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!
Hickson 61 — “The Box” | Tiny Galaxies, Tough Data! - 7.8h LRGB
Hickson 61, better known as “The Box,” is a tiny apparent grouping of faint galaxies in Coma Berenices. This LRGB image captures NGC 4169, NGC 4173, NGC 4174, and NGC 4175 — four small galaxies arranged in a striking box-like pattern. Most of the group lies roughly 170–200 million light-years away, while NGC 4173 is likely a closer foreground galaxy that happens to line up with the others. Captured from Whispering Skies Observatory over two April nights, this 7-hour 48-minute project highlights the challenge and reward of imaging small, distant galaxy groups where scale, faintness, and perspective all matter.
The Leo Triplet: M65, M66, and NGC 3628 - 12.6 hours of LRGB - First Light for the FRA400’s New Camera!
This image captures the Leo Triplet — M65, M66, and NGC 3628 — along with nearby NGC 3593 in a wide-field LRGB view from Whispering Skies Observatory. With 12.6 hours of integration, the image reveals the three main galaxies, the smaller surrounding galaxy field, and the faint tidal tail extending from NGC 3628. This project also served as first light for the new ASI2600MM-Pro camera on my FRA400 platform.
Messier 94 - The Crocodile Eye Galaxy - 12.8 Hours in LRGB
Messier 94, the Crocodile Eye Galaxy, is a compact but structurally complex spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici, about 16 million light-years away. This LRGB image captures its bright central core, active star-forming inner ring, and faint extended outer disk using 12h 49m 30s of data from Whispering Skies Observatory.
Messier 104 - The Sombrero Galaxy - 11 Hours in LRGB - Dealing with a Challenging Set of Issues…
Messier 104, the Sombrero Galaxy, is one of the most recognizable galaxies in the spring sky. This project captures its bright central bulge, sharp equatorial dust lane, and faint outer halo using 11 hours of LRGB data from the Sharpstar SCA260 V2 at Whispering Skies Observatory.
Stephan’s Quintet – HCG 92 / Arp 319 Compact Galaxy Group - 24 Hours of LRGB!
Stephan’s Quintet is a compact group of galaxies in Pegasus caught in the middle of a slow-motion cosmic collision – four true members being stretched, stripped, and reshaped by gravity while a fifth foreground spiral simply photobombs the scene. This deep LRGB image reveals distorted spiral arms, long tidal tails, and the bright cores of galaxies that are gradually merging into a single massive system hundreds of millions of light-years away.
Barnard 150 - The Seahorse Nebula(18.3 hours in LRGB) - Using the Wrong Tool For the Job!
This is the first year I have started targeting Dark Nebulae. It’s been a learning experience.
On this project, I targeted Barnard 150 - The Seahorse Nebula. Even with more than 18 hours of integration, I ran into noise issues.
You need to do a lot of stretching, and this amplifies the high noise. While NoiseXterminator is extremely effective, when handling this much noise, I encountered some ugly artifacts, which greatly frustrated me. So the project reportsto learn more!