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’.

Sunday, August 30, 2020

The Wizard Nebula


The Wizard Nebula is an emission nebula that surrounds the open star cluster NGC 7380 in the constellation Cepheus. The nebula is known for its unique shape, resembling the appearance of a medieval sorcerer. The active star forming region lies at a distance of 7,200 light years from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 7.2. It has a radius of 100 light years and occupies 25 arc minutes of the apparent sky. It has the designation Sh2-142 in the Sharpless catalog of H II regions.

Location: Via Lactea Observatory, Kristallopigi Paramithia, Greece

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 DSIFilters: Ha 5nm Astrodon__O[III] 3nm Astrodon
Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro

Ha_OIII_OIII modified palette: Ha_(OIII+0.4Ha)_OIII

Ha:71*10min bin1x1
O[III]:72*10min bin1x1
Total exposure time:23h 50min


i totally reprocessed my previous published image of Wizard Nebula,hope you like it...




Saturday, April 25, 2020

Whirlpool Galaxy M51





The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a, M51a, and NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus.It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. Its distance is estimated to be 23 million light-years away from Earth.

Location: Via Lactea Observatory, Kristallopigi Paramithia, Greece

Instruments and exposure data
Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro Belt Drive Mod
Guiding:
W.O ZS80 ED
Meade DSI
Imaging:
W.O FLT110 with dedicated TMB field flattener
FeatherTouch 3'' focuser
Starizona MicroTouch autofocuser
SBIG ST10XME CFW9 Filters: Luminance Red Green Blue (Baader Planetarium)
Lum:132*5min, exposure 660min
Red:38*5min, exposure 190min
Green:35*5min, exposure 170min
Blue:36*5min, exposure 180min
Total exposure 20 hours

Monday, April 6, 2020

Whirlpool galaxy M51


An early version of M51,waiting for clear skies to add color.


Luminance only,this is a work in progress.

Location: Via Lactea Observatory, Kristallopigi Paramithia, Greece

Instruments and exposure data
Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro Belt Drive Mod
Guiding:
W.O ZS80 ED
Meade DSI
Imaging:
W.O FLT110 with dedicated TMB field flattener
FeatherTouch 3'' focuser
Starizona MicroTouch autofocuser
SBIG ST10XME CFW9 Filters: Luminance (Baader Planetarium)
Lum:132*5min total exposure 11h

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Sculptor Galaxy


The Sculptor Galaxy, NGC 253, is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. The Sculptor Galaxy is a starburst galaxy, which means that it is currently undergoing a period of intense star formation.A weighted average of the most reliable distance estimates gives a distance of 11.4 ± 0.7 Mly

Luminance only,this is a work in progress.

Location: Via Lactea Observatory, Kristallopigi Paramithia, Greece

Instruments and exposure data
Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro Belt Drive Mod
Guiding:
W.O ZS80 ED
Meade DSI
Imaging:
W.O FLT110 with dedicated TMB field flattener
FeatherTouch 3'' focuser
Starizona MicroTouch autofocuser
SBIG ST10XME CFW9 Filters: Luminance (Baader Planetarium)
Lum:180*4min  total exposure 12h

Saturday, October 5, 2019

NGC 6951 with IFN


NGC 6951 with IFN
Luminance only,this is a work in progress.

Location: Via Lactea Observatory, Kristallopigi Paramithia, Greece

Instruments and exposure data
Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro Belt Drive Mod
Imaging:
W.O FLT110 with dedicated TMB field flattener
FeatherTouch 3'' focuser
Starizona MicroTouch autofocuser
SBIG ST10XME CFW9 Filters: Luminance (Baader Planetarium)
Lum:49*7min  total exposure 5h 43min

Thursday, September 26, 2019

NGC 6822 Barnard's Galaxy



NGC 6822 (also known as Barnard's Galaxy, IC 4895, or Caldwell 57) is a barred irregular galaxy approximately 1.6 million light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. Part of the Local Group of galaxies, it was discovered by E. E. Barnard in 1884. It is one of the closer galaxies to the Milky Way. It is similar in structure and composition to the Small Magellanic Cloud. It is about 7,000 light-years in diameter.The galaxy contains regions of rich star formation and curious nebulae, such as the bubble visible in this image. Astronomers classify NGC 6822 as an irregular dwarf galaxy because of its odd shape and relatively diminutive size by galactic standards. The strange shapes of these cosmic misfits help researchers understand how galaxies interact, evolve and occasionally "cannibalise" each other, leaving behind radiant, star-filled scraps.
At only about a tenth of the Milky Way's size, Barnard’s Galaxy fits contains about 10 million stars — a far cry from the Milky Way’s estimated 400 billion.

Ο NGC 6822 ή Γαλαξίας του Μπάρναρντ, είναι ακανόνιστος γαλαξίας που βρίσκεται περίπου 1,6 εκατομμύριο έτη φωτός μακριά, στον αστερισμό Τοξότη. Είναι μέλος της Τοπικής ομάδας γαλαξιών και ανακαλύφθηκε από τον Αμερικανό αστρονόμο E.E. Μπάρναρντ το 1884. Είναι ένας από τους κοντινότερους γαλαξίες, παρόμοιος σε δομή και σύσταση με το Μικρό Νέφος του Μαγγελάνου. Οι διαστάσεις του είναι περίπου 7000 έτη φωτός.

Location: Via Lactea Observatory, Kristallopigi Paramithia, Greece

Instruments and exposure data
Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro Belt Drive Mod
Imaging:
W.O FLT110 with dedicated TMB field flattener
FeatherTouch 3'' focuser
Starizona MicroTouch autofocuser
SBIG ST10XME CFW9 Filters: Luminance Red Green Blue  (Baader Planetarium)
Lum    :23*8min 39*7min 1*10min -10C bin 1x1 total: 7h 47min
Red     :21*8min -10C bin 1x1 total: 2h 48min
Green:26*6min -10C bin1x1 total: 2h 36min
Blue    :27*5min  -10C bin1x1 total: 2h 15min
Darks 50 Bias 350 Flats 25
Guiding:
W.O ZS80 ED
Meade DSI

Total exposure time:15h 26min  6 nights  Jul 3,8 Aug 2,6,24,27  


A more stretched luminance channel with IFN clearly visible...i suppose

Saturday, July 20, 2019

M33 animated


This is an experimental animated project of M33 from a single image

The gif file is quite large so please be patient!!!

Friday, July 12, 2019

SH2 108 Hubble Palette

playing with starless sh2-108 i ended up to this version




Sh2 108 a close view in Hubble Palette (SHO)
SII as Red
Ha as Green
OIII as Blue

Instruments and exposure data:
W.O FLT110 with dedicated TMB field flattener
FeatherTouch 3'' focuser
Starizona MicroTouch autofocuser
SBIG ST10XME CFW9 W.O ZS80 ED
Meade DSI
Filters: 5nm Hα Astrodon, 3nm OIII Astrodon, 8nm SII Baader
Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro

SII  :25*10min bin 1x1
Ha  :11*10min bin1x1
OIII:25*10min bin 1x1

Total exposure time:10h 10min

Location: Via Lactea Observatory, Kristallopigi Paramithia, Greece

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

SH2 108


SH2 108 a close view
The Sadr region, IC 1318, is the busy neighborhood round the mag 2.2 star Sadr or gamma Cygni. It is a large expanse of nebulosity with dominant Ha emission nebulae and various dark nebulae.
We are looking deep into the Orion Arm of our Galaxy in this direction and the nebula is more than 3000 light years from us.

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

Ha:11*10min bin1x1
Total exposure time:1h 50min