exposure
Setup DDM60 mount, Moravian G3-16200, Takahashi fsq85
for better resolution

LBN 762 in Aries :

Lbn 762 - my old image reworked with a new lrgb (2 h) from Chilescope. by gc.iaffaldano, su Flickr

Copyright Iaffaldano GC,

Hi,

My submission:
IC 405, the Flaming Star Nebula.



Tech card:
Imaging telescope: Explore Scientific 80mm ED APO triplet.
Imaging camera: ZWO ASI1600MM Pro-Cool.
Mount: iOptron CEM60.
Total integration: 2.5 hours.
A re-process of my data of Jan 13, 2020.
Location: Abu Dhabi desert, United Arab Emirates.

https://flic.kr/p/2kkqmsC

Copyright: Wissam Ayoub.

Thank you,

Imaged on December 21, in Southern Florida using a small tracker mount and dslr. 15 second exposures x2

Orion nebula & Horsehead nebula from a wide angle

Imaged from backyard in Santa Clara, CA on 12/05/2020.

Equipment used:

Telescope - Redcat 51
Imaging camera - ZWO ASI294MC
Imaging filter - Optolong L-enhance
Guide camera - ZWO ASI120MC-S
Mount - Celestron CGEM DX

Total integration of 105x4' lights at gain 120 and -20C temperature, 20 dark frames, 15 flat frames and 15 dark flat frames.

Orion widefield by Anirban Ray

Abell 21 - Madusa Nebula
Full info @ https://www.kinchastro.com/abell-21-202 ... ebula.html

Hi,

SH2-308 Star Bubble / The Dolphin Nebula.



Imaging telescope: Explore Scientific 127mm ED TRIPLET APO.
Imaging camera: ZWO ASI1600MM Pro-Cool.
Mount: iOptron CEM60.
Chroma 3nm Ha: 24x600" (gain: 200.00) -20C bin 1x1
Chroma 3nm OIII: 15x600" (gain: 200.00) -20C bin 1x1
Total integration: 6.5 hours.
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 4.00.
A re-process of my data of Jan 24, 25 and 29, 2020.
Imaging location: UAE desert, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

https://flic.kr/p/2kkEMHL

Copyright: Wissam Ayoub.

Thank you,

NGC 1097

LRGB : full size : http://www.cielaustral.com/galerie/photo128f.jpg

16 Hrs total frames
done with CDK20, Moravian G4-16000 on Paramount ME2 near Actacama Desert in Chile, El Sauce Observatory

http://www.cielaustral.com
Copyright: Team CielAustral with J.C CANONNE, G.CHASSAIGNE, N.OUTTERS, P. BERNHARD, D. CHAPLAIN & L. BOURGON

Bright airglow at Paranal Observatory by Juan-Carlos Munoz-Mateos, on Flickr

The Morning Star
Copyright: György Soponyai

This photo presents the celestial path of planet Venus on the Eastern sky between end of June and the middle of December capturing with a wide-field and a telephoto lens near Mogyoród, Hungary. The pictures were taken at the time when the Sun was located exactly seven degrees below the horizon.

At the bottom of the photo I tried to demonstrate the change of the visible size and phase of Venus as it slowly turned from crescent to a disk.



2020.06.28. - 2020.12.09. (foreground: 2020.09.06)
Mogyoród, Hungary
Canon EOS 5D Mark II + Samyang EF 24/1.4 + Tamron EF 150-600 @600mm

STROTTNER-DRECHSLER 1 / COCO'S NEBULA

StDr1 (PNG 185.1+-0.9) is a new spectrum confirmed planetary nebula (PN) in the constellation of Taurus.
The PN was discovered in October 2019 by the French-German research team Marcel Drechsler and Xavier Strottner.
The potential central star of StDr 1 is located at coordinates 05:53:48.86 +24:02:41.45.
If this star is used as a calculation basis, then StDr 1 is located at a distance of 9203 light years from Earth.
For a PN at this distance, it is unusually bright.
In addition, this photo was the first to detect an annular H-alpha structure around StDr 1.
*
Discoverers: Marcel Drechsler, Xavier Strottner
Photographer: Rochus Hess
Image processing: Marcel Drechsler
Location: Vega Observatory Haus der Natur Salzburg (Austria)
Telescope: 1 metre ASA telescope at the "Vega Observatory Haus der Natur Salzburg"
Camera: FLI MicroLine 16803
Exposure: 26x20min H-Alpha, 17x20min OIII and 6x5min RGB each, total 15.8 hours

Copyright: Rochus Hess larger resolution
http://www.astrofotografie-hess.at/stdr1.html

full resolution
http://www.astrofotografie-hess.at/asse ... _large.jpg

e-mail: rochus_hess@aon.at

WIth the Great Conjunction observed widely, I was struck by the image taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/1174)- it looked more -or-less like my own image(s) despite the much more expensive equipment and exotic location.

I realized that the baseline of about 245,000 miles should make for a noticeable 3-D effect by combining the Earth-based and lunar images. My image (the left one in the pair) is a 1/30sec exposure using a C-5 (1250mm f.l.) taken in Ames, IA at 23:30UTC on 12/21.

The two images were taken about 2 hours 15m apart (LRO at 21:15UTC, mine at 23:30UTC) - in that time, Jupiter moved about twice its own diameter (along the plane of its rings) to the East with respect to Saturn. So to do the combination, I had to 'adjust' my image by moving Jupiter to where it was at 21:15UTC. Jupiter appears larger in my image as it is a bit overexposed and affected by processing that clarified Saturn's image.

The 3D pair is designed to be viewed cross-eyed (I can provide a parallel-view or anaglyph [red-blue] version if needed. Jupiter really pops out. If the LRO image had shown the moons of Jupiter or background stars, that would have been better...

Hi,
I would like to submit my M1 image, that I've taken around mid December 2020.

Rig details:
Mount: Avalon Instruments Linear Fast Reverse
OTA: Celestron EdgeHD 8” SCT, reduced to 1500mm at F7
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM Pro + Astronomik 6nm narrowband filters
Autoguiding: ZWO ASI290MM + ZWO OAG
Integration: 100/112/110 S2/Ha/O3 frames with 5 minutes exposure time. ~27 hours total
https://cdn.astrobin.com/thumbs/jh1DL79 ... 9Sel4c.jpg

Full resolution https://cdn.astrobin.com/thumbs/jh1DL79 ... czOqwr.jpg

The first entry in the Messier catalog is also known as the Crab Nebula. The supernova remnant is in the constellation of Taurus. It lies 6,500 light-years from Earth, and measures about 13 light-years across.

The analysis of early photographs of the nebula taken years apart revealed that it was expanding. Tracing the expansion back revealed that the nebula must have become visible on Earth about 900 years before.

Historical records revealed that a new star bright enough to be seen in the daytime had been recorded in the same part of the sky by Chinese astronomers on 4 July 1054. The supernova was visible to the naked eye for about two years. It is expanding at a rate of about 1,500 kilometers per second, or 0.5% of the speed of light. (Source: Wikipedia)

Humanity has come a long way. I can imagine the look on the faces of the people who traced back this supernova remnant to an explosion recorded in our relatively recent history. I wonder if Betelgeuse will give us a similar experience in our lifetime.

Clear Skies,
Michel Makhlouta