Well, I finally did it. I impulse bought PixInsight. Everyone says that this is the ultimate astrophotography processing software. I got it because I’m mostly interested in improving my backgrounds and noise reduction. It’s much more flexible and powerful than Siril or GIMP. I really liked those programs, but I… Continue Reading... "M81 and M82: PixInsight Boogalo"
The “Little Pinwheel Galaxy” was the first major galaxy to come up for me this year after M81 and M82. This project was more of an experimentation with different tweaks on the scope. I was able to get guiding to improve overall, and I flocked the inside of my coma… Continue Reading... "NGC 3184"
The dull winter is quickly turning into spring. I was blessed with six mostly clear nights in a row. I had some software troubles and intermittent clouds, but I was able to get almost 30 hours of incredible data on the neighboring galaxies M81 and M82. I upgraded PHD2 to… Continue Reading... "M81 and M82"
With nothing else to do with the endless cloudy skies, most of my astronomy has lately consisted of looking at other peoples’ images. My favorite part of this hobby is the creativity you can use while post processing your images. Some people prefer the blue-orange of the Hubble palette, others… Continue Reading... "Enhanced Triangulum"
By far my most ambitious project yet, it took me three weeks to get 42 hours of data on the Triangulum Galaxy, our fourth closest neighbor after the Andromeda galaxy. The moon and clouds fought me the entire way, but it was worth it getting this much data on this… Continue Reading... "Triangulum Galaxy"
The first target with my new NexDome observatory was Andromeda. Given that it is so close to us and so large in the sky, I only did a small part of it. My field of view is only about 1 degree, while Andromeda is over three degrees long. If you’re… Continue Reading... "Andromeda Galaxy"
This was one of those projects where nothing was going to go right. Between dew problems on my primary mirror, un-forecast clouds, and Windows deciding to update right after I started imaging and went to bed, three nights turned into barely 12 hours of data. And the flats didn’t work… Continue Reading... "Deer Lick Group and Stephan’s Quintet"
Taking a break from the summertime nebulae, I focused on the Fireworks Galaxy for three nights. I had to work through some issues with astigmatism that I found out was due to my secondary dew heater. So one night’s data wasn’t superb, but it all averaged out in the end.… Continue Reading... "Fireworks Galaxy"
I have really been looking for something to make my own “Hubble deep field” style image. As probably everyone does, I just love those galaxy-dense images that show us a multitude of worlds that are mighty old. And what luck: given the poor weather for the last three weeks, I… Continue Reading... "Hercules Cluster"
Even though the moon was out and quite bright, I decided to image. There weren’t many good targets to choose from, so I chose a triplet of galaxies, including NGC 5981, 5982, and 5985. These galaxies are a decent ways away, at between 140 and 200 million light years. Things… Continue Reading... "Draco Trio"
