Witch’s Broom Nebula. 1.75 hours in 30 sec sub-images, gain 42, offset 150, QHY183c at -15C, UHC-S filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6.The Moon on Aug 8, 2020. 7 frames stacked with SharpCap 3.2 LiveStack, UHC-S filter, QHY183c at -15C, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6.Pacman Nebula – 188×15 sec, Gain 30, Offset 150, QHY183c at -10C, UHC-S filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6.
The night of August 7th/8th, 2020 was relatively clear, but hot and slightly muggy. Average transparency at first and below average towards the end of the night. I wanted to get out to my dark sky site, but at the last minute decided to stay in the big city, being that the conditions were not ideal.
I observed quite a few things and did quickies on them and some of the images are not really worth being posted. Here is one below of the Ring Nebula, which was. I was actually after the little galaxy next to the ring, IC 1296, which my Canon cameras never showed despite shooting the ring with them from much darker locations. It is nearly 15th magnitude and even dimmer in blue light, where it predominantly radiates
Ring Nebula and IC 1296. 372×15 sec, QHY183c, Gain 30, Offset 50, -10C cooling, UHC-S filter, Televue TV85 at F/5.6.
Below is a rendition from previous sessions data and this nights efforts.
Ring Nebula and IC 1296. 34×30, 4×15 sec, Gain 42, Offset 100, 372×15 sec, Gain 30, offset 50, QHY183c -10C to -15C,, UHC-S filter, Televue TV85 at F/5.6.
Finally, with the Witch’s Broom Nebula data from this night and 2 other nights, I combined the data to make this updated rendition of the W. Veil/Witch’s Broom Nebula. Check it out:
Witch’s Broom Nebula, combined data. 90×30, 46×30 and 410×15 sec data sets all taken with the QHY183c camera and Televue TV-85.
Comet Neowise on Jul 25, 2020. 47×4 sec @ ISO 1600, Canon T3, IDAS-LPS, Sigma Zoom 28-70 at 70mm, F/4, tripod mounted.
The evening of Jul 25, 2020 was supposed to be clouded out. It was at first, but for a short time, a sucker hole opened and I was able to get a batch of sub-images of Comet NEOWISE. The total was 57×4 sec shots, but only 47 of those would stack correctly, so a little over 3 minutes of exposure. Too bad it wasn’t totally clear. Oh well, it is what it is.
I guess I am lucky to even get images. July is the worst month for an evening comet here along the Gulf coast. We have thunderstorms galore in the afternoons and left-overs of them for hours afterwards and into the evenings.
I did do another rendition of the 47×4 sec data set. This time I aligned on the comet when stacking and it helped it come out better than before. Surprising how much it moved in the short exposure run vs the background stars, which you can see by how long the stars are elongated in this version and the comet is not:
Comet Neowise on Jul 25, 2020. 47×4 sec @ ISO 1600, Canon T3, IDAS-LPS, Sigma Zoom 28-70 at 70mm, F/4, tripod mounted.
Comet Neowise in the Clouds, Jul 23, 2020. Canon T3 camera on a tripod, IDAS-LPS and 18×4 sec @ ISO 1600 sub-images, Sigma 28-70 Zoom at 70mm, F/4.
Comet Neowise in between clouds, Jul 23, 2020. It was probably the best night weather wise since Comet Neowise moved to the evening skies, but still too cloudy to bring out my bigger scope. I used a Canon T3 on a tripod with a Sigma 28-70 Zoom for this session.
The top image is stacked with more adaptive noise reduction/rejection and the bottom was a straight additive stack to max out the dimmest parts. All subs were dark and offset calibrated.
Comet Neowise in the Clouds, Jul 23, 2020. Canon T3 camera on a tripod, IDAS-LPS and 18×4 sec @ ISO 1600 sub-images, Sigma 28-70 Zoom at 70mm, F/4.
Not too bad for being in a Bortle 7 Red Zone and using only an IDAS-LPS filter. But, I need to get to a dark sky location (and some better weather) before this thing passes me by! LoL! Soon, hopefully.
Comet NEOWISE on July 9, 2020. 20 seconds of exposure using 8×2 sec and 1×4 sec sub-images. Canon T3 at ISO 400, Sigma 28-70 Zoom at 70mm, F/4. Camera on tripod. Taken from a metro location with Bortle 7 red zone light pollution levels.
Clear skies, but muggy and lots of muck to shoot through with it that low. It was the clearest morning so far since the comet became visible. That’s a dirt pile in the foreground, btw and not a mountain. LoL!
Below is an image that is a reprocess job on the data with a different color balance, slightly more sub-images and tighter cropping. I also did dark and offset calibration to try and reduce noise.
I was hoping it would come out better than the first one, but since conditions were sub-par to begin with, I guess I will just have to wait until it gets in the evening skies to get a better shot. Oh, well…
Comet NEOWISE on July 9, 2020. 48 seconds of exposure using 14×2 sec and 5×4 sec sub-images. Canon T3 at ISO 400, Sigma 28-70 Zoom at 70mm, F/4. Camera on tripod. Taken from a metro location with Bortle 7 red zone light pollution levels.
M22 Globular Cluster. Taken on Jun 20, 2020. 60×15 sec, QHY183c at -15C cooling, Gain 42, Offset 100, Baader UHC-S filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6, Atlas EQ-G w/EQMOD. SharpCap 3.2 LiveStacking and PHD2 Guiding with dithering on. Metro area Bortle Red Zone, below average transparency.M22 Combined Data to Date with Jun 20, 2020 data as a base.Ring Nebula – M57. Taken on Jun 20, 2020. 48×15 sec, QHY183c at -15C cooling, Gain 42, Offset 100, Baader UHC-S filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6, Atlas EQ-G w/EQMOD. SharpCap 3.2 LiveStacking and PHD2 Guiding with dithering on. Metro area, Bortle Red Zone, below average transparency .
Friday night, Jun 19th, 2020 was warm and muggy and clouds persisted till after 9:00 PM. It was predicted to clear, so I went to bed early and woke up just before 2:00 AM and setup my scope then. It was clear, but the transparency was poor and the humidity was still high.
I managed to get a decent amount of data on two objects, and I also peeked at 2 or 3 other things in between. M22, the globular cluster in the first image, was a secondary target and I really wanted to get the Omega Nebula and the Trifid Nebula nearby. My narrow window to image them was so small, however. Trees and streetlights were in the way. By the time I was ready to shoot, that area had moved out of position.
I had imaged M22 a few times, but with other scopes. I took all the data I had on it and recombined it to produce the 2nd image above. It is data from an 8″ Schmidt-Newt and a 6″ Schmidt-Newt, along with the data from the first image above.
The Ring Nebula was a quick peek that turned into a usable image. The full size image is a crop at 100% resolution of the central area. I was hoping to pick up that galaxy that is nearby to the Ring, but 48×15 sec sub-images wasn’t enough to bring it out.
However, I did have a stack of 34×30 sec sub-images taken in March that I blended this night’s data with and now you can see it, just barely, above and slightly left of the ring. Check it out:
Ring Nebula – M57. Taken on Mar 7 and Jun 20, 2020. 34×30 sec and 48×15 sec, QHY183c at -15C cooling, Gain 42, Offset 100, Baader UHC-S filter, Televue TV-85 at F/5.6, Atlas EQ-G w/EQMOD. SharpCap 3.2 LiveStacking and PHD2 Guiding with dithering on. Metro area, Bortle Red Zone, below average transparency .
It looks like I need to get out of the big city to get the summertime nebulae targets like Omega and the Trifid. Late June and early July sometimes has clear skies and hopefully I’ll be lucky and get to a dark sky site before too long.
Images of Comets, Nebulae, Galaxies and Star Clusters
