FSQ-106ED – Nathan Brandt Astrophotography

Calhoun County Park Oct (21-24) 2022

AP900GTO, AP92 Stowaway, Astronomical, Canon 6D, Cherry Springs, Dark Nebula, Emission Nebula, FSQ-106ED, Nebula, QHY268C, Reflection Nebula, Star Parties, ZWO ASI533MC No Responses »

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

Cherry Springs – July 2022

AP900GTO, Astronomical, Canon 6D, Cherry Springs, Dark Nebula, Emission Nebula, Equipment, FSQ-106ED, Location, Nebula, Orion Atlas EQ-G, QHY268C, Reflection Nebula, Rokinon 135mm f/2, Star Parties, Widefield, ZWO ASI533MC No Responses »

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.

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 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: 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.

Calhoun County Park Sept 2021

AP900GTO, Astronomical, Calhoun County Park, Emission Nebula, FSQ-106ED, Nebula, QHY268C, Star Parties, Uncategorized No Responses »

Sep 262021

Star Trails over our campsite on the ridge

IC 59 & IC 63 eroding away under the radiation from the bright star Gamma Cas

A couple of the cars; I missed a few of them unfortunately.

Calhoun County Park August 2021

AP900GTO, Astronomical, Calhoun County Park, Canon 6D, Cluster, Dark Nebula, Emission Nebula, FSQ-106ED, Nebula, Open Cluster, Orion Atlas EQ-G, QHY268C, Star Parties, Uncategorized, Widefield, ZWO ASI533MC No Responses »

Sep 262021

Frank caught red handed covering up evidence of proprietary Rubbermaid Astro-technology theft 🙂

The Bubble Nebula (AKA NGC 7635, Sharpless 162, Caldwell 11) is seen here next to Open Cluster Messier 52

Cherry Springs – June 2021

AP900GTO, Astronomical, Cherry Springs, Dark Nebula, FSQ-106ED, Nebula, QHY268C, Star Parties, Widefield Comments Off

Jul 042021

First light test of the QHY268C CMOS camera on the Tak FSQ-106ED. For a very short total exposure time and a low southern target results were better than expected.

Calhoun County Park Oct 2020

AP900GTO, Astronomical, Calhoun County Park, Canon 6D, Dark Nebula, Emission Nebula, FSQ-106ED, Galaxy, Nebula, Orion Atlas EQ-G, Reflection Nebula, Star Parties, SVQ100, SX-46, ZWO ASI533MC No Responses »

Nov 082020

View of the barn and new stage under construction from the ridge where we typically setup for astronomy.

Looking SW’ish where most of the informal star party group was setup.

Sh2-155 The Cave Nebula
SVQ-100 with ASI533MC OSC CMOS on Orion Atlas EQ-G Mount

IC 342
SVQ-100 with ASI533MC OSC CMOS on Orion Atlas EQ-G Mount

Galaxy NGC 891
SVQ-100 with ASI533MC OSC CMOS on Orion Atlas EQ-G Mount

Sh2-136
SVQ-100 with ASI533MC OSC CMOS on Orion Atlas EQ-G Mount

Sh2-150
FSQ-106ED with SX-46 Mono CCD on AP900GTO

Cherry Springs Sept 2020

AP900GTO, Astronomical, Cherry Springs, Dark Nebula, FSQ-106ED, Nebula, Star Parties, SX-46, Widefield No Responses »

Nov 062020

This trip to Cherry Springs State Park promised an amazing clear stretch but was marred by dense smoke obscuring much of the sky from the wildfires raging in CA and other parts of the US.

The sun looked like a planet hanging in an overcast sky due to all the smoke.

If there had been any sun spots they may have been naked eye visible without a sun filter!

The sky was clear yet the blue wasn’t quite able to break through the hazy smoke.

This is what dealing with the public usually looks like 🙂

LDN 1235 – The Dark Shark
FSQ-106ED with SX-46 CCD on AP900GTO Mount
Only salvaged image during the few smoke free nights

Cherry Springs Time Lapse

Pickett State Park Dark Sky Celebration Weekend (8/30/2019)

AP900GTO, Astronomical, Canon 6D, Cluster, Dark Nebula, Emission Nebula, FSQ-106ED, Nebula, Open Cluster, Star Parties, SX-46, Widefield Comments Off

Sep 302019

We had some great weather for the annual star party at Pickett State Park, TN last new moon. This star party is still young and looking to grow. The park rangers are doing a great job, it’s a great venue for presentations and a great field for observing / photography. I’m not sure why it still remains a hidden gem of sorts.

Overall sky quality, other than some early clouds, was excellent. With SQM measurements around 21.77 mag/arcsec^2 this was the darkest I’ve seen Pickett. I would note too that of the other dark sky sites I routinely visit, this quality of night is nothing to complain about.

Dusk; waiting for the thin stuff to clear

Last few clouds clearing with the MW shinning through!

The rig is facing N,NE towards the Constellation Cepheus imaging Sharpless Object SH2-154

SH2-154: AP900GTO, FSQ-106ED with SX-46 CCD. Image scale of 2.33 arcsec/pixel. Exposure time ~13.5 hours. Also plainly visible on the right edge of the frame is SH2-155 The Cave Nebula. Sometimes the faint objects like 154 don’t get a lot of love because they’re not much to look at. At least it’s got a nice tight open cluster NGC 7419 nearby to draw some attention.

Calhoun County Park – 5/30/2019 through 6/4/2019

AP900GTO, Astronomical, Dark Nebula, Emission Nebula, FSQ-106ED, Galaxy, Nebula, Orion Atlas EQ-G, Rokinon 85mm Lens, Star Parties, SX-46, Widefield No Responses »

Jul 072019

With weather looking wet and wild for the 2019 Cherry Springs Star Party and things looking slightly less soggy at Calhoun we decided to cancel on Cherry Springs and gamble on Calhoun. Good thing we were setup on the top of a ridge so we never had to deal with muddy conditions considering all the rain we didn’t know was coming.

The first couple days were all clouded out.

Couple nights later things were improving but still very humid and hazy. The Milky Way was at least starting to pull out of the haze.

Finally some stars poking through the clouds. Look at that new bright light in the East / NE; it’s really projecting up!

M101 – LRGB with FSQ-106ED and SX-46 CCD on AP900GTO Mount. 6 hours total exposure in hazy conditions. Best SQM 21.8 mag/arcsec^2.

M101 Annotated – Check out all those background galaxies!

Widefield of Scutum, Serpens, Sagittarius, and Ophiucus. Canon 6D with Rokinon 85mm f/4 tracking on an Atlas EQ-G. 14x3min shots stacked, no calibration.

Widefield of Scutum, Serpens, Sagittarius, and Ophiucus annotated. You can see this very busy area is really a crossroads of constellations.

Some VERY ominous clouds started moving in…

Hail Storm

M17 LRGB – FSQ-106ED with SX-46 CCD on AP900GTO Mount. Total Exposure almost 2 hours of hazy low to the horizon 5 minute subs.

From Jupiter to the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. Canon 6D with Rokinon 85mm @f4. 6x3min frames stacked, no calibration.

Calhoun County Park Star Party 2018

AP130EDT, AP900GTO, Astronomical, Emission Nebula, FSQ-106ED, Nebula, Reflection Nebula, Star Parties, SX-46 No Responses »

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.

Older Entries