M27 The Dumbbell Nebula 5-18-16

The Dumbbell Nebula, or Messier 27 is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula. In 1764, Charles Messier discovered the Dumbbell Nebula, and was the first of its kind to be discovered, a planetary nebula. A planetary nebula is named more for its round appearance to early astronomers, and has nothing to do with actual planets. A planetary nebula is actually the remains of an old exploded star, and is made up of  ejected ionized gas.

This is a stacked image of 17 1 minute exposures at ISO 1600, 17 light frames, 17 dark frames, and 17 bias frames. Stacked in DeepSkyStacker with minor tweaks to contrast and brightness in CS6. These were all taken in my backyard in Cathedral City, CA with average seeing and visibility.

On a side note, I am personally blown away by this image. There has to be over a million stars in the picture! How cool is that right?

*UPDATE
After going through the data, and some help from internet astronomy friends, I Have re-edited using PixInsight LE and was able to pull out much more data this time around. The first 2 images are the new edits, and the last 2 images are the old data.

Astrophotography at The Joshua Tree National Park 5-15-16

The purpose of this blog, or website, or whatever you want to call it, is to highlight the potential of astronomy and astrophotography in the Coachella Valley and surrounding areas. Last weekend, the wife and I took a quick road trip to the Joshua Tree National Park and got some amazing astronomy and astrophotography pictures. This place is near and dear to me, and is probably my favorite of all of the national parks I have ever been to. The deserts in southern California are truly beautiful, both day and night. The potential for deep sky imaging at the Joshua Tree National Park is what draws thousands of visitors each and every year. The Milky Way is a sight to behold, and unfortunately, it is not visible in light polluted areas such as the Coachella Valley. On the plus side, we have places like the Joshua Tree National Park, Anza Borrego Desert State Park, and even beautiful skies up in the San Jacinto Mountains for night sky observations and imaging.

These images were taken with a Canon 450d, and the Milky Way shot was taken with a Celestron Nexstar 6se with the 450d attached.

Without further ado, the pictures...

Mercury Transit of the Sun from the Coachella Valley 5-9-16

The Mercury transit of the Sun on May 9, 2016 did not disappoint in the Coachella Valley, California. The sky was clear, and the weather was wonderful. This was an amazing event to witness, and was my first Mercury transit ever seen. The last Mercury transit occurred in 2006 and the next one won't come until 2019. The first image is a composite showing the path of Mercury crossing the surface of the Sun. The next  picture is single frame exposure, and the last image is another single frame exposure with a bit of a zoom on Mercury. Enjoy, and happy stargazing!

Ring Nebula Celestron Nexstar 6SE Canon 450d

The Ring Nebula, or Messier 57, is one of my favorite planetary nebula and lies in the northern constellation of Lyra. The Ring Nebula was formed by an exploding red giant star, and is essentially a cloud of ionized gas, and to our perspective it resembles a ringed shape.

If you would like to view the Ring Nebula here in the Coachella Valley, the best time currently would be around 2am. This is a fairly faint nebula, so a high aperture telescope is needed, and I do recommend  a planetary nebula filter like a UHC. On the other hand, if you are interested in astrophotography, like myself, this was taken with a Canon 450D 30s x 30 lights 30 darks 30 bias stacked in DSS and touched up in CS6. The telescope used was a Celestron Nexstar 6SE using the standard alt-azimuth mount.

Saturn over the Coachella Valley, CA 5-2-16

I got the telescope out early this morning to photograph an ISS Moon transit, but unfortunately it occurred at 6:42am and the Sun was too bright, so I was unable to catch it. I did however catch a beautiful shot of Saturn. Saturn is currently at an apparent magnitude of .17 and will peak in brightness at the beginning of June this year. This is by far my best image of Saturn to date, the surface colors look amazing, as does the famous rings. This was taken with a Celestron Nexstar 6se + Phillips spc900 webcam 24mm eyepiece 2x barlow 2000 frames stacked in Avistack.