Details

John Hughes, 20 January 2020.

William Optics Z103 APO refractor on SkyWatcher NEQ6R-Pro mount with ZWO ASI1600mm Cooled Pro camera and Baader 7 nm Hα filter. Observations controlled by Sequence Generator Pro. The image is based on the Hubble palette and uses SII, OIII and Hα (Sulphur, Oxygen and Hydrogen) filters to create a pseudo-colour picture. There are 85 images, captured over 18-20 January, each comprising a five-minute exposure as follows: SII 25 x 5 m, OIII 30 x 5 m, Hα 30 x 5 m. The 85 images were then calibrated and stacked using Pixinsight.

John Hughes, 04 January 2020.

William Optics Z103 APO refractor on SkyWatcher NEQ6R-Pro mount with ZWO ASI1600mm Cooled Pro camera and Baader 7 nm Hα filter. Observations controlled by Sequence Generator Pro. Six 5-minute exposures, processed with 25 flats, 25 dark flats and 25 darks. Conditions were far from ideal as the Moon was at 62% illumination and clouds prevented further observations.

David Murton, 08 December 2017.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Nineteen 480 s exposures at ISO 800. M1 is the most famous of supernovae remnants. It is the remains of an exploding star witnessed by Chinese astronomers in AD 1054 and lies at a distance of approximately 6200 light years.

Andy Gibbs, 02 January 2017.

Explore Scientific ED80 CF apochromatic refractor on an HEQ5 mount with Atik Infinity camera.

Mike O'Mahony, 26 December 2016.

Meade 230 mm f/10 SCT on HEQ5 mount, Canon 60Da camera. Stack of forty-five 30 s images at ISO 4000 taken at 21:00 UT while M1 was at an altitude of 51°.

David Murton, 21 December 2016.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on HEQ5 mount, Canon 60Da camera. Stack of sixteen 480 s exposures at ISO 400, taken over a period of several days.

Martin Cook, 03 February 2016.

Taken at 19:58 UT. Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on HEQ5 mount with Canon 1100D camera at prime focus. Five frames at 30 s exposure at ISO 1600. Light curves adjusted in Photoshop CS5.

David Murton, 19 December 2014.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on HEQ5 mount, Canon 1100D camera. Stack of 300 s exposures at ISO 400.

Mike O'Mahony, 30 November 2014.

Meade 230 mm f/10 SCT used with Canon 60Da camera. Ten 25 s images at ISO 5000 combined with Deep Sky Stacker. Taken at 23:05 UT.

Mike Harlow, 08 November 2007.

160mm, f/2.5 Schmidt telescope and MX916 CCD camera. 360 s exposure. The image shows a hint of the internal structure of the nebula. FoV 72x56 arcmin.

Mike Harlow, 23 July 1996.

300 mm Newtonian reflector with Starlight Express CCD camera.

Details

David Murton, 30 July 2017.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Twelve 360 s exposures at ISO 800. Close-up of the image, showing the famous "pillars of creation". Compare with the well-known images of the object taken by the HST in 1995 and 2014.

David Murton, 28 April 2017.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Nine 480 s exposures at ISO 400. Close-up of the image, showing the famous "pillars of creation".

David Murton, 25 April 2017.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Two 480 s exposures at ISO 400.

Details

David Murton, 03 July 2017.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Ten 360 s exposures at ISO 800. Processed in DSS and Gimp. Magnified image.

Details

Andy Gibbs, 12 October 2021.

Explore Scientific ED80 CF apochromatic refractor on HEQ5 mount with Atik One 6.0 monochrome camera. Controlled by a PrimaluceLab Eagle 3. Six 240 second exposures in luminance, red, green and blue, plus darks and flats. Software used: Sequence Generator Pro and Affinity Photo.

John Hughes, 04 September 2020.

318 mm Planewave Dall-Kirkham Astrograph and SBIG Universal camera with Hydrogen α and Oxygen III filters. Captured using the iTelescope.net instrument T18 at the AstroCamp Observatory in Nerpio, Spain. Fifteen 300 s exposures in Hα and fourteen 300 s in OIII, processed using PixInsight.

Andy Gibbs, 07 October 2018.

Explore Scientific ED80 CF apochromatic refractor on HEQ5 mount with Atik One 6.0 monochrome camera and narrowband filters. Two-minute subframes without auto-guiding. Hα assigned to the green channel, SII images to the red channel and OIII to the blue channel (the so-called Hubble palette). These were the first images with the camera, newly acquired.

Andy Gibbs, 17 September 2017.

Explore Scientific ED80 CF apochromatic refractor on HEQ5 mount with Atik Infinity camera. Stack of ten 20 s exposures. Post-processed with Photoshop Elements 11.

David Murton, 23 October 2016.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Stack of seventeen 240 s exposures at ISO 400.

Andy Gibbs, 11 September 2016.

Explore Scientific ED80 CF apochromatic refractor on HEQ5 mount with Atik Infinity camera. Stack of approx 15 s exposures with minimal post-processing. (The image was captured to assess the capabilities of the camera itself.)

David Murton, 22 August 2015.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on HEQ5 mount. Canon 1100D camera. Stack of six 360 s exposures at ISO 200 with darks and flats.

David Murton, 23 October 2013.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on HEQ5 mount. Canon 1100D camera at prime focus without additional magnification. Stack of three 30 s exposures at ISO 1600 with minimal additional processing. (Exposure time limited due to imperfect polar alignment.)

Andy Gibbs, 06 October 2013.

Meade LX200 200 mm SCT on an equatorial wedge with f/3.3 focal reducer. Atik Titan one-shot colour camera. Three 90 s exposures and one 90 s dark frame aligned, combined and de-Bayered with Atik Dawn software. (Exposure time limited by polar alignment problems.)

Andy Gibbs, 14 September 2013.

Meade LX200 200 mm SCT on an equatorial wedge. Atik Titan one-shot colour camera. Single 50 s exposure. (Exposure time limited due to tracking problems with the telescope mount.) Minimal post-processing.

Details

Andy Gibbs, 11 February 2024.

First light of OASI's newly-purchased ZWO Seestar S50 "smart" imaging telescope. Five-minutes' worth of 10 s exposures stacked, with no post processing. Image after do-noising in Affinity Photo 2. To improve results further, individual FITS files could stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, Siril or Pixinsight; however, the performance of the Seestar itself is certainly impressive.

Martin Cook, 15 February 2018.

Skywatcher 200P 200 mm reflector on HEQ5 mount. Coma corrector. Canon 1100D camera, 30 s exposure at 800 ISO. Raw image from camera converted to a .jpg. Image taken at 20:34 UT. Note that there is an aircraft track in the full image (outside the field of the thumbnail).

Martin Cook, 15 February 2018.

Taken shortly after above image with same equipment and exposures. Twelve light frames and 10 dark frames combined in DSS and processed in Photoshop CS5.

David Murton, 06 January 2018.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Fifteen 480 s exposures and seventeen 60  exposures at ISO 800. M42 is a region of star formation in Orion, with clouds of dust and gas illuminated by four bright new stars forming a trapezium at the centre. It's one of the easiest objects to photograph being pretty bright, but also one of the hardest to get right due to the huge range of brightness. Also visible are M43, de Mairan's nebula, separated from the main bulk of M42 by a dark dust lane, and the Running Man nebula, NGC1977, a bright reflection nebula with dust lanes forming the outline of a man.

David Murton, 18 February 2017.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Fifteen 480 s plus seven 60 s exposures, all at ISO 400.

Andy Gibbs, 20 December 2016.

Explore Scientific ED80 CF apochromatic refractor on HEQ5 mount with a x0.7 reducer/corrector and Canon 1200D camera. An aeroplane or satellite passed through the image leaving a trail running from top-left to middle-right.

David Murton, 29 December 2016.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Fifteen 360 s plus five 30 s exposures.

David Murton, 11 February 2016.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Fifteen 360 s plus ten 30 s exposures, all at ISO 400.

Martin Cook, 03 February 2016.

Skywatcher Explorer 200P with Canon 1100D camera at prime focus. Five 30 s exposures at ISO 1600. Light curves adjusted in Photoshop CS5.

David Murton, 29 December 2015.

NGC1977, the Running Man Nebula, approximately half a degree northeast of the main Orion Nebula. William Optics ZS71 ED 71 mm, f/5.9 refractor on NEQ6 mount with Canon 60Da camera. Ten 360 s exposures at ISO 400.

David Murton, 25 October 2015.

Canon 60Da camera on Skywatcher Explorer mount. 70-300 mm lens, 90 s exposure at ISO 400.

Chris Stevens, 24 January 2015.

Modified camera with excessive red-channel adjustment.

Kev Fulcher, 19 December 2014.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm f/5 Newtonian. 25 s exposures stacked using DSS.

David Murton, 19 December 2014.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on HEQ5 mount. Canon 1100D camera. Stack of 30 s and 360 s exposures at ISO 400 combined with HDR Picturenaut.

David Murton, 13 December 2014.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on HEQ5 mount. Canon 1100D camera. Stack of 300 s exposures. A Geminid meteor trail is to the centre-left of the image.

David Murton, 22 March 2014.

William Optics ZS71 ED 71 mm, f/5.9 refractor on HEQ5 mount. Canon 1100D camera. Stack of seven 60 s exposures at ISO 800.

David Murton, 11 March 2014.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on HEQ5 mount. Canon 1100D camera. The Moon was close to M42, so the image is impaired by moonlight.

David Murton, 26 February 2014.

M42 together with NGC 1973/5/7, the so-called Running Man Nebula. (The thumbnail shows only the latter.) Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on HEQ5 mount. Canon 1100D camera. Single 40 s exposure at ISO 1600 with minimal processing. Taken during a DASH Astro observing session.

Matthew Leeks, 11 January 2014.

DSLR with Tomline Refractor at Orwell Park Observatory.

David Murton, 28 December 2013.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on HEQ5 mount. Canon 1100D camera. Two images combined with HDR Picturenaut.

David Murton, 09 December 2013.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on HEQ5 mount. Canon 1100D camera. Stack of several images.

Details

Stephen Olley, January 2022 and January 2023.

Altair Starwave Ascent 102 ED refractor on Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro. Altair Hypercam 294C Pro with Optolong L Enhance and Altair L Pro filters. Altair Lightwave 0.8 focal reducer. Imaged captured with NINA and processesed in Astro Pixel Processor and Photoshop.

Andy Gibbs, 27 February 2021.

A narrowband image of the region. Explore Scientific ED80 CF refractor on HEQ5 mount, Atik One 6.0 camera, QHY5L-II guide camera, Sesto Senso focuser, controlled by Primalucelab Eagle 3. Eight 420 second exposures through each filter, Hα, SII and OIII, plus dark and flat frames. Processed in the Hubble palette (Hα green, SII red and OIII blue) with Atik Dawn and Atik Infinity.

Andy Gibbs, 20 January 2020.

A narrowband image of the region. The brightest star is Alnitak. Relative to Alnitak are, to the left, NGC 2024, the Flame Nebula; below, IC 434, the Horsehead Nebula; below and to the left, NGC 2023. Explore Scientific ED80 CF refractor on HEQ5 mount. Atik One 6.0 camera. Dark frames taken on 19 January 2020, after an equipment malfunction, then session curtailed by cloud; light frames taken on 20 January 2020. Processed in the Hubble palette (Hα green, SII red and OIII blue) with Atik Dawn and Photoshop CC 2020.

Andy Gibbs, 18 December 2017.

Brightest star is Alnitak. Relative to Alnitak are, to the left, NGC 2024, the Flame Nebula; below, IC 434, the Horsehead Nebula (low contrast); below and to the left, NGC 2023. Explore Scientific ED80 CF refractor on HEQ5 mount. Canon 1200D camera, multiple 360 s exposures at ISO800 with darks and flats. Processed in Deep Sky Stacker and Photoshop CC.

David Murton, 18 November 2017.

Brightest star is Alnitak. Relative to Alnitak are, to the left, NGC 2024, the Flame Nebula; below, IC 434, the Horsehead Nebula; below and to the left, NGC 2023; below and to the far left, IC 435; above and to the left, variable star V1197. Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Ten 480 s exposures at ISO 800.

David Murton, 04 December 2016.

Objects as in previous image, apart from V1197 (out of frame). Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Seven 480 s exposures at ISO 400 plus one 480 s exposure at ISO 1600 using an Hα filter.

David Murton, 11 February 2016.

Brightest star is Alnitak. Relative to Alnitak are: to the left, NGC 2024, the Flame Nebula; below, IC 434, the Horsehead Nebula; below and to the left, NGC 2023; below and to the far left, IC 435; above, almost out of frame to the right, IC431; above, IC432; above to the far left, variable star V1197. Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera.

David Murton, 11 February 2016.

Close-up of the Horsehead Nebula, IC434, B33, from previous image.

Kevin Fulcher, 21 September 2015.

Belt of Orion and NGC2024, the Flame Nebula. Canon 70D camera with 300 mm, f/5.6 lens. Four 30 s exposures at ISO 6400 plus dark frames and flat frames. Stacked in DSS and tweaked in Lightroom 6.

David Murton, 24 December 2014.

Brightest star is Alnitak. Relative to Alnitak are: to the left, NGC 2024, the Flame Nebula; below, IC 434, the Horsehead Nebula; below and to the left, NGC 2023; above and to the right, IC 431; above and to the left IC 432. Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on HEQ5 mount. Canon 1100D camera. Sixteen 360 s exposures at ISO 400 with dark frames and flat frames. Processed with DSS and GIMP.

Kev Fulcher, 19 December 2014.

NGC2024, the Flame Nebula, and ζ Orionis. Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian. 25 s exposures stacked using DSS.

David Murton, 19 December 2014.

Brightest star is Alnitak. Relative to Alnitak are: to the left, NGC 2024, the Flame Nebula; below and slightly to the left, NGC 2023; below and to the right (almost out of frame), σ Orionis. William Optics ZS71 ED 71 mm, f/5.9 refractor on HEQ5 mount. Canon 1100D camera. Stack of 360 s exposures at ISO 400.

Mike Harlow, 26 February 2008.

Nebulosity in the region. 160 mm, f/2.5 Schmidt camera with MX916 CCD. FoV 75'x55'. North up.

Details

Andy Gibbs, 22 October 2018.

M57 captured during an astro-imaging session at Newbourne Village Hall. Atik Infinity camera coupled to 80 mm refractor on HEQ5 mount. Stack of 10 s exposures.

David Murton, 22 October 2017.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Stack of fifteen 360 s exposures at ISO 400.

David Murton, 28 April 2017.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Stack of five 480 s exposures at ISO 400.

David Murton, 28 April 2017.

Close-up from the above image.

Andy Gibbs, 11 September 2016.

Explore Scientific ED80 CF apochromatic refractor on an HEQ5 mount with Atik Infinity camera. Stack of 15 s exposures with minimal post-processing. (The image was captured to assess the capabilities of the camera itself.)

David Murton, 22 August 2015.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on HEQ5 mount. Canon 1100D camera. Stack of ten 360 s exposures at ISO 200 with dark frames and flat frames.

Martin Cook, 27 October 2014.

Taken at 20:03 UT. Skywatcher 200 mm reflector with Canon 1100D camera, 30 s exposure at ISO 1600.

Mike O'Mahony, 13 September 2014.

Stack of eight stills.

David Murton, 23 October 2013.

200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on HEQ5 mount. Canon 1100D camera at prime focus without additional magnification. Stack of three 30 s exposures at ISO 1600 with minimal additional processing. (Exposure time limited due to imperfect polar alignment.)

Andy Gibbs, 06 October 2013.

Meade LX200 200 mm SCT on an equatorial wedge with f/3.3 focal reducer. Atik Titan one-shot colour camera. Three 90 s exposures and one 90 s dark frame aligned, combined and de-Bayered with Atik Dawn software. (Exposure time limited by polar alignment problems.)

Andy Gibbs, 14 September 2013.

Meade LX200 200 mm SCT on an equatorial wedge. Atik Titan one-shot colour camera. Single 50 s exposure with minimal post-processing. (Exposure time limited due to tracking problems with the telescope mount.)

Details

Andy Gibbs, 23 January 2023.

M78 is a bright reflection nebula in Orion, 1,600 light years distant. Frames with exposure 300 s were captured 08-23 January 2023. Twelve exposures each in luminance, red, green and blue were combined with dark, flat and bias frames. Equipment used: Atik One 6.0 camera, Explore Scientific ED80 CF refractor on HEQ5 mount, controlled by a PrimaluceLab Eagle 3. Software used: Sequence Generator Pro for image capture, Affinity Photo 2 for processing.

David Murton, 01 March 2017.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Eight 480 s exposures at ISO 400. The image is compromised by haze.

Details

John Hughes, 23 March 2021.

200 mm Ritchey-Chretien telescope.

Details

Stephen Olley, January 2023.

Altair Starwave Ascent 102 ED refractor on Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro. Altair Hypercam 294C Pro with Optolong L Enhance and Altair L Pro filters. Altair Lightwave 0.8 focal reducer. Imaged captured with NINA and processesed in Astro Pixel Processor and Photoshop.

John Hughes, 13 January 2022.

IC405 is a combined emission/reflection nebula, the reflection element illuminated by the star AE Aurigae which is passing through the nebulosity. The nebula is variable, with mean magnitude 6.0. It lies at a distance of 1500 light years. William Optics Z103 APO refractor, ZWO ASI1600mm Pro Cooled camera and Chroma 3 nm Sulphur, Hydrogen and Oxygen narrowband filters. Five-minute exposure sub-frames as follows: 38 SII, 61 Hα and 45 OIII. Total integration time 12 hours. The nebula is presented in the Hubble Palette (SHO) with all stars removed from the field of view with the exception of AE Aurigae.

David Murton, 08 December 2017.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Eighteen 480 s exposures at ISO 800.

David Murton, 04 December 2016.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Fifteen 480 s exposures at ISO 400 unfiltered plus two 480 s exposures at ISO 1600 in Hα light.

Details

Andy Gibbs, 02 January 2022.

IC410 is an emission nebula in Auriga, not far from IC405. Its gas is illuminated by the bright stars in the open cluster NGC1893 at its centre. It lies at a distance of 12,000 light years and has a diameter of approximately 100 light years. Explore Scientific ED80 CF refractor on Skywatcher HEQ5 mount with Atik One 6.0 camera. Controlled by a Primalucelab Eagle 3. All frames 600 s duration; 20 frames in Hα, 10 in SII and 10 in OIII. Dark, flat and bias frames added, then processed in the Hubble palette, (Hα=green, SII=red, OIII=blue). Software used: Sequence Generator Pro and Affinity Photo.

David Murton, 18 November 2017.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Twenty 480 s exposures at ISO 800.

Details

Andy Gibbs, 23 March 2021.

Explore Scientific ED80 CF refractor, Skywatcher HEQ5 mount with Rowan belt mod, Altair Astro 60 mm guide scope, QHY5L-II guide camera, Sesto Senso focuser, controlled by a Primalucelab Eagle 3. Atik One 6.0 camera. Seven 420 second exposures in Hα, SII and OIII, plus darks and flats. Software used: Sequence Generator Pro, Atik Dawn and Affinity Photo.

Andy Gibbs, 26 February 2019.

Explore Scientific ED80 CF refractor, Skywatcher HEQ5 Mount, Atik One 6.0 monochrome camera. Exposures as follows: five 600 s Hα, five 600 s SII and five 600 s OIII, plus darks. Processed in Atik Dawn and Photoshop CC.

David Murton, 18 December 2017.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Stack of twenty-one 480 s exposures at ISO 800. The object is a huge emission nebula in Gemini, 21.3 light years in diameter, at a distance of 1500 light years. There is an interesting small nebula to the top left corner of the full image.

David Murton, 29 December 2016.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Sixteen 480 s exposures at ISO 400. The nebula is a magnitude 12 object in Gemini.

Details

John Hughes, 11 September 2020.

Williams Optics Z103 APO refractor, ZWO ASI1600mm camera and Chroma 1.25” 3 nm SII, Hα and OIII filters. Taken across three nights, 10 July, 09 and 11 September 2020. The image is represented in the "Hubble Palette". IC1396 is a beautiful area of the night sky located in the constellation Cepheus, south of the '"Garnet Star" (μ Cephei). The nebula is a large sprawling region of interstellar gas spanning 3° in diameter, and the image represents just a small part of the whole. The Elephant’s Trunk (IC 1396A, to middle right) is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust glowing from ionisation caused by the star HD 206267 which lies at its centre.

David Murton, 02 October 2016.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Stack of three exposures each of 420 s at ISO 400. The exposures were taken during breaks in cloud.

Details

John Hughes, 19 October 2021.

iTelescope remote observatory in Nerpio, Spain. 300 mm planewave corrected Dall-Kirkham astrograph on Paramount PME mount with SBIG STXL-6303E camera. The image was captured over three nights using narrowband Hα, SII and OIII filters, with two hours of data for each channel. Whilst iTelescope provided calibration frames, the camera sensor had significant column defects. Fortunately, PixInsight has two great scripts for identifying, locating and removing such defects and use of the Photoshop clone stamp tool finished the job. The image shows Melotte 15, an open cluster located in the heart of IC1805. The cluster is approximately 7,500 light years distant and at only 1.5 million years old, the stars are producing stellar winds which have sculpted the dust clouds seen in the image.

Andy Gibbs, 02 December 2019.

Explore Scientific ED80 CF refractor, Skywatcher HEQ5 Mount, Atik One 6.0 monochrome camera. Exposures in monochromatic light of Hα and SII; image in OIII spoilt by cloud! Processed in Atik Dawn and Photoshop CC.

David Murton, 22 September 2016.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 1100D camera. Stack of seventeen 360 s unfiltered exposures plus five 360 s with an Astronomik Hα filter. ISO 400.

Details

John Hughes, 15 January 2024.

William Optics Z103 refractor with reducer, SkyWatcher EQ6R Pro mount, ZWO ASI1600mm Pro Cool camera and 1.25” Chroma filters. The image captures IC1795 (Melotte 15) and IC1805 (NGC896), two small star clusters each lying within an emission nebula. The nebula are 7,500 light years distant from Earth and contain ionised Hydrogen, Oxygen and Sulphur, resulting in deep blue and orange hues. The image shows only part of the nebulosity, which spans some 2° (over four times the diameter of the full Moon). Image data was acquired over four nights 19 December 2023 - 15 January 2024 and is presented in the Hubble Palette, with RGB stars. Acquisition details: Hα 80x300 s, OIII 77x300 s, SII 69x300 s, red 18x120 s, green 22x120 s, blue 18x120 s; total integration time 24h 46m.

Details

John Hughes, 07 September 2021.

William Optics Z103 APO refractor, SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro mount, ZWO ASI1600mm camera and Chroma 1.25” filters. Camera gain 139, offset 30 and sensor cooled to -10°C. Total integration time 8h 34m as follows: 60 s exposures - luminance x 47, red x 73, green x 72 and blue x 73; 120 s exposures - luminance x 44, red x 29, green x 25, blue x 26. The object is an emission and reflection nebula and a stellar nursery. In the full image (not the thumbnail) the nebula is positioned to the to the lower left of the frame in order to capture the dust lanes running to the west (right).

David Murton, 26 July 2017.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Stack of fifteen 360 s exposures at ISO 800. IC5146 lies approximately 4000 light years away in the constellation Cygnus. It is illuminated by the cluster of new bright stars inside it. The central star is probably only a few hundred thousand years old. Surrounding IC5146 and spreading towards the top-right of the image is dark nebula Barnard 168, a cloud of dust obscuring more distant stars. IC5146 lies in a very rich star-field in the Milky Way.

Details

David Murton, 16 September 2017.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Fifteen 180 s exposures at ISO 400. The object is a planetary nebula created by a dying star at the centre ejecting its outer layer to form a hot gas cloud. It is approximately 3500 light years distant and appears tiny at only 0.6 arcminutes diameter. However, it is bright, and needed only short exposures. Enlargement of the central region.

Details

Andy Gibbs, 29 October 2021.

Explore Scientific ED80 CF apochromatic refractor on HEQ5 mount with Atik One 6.0 monochrome camera. Controlled by a PrimaluceLab Eagle 3. Twelve 480 second exposures in Hα, SII and OIII plus dark, flat and bias frames. Final image based on the Hubble palette. Software used: Sequence Generator Pro and Affinity Photo.

John Hughes, 19 August 2020.

Williams Optics Z103 APO refractor, ZWO ASI1600mm camera and Chroma 1.25” 3 nm SII, Hα and OIII filters. Taken across three nights, 13, 14 and 19 September 2020. The image is represented in the "Hubble Palette" assigning SII, Hα and OIII to the red, green and blue channels respectively.

David Murton, 15 August 2017.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Stack of fifteen 360 s exposures at ISO 800.

David Murton, 26 September 2016.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Stack of nine 420 s exposures at ISO 400 plus one 420 s exposure at ISO 1600 using an Hα filter.

Details

Andy Gibbs, 25 February 2022.

NGC1499 captured in narrowband during the period 04-25 February 2022. Explore Scientific ED80 CF refractor mounted on Skywatcher HEQ5 with Atik One 6.0 camera, controlled by a PrimaluceLab Eagle 3. All exposures are 600 s in duration: 10 in Hα, 12 in OIII and 13 in SII. Software used: Sequence Generator Pro and Affinity Photo.

Details

Andy Gibbs, 22 January 2022.

The image was taken with narrowband filters and processed in the Hubble palette, (Hα green: Sulphur II red, and Oxygen III blue). All exposures were of 600 s duration: 13 in Hα, 12 in SII and 16 in OIII. Atik One 6.0 camera, Explore Scientific ED80 CF refractor on Skywatcher HEQ5 mount. Controlled by a Primaluce Lab Eagle 3 and Sequence Generator Pro. Processed with Affinity Photo.

Andy Gibbs, 02 March 2020.

A narrowband image of the nebula. Explore Scientific ED80 CF refractor on HEQ5 mount. Atik One 6.0 camera. Equipment controlled via a Primaluce Lab Eagle 3. Processed in the Hubble palette, Hα filter to the green channel, SII to the red channel and OIII to the blue channel. Software used: Sequence Generator Pro, Atik Dawn and Photoshop CC 2020.

David Murton, 14 January 2017.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on NEQ6 mount with Canon 60Da camera. Fifteen 480 s exposures at ISO 400, plus dark, flat and bias frames.

David Murton, 07 March 2016.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on NEQ6 mount with Canon 60Da camera. Eight 360 s exposures at ISO 200.

David Murton, 02 February 2016.

William Optics ZS71 ED 71 mm, f/5.9 refractor on NEQ6 mount with Canon 60Da camera. Ten 360 s exposures at ISO 400.

David Murton, 01 February 2016.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f5 Newtonian on NEQ6 mount with Canon 60Da camera. Four 360 s exposures at ISO 400.

Ric Pecce, 01 December 1994.

110 mm f/5 refractor. 110 minute guided exposure on hyper-sensitised Technical Pan film.

Details

David Murton, 04 January 2018.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Fifteen 480 s exposures at ISO 800.

David Murton, 11 February 2016.

Note the so-called Christmas Tree Cluster in the middle of the nebula. Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on NEQ6 mount with Canon 60Da camera. Five 360 s exposures at ISO 400.

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Nigel Evans, 07 March 2018.

Celestron C8 with SBIG2300 camera. 125 minute total exposure.

David Murton, 21 January 2017.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on NEQ6 mount with Canon 60Da camera. Fifteen 480 s exposures at ISO 400. The nebula is 30 LY in diameter and lies at a distance of 15,000 LY in Canis Major. It was at low altitude to the south when I captured this image.

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Mike Harlow, 09 October 2008.

340 mm, f/4.0 Newtonian telescope and MX916 CCD camera. The object is a dual-lobed planetary nebula lying in the constellation Gemini. Note the unusual double structure with faint wisps at a considerable distance from the central aggregation.

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Mike O'Mahony, 19 October 2014.

240 mm f/10 SCT. Stack of 15 s exposures at ISO 800.

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David Murton, 16 September 2017.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Fifteen 420 s exposures at ISO 400. NGC 6888 lies 4700 light years distant and was formed by the central star, WR136, shedding its outer envelope. The nebulosity is approximately 25 light years in diameter.

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Andy Gibbs, 21 September 2020.

Western Veil Nebula (NGC6960). A bi-colour narrowband image. Hα was assigned to the red channel and OIII to the green and blue channels. Eight five-minute exposures taken through each filter, plus darks and flats. I hope to take a deeper image if the opportunity arises. The images were taken on 20 and 21 September 2020. Equipment used: Atik One 6.0 camera, Explore Scientific ED80 CF refractor on HEQ-5 mount, controlled by a PrimaluceLab Eagle 3. Processed in Atik Dawn and Photoshop 2020.

John Hughes, 25 August 2019.

Western Veil Nebula (NGC6960). William Optics Z103 APO refractor mounted on HEQ6R Pro Skywatcher. ZWO ASI1600mm Pro Cooled camera set at a gain of 139 and temperature of -15°C. Baader narrowband filters Hα 7 nm and OIII 8.5 nm. Overall integration time three hours. Image processed using PixInsight in the bi-colour palette HOO, assigning Hα to the red channel and OIII to the green and blue channels to create a single, colour image.

David Murton, 12 October 2017.

The whole Veil Nebula imaged from Haw Wood. William Optics ZS71 ED 71 mm, f/5.9 refractor on HEQ5 mount. Fifteen 480 s exposures at ISO 800.

David Murton, 13 July 2017.

Western Veil Nebula (NGC6960). The bright star in the centre of the image is 52 Cygni. The image is a single frame; its height is equavalent to approximately 1.5 times the diameter of the full moon. The warm nights at this time of year resulted in a lot of noise in the image. Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Processed with Deep Sky Stacker and Gimp.

David Murton, 05 July 2017.

Eastern Veil Nebula (NGC6992). Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. A mosiac of two frames each comprising four exposures of 360 s at ISO 800, taken on different days. The relatively short exposure time and high ISO resulted in considerable image noise.

Nigel Evans, 14 September 2013.

The whole Veil Nebula. Mosaic of four images each of 60 minutes exposure. 90 mm F5.2 optics with low pass filter.

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Stephen Olley, September 2021 and December 2022.

Altair Starwave Ascent 102 ED refractor on Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro. Altair Hypercam 294C Pro with Optolong L Enhance and Altair L Pro filters. Altair Lightwave 0.8 focal reducer. Imaged captured with NINA and processesed in Astro Pixel Processor and Photoshop.

John Hughes, 02 August 2019.

William Optics Z61, 50 mm Astronomik Hα 12 nm filter, ZWO ASI 1600 mm Pro cooled camera set at unity gain and sensor temperature of -15°C, mounted on an HEQ6R-Pro. Guiding with PHD2. Image captured using Astrophotography Tool (APT). Image formed from 35 two-minute exposures, calibrated with 25 dark, flat and dark-flat images stacked and processed using PixInsight. Imaged between 23.44 UT on 01 August and 01.33 UT on 02 August 2019.

David Murton, 14 October 2017.

Imaged from Haw Wood. William Optics ZS71 ED 71 mm, f/5.9 refractor with 0.8x focal reducer. HEQ5 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Twenty-one 480 s exposures at ISO 800.

Andy Gibbs, 27 August 2017.

Explore Scientific ED80 CF refractor, with 0.7x reducer/corrector. Five 360 s exposures and five 360 s darks with Canon 1200D. Processed in Deep Sky Stacker and Photoshop Elements 11.

David Murton, 18 November 2015.

William Optics ZS71 ED 71 mm, f/5.9 refractor on NEQ6 mount with Canon 60Da camera. The image is based on only three 360 s exposures at ISO 400, taken before clouds rolled in, and therefore is noisy.

Ric Pecce, 27 July 1996.

110 mm, f/5 refractor. One hundred minute guided exposure on Kodak 2415 film hypered by Lumicon.

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John Hughes, 14 August 2020.

William Optics Z103 APO refractor, ZWO ASI1600mm pro cooled camera on Skywatcher EQ6-R pro mount. I returned to this target as I didn't feel that I'd done it justice in 2019. Eighteen hours of image data, captured during May-August 2020, has made a better job of bringing out the nebulosity. Sub-frames as follows: luminance 360x90 s, red 134x90 s, green 131x90 s, blue 118x90 s. Fifty darks, flats and flat darks for each channel. All sub-frames captured using 1x1 binning which allowed me to stack the final L, R, G and B master images to create a "super-luminance" with better detail that I could then overlay across the RGB master.

John Hughes, 21 May 2019.

William Optics Z103 APO refractor, ZWO ASI294MC Pro cooled camera set to gain 300, IDAS D2 light pollution suppressor. Stack of twenty 180 s exposures processed in PixInsight. The nebula is located in Cepheus. It is a reflection nebula with a small star cluster near the centre and the magnitude +7 star Hip 103763 lighting up surrounding gas providing the blue hue. Dust clouds around the nebula obscure background stars.

David Murton, 14 September 2017.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Fifteen 240 s exposures at ISO 400. The nebula lies at a distance of 1,300 light years in the constellation Cepheus. The blue petals span six light years.

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Alan Buttivant, 08 December 2022.

Skywatcher Evostar 72ED on Skywatcher AZ-GTi mount, ZWO ASI120mm mini-guider with ZWO mini-guide scope. x0.85 focal reducer and ZWO ASI183mc pro camera. L-enhance filter. Frames: 40 lights, 360 s exposure at gain 111; 10 darks; 60 bias; 60 flat.

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John Hughes, 13 August 2022.

William Optics Z103 APO refractor, ZWO ASI1600MM Pro cooled camera, SkyWatcher EQ6R Pro mount, Chroma 3 nm filters. Exposures as follows: 53xHα; 57xOIII and 49xSII. All exposures 300 s, gain 139 and offset 30. Total exposure time 13 h 15 m. Images captured over the nights of 11, 12 and 13 August 2022. The image is an improvement on my image from 2019 (below) which suffered from back focus that was slightly out and didn’t capture much nebulosity. The central bubble (from which the name Bubble Nebula is derived), is created by the stellar wind from the massive hot young star SAO 20575, believed to be a Wolf-Rayet star, which excites the gas cloud causing it to glow.

John Hughes, 18 September 2019.

William Optics Z103 APO refractor, ZWO ASI1600MM Pro cooled camera. Baader narrowband filters Hα 7 nm, OIII 8.5 nm, SII 8 nm. Acquisition using Astrophotography Tool. Guiding by the William Optics 50 mm guidescope and ASI290MM mini-guide camera using PHD2. Sub-frames all taken at a gain of 139 and offset of 50. Exposures (all five minute duration): 41xHα, 35xOIII; 40xSII. Total integration time 9.6 hours. Processed using PixInsight. Backfocus is an issue causing stars at the corners to appear elongated. The full image (not the thumbnail) includes M52, an open star cluster. The image is based on the Hubble Palette.

David Murton, 16 September 2017.

NGC7635 with part of M52 visible to top left of image (in full image, not in thumbnail). Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Fifteen 420 s exposures at ISO 400. Enlargement of the nebula.

David Murton, 16 September 2017.

NGC7635 and M52. Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Photograph details as above image.

David Murton, 02 October 2016.

Skywatcher 200PDS 200 mm, f/5 Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Stack of 15 exposures each of 420 s at ISO 400. Enlargement of the nebula.

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John Hughes, 05 December 2023.

William Optics Z103 APO refractor, ZWO ASI1600MM Pro cooled camera, SkyWatcher EQ6R Pro mount, Chroma 3 nm Hα and OIII filters. Exposures as follows: 51xHα; 35xOIII. All exposures 300 s. The image is presented in the HOO palette. The image was captured across the nights of 30 November and 05 December 2023. The image was a test image, and my first image using NINA image sequence software.

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Andy Gibbs, 18 January 2024.

The nebula imaged in narrowband light on 09 and 18 January 2024. Explore Scientific ED80 CF apochromatic refractor on HEQ5 mount with Atik One 6.0 monochrome camera. Controlled by a PrimaluceLab Eagle 3. 600 s exposures as follows: 10 in Hα, 10 in SII and 9 in O III, plus dark, flat and bias frames. Software used: Sequence Generator Pro and Affinity Photo. Processed in the Hubble Palette.

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John Hughes, 29 October 2021.

The nebula is a faint Hii region in Cepheus. It takes its name from a dark lane giving the appearance of a cave. It lies at a distance of 2400 light years and exhibits characteristics of emission, reflection and dark nebulosity. William Optics Z103 APO refractor on SkyWatcher NEQ6R-Pro mount with ZWO ASI1600mm Cooled Pro camera and Chroma 1.25" 3 nm filters. Exposures: 100x300 s in Hα, 52x300 s in OIII and 51x300 s in SII. Total integration time 23 hours.

John Hughes, 23 September 2021.

William Optics Z103 APO refractor on SkyWatcher NEQ6R-Pro mount with ZWO ASI1600mm Cooled Pro camera and Chroma 1.25" 3 nm Hα filter. The image is formed from the Hα frames used to create the above image (113x300 s exposures).

David Murton, 22 September 2017.

Skywatcher 190 mm Maksutov-Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. Canon 60Da camera. Fifteen 240 s exposures at ISO 400.

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John Hughes, 20 January 2022.

Lowers Nebula is named after father and son amateur astronomers, Harold and Charles Lower, who discovered it in 1939. It is an HII emission nebula located north of Betelgeuse in Orion. It is approximately 2,900 light years distant, 26 light years in diameter and has a visual magnitude of 10. William Optics Z103 APO refractor, ZWO ASI1600mm Pro Cooled camera, ZWO EFW, Chroma 1.25” filters and a SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro mount. The image is built from SHαO subframes used to form the earlier image below, with additional 300 s exposures as follows: 37xSII and 17xOIII. (Imaging was terminated when the sky clouded over.) RGB stars in the image are taken from the earlier image.

John Hughes, 05 January 2022.

William Optics Z103 APO refractor, ZWO ASI1600mm Pro Cooled camera, ZWO EFW, Chroma 1.25” filters and a SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro mount. HαRGB composite with subframes in ratio 36:12:12:12, exposure time 300 s. Darks x 50; flats x 25 and dark flats x 25.

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John Hughes, 08 October 2022.

The faint emission nebula, Sh2-132 (Sharpless 132), aka the Lion Nebula, is located on the border of Cepheus and Lacerta. The nebula is home to the Wolf-Rayet star GP Cep (HD211853, WR153ab). Towards the centre of the image is an OIII region represented by a light blue stream of gas that appears to originate from the lion's head. This stream is thought to be an arc of a ring nebula being expelled by the stellar wind generated by GP Cep. The image shown is formed from frames captured during the period September 2021 to October 2022. William Optics Z103 refractor, ZWO ASI1600mm Pro Cooled camera (gain 139, offset 30), SkyWatcher EQR6-Pro mount, Chroma 1.25” 3nm Hα, OIII and SII filters. Images as follows: 78x300 s Hα, 66x300 s OIII, 62x300 s SII; total integration time 17 hours.

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John Hughes, 27 January 2023.

The nebula, Sh2-236 (Sharpless 236), aka the Tadpole Nebula, is located in Auriga, close to the star cluster M36. 200 mm Ritchey-Chretien telescope, ZWO ASI1600mm Pro Cooled camera with field flattener. Narrowband imaging. Twenty-six frames of 300 s exposure. (Imaging was terminated by cloud rolling in.)

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John Hughes, 19 January 2024.

William Optics Z103 refractor with 0.8x reducer, SkyWatcher EQ6R Pro mount, ZWO ASI194mc Pro Cooled camera, Chroma 1.25” luninance filter, Sesto Senso motor focuser, Pegasus Ultimate Power box V2 and Pegasus 150 Flatmaster. The VdB catalogue was published in 1966 by Sidney van den Bergh and contains 159 reflection nebula. VdB 14 is at the top and VdB 15 at the bottom; the nebulae are in the constellation Camelopardalis. The image was captured over the nights of 18 and 19 January 2024. Light frames: 350x120 s; flat frames: 30; darks for flats: 30; dark frames: 25. Total integration time: 11h 40m. Software used: NINA for image framing, telescope control, data acquisition and calibration frames; PHD2 for guiding; PixInsight for image processing.