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Hi friends!
My last image!
Thor's Helmet
Date capture: 03/01/2024
Location: Torroja del Priorat, Tarragona
Telescope: Askar 103 apo
CMOS: ZWO ASI 2600MC DUO
Filter: Optolong L-Enhance
43 subs of 300"
Mount: AM5
Thor's Helmet by Carlos Uriarte, en Flickr

10 months and 300 hours of image processing later, I'm pleased to present the results of my epic Exmouth eclipse expedition.

Images were captured with three 6" and one 4" refractors, plus two 8K video cameras out of a total of five.

Full story here: https://philhart.com/exmouth-eclipse


Coronal Streamers (north up)
Eclipse with Coronal Mass Ejection (550mm, south up as viewed in Exmouth)
Coronal Streamers (cropped from 930mm field of view)
Exmouth Eclipse - Prominences and Corona https://photos.smugmug.com/Sun/Exmouth- ... t-2-X4.jpg


Exmouth Eclipse - Prominences and Corona
High resolution prominences and corona (1575mm focal length, 0.6"/pixel)
Wide View with Coronal Mass Ejection (135mm)
Telescopes on location with live corona on camera and PC screens
North-up orientations available if preferred

1st post, please be kind!

M42 - the great orion nebula,
Celestron C9.25xlt @ F6.3
ASI 2600mc pro
Optalong L'Extreme
Skywatcher EQ6R-Pro

30 x 60s
111 x 300s = total 9h 45m

Bortle 6

https://ibb.co/mSv8BNB

"Oceanic Cosmos": The Dolphin Head Nebula in Aquatic Hues.

My latest acquisition, not sure how I feel about this yet, I may choose to add more data later.
All my socials here: https://linktr.ee/deepskyjourney


ABOUT THE ACQUISITION


Despite being observed from a Bortle 6 location in my Brisbane backyard, the nebula's charm is vividly captured. The observation challenges however were significant due to the month's full moon and suboptimal FWHM readings between 2.76" and 3.46" due to high clouds. Because of this, I was not able to highlight the presence of a round bubble at the bottom edge of the nebula (planetary nebula candidate PNG 234.9-09.7). You can *just* slightly see its presence if you know what you're looking for.


Nonetheless, some of the nebula's details were seized at a modest focal length of 250mm using a RedCat 51 telescope. The image is further embellished by the bright presence of the red-orange supergiant O¹ Canis Majoris and the stellar ensemble of the open cluster Collinder 121, adding depth to the celestial scene captured from this urban setting.


ABOUT THE WIDEVIEW


This astrophotography endeavor captures a broader celestial landscape beyond the Dolphin Nebula, spanning from -22º to -26º in declination and extending from 6h50min to 7h in right ascension. Centered at RA 06h54m14s.93 and DEC -23°51′59″.9, the image offers a wide field of view of approximately 3.007 degrees, with a pixel scale of 3.879 arcsec/pixel and oriented at -89.219 degrees. This wideview includes not only SH2-308 but also other significant astronomical features such as SH2-303 and the planetary nebulae candidates PK233-10.1 and PK236-10.1. The detailed capture of this expansive celestial region, despite the challenges posed by less-than-ideal observing conditions, showcases a rich tapestry of stellar and nebular phenomena, adding a broader context to the captivating scene centered on the Dolphin Nebula.


ABOUT THE NEBULA


The Dolphin Nebula, also known as SH2-308, is a captivating emission nebula formed by the intense ultraviolet radiation from the Wolf-Rayet star WR6, also known as EZ Canis Majoris. This star, a luminous beacon with over 600,000 times the sun's brightness yet only 26 times its mass, plays a pivotal role in the nebula's striking appearance. Predominantly illuminated by OIII emissions, the nebula's intricate structures, reminiscent of a dolphin's brain, are also accentuated in Ha emissions.


TECHNICAL DETAILS


Dates:
Feb. 17 - 18, 2024
Feb. 20 - 23, 2024
Feb. 26, 2024
Feb. 29 - March 2, 2024


Frames:
Antlia 3nm Narrowband H-alpha 36 mm: 132×300″(11h) (gain: 100.00) -10°C bin 1×1
Antlia 3nm Narrowband Oxygen III 36 mm: 94×300″(7h 50′) (gain: 100.00) -10°C bin 1×1
Antlia 3nm Narrowband Oxygen III 36 mm: 25×600″(4h 10′) (gain: 100.00) -10°C bin 1×1


Avg. Moon phase:
80.92%


Bortle Dark-Sky Scale:
6.00


Telescope: William Optics RedCat 51 II
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
Mounts: Sky-Watcher NEQ6-Pro
Filters: Antlia 3nm Narrowband H-alpha 36 mm · Antlia 3nm Narrowband Oxygen III 36 mm


Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop


Thanks for looking!

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks

Imaged at UT 2024-03-02 02:23. This comet is now showing a very complex ion tail, as well as interesting changes in its coma. I'm not sure what's creating the double coma; there doesn't appear to be any dust, so I assume most of what we're seeing is gas and ice particles. Perhaps a recent eruption of ice is scattering enough sunlight that the green CN/C₂ glow of the larger, older coma is washed out near the nucleus.
Details:
QSI 660 camera on 250mm RC, Astronomic RGB filters.
12 minutes each red, green, and blue.
Processed with PixInsight and Photoshop.
Final image resolution 0.93 arcsec/pixel, 19 arcminute wide field.
_

NGC 3628

The aptly named Hamburger Galaxy, one component of the Leo Triplet.
Details:
QSI 660 camera on 250mm RC, Astronomic RGB filters.
160 minutes each red, green, and blue (8 hours total exposure).
Processed with PixInsight and Photoshop.
Final image resolution 0.93 arcsec/pixel, 19 arcminute wide field.
_

My last photo from my observatory
Monkey Head nebula NGC 2174

Telescope: SW Esprit 150 ed with reducer
Mount: Paramount ME -no guide
CMOS: QHY268M
Filters: Antlia EDGE 4,5nm SII, Ha, OIII
19h45m exp time

The Monkey Head Nebula is a star-forming region located 6,400 lightyears away in the Orion constellation. NGC 2174, to give it is formal name, is a place where new stars are being born at a fierce and rapid rate, and these newly born stars emit powerful streams of charged particles known as stellar winds that blow the gas and dust away, removing the ingredients necessary for future stars to be born. Dark dust streams among the glowing cosmic cloud to give the nebula its ape-like appearance. Indeed, it is one of many nebulae that look like animals

Monkey Head nebula NGC 2174 by Carlos Uriarte, en Flickr

Winter Milky Way Panorama Arch over Qussor Dunes

Winter Milky Way Panorama Arch over Qussor Dunes by Ahmed Waddah, on Flickr

The Image is a stitched blended Winter Milkyway Panorama over Qussor Al Arab in Al Fayoum Egypt on the 7th of February. Foreground was taken during blue hour and sky taken later that night.


Nikon Z6II - Modified
Nikkor Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S
Fornax LIghtrack II

Sky: 4 rows x 14 panel each - 120" - f/2.8 - ISO 1600 - @24mm
Foreground 3 rows x 14 panel each - 1/8 - ISO 100 - @24mm

7th of February, 2024
Al Fayoum Desert

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

M31 - the kilohour project and the quest for Oiii by William Ostling, on Flickr

After half a year of work, the Deep Sky Collective is happy to present its latest project - a kilo hour on M31. Not only does this image set new boundaries of what’s possible with collaborative imaging, its release also marks the DSC’s anniversary project! Being launched the 13rd February last year, we never thought we could achieve what we did so far - huge thanks to everyone involved in the DSC and for keeping on believing in what we do.

Behind the scenes we’re working on in-depth tutorials for everyone to access - our hope is that other ambitious photographers out there can make use of these tutorials and get started in collaborative imaging themselves - helping us get started in a new era of collaborative imaging. Expect the first tutorials to be released in 1-2 months.


The Andromeda galaxy, also known as Messier 31, is a galaxy in the constellation Andromeda. It lies at a distance of roughly 2.5 million lightyears, making it the closest (non-satellite) galaxy to our Milky Way. M31 is a big galaxy, spanning some 200.000 ly in diameter whereas our own galaxy “only” spans some 100.000 ly in diameter. Furthermore, M31 is heading towards us at 400.000 km/h which will result in a collision that is predicted to happen in 4.5 billion years - after this collision the two galaxies will merge, forming an even bigger one, set to be named Milkdromeda.
M31 is one of the most popular targets for amateur astrophotographers, as it’s very big in the night sky and very bright, even being visible to the naked eye when observing from dark skies.
In addition to being a fun target for new astrophotographers to go after, M31 also has proven to be worth pursuing for more advanced photographers. This is due to the faint features such as the Halo surrounding M31, the dim Ha background, or the Oiii outbursts, pillar and arc just southeast of the galaxy which was only discovered in 2022 by Drechsler, M. ,Strottner , X. and Sainty Y.
This variety of interesting features made M31 the perfect target for the next Deep Sky Collective project. Having started this target in August, it also marks the longest project we ever had up until now. For this colossal effort, 22 people worked together- 1 Editor, 3 co-editors, 17 photographers and myself, coordinating the project.
Note that the final version is a blend of Uri's and Steeve's edit.

In our final image of M31 you see here, all of these amazing attributes of M31 can be found - a staggering 488h of Oiii integration was gathered to go as deep as no one managed before. For the Ha emissions in the background, a total of 314h of Ha integration were gathered to provide the deepest look yet. Besides the now traditional H-alpha and Oxygen III for M31, we also decided to do something unusual and get Sii - In the end we ended up with a total of 169h. The goal behind this was to 1) photograph the extragalactic nebulae in M31 in SHO and 2) check for any Sii in the arc - for our findings, refer to interesting features in our image.
Finally, by Mid January, and after rejecting bad frames we ended up with a record breaking 1056h (or 1 ½ month) of integration over the LRGBHaOiiiSii channels, which marks the longest integration time ever on a single panel for any astrophoto. While the results might diminish at these crazy integration times, the effort more than paid off.

Before we jump into the details of the picture, a big thank you to everyone who played a part in this project. This endeavour is a manifesto to the incredible possibilities that collaborative imaging brings to the amateur community. Working together with all of you has been a real pleasure!
Credits:
Tim Schaeffer, Carl Björk, William Ostling, Uri Darom, Steeve Body

Sébastian Brizé, Kanwar Brar, Jasper Capel, Oliver Carter, Sendhil Chinnasamy, Jake Gentillon, Antoine and Dalia Grelin, Stephen Guberski, Charlie Hagen, Richard Hall, Florent Herrbach, Jason Jacks, Tarun Kottary, Brian Meyers, Justin P., Kevin Trillsam, Jens Unger


Special thanks to:
Carl, who put in a tremendous effort - not only did he stack a staggering 5600+ files, but he also developed a whole new stacking workflow with starting help from Charlie, which vastly improves the image quality and allows for automation. Huge thanks for his immense commitment to the project - none of this would be possible without him! Eager to help the community get started with collaborative imaging, he also released the DeepSkyCollective processing suite on PixInsight, containing the newly developed tools that were used for this project. I strongly recommend checking it out on <a href="https://elveteek.ch/pixinsight" rel="noreferrer nofollow">elveteek.ch/pixinsight</a>
William, Uri and Steeve, for their impressive edits. A lot of time and skill goes into these edits, so big thanks! By having multiple edits we could cross check that all details are real.
Big thank you to Charlie who came up with the new stacking workflow which was later adapted by Carl.
Sendhil and Tarun, who gave us their excellent Bortle 1/3 data that was kept available for MSGR
Justin, who provided us with close-up data of the core. As our big stack's core was fried his data was used to blend in and fix the core which was a huge improvement

https://deepskycollective.com/home

M 38 and NGC 1907 in HaRGB


(Thumb only)

>>>High Resolution: https://astrophoto-hannover.de/download ... s_Horn.jpg

M 38 is a 220 million-year-old open star cluster in Auriga, also known as the "Starfish Cluster." In the night sky, the open cluster NGC 1907 (500 million years old) appears to be in close proximity, but in reality, both objects are far apart: M 38 is approximately 3,480 light-years away from Earth, and NGC 1907 is about 5,100 light-years away.
Both star clusters seem to float in a sea of H-alpha clouds. However, these belong to the Taurus molecular cloud, which, at a distance of "only" about 430 light-years, is the nearest star-forming region to Earth.
I wanted to show the clusters in a different context. For this, I fortunately was able to combine 5.5 hours of H-alpha data from this area, which I had captured in January for another project, with the RGB image. I hope you like it!

Skywatcher 200 1000 f/5 @950mm (RGB)
TS-Optics Coma Corrector
Celestron RASA 203 400 f/2 (H-Alpha)
EQ6-R Pro
ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro (Gain 100, Offset 18, -10°)
RGB (Baader UV/IR Cut Filter): 307 × 30″ (2h 33′ 30″)
TS 2600 MP (Gain 100, Offset 200, -10°):
Ha (Baader H-alpha Highspeed 3.5nm Filter): 169 × 120″ (5h 38′)
Total: 8h 11′ 30″
Darks, Flats, Darkflats, Dithering
N.I.N.A., Guiding: ZWO ASI 120MM & PHD2
Astropixelprocessor, Photoshop, Pixinsight

Date: January 18 & February 23, 2024

Location: Hannover, Germany (Bortle 5-6)

Contact:
Website: www.astrophoto-hannover.de
Instagram: @astrophoto_hannover
Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/users/Groovynight/
E-Mail: info@astrophoto-hannover.de

The Portrait of the Monkey
This time it is a larger portrait, where we can see an area of hydrogen present in the shape of an arch, which looks like the neck and bust of the portrait.
That's why I wanted to title the photograph "The Portrait of the Monkey."
Very similar to the portraits that are minted on coins.
So, what is significant about this image is that it has much more strength in the hydrogen areas that interact with the gas present, forming new stars.
The photograph was taken from the skies of Áger, (Spain). I have my observatory there. I captured it during the months of January and February 2024.
For the image I made a total of 19h 45m of exposure, on the Hubble palette, using the 150 refractor telescope and sub exposures of 5 minutes in the Ha, SII and OIII filters.
The Portratit of the Monkey by Carlos Uriarte, en Flickr

Cities of stars and a few galaxies - M53 & NGC5053

I love Globular Clusters, I have heard them described as “Ancient stellar cities” - I think that’s a brilliant way to think of them.
Open and globular clusters are not given enough ‘Press’ in my opinion – I plan to image more of them, weather permitting
There are hundreds of galaxies in the view too – so we have Cities of stars with Megacities of galaxies in the background.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pBD4VS][img]htt ... .jpg[/img]198 M53 + NGC5053 Jan24 data Cities of stars by Martina McGovern, on Flickr[/url]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pBD4MW][img]htt ... .jpg[/img]197 M53 + NGC5053 Jan24 data Annotated+signature by Martina McGovern, on Flickr[/url]


Equipment details:
Askar FRA400 (400mm FL) refractor, SkyWatcher HEQ5 PRO, guided, ZWO ASI2600MC Pro, Optolong L-Pro filter and all controlled with an ASIair Plus.

Imaging details:
L-Pro, 120sec x 159 subs & 180sec x 60, total integration time 8hrs 18mins captured over two nights 9th & 10 Jan 2024 – data acquired in the early morning hours.


Where captured:
From my garden in the UK, near Cambridge city (in a very small village), Bortle 4 (ish).


Processing software:
Deep Sky Stacker was used to stack, then PixInsight to process.

Thanks for looking and wishing you all Clear skies.

Instagram account is
https://www.instagram.com/orion.girl21/

I'am Simone Curzi from Italy.
Sh2-308 is the minor project of SHARA N.8, and this is my personal interpretation.
Minor only in the number of poses, in fact it has been a long time that I have hoped to get my hands on this deep-sky object that has always fascinated me.
Sh2-308, also designated as Sharpless 308, RCW 11, or LBN 1052, and commonly known as the Dolphin-Head Nebula, is an H II region located near the center of the constellation Canis Major, composed of ionised hydrogen. It is about 8 degrees south of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.
Thanks to Bill Blanshan's formulas for the normalization of narrowband channels and the transfer of RGB stars to NB, I obtained a result that leaves me very satisfied. Hoping to be able to return one day to this object with a greater number of poses, I greet you and wish you clear skies
Simone

Location: Chile, Río Hurtado Valley.
Telescope: ASA 500N
AstroCam: FLI PL16803
Mpunt: ASA DDM500
Astrodon Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance Blue 50 mm: 5×300,″(25′)
Astrodon Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance Green 50 mm: 5×300,″(25′)
Astrodon Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance Red 50 mm: 5×300,″(25′)
Astrodon Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance Red 50 mm: 9×600,″(1h 30′)
Astrodon H-alpha 5nm 50x50 mm: 5×600,″(50′)
Integration:3h 35′

Southern Cross and vestiges of an eruption in Chile.
Copyright: Marcelo Maturana Rodríguez (@matuutex)
Location: LLanquihue National Reserve, Lakes Region, Chile
Date: 28 January 2023
Instagram: @matuutex
Nikon d5600, Tokina lens 14/20mm f2
Vertical Pano: (3 Photos) 14mm f2 iso 2000 20 segs

In the photograph we can see the southern cross, the Carina nebula next to the Magellanic nebula in front of a beautiful desolate tree in the LLanquihue National Reserve in Chile, these trees have been formed with character since they have had clouds to be forged thanks to the eruption of the Calbuco volcano in 2015, these being the vestiges of the same event.

Southern Cross and vestiges of an eruption in Chile. by Marcelo Maturana, en Flickr

Stellar lavender bloom
Copyright: Marcelo Maturana Rodríguez (@matuutex)
Location: Frutillar, Lakes Region, Chile
Date: 16 January 2024
Instagram: @matuutex
Nikon d7500, Tokina lens 14/20mm f2
20mm f2 iso 1000 20 segs

Without a doubt, it is a wonderful spectacle to be able to witness the beautiful lavenders in bloom, which last only 40 days a year, an idea that I was able to do at Parque Lavanda de Frutillar Chile.

Stellar lavender bloom by Marcelo Maturana, en Flickr

Dryslwyn Castle, United Kingdom © Mathew Browne via PhotoHound

Another beautiful, fleeting display of the northern lights in south Wales this evening. Photographed at Dryslwyn Castle, Carmarthenshire. I was capturing this scene alongside my business partner, a wedding photographer who had NEVER photographed the night sky before. Talk about beginner's luck!

====
Sony A7RIV
Tamron Lenses UK 28-75mm f/2.8 lens
Settings: 28mm, f/2.8, 15s, ISO 4000
Edited with Luminar Neo
====
My landscape, astro and travel photography:
https://www.instagram.com/mathewbrowne/

My wedding and portrait photography:
https://www.browneanddixon.photography

SH2-114 A Cosmic Dragon from Grand Mesa Observatory by Transient Astro, on Flickr

Image credit and copyright Grand Mesa Observatory, Kim Quick, Tom Masterson.

The Great AR3590 by FabricioBS, no Flickr

Immediately following the largest flare of the current solar cycle, I captured a close-up view of the extremely active region AR3590 as soon as the clouds cleared in Rio de Janeiro/RJ, Brazil. This detailed view showcases the largest sunspot, which is twice the size of Earth, along with numerous peripheral ones, flares, and filaments. To achieve this, I took 1,416 exposures across four different and superimposed frames. I then processed the top 5% of these exposures, combined the frames and artificially colored them in yellow-orange hues. The original shots were monochrome to allow for a higher resolution image, captured in the deep-red hydrogen-alpha spectrum of visible light.

Date: 25/02/2024
Camera: ZWO 178 MM
Aperture: f/27.8
Exposure: 4 frames mosaic, 1,416 x 0.034s, 5% stacked
Focal Length: 2,279mm (530mm x 4.3 barlow)
Telescope: Skywatcher Evolux 82ED
Telescope Mount: ZWO AM3
Filter: Daystar Quark Chromosphere
Post-processing: AS!3, ImPPG, Affinity Photo

IC 434 region by ManuelJ, on Flickr

Astro-Physics Riccardi-Honders 305mm @ F/3.65
Moravian C3 61000 + Chroma L
Astro Physics 1200
Astro-Physics 130 GTX + QUADTCC @ F/4.5
Moravian G3 11002 + Astrodon RGB
Astro Physics 1200

L: 88x300s bin 1x1
RGB: 50x300s bin 1x1

Total exposure: 20h

M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy and its outer spiral arms by diego pisano, on Flickr

Total exposure 42hours

Camera: QHY 294C Pro
Filter: Optolong L pro
Scope: Sky-Watcher QUATTRO 250P
Mount: Sky-Watcher AZ EQ6

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks

Copyright: Julien Looten




Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, first discovered in 1812 by astronomer Jean-Louis Pons, has captivated the interest of celestial observers ever since. With an orbital period of just under 71 years, this periodic comet was rediscovered in 1883 by William Robert Brooks, confirming its regular trajectory around the Sun.
With a diameter of around twenty kilometers, this comet is a small star made up of ice and dust, typical of objects in this class. As it approaches the Sun, it becomes increasingly visible, releasing tails of gas and dust.
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is what astronomers call a cryovolcanic comet. On its surface, geysers eject liquid hydrocarbons and gases under the effect of solar heat. Since December 2023, this comet has already seen at least six significant eruptions, testifying to its dynamic activity.
The comet is currently heading rapidly towards the Sun and Earth. Visible through binoculars for the past few days, its brilliance should continue to intensify over the coming weeks! It's time to take a look at the sky!
This photograph was taken in Etretat (France), despite a heavy haze of fine particles that hampered observation. Approx. one hour exposure - Askar Fra 400mm on StarAdventurer GTI - Canon 6d II. 06/03/2024

Thanks in adavance, clear sky

Instagram : j.looten
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Julien.Looten.Photographie/

NGC 1333, the Embryo Nebula

Imaged with
TS ONTC808 reflector telescope
HEQ5 Pro mount, guided
Risingcam 26 mp OSC

Imaged several nights between 2024-01-05 through 2024-03-08.
IR/UV-cut: 14 hours
IR-pass: 1 hour

Taken from Lidkoping, Sweden (B4)
https://nattmolnet.saaf.se/wp-content/u ... 240310.jpg

Image taken from a remote observatory in the town of Ager, Spain, with FSQ106ED refractor, Ioptron cem120 EC mount, ASI2600mm camera and Antlia 36mm filters. In total there have been 16 hours of integration and processing with Pixinsight and Photoshop.

https://www.astrobin.com/full/zsny6b/0/

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks taken on March 8, 2024 remotely from Utah. This is a periodic comet of the Halley's comet family with an orbital period of 70 years. It is currently visible in the evening, low on the horizon, in the constellation Andromeda even with simple binoculars.
Technical data: RC 17" from 2900 mm focal length with FLI-PL16803. 3x120s L bin 2; 120s RGB bin 2.

12P/Pons-Brooks - March 8th 2024 by Alessandro Carrozzi, su Flickr