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My Latest { 74 images } Created 11 Jan 2013

This gallery presents a selection of my latest images, taken in the last few days and months, from home in Alberta, Canada and from other locations around the world. This gallery is presented in chronological order, with the newest images first.

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Sunset Rainbow Arcs.jpg
Sunset Rainbow with Rain Virga.jpg
Sunset Double Rainbow with Autumn Tr...jpg
Eclipsed Moon Near Orion - Nov 19, 2...jpg
Eclipsed Moon Below Pleiades - Nov 1...jpg
Eclipsed Moon Near Winter Milky Way ...jpg
$The well-known North America Nebula (NGC 7000), with the smaller Pelican Nebula (IC 5067) to the right, in Cygnus, taken in the deep red light of hydrogen and rendered here in monochrome. This shows the rich detail and structure in the nebulas. This is a stack of 16 x 16-minute exposures with the Canon EOS Ra, on the SharpStar 94mm EDPH refractor with its f/4.5 flattener/reducer lens. The camera had a 12nm Astronomik clip-in H-a filter installed. The images were shot over two nights and with the Moon up for most exposures. Autoguided with the Lacerta MGEN3 stand-alone guider. In processsing I used Lumenzia 10 to create luminosity masks on Curves layers to bring out the nebulosity. An application of the Star XTerminator plug-in for Photoshop created a starless layer that was blended back in selectively to eliminate or suppress stars to help accentuate the nebulosity and structure, but without a fully starless image which often shows pockmarked artifacts where the stars were. A high pass filter further snapped up the dark lanes and streaks. A colour grade adds the slight blue tint for artistic effect. All stacking, alignment and blending with Photoshop 2022.$

NGC 7000 (SS94 Ra).jpg
Eclipsed Moon Below Pleiades - Nov 1...jpg
Selfie Observing Lunar Eclipse (Nov ...jpg
Eclipsed Moon in Taurus - Nov 19, 20...jpg
$The colourful but obscure area in the Cepheus Milky Way that contains the Lion Nebula (at bottom), a region emitting both red Hydrogen-alpha light and cyan Oxygen III light. It is a nebula that only recently became popular as an astrophoto target, perhaps because of its new nickname and from the use of narrowband filters to bring it out. It is not in the popular Messier, NGC or IC catalogues but is officially labeled as Sharpless 2-132. Meanwhile at top, the brightest nebula is the even more obscure Sharpless 2-135, alongside a very faint band of nebulosity that might not have a catalogue number — I couldn't find one! The nebulosity at top is a deeper red than the Lion Nebula, as the top area of sky contains more dark dust absorbing and reddening the nebulosity and also decreasing the star density and yellowing the sky compared to the richer, brighter and bluer region at bottom to the south around the Lion. There is a very small (like a fuzzy red star) planetary nebula just right of centre called the Little Ring Nebula, or M2-51, from the Minkowski catalogue. Another tiny planetary in the extreme lower left corner is Abell 79. The field of view here is 5° by 3.3°, with north up. The star at upper left is the famous variable and double star Delta Cephei. The yellow star at right is Zeta Cephei. This is a stack of 48 sub-frames taken over two nights, all with the SharpStar 94mm EDPH refractor at f/4.4 and the Canon Ra camera: - A stack of 16 x 8-minute exposures with a "clear" filter, an Astronomik UV/IR cut filter at ISO 800 - A stack of 16 x 12-minute exposures through an IDAS NB1 dual-narrowband filter at ISO 1600 - A stack of 16 x 16-minute exposures through an IDAS NBX dual ultra-narrowband filter at ISO 1600. This set was shot on night #2 as there was not enough time to shoot it on the same night at the other sets. The clear filter set contributes the sky background and natural star colours. The NB1 filter set contributes most of the red H-alpha co$

Lion Nebula (SS94 Ra).jpg
Cassiopeia and Perseus (28-70mm Ra).jpg
Taurus Dark Clouds (28-70mm Ra).jpg
All-Sky Aurora #1 (Nov 4, 2021).jpg
All-Sky Aurora #3 (Nov 4, 2021).jpg
All-Sky Aurora #2 (Nov 4, 2021).jpg
$Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko as it appeared on the night of November 2-3, 2021 in a good return near Earth, after its previous return in 2014-2015 when it was visited by the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe and Philae lander. The comet was faint — about 10th magnitude at this time, but did show a small tail on the photo and a typical cyan glow to its coma. The comet was in Gemini at this time. This is a Jupiter-family comet with a period of 6.45 years. This is stack of 4 x 4-minute exposures at ISO 1600 with the Canon Ra on the SharpStar 94mm EDPH refractor at f/4.5 and through an Optolong L-Pro filter.$

Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko (Nov...jpg
$The Iris Nebula (NGC 7023), a bright reflection nebula set amid clouds of dark yellow-brown dust in Cepheus. The bright red star at left is T Cephei. The smaller reflection nebula at far left is vdB 14. North is up in this framing. This is a stack of 18 x 12-minute exposures with the SharpStar 94mm EDPH refractor at f/4.5 and with the Canon Ra at ISO 800, and through an Optolong L-Pro broadband filter. A generous application of luminosity mask curves in Photoshop generated with the Lumenzia panel brought out the faint dusty tendrils from the background sky. An application of Star XTerminator filter reduced the stars to also help accentuate the dusty clouds. Autoguided with the MGEN3 with dithering; no LENR or dark frames employed. Taken from home Nov. 2/3, 2021.$

Iris Nebula NGC 7023 (SS94 Ra).jpg
Autumn Milky Way Panorama (28-70mm R...jpg
Gegenschein (15-35mm R6).jpg
$The large emission nebula complex in Cygnus catalogued as IC 1318, and known as the Butterfly Nebula. The main dark lane at left is LDN 889. The bright star at centre is Gamma Cygni, aka Sadr. Above it is the star cluster NGC 6910. The view is rendered in monochrome as it was shot on a moonlit night through a deep red filter in the light of H-alpha emission, prominent in such nebulas. This is a stack of 13 x 16-minute exposures with the SharpStar 94mm apo refractor at f/4.5 (with its reducer/flattener), and with the Canon Ra at ISO 1600 and equipped with an Astronomik clip-in 12nm Hydrogen-Alpha filter which lets through only very deep red light. The last few exposures were taken with a waning quarter Moon lighting the sky. Guided with the MGEN autoguider applying a dithering shift between each exposure to eliminate thermal noise when stacking the images. (Each sub-frame had a lot of thermal speckling, as when shooting in H-a with a colour camera only 1/4 of the pixels, the red ones, are recording any signal.) No darks or LENR employed. All stacking and alignment was with Photoshop. Faint nebulosity was brought out with luminosity-masked curves created with Lumenzia. ON1 NoNoise AI applied to the base stack. A mild application of Russell Croman's StarXTerminator plug-in backed off the stars within the regions of nebulosity to further enhance the nebula structures. StarXTerminator was applied selectively via the use of non-destructive layers, blend modes and masks. A mild colour grade was applied as a finishing touch to add the blue tint to the darks.$

IC1318 in Cygnus (SS94 Ra).jpg
$The large emission nebula in Cepheus catalogued as IC1396 (though that number also applies to the star cluster contained within the nebula) and which also contains the dark feature at right popularly known as the Elephant Trunk Nebula, or formally vdB 142. The dark nebula at bottom is B160'; the dark nebula above centre is B161. The red giant star Mu Cephei is at top. The view is rendered in monochrome as it was shot on a moonlit night through a deep red filter in the light of H-alpha emission, prominent in such nebulas. This is a stack of 10 x 16-minute exposures with the SharpStar 94mm apo refractor at f/4.5 (with its reducer/flattener), and with the Canon Ra at ISO 1600 and equipped with an Astronomik clip-in 12nm Hydrogen-Alpha filter which lets through only very deep red light. Half the exposures were taken with a waning Moon lighting the sky. Guided with the MGEN autoguider applying a dithering shift between each exposure to eliminate thermal noise when stacking the images. (Each sub-frame had a lot of thermal speckling, as when shooting in H-a with a colour camera only 1/4 of the pixels, the red ones, are recording any signal.) No darks or LENR employed. All stacking and alignment was with Photoshop. Faint nebulosity was brought out with luminosity-masked curves created with Lumenzia. ON1 NoNoise AI applied to the base stack. A Dynamic Contrast filter from ON1 2022 applied to a stamped upper layer helped snap up the dark nebulosity, as well as using a Paint Contrast layer (like dodging and burning) from TK8 Actions. A mild application of Russell Croman's StarXTerminator plug-in backed off the stars within the nebulosity to further enhance the nebula structures. StarXTerminator was applied selectively via the use of non-destructive layers, blend modes and masks. A mild colour grade was applied as a finishing touch to add the blue tint to the darks.$

IC1396 in Cepheus (SS94 Ra).jpg
Hunter's Moonrise (Oct 20, 2021).jpg
$The conjunction of bright Venus (then approaching its greatest elongation from the Sun two weeks later) above dimmer redder Antares in Scorpius on the evening of October 16, 2021. The two objects were 1.5° apart this evening, but from my latitude of 51° N were low in the southwest embedded in the bright twilight. This is a single 1.3-second exposure with the 24-105mm lens and the Canon Ra in 1.6x cropped-frame mode for an effective focal length of 170mm. Shot from home in Alberta. Diffraction spikes added for artistic effect with Astronomy Tools actions.$

Venus and Antares (Oct 16, 2021).jpg
$This is a wide-field portrait of a set of nebulas with colourful names but rendered here in monochrome: The Bubble Nebula at upper left; the Lobster Claw Nebula below it (somewhat obvious for its shape); the Cave Nebula at upper right; and the Wizard Nebula at bottom. The small round nebula above the Wizard is Sharpless 2-152. Just below it and very small is Sh2-148. The star cluster right of centre is NGC 7419. The Bubble Nebula's spherical bubble is a little lost at this scale. It lies below the star cluster Messier 52. The Bubble is also NGC 7635. The Lobster Claw is Sharpless 2-157 and is sometimes called the Californietto. The Cave Nebula is Sharpless 2-155, while the Wizard is Sharpless 2-142 but also known as NGC 7380 though that designation applies to the star cluster associated with it. All are located on the Cassiopeia-Cepheus border. North is more or less up in this portrait orientation. This is a stack of 12 x 16-minute exposures with the SharpStar 61mm EDPH refractor with its reducer at f/4.4, and with the Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 3200, with a clip-in Astronomik 12nm H-alpha filter to block all but red H-a light for a monochrome portrait. Luminosity masks with Lumenzia helped bring out the faint nebulosity. The initial exposures were taken in moonlight. I added a slight blue colour grade for artistic effect.$

Bubble, Cave and Claw Nebulas (SS61 ...jpg
Aurora with SAR Arc and Blobs #2 - F...jpg
Aurora with Dunes Structure (Oct 11,...jpg
Aurora with SAR Arc and Blobs #1 - F...jpg
Aurora with Red Curtains - Fish-Eye ...jpg
Aurora with Blobs Structures (Oct 11...jpg
Aurora with Red Curtains (Oct 11, 20...jpg
Auroral Arc Panorama (Oct 11, 2021).jpg
Aurora with Dunes Structure - Fish-E...jpg
$This is the asterism of stars known as Kemble's Cascade, named by Walter Scott Houston for Canadian amateur astronomer and Franciscan friar Father Lucien Kemble who popularized the stellar star chain. It is an obvious sight in binoculars or a telescope at low power but is off the beaten track in Camelopardalis. The star cluster NGC 1502 lies at the south end of the star chain. Below 1502 is a tiny vivid green dot, the planetary nebula NGC 1501. The field of view here is similar to that of binoculars. This is a stack of 8 x 5-minute exposures with the SharpStar 61mm refractor at f/4.5 and Canon R6 at ISO 1600. Diffraction spikes added for artistuc effect with AstronomyTools actions.$

Kemble's Cascade (SS61 R6).jpg
$This is the region of central Cassiopeia containing a rich assortment of deep-sky objects: The so-called Ghosts of Cassiopeia nebulas at top, the Owl Cluster, aka the ET Cluster, at bottom, and the Pacman Nebula at right. The Ghosts of Cassiopeia are the magenta/cyan reflection and emission nebulas officially called IC 59 and IC 63. Both are reflecting the light of bluish Gamma Cassiopeiae, aka Navi. The "Ghost" name for these objects is a recent appellation. See https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191025.html The star cluster at bottom is NGC 457, with smaller NGC 436 above it. It is variously called the Owl Cluster or the E.T. Cluster. The emission nebula at right is the Pacman Nebula, NGC 281, below the stars Eta (Achird) and Alpha (Schedar) Cassiopeiae. The blue star at far left is Delta Cassiopeiae, aka Ruchbah. It along with Gamma and Alpha form the middle three stars of the W of Cassiopeia. The field here is 7.5° x 5°, similar to binoculars. This is stack of 8 x 16-minute exposures through an IDAS NB1 nebula filter to bring out the faint nebulosity, blended with a stack of 15 x 8-minute exposures with an Astronomik UV/IR Cut filter for a white light normal colour image. All with the Canon Ra (at ISO 1600 for the NB1 filter shots and at ISO 1000 for the normal shots) through the SharpStar EDPH 61mm refractor at f/4.5. All stacking, alignment and blending with Photoshop. No LENR or darks applied, just inter-frame dithering to eliminate thermal noise specks which were prominent in the long high-ISO filtered shots. Autoguiding and dithering was with the MGEN3 stand-alone autoguider. Faint nebulosity was brought out with luminosity mask adjustments with Lumenzia.$

Ghost, ET and Pacman in Cassiopeia (...jpg
$A wide-field framing of the famous Andromeda Galaxy, aka M31 showing it above the two "guidestars," Mu (bottom) and Nu Andromedae that are used to star hop to the galaxy. Above M31 is one of its companion galaxies, M110, while below it on the edge of M31 is the nearly starlike (at this scale) M32, its other companion galaxy. North is to the upper left in this orientation. The field of view is similar to that of binoculars. This is a stack of 14 x 8-minute exposures with the Canon R6 camera at ISO 800, on the SharpStar 61mm apo refractor with its flattener/reducer for f/4.5. Only an Astronomik UV/IR Cut filter was employed. I had LENR turned on with the R6 to eliminate the amp glow flaw of the camera. Autoguided and dithered with the MGEN3 stand-alone autoguider. Stacked and aligned with Photoshop. Luminosity mask adjustments with Lumenzia helped bring out the outer structures. A high pass filter and the Starizona Galaxy Enhance action snapped up the dust lanes.$

Andromeda Galaxy Above Mu Andromedae...jpg
Autumn Milky Way (RF28-70mm @ 28 wit...jpg
Perseus Clusters (RF28-70mm @ 50 wit...jpg
$The rich Starcloud in Scutum the Shield framed here with a field of view similar to binoculars, and showing the prominent star cluster M11, aka the Wild Duck Cluster, at upper left. The cluster Messier 26 is at bottom right, and the small globular cluster NGC 6712 is at lower left. The tiny green planetary nebula IC 1295 is just visible at this scale to the left of NGC 6712. The area is bounded by many Barnard catalog dark nebulas. The very red star below centre is S Scuti. The large and loose open cluster at far right near the star Alpha Scuti is NGC 6664 with the dimmer Trumpler 34 to the left of it. This is a stack of 10 x 6-minute exposures with the SharpStar 61mm EDPH apo refractor, with its flattener/reducer lens for f/4.5 and with the stock Canon R6 camera at ISO 800. Guided with the MGEN3 autoguider with dithering on but no LENR or dark frames to eliminate thermal noise or edge amp glows.$

Scutum StarCloud with M11 (SS61 R6).jpg
$The large starfield in Perseus known as the Perseus OB Association, surrounding the bright star Mirfak, or Alpha Persei, above centre. It is also known as Melotte 20, the Perseus Moving Cluster. This star grouping is a fine object for binoculars. The 7.5 x 5° field is close to a binocular field of view. This is a stack of 12 x 5-minute exposures with the SharpStar 61mm apo refractor at f/4.5 and with the Canon R6 at ISO 800. An additional exposure through a Kase/Alyn Wallace StarGlow filter adds the star glows. Diffraction spikes added with Asrtronomy Tools Actions. Taken from home October 1, 2021.$

Perseus OB Association (SS61 R6).jpg
$The dark nebula complex known as Barnard's E, aka B142 (bottom) and B143 (top), in Aquila near the stars Altair (at bottom) and Tarazed (above centre). This field is a fine one for binoculars. The 7.5 x 5° field is close to a binocular field of view. This is a stack of 10 x 6-minute exposures with the SharpStar 61mm apo refractor at f/4.5 and with the Canon R6 at ISO 1250. Taken from home Sept. 30, 2021.$

Altair with Barnard's E (SS61 R6).jpg
$The asterism known as the Coathanger, aka Cr 399, in Vulpecula, at upper right here. The faint blue reflection nebula above it is Sharpless 2-83; the small reflection nebula at bottom is Sh-2-82. The small open cluster off the left tip of the Coathanger is NGC 6802. The Coathanger asterism is a fine one for binoculars. The 7.5 x 5° field is close to a binocular field of view. This is a stack of 12 x 6-minute exposures with the SharpStar 61mm apo refractor at f/4.5 and with the Canon R6 at ISO 1250. Taken from home Sept. 30, 2021. Diffraction spikes added with Astronomy Tools actions.$

Coathanger with NGC 6802 (SS61 R6).jpg
Cassiopeia Clusters and Nebulas (RF2...jpg
Cygnus Starclouds and Nebulas (RF28-...jpg
Cygnus Nebulosity (RF28-70 @ 70 with...jpg
Milky Way at Elbow Falls (Sept 26, 2...jpg
Milky Way in Moonlight at Elbow Fall...jpg
$A telescopic close-up of the full Harvest Moon rising over the Badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park on September 20, 2021. This is a single 0.8-second exposure taken as part of a time-lapse sequence, shot through a 76mm f/4.4 refractor telescope for an effective focal length of 335mm using the Canon R6 at ISO 100. Luminosity masks created with TKActions v8 applied to enhance the contrast of the foreground. A mild Orton glow added with Luminar AI.$

Harvest Moon at Dinosaur Park (SS76 ...jpg
Equinox Sunset (Sept 22, 2021).jpg
Equinox Moonrise (Sept 21, 2021).jpg
Equinox Sunset (Sept 21, 2021).jpg
Harvest Moonrise over Badlands (105m...jpg
$This is the pair of emission nebulas in Cassiopeia known as the Heart (upper right) and Soul (lower left) Nebulas, here recorded in monochrome shot through a deep-red filter to isolate the Hydrogen-alpha wavelength to allow shooting of the faint nebulas on a bright moonlit night. The Soul, aka Embryo, Nehula is officially IC 1848, while the Heart Nebula is IC 1805. The brightest portion at upper right is NGC 896 and IC 1795. The Moon was a bright waxing gibbous this night, setting toward the end of the 4 hours of shooting when frames did get much darker. This is a stack of 18 x 16-minute exposures at ISO 3200 through an Astronomik 12nm H-alpha clip-in filter inserted into the Canon EOS Ra camera, and shooting through the SharpStar 76mm apo refractor at f/4.4 with its field flattener reducer. Auto-guided with the MGEN3 guider and dithered from frame to frame to average out the thermal noise hot pixels which were abundant with such long exposures at a high ISO, despite this being a cool night. No LENR or darks applied. Nebulosity brought out via luminosity masks created with Lumenzia. Some colour grading applied to give the image a slight colour tone. High Pass Sharpen and TKActions Soft Pop action applied to the nebulas for added edge contrast.$

Heart and Soul Nebulas in Monochrome...jpg
$The area in Cepheus containing NGC 7380 (upper left), aka the Wizard Nebula, as well as the famous double and variable star Delta Cephei, at top centre. The star at upper right is Zeta Cephei. The brighter nebula between the two stars is Sharpless 2-136. The large nebula at lower right, containing both red hydrogen-alpha and green oxygen-III emission regions, is Sharpless 2-132. The field of view here is 6° by 4°. This is a blend of a stack of 8 x 12-minutes at ISO 1600 through an IDAS NB1 narrowband filter, with a stack of 14 x 6-minute exposures at ISO 800 with a "clear" Astronomik UV-IR Cut filter, all with the Canon EOS Ra camera through the SharpStar 76mm apo refractor at f/4.4 with its field flattener/reducer. Autoguided and dithered with the MGEN3 auto-guider. No darks or LENR employed. Faint nebulosity brought out with the aid of luminosity masks created with Lumenzia.$

NGC 7380 and Delta Cephei Area (SS76...jpg
Zodiacal Light at Dawn (11mm Fish-Ey...jpg
$Time for my annual image of the Andromeda Galaxy! This is M31, the spiral galaxy in Andromeda, with its two companion elliptical galaxies, the very small M32 below, and larger M110 above. North is up in this framing, in a set of images taken from home September 6, 2021. I shot this as a test of the Canon R6 mirrorless camera. It is a stack of 8 x 8-minute exposures at ISO 800, blended with a stack of 8 x 2-minute exposures at ISO 400 for the core, to prevent it from overexposing too much, all with the SharpStar 76mm apo refractor at f/4.4 with its field flattener/reducer, and autoguided with the MGEN3 autoguider, with interframe dithering applied, and no darks or LENR employed. It was on the Mach 1 mount. Some light haze added mild star glows. The faint arms and outer glows were brought out with luminosity masks created with Lumenzia and Zone System Express 7. All stacking, alignment and blending with Photoshop.$

Andromeda Galaxy, M31, with Canon R6...jpg
$Several types of deep-sky objects are represented here: an emission nebula, dark nebulas, and star clusters, in this rich field in Cygnus. The field frames the bright and magenta Cocoon Nebula (at lower left), aka IC 5146, at the end of the dark nebula B168, aka The Dark Cigar, which itself is southeast of the bright but sparse star cluster Messier 39 at upper right. The field is also wrapped in faint red emission nebulosity. A dimmer smaller star cluster, Platais 1, sits above M39. This is a rich field about 6° by 4°, embedded in the main band of the Milky Way in northern Cygnus. This is a blend of: a stack of 8 x 6-minute exposures at ISO 1600 through a clear Astronomik UV-IR cut filter, layered with a stack of 11 x 12-minute shots at ISO 2000 through an IDAS NB1 narrowband filter for the red H-alpha nebulosity. All were with the 76mm SharpStar apo refractor with its matching flattener/reducer for f/4.4, and with the red-sensitive Canon EOS Ra camera. Autoguiding and inter-frame dithering was with the MGEN3. No darks or LENR were applied here on this cooler autumn night. All stacking, alignment and blending with Photoshop. I brought out the faint nebulosity with the use of luminosity and color range masks created with Lumenzia and Zone System Express 7. Diffraction spikes added for artistic effect with Astronomy Tools Actions. A mild Orton glow added with Luminar AI for fun.$

Cocoon Nebula & M39 (SS76 EOS Ra...jpg
Central Cygnus (85mm EOS Ra).jpg
Summer Stars at Fossil Hunters Trail.jpg
Jupiter & Saturn over Hoodoo (Au...jpg
$A portrait of the complex of emission nebulas in central Cygnus near the bright star Gamma Cygni (at left). The field includes the IC 1318 complex around Gamma Cygni itself and the Wolf-Rayet arc of nebulosity, NGC 6888, aka the Crescent Nebula, at right. The sparse star cluster Messier 29 is at bottom. This was through the SharpStar 94mm apo refractor at f/4.4 and with the Canon EOS Ra. It is a blend of 6 x 6-minute exposures at ISO 1600 through an Astronomik UV-IR-Cut filter for the base image, and a stack of 4 x 12-minutes at ISO 3200 through IDAS NB1 and Optolong L-eNhance filters for the enhanced red nebulosity, plus 6 x 12-minutes at ISO 3200 through Optolong L-eXtreme and IDAS NBZ filters which contribute only the enhanced cyan OIII emission, all taken as part of testing the filters. Normally, using four filters would not be required! Autoguided and dithered on this warm summer night with the Lacerta MGEN3 autoguider. No darks or LENR applied as the dithering effectively eliminated the thermal noise speckling which was prominent on the individual sub-frames. Taken from home August 13, 2021. All stacked, aligned, and blended in Photoshop.$

Gamma Cygni & NGC 6888 (SS94 EOS...jpg
Perseids 2021 (Untracked R6 11mm).jpg
Perseids 2021 (Tracked 6D 14mm).jpg
Milky Way at Driftwood Beach (July 1...jpg
Milky Way over Upper Waterton Lake (...jpg
Venus, Mars and the Moon (July 11, 2...jpg
NLCs over Northern Sky (June 27, 202...jpg
Rising Strawberry Moon & Clouds ...jpg
Partial Lunar Eclipse-May 26, 2021 (...jpg
NLCs at One Tree Hill (June 16, 2021...jpg
$The Eagle Nebula at top (aka M16) and the Swan Nebula (aka M17), straddling the Serpens-Sagittarius border. The star cluster below M17 is M18, while the small cluster above M16 is Trumpler 32. The Swan Nebula is also called the Omega or the Checkmark Nebula. The Eagle Nebula contains the dark towers called the Pillars of Creation made famous in the Hubble images. This is a blend of a stack of 9 x 8-minutes at ISO 3200 through the Optolong L-eNhance dual-band nebula filter, with a stack of 6 x 5-minutes at ISO 800 with no filter, all through the SharpStar 94mm refractor at f/4.4 and with the Canon EOS Ra camera. I used the AstroHutech filter drawer/adapter to aid swapping out the filter. Autoguiding was with the MGEN3 stand-alone autoguider. All images stacked, aligned and blended with Photoshop. I shot this set on June 14/15 on one short night a week before summer solstice from home at latitude 51° N, so the sky was never fully dark, making colour correction a challenge, resulting in a somewhat monochromatic look. In addition, the time to shoot was only 2 hours or so, limiting the number of sub-frames. Plus this field is low in the south from my latitude. Also taken on a very warm +24° C night for my western Canadian location, all without darks or LENR thermal noise reduction, as a test, just with frame-to-frame dithering to reduce thermal speckling which was abundant on the filtered high-ISO shots. Stacking with a median stack mode eliminated most, though not all, of the speckling.$

Eagle & Swan Nebulas M16 & M...jpg
$This is the supernova remnant in Cygnus known as the Veil Nebula, here in its entirety, from the eastern arc at left, catalogued as NGC 6992/5, to the western arc at right, NGC 6960, running past the star 52 Cygni. At top is the wedge-shaped "Pickering's Triangle.," but discovered photographically by Wiliamina Fleming, one of the Harvard "computers." The field is filled with lots of little nebula bits and shrapnel-like fragments. All are remains of a star that exploded as a supernova some 10,000 to 20,000 years ago and is about 2,400 light years away. The red is emission from ionized hydrogen, the cyan emission from ionized oxygen. This nebula shows a lot of oxygen emission at the leading edge of the expanding cloud of debris. This is a blend of three stacks of exposures: -- 10 x 8 minutes at ISO 3200 through an Optolong L-eXtreme very narrowband filter which lets through just green-blue oxygen III and red hydrogen alpha wavelengths -- 8 x 8 minutes at ISO 1600 through an Optolong L-eNhance narrowband filter which lets through a broader bandwidth of light at those two main wavelenths, OIII and Ha -- 8 x 6 minutes at ISO 800 through no filter which records the full spectrum of light All were with the Canon EOS Ra through the SharpStar 94mm apo refractor at f/4.4 with its reducer/flattener and using an AstroHutech filter drawer between the flattener and camera to aid filter swapping. The L-eNhance set was taken June 11 until clouds intervened; the other 2 sets were taken the next night June 12. There was only about 2 hours of semi-darkness at this time of year from my latitude of 51° N. Guiding was with the MGEN3 stand-alone auto-guider (which applied a 5-pixel dither or image shift between each exposure) and William Optics 30mm guidescope. So impressive results less than 2 weeks from solstice at my latitude, made possible by the filters. With the dithering, no LENR or darks were applied, despite this being a warm-ish night. The L-eXtreme set contributes the$

Veil Nebula Complex (SS94 EOS Ra wit...jpg
Moon & Venus Conjunction (June 1...jpg
Milky Way over Cameron Lake (June 2,...jpg