Cederblad 214

This wide emission nebula is located in constellation Cepheus. Everything was working then (early October) without problems so I was again sleeping...

This is an HaRGB-image with total exposure of 7hrs.

M31: Andromeda galaxy

I didn't want to take pictures of our bright neighbor because of my Atik's small sensor. The Andromeda galaxy is so wide that SW ED80 Pro with Atik could only manage less than half of it. 

I finally got that camera with bigger sensor (QHY9). Its 8,6 mega pixel sensor provides much bigger field of view than Atik's 1,4 Mp sensor.I had to wait it for over 4 months (manufacturer was improving it) but this is the first light of my new QHY9 monochrome ccd-camera (photographed in October)

Total exposure is about 6,5hrs (LRGB).

IC 5146: Cocoon nebula

Finally I won the fight against my guider!!! After three weeks of struggling I got it working properly.

Result was quite good exposure time again, almost 6hrs of HaRGB. Everything was now working, so I had time to sleep when pictures were taken by computer.

M103

Another unguided picture! Fight with my guider continued and he was winning... At that point I had no choice but image brighter objects!

This is an colorful open cluster in constellation Cassiopeia. Total exposure of the image was again less than 30 minutes.

M13: Hercules cluster

This beautiful glubular cluster was also one of the test objects of my transfer to automated imaging in August. I still had big problems with my guider which crashed 2 to 4 times every hour. After many reboots I managed to take few 3 min subexposures of luminance-channel. RGB-channels were all unguided.

M27: Dumbbell nebula

Another test object of automated imaging in August. I had huge problems with my guider-camera so this one is unguided. That limits subexposures of my set up to 1 minute or less.

I am quite pleased with this one because the image has many details despite the very short exposure time (1hrs).

M57: Ring nebula

After summer and long bright-sky period the imaging season started again!!

This was my first test of automated imaging session. I started to study and test CCDCommander which can control other softwares used for imaging (mount, guiding, focuser, camera, filters..) Basically I can program the software to take care of whole session. But I have to say that the beginning wasn't so easy...

Total exposure of the Ring was only 2hrs and subexposures were only 1-2 min (LHaRGB).

NGC 7380

This "project" took almost 6 months. I imaged Ha-channel in September 2008 and finalized it with RGB-colors in April 2009.

This one also would look much better with wider picture area. Again my Atik has too small ccd-sensor... I think this was the final push towards camera with larger one!

M97: The Owl nebula

This was my first ever narrowband image. Picture was taken in the middle of April when there was only 12min of astronomical darkness left here in Southern Finland. Total exposure was about 4hrs (SIIHaOIII).

I'm not too satisfied with this picture! I took too short and/or too few subexposures to get a good image. I didn't realize that collected data through narrowband filters is much weaker than through color filters.

M109

This barred spiral galaxy was photographed in the end of march 2009.

Total exposure was about 4hrs (LRGB).

M51: Whirlpool galaxy

This one was taken in late march 2009. This LRGB picture has total exposure of 4hrs.

M42: Orion nebula

This one was a way too wide object to my Atik camera. Even though this is photographed through my SW ED80 Pro refractor telescope.

Picture was taken in new year's day 2009 under darker skies outside town.

M81: Bode's nebula

My first galaxy picture was taken in early november 2008.

Total exposure of this one is about 3hrs (LRGB).

NGC 1491

This emission nebula was captured on three nights in late september and early october 2008.

This was my first ever HaRGB image and it has about 6hrs of total exposure.

NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula

This was my first real attempt to deep-sky imaging. I captured this one in early september 2008.

The nebula was captured on Atik314E monochrome astronomical camera. Total exposure of this LRGB image was about 2hrs.