nmbrandt

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.

Sep 262021
 
Hoping those clouds clear out!
Sunset
Star Trails over our campsite on the ridge
IC 59 & IC 63 eroding away under the radiation from the bright star Gamma Cas
IC 59 & IC 63 in context
IC 59 & IC 63 Annotated
Classic Car show on Sat!
Live Music Too!
Sep 262021
 
Hoping for Clear Skies
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
The Bubble Nebula region Annotated
Circumpolar Star Trails
Jul 042021
 

I put a QHY268M CMOS camera into the Observatory to replace the significantly larger pixel sized Apogee U8300 that has been hanging around since the very early days and is starting to hiccup. These were all test images with 3 minute exposures from my fairly light polluted suburban back yard observatory. (SQM is 20.0 to 20.4 depending on season and quality of the night.) Most images are 2-3 hours total exposure in LRGB. Some images were a total loss due to filter wheel problems and filter shift causing incompatible flat frame corrections. Corrective actions have been taken to secure the filters and ensure proper indexing. As it is, none of these images are great but I can’t bring myself to throw them out so think of this as a first light post of sorts for the QHY268M.

M95

A barred spiral galaxy approximately 33 million light years away.

M95
M95 – Annotated

M108

M108 is a barred spiral in Ursa Major and contains about 125 billion solar masses.

M108
M108 – Annotated

M13

M13 is a globular cluster of several hundred thousand stars in the constellation Hercules.

M13
M13 Annotated

M106

M106 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici with a detected supermassive black hole at it’s core. It resides approximately 22-25 million light years away. It’s one of the largest and brightest nearby galaxies.

M106
M106 – Annotated

The Leo Triplet

The Leo Triplet, also known as the M66 group, contains M65, M66, and NGC 3628 commonly called the Hamburger Galaxy. The galaxy group resides approximately 35 million light years away.

The Leo Triplet
The Leo Triplet – Annotated
Feb 142021
 
IC 1795 – A star forming region in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia. Hubble Pallet Emission line imaging from Clinton, TN. Poor seeing conditions over several nights in Nov 2020 but almost 33 hours of total exposure time. AP130GTX with Apogee U8300 camera riding on AP1200GTO in backyard observatory.