Orion Nebula Core Area. 32 frames, 350ms each frame, taken with an Aptina AR0130 Color Imager/Guider camera and a 6″ F/8 Newtonian on a Dobsonian mount.
Here’s one for the personal record book – shooting the Orion Nebula with a scope that has no tracking whatsoever. It was on a Dobsonian mount.
I used an eyepiece camera in video mode and just let M42 drift through the field while I tried to get the most video frames possible. I think I got between 35 and 70 frames for each video. Out of 8 or 9 videos taken, two of the AVI files were good enough to try stacking select frames for a better image.
I used 16 frames from one video and 16 from another video. Each set was stacked in IRIS with the planetary work process for AVI videos, then the two images were combined in PS.
The results are poor compared to what is possible with a tracking mount. But, I knew it could be done with the right technique and I just had to try. 🙂
Orion Nebula & The Running Man Nebula. TV-85 for the base image and a C-8 image for the core. Darker version.Orion Nebula & The Running Man Nebula. TV-85 for the base image and a C-8 image for the core. Lighter version.
The Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae. Wide Field image taken with 200mm F/2.8 Canon telephoto.The Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae. Wide Field image taken with 200mm F/2.8 Canon telephoto. Object-centered crop.
Here’s a rework of an image with data from higher resolution images overlayed on a base image that was taken with my 200mm F/2.8 Canon telephoto lens. The overlay images were closeups of M8 and M20 taken with the TV-85 telescope.
The Orion Nebula – reprocessed image of data taken with a Celestron C8.
Here’s a reprocess of data taken on Nov 28, 2014. This was 24×60 sec and 27×300 sec @ ISO 1600 taken with a C8 at F/6.3, an IDAS-LPS filter and a Canon T3 (modified.)
Comet Lovejoy & the Little Dumbbell Nebula on Feb 20, 2015, 01:08 UT. 45×60 sec @ ISO 6400, TV-85 at F/5.6, IDAS-LPS, Canon T3. StarFreeze version.
Comet Lovejoy & the Little Dumbbell Nebula on Feb 20, 2015, 01:08 UT. 45×60 sec @ ISO 6400, TV-85 at F/5.6, IDAS-LPS, Canon T3. StarStreaks version.Comet Lovejoy & the Little Dumbbell Nebula on Feb 20, 2015, 01:08 UT. 45×60 sec @ ISO 6400, TV-85 at F/5.6, IDAS-LPS, Canon T3. Comet Only version.Comet Lovejoy & the Little Dumbbell Nebula on Feb 20, 2015, 01:08 UT. 45×60 sec @ ISO 6400, TV-85 at F/5.6, IDAS-LPS, Canon T3. Negative view.
A closer pairing of Comet Lovejoy and the Little Dumbbell Nebula on the night of Feb 20, 2015, plus another tail disruption event was in progress.
Comet Lovejoy & Little Dumbbell Nebula on Feb 19, 2015, 01:00 UT. 56×60 sec @ ISO 6400, TV-85 at F/5.6, IDAS-LPS, Canon T3. StarFreeze VersionComet Lovejoy & Little Dumbbell Nebula. 56×60 sec @ ISO 6400, TV-85 at F/5.6, IDAS-LPS, Canon T3. StarStreaks version.Comet Lovejoy & Little Dumbbell Nebula. 56×60 sec @ ISO 6400, TV-85 at F/5.6, IDAS-LPS, Canon T3. Negative view.
The last significant encounter with another Messier object for Comet Lovejoy Q2 before it dims down more and moonlight eventually spoils the view. The best part of the apparition is about over. From now on, the comet will get fainter as it recedes from Earth and heads back out into deep space.
Its has been a fun time imaging this bright comet over the last two months. I had good public exposure with 2 news organizations publishing two of my images, one of them being NBCNews.com. Hopefully, another bright comet will soon appear and put on another show for us. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. 🙂
M78 in Orion. Feb 11, 2015, 03:00 UT. 22×300 @ ISO 800, TV-85 at F/5.6, IDAS-LPS, Canon T3 (stock.)
Good transparency and cold temps helps to get good images at ISO 800. 5 minutes subs are not too noisy and stack up nicely. This image is only 110 minutes of integration and could use more time, but it came out fine for an unmodified camera.
Orion’s Belt w/Canon 200mm telephoto at F/2.8, 13×120 sec @ ISO 1600, Lumicon Deep Sky Filter, Canon XS (modifed.)
It was very clear on this night at one point and Lovejoy had set, so I shot a few sub-images of Orion’s Belt to kill some time. Although the Lumicon Deep Sky filter lets me go deep, brighter stars have ghost reflections off the filter and I had to clone them out. There’s still a few remnants of them left.
The Horse Head Nebula on Dec 1, 2014. 33×300 sec @ ISO 1600, C8 at F/6.3, IDAS-LPS, Canon T3 (modifed.)
After the moon had set on Dec 1, 2014, I decided to let the camera and guiding run while I slept and take images of the Horse Head Nebula region. I managed to get 33 good sub-images before the clouds messed up the tracking.
Images of Comets, Nebulae, Galaxies and Star Clusters
