Pacman Nebula NGC 281

Pacman Nebula NGC281
Taken in Cathedral City, CA

90/500 Refractor
2" Astro-Tech Field Flattener
Canon 450d modded
Baader 495nm Longpass filter
Astronomik CLS CCD Clip Filter
Celestron AVX Mount

10 Hours total exposure time
66 Lights varying 7-19 minute exposures at iso 200-400
60 Darks
40 Flats
80 Bias
Stacked in DSS, edited in CS6

Cigar Galaxy (M82), Bode's Galaxy (M81)

Bode's galaxy (M81) is a large bright spiral galaxy located approximately 11.8 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Ursa Major. The Cigar Galaxy (M82) can be found right next to M81 and resembles a cigar of sorts. This pair of galaxies look amazing next to each other, and the differences between them is striking. NGC3077 completes this trio of galaxies, but is more of a faint blob compared to its neighbors. I took these over a 3 week period in by backyard in Cathedral City California.

Equipment used:
Celestron Nexstar 6se
6.3 focal reducer
AVX Mount
Canon 450d 600s iso800
Orion skyglow filter

6 hours total exposure time

Bode's Galaxy M81

Cigar Galaxy M82

Here are the 2 images stitched together, creating a wider field of view. I also was able to add some H-Alpha data to M81 which gives it a bit more color

This next image was taken with a Orion ST80 which has awider field of view and shows all 3 galaxies 

Orion ST80
AVX Mount
Canon 450d 300s iso800
Orion skyglow filter

Orion Nebula and Running Man Nebula

Orion Nebula and Running Man Nebula, 4 hours of exposure time. I've been hitting this one every chance I get, I love these 2 nebulae. They are probably my favorite to image. I'm hoping to end up with 8 hours or more of exposure time, cloudy for the next few days here so it will have to wait.


4 hours total exposure time

Canon 450d

Orion Skyglow filter

Orion ST80

Celestron AVX Mount

Asi120mc-s guide camera

Cathedral City, CA

Triangulum Galaxy M33 Backyard Astrophotography

The Triangulum Galaxy, or Messier 33, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Triangulum, and is visible to the naked eye under dark sky conditions. Unfortunately, deep sky objects like this are not visible to the unaided eye here in the Coachella Valley due to city light pollution. I was able to capture this on 9-30-16 during the new moon phase, and am very happy with how it turned out.

3 hours total exposure time

37x150s lights
12x180s lights
13x240s lights
68 darks
40 bias
38 flats

Equipment:
Celestron Nexstar 6se + wedge
6.3 focal reducer
canon 450d
asi120mc-s guiding

UPDATE!

Reprocessed this data with an additional 4 hours of exposure time for a grand total of 7 hours

Eagle Nebula M16 Coachella Valley Astrophotography

The Eagle Nebula, also known as Messier 16 or M16, is a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens. It’s the location of several famous structures including the Pillars of Creation.

One of the inspirations that led me down the road to astrophotography was the beautiful image the Hubble telescope sent back in 1995 of the Pillars of Creation inside the Eagle Nebula. It is truly a breathtaking image, one for the ages. I was blown away, as were many others I am sure.

This is a stack of 20x2 minute & 25x3 minute exposures at ISO 1600, camera used is a Canon 450d, and a Celestron Nexstar 6se telescope + wedge and a 6.3 focal reducer, 60mm guidescope + asi120mc-s. Taken in Cathedral City, CA 6-4-16

Mars 6-23-16 Cathedral City CA - Nexstar 6se asi120MC-S

Here is a shot of Mars taken last night 6-23-16. Mars is shining brightly at the moment, due to its recent opposition last month. The desert heat has limited my deep sky imaging lately due to tons of image noise, but the planets are still shining brightly, as is the moon. This was taken with my new ZWO asi120mc-s planetary camera attached to a Nexstar 6se. This camera blows my old Phillips spc900 webcam out of the water! The surface details really stick out in this one, and you can see cloud formations. This is my best image of Mars...so far!

Here is another one from 6-25-16, way better seeing this night!

Lagoon Nebula M8 taken in Cathedral City, CA

The Lagoon Nebula, or M8, is an emission nebula in the constellation Sagittarius. This nebula is a giant interstellar cloud some 4,000-6,000 light-years from us here on Earth. Currently, the best time to view the Lagoon Nebula in the Coachella Valley is around 2am looking south. It lies near the Milky Way core, and has plenty of beautiful neighboring eye candy such as the Trifid and Eagle Nebula. As with most nebula, this one is best viewed with a high powered telescope and nebula filter.

Equipment used: Celestron Nexstar 6se with wedge + 6.3 focal reducer, Canon 450d

22x180s lights
22 darks
22 bias
22 flats

Processed in DSS

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.

First attempt at imaging another galaxy, M51

Tonight was my first attempt at imaging another galaxy. This is M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy. This was taken with a canon 450d and a nexstar 6se. 19 lights 19 darks 19 bias. This will only get better, as i have a wedge on the way for my 6se. Exposure times should improve, but overall I am pleasantly surprised with what I got, as this is not an easy target in light polluted skies.

Milky Way, Mars, Saturn, and Antares triangle

4-30-16 High winds, poor seeing, and a last quarter Moon got in my way this morning but I did manage to catch the Mars, Saturn, and Antares triangle along with a little Milky Way so it wasn't all for nothing. This was a 2 minute exposure ISO 1600 Canon 450d piggybacked on a Celestron Nexstar 6se.

My second attempt at photographing the Orion Nebula M42 2-4-16

This is my second attempt at photographing the Orion Nebula. My first attempt went well, with my limited equipment and abilities. This time around, I was pleasantly surprised with what I was able to capture, and with a phone camera no less! The LG G4 is truly an amazing piece of machinery, and has a fantastic camera for astrophotography.

There is a bit of star trailing and other imperfections, but overall a huge improvement over my first try here. I used a Celestron Nexstar 6SE with a phone adapter and the G4 attached. Camera settings were 4 x 30s exposures ISO 250. The 4 images were stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, and some light editing in Photoshop to help bring out more of the gaseous details. Unfortunately, there are some star trails and doubling of stars, but this will be worked out as I get better with the editing process.

Isn't the Coachella Valley a beautiful place for Astronomy and Astrophotography? Enjoy the night skies!

Final edited image

RAW image from camera

Venus and Saturn in the pre-dawn hours 1-21-16

This is my last post of the night, and involves Saturn and Venus. Saturn is on its way up in the pre-dawn sky and Venus is on its way down. Saturn is at an apparent magnitude 0.53 and peaks on June 2nd at 0.00 apparent magnitude. The rings of Saturn are a crown jewel in our Solar System, and viewing them through a large or small telescope is really out of this world.

Venus, on the other hand has already reached its peak brightness on September 14th, at an apparent magnitude of -4.53 and currently is at a -4.00. Venus is actually taking shape and shining quite bright. The last time I did any imaging of Venus (other than the daytime Venus/Moon conjunction here) it was more of a crescent shape. Venus goes through phases similar to our Moon, because it lies in front of the earth and closer to the Sun. As it rotates around the Sun, different phases can be seen from here on Earth.

Saturn

Saturn

Venus

And in case you missed my previous posts today about Mars, and Jupiter here are the links

Mars - An Amateur Astronomers View 1-21-16

Not only did I take some amazing pictures of Jupiter last night (link here), I also stayed up late enough to catch a couple of the other bright planets, including our nearest neighbor Mars. This was my first attempt at really imaging Mars, and I didn't expect much out of it. Mars is currently at an apparent magnitude of 0.99, and will not peak in brightness until May 22nd at an apparent magnitude -2.06. This is when you should expect some amazing amateur astrophotography pictures of Mars!

Images taken with a Celestron Nexstar 6SE + Phillips spc900nc webcam

Jupiter and the Great Red Spot 1-21-16

Jupiter is putting on an amazing show during the winter months here in the Coachella Valley. The gas giant is currently at an apparent magnitude of -2.30, and gaining in brightness each day until peaking on March 6th with an apparent magnitude of -2.49 for the year. These sets of images show the great red spot and storm bands of Jupiter as it rotates across the night sky. My goal for the evening was to really capture the movements of Jupiter's surface in the span of a night. I think it went quite well, for an amateur astronomer.

The Moon is currently in a waxing gibbous phase, which means its almost a full Moon. The Moon played a small negative factor in last nights observing, but overall didn't affect the images too badly. After this months full Moon, which occurs on January 23rd, I recommend a wonderful opportunity to pull out your telescopes and cameras and view the largest planet in our solar system, as well as 4 other bright planets (Mars, Saturn, Venus, and Mercury) all in our night sky at the same time!

Stay tuned for a future post on exactly when and how to spot Mercury here in the Coachella Valley in the coming weeks. It is currently very low on the horizon at dawn and hard to catch with the mountains and palm trees in the way.

I have pieced together a GIF of this evenings Jupiter pictures showing the planetary rotation and movement of the great red spot. This was a really fun project to put together and I could not be happier with the end results.

Next, we have the images that make up the GIF above. These are all stacked images with Avistack, 1800 frames to produce the final images. Taken with a Celestron Nexstar 6SE and a Phillips SPC900NC webcam. 

Here are my final images of Jupiter for the night. I wanted to catch the moons Io and Ganymede, as well as a close up of the great red spot and a bit more of a magnification on Jupiter in general, enjoy!

The Great Red Spot

Jupiter and Io

Jupiter and Io

Jupiter, Io and Ganymede

That is not all we have for today! My next few posts will be about imaging Mars, Venus, and Saturn! I hope you enjoyed my post and I look forward to your comments and feedback via social media and the likes. Clear skies!

Jupiter, Io, Ganymede, and Europa 1-1-16

I couldn't contain myself New Years Eve and did a bit of backyard telescoping during the celebrations. With wine bottle in hand, the Wife and I set up the Telescope and listened to the symphony of celebrations being orchestrated  in and around our neighborhood. The seeing in the Coachella Valley was not in my favor, and the fireworks and waning gibbous Moon offered no real help either, but I did manage to photograph a half way decent shot of Jupiter and 3 of its moons. I hope everyone has a fantastic New Years, and cheers to 2016 in the Coachella  Valley!

Equipment used was a Celestron Nexstar 6SE, a Philips spc900nc webcam and a 2x barlow

An amateurs view of Uranus 12-17-15

All jokes aside, Uranus is a beautiful planet. It was once considered a gas giant like Jupiter and Saturn, but is now more commonly referred to as an ice giant, much like its nearest neighbor Neptune. Uranus has the coldest atmosphere of all the planets in our solar system, and has an estimated 27 satellites orbiting around it. Uranus also has its own set of rings, but unfortunately they are not nearly as noticeable as Saturn's famous rings.

This picture was taken on 12-17-15 with a Nexstar 6se and a Phillips spc900nc in Cathedral City, California.

Jupiter, Europa, Io, Callisto and the great red spot

This picture is a stacked 3 minute video of Jupiter and 3 of its moons, Europa, Io, and Callisto. The software used includes Avistacks, Astra Image, and Photoshop. I recently came across the "holy grail" of telescope webcams, the Phillips SPC900nc and was blessed with near perfect seeing on  12-18-15 here in Cathedral City California. This webcam is amazing! The amount light it draws in, and the contrast is fantastic. My previous webcam was a Logitech HD c310, and I have to admit that the SPC900nc does a much better job.

As for Jupiter itself, it was shining at an apparent magnitude of -2.07. Europa is the top moon, followed by Io nearest to Jupiter, and Callisto is near the bottom. The great red spot is clearly visible in the image, as are the storm bands. The telescope used was a Celestron Nexstar 6SE.

Enhancing Astrophotography pictures with Astra Image 4.0

Today I am going to discuss the benefits of using Astra Image to enhance astrophotography pictures. I came across this program a while back and have been successfully using it to enhance pictures of the Moon and Planets. It really does bring out the hidden details of the image by sharpening and enhancing contrast by a process called deconvolution.

First, lets talk about how I got the image. I use a Celestron Nexstar 6SE and a Galaxy Note 5 attached to a smart phone telescope adapter. I took a 3 minute video and then processed the video in Avistacks. The end result is this...

Petavius (crater)

A Picture of Saturn on 7-22-15 Webcam + Telescope

I found a picture of Saturn that I took on 7-22-15 and wanted to share it. Saturn was at apparent magnitude 0.37 and was shining brightly towards the south. This image is actually a short 2-3 minute video taken with a Logitech c310 Webcam attached to my Celestron Nexstar 6SE and I used image stacking software later on by processing the video in Avistacks, this is the end results.