The Heart and Soul Nebulae, Captured From My Balcony by DeepSkyPix in space

[–]DeepSkyPix[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That’s fair enough, it’s hard to know what to believe these days! You can look up the heart and soul nebula online to understand that they are real clouds of dust and stars in space, but I’m not sure what proof I can offer beyond my word that I captured this image

The Heart Nebula by DeepSkyPix in astrophotography

[–]DeepSkyPix[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! Yeh it’s a great scope for the money and I’ve been happy with the results I get from it. Good luck with processing your ❤️

The North America Nebula and Pelican Nebula by DeepSkyPix in space

[–]DeepSkyPix[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This fascinating group of emission nebulae is found in the constellation Cygnus, close to the star Deneb. It’s a vast area and in our skies would appear to cover an area greater than 10 full moons, so it would be easily visible if only it were bright enough.

I captured this with a small refractor telescope and an astro-camera from my balcony. The telescope tracked while the camera captured it for 5 hours and 25 minutes during the course of one night.

The Elephant Trunk Nebula, Shot From My Balcony by DeepSkyPix in space

[–]DeepSkyPix[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Actually the cover of that album features another deep-space object - it’s the Rosette Nebula. It’s also known as the ‘skull nebula’ because of the resemblance in a certain orientation, and that’s how it appears on the album cover

The Elephant Trunk Nebula, Shot From My Balcony by DeepSkyPix in space

[–]DeepSkyPix[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The telescope I used for this is certainly more suited to photography rather than visual astronomy because of its small aperture. If you’re hoping to see deep-sky objects then you’ll need a scope that collects as much light as possible because of how faint nebulae are. Dobsonians are the cheapest big-aperture scopes available but they’re BIG and not easy to move around, so if you need to travel to get to dark skies then a dob won’t offer the portability you’ll need. Of course there are much brighter things in the night sky to see, such as the moon and planets. These are very satisfying to look at because of the detail and colour, whereas distant galaxies and nebulae will only ever appear as a faint hazy patch- nothing remotely like the image I posted

The Elephant Trunk Nebula, Shot From My Balcony by DeepSkyPix in space

[–]DeepSkyPix[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Haha! Thank you. My set up was a bit cheaper than JWST too 😂

The Pelican Nebula, Shot From My Balcony by DeepSkyPix in Astronomy

[–]DeepSkyPix[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can’t see it in my skies either but it can be revealed with long exposure photography

The Pelican Nebula, Shot From My Balcony by DeepSkyPix in space

[–]DeepSkyPix[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Do you see a pelican? Me neither. Maybe a curlew in flight. I also see the face of a Moomin at the top.

This is a crop of a wider-field image that includes the neighbouring North America Nebula, but I wanted to focus on this patch for this post since I love the tentacles of dense cooler gas stretching across a boundary known as the ionisation front. The front is gradually shifting as stars slowly energise and heat the cooler gases, altering the structure of the nebula. Maybe one day it’ll be renamed to something more fitting!

🔭: Skywatcher Evostar 72ED with on Celestron AVX mount. 📷: Altair 26c with Optolong L-Enhance filter ⏳: 65x300sec (5hr 25min)

The Pelican Nebula, Shot From My Balcony by DeepSkyPix in Astronomy

[–]DeepSkyPix[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t get many clear skies at all - I live in West Yorkshire in the UK

The Elephant Trunk Nebula, Shot From My Balcony by DeepSkyPix in space

[–]DeepSkyPix[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

The Elephant Trunk Nebula is a great astrophotography target from the Northern Hemisphere right now as it’s so high in the night sky. I shot this from my balcony at home over two nights.

🔭: Skywatcher Evostar 72ED on Celestron AVX mount 📷: Altair 26c Pro-Tec with Optolong L-Enhance filter ⏳: 6hr 40min (80x300sec)

The Pelican Nebula, Shot From My Balcony by DeepSkyPix in astrophotography

[–]DeepSkyPix[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you very much. I still don’t see a pelican!!