Your astrophotos

My first starfield photo

maryccc — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:42:09 GMT

I took my xsi outside tonight and I didn't know what the heck I was doing but do these look like stars to you?

I had the dial set to A-dep, autofocus off on the lens, iso 1600, I'm not sure what the shutter speed was but it took a while after I clicked the shutter button.

I also took this photo of a bright star and was wondering if it's jupiter?

2 winter Nebulae.

Oliver Tunnah — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:26:26 GMT

First up is NGC 2359 or Thor's Helmet. Due to Faulke's FOV only the central bubble is caught.
I only wanted to do a narrowband image here, but due to some problems with my first session I opted for an RGB shot. The next day I got the narrowband data. Like my NGC 347 I combined the separate RGB shots with their Narrowband mates. (I.e. Red and Ha, Green and Oiii, Blue and Hb.)

The result is 180 seconds for each RGB channel.

Next I went for NGC 1931. This one gets left out due to it's larger two IC cousins nearby.
This is a simple RGB of 60 seconds per filter. Notice the 'little Trapezium' at the heart. NGC 1931 has been called 'little M42' so it seems fitting that the trap has 5 stars and not 4. (M42's has 6)

Enjoy!

Wide field Andromeda.

tkerr — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:17:58 GMT

It was October 19, 2009 the night after the full moon. There was a little haze in the sky to add to the glow of the moon, but since I haven't had many chances to get out at night, and I wanted to test the Canon EF 100-400mm IS USM lens on the night sky I went for it anyway..

Camera: Canon EOS 50D
Lens: Canon EF 100-400mm IS USM @ 300mm f/5.6
Exposures: ISO 800, 25 x 180 seconds.

California Nebula

Pepe_Cuellar — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:46:39 GMT

Hi all!

After 6 months of bad weather here in Mexico, the sky is starting to clear. Last weekend I went out to a not so dark site for an imaging session, but despite the sky were clear we had a lot of humidity and with the cold we had a very wet night and I just could image this object and with the lens covered with moisture =(

Photo data:

Objetive: Lente Sigma Zoom APO 70-300mm @ 300mm / f 5.6

Exposure time: 5x10 mins.

Camera: Canon XT, ISO800

Software: DeepSkyStacker y PixInsight.

Thanks for looking

Pepe Cuellar.

Wide Field M45 Pleiades.

tkerr — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:26:12 GMT

Shot the night of October 19/20 2009 night after the full moon. This one was effected a little more than M31 was by the bright moon making it a little tougher.

Camera: Canon EOS 50D
Lens: Canon EF 100-400mm IS USM @ 300mm f/5.6
Exposures: ISO 800, 19 x 180 seconds.

My first M2 and M15 (appalling conditions)

Starwolf — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:22:58 GMT

Where to start....viewing conditions started out as a 3 (at best) and worked their way down to simply deplorable. (I'd actually rate the sky as a "1" out of 5 but, I thought that was reserved for a torrential downpour.) By the time I gestured both fingers to the sky, Jupiter had a halo, much like the full moon on a misty night. Add to this the fun of a dying battery in my tracking motor to produce a "tugging" effect on my images and light pollution so bad it was like a flashlight in my eyes and VOILA!!! = Total poo poo.

M2 at minimal exposure for obvious reasons. The only reason I am posting is so when I get a semi-decent picture, I can show everyone how good I got the tracking (when the motor's working...) on my dob.

M15, exact same sludgey conditions...(note the "tugging" effect)

short video

Kevin Bozard — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:16:45 GMT

My attempt at capturing an image of a Leonid didn't pan out, so I took the images I captured and made a video out of them. This video isn't as good as what Tkerr posts here, but it does show how bad sky conditions were. It's only a thirteen second video too. So that's all the time you'll waste if you watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZSzHkYjKIc

First Andromeda finally

mustachemurder — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:35:42 GMT

Well tonight was pretty nice out so i got out to do some shooting. Here is my long await first attempt at Andromeda. 50x30 second exposures @ ISO 800 with Nikon D40 on my 9.25 SCT with 6.3 FR.

Sunspot 1031

Starwolf — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:31:14 GMT

Sunspot 1031, taken November 17, 2009 with a Celestron Nexstar 80, a Meade LPI (2nd generation) and an Orion Solar Filter. Tracked on a modified Dob Tracker. Single 1/500 sec exposure.

Rebound

tkerr — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:10:49 GMT

This one took a little time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0PZvG28MCo

A new look at star trail photography.

M45 The Seven Sisters

Photon_wrangler — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:59:35 GMT

Here is another deep sky photo I have taken. This one is of the Messier object 45. I have been having slight problems getting the brightness and contrast to be correct on a wide range of monitors for my images. It is becoming quite annoying to have the picture looking great on one monitor and too bright on another. So please, if it looks too bright just adjust your monitor a bit in order to see the image. If anyone has any suggestions on how to correct this problem I would love to hear them. On my computer the image looks great but, tell me what you think.My goal in this imaging run was to capture some of that blue reflection nebula and, I think I have done that unless your monitor is too bright. :D

Sharpless 2–129 nebula in H-alpha mosaic: [field: 4,03° x 2,43°]

Danilo.Pivato — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:45:01 GMT

Great nebula located in the south-west part of Cepheus,
with nicknamed the Flying Bat Nebula.
Given the large size of the nebula was necessary
prepare a mosaic composed of 4 shots with field 2.1° x 1.4°,
done in four nights.

For each shot were exposed 10 frames of 1800 seconds,
for a total of 20 hours.
Photo taken with Pentax SDUF II 400 / 4 + ccd Sbig ST-10XME
+ filter H-alpha from Roman sky
www.danilopivato.com
Best regards,

Danilo Pivato

Row of prominences

astrofud — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:58:43 GMT

Hi Folks

This line of prominences appeared on the Sun on Nov 3. Measuring approximately 360,000km along the disc with the tallest plume 51,000km high. Also visible were 2 quite 3D looking filaments, the right hand one projected into the edge prominence. Earth added for scale. Taken near Birr Ireland.

Modified PST at f/20; DMK21 camera;

Dave Gradwell

http://stargazerslounge.com/attachments/imaging-lunar-solar/28920d1257325687-line-fire-2009-11-03-promgroup.jpg

First narrowband images - Bubble and Pacman nebulae

VincentMorris — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:20:48 GMT

Hi All,

My first set of narrowbands. Tried out the h-alpha filter bought from Peter Shah.

Scope: C8 with Hyperstar3
Camera: SXVF M8C
Filter: Astronomik H alpha 12nm
Guiding: ST80 with DFK
Mount: EQ6 Pro

Bubble
-------
Captured on 25th Oct 2009.
10 minutes X 39 subs

Pacman
-------
Captured over 3 nights 3rd, 6th, and 8th November 2009.
15 minutes X 21 subs

The camera's a single shot colour. Converted the image to B/W in CS3 after the initial couple of magic curves, and then worked on the mono image to increase contrast and sharpen.

Comments and advice welcome please.

Thanks,
Vincent.

Desperate to image...........

WABarry — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:43:48 GMT

But alas, we haven't had a clear night here in the Northwest since late September. I imaged these two objects from my house earlier in the year, but the results were very poor. I tried them again, on 8/19/09 and 9/18/09 from dark sky star parties in the high desert of central Oregon.

NGC 6946 80mm f/4 ST refractor, CG5 mount, StarShoot II color....about an hour.

NGC 6951 130mm f/5 Newtonian, CG5 mount, StarShoot II color

Thanks for looking. These aren't very good, but they are the only shots I could find that I haven't previously posted. I wish I had something more recent to post.

NGC 7741 Test Image

Star Dragon — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:25:44 GMT

Test image for LCD monitor calibration.

If anyone in here has a calibrated LCD monitor, can you please tell me if my Monitor is too bright or too dim or, does the gamma need adjusting?

http://home.comcast.net/~dmill1220/pwpimages/NGC7741%20for%20the%20web.jpg

Thanks,

Dennis

Solar active Region AR11030

astrofud — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:06:07 GMT

Managed to grab this bfore it went "over the edge". Seeing not great as Sun quite low from Ireland from now on.

PST-B90 at f/30 (FL=2700mm), DMK21 camera, taken near Birr Ireland. 3 pane mosaic. Earth added for scale.

http://forum.skyatnightmagazine.com/upfiles.aspx/122/199AF26AB56740EA859DB8BA8042E433.jpg

David G Gradwell

Tadpoles and Rosette - 1st light with FSQ

GordonH — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:19:46 GMT

Hi All
I have recently got myself a Takahashi FSQ106ED and some 50mm square 5nm narrow band and LRGB filters and an FLI CFW-5-7 filter wheel. The filter wheel is huge and adds quite a bit of weight to the scope side of the mount so it is currently out of balance which I am in the process of resolving. I finally managed to give it first light last night (very briefly as the weather didn't play ball). I managed to get 2x20 minutes for IC405/410 which I am quite pleased with as the tadpoles show up really well and 4x10 minutes for the Rosette nebula. I only had chance to image through the Ha filter as the mist was rising fast and at 2am the clouds came in and that was it for the night.
The images are noisy and you will have to excuse the processing but I didn't have a lot of data to play with. Auto guiing was with the Lodestar camera and the mount was a Paramount ME. When the weather is a bit kinder I will be concentrating on some widefield shots with this scope.
Thanks for looking
Best wishes
Gordon

M42 The Orion Nebula

Photon_wrangler — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:15:28 GMT

I have finally gotten my lxd75 mount polar aligned and tracking correctly. The photo of m45 I have taken is made up of 17 sub exposures taken with a cannon 350d dslr. I used a 60mm refracting telescope for this image. When processing I separated the RGB images into different RGB monochrome layers in gimp. Next, I stacked each monochrome set of images with Deep Sky Stacker. After that I brought the three RGB images into GIMP again and changed the contrast and brightness of the individual RGB images. Then when I was satisfied with the result I recomposed them back to full color. Who would have thought the cannon DSLR could get pictures this good. I captured this two days ago and finally finished processing. I really need to write an RGB separation script. Simply inputing the color image into Deep Sky Stacker completely washes out the color it seems.

Medium res: http://s30.photobucket.com/albums/c307/joerules22/?action=view&current=mainfinish2.jpg

HIGH res bmp (dial up users do not bother): http://up2share.com/view/fqzddq13m

45 minutes in the horsehead with a half moon nearby

Richard Crisp — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:34:02 GMT

This was from early sunday morning, just before sunrise

I managed to get 9 x 5 minutes with a half illuminated lunar disk nearby. It was taken using the AP155EDF f/7 and the FLI ML8300

I used 5 minute exposures to prevent bad blooming but the Antiblooming characteristics of the sensor is evident in the image.

http://www.narrowbandimaging.com/ic434_ap155edf_f7_ml8300_fli_ha_page.htm

Two lunar photos both of them under murky conditions

Photon_wrangler — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:06:49 GMT

Both of these images were taken through a homemade 60mm refracting telescope with a cannon 350d dslr. The first image was not stacked at all but, the second image is a stacking of 20 frames. The first image was taken on the third of November and the second image on the seventh of November. I think both images turned out rather well considering I was photographing them through pea soup with an annoyingly strong wind.

Daughters Science Class

astrodlpjr.com — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:00:05 GMT

My daughters science class, 8 th grade, needs some help with their web site. We have designed a site and published it, Keeplookingup.webs.com. Their goal is to have members of the site upload photo’s that they have taken of the planets and messier objects. They are trying to show the general public, what is capable with modest equipment, basically what one can do in their own back yard. We have a few uploaded now but are in need of more. If anyone is interested in assisting in this project, her class would appreciate it. Follow the link to keeplookingup.webs.com, on the home page there is a link called help us reach our goal, that will explain what you need to do.

Thank-you for your help

Long time.......

WABarry — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:11:19 GMT

Haven't posted anything in well over a month.......we haven't had a decent clear night, here in the Pacific Northwest, since the end of September. Very frustrating! Glad some of you can see the stars at night, instead of the under side of clouds. I hope to post again soon.

Starsets!

Bloodhound31 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:10:24 GMT

G'day all! I think I might have to do this again and upload to Vimeo. The U-Tube rendering turned a lovely video to pot and lost a lot of detail. Believe it or not, some of the stills in this video were taken with my phone camera! The main Canon lens has served me well, but I think I have pushed it as far as it will go and will have to put the pennies aside for a faster one. Anyway, as I spent three full nights capturing and hours putting this together, I may as well post it. Blessings, Baz.

NGC 7000

mustachemurder — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:08:40 GMT

First night out in months due to weather, being laid off and other factors. I know there are no flat frames in the stack. This is my first time on this object i thought id be able to make some hint of nebulosity but i guess not. Not too dissapointed i guess due to the fact i haven't been able to image in so long. 19mins of exposure @ 800 ISO Nikon D40 on my 9.25" SCT w/ 6.3 Focal Reducer. Please criticize hahaha