Smoke visible with the setting sun
Barnard 150 Dark Nebula
M45 – The Pleiades
NGC 7129
SH2-155
SH2-171
Oct 122024
Oct 122024
Three nights with generally good conditions with the seemingly always present wildfire smoke.
IC 5146 – The Cocoon Nebula
SH2-88
NGC 6914 Reflection Nebula
TBD on some widefield DSLR shots
Jan 212024
M78 / NGC 2068 Reflection nebula in Orion. FSQ-106ED with QHY268C
NGC 1333 – A Reflection nebula in Perseus. FSQ-106ED with QHY268C
NGC 2264 – The Christmas Tree / Cone Nebula in the constellation Monoceros. FSQ-106ED with QHY268C
M45 aka The Pleiades, The Seven Sisters, Subaru (ever noticed the Subaru car logo?) FSQ-106ED with QHY268C
Auriga: The Flaming Star, The Tadpoles, The Spider and Fly Nebula… Canon R6 with Rokinon 135mm
The Witches Head in Orion – Truly a difficult target and I pushed harder than the skies allowed. Canon R6 with Rokinon 135mm
Best Meteor of the Night!
Jan 212024
NGC 7023 – The Iris Nebula
The Cave Nebula
Jan 212024
Dec 102022
IC 348 FSQ-106ED Scope with QHY268C Camera on AP900GTO Mount, 5.67 Hours Total Exposure
IC 348 Annotated
NGC 1788, FSQ-106ED Scope with QHY268C Camera on AP900GTO Mount, 8 hours total exposure
NGC 1788 Annotated
NGC1333 -AP92 Stowaway Scope with ZWO ASI533C camera on Atlas Mount, 6.1 hours total exposure
NGC 1333 Annotated
NGC 7293 – The Helix Nebula: AP92 Stowaway Scope, ZWO ASI533C camera, Atlas Mount. 4 hours total exposure time.
NGC 7293 – The Helix Nebula Annotated
IC 405 – The Flaming Star Nebula. AP92 Stowaway Scope, ZWO ASI533C Camera, Atlas EQ-G Mount. 7.9 Hours total exposure.
IC 405 Annotated
NGC 7822 – FSQ-106ED Scope with QHY268C Camera on AP900GTO Mount, 4.1 hours total exposure
NGC 7822 Annotated
Jul 122022
We had four relatively clear nights in a row. Some didn’t start great but all four produced usable imaging time even if the nights aren’t much more than 4 hours of astronomical darkness this time of year.
A couple shots with the Canon 6D DSLR and a Rokinon 135mm wide open at f/2.
M16 & M17 
M16 & M17 Annotated 
M8 Lagoon & M20 Triffid 
M8 Lagoon & M20 Triffid Annotated
vdB 123 
vdB Annotated
vdB 123 – Taken with FSQ-106ED and QHY268C OSC CMOS Camera on an AP900GTO Mount, 58 x 5min exposures totaling 4.8 Hours Exposure across two nights.
Sh2-136 
Sh2-136 Annotated
Sh2-136 Taken with FSQ-106ED and QHY268C OSC CMOS Camera on AP900GTO Mount, 79 x 5 minute exposures totaling ~6.6 Hours Exposure time across two nights.
M20 – The Trifid Nebula 
M20 – The Trifid Nebula Annotated
M20 – The Trifid Nebula: ZWO 533C OSC CMOS Camera with AP92 Refractor on Atlas EQ-G Mount. 57 x 5min exposures for a total of 4.75 hours captured across two nights.
Nov 082020
SVQ-100 with ASI533MC OSC CMOS on Orion Atlas EQ-G Mount
SVQ-100 with ASI533MC OSC CMOS on Orion Atlas EQ-G Mount
SVQ-100 with ASI533MC OSC CMOS on Orion Atlas EQ-G Mount
SVQ-100 with ASI533MC OSC CMOS on Orion Atlas EQ-G Mount
FSQ-106ED with SX-46 Mono CCD on AP900GTO
Oct 142018
I attended the annual Calhoun County Park Star Party (Oct 5-7) for the first time this year. The sky wasn’t the best it could be. Friday and Sat night both had humidity and dew off the charts with variable fog that seemed to slide up and down the hill but never got so high that it killed observing. I can’t help but think that it impaired the images a little but it may have just been the choice of a faint target during a hazy time of year. Sky quality measurements topped and held pretty steady around 21.6 mag/arcsec^2. I’m sure on a crisp night it would be a little darker. While there were some small light domes on the horizon they weren’t hardly worth mentioning in my opinion. The park was wonderful and the staff was so friendly they even prepared a great meal for us on Sat night. In total about 16 people showed for the party from TN, WV, PA, OH, and KY. Special thanks to Larry McHenry for posting info about the star party and turning us onto this event and Calhoun as an observing site. He typically posts updates on Cloudynights star party forum for upcoming Calhoun events.
Foggy Morning
Visual Rig
Imaigng Rig
Hot Afternoon
(Backside) From the Pond
Since Calhoun is pretty dark I decided to go after a fainter full spectrum object than I could ever do from home. VdB objects (reflection nebulae compiled by Sidney van den Bergh) are great targets when looking for something off the beaten path but aren’t always what I would call showcase objects. VdB 14 and 15 make for a nice parring here in a rich park of the sky in Camelopardalis.
vdb 14 & vdb 15: 12 hours of LRGB exposure with Tak FSQ-106ED Scope, SX-46 CCD, AP900GTO Mount.
Jul 012018
I made the 13 hour trip up to Cherry Springs State Park for the Annual CSSP Star Party hosted by the Astronomical Society of Harrisburg PA, Inc. I went up a few days before the star party since it’s always helpful to get a good spot. Those of us that were there early on Monday night were treated to a fabulous night with SQM measurements >21.9! Overall it was an amazing streak of clear weather for PA with a total of 4 imaging nights. I was hoping for one or two so as not to set my expectations too high so I was very pleased with four nights!
I even did a little visual at low power with a 4″ refractor. LDN 1795 (large 50’x50’dark nebula in Scorpius) looked absolutely amazing to me at 19X. First time I had a WOW moment visually.
Waiting for Darkness
Just Some Slightly Concerning Weather Passing Through
Everything is buttoned up and locked down. Luckily it skirted us to the North.
Rho Region
Canon 6D @ ISO 3200
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 5.6
B312 on the Edge of Sagittarius and Scutum
Canon 6D @ ISO 3200
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 @f/4
8x240sec Exposure
M8 & M20 Nestled Among the Stars
Canon 6D @ ISO 3200
Canon 70-200 f/2.8 @ f/4
10x240sec total exposure
CSSP 2018 Milky Way
Canon 6D @ ISO 3200
Canon 17-40mm f/4 @ f/6.7 and 37mm
1 x 240 seconds
The North American Nebula And The Pelican
Canon 6D @ ISO 3200
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 @ f/4.5
10x240sec exposure
The Cave Nebula
Tak FSQ-106ED
SX-46 w/ Maxi Wheel and Lodestar OAG
AP900GTO Mount
6.5 Hours Exposure Time over two nights
The Cocoon Nebula
FSQ-106ED
SX-46 w/ Maxi Wheel and Lodestar OAG
AP900GTO
3 hours total Exposure