SH2-132

One of my targets during early December.

Collimation wasn't too good and my FLI's PDF focuser needed some reparation again, but that's what this hobby is...

This faintish emission Nebula is located in constellation Cepheus.

Here's about 7 hrs of exposure:
Ha = 13 * 1200" bin1*1
RG = 10 * 360" bin2*2
B = 6 * 360" bin2*2

Full size on Astrobin

Ngc-6888, The Crescent Nebula

One of my "main" targets during last few months. First exposures was taken at the end of October so it took more than a month to finalize this one.

The Crescent Nebula (also known as NGC 6888, Caldwell 27, Sharpless 105) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, about 5000 light-years away. It was discovered by Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel in 1792.[2] It is formed by the fast stellar wind from the Wolf-Rayet star WR 136 (HD 192163) colliding with and energizing the slower moving wind ejected by the star when it became a red giant around 250,000 to 400,000[citation needed] years ago. (wikipedia)

This is a mag 7,4 object. Here's almost 8 hrs of data at HaRGB.

Exposures:
Ha = 3*1800" + 8*1200" (bin1*1)
R = 14*360" (bin2*2)
G = 11*360" (bin2*2)
B = 11*360" (bin2*2)

Full size on Astrobin

SH2-101 Tulip Nebula with colors

This was taken last season but I didn't process this because I remembered that I had no blue channel taken... There was but only about 20 minutes which was less than quarter of the other channels.

Total exposure is:  13 h
                                Ha = 19 * 1800" = 9h 30min
                                R   = 12 * 450"   = 90 min
                                G   = 11 * 450"   = 82,5 min
                                B   =  5  * 450"   = 22,5 min

Full size on Astrobin.

SH2-207+SH2-208 Reprocessed

Had some time to reprocess this old image.

Not so much stretched...

Full size on Astrobin

Old one here

SH2-101, The Tulip Nebula

The Tulip Nebula, or Sharpless 101 (Sh2-101) or the Cygnus Star Cloud is an emission nebula located in the constellation Cygnus.

Here's only Hydrogen alpha with 9h 30min of exposure (19*1800sec). Colors will hopefully follow...

M57 Finalized

I added 2 more hours of Hydrogen alpha and some RGB data also. So here's 7h of Ha and total of 10h 20min of exposure (HaRGB=420:60:70:70 min)

Full size on Astrobin

IC5146 Reprocessed

Tried to tweak more of the Hydrogen Alpha details. Not so big changes visible....

Cocoon Nebula with Ha

I took 4,5 hrs of Ha to boost the nebulosity and some extra RGB to add some color.

Processing was quite difficult because the tonemapped Ha was so strong that the colors were lost in the nebula. I think I added only 30% of Ha to the red channel and combined the L+Ha for luminance. So it's basically LHa(HaR)GB combination...

Total exposure is now 10 hrs:
                                    L        = 10 * 900"
                                    Ha     = 9 * 1800"
                                    RGB  = 12 * 300" (bin2*2)

Full size again on Astrobin

M57, The Ring Nebula

I tried this one with bigger scope! Last one was quite small one with short exposures.

Here's 6,5 hr of exposure Ha(HaR)GB (300:30:30:30).

BIG one again on Astrobin

IC5146, the Cocoon Nebula

This was my secondary target after the Draco Dwarf settled down in the sky.

Only 2,5 hrs of Luminance and no Ha. I may continue this one later...

Total exposure of 5h 30 min:
                                                  L        = 10*900" (bin1*1)
                                                  RGB  = 12*300" (bin2*2)

NGC6826, The Blinking Planetary

Last processed image from the last season!! Also known as Caldwell 15.

Only about 4hrs of exposure. Discontinued because of the flexure when shooting to the Western sky.

A weird combination of colors! Core is as Hubble palette; SII for red, Ha for green and OIII for blue. Outer halo bicolor HaOIIIOIII.

Full frame

Crop

NGC6543, The Cat's Eye Nebula

Here's also one kind of unfinished project from April... I found some flexure from my focuser when shooting towards the eastern sky so I turned back the to western sky and discontinued with this one.

And here's a crop of the Nebula:

Here's about 5 hrs of exposure of this Planetary Nebula.
                                                  Ha     =    3 * 1800" + ~15-20 * 180/300" for core
                                                  OIII   =    5 * 1800" + ~15-20 * 180" for core

Full size on Astrobin

SH2-224

This has been waiting for processing since middle of March. I still have 2-3 objects with quite poor data waiting...

This faintish supernova remnant is located in constellation Auriga. The distance is estimated at 14700 light years and age of between 13000 and 24000 years.

Exposure:
                     Ha           =                10 * 1800"
                     RG          =                  4 * 300"
                     B             =                  6 * 300"
                     TOTAL   =                  6h 10min

Full size on Astrobin

Abell 61

I imaged this small planetary nebula, also known as PNG 077.6+14.7, in early April. Processing took several days and versions before I was happy enough.

Abell 61 is about 3.4' in diameter and mostly round. It's located in constellation Cygnus. Abell (1966) described it as "incomplete rings with gaps". The central (mag 17) variable star is WD1917+461. Its distance is unknown.

And here's 100% crop of the nebula.

Exposure details:
                             Ha            5 * 1800"
                            OIII           7 * 1800"
                             TOTAL    6h

Full size again in Astrobin

PK164+31.1 continued

After all I came back to this target with one night and get some more luminance for it. Here's extra 3h 40min of it with now a total exposure of 12hrs.

Full size again on Astrobin

CTB1, Supernova remnant

This really faint object is also known as Abell 85 or as SNR G116.9+00.1. It's located in constellation Cassiopeia. (Ra 23:58:53.5 Dec +62:30:28)

Abell 85 is an large, filamentary supernova remnant with shell-like structure similar to Cygnus Loop. Unlike the Cygnus Loop, the majority of CTB1's optical light emission is in the HII spectrum, with only a small component of OIII emission. (deepskypedia)

This is a frustrating target!! Extremely faint and now located low in the Norhern sky. I have plans to continue with this one but the next possible time is in late August when it's dark again and this will be higher in the sky.

Here's 7h 30min of Hydrogen-alpha taken with 30min subs.

PK 164+31.1

Jones-Emberson 1 (PK 164+31.1) is a 14th magnitude planetary nebula in the constellation Lynx at a distance of 1600 light years. It is a larger planetary with low surface brightness. The 16.8-magnitude central star is very blue white dwarf.

Here's 8h 50min of exposure with HaLRGB. There's only 1h 40min of luminance so the background galaxies is not quite well visible. But I think I'm done with this one...

Full size in Astrobin.

SH2-207 and SH2-208

This was one of my last day targets!

Here's two sharpless objects, SH2-207 is the bigger one and SH2-208 is the smaller one. There's also a lot of very dim nebulosity aroud these two.

Here's 11.5 hrs of exposure with Ha (20*1800 sec) and RGB (10*180 sec each binned 2*2).

M76 Final, first light of my 14" Astrograph

I got few hours more of Hydrogen alpha so I think this is now final version of this. Even though there's only 5.5 hours of exposure here (3*1800 + 10*900 sec of Ha and 6*900sec OIII).

This is now a formal first light of my new imaging scope, 14" Newtonian Astrograph. I'll post more of this soon!

Here's "natural" color version (HaOIIIOIII):

A 100% crop of bicolor (HaOIII):

And a 200% crop of HAOIIIOIII:

M76, Little Dumbbell Nebula

Finally few nights with no clouds!!! But a full moon and a heavy surface fog... But now I don't complain!!

I got few descent images of the Little Dumbbell, M76, a planetary nebula in constallation Perseus. It's distance is estimated at 2500 light years, and its size is only 2,7*1,8 arcmin with a magnitude of 10,1. Some consider this object to be one of the faintest and hardest to see objects in Messier's list.

Here's only 4hrs of exposure with Ha (10*900sec) and OIII (6*900sec) and a synthetic green channel. So hopefully there's some more to come..

Here's HST (Hubble Space Telescope) color:

And natural color:

And finally a 100% crop of the nebula: