NGC 6888 - Crescent Nebula (in HaRGB)

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Another result from the night of 28 Sep 13...this is the Crescent Nebula.  The 3nm Ha filter is picking up dusty regions that were created by Hydrogen.  The mono-colored result I am including shows just what the Ha filter alone picked up.  The color version includes Red, Green, and Blue filter data.  For the final result, I used the Ha as the Luminance, and also combined the Ha data with the Red filter data for the Red channel, and combined this result with the Green and Blue channel data.  Exposure details (as well as full-size result) for this can be seen here:  http://jeffjastro.com/dso/NGC6888_28Sep13.htm

Here are the two results:

Ha_HaRGB

Ha-only

NGC 7293 - Helix Nebula ("Eye of God")

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Here is a shot from a little later in the week from my previous posts.  I am just now starting to process the data from this night which was 5 days later than the previous targets, and occurring on the night of 28 Sep 13.

For this object, the Helix Nebula (also referred to as the "Eye of God" for obvious reasons :) , I also went to 20 minute frames using the Astrodon 3nm Ha filter for the luminance data, and also mixing the Ha result with the Red channel for the complete RGB portion.  The result I have, below, is oriented exactly as the camera caught it (normally, this is my preference).  The Hubble presentation has this rotated 180 degrees, which makes the outer filaments (lower right) appear as some kind of eyebrows/lashes.  Update: I have since re-oriented my final result at my main site and will include it as an additional image, here.

Further details and larger can be found here:  http://jeffjastro.com/dso/NGC7293_28Sep13.htm

Original orientation.

Re-oriented (slight color adjust and star spikes added).

M57 - Ring Nebula and Comet ISON racing Asteroid Eros

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Small target from the same busy night of 23 Sep 13 :)
(and my first time going to 20min subs)

M57 - Ring Nebula (HaRGB), 23 Sep 13
Equip: TOA-130, EM200, QSI 540wsg
Exp: 4x20m Ha (bin1x1); 1x5m ea RGB (bin2x2)

Full size/details: http://jeffjastro.com/dso/M57Ha_23Sep13.htm

On the same night, I took a quick shot of comet ISON, near Mars.  It turns out that during that time, the second-largest largest known near-Earth object (NEO), asteroid Eros, was racing by as well.  In the 3 frames I took, you could see them both moving.

My final result here is of the best from from the three (so is noisy)...a single 4min exposure and in mono (as this was through a single filter, Lum).  I have annotated the result.

Full size/details:  http://jeffjastro.com/solarsystem/ISON_Eros_23Sep13.htm

Comet C/2012 F6 (Lemmon) with galaxy NGC 6701

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Another one finished.  From the same imaging session on 23 Sep 13 - this dim object was actually my main target, and quite difficult processing, I must say (as it was clearly moving).  It is pretty distant for getting a comet at nearly 3 times the distance to our sun.  I did manage to pick up a not often imaged magnitude 13 galaxy just above the comet as a bonus, however (and described at the link, below).

Comet C/2012 F6 (Lemmon), 23 Sep 13
http://jeffjastro.com/solarsystem/C2012F6Lemmon_23Sep13.htm

M33 - Triangulum Galaxy ... A Look at H-alpha

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Well, I described what H-alpha (Ha) is in my blog, below (Moon in Ha).  I have since completed processing of one of the other objects I imaged last Monday night, 23 Sep 13, and for this one I also created a "comparison" of the result (with/without Ha).

Here is M33 ... and in this, the Ha regions are clearly visible (Ha is in the red part of the visible spectrum so represented as red/pink areas), so we can see from here hydrogen emissions from 3 million light years away.  Here are areas where there are exploding stars and/or star forming regions.

The "full" version and detailed imaging descriptions can be found, here: http://jeffjastro.com/dso/M33Ha_23Sep13.htm

Imaging night and quick shot of Moon

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Finally a break in the weather on 23 September 2013.  So, setup the equipment and imaged multiple objects (the data from the session I am still processing as there is a lot and multiple targets).  While switching between objects that night around 11PM local time, the moon was rising, so I was changing to the H-alpha (Ha - a wavelength of 656.28nm) filter for the remainder of the night.  This filter allows only Ha band light, and the particular filter I have is extremely narrow at only 3nm.  Ha is generally where hydrogen emissions from nebulae fall, and since it "ignores" any other light, it can be used even on nights with a full moon!  Ok, so for this post, I will show an image of the moon.  What you see here is a stack of three 1/1000s exposures shot through the Ha filter of the QSI 540wsg camera using the TOA-130F scope.

I offer this as I continue processing other data :)

Vega ... on a cloudy night (and our Moon)

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As the cloudy/rainy weather continues, there was a single night (4 Sep 13) that I was able to setup, as it looked like the night would be clear.  Well, clouds later rolled in just as I finished focus/alignment of the scope/mount (TOA-130F and EM200).  Just before I took down the equipment and took it back inside, I took a single 3 second image of Vega through the Lum filter of the QSI 540wsg camera.  Later (last night, 20 Sep 13), I used data from my point and shoot camera (Canon S5IS) to add a little color to it, since I had it outside for a little while shooting the moon.  With star spikes and color added just to Vega, here is the result (with clouds visible).

First Composite with Canon S5IS

In addition to the above, a little later in the cloudy month of September, I used the Canon S5IS to create my first composite image with this camera.  This was a shot of the moon through clouds, seen, below.  To do this, I took two frames, each at a different exposure, and then combined them to show what the moon looked like that night (20 Sep 13).