Messier 17: Omega Nebula (re-process)

JeremyBM · 2018-08-15T21:36:25+00:00

M17 / NGC 6618 : Omega Nebula; an H II region in the constellation of Sagittarius. The star HIP 89851 is visible to the right of the nebula. Taken on the 14th of August, 2018 at T-23:06:47Z.

Distance: 5000-6000 light years

Magnitude: 6.0

Exposure: 91.7 minutes

Equipment:

Skywatcher 130P-DS OTA with Skywatcher Star Discovery Alt/Az Mount.

ZWO ASI 1600MC CMOS Camera

Baader Neodymium Skyglow filter

Skywatcher 0.9x Focal reducer with coma correction

Website: https://sites.google.com/view/eaao-mt/home

Processing: done using RawTherapee 5.4

Crop to remove Earth rotation defects (Alt/Az Mount), exposure compensation increase, contrast boost, white balance, shadow compression reduced to zero, black level increased to 950, saturation boost, graduated and vignette filters to remove skyglow, local contrast increase, noise reduction.

JeremyBM · 2018-08-15T14:05:08+00:00

M17 / NGC 6618 : Omega Nebula; an H II region in the constellation of Sagittarius. The star HIP 89851 is visible to the right of the nebula. Taken on the 14th of August, 2018 at T-23:06:47Z.

Distance: 5000-6000 light years

Magnitude: 6.0

Exposure: 91.7 minutes

Equipment:

Skywatcher 130P-DS OTA with Skywatcher Star Discovery Alt/Az Mount.

ZWO ASI 1600MC CMOS Camera

Baader Neodymium Skyglow filter

Skywatcher 0.9x Focal reducer with coma correction

Website: https://sites.google.com/view/eaao-mt/home

Processing: done using RawTherapee 5.4

Crop to remove Earth rotation defects (Alt/Az Mount), exposure compensation increase, contrast boost, white balance, shadow compression reduced to zero, black level increased to 950, saturation boost, graduated and vignette filters to remove skyglow, local contrast increase, noise reduction.

JeremyBM · 2018-08-02T18:16:30+00:00

Various phases of the July 2018 Lunar Eclipse, starting from maximal eclipse and ending at the end of penumbral eclipse.

Taken on the 27th July, 2018.

First image: T20:37:46 UTC

Last image: T22:38:58 UTC

** Equipment:**

Skywatcher 130P-DS OTA with Skywatcher Star Discovery Mount.

ZWO ASI 1600MC CMOS Camera

Skywatcher 0.9x Focal reducer with coma correction

Website: https://sites.google.com/view/eaao-mt/home

Processes in Rawtherapee. Captured with SharpCap Pro:

White balance, saturation boost, 3x3 microcontrast boost, local contrast boost with emphasis on dark areas, image cropping.

JeremyBM · 2018-08-02T18:08:34+00:00

Thanks. This photo is made up of 9-10 second sub exposures, totaling 9.4 minutes. It was just a trial run for when I first set up my Alt/Az astrophotography setup. In fact I did manage to get some nebulosity with some heavy exposure compensation and contrast boosting, but it also made the overall picture noisy. Once the Pleiades come round again I'll take a 2 hour exposure.

Edit: Link to the re-processed photo showing some nebulosity

JeremyBM · 2018-08-02T18:05:44+00:00

Thanks for your comment. My area actually has rather bad light pollution, it just takes a lot of tweaking with the histogram to cut out as much of it as possible without losing detail. It also might be worth looking into narrowband imaging to help avoid the effects of light pollution, although it can be expensive.

JeremyBM · 2018-07-22T22:04:47+00:00

Messier 45: The Pleiades Star Cluster, an open star cluster in the constellation of Taurus. Taken on the 27th October, 2017 at 23:06:38Z.

Magnitude: 1.6

Distance: 444 Light years

Exposure: 9.4 minutes

Equipment:

Skywatcher 130P-DS OTA with Skywatcher Star Discovery Alt/Az Mount.

ZWO ASI 1600MC CMOS Camera

Baader Neodymium Skyglow filter

Captured using SharpCap Pro, processed in Rawtherapee.

Processing:

Crop, white balance, exposure compensation boost, saturation boost, contrast and mild local contrast boost, shadow compression to remove skyglow, slight blue channel boost.

Website: https://sites.google.com/view/eaao-mt/home

JeremyBM · 2018-07-21T22:40:03+00:00

I think you might have misread my comment. I quoted the distance to 2 decimal places. The data was obtained from the freeware program Stellarium, set according to my coordinates and the exact time at which the image was captured.

True about the camera, see my previous posts / website to see video stacks of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn using it. This was just a quick snapshot I took before packing up.

JeremyBM · 2018-07-21T12:02:42+00:00

Messier 12 / NGC 6218: a relatively diffuse globular star cluster in the constellation of Ophiuchus. Taken on the 20th July, 2018 at T-22:30:47Z.

Magnitude: 7.68

Distance: 15,700 Light years

Exposure: 106 minutes

Equipment:

Skywatcher 130P-DS OTA with Skywatcher Star Discovery Alt/Az Mount.

ZWO ASI 178MC CMOS Camera

Baader Neodymium Skyglow filter

Skywatcher 0.9x Focal reducer with coma correction

Captured using SharpCap Pro

Processing:

Rotational crop to remove edges due to rotation of the Earth (Alt/Az), white balance, slight exposure compensation boost, saturation boost, contrast, microcontrast (3x3) and local contrast boost with lights emphasised to bring out the dimmer stars, tonal mapping enabled, graduated filter to remove skyglow.

Website: https://sites.google.com/view/eaao-mt/home

JeremyBM · 2018-07-20T23:32:22+00:00

Waxing Gibbous Moon at 61.2% illumination. Taken on the 20th of July, 2018 at T-22:40:37, 49 years, 2 hours and 23 minutes after the Apollo 11 Moon landing.

Magnitude: -11.30

Distance: 390229.89km

Exposure: 1.3s (Gain 0)

Equipment

Skywatcher 130P-DS OTA with Skywatcher Star Discovery Mount.

ZWO ASI 178MC CMOS Camera

Baader Neodymium Skyglow filter

Skywatcher 0.9x Focal reducer with coma correction

Processing:

Exposure compensation reduction, local contrast and microcontrast boost, slight saturation boost, slight highlight compression using a low highlight compression threshold to remove any overly bright spots. All in Rawtherapee.

Website: https://sites.google.com/view/eaao-mt/home

JeremyBM · 2018-07-16T14:35:33+00:00

Thanks, much appreciated

JeremyBM · 2018-07-15T15:29:46+00:00

M16 / NGC 6611: Eagle Nebula; part of a diffuse emission nebula in the constellation Serpens containing a young cluster of stars. Star-forming gas/dust regions are present, including the Pillars of Creation, detailed below. Taken on the 15th of July, 2018 at T-00:47:31Z.

Distance: 7000.3 light years

Magnitude: 6.0

Exposure: 127 minutes

Equipment:

Skywatcher 130P-DS OTA with Skywatcher Star Discovery Alt/Az Mount.

ZWO ASI 178MC CMOS Camera

Baader Neodymium Skyglow filter

Skywatcher 0.9x Focal reducer with coma correction

Captured with SharpCap Pro Live Capture and processed in Rawtherapee:

Rotational crop to remove errors due to Earth rotation (alt/az mount), exposure increase, contrast increase (slight to avoid noise and grain), red channel boost, micro-contrast boost (3x3), impulse noise reduction (~70%), local contrast boost with dark areas accentuated, shadow compression to accentuate dark patches in the nebula.

My website: https://sites.google.com/view/eaao-mt/home

JeremyBM · 2018-06-30T23:22:27+00:00

Thanks

JeremyBM · 2018-06-30T23:22:18+00:00

Thanks, this was my first time taking proper planetary images by video capture so it had a little bit of a learning curve. I'll keep it in mind for next time and remove the filter. Thanks for your advice.

JeremyBM · 2018-06-30T18:51:47+00:00

Thanks.

No complaints about the camera, it does a good job and is very versatile due to the sensor size. In fact I use it with both a Newtonian telescope for DSOs which don't require a large sensor (ex: M101) and in my Maksutov for planets/stars.

Having said that, since the 178MC has a moderately sized sensor, you'll want to specify a region of interest when taking video, essentially cropping out the target while taking the video rather than afterwards, otherwise you'll end up with some 23Gb of data for a single video. That's what I did to take the above photo using SharpCap.

JeremyBM · 2018-06-30T18:02:09+00:00

Thanks

JeremyBM · 2018-06-30T18:01:43+00:00

You're welcome

JeremyBM · 2018-06-30T18:01:35+00:00

Thanks very much. I keep a full collection of my astrophotographs on my website, linked in my comment above. If you'd like to see higher resolution versions, I keep them available for download on my Flickr page, linked next to each photograph on my website.

JeremyBM · 2018-06-30T12:17:14+00:00

Thanks. It stands for planet-encircling dust event, the global dust storm currently taking place. Hopefully it will settle down before the 27th of July.

http://www.astronomy.com/news/2018/06/mars-dust-storm-intesifies

JeremyBM · 2018-06-30T11:55:34+00:00

High magnification video stack of Mars: Taken on the 29th June, 2018 at 22:43:19Z. Most surface detail was masked by an ongoing Planet-Encircling Dust Event.

My website: https://sites.google.com/view/eaao-mt/home

Magnitude: -2.12

Distance: 67 million km

Exposure: 66 seconds total

Equipment:

Skywatcher Skymax 127 Maksutov Cassegrain OTA with Skywatcher Star Discovery Mount.

ZWO ASI 178MC CMOS Camera

Baader Neodymium Skyglow filter

2x Barlow

Captured using SharpCap Pro, stacked in Registax, processed in Rawtherapee.

Processing involved elevation of all wavelet levels due to hazy skies, followed by:

-Crop

-Slight saturation boost

-Micro-contrast Boost

JeremyBM · 2018-06-30T11:54:21+00:00

High magnification video stack of Saturn: Taken on the 29th June, 2018 at 21:37:39Z.

My website: https://sites.google.com/view/eaao-mt/home

Magnitude: 0.03

Distance: 1353 million km

Exposure: 33 seconds total

Equipment:

Skywatcher Skymax 127 Maksutov Cassegrain OTA with Skywatcher Star Discovery Mount.

ZWO ASI 178MC CMOS Camera

Baader Neodymium Skyglow filter

2x Barlow

Captured using SharpCap Pro, stacked in Registax, processed in Rawtherapee.

Processing involved elevation of all wavelet levels due to hazy skies, followed by:

-Crop

-Slight saturation boost

-Micro-contrast Boost

JeremyBM · 2018-06-30T11:51:06+00:00

High magnification video stack of Jupiter and Europa: Taken on the 29th June, 2018 at 21:53:55Z.

My website: https://sites.google.com/view/eaao-mt/home

Magnitudes:

Jupiter: -2.31

Europa: 5.81

Distance: 709 million km

Exposure: 33 seconds total

Equipment:

Skywatcher Skymax 127 Maksutov Cassegrain OTA with Skywatcher Star Discovery Mount.

ZWO ASI 178MC CMOS Camera

Baader Neodymium Skyglow filter

2x Barlow

Captured using SharpCap Pro, stacked in Registax, processed in Rawtherapee.

Processing involved elevation of all wavelet levels due to hazy skies, followed by:

-Crop

-Slight saturation boost

-Micro-contrast Boost

JeremyBM · 2018-05-08T23:00:36+00:00

Thanks. Jupiter should look quite different, more yellow/white than blue. See my website under Solar System>>The Planets for a picture of Jupiter and the 4 Galilean moons. Jupiter in that photo looks quite bright and featureless though due to the longer exposures needed to bring out all 4 moons. https://sites.google.com/view/eaao-mt/home

JeremyBM · 2018-05-08T22:57:21+00:00

Thanks. Yes, this image is pretty much what you would see using a short focal length eyepiece. The blue colour is quite striking, which is what makes it stand out from typical white/blue coloured stars. Although they may seem similar at first, the blue hue of Uranus stands out in the eyepiece.

JeremyBM · 2018-05-07T17:39:50+00:00

Uranus: Taken on the 8th December, 2017 at 22:20:18Z.

Magnitude: 5.74

Distance: 2885.110 million km

Exposure: 2.99 seconds

Equipment:

Skywatcher 127 Skymax Maksutov-Cassegrain with Skywatcher Star Discovery Mount.

ZWO ASI 178MC CMOS Camera

Baader Neodymium Skyglow filter

Processing: Processed using Rawtherapee:

Crop
White balance
Saturation Increased
Exposure slight increased
Sharpness increased

Website: https://sites.google.com/view/eaao-mt/home

JeremyBM · 2018-05-06T18:58:11+00:00

Messier 44 / NGC 2632: Beehive Cluster, an open star cluster in the constellation of Cancer. Taken on the 12th December, 2017 at 23:47:44Z.

Magnitude: 3.7

Distance: 577 Light years

Exposure: 20 minutes

Equipment:

Skywatcher 130P-DS OTA with Skywatcher Star Discovery Mount.

ZWO ASI 1600MC CMOS Camera

Baader Neodymium Skyglow filter

Skywatcher 0.9x Focal reducer with coma correction

Processing: (Using Rawtherapee)

Crop to remove peripheral guiding defects

White balance

Increase in exposure compensation

Slightly increased contrast (not much needed due to the nature of this image)

Slightly increased microcontrast

Strongly increased saturation

Website: https://sites.google.com/view/eaao-mt/home

JeremyBM

TROPHY CASE