My Starry Night - Images from the Dark Side

Ced214 (Sharpless2-170) is part of a large emission Nebula region in the constellation Cepheus. This is the brighter area of the cluster, which includes NGC7822.

This FOV image was taken with the TMB92SS and Apogee Alta 8300U with Schuler 12nm Filter at RA 00h 03m 31s, Dec 67d 18m 57s, with a Focal Length of 506.0 mm and Image Scale of 2.20"/Pixel. 8x 1800s duration subframes were used to build the image.

Ced214 (Sharpless2-170) is part of a large emission Nebula region in the constellation Cepheus. This is the brighter area of the cluster, which also includes NGC7822.

This mage was taken with the TMB130SS and SBig4K with Baader 35nm Filter at RA 00h 02m 43s, Dec 67d 24m 22s, with a Focal Length of 906.4 mm and Image Scale of 1.68"/Pixel. 8x 1800s duration subframes were used to build the image.

TMB92SS and Apogee Alta 8300U mono Camera with Schuler Ha Filter on the AP1200 Mounted and guided through the Main TMB130SS Scope with SBig ST-4K Camera.

4x 1440s 23Nov11, 6x 1440s 02Dec11, 4x 1440s 10Dec11, 4x 1440 11Dec11. 7.2 hours total data. Captured in MaxIM DL and PShop post process. RA 00h 59m 39s, Dec +60° 55' 15" ,Pos Angle +97° 55', FL 503.1 mm, 2.21"/Pixel [J2000]

TMB92SS and Apogee Alta 8300U mono Camera with Schuler Ha Filter on the AP1200 Mounted and guided through the Main TMB130SS Scope with SBig ST-4K Camera.

8x 1440s from 21Nov11. 3.2 hours of data captured with MaxIM DL and post processed in PShop. RA 05h 15m 29s, Dec +34° 08' 32" ,Pos Angle +95° 33', FL 503.1 mm, 2.21"/Pixel [J2000]

TMB92SS and Apogee Alta 8300U mono Camera with Schuler Ha Filter on the AP1200 Mounted and guided through the Main TMB130SS Scope with SBig ST-4K Camera.

8x 1440s from 11Dec11. 4x 1440s 12Dec11. 4.8 hours of data captured with MaxIM DL and post processed in PShop. RA 05h 22m 38s, Dec +33° 27' 40" , Pos Angle +97° 56', FL 504.4 mm, 2.21"/Pixel [J2000]

TMB130SS and SBig ST-4K mono Camera with Schuler Ha Filter on the AP1200 Mount, guiding and imaging.

4x 2400s 10Jan12. 2.6 hours total data. Captured in MaxIM DL and PShop post process. RA 05h 28m 17s, Dec +34° 25' 55" ,Pos Angle +359° 18', FL 907.0 mm, 1.68"/Pixel [J2000]

TMB92SS and Apogee Alta 8300U mono Camera with Schuler Ha Filter on the AP1200 Mounted and guided through the Main TMB130SS Scope with SBig ST-4K Camera.

4x 2400s 10Jan12. 2.6 hours total data. Captured in MaxIM DL and PShop post process. RA 05h 28m 26s, Dec +34° 23' 15" , Pos Angle +280° 00', FL 497.8 mm, 2.24"/Pixel [J2000]

Frankly, HorseHead is a fairly easy Target, considering how really special it is. The framing work out well this time for both a wide and narrower look at the Dark Emission Nebula.

The TMB92SS with Mono Apogee Alta 8300U running with an Orion SteadyStar with LodeStar Guide Camera, and imaging through a Schuler 12nm Ha Filter at RA 05h 40m 31s, Dec -02d 35m 55s, Focal Length 505.9 mm and at 2.20"/Pixel Image Scale, for the wider FOV image. 9x 10-minute subframes are used to build the image.

It makes life so much easier to drop back to 10-minute subframes and still pick up good quality data.

Frankly, HorseHead is a fairly easy Target, considering how really special it is. The framing work out well this time for both a wide and narrower look at the Dark Emission Nebula.

The TMB130SS with Mono Sbig4K running dual chip mode, guided and imaged through a Baader 35nm Ha Filter at RA 05h 40m 16s, Dec -02d 34m 22s, Focal Length 906.8 mm and at 1.68"/Pixel Image Scale, for the narrower FOV image. 9x 10-minute subframes are used to build the image.

It makes life so much easier to drop back to 10-minute subframes and still pick up good quality data.

TMB92SS and Apogee Alta 8300U mono Camera with Schuler Ha Filter on the AP1200 Mounted and guided through the Main TMB130SS Scope with SBig ST-4K Camera.

6x 1440s 09Oct11. 2.4 hours total data. Captured in MaxIM DL and PShop post process. RA 21h 39m 01s, Dec +57° 30' 18" , Pos Angle +108° 28', FL 503.8 mm, 2.21"/Pixel [J2000]

TMB92SS and Apogee Alta 8300U mono Camera with Schuler Ha Filter on the AP1200 Mounted and guided through the Main TMB130SS Scope with SBig ST-4K Camera.

5x 1800s 08Oct11. 2.5 hours total data. Captured in MaxIM DL and PShop post process. RA 02h 33m 48s, Dec +61° 13' 10" , Pos Angle +108° 14', FL 503.8 mm, 2.21"/Pixel [J2000]

TMB92SS and Apogee Alta 8300U mono Camera with Schuler Ha Filter on the AP1200 Mounted and guided through the Main TMB130SS Scope with SBig ST-4K Camera.

9x 1440s 08Oct11. 3.6 hours total data. Captured in MaxIM DL and PShop post process. RA 02h 51m 05s, Dec +60° 23' 59" , Pos Angle +95° 02', FL 503.3 mm, 2.21"/Pixel [J2000]

NGC2174 Monkey Head Nebula. TMB92SS with Mono Apogee Alta 8300U. Schuler 12nm Ha Filter. Flexture correction by Orion SteadyStar AO. 5x 1500s on 02Apr12 + 5x 1500s on 05Apr12 [4.16 hrs total]. RA 06h 09m 46s, Dec 20d 33m 20s,
Pos Angle +280° 34', FL 506.1 mm, 2.20 arc-sec/pixel image scale.

NGC2174 Monkey Head Nebula. TMB130SS with Mono SBig ST-4000XM Camera. Baader 12nm Ha Filter. 4x 1620s on 02Apr12 + 4x 1620s on 05Apr12 [3.6 hrs total]. RA 06h 09m 43s, Dec 20d 33m 07s, Pos Angle +359° 23', FL 906.0 mm, 1.68 arc-sec/pixel image scale.

Haven't had much in the way of quality/clear skies recently. So it was a pleasant surprise when Sunday Night opened up the Night Skies. I had been planning imaging sessions for some time and was ready and able to pull off allot of Narrowband Ha Images in one night, including some of the almost totally full Moon that was present.

I run a four Scope Pack, with Mono at Scope1 and Scope3 and OSC at Scope2 and Scope4. Laptop1 controls either of the Mono Cameras and Laptop2 controls either of the OSC Cameras. This does not lend itself to dual Ha imaging on two Mono Cameras. I added two more powered USB hubs into the wiring, which allows me to quickly swap the second Mono Camera with all the additionally connections to Laptop2. After the delay to allow Windows to install the Device Drivers found, everything came up online perfectly.

This simultaneously captured image is off the TMB92SS F/5.5 with Mono Apogee Alta 8300U through a Schuler 12nm Ha Filter. While the smaller pixels of the CCD Camera are less sensitive to light and the Filter passes less light through, the resolution of the CCD is much better and the Focal Ratio of the Scope is significantly faster. The result is a much smoother finished image.

I have to wait for Rosette [NGC2244] to clear the large Oak trees on the property. That means getting to about 210 degrees in the sky, which is after 12:30AM at this time of year. And Rosette is never high in my Southern Skies, so there's lots of atmosphere to look though. The image is built from 3x 1500-second duration subframes [75 minutes total]. It is Plate Solved stacked in MaxIM and saved to 16-bit TIFF files and then post processed in PShop. AlanP

The skies allowed me to pick up some more subframes on the two different FOV images of Rosette. This data was added to the previous 05Feb12 sunframes.

I was able to pick up 3x 1800s subframes on 08Feb12, for a total of 165 minutes between the two nights.

For the TMB92 wider FOV: RA 06h 32m 16s, DEC 04d 54m 46s, at 509.9 FL and 2.20"/pixel image scale.

There is no substitute for enough data when building an image.

Haven't had much in the way of quality/clear skies recently. So it was a pleasant surprise when Sunday Night opened up the Night Skies. I had been planning imaging sessions for some time and was ready and able to pull off allot of Narrowband Ha Images in one night, including some of the almost totally full Moon that was present.

I run a four Scope Pack, with Mono at Scope1 and Scope3 and OSC at Scope2 and Scope4. Laptop1 controls either of the Mono Cameras and Laptop2 controls either of the OSC Cameras. This does not lend itself to dual Ha imaging on two Mono Cameras. I added two more powered USB hubs into the wiring, which allows me to quickly swap the second Mono Camera with all the additionally connections to Laptop2. After the delay to allow Windows to install the Device Drivers found, everything came up online perfectly.

This image is off the TMB130SS F/7 with Mono Sbig ST4K Camera and through a Baader 35nm Ha Filter. The wider Ha Filter allows me to dual chip, guiding off the second internal chip. While the Filter allows more light to pass through, the larger pixels of the CCD and the slower Focal Ratio requires lots of data to avoid a grainy look. The image is too grainy for my taste, but looks nice when displayed a bit compressed in size.

I have to wait for Rosette [NGC2244] to clear the large Oak trees on the property. That means getting to about 210 degrees in the sky, which is after 12:30AM at this time of year. And Rosette is never high in my Southern Skies, so there's lots of atmosphere to look though. This image is built from 3x 1500-second duration subframes [75 minutes total]. The image is Plate Solved stacked in MaxIM and saved to 16-bit TIFF files and then post processed in PShop.

The skies allowed me to pick up some more subframes on the two different FOV images of Rosette. These were added to the previous 05Feb12 subframes.

I was able to pick up 3x 1800s each image on 08Feb12, for a total of 165 minutes between the two nights.

The TMB130 image second night details: RA 06h 32m 00s, DEC 04d 54m 45s, at 905.0 FL and 1.68"/pixel.

There is no substitute for enough data when building an image.

TMB92SS and Apogee Alta 8300U mono Camera with Schuler Ha Filter on the AP1200 Mounted and guided through the Main TMB130SS Scope with SBig ST-4K Camera.

6x 1800s 08Oct11. 3 hours total data. Captured in MaxIM DL and PShop post process. RA 20h 51m 30s, Dec +44° 19' 35" , Pos Angle +290° 23', FL 503.8 mm, 2.21"/Pixel [J2000]

TMB130SS and SBig ST-4K mono Camera with Schuler Ha Filter on the AP1200 Mount, guiding and imaging.

4x 2400s 10Jan12. 2.6 hours total data. Captured in MaxIM DL and PShop post process. RA 22h 46m 44s, Dec +58° 00' 59" , Pos Angle +00° 04', FL 906.9 mm, 1.68"/Pixel [J2000]

TMB92SS and Apogee Alta 8300U mono Camera with Schuler Ha Filter on the AP1200 Mounted and guided through the Main TMB130SS Scope with SBig ST-4K Camera.

4x 2400s 10Jan12. 2.6 hours total data. Captured in MaxIM DL and PShop post process. RA 22h 47m 08s, Dec +57° 58' 28" , Pos Angle +281° 30', FL 506.6 mm, 2.20"/Pixel [J2000]

Dual SVR70ED Carbon Fiber Refractors, modded with FatherTouch Focusers, ridding piggyback and each fitted with a 1-1/4" Ha Filter. SXVFH9C and Atik16HRC OSC Cameras combiined to build the image. 6x 1200s each Camera. 4 hours total data, captrued with MaxIM DL and post processed in PShop. Imaged on 22Oct10.

NGC7635 Bubble Nebula and M52 Open Cluster. TMB92SS F/5.5 Refractor with mono Apogee Alta8300U Camera. Schuler Ha 12nm Filter. 4x 1800s imaged [2 hours total] on 09Feb12. RA 23h 23m 01s, Dec 61d 21m 43s, Pos Angle +281° 29', FL 505.9 mm, 2.20 arc-sec/pixel image scale.

NGC7635 Bubble Nebula and M52 Open Cluster. TMB130SS F/7 Refractor with mono SBig ST-4000XM Camera. Lumicon Ha 30nm Filter. 4x 1800s imaged [2 hours total] on 09Feb12. RA 23h 22m 19s, Dec 61d 25m 47s, Pos Angle +358° 33', FL 905.4 mm, 1.68"/Pixel arc-sec/pixel image scale.

A portion of a large emission Nebula region in the constellation Cepheus. This is dimmer and larger area of the cluster than the CED14 portion, an area that I have just posted and image of. These are images that were taken simultaneously off the two Refractors on my AP1200 in an 8 foot ExploraDome.

This wider FOV image is taken with the TMB92SS F/5.5 and Apogee Alta 8300U with Schuler 12nm Filter at RA 00h 02m 37s, Dec 68d 27m 59s, with a Focal Length of 506.1 mm and Image Scale of 2.20"/Pixel. 6x 1800s subframes captured on 04Feb12 and an additional 5x 1800s subframes from 05Feb12. 5.5 hours total subframes were used to build the image.

TMB92SS and Apogee Alta 8300U mono Camera with Schuler Ha Filter on the AP1200 Mounted and guided through the Main TMB130SS Scope with SBig ST-4K Camera.

4x 1500s from 12Dec11. 1x 1800s 12Dec11. 5x 2400s 12Dec11. 5.5 hours of data captured with MaxIM DL and post processed in PShop. RA 05h 41m 43s, Dec +36° 11' 05" , Pos Angle +97° 52', FL 504.5 mm, 2.21"/Pixel [J2000]

TMB92SS and Apogee Alta 8300U mono Camera with Schuler Ha Filter on the AP1200 Mounted and guided through the Main TMB130SS Scope with SBig ST-4K Camera.

4x 1440s from 17Nov11. 8x 1440s 21Nov11. 4.8 hours of data captured with MaxIM DL and post processed in PShop. RA 20h 48m 17s, Dec +30° 49' 56" , Pos Angle +277° 13', FL 502.7 mm, 2.22"/Pixel [J2000]

TMB92SS and Apogee Alta 8300U mono Camera with Schuler Ha Filter on the AP1200 Mounted and guided through the Main TMB130SS Scope with SBig ST-4K Camera.

7x 1440s from 01Nov11. 2.8 hours of data captured with MaxIM DL and post processed in PShop. RA 20h 50m 53s, Dec +31° 05' 33" , Pos Angle +277° 11', FL 503.3 mm, 2.21"/Pixel [J2000]

TMB92SS and Apogee Alta 8300U mono Camera with Schuler Ha Filter on the AP1200 Mounted and guided through the Main TMB130SS Scope with SBig ST-4K Camera.

23x 7s 01Nov11. 2.7 minutes total data. Captured in MaxIM DL, stacked and combined in PStax5.1 and PShop post processed. FL 506.6 mm, 2.20"/Pixel.

TMB92SS and Apogee Alta 8300U mono Camera with Schuler Ha Filter on the AP1200 Mounted and guided through the Main TMB130SS Scope with SBig ST-4K Camera.

23x 7s 01Nov11. 2.7 minutes total data. Captured in MaxIM DL, stacked and combined in PStax5.1 and PShop post processed. FL 506.6 mm, 2.20"/Pixel.

The imgae has been cropped to 2048x2048 to show more detail of the Moon.

30x .008s subframes captured off the TMB92SS through a Schuler 12nm Ha Filter with a Mono Apogee Alta 8300U Camera was used in Registax to stack the image for post process in PShop..

7x .008s subframes [clouds cut off the imaging] captured off the TMB130SS through a Baader 35nm Ha Filter with a Mono SBig ST4K Camera was used in Registax to stack the image for post process in PShop..

Moon. TMB130SS with Mono Sbig ST-4000XM Camera. Baader 12nm Ha Filter. 30x .015s subframes combined and refined in Registax v5. Post postprocessed in PShop. Imaged 05Apr2012.