Every day our eyes catch the light of our memories – time spent with family, the journey to work, a special holiday, a beautiful sunset or a dark starlit night. Each image captured is a picture drawn in light – a photograph: only to be lost in our minds or forever forgotten. Nearly two hundred years ago a small group of amateur scientists achieved what had eluded mankind for centuries – the ability to capture a permanent record of an image seen by their own eyes – a moment in time frozen onto a surface. They had discovered Photography. They were the ‘Catchers of the Light’.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

510 min Pure Explosion


Ha:10*5min bin1x1_46*10min bin1x1

please see in full resolution astrobin

thanks

revision B: the previous with 18 iterations Positive constraint and more contrast

Monday, September 22, 2014

Emission line data Moon



Pseudo RGB attempt, from emmision data Ha and OIII with synthetic Blue.
Red=Ha_ Green=OIII_ Blue= 33%Ha+67%OIII

too many "lies"...in one image, but the result is quite similar to RGB.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

SH 2-124 Emission nebula




No, it's not the Trifid nebula , this is the SH2-124,an emission nebula located in the constellation of Cygnus. It is a faint target, rarely imaged.

Instruments and exposure data:
W.O FLT110 with dedicated TMB field flattener
FeatherTouch 3'' focuser
Starizona MicroTouch autofocuser
W.O ZS80 ED
SBIG ST10XME CFW9
Meade DSI
Filters: Ha 5nm Astrodon_S[II] 8nm Baader_O[III] 3nm Astrodon
Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro

Ha:50*10min bin1x1
Total exposure time:8h20min

Thursday, August 28, 2014

SH 2-115 and Berkeley 90


Sharpless 115 stands just north and west of Deneb. Noted in the 1959 catalog by astronomer Stewart Sharpless (as Sh2-115) the faint but lovely emission nebula lies along the edge of one of the outer Milky Way's giant molecular clouds, about 7,500 light-years away. Shining with the light of ionized atoms of hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen in this Hubble palette color composite image, the nebular glow is powered by hot stars in star cluster Berkeley 90. The cluster stars are likely only 100 million years old or so and are still embedded in Sharpless 115. But the stars' strong winds and radiation have cleared away much of their dusty, natal cloud. At the emission nebula's estimated distance, this cosmic close-up spans just under 100 light-years.

Sh2-115 proved much more difficult target than i originally thought.
For collecting the photons i wanted , i had to face extremely bad atmospheric conditions, such as high humidity and temperature, in all 5 nights that needed for completion the whole project.
It is a beautiful object but very faint particulary in OIII and SII with complex structures.

Hope you like it ...!

Instruments and exposure data:
W.O FLT110 with dedicated TMB field flattener
FeatherTouch 3'' focuser
Starizona MicroTouch autofocuser
W.O ZS80 ED
SBIG ST10XME CFW9
Meade DSI
Filters: Ha 5nm Astrodon_S[II] 8nm Baader_O[III] 3nm Astrodon
Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro

Ha:60*10min bin1x1
S[II]:19*15min bin1x1
O[III]:23*15min bin1x1_35*10min_bin1x1
Total exposure time:26h20min

Astrobin Image of the Day 31 Aug 2014

Friday, August 15, 2014

M17 in Ha light


The Omega Nebula, also known as the Swan Nebula, Checkmark Nebula, Lobster Nebula, and the Horseshoe Nebula[1][2] (catalogued as Messier 17 or M17 and as NGC 6618) is an H II region in the constellationSagittarius. It was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745. Charles Messier catalogued it in 1764. It is located in the rich starfields of the Sagittarius area of the Milky Way.

The Omega Nebula is between 5,000 and 6,000 light-years from Earth and it spans some 15 light-years in diameter. The cloud of interstellar matter of which this nebula is a part is roughly 40 light-years in diameter and has a mass of 30,000 solar masses.[3] The total mass of the Omega Nebula is an estimated 800 solar masses.It is considered one of the brightest and most massive star-forming regions of our galaxy.An open cluster of 35 stars lies embedded in the nebulosity and causes the gases of the nebula to shine due to radiation from these hot, young stars; however the actual number of stars in the nebula is much higher - up to 800, 100 of spectral type earlier than B9, and 9 of spectral type O,plus >1000 stars in formation on its outer regions.

This is an early version in Ha light only.
W.O FLT110 with dedicated TMB field flattener
FeatherTouch 3'' focuser
Starizona MicroTouch autofocuser
W.O ZS80 ED
SBIG ST10XME CFW9
Meade DSI
Filters: Ha 5nm Astrodon
Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro

Ha:13*10min bin1x1
Total exposure time:2h10min

Astrobin Image of the Day 17 Aug 2014 

Thursday, June 12, 2014

M16 the Eagle Nebula


The Eagle Nebula (catalogued as Messier 16 or M16, and as NGC 6611, and also known as the Star Queen Nebula) is a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens, discovered by Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux in 1745-46. Its name derives from its shape that is thought to resemble an eagle. It contains several active star-forming gas and dust regions, including the famous "Pillars of Creation", photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Tricolor Emmision Line image
S[II] 8nm(Red)_Ha 5nm(Green)_O[III] 3nm(Blue)

W.O FLT110 with dedicated TMB field flattener
FeatherTouch 3'' focuser
Starizona MicroTouch autofocuser
W.O ZS80 ED
SBIG ST10XME CFW9
Meade DSI
Filters: Ha 5nm Astrodon_S[II] 8nm Baader_O[III] 3nm Astrodon
Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro

Ha:39*10min bin1x1
S[II]:22*10min bin1x1
O[III]:17*15min bin1x1_26*10min_1*6min bin1x1
Total exposure time:18h50min

Astrobin Image of the Day 14 Jun 2014

Saturday, May 31, 2014

M16 the Eagle Nebula




This is an early version image of the M16 nebula,in Ha 5nm filter.

No crop , no noise reduction, just deconvolved and sharpen in ccdstack2 and then, contrast adjustement in photoshop.

Tonight , if i'm lucky i will continue with OIII ......

Instruments and exposure data:

W.O FLT110 with dedicated TMB field flattener
FeatherTouch 3'' focuser
Starizona MicroTouch autofocuser
W.O ZS80 ED
SBIG ST10XME CFW9
Meade DSI
Filters: Ha 5nm Astrodon
Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro

Ha:39*10min bin1x1

Astrobin Image of the Day 3 Jun 2014

Saturday, May 24, 2014

The Flaming Star Nebula - IC 405



HaRGB technique it's not my favorite, but it's the only way to show this dramatic flaming view !!!
Ha (Ha+R)GB
Ha:80'(8x10') R:50'(10x5') G:50'(10x5') B:80'(16x5')
total exposure 260min

Instruments and exposure data:
W.O FLT110 with dedicated TMB field flattener and FeatherTouch 3'' focuser
Starizona MicroTouch autofocuser
SBIG ST10XME CFW9
Filter Astrodon Hα 5nm
Astrodon RGB Filters
EQ6

Astrobin Image of the Day 27 May 2014 

Friday, May 9, 2014

M13 GLOBULAR CLUSTER



M13 was discovered by Edmond Halley in 1714, and catalogued by Charles Messier on June 1, 1764.With an apparent magnitude of 5.8, it is barely visible with the naked eye on a very clear night. Its diameter is about 23 arc minutes and it is readily viewable in small telescopes. Nearby is NGC 6207, a 12th magnitude edge-on galaxy that lies 28 arc minutes directly north east. A small galaxy, IC 4617, lies halfway between NGC 6207 and M13, north-northeast of the large globular's center.
M13 is about 145 light-years in diameter, and it is composed of several hundred thousand stars, the brightest of which is the variable starV11 with an apparent magnitude of 11.95. M13 is 25,100 light-years away from Earth.

Instruments and exposure data:

W.O FLT110 with dedicated TMB field flattener
FeatherTouch 3'' focuser
Starizona MicroTouch autofocuser
W.O ZS80 ED
SBIG ST10XME CFW9
Meade DSI
Filters: LRGB Baader Planetarium
Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro

L:60*3min bin1x1
R:15*3min bin1x1
G:15*3min bin1x1
B:15*3min bin1x1
Total exposure time:5h15min

Astrobin Image of the Day 16 May 2014