461 replies to this topic

[Gavster]

A few more from me, taken in May last year in the early morning with my c11 reduced in afocal

mode with a 55mm plossl and 3nm ha filter. One of the most spectacular emission nebulae areas, Sagittarius. Here are the Swan, Lagoon, Eagle and Trifid. The eyepiece views were just like these smartphone images, so detailed and bright, I just love this bit of sky!

 

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Edited by Gavster, 16 April 2020 - 04:29 PM.

[Jeff Morgan]

Still going thru my earliest (and more embarrassing) efforts. M14, this one with a 0.7x focal reducer. Not the brightness factor of my afocal configuration (yields about 0.5x reduction), but Globulars are less speed-sensitive. I will be trying more prime and even barlowed cluster shots this season.

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[Jeff Morgan]

My first stab at the North American. I thought I had a "wide field" set-up, but the NAN exceeded the 2.2 degree field of the Takahashi Epsilon, so I framed the Gulf of Mexico region.

 

Taken from my backyard, SQM 20.5 - "yellow zone" light pollution.

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[Gavster]

My first stab at the North American. I thought I had a "wide field" set-up, but the NAN exceeded the 2.2 degree field of the Takahashi Epsilon, so I framed the Gulf of Mexico region.

 

Taken from my backyard, SQM 20.5 - "yellow zone" light pollution.

Nice one Jeff. The North America nebula is one of my very favourite night vision objects. It’s just coming into view for me now in the early hours and I got some nice views a few days ago. 
It does need a big fov to fit it all in (including the Pelican). Here’s a phone image I took last September in Tenerife with my Tak fsq85 and 55mm plossl (nearly 5 degrees fov). Fantastic live visual views..

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[Jeff Morgan]

Nice one Jeff. The North America nebula is one of my very favourite night vision objects. It’s just coming into view for me now in the early hours and I got some nice views a few days ago. 
It does need a big fov to fit it all in (including the Pelican). Here’s a phone image I took last September in Tenerife with my Tak fsq85 and 55mm plossl (nearly 5 degrees fov). Fantastic live visual views..

 

Nice framing with IC 5068!

[Jeff Morgan]

My first Veil photo, Western and Central.

 

I have thought about putting a 2" focuser on the Epsilon so I could do afocal projection and achieve more field and speed. But with the 16" f/2.8 on the way, the Epsilon will be uncomfortably sandwiched between that scope and my 300mm Canon lens.

 

First-world problems, eh?

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[Jeff Morgan]

The central portion of the Veil, the Eastern portion just peeking in at edge of frame.

 

The east edge of course. 

 

 

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[Jeff Morgan]

Over the decades of the more "elusive" nebula for me has been the Cocoon. Easier than the HorseHead, but not much. In scopes from 4" to 16", always just an averted vision splotch.

 

Not any more 

 

Barnard 168 is also visible, though it is best unfiltered. Can you see it?

 

Hard to get the emission and the dark nebula well defined in the same shot, though in later efforts I have done better.

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[Jeff Morgan]

Moving back to larger aperture, Sharpless 2-101 (aka the Tulip Nebula) through a 16" Newtonian.

 

I did not see the Tulip when I found this one. From my observing log:

 

"Bight and easy to see surrounded by a U-shaped patch of dark nebula. Two stars in the nebula give the impression of eyes, two dark thin streaks give the overall impression of a helmeted orc face!"

 

 

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[alphatripleplus]

The Tulip is one of my favourite EAA targets in H-alpha.

 

The optical counterpart (HDE 226868) of the first black hole, Cyg X-1, is just barely outside the FOV of your capture at the 2 o'clock position. 

[Jeff Morgan]

Reading one of Alan Green's NV observing reports, he mentioned a Question Mark (?) feature in this nebula. Looking through my images, sure enough there it was! Just above and to the right of the bright central star in this image.

 

Next time I had the 16" I looked for it visually and sure enough there it was, hiding in plain sight!

 

I have tried for this feature in my Takahashi Epsilon (180mm) but no luck, just not enough aperture.

 

As with the Tulip Nebula, something else came to mind when I saw this one. Excerpts from my observing log:

 

"Sep 11, 2018, Z16, Home: Magnificent in the 55 afocal and 7nm filter. The nebulosity can be traced almost completely around in the brighter portions remind me of the Cylon raider from Battlestar Galactica.

 

Aug 29, 2019, Z16, Home: Since I had the 55 Plossl in for the last target I decided I needed another Eye Candy break and went to the Crescent nebula. The Question Mark feature was very easy to see! Attempted to pick up the Soap Bubble to the south east of the Crescent. I was on the right spot and much nebulosity faint and diffuse was visible but I could not make out the Bubble."

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[Jeff Morgan]

A portion of the Eastern Veil with the 16". Unfortunately, large scopes can not frame it all. They can however reveal much more detail as evidenced by the filamentary detail compared to what I can capture in the 180mm Epsilon.

 

Even in the world of NV astronomy, aperture matters.

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[Jeff Morgan]

The Cocoon through the 16". Again, more scale and more detail on the dark nebula lanes than the 180mm view in Post 33.

 

 

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[Jeff Morgan]

After shooting a bunch of h-alpha, I switched to unfiltered for a galaxy shot and neglected to tone down the ISO and the gain on the tube. So here is a very over-exposed image of NGC 891 in Pegasus.

 

I had a bump during the exposure streaking the stars a bit, but still nice detail in the galaxy. I will definitely want to re-shoot this one.

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[Jeff Morgan]

OTOH, turn down the gain a bit, less ISO, and turn off Night Cap's Light Boost feature results in a more pleasing image when going sans-filter. Looking at a rich open cluster you get something like this:

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=8yfcwY2xLGE

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Edited by Jeff Morgan, 29 April 2020 - 10:40 PM.

[Jeff Morgan]

NGC 253 aka the Sculptor Galaxy. Another early effort (2018) that will get revisited this year.

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[Jeff Morgan]

Moving back to the Fun Stuff ...

 

One of the things a new NV astronomer has to contend with is identifying all of the new nebula they start finding. Traditional visual atlases like Uranometria or SkySafari are just not up to the task. Perhaps understandable as many of these nebula were considered "photographic only" before NV (and EAA).

 

With NV that has all changed. However, the new problem is proper identification. It can take some sleuthing! Many are just not plotted. The ones that are plotted may be mis-identified. And the occasional positional error.

 

Bracken's "Astrophotograpy Sky Atlas" is a great resource, as is the online catalog galaxymap.org

 

I believe this one is correctly identified as Sharpless 2-157. Nearby open cluster Markarian 50 clinches it.

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[Wildetelescope]

Well, you guys and your images did it!  I have a pvs 14 on order!   

 

Jmd

[Jeff Morgan]

One of the nice things about September is that if you get up in the early morning, you can catch Winter constellations without having to endure Winter temperatures.

 

My first attempt at the Horse Head nebula through the 180mm Epsilon. Still a poor combo of ISO and filter ... but it was early in my learning process.

 

The first 40 years in the hobby and the HH was always a challenge object. Impossible under my suburban (SQM 20.5) light pollution conditions.

 

In the last 4 years with NV, it is an every-night treat, rich and detailed with direct vision. I have even seen it in a 135mm telephoto lens (aperture about 50mm), though at that image scale it is rather tiny.

 

Seeing the HH whenever I want to just never gets old

 

 

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[Wildetelescope]

Nice one Jeff. The North America nebula is one of my very favourite night vision objects. It’s just coming into view for me now in the early hours and I got some nice views a few days ago. 
It does need a big fov to fit it all in (including the Pelican). Here’s a phone image I took last September in Tenerife with my Tak fsq85 and 55mm plossl (nearly 5 degrees fov). Fantastic live visual views..

Gavstar,

    You consistently get an AMAZING amount of contrast and low noise in your images.  Out of curiosity, what do you think is the key to this?  The Tube specs(IE Low EBI, high S/N etc..)? The filters you use?  Low light pollution areas for observing?  All of the above(of course, I know it is all of the above:-). I am truly having fun looking at both your"s and Jeff's images   Truly an amazing amount of detail.   Can't wait for mine to come now:-)

 

Cheers!

 

JMD

[Wildetelescope]

One of the nice things about September is that if you get up in the early morning, you can catch Winter constellations without having to endure Winter temperatures.

 

My first attempt at the Horse Head nebula through the 180mm Epsilon. Still a poor combo of ISO and filter ... but it was early in my learning process.

 

The first 40 years in the hobby and the HH was always a challenge object. Impossible under my suburban (SQM 20.5) light pollution conditions.

 

In the last 4 years with NV, it is an every-night treat, rich and detailed with direct vision. I have even seen it in a 135mm telephoto lens (aperture about 50mm), though at that image scale it is rather tiny.

 

Seeing the HH whenever I want to just never gets old

That is a great image of the HorseHead Jeff!   I also live in one of those crazy east coast light domes and have only been able to observer the horse head via video.  Looking forward to being able to see it without dragging around a computer, wires etc...  

 

JMD

[Gavster]

Gavstar,

    You consistently get an AMAZING amount of contrast and low noise in your images.  Out of curiosity, what do you think is the key to this?  The Tube specs(IE Low EBI, high S/N etc..)? The filters you use?  Low light pollution areas for observing?  All of the above(of course, I know it is all of the above:-). I am truly having fun looking at both your"s and Jeff's images   Truly an amazing amount of detail.   Can't wait for mine to come now:-)

 

Cheers!

 

JMD

Thank you. As you say I think it’s various factors all put together. For the phone images to get low noise I think it helps being able to use very low iso 50 with longer exposure (20-30 seconds) with my huawei p20 pro. My preference is for this approach rather than using an iPhone with nightcap (1 sec or less exposures, higher iso of say 4000) averaging 30 images or so. I do use very narrowband ha filters (3nm) which helps with the nebulae contrast.

[Jeff Morgan]

Sometimes nebula look like there namesakes. Easily recognizable.

 

Unfortunately, I do not find the Cave Nebula to be one of them. Still an enjoyable field though ...

 

 

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[Jeff Morgan]

IC 1396, better known for the dark nebula feature called the Elephants Trunk. The nebula itself is a sprawling 3 degrees and hard to frame well. Even my 300mm telephoto barely suffices. I suspect the best view for proper framing would be at about 200mm focal length.

 

This view is through the Takahashi Epsilon. With the NV eyepiece at prime focus the field is approximately 2.2 degrees. The edges are darkened, perhaps due to the placement of the cell phone camera. Visually, the nebulosity goes beyond the edges of the field.

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[Wildetelescope]

IC 1396, better known for the dark nebula feature called the Elephants Trunk. The nebula itself is a sprawling 3 degrees and hard to frame well. Even my 300mm telephoto barely suffices. I suspect the best view for proper framing would be at about 200mm focal length.

 

This view is through the Takahashi Epsilon. With the NV eyepiece at prime focus the field is approximately 2.2 degrees. The edges are darkened, perhaps due to the placement of the cell phone camera. Visually, the nebulosity goes beyond the edges of the field.

That is not an easy target for EAA.  Would you have seen as much detail through the eyepiece?

 

jmd