IC 434

This version of the Horsehead Nebula was taken with a SX Trius 694 camera on a Takahashi106 refractor using an Baader 7nm Ha filter. 10x600s exposures on 18.12.15.were captured in Nebulosity, stacked in AstroArt and processed in Photoshop.

M42 Orion Nebula

The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, being south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is located at a distance of 1,344 ± 20 light years and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. The M42 nebula is estimated to be 24 light years across. It has a mass of about 2000 times the mass of the Sun. Older texts frequently refer to the Orion Nebula as the Great Nebula in Orion or the Great Orion Nebula.









Photograph by Max Freier
Rossington 20th December 2015
30 x 300 sec, 15 x 30 sec and 15 x 10 sec all at ISO 800
100 mm APO telescope and Canon 600D Astromodified Camera
Processed with Deep Sky Stacker and Pix in Sight

IC 443


The Jellyfish Nebula is supernova remnant in the constellation Gemini. The bright star is Eta Geminorum. This is a narrowband image taken with a Starlight Xpress Trius 694 camera on a Takahashi 106 FSQ telescope. Exposures were with a Ha filter 12x600s allocated to the red channel, O111 and S11 filters 6x 600s each, allocated to the green and blue channels in Photoshop. Images were acquired in Nebulosity, stacked and aligned in AstroArt and further processed in Photoshop.

The Horsehead Nebula - Barnard 33

The Horsehead Nebula (also known as Barnard 33 ) is a dark nebula in the constellation Orion.
The nebula is located just to the south of the star Alnitak, on Orion's Belt, and is part of the much larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. The nebula was first recorded in 1888 by Scottish astronomer Williamina Fleming on photographic plate B2312 taken at the Harvard College Observatory. The Horsehead Nebula is approximately 1500 light years from Earth. It is one of the most identifiable nebulae because of the shape of its swirling cloud of dark dust and gases, which bears some resemblance to a horse's head when viewed from Earth.





Photograph by Max Freier

Rossington 3rd December 2015
34 x 150 sec at ISO 1600, no Darks.
100mm APO telescope, with 0.85 reducer/flattener and Canon 600D astromodified Camera.
Processed with Deep Sky Stacker and Pix in Sight


IC 410

The Tadpole Nebula is a dusty emission nebula shaped by stellar winds in the constellation Auriga, the "tails" being relatively dense streamers of material trailing away from the nebula's central regions.
Exposures were 12x600s Ha luminosity, 12x300R,6x300G, 6x300B using a Starlight Xpress Trius 694 camera. Images were acquired in Nebulosity, stacked in AstroArt and modified in Photoshop.

NGC2244

NGC 2244 is an open cluster closely associated with the Rosette Nebula in Monoceros, the stars of the cluster having been formed by the nebula's matter. This image was taken with a Starlight Xpress Trius 694 monochrome camera on a Takahashi FSQ 106 refractor.12x600s exposures in Ha as luminosity, 6x300s each for RGB were captured in Nebulosity, stacked in AstroArt with flats(no darks) and processed in Photoshop.

The Bubble Nebula, NGC 7635

NGC 7635, also called the Bubble Nebula, Sharpless 162, or Caldwell 11, is a H II region emission nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia. It lies close to the direction of the open cluster Messier 52. The "bubble" is created by the stellar wind from a massive hot, 8.7 magnitude young central star, the 15 ± 5 M SAO 20575 (BD+60 2522).The nebula is near a giant molecular cloud which contains the expansion of the bubble nebula while itself being excited by the hot central star, causing it to glow. It was discovered in 1787 by William Herschel. The star SAO 20575 or BD+602522 is thought to have a mass of 10-40 Solar masses.


Photograph by Max Freier
Rossington September 2015, from his new Observatory.
20 x 300 sec at ISO 800. 100mm APO telescope, with 0.85 reducer/flattener and Canon 600D astromodified Camera.
Processed with Deep Sky Stacker and Pix in Sight






Lunar Eclipse

Photograph taken by Bill Hughes who woke up at 2.30 am on the 28th Sep 2015 to a very misty and foggy Bessacarr.
Ever resourceful, Bill jumped in to his car and headed off to clearer skies over Wadworth to grab this amazing image of the Lunar Eclipse.
Details: 3:07am , 1/4 sec. ISO 800. with 72/432 F6 Apo refractor.




Cocoon Nebula

The Cocoon Nebula surrounded by the dark nebula Barnard 168 in Cygnus as photographed from Hatfield on 16.08.15 using a Canon600 dslr on a Takahashi 4" refractor.23x300s exposures iso800 acquired in Nebulosity, processed in AstroArt with flats and darks, were modified in Photoshop.

ngc7000

The North America Nebula or Water Buffalo is an emission nebula in Cygnus. The Cygnus Wall is a term for the "Central America" part and exhibits the most concentrated star forming region.Taken 27.8.15 the camera was a Canon 600 DSLR with a clip-on Ha filter on a Takahashi FSQ 106 refractor, 12x600s exposure at iso800 captured in Nebulosity, stacked in AstroArt and processed in Photoshop.

The Eastern Veil

Taken on 16.8.15, 30x300s exposures, iso 800 acquired in Nebulosity, sigma average of  2 added groups in AstroArt and processed in Photoshop. The imaging camera was a modified Canon600 DSLR attached to a Takahashi 106 FSQ. The Eastern Veil is part of a large supernova remnant in Cygnus discovered in 1784 by William Herschel.

M16



The Eagle Nebula, taken from Hatfield on 21.7.15, with a modified Canon 600D DSLR on a Takahashi 106 refractor 13 x 300s at iso800 using Nebulosity, AstroArt cropped and modified in Photoshop. Situated in Serpens it is part of a diffuse emission nebula and contains several active star forming gas and dust regions.









Pluto



 This was taken on 7.7.15 at 1:00am. from Austerfield. Pluto is marked and near the middle of the frame. It was done during a collimation session on the ODK12, just to finish off the evening. The camera used was a Canon DSLR 550D, set at ISO800 without filters, I should have added my usual IDAS filter but it wasn't needed for collimation and I didn't add it for this.
The 15 x 60sec frames were stacked by sigma-averaging in Astroart without calibration, then finally processed in Photoshop.

M27 - the Dumbell or Apple Core nebula


Taken during a collimation session on the ODK12 on the the 6th of July 2015. I felt I'd gone as far as the conditions and eyepieces allowed on that session, and spent half an hour taking this photograph to see the result of collimation by eyepiece, on a photograph.
The camera was my Canon 550D set at ISO800. 20 frames of 60sec each, no guiding, no darks and no flats. Nor did I use my usual IDAS filter. I Sigma-added the frames in groups of 5, then averaged the 4 groups, so the result had the equivalent of 5 mins of depth. The frames were pre-processed and stacked in Astroart then finally processed in Photoshop.


Venus and Jupiter again


This one was taken by Bill Hughes from Gringley on the Hill. He used a Canon 600D with a 200mm F2.8, lens at ISO 200. It was taken on the same night and at the same time of course. Soon after that they set together. Gringley is, as the name suggests, on an isolated hill on the plain. Venus is the brighter.


Venus/Jupiter Conjunction


Taken by Robin Hodges with a Canon 7D, with a 159mm lens at f/4 for 1/20sec at ISO800. Processed in Photoshop. It was taken at 11:30pm on the 30th of June 2015, and shows the difficulty we face in Britain with light skies in summer.



M27

The Apple Core or Dumbbell  planetary nebula in Vulpecula was taken with a modified Canon EOS600 on a Takahashi 106 refractor. About 2 hours worth of 120s exposures at iso800 with flats and darks were acquired in Nebulosity, stacked in AstroArt and modified in PhotoShop 

M56

Taken with a partly collimated ODK12 and my M25C, on 6.6.15. An exposure of 30 x 60sec without flats or guiding. More work needed on collimating and mirror distance too, but improving well. I'm hoping to get stars to be the size of those seen by my Tak 106 but keep forgetting that the ODK12 has a focal length 4 times that of the Tak. Stacked by sigma averaging in 10s then adding the three averaged sets. I also need to aim more carefully. All done during the collimating process.

Orion Widefield Nebulosity


This photo was taken by Bill Hughes with a Canon 600D DSLR using an 80 mm f1.4 lens set at f2.0, complete with CLS filter and at ISO 3200,  only 5 exps x 176 secs each and Stacked by sigma average. 
An incredible amount of nebulosity is shown in this image and you can even clearly see the Horse Head Nebula just below Alnitak in Orion's belt.


 Taken in Tenerife on the 16th Feb 2015.

M13

Using Nebulosity, AstroArt and photoshop this is a combined image of The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules taken with a Canon 600 dslr on a Takahashi106 refractor.The 12x300s.iso800 and 45x120s,iso400 exposures were taken on the 10 and 26.4.15 respectively.

The Owl Nebula and M108


The Owl is a planetary nebula in our galaxy some 3000 light years away. M108, an  edge on spiral galaxy, is further away at 45 million light years.This photograph was taken with a CanonEOS600 on a Takahashi106 and is a composite of 19x300s exposures, iso800 captured in Nebulosity,calibrated with flats and darks in AstroArt and finally processed in Photoshop.

Rhys Owen

Solar Eclipse - Totality from the Faroes on 20.3.15


Taken by Bill Hughes with his Canon DSLR on a cruise to Iceland and the Faroes, in windy weather, varying from Force 8 to Force 11!
He had to be speedy as he had only 10sec of clear sky at totality.




Kimberworth WI's Moon - 27.3.15



We usually use only our own photographs on this page, but we were much taken by a visit last night of the Kimberworth Women's Institute. 14 members came over to Austerfield and seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves, looking at Jupiter and the Moon, then taking photos of the Moon. So we had to include one, taken by Emma with her mobile 'phone held up to the eyepiece. The telescope was the 12" ODK with a 20mm eyepiece. Processed in Photoshop.





Partial Solar Eclipse 20.3.15 - from Bridlington.


Taken by Dave Hardware from the coast of Yorkshire aiming to get a clear eastern horizon. He'd intended to move to the cliff tops but in the event didn't need to.
A Canon 450 was used coupled to a Skywatcher 80ED on an EQ6 mount.
This collection was made from many more taken during the time the sky was clear, which is to say for most of the time from first contact to just short of mid-eclipse, and for some time towards the later part of the eclipse.

Partial Solar Eclipse - Friday - 20.3.15 at Partridge farm, Doncaster

10 of us gathered at Partridge Farm on High Common Lane, Austerfield, and set up the equipment,  Elaine's 6" Celestron, and the PST solar telescope, in clear sunshine, a fine morning. All ready for the start of the event. We were, Peter and his daughter Gill, Paul and Elaine, Robin and Sheila, Sandra and John Cox, not seen him in many a year, Rhys and Vic.
But, of course, not unexpectedly, the Cloud God put his oar in, and covered the sky with mottled clouds from the start of the eclipse to the end, to the minute! So we were stuck with trying to use our solar viewing spectacles, retained from the last eclipse, No. 11 welding glasses etc. but in the event it proved best to use ordinary sunglasses aided by the cloud cover, changing quickly to welding glass when a clear patch moved across the Sun. Robin and Sheila had some success with a pinhole arrangement in a card, and John successfully projected the image onto a card using binoculars.
We also had to revert to our domestic point-and-shoot cameras, but still were able to obtain the results you see below.
The Sun was in good condition too with several prominences round the limb, and some filaments on the face with plenty of granulations too, but only after the clouds and Moon had left the scene.



Canon 550D with Baader solar filter, taken by Mark Sabir while at work, in Doncaster


Taken by Robin Hodges using a Canon Power Shot. 26mm FL lens at f/5.6. This and the next photo were taken with a lens of his sunglasses over the camera lens. You do what you have to to get a result!

Also taken by Robin Hodges using the same camera











Another from Robin's camera, this time fitted with a solar filter
He also caught the prominence just below the Moon's edge as it was leaving the Sun

 
This is the group that gathered at Partridge farm that morning, gazing hopefully at the Sun, willing the clouds to go, but to no avail. Photo taken by Paul Booker of Wong.
 

The Leo Trio

The Leo Trio
Another image of the Leo Trio. A narrower field of view this time.
Using an ED100 APO with a 0.85 focal reducer, also with a Canon 600D astromodified camera with CLS CCD filter.
30 x 300 sec exposures at ISO 800.


Max Freier, Rossington 22.02.2015









Leo Trio

17.2.15. 12x300s iso400 captured with Nebulosity, sigma averaged in AstroArt and processed in Photoshop,this image was taken with a Takahashi FSQ 106 refractor and a Canon EOS 600 dslr with a CLS filter.The group of spiral galaxies in Leo consists of M65, M66 and ngc 3628,also known as the Hamburger Galaxy.