Abell 2151 is a cluster of over 200 galaxies. I’ve spent the last three weeks collecting over 32 hours of data on this cluster. There were some problems with neighborhood light pollution, so I had a nasty background to contend with. Luckily, I was able to mostly fix it up.… Continue Reading... "Hercules Galaxy Cluster"
I just got in a new widefield setup that I was able to try last night. I’ll write more about it in another post, but this is the first light for it. It has over three times the field of view of my Newtonian, so it is much better for… Continue Reading... "Eagle Nebula"
It was supposed to be cloudy and rainy all week, but the sky detector test determined that was a lie. Last night was quite beautiful. The moon is starting to rear its bright head, so I needed something quick and easy. M13 is starting to rise behind my big tree,… Continue Reading... "The Hercules Glob"
You know it couldn’t be spring without revisiting my favorite galaxy, Messier 51. As I’ve learned, I was patient with this project, taking three weeks to collect 25 hours throughout the cloudy nights and storms. The patience paid off by revealing the dim halo around these colliding galaxies. I’d think… Continue Reading... "M51"
I was browsing Cloudy Nights, as I do, and someone mentioned a quasar that they had discovered in their image of M51. I took a few hours of data on M51 last weekend, and I’ve been playing around with it in PixInsight while waiting for clear nights to get more… Continue Reading... "The farthest object I’ve found yet"
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"
M5 is a pretty large globular cluster near the equator that contains from 100,000 to 500,000 stars. It was a second sequence in my recent imaging project. I got about seven hours of data on it. Continue Reading... "M5"
Rain is scheduled for the next week, but I got one clear night last night beforehand. There wasn’t too much to pick from, so I found some star clusters that are far away from the galactic plane. These don’t tend to need so much data to turn out well. In… Continue Reading... "A tale of two clusters"
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"
