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NGC 2237 - Rosetta Nebula
The Rosetta Nebula, taken under dark but somewhat warm skies (so noise was a bit of a problem).
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NGC 2024 - Flame Nebula & Horshead
This image does contain both the Flame and Horsehead nebula's but the exposure times (and number of exposures) really wasn't enough for good deail in either, especially the Horsehead.
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M8 and M20 (Lagoon and Triffid Nebulas)
This image shows the Lagoon and Triffid nebulas. As you can tell from the framing I was focusing on M8 and didn't actually consider M20. Later I noticed it in the images that were coming down from the camera. In hind sight it would have been better to rotate the camera and hence frame them both better! Next time.
There's lots of exposure detail in these images but unfortunately it's tarnished by edge distortions (non-flat field). This effect appears particularly bad in this image. I'm
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Large Magellanic Cloud 100mm
I'm quite happy with this photograph of the Large Magellanic Cloud. It's probably one of the better ones I have.
This image does suffer from "DSLR Syndrome" being the lack of red, which is its biggest down fall (put your hand up if you'd like to donate a modified DSLR to me, please!).
The stars are nice and sharp right across the field of this image. The image shown here is a crop, primarily for aesthic reasons and to crop out the amp glow in the bottom right.
There i
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IC 5150
IC5150 is a planetary nebula that I stumbled upon while looking for something relatively easy to photograph. It's not a bad sized object and relatively bright at Mag 11. Visually through a 15" Obsession the donut shape is clearly visible while the central blue star is definitely not visible.
While my colour balance might not be 100% correct in this image (still mastering how to do that with LRGB images) one thing is for sure, the central star is considerably blue compared to other part
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M17 (Omega Nebula)
M17, the Omega Nebula (also known as the Swan nebula) is a very bright nebula in the Milky Way. I've actually managed to capture it here in reasonable detail, amazing! I'm quite happy with this shot.
My astronomy setup isn't really suited to this type of object, being large with high contrast (bright foreground stars, fainter background nebulosity). So this is a pretty good image considering all.
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M42 and Running Man
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M46 and M47
M46 and M47 open clsuters, with planetary nebula NGC 2438 visible.
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NGC 2438 in M46
This is a closer view of the planetary nebula NGC 2438 which is shown inside M46 (not sure if it is actually part of the same collection of stars?).
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Eta Carina (FLT110)
Eta Carina Nebula. Relatively short amount of exposure data, only 3 shots. Also the telescope was slightly out of focus, but I was in a rush getting what I could before a storm rolled in.
It is quite clear comparing this shot to the Megrez shots that the Megrez has significant blue fringing on bright stars where the FLT 110 has none.
I did not use the field flatenner (which is supplied with the FLT110) for this photograph and hence the edge distortion is about the same as that
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M1 (Crab Nebula)
This is a very short exposure of M1 before it disapeared behind the trees. Taken during astronomical twilight. I'm amazed at the result! Very happy.
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Eta Carinae (Megrez 80)
Yet another image of Eta Carinae. I was trying here to improve upon my previous images taken with film of roughly the same field of view. I did do that, ending up with good nebulosity detail, but unfortunately the shot really hilights the colour problems that the Megez lens suffers. My Megrez being one of the original (version 1) optical tubes.
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M8 (Lagoon Nebula)
The Lagoon Nebula.
I was only able to take 4 of the 5 minute exposures before the object set. These images were taken when the object was between 20 and 5 degres above the horizon (usually a no go zone for astro photographers) due to atmospheric lensing and turbulence.
Amazingly the Losmandy GM8 was behaving. Autoguiding was performed using a QuickCam Pro 4000 running through GuideDog.
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M42 (Orion)
Taken at a dark sky location this relatively short exposure clearly shows the Orion nebula and the Running Man nebula to the left.
More exposure detail would have been ideal, but lightning and cloud put an end to that!
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Orion (Incl M42 and Running Man Nebula)
This image shows a large section of the Orion constellation covering M42 (Orion Nebula) and the Running Man nebula.
Reasonably good detail is visible for a very short exposure time of only 9 minutes total, I was quite happy with the result considering very poor viewing conditions and the short exposure time.
This was autoguided using my SkyWatcher 70x700 refractor as a guidescope with the Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 as the autoguider camera. GuideDog was used as the autoguider
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NGC 6563 (2)
This is my second processing attempt at NGC 6563.
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NGC 6563
NGC 6563, a planetary nebula in Saggittarius. The viewing conditions on the night were quite turbulent and poor, but no cloud which is a plus for winter.
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Eta Carinae
This is the first stacked image captured from my 350D. Not a bad result.
Taken in a very light polluted place it's not possible to gain any more contrast from this image unfortunately.
Taken at a high ASA (1600) there's quite a lot of noise in this image.
Still, there is reasonable detail in the nebulosity and I am surprised how sensitive the 350D is to the red of the nebula.
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NGC 2024: Flame (composite)
The Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) is priving to be quite an easy target for those impossible nights where there's moon, some cloud or gusty wind. Tonight it was a persistent wind gusting up to 54km/hr. And then the moon rose half way through the 5 exposures to top it off.
However, I am happy with the result. It was a good imaging session considering all, with a nice image to finish.
The arc of light on the right is due to a combination of the telescope's optics and a bright star (Al
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NGC 2024: Flame Nebula
This image of the Flame Nebula was taken on a night of almost full moon (2 days after full) with a gusty easterly wind. However because of the extremely short focal lengthof the Megrez the wind wasn't much of a problem, and the moon, well, it just means next time I will get a more contrasty shot without the moon.
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Eta Carinae Nebula
This is an older image of the Eta Carinae Nebula, taken piggybacked on my LX200 using a 135mm lens. The sharpness is not great but OK. The Colour is nice and inclusion of the open cluster to the top left.
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M8 & M20: Lagoon and Triffid
The Lagoon Nebula and Triffid Nebula framed nicely in the one photograph. I'm quite happy with this image for star and nebulosity sharpness. The nebulas show good smooth but fine detail with nice colour.
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M42: The Great Orion Nebula
This is a very nice image of the orion nebula, M42. Taken with film, prime focus on my 12" LX200 it was somewhat of a challenge (4 attempts) to reduce the star trailing. This end result is not perfect but good enough for me with current equipment. Unlike most modern astro photographs this is a single exposure.
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Horsehead and Flame (wide field)
This image shows the Horsehead nebula and Flame nebula in the constellation of Orion. I quite like the crisp stars and their blue colour in this shot. It's nice to put these two nebula's size in perspective in a wide field shot.
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Horse Head Nebula
Another shotof the Horse Head. It seemed like an easy target on a night of almost full moon and gusty windy. The short focal length of the Megrez made it easier than attempting any imaging with the LX200.
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M42 and Horsehead Nebula
This wide field colour film image shows M42 (the Orion Nebula), the Horse Head nebula and the Flame nebula.
This was taken on the first and last roll of Sensia 200 that I used. Sensia has far too much grain for this photography.
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M42 in Orions Sword
M42 is clearly visible in this imge with some detail and great colour. Shown with the surrounding stars this wide field image puts it a little in perspective.
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M27: Dumbell
Unfortunately this shot has slight field rotation but is still a reasonably nice wide field view of M27. Not bad considering the short focal length.
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NGC 2070: Tarantula Nebula
A wide field view of the well known NGC 2070 nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
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NGC 3242: Ghost of Jupiter
Named as such because through a telescope visually this object appears like a spherical object, about the same size as Jupiter, however much fainter.
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NGC 3132: Eight Burst
One of the first images I took using the SBIG ST7-ME on my LX200. I was quite happy with the result at the time, I now look to improve it eventually.
This and the Ghost of Jupiter are both very nice examples of planetary nebula.
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M17: Omega/Swan Nebula
This is a very large, bright nebula. Quite an easy target to image but requiring a wide field, in this case the Megrez 80. This image has some issues with star sharpness and stars that have blead because they are over exposed that I hope to improve in a future attempt.
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M16: Eagle Nebula
Not a bad image of the Eagle Nebula, I hope to eventually re-do this to gain more sharpness. Colour would be nice too.
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M16: Eagle Nebula (wide field)
This is a very wide field view of the Eagle Nebula and it's surrounding area. I hope to improve upon this image by taking a new series without the problems this image has with star sharpness and bloating.
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M27: Dumbell Nebula (wide field)
A wide field view view of the Dumbell Nebula (M27). Colour would be nice. Also I need to re-do this image to reduce star bloating and increase sharpness. The nebula isn't so bad in this image.
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IC 2994 Running Chicken
This is IC2994, the Running Chicken nebula. I don't know about you, but I don't see the chicken??
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