Excited to play with a new guidescope that I purchased to try to bring more accuracy to my manual tracking, I decided to try the setup out by finding the hardest galaxy I’ve done yet. Great idea. This is IC 10, also known as the “Starburst galaxy.” The galaxy is… Continue Reading... "Learning from mistakes with IC 10"
Another success with my UHC filter, the Bubble nebula turned out terrific! It wasn’t too bad to find, but as soon as I landed on it, I knew it was it. The distinct circular shape came through perfectly, and there was so much more present in the stacked image that… Continue Reading... "Pop the bubble!"
I figured I would take a shot at a large nebula that is much larger than my field of view. Although I didn’t expect to capture much of it given my f ratio, I was pleasantly surprised when I processed subframes that didn’t look like much of anything. This is… Continue Reading... "A pleasant surprise, the Iris"
On a mission to do a nearby nebula, I couldn’t help but get M37, the Salt and Pepper Cluster. I’ve recently been delighted with clusters, and plan to do many more if the conditions allow. This took about 30 frames of 15 seconds at 1000 ISO. Continue Reading... "Spice up your space!"
When I was about to call it a night, I glanced around one more time in Stellarium, and behold, I found a small nebula that could actually fit in my field of view! The Ring nebula was super easy to find, and my new Baader UHC filter worked a treat… Continue Reading... "A cute summertime nebula, the Ring"
Right next to the Fireworks galaxy is the Ghost Bush cluster. Seeing as I hadn’t done a cluster yet, I figured, why not? As soon as I planted on it, the tracking was perfect, and I snapped away about 75 shots at 1000 ISO at 15 seconds. Continue Reading... "First cluster, the “Ghost Bush”"
Fitting in with the summertime galaxy theme, after all of the good ones are gone, I settled on the Fireworks galaxy. It is quite dim at 10 magnitude, and I could barely see some spiral arms over the background noise in the individual snaps. However, with about 40 images taken… Continue Reading... "Fireworks galaxy"
The all-in-one tracking motor that I was using for my equatorial platform was a real pain in the neck. It would take me almost an hour to finally get tracking mostly correct, as I would have to take an exposure, think about it, kneel down on the ground, and try… Continue Reading... "Upgraded tracking and trying M51 again"
The last time I was imaging, I noticed that many frames would vary in the background color and brightness. I realized that this was due to light leaking into the the telescope, from my laptop, flashlights, neighbors’ porch lights, pretty much anything. I built a shroud to cover the middle,… Continue Reading... "M63, the Sunflower galaxy"
After having had great success with my tracking platform while imaging the Pinwheel Galaxy, I wanted to try the other famous galaxy in the Big Dipper, the Whirlpool galaxy. This galaxy is actually two galaxies that are interacting! You can see the funnel of stars going from the sister dwarf… Continue Reading... "M51a, the Frigidaire Whirlpool galaxy"
