Sunday, Dec 17th, 2023 – The Moon and Two Nebulae

It was a very clear night after a cold front had passed and enough time had gone by for the winds to calm down again.  I setup before sunset and got ready.

The Moon, early evening, Sunday, Dec 17, 2023.
The Moon Composite image. 2 images taken Sunday, Dec 17, 2023 blended to show the stars and the moon’s features on the sunlit and dark sides.

The Moon was out and in conjunction with Saturn, which was right above it.   Unfortunately, the field of view was too narrow to include both in one frame without rotating the camera to another angle.   So, I just shot the moon

I composited together an overexposed shot and the first image and blended it to show the moon among a few stars.  Not quite what I was hoping for, but you get the idea.

The Pleiades. 3 hrs of 3 minute sub-images. A “killing time” image.
The Seagull Nebula. Combined data from Dec 14th and Dec 18th sessions totaling nearly 6 hours of exposure (118x180 sec.)
The Seagull Nebula. Includes data from Dec 14th and Dec 18th sessions totaling nearly 6 hours of exposure (118×180 sec.)

The Pleiades is one of those images I end up with when I want to kill time while waiting for what I really want to image.  In this case, it was the Seagull Nebula, which was my main target for this session.

I maxed out for one night with 4.5 hours on this object, which when added with the session from last week, gave me nearly 6 hours on the Seagull.  Finally, an amount of time that gives very smooth results – once you add them all together properly.

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