Still in Cygnus

Tonight, the target was the Pelican Nebula, just next to the North American Nebula.

Pelican Nebula IC 5070 in Cygnus

Overstretched somewhat and garish, but it does show why its called the Pelican!

September and the North American Nebula

The summer was very busy (New Zealand and Spain, relaying all the decking), so, with that and the lack of astronomical light, there was no astrophotography in June, July and August.

So, with Cygnus practically overhead, I had a look at the North American Nebula. My brother in law Chris was over from New Zealand and had a irt look at astrophotography on the 'small scale'.

North American Nebula in Cygnus

We also had a look at the moon.

The Moon

I showed him the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, Whirlpool galaxy in Ursa Major, Double Cluster in Perseus, but no photos worth showing were taken.

The Great Globular Cluster and a rather fuzzy Sunflower

The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules:

The images of M63 The Sunflower Galaxy was based on 90 minutes of data but for some reasons the image was very fuzzy. Some of the frames were rotated though 90 degrees so I guess the camera is doing it. I shall make  sure I turn off autorotation !

Three galaxies and a globular cluster

Here are images of the Leo Triplet (M64, M65 and NGC 3628. This is based on around 1 hour 20 mins of data, taken with a Canon 500D on a Skywatcher ED80 (my currrent setup). It was a breeze to get everything set up and calibrated and the tracking was pretty spot on until the clouds rolled in around midnight.

Leo Triplet of galaxies

Earlier, while I was waiting for full darkness, I had a quick look (about 30 mins of exposures) at M3 globular cluster in Canes Venatici:

M3 Globular Cluster in Canes Venatici

Markarian's Chain

This is based on around 80 minutes of data (180 s exposures, iso1600). I have tried using dither to reduce the amount of noise, but the price of dither is it takes longer to shoot! So, I am not sure it is worth it .

Anyway, here is Markarian's Chain:

Markarian's Chain

And what is Markarian's Chain ? A LOT of galaxies, that what it is!

New Camera

I have purchased a second hand Canon 500D (Rebel T1). It was faulty in that it cannot save any images to the SD card slot. However, for me that's not an issue since I will be using it connected to a laptop. I paid for it to be 'astro-modded', meaning it has had the infra-red filter removed, which now means it is about 5x more sensitive to red light that my Nikon D5300!

This is my first image taken with the new camera. My setup has altered slightly , in terms of I now use Astrophotography Tool to check the images being recorded on the camera , including the star alignments and focusing using the Bahtinov mask. APT also allow you to program in types of shot sequences (iso, exposure, number of shots, intervals , etc). Next time I have an imaging session (hopefully tonight), I shall also use Carte de Ciel to guide the telescope (hopefully to Markarian;s Chain).

Anyway, here is Messier 51 , The Whirlpool Galaxy:

M51 showing tidal streams

The image shows the tidal streams, possibly showing the effects of dark matter. Previous images taken with the Nikon do not show these as well (however they are not in red light so I guess this is not due to the presence/absence of the infra red filter).

This next image shows the other DSO's present:

Hypothermic Astronomy

A very cold night, made worse by my mistaking Alioth for Mizar, throwing out the whole alignment.  This was compounded by not being able to focus the guide scope. I have mounted the telescopes on a larger  rail , so that I can balance them better. While doing this I thought I could remove an extension tube (duh!). So, after an hour, scopes finally aligned and focused and aimed at The Whirlpool Galaxy, M51. The moon was half full and in Orion, so the sky as pretty bright. I was limited to 60 s exposures. This image is based on 118 minutes of data. Pretty pleased with it, considering!

Messier 51 Whirlpool Galaxy

Enlargement to show the detail

Everyone photographs it...here is mine!

The best night of the year so far. No moon, almost no wind, dark and clear (and cold!). So, the three targets were:
1. Uranus. Could I identify it ?
2. M78 (unintentional but my mount will not do an automatic meridian flop, so I needed to target something across the meridian for an hour or so until my real target (Rosette) had crossed as well).
3. The real target for the night, the Rosette Nebula in Monoceros.

The results:

1. Uranus ...and Titania! Having checked the position using Astrometry.net, Cartes du Ciel and the Sky and Telescope Moons of  Uranus tool, this is a pretty confident result!

Uranus and Titania in Pisces

2. M78 in Orion. The bonus in this one was to get a bit of Barnard's Loop. At first I thought it was noise, but checking against other peoples (much better) photos, the red on the right is definitely part of the loop. Noisy image though, only based on 11 x 180 s exposures.

M78 and Barnard's Loop

3. La Piece de la Resistance !

The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros.

Under an almost full Blue Supermoon....

Beggars cannot be choosers. The first couple of clear nights in a while....and they fall under a 'blue' (second full moon in the month) , 'super' (closest to the Earth in its orbit) moon. So, I was only able to do shortish exposures (M81 etc and Horsehead were 60s, M78 and Hyades were 120 s).

M81, M82 and NGC3077

Part of the Hyades in Taurus

M78 in Orion, a reflection nebula

Horsehead and Flame nebulae in Orion

That's better! Orion Nebula and the Crab Nebula

I bought a 2 inch camera adapter and decided to try it without the 1 1/4 inch UHC filter I have been using. That proved it was the 1 1/4" assembly that was causing the terrible vignetting I was getting. The trouble is, light pollution is a problem and I wasn't able to take exposure of longer than 45s. So, I took a lot! Here are the two fruits of my endeavors, one more juicy than the other:

Orion Nebula M42 in Orion.     45 x 45s , plus lights, darks and bias

Crab Nebula M1 in Taurus. 150 x 45s , plus lights, darks and bias

The M1 photo is a heavy crop and the processing looks much poorer than the M42. I guess because its a fainter object and with my camera being ummodded plus the short exposures, there is not a lot fo data there really.

Next time.... my new 2" Baader Neodymium filter should have arrived so I can try the same with longer exposures.