Imaging Projects
In this blog, I will share the results of all of my imaging projects. The newest will be at the top and the oldest will be further down the stack. Going back in time here is interesting - some of my early stuff was pretty rough - but I did not see it that way at the time - I was thrilled to get anything back that looked like an image! Hopefully, you will see how my work has progressed with time!
NGC 7822 - The Central Portion of the Question Mark Nebula (~14 hours in SHOrgb)
NGC 7822 is the Clamshell Nebula - located 2900 light years away in the constellation of Cepheus. This is a very large target, and with my smallest scope, I could still only fit the central portion of this complex area into the camera's field of view. This image results from just under 14 hours of integration and consists of a mix of narrowband data for the nebula and broadband RGB data for the stars.
SH2-132 - A Reprocess of The Lion Nebula in SHO (8.33 hours)
This is an Image Reprocessing Project for SH2-132, also known as The Lion Nebula - whose data was originally collected in September of 2021.
The Lion Nebula is a rich HII region with star clusters, emission nebulae, and dark dust regions. Located in the southern portion of the constellation Cepheus, the Lion Nebula is roughly 10,00 light-years away in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. This is a very faint and challenging target.
This image was taken on the Askar FRA400 Platform with 8.33 hours of exposure in narrowband.
NGC 7635 - The Bubble Nebula w/M52 - 8.25 hours in SHO - Not Sure I Love it.
NGC 7635 - The Bubble Nebula with M52. 8.25 hours in SHO.
This image was shot on my William Optics 132mm FLT APO platform, using a ASI1600MM-Pro Camera and the IOptron CEM60 mount.
The original goal was to do a deeper integration of at least 15 hours - and while the weather would have supported this, I missed two clear nights due to illness.
This image has a very high color and contrast position - almost too high for me, but I disliked the lower contrast and saturation versions more - so this is it. I am not sure I love this image….
IC 1396A - The Elephant’s Trunk - 7.3 hrs in SHO (a Case of Virus Interuptus)
IC 1396A - The Elephants Trunk Nebula is located 2400 light-years away in the constellation of Cepheus. This is my fourth project involving this target - but the first where I used the newer generation ZWO ASI26MM-Pro camera and full narrowband data set at this image scale. My goal here was to collect about 15 hours on target. I only ended up getting 7.3 hours. My usual reason for missing my integration target is weather. Not this time. This time I was hit with a nasty virus and the worst cold of my life! I had to watch two precious clear nights slip away whilst I coughed and hacked away inside in misery….