M106 and Friends LRGB

©2007 Richard Murray

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Techno Stuff: 6/8/07 ATK-16hr, Megrez 80mm APO at F/6, mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Luminance IR 80 minutes total with 8 min subs, binning 1x1, Red 20 minutes with 5 minute subs - Blue 30 minutes with 6 minute subs Binning 2x2, Synthetic Green, Autoguided with Atk-2HS and Guidedog from LX90, Darks Applied, CCDStack, Photoshop CS2, PixInsight

Notes: To get all the details of M106's core please look at the full size image. I did the best I could on the color. I started out with the whole thing looking yellowish green so I switched to Lab Color in Photoshop and the color processing went a lot smoother.

The large galaxy is M106 and the edge on smaller galaxy right next to it on the left is NGC4248. The two galaxies next to that are NGC4231 and NGC4232. There appears to be a faint light bridge between them so they may be interacting. The larger edge on galaxy at bottom right is NGC4217 and to the right of it is NGC4226. I'm pretty sure the faint galaxy just below M106 is UGC7356.

Sh2-171 Emission Nebula

©2007 Richard Murray

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Techno Stuff: 7/13/07 ATK-16hr, Megrez 80mm APO at F/6, mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Ha 6nm 140 minutes total with 20 min subs, binning 1x1, Autoguided with CCD Labs Q-Guide and PHDGuide from LX90, Darks Applied, CCDStack, Photoshop CS2, PixInsight

Notes: This is the second portion of Sh2-171, the first being the Calf Head Nebula. Not as much structure as the Calf Head but still an interesting nebula.

Sh2-171 Calf Head Nebula In Cepheus

©2007 Richard Murray

Full Size Image

Techno Stuff: 7/13/07 ATK-16hr, Megrez 80mm APO at F/6, mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Ha 6nm 40 minutes total with 20 min subs, binning 1x1, Autoguided with CCD Labs Q-Guide and PHDGuide from LX90, Darks Applied, CCDStack, Photoshop CS2, PixInsight

Notes: My original plan was to just try out my new Q-Guide autoguider (cmos webcam) and PHDGuide expecting a night of frustration while I worked the bugs out. Even if it was the unlucky mornning of Friday the 13th, after a few hiccups the darn thing started to work, so I went over to the constellation Cepheus and got this image. Notice the large Calf Head in the upper center (Keep looking, you'll see it. Hint - It's turned sideways with the nose pointing right).

This is part of a much larger nebula, much too large for my setup, but I managed to also image another portion near the bottom of the complex which I'll post next after the processing is done.

Thinking Blogger Award

I recently received the Thinking Blogger Award so I'm passing it on.

Here are my choices for the Thinking Blogger Award. (three more to follow)

1. rightbrain/leftbrain
Some great art here - whimsical and humorous by a very talented artist.

2. The Time Sink
Amazing photography of the natural world (just go to his Photo Blog link on the left).


Congratulations, you won a Thinking Blogger Award!

THE RULES ARE:

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the memo

3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (there is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

Rick Astronomy Journal

M104 Sombrero Galaxy

©2007 Richard Murray

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Techno Stuff: 5/13/07 ATK-16hr, Megrez 80mm APO at F/6, mounted on LX90 8" SCT, IR 40 minutes total with 8 min subs binning 1x1, RGB 15 minutes total each with 5 min. subs binning 2x2, Autoguided with Atik-2HS and Guidedog from LX90, Darks Applied, CCDStack, Photoshop CS2.

Notes: The IR (Infared/UV blocking filter) frames turned out very well. However, the RGB (red, green, blue filtered) frames suffered from heavy light pollution gradients which CCDStack took care of surprisingly well allowing me to come up with a decent final image. I like doing LRGB processing and plan on doing more with fairly bright objects like M104.

M16 The Eagle Nebula

©2007 Richard Murray

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Techno Stuff: 6/26/07 ATK-16hr, Megrez 80mm APO at F/6, mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Ha 6nm, 80 minutes total with 20min subs, Binning 1x1, Autoguided with Atik-2HS and Guidedog from LX90, Darks Applied, CCDStack, Photoshop CS2, PixInsight, Image Analyzer

Notes: There was every reason in the world why this image should not have come to be. The night was murky and foggy, the object was at a low altitude (33 degrees), I forgot to plug in my dew strap so each exposure taken left the Megrez objective more and more fogged up. So frankly, I think I deserve a little applause for ending up with a halfway decent image. :>D

NGC6960 Veil Nebula West

©2007 Richard Murray

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Techno Stuff: 6/17/07 ATK-16hr, Megrez 80mm APO at F/6, mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Ha 6nm, 39 minutes total with 25min, 9min, 5min subs, Binning 1x1, Autoguided with Atik-2HS and Guidedog from LX90, No Darks, Registax3, Photoshop CS2, PixInsight, Silkypix

Notes: I battled the clouds all night to get this one saving what exposure time I had accumulated whenever the next batch of clouds started to roll in. I managed three exposures: 25 (lucky me), 9 and 5 minutes for a total of 39 minutes in all.

IC1396 Elephant Trunk Nebula

©2007 Richard Murray

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Here's a more dramatic perspective.


©2006 Richard Murray

This image was processed in CCDStack prior to touchups in Photoshop.


©2006 Richard Murray

Techno Stuff: 6/15/07 ATK-16hr, Megrez 80mm APO at F/6, mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Ha 6nm, one 40 minute exposure, Binning 1x1, Autoguided with Atik-2HS and Guidedog from LX90, No Darks, Registax3, Photoshop CS2, PixInsight

Notes: I was having some tracking problems while trying to image this object which weren't resolved until about 3:30am. So I went for broke and decided to do one long 40 minute exposure and just leave it at that. It turned out pretty good. :>))

NGC6820/NGC6823 Open Cluster and Emission Nebula

©2007 Richard Murray

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Techno Stuff: 6/13/07 ATK-16hr, Megrez 80mm APO at F/6, mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Ha 6nm, 186 minutes total with 26.6 minute subframes, Binning 1x1, Autoguided with Atik-2HS and Guidedog from LX90, Darks Applied, Registax3, Photoshop CS2

Notes: NGC6823 is the star cluster in the center while NGC6820 is the surrounding emission nebula. Note the dark nebula and pillars of cold molecular clouds which probably contain newborn stars obscured by the enveloping dust.

NGC6888 Crescent Nebula Widefield

©2007 Richard Murray

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Techno Stuff: 5/28/07 ATK-16hr, Megrez 80mm APO at F/3 with 0.5 focal reducer, mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Ha 6nm 60 minutes total with 20 minute subframes, Binning 1x1, Autoguided with Atik-2HS and Guidedog from LX90, Darks Applied, Photoshop CS2, Image Analyzer

Notes: The Atik 0.5 focal reducer allowed for a wider field of view and good nebula definition. The stars ,however, were a distorted mess and required a lot of processing to get them back to normal. All in all it turned out pretty well.

Abell 1656 Coma Galaxy Cluster

©2007 Richard Murray

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Techno Stuff: 5/9/07 ATK-16hr, Megrez 80mm APO at F/6 mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Luminance IR 6x600secs Binning 1x1, RG 3x300secs B 3x360secs Binning 2x2, Autoguided with Atik-2HS and Guidedog from LX90, Darks Applied, Photoshop CS2, PixInsight, Image Analyzer

Notes: Most of the smaller galaxies are clustered around the two larger galaxies on the left: NGC4874 to the left and NGC4889 to the right. There are well over 40 galaxies in this image.

NGC5985 Galaxy Triplet

©2007 Richard Murray

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Techno Stuff: 4/20/07 ATK-16hr, Megrez 80mm APO at F/6 mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Luminance IR 8x600secs, , RGB 5x300secs, Binning 1x1, Autoguided with Atik-2HS and Guidedog from LX90, Darks Applied, Photoshop CS2, PixInsight, Image Analyzer

Notes: Here's a galaxy triplet in the constellation Draco with a face on spiral (NGC5985), a dwarf elliptical (NGC5982) and an edge on spiral (NGC5981).

NGC7635 Bubble Nebula

©2007 Richard Murray

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Techno Stuff: 5/12/07 ATK-16hr, Megrez 80mm APO at F/6 mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Ha6nm 2x1200secs, Binning 1x1, Autoguided with Atik-2HS and Guidedog from LX90, No Darks, Photoshop CS2, PixInsight, Image Analyzer, Silkypix

Notes: It's a little early in the season for this one in the Northern hemisphere but I was at the end of an imaging sessions and saw that the Bubble Nebula was up so I went for it. :>))

IC1318 Narrowband

Hubble Palette

©2007 Richard Murray

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CFHT Palette

©2007 Richard Murray

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Halpha 6nm

©2007 Richard Murray

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Techno Stuff: 5/4/07 ATK-16hr, Megrez 80mm APO at F/6 mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Ha Luminance 3x1200secs, OIII 1x900secs SII 1x900secs, Binning 1x1, Luminance Autoguided with Atik-2HS and Guidedog from LX90, OIII and SII Manually Guided, Darks Applied, Photoshop CS2, AstroWave, PixInsight

Notes: This is my first narrowband image made with Ha, OIII, and SII filters. This was taken during a full moon and wind gusts of 20mph which is why I was only able to process a few frames. The top image was processed using the 'Hubble Palette' where SII=Red, Ha=Green and OIII=Blue. The second image made use of the 'CFHT palette' where Ha=Red, OIII=Green and SII=blue. The bottom image is in Halpha.