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!
SH2-155 - The Cave Nebula 13.5 hours SHO (My 150th Project!)
After 5 years, I revisited SH2-155 - The Cave Nebula, this time gathering 13.5 hours narrowband data. This was shot with my new galaxy scope and the resulting colors really pop and dark dust is very mysterious looking!
This data was collected over three nights at the end of August 2025.
IC 5070 - The Pelican Nebula! 18.75 hours of SHO (my longest integration yet!)
My third attempt - and my finest - at IC 5070 - The Pelican Nebula.
This is the result of almost 19 hours of narrowband exposure on my Williams Optics 132 FLT APO platform with a 0.8 reducer and an ASI2600MM-Pro camera.
This was another image that was captured from my new observatory tht allowed capture on marginal nights.
IC 5068 - The Forsaken Nebula and the “Black Waterfall”- (11.9 hours in SHOrgb)
Astrobin Top Pick Nominee!
IC 5068 is a very faint nebula that is part of the North American/Pelican Nebula region and is often passed over for these brighter nebulae. But this region is a beautiful piece of the sky in narrowband!
Shot with my AP130 Platform with ~12 hours of SHO and RGB-Stars capture.
NGC 6543 - The Cat’s Eye Nebula w/ NGC 6522 (14.6 hours in LRGB)
This image of NGC 6543 - The Cat’s Eye - is the result of 14.6 hours of LRGB data captured with my Sharpstar SCA260V2 Platform. It was a faint and challenging object that also had very bright portions. This made it one of the most challenging targets I have processed yet. I must have reprocessed that data 8 or 9 times before I ended where I did. Was this the best image I could get from that data? I don’t think so. In the end, the effort exhausted me and I was ready to move on!!
Messier 17 - The Omega Nebula - Victory After Heartbreak! (17 hours SHOrgb on M17!)
Messier 17, The Omega Nebula, is a bright and popular target in the summer constellation of Sagittarius.
This image is the result of 17 hours of SHOrgb exposure on my William Optics 132 LFT platform.
The narrowband view of this shows the target in a way that is not often seen.
Considering that this project started with three nights of exposure, where 2 of the nights had all of the frames out of focus, I am really happy with the final results.
Messier 16 - The Eagle Nebula/The Pillars of Creation, 4.75 hours in SHO (A Narrowband Test of the SCA260 Scope)
This was a quick test to see how the Sharpstar SCA260 V2 scope did with a narrowband target. Selected was Messier 16, centered on the Pilrs of Creation. This was the result of 4.75 hrs of data collected on a very hot night, with the camera only getting to -10C.
Processing was a challenge due to Star Removal blemishes and some optical artifacts on some bright stars.
See the full report for details.
Sh2-54 - The Serpent Nebula - 8.9 Hours of SHO
Sh2-54 is an interesting HII region with some dark dust located in the constellation Sperpens Cause (The Tail). Also seen is the open cluster NGC 6604. This image is a result of 8.9 hours of SHO Data.