Just One Clear Night

©2007 Richard Murray

Notes: It's a well known fact in the amateur astronomy community that if you buy a new astronomy gadget you can suffer for days or weeks (depending on the gadget) with cloudy weather. It's been cloudy for three weeks now since I had my new observatory built so I figure I have about a week to go before clear skies. :>))

Since I don't have anything else to take pictures of, above is the latest picture of my observatory through my den window.

Getting Closer to First Light

The Captain and I are almost ready for our first voyage, er ah, I mean first light. I almost thought I heard him say "Take her out Sulu. :>))


©2007 Richard Murray

Notes: We have electric power now. Notice the futuristic gym flooring and the nifty red rope lights. Also the warm room curtains are up. The advantage of installing gym flooring is it's made out of rubber, so if you drop some equipment it doesn't break; it just bounces.

Burke Avenue Observatory Amost Complete

Some pictures of the roof open and the inside.


©2007 Richard Murray

Notes: The roof stops rolling at the beginning edge of the warm room.

Burke Avenue Observatory Almost Done

About six hours left till it's finished!


©2007 Richard Murray

Notes: This is the result of two days work and about a half day to go. Oh boy!

It's 10' x 14' in size with a 5' x 10' warm room and a 9' x 10' scope area.

IC5070 Pelican Nebula

©2007 Richard Murray

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Notes: This was a short exposure run just to test out the GRAS3 scope in New Mexico (1 of 6 scopes available for rental at that location).

The good news is the Tak 150 has about the same field of view as my 80mm Megrez APO which means I can combine images taken at my home observatory with those taken with the Tak in New Mexixo. :>))

Imaging Details:

Date: 10-8-07
Object: IC5070 Pelican Nebula
Telescope: Takahashi TOA 150
Mount: Paramount ME
Camera: SBIG ST-10 XME ABG
Filter: Astrodon Ha
Exposure: Ha - 30 min [10 min subs]
Processing: CCDStack, Photoshop CS2, PixInsight
Location: GRAS Observatory, Mayhill, NM

Orion and Running Man Nebula - M42 & NGC1977

©2007 Richard Murray

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Techno Stuff: 10/6/07 Camera: SBIG STL-11000M , Imaging Scope:TAK FSQ-106 ED, One 60 sec exposure with a clear filter, Autoguided, Processed with CCDStack, Photoshop CS2, PixInsight

Notes: I'd like to say I went out and bought a bunch of new insanely expensive equipment but I didn't. This is my first image taken using equipment that is part of the Gobal-Rent-A-Scope stable of fine instruments which are located throughout the world.

This image was taken by me over the internet with a robotically controled scope located in the central part of South Australia on 10/6/07 at 3:30am Ausie time. Here in the US at my location it was in the early afternoon.

Keep in mind this is not a stack of exposures. It is just one 60 sec exposure through a clear filter when the moon was at 33% illumination. Not bad at all for such a short time.

The Beginning Of My New Observatory

The hole is dug for the pier.


©2007 Richard Murray

The base for the pier is complete.


©2007 Richard Murray

Notes: Construction should begin on 10-11-07 and be completed within two or three days. The observatory is going to be a 10' by 14' with a 5' by 10' warm room. More images to come . . .

VdB142 "Elephant Trunk" in Ha:sG:OIII

©2007 Richard Murray

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Techno Stuff: 6/20/07 Camera: ATK-16hr, Imaging Scope: Megrez 80mm APO at F/6, mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Ha 6nm 80 min total with 20 min subs, OIII 14nm 90 min total with 30 min subs, no binning, Darks Applied, Autoguided with QGuide and PHDGuide from LX90, , Processed with CCDStack, Photoshop CS2, PixInsight

Notes: This is an Ha:sG:OIII narrowband image with Ha mapped as red, OIII as blue and a synthetic green generated from the Ha and OIII images. I took this back on June 20th but didn't have a chance to process it until now.

I didn't plan on the colors turning out this way but I think the black and orange are appropriate with Halloween just around the corner. :>))

In the two images below the colors are remapped to red:green:blue respectively.

Here's an Ha:OIII:OIII version.


©2007 Richard Murray

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And here's an OIII:Ha:OIII version.


©2007 Richard Murray

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And here is a collage of all three.

M16 Eagle Nebula in Halpha

©2007 Richard Murray

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This version has had deconvolution and DDP (digital development process) applied.


©2007 Richard Murray

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Techno Stuff: 7/8/07 Camera: ATK-16hr, Imaging Scope: Megrez 80mm APO at F/6, mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Ha 160 min total with 20 min subs, no binning, Darks Applied, Autoguided with DSI Pro and PHDGuide from LX90, , Processed with CCDStack, Photoshop CS2, PixInsight

Notes: This is my second attempt at M16 with double the amount of Halpha exposure and better tracking overall. Lots more detail is apparent. My old image is here for comparison.

The Eagle Nebula is where the famous Hubble telescope 'pillars of creation' image was taken and are located towards the center of the image.

M31 Andromeda Galaxy Ha-LLRGB

Here's a reprocessed image with a little more natural color.


©2007 Richard Murray


©2007 Richard Murray

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Wide Screen Monitor View

Techno Stuff: 7/28/07 Camera: ATK-16hr, Imaging Scope: Megrez 80mm APO at F/6, mounted on LX90 8" SCT, IR 40 min total with 8 min subs, no binning, Red & Green 20 min total with 5 min subs, Blue 24 min total with 6 min subs, Binning 2X2, 7/29/07 Ha 160 min total with 20 min subs, No binning,Autoguided with DSI Pro and PHDGuide from LX90, No Darks, Processed with CCDStack, Photoshop CS2

Notes: This is a Ha-LLRGB image which shows the red H-alpha regions surrounding M31. Lots of processing on this image as integrating Ha data with LLRGB is more complicated than I thought. Just for fun, I've also included a widescreen version for those with widescreen monitors.

M33 Pinwhell Galaxy

©2007 Richard Murray

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Techno Stuff: 9/10/07 Camera: ATK-16hr, Imaging Scope: Megrez 80mm APO at F/6, mounted on LX90 8" SCT, IR 65 min total with 5 min subs, no binning, Red 25 min with 5 min subs, Blue 30 min with 6 min subs, Binning 2X2, Synthetic Green channel, Autoguided with Q-Guide and PHDGuide from LX90, No Darks, Processed with CCDStack, Photoshop CS2 and PixInsight

Notes: This is an LLRGB image using a synthetic green channel. It was taken under murky conditions with high altitude clouds forcing me to keep the exposure time down. The RGB color required a heavy saturation boost plus LLRGB layering in order to realize much color at all.

Sh2-104 Emission Nebula in Cygnus

©2007 Richard Murray

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Techno Stuff: 8/18/07 Camera: ATK-16hr, Imaging Scope: Megrez 80mm APO at F/6, mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Ha 6nm, 76 minutes total with two 30 min subs and one 16 min sub (interupted due to clouds), binning 1x1, Autoguided with DSI Pro and PHDGuide from LX90, No Darks, Processed with CCDStack, Photoshop CS2 and PixInsight

Notes: Seldom imaged by amateur astronomers, this is a very faint emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus. This is located due east of the popular Crescent Nebula. Sh-104 is viewed by professional astronomers as a good illustration of the "collect and collapse" model of star formation triggered by the rapid expansion of a Helium II region.

IC1805 Heart Nebula

©2007 Richard Murray

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Techno Stuff: 8/26/07 Camera: ATK-16hr, Imaging Scope: Megrez 80mm APO at F/6, mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Ha 6nm 140 minutes total with 20 min subs binning 1x1, Autoguided with Q-Guide and PHDGuide from LX90, No Darks, Processed with CCDStack and Photoshop CS2 and PixInsight

Notes: I tried to keep the amount of processing down on this one because the stacked image looked so good. This was taken on a clear calm night just after about 2 weeks of rain.

NGC7023 Iris Nebula LRGB

©2007 Richard Murray

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©2007 Richard Murray

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Techno Stuff: 5/18/07 for Luminance and RG and 8/11/07 for B, Camera: ATK-16hr, Imaging Scope: Megrez 80mm APO at F/6, mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Luminance IR 11 minutes total with 1 min subs and 80 minutes total with 5 minute subs binning 1x1, Red and Green 20 minutes with 5 minute subs binning 2x2, Blue 30 minutes with 6 min subs binning 2x2, Autoguided with DSI Pro and PHDGuide from LX90, Darks Applied Luminance Only, Processed with CCDStack, Photoshop CS2 and PixInsight.

Notes: I imaged the luminance, red and green frames in May but it took me until August to get some decent blue frames. The full size image is small because the blue frames had to be rotated almost 45 degrees to match up with the earlier images. But it all turned out ok in the end.

The second image is the same as the first but processed by combining the red and blue frame with a synthetic green frame along with the original luminance frame. Once this was processed in Photoshop, the top image was desaturated (color removed) and this was placed on top as another luminance frame to create what is called an LLRGB image.