2025 The Year In Pictures

January 1, 2026 by grahamrob in Broadband, Deep Sky Objects, DSLR, Earth, Equipment, Galaxy, General Astronomy, Imaging, Narrowband, Night Scapes, Solar system, Widefield Imaging and tagged astronomy, Astrophotography, Cygnus, DSO Imaging, Galaxies, Milky Way, Nebulae, Orion, Photography, Science, space | Leave a comment

The year 2025 was like no other. Starting with a knee replacement operation in January, shortly after we finally found a new house in March and moved to the lovely dark skies of Somerset at the end of June. Unfortunately, the ensuing turmoil left only a limited time for astronomy. Notwithstanding, I was able to supplement images from Redhill and our new home in Wookey, with some excellent data from Texas, USA and Chile to produce, what I hope you will agree, is an exciting 2026 calendar.

For other pictures and information, go to my website https://watchthisspaceman.com/ or a video of the calendar can be found here on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn3ls_s71lQ and is best accessed on a PC or smart TV screen. Background music this year is Massive Attack’s track Atlas Air.

COVER	*NIGHT SKY MONTAGE AT CASTLE FARM OBSERVATORY:* All these images (at the top of the page) were taken at various times from the same location at our house in Wookey, Somerset. Clockwise from bottom left: (1) Nightscape of a small coppice looking south (2) Double Cluster – a pair of open star clusters in the Perseus constellation (3) Star trails (4) Sunset looking west.
JANUARY	THE GREAT ORION NEBULA, M42 ⁽¹⁾ The Orion Nebula is a gigantic cosmic cloud of interstellar dust and gas, which is the basis for the birth of numerous new stars or a “star nursery”. Being the brightest nebula in the northern hemisphere and just over 1,300 light-years distance from Earth, it can be seen with the naked eye on a clear night.
FEBRUARY	FLAMING STAR NEBULA, IC405 ⁽¹⁾ This nebula is illuminated by a powerfully bright blue variable star, AE Aurigae. The object’s epithet comes from the brightly lit ripples of gas and dust at the top of the image, illuminated by AE Aurigae and glowing hydrogen gas. This “runaway star” was ejected by a collision two million years ago from the Triangulum region of The Great Orion Nebula.
MARCH	CRAB NEBULA, M1 ⁽³⁾ This small but beautiful supernova Remnant (SNR) was the result of the explosion of the star CM Tau just over 970 years ago. Located at the centre of the nebula, the remaining Crab Pulsar neutron star spins at the rate of 30 times per second.
APRIL	PINWHEEL GALAXY, M101 ⁽³⁾ At nearly twice the size of the Milky Way and containing at least an estimated trillion stars, M101 is the second largest galaxy of the Messier catalogue and certainly one of the highlights of the spring galaxy season.
MAY	SCULPTOR GALAXY, NGC 253 ⁽³⁾ One of the advantages of obtaining data from Texas, USA, is that it enables views of objects in the Southern Hemisphere that are impossible from the UK. Also known as the Silver Dollar, it is one of the brightest galaxies in the night sky, which results from very high rates of star formation that are fed by the abundance of thick dust lanes.
JUNE	NEEDLE GALAXY, NGC 4546 ⁽³⁾ Seen edge-on from Earth, the Needle Galaxy is thought to be a barred spiral galaxy, some 33% larger than the Milky Way. It has at least two satellite galaxies and 240 globular clusters. Seen through a telescope the Needle Galaxy appears like a thin streak drawn across the dark night sky but look closer and its detailed magnificence is revealed.
JULY	WIZARD NEBULA, NGC 7380 ⁽²⁾ Formed only a few million years ago, the gases of this young emission nebula glow due to intense radiation from hot, massive stars within. Interwoven within this glowing gas are dark, dense regions of dust that sculpt the nebula’s dramatic and somewhat mystical appearance, in this case a wizard – which marks my first image from Somerset.
AUGUST	LOBSTER CLAW & BUBBLE NEBULAE, SH2-157 & NGC 7635 ⁽²⁾ Located in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way, the Lobster consists of ionized hydrogen gas energized by ultraviolet radiation from nearby hot, young stars. The nebula’s distinctive claw-like shape arises from intricate filaments of glowing gas and dark dust. Nearby the Bubble Nebula owes its distinctive looks to a single, massive star, which emits fierce stellar winds that sweep up the surrounding gas into a nearly perfect, glowing shell.
SEPTEMBER	MILKY WAY ⁽²⁾ The night sky in Somerset is three times darker than Redhill, providing significantly better astronomy views. In this case a spectacular image of the Milky Way’s galactic centre.
OCTOBER		THE CYGNUS WALL ⁽²⁾ The Wall is a prominent ridge located within the much larger North America Nebula in the Cygnus constellation. It is an active star-forming region, about 20 light-years long, composed of gas and dust that glows from the energy of young stars.
NOVEMBER		GREAT BARRED GALAXY, NGC 1365 ⁽⁴⁾ A double-barred spiral galaxy located 56-million light-years away, spans over 200,000 light-years across, twice the Milky Way. The most distinctive feature is its massive central bar, which plays a crucial role in channelling gas and dust into the galactic core. As a Seyfert galaxy the nucleus is extremely bright due to energetic processes around its black hole.
DECEMBER		CORONA AUSTRALIS, NGC 6729 ⁽⁴⁾ This spectacular image is a combined reflection and emission nebula, set within the Australis Molecular Cloud. This wonderful, hazy looking nebula unusually exhibits both variable brightness and morphology over time.
*Image Data Source:* ⁽¹⁾Redhill, Surrey ⁽²⁾Castle Farm, Somerset ⁽³⁾USA ⁽⁴⁾Chile
HAPPY NEW YEAR + CLEAR SKIES FOR 2026

Hidden Treasures

March 9, 2022 by grahamrob in Deep Sky Objects, Narrowband, Processing and tagged Orion | Leave a comment

Discovered by Harold Lower and his son Charles in 1939, SH2-261 or Lower’s Nebula is located in the outer regions of the Orion constellation, which is visually between Betelgeuse and Propus in Gemini, on the border of the galactic region between the Orion and Perseus arms of the Milky Way. Mainly consisting of ionized hydrogen, it’s surprising that this interesting, quite large but faint object does not get more attention from astrophotographers, who are perhaps too busy collecting photons from the more famous objects of Orion elsewhere?

Unusually clear skies were plentiful here at Fairvale Observatory during January, which allowed for some 17-hours integration time, albeit mostly accompanied by a waxing to full moon. The data lends itself to various processing approaches and I played around for a long while with different combinations, in the end favouring an SHO + HOO blend as the main image (see top of the page) and am pleased with the very interesting result; for comparison other bassic versions (HOO & Ha) are shown below.

The aforesaid HII ionized gas is thought to be energised by the runaway bright star HD41997 situated at the centre, adjacent to a mysterious small bluish triangular object and a much fainter blue bubble, seen better elsewhere in higher resolution images. Moreover, catalogued and encompassed within SH2-261 are LBN 862 and LBN 864 and several dark nebulae, which would also require greater magnification (focal length and aperture) to achieve finer detail.

Like most astronomers I’m routinely drawn towards Orion’s famous and rightly popular objects such as M42 the Great Orion Nebula, the Flame Nebula and B33 the Horsehead Nebula, M78 reflection nebula, Barnard’s Loop and other jewels found in and around the central region of the Orion constellation. However, taking a wider perspective, literally and figuratively, the area contains other riches that are too easy to overlook and form good alternative imaging targets at this time of the year – time taken to identify such hidden treasures can be rewarding – in this case thanks to the Lower’s family.

	IMAGING DETAILS
Object	SH2-261 Lower’s Nebula
Constellation	Orion
Distance	3,200 light-years approx..
Size	Apparent 50 x 30 arc minutes ~ 25 x 13 light years
Apparent Magnitud	+10

Scope	William Optics GT81 + Focal Reducer FL 382mm f4.72
Mount	SW AZ-EQ6 GT + EQASCOM computer control & Cartes du Ciel
Guiding	William Optics 50mm guide scope
	+ Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 camera & PHD2 guiding
Camera	ZWO1600MM-Cool mono CMOS sensor
	FOV 2.65^o x 2.0^o Resolution 2.05”/pix Max. image size 4,656 x 3,520 pix
EFW	ZWO x8 EFW & 31mm Ha OIII SII 3nm filters
Capture & Processing	Astro Photography Tool, PHD2, Deep Sky Stacker, PixInsight v1.8.8-12, Photoshop CC v23.2.1, Topaz Denoise
Image Location & Orientation	Centre RA 06:09:25.245 DEC +15:45:10.754 Right = North
Exposures	Ha x44 OIII x33 SII x28 @ 600 secs Total Integration Time: 17hrs
	@ 139 Gain 21 Offset @ -20^oC
Calibration	5 x 600 sec Darks 15 x Ha, OIII, SII Flats & Flat Darks @ ADU 25,000
Location & Darkness	Fairvale Observatory – Redhill – Surrey – UK Typically Bortle 5-6
Date & Time	12^th 13^th 14^th 17^th & 20^th January 2022 @ +18.30h
Weather	Approx. 2^oC RH >75% 🌙 waxing 50% to Full Moon

Jinxed

February 24, 2020 by grahamrob in Deep Sky Objects, Mosaic, Narrowband, Nebula, Software and tagged Barnard's Loop, M78, Orion | 1 Comment

Picture saved with settings embedded.

It seems the start of the year has been jinxed, resulting in something of a mixed bag for my astronomy but thankfully not without some positives. A combination of illness, house decoration and some quite awful weather, really curtailed the possibility of any significant astrophotography projects. Despite these difficulties, in the few moments that were available I have managed to carry out some useful experiments which hopefully lay the foundations for greater things the future – clear skies permitting!

Following the success of my first mosaic in 2019, I decided to undertake something more ambitious over the winter, inevitably returning to Orion – specifically Barnards’s Loop. Unseen with the naked eye, the camera discloses the presence of this large arc of ionized gas that is approximately centered on the Orion Nebula, so large that only a conventional wide field camera lens can usually capture the entire Loop. To obtain a higher quality image using a telescope it’s therefore necessary to create a mosaic. With this in mind and keen to expand – physically and metaphorically – my use of the mosaic technique, Barnard’s Loop seemed a worthy object.

BLoop Mosaic PLan

I planned and compiled my previous mosaic of the Heart & Soul Nebula manually but following the recent addition of a mosaic tool to Cartes du Ciel (CdC), which importantly also integrates with my image capture software Astro Photography Tool (APT), this time I was able to plan a 14 (2×7) panel mosaic to image Barnard’s Loop (see accompanying CdC plan above) and the adjacent region. With the ability to vary the overlap and mosaic size up to 10 x 10 panels, once constructed using the CdC mosaic planning the related data is saved to a file, which can then be imported as a series of custom objects into the Point Craft plate solving section of APT; each object is defined by its central RA and DEC co-ordinates. Thereafter, using the plate solving function, the camera and scope are centered one-by-one on each panel for imaging, either manually or by writing a suitable script to automate imaging.

Given the size of the undertaking and difficulties with weather at this time of the year inevitably limiting imaging time, plus the strong Ha-nature of Barnard’s Loop, I chose to confine imaging to only Ha subs, which would pick-out the feature well and thus form a good basis for compiling the final mosaic. The project started well on 3^rd January when I was able to complete imaging the three panels covering the central sections of the large upper arm of the arc, unfortunately thereafter it all went downhill – mostly!

As Orion and therefore the Loop moved inexorably westwards, imaging time became increasingly restricted, further compounded by poor weather and when it was clear, poor seeing conditions. Thus acquisition of the remaining panels became more and more difficult, with many of the resulting panels of only poor quality. All-in all I managed to image twelve of the total 17 panels, adding three to the original plan to incorporate the lower ‘tail’ located between Saiph and Rigel. Whilst the said panels covered the entire feature, such was the poor quality of many they could not be used to achieve the final aim of the project – a Ha-image of the entire Barnard’s Loop.

Using Microsoft’s ICE software, the upper section of the Loop came together well but I’ve not been able to incorporate the middle and lower sections which were of low-quality. I’m quite pleased with the general outcome but consider the project has demonstrated that very large mosaics of this scale are an unlikely proposition at Fairvale Observatory given UK weather conditions and lack of a permanent a setup required to maximize imaging opportunities. Notwithstanding, I believe up to four panel mosaics should be OK – we shall see.

Subsequently the weather was very bad and very, very wet, so unable to image I reprocessed NGC 1333 from last year, which at the time had not come out well. I’d previously noticed that for some reason images had been exhibiting poor quality in the corners, where for no obvious reason stars showed trailing in the processed stacks – though not in the original subs. The solution, thankfully discovered via the Deep Sky Stacking Forum, was to change the Stacking Alignment setting from Automatic to Bilinear and bingo, all was well.

NGC 1333 LRGBx CropF2

NGC 1333 is a colorful reflection nebula located within the dark nebula Rho Ophiuchi, a vast area of gas and dust which is one of the closest star forming regions to the Solar System. In order to evaluate its potential for my equipment I collected just over two hours of LRGB data in January 2019. As previously noted, at the time I was disappointed with the outcome but I now think the revised image processing indicates that with much greater integration time this object could work with more subs – watch this space.

As the bad weather continued throughout most of February there have been very few clear skies but on two such nights I managed brief imaging tests of two other January / February objects which I hope to return to in another year. First of these was another dark nebula Barnard 22, illuminated from behind by the reflection nebula IC 2087. With total LRGB imaging time of just 1hr 24 minutes the processed image was extremely noisy but it was good to see the broad outline of B22 framed well within my FOV and suggests it too could be a viable object for another day.

Finally, with the daffodils already blooming, it was clear that winter was going to be a disappointing time for serious astrophotography, however, I was still able to attempt one final object before the winter night skies receded beyond the western horizon for another year. Surprisingly I had hitherto overlooked this object, visually located just beyond the upper edge of Barnard’s Loop, which though difficult is fortunately also strong in the Ha-wavelength. Lynds’ Dark Nebula (LDN) 1622 AKA the Bogeyman Nebula, describes the somewhat jinxed period I’ve experienced but this time fortuitously brought my earlier work together (x4 panel mosaic below: The Bogeyman – lower left + upper Barbard’s Loop + M78 – top right).

Picture saved with settings embedded.

Despite my best efforts I was unable to see the Bogeyman when framing the image in APT even after stretching but fortunately it still turned out well. I noticed that most other successful images were mainly undertaken in HaRGB, however with limited time before the clouds again inevitably rolled, the few RGB subs obtained failed to add much colour to my image on this occasion. Notwithstanding, with much greater integration time the final Ha-image holds great promise. Furthermore, the said image could be incorporated into the upper main section of the Barnard’s Loop, together with the M78 reflection nebula, to finally make a complete and worthy mosaic image consisting of six panels – see main image at the top of the page and detailed x4 panel mosaic above. Contrary to the name, on this occasion the Bogeyman completed the jigsaw and saved the day!

	IMAGING DETAILS
Object	Barnard’s Loop
Constellation	Orion
Distance	1.434 light-years
Size	10^o ~300 light-years
Apparent Magnitude	5

Scope	William Optics GT81 + Focal Reducer FL 382mm f4.72
Mount	SW AZ-EQ6 GT + EQASCOM computer control & Cartes du Ciel
Guiding	William Optics 50mm guide scope
	+ Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 camera & PHD2 guiding
Camera	ZWO1600MM-Cool mono CMOS sensor
	FOV 2.65^o x 2.0^o Resolution 2.05”/pix Max. image size 4,656 x 3,520 pix
EFW	ZWOx8 + ZWO LRGB & Ha OIII SII 7nm filters
Capture & Processing	Astro Photography Tool + PHD2 + Deep Sky Stacker & Photoshop CS3
Image Location & Orientation	Various
Exposures	10 x 5 x 300 sec Ha i.e. 25 minutes / panel or total time: 4hr 10 minutes
	@ 139 Gain 21 Offset @ -20^oC
Calibration	5 x 300 sec Ha, OIII & SII Darks, 20 x 1/4000 sec Bias 10 x Ha, OIII & SII Flats @ ADU 25,000
Location & Darkness	Fairvale Observatory – Redhill – Surrey – UK Typically Bortle 5-6
Date & Time	Panels 2, 3 & 4 January 3^rd 2020 @ +21.00h Panels 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 &14 January 18^th 2020 @ +20.0h Panels 15,16 & 17 January 19^th 2020 @ +19.45h *rejected
Weather	Approx. 2^oC RH <=80% 🌙 30% waning

	IMAGING DETAILS
Object	NGC 1333 refection nebula
Constellation	Orion
Distance	1,000 light-years
Size	6’ x 3’
Apparent Magnitude	5.6

Scope	William Optics GT81 + Focal Reducer FL 382mm f4.72
Mount	SW AZ-EQ6 GT + EQASCOM computer control & Cartes du Ciel
Guiding	William Optics 50mm guide scope
	+ Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 camera & PHD2 guiding
Camera	ZWO1600MM-Cool mono CMOS sensor
	FOV 2.65^o x 2.0^o Resolution 2.05”/pix Max. image size 4,656 x 3,520 pix
EFW	ZWOx8 + ZWO LRGB & Ha OIII SII 7nm filters
Capture & Processing	Astro Photography Tool + PHD2 + Deep Sky Stacker & Photoshop CS3
Image Location & Orientation	Centre RA 03:29:07 (23?) DEC 31:28:14 @ +19.16h Top = North
Exposures	6 x 300 sec L&B 7 x 300 sec R&G Total Time: 2hr 10 min
	@ 139 Gain 21 Offset @ -20^oC
Calibration	5 x 300 sec Ha + 10 X 300’ RGB Darks, 20 x 1/4000 sec Bias 10 x HaRGB Flats @ ADU 25,000
Location & Darkness	Fairvale Observatory – Redhill – Surrey – UK Typically Bortle 5-6
Date & Time	28^th January 2020 @ +19.15h
Weather	Approx.? RH <=? 🌙 9% waxing

	IMAGING DETAILS
Object	Lynds’ Dark Nebula (LDN) 1622 AKA Bogeyman Nebula
Constellation	Orion
Distance	500 light-years
Size	1^o~10 light-years?
Apparent Magnitude	?

Scope	William Optics GT81 + Focal Reducer FL 382mm f4.72
Mount	SW AZ-EQ6 GT + EQASCOM computer control & Cartes du Ciel
Guiding	William Optics 50mm guide scope
	+ Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 camera & PHD2 guiding
Camera	ZWO1600MM-Cool mono CMOS sensor
	FOV 2.65^o x 2.0^o Resolution 2.05”/pix Max. image size 4,656 x 3,520 pix
EFW	ZWOx8 + ZWO LRGB & Ha OIII SII 7nm filters
Capture & Processing	Astro Photography Tool + PHD2 + Deep Sky Stacker & Photoshop CS3
Image Location & Orientation	Centre RA 05:55:38 DEC 01:59:40 @20.49h Image rotated 180^o for presentation Top = South
Exposures	19 x 300 sec Ha, 4 x 300 sec RGB Time: Ha only 1hr 35 min Total 2hr 35 min
	@ 139 Gain 21 Offset @ -20^oC
Calibration	5 x 300 sec Ha + 10 X 300’ RGB Darks, 20 x 1/4000 sec Bias 10 x HaRGB Flats @ ADU 25,000
Location & Darkness	Fairvale Observatory – Redhill – Surrey – UK Typically Bortle 5-6
Date & Time	17^th January 2020 @ +20.50h
Weather	Approx. 16^oC RH <=75% 🌙 29% waning

Hunting Orion

May 3, 2019 by grahamrob in Broadband, Deep Sky Objects, General Astronomy, History, Imaging, Nebula and tagged Orion | Leave a comment

Combined +180 degrees 3+5min HaLRGB (Large)

In Greek mythology it is said that Zeus, the god of thunder, placed a giant huntsman amongst the stars as the constellation Orion. Today it is one of the most recognizable of the 88 constellations in the night sky and certainly one of the most popular amongst astronomers. Towards its extremities it is defined by the red supergiant star Betelgeuse at the top-left and the massive blue supergiant Rigel lower-right, divided in the centre by Orion’s so-called ‘belt’ formed by the line of bright stars from left-to-right: Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. These and the other stars that make up the constellation of Orion are of great interest to astronomers and also make an attractive widefield image with a standard camera. But the more serious astrophotographer is mainly interested in the panoply of exciting DSOs that lie within and around Orion that I have therefore been pursuing myself since late January.

My quarry started with the Horsehead and Flame nebulae imaged in narrowband processed using the Hubble Palette technique in SHO to great effect. Much to my surprise a spectacular period of warm weather and clear skies four weeks later then allowed me to capture the Great Orion Nebula over three nights in HaLRGB with an equally good result. Such was the fine weather conditions that I was then able to continue over a further two nights – five consecutive nights of imaging in the UK in late February, unprecedented in my experience – with the objective now being the reflection nebula M78.

M78 is the brightest diffuse reflection nebula of a group that belongs to the Orion B molecular cloud complex but with an apparent size of 8 x 6 arc seconds it is a something of a challenging target with my equipment. Notwithstanding, with the mono CMOS ZWO camera and the opportunity of obtaining increased integration times I considered it worth a try and was not disappointed with the outcome.

I generally like to present images in their natural orientation but this time I’ve chosen to rotate the it 90^o anticlockwise, thus allowing the wider horizontal framing to better show M78 and the dramatic red Ha-light of nearby Barnard’s Loop together. As with M42 previously, I first stacked and processed two exposure sets, short 60 second and long 300 second subs, before then combining them so as to tease out subtleties within the reflection nebula itself and provide greater control of the otherwise dominant Barnard’s Loop. Despite my concerns about equipment and scale, I’m very pleased with the outcome of the main image (top-of-the-page), which beautifully shows off both the aforementioned objects to great effect and has even extracted some of the colour and detail of associated star clusters within and around the nebula. Not surprisingly the cropped version of M78 itself starts to look a little noisy but is nonetheless interesting (below).

Combined crop 3+5min HaLRGB (Large)

After a very unpromising few months, the weather, Orion and my astroimaging took a surprising turn for the better from the end of January. As a result of much longer integration times using plate solving over multiple sessions, combined with varied exposure times and more complex processing, I successfully managed to bag three classic deep sky objects of the Orion constellation – what’s not to like?

	IMAGING DETAILS
Object	M78 Orion reflection nebula
Constellation	Orion
Distance	1,350 light-years
Size	8’ x 6’
Apparent Magnitude	+8.3

Scope	William Optics GT81 + Focal Reducer FL 382mm f4.72
Mount	SW AZ-EQ6 GT + EQASCOM computer control & Cartes du Ciel
Guiding	William Optics 50mm guide scope
	+ Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 camera & PHD2 guiding
Camera	ZWO1600MM-Cool mono CMOS sensor
	FOV 2.65^o x 2.0^o Resolution 2.05”/pix Max. image size 4,656 x 3,520 pix
EFW	ZWOx8 + ZWO LRGB & Ha OIII SII 7nm filters
Capture & Processing	Astro Photography Tool + PHD2 + Deep Sky Stacker & Photoshop CS3
Image Location & Orientation	Centre RA 05:47:37 DEC 00:20:59 Top Left = North Bottom Left = East
Exposures	(A) LRGB 8 x 180 sec Ha 10 x 180sec (Total time: 1hr 24 min.) (B) HaLRG 12 x 300 sec B 17 x300 sec (Total time: 5hr 25 min.)
	@ 139 Gain 21 Offset @ -20^oC
Calibration	10 x 180 sec & 5 x 300 sec Darks 20 x 1/4000 sec Bias 10 x HaLRGB Flats @ ADU 25,000
Location & Darkness	Fairvale Observatory – Redhill – Surrey – UK Typically Bortle 5-6
Date & Time	25^th 26^th 27^th February 2019 @ +19.45h
Weather	Approx. 8^oC RH 60 to 80% 🌙 ½ waning

Eleventh Hour

April 16, 2019 by grahamrob in Broadband, Deep Sky Objects, General Astronomy, Imaging and tagged Orion | Leave a comment

HaLRGB2FINALcrop (Large)

As outlined in my last post Horseplay, it seemed like plans for imaging over the winter were going to be completely scuppered this year, with weeks of cloud cover from mid-November through to late January. I was therefore very grateful for three clear nights at the end of January that finally enabled me to carry out my principal winter imaging project of the Horsehead and Flame nebulae in narrowband. Notwithstanding, given the preceding bad weather and the onset of galaxy season, I reckoned that this was likely to be the end of my imaging for a while, which could not have been further from the truth as more than two months of good night skies (on-and-off) then followed.

Although by late February Orion is crossing the Meridian early in the evening, darkness is still prevalent at the same time and with the aforementioned good conditions it’s been a bonus to catch more of Orion’s objects before they finally disappear for the year. I’ve successfully imaged some parts of Orion before with the ZWO1600MM-Cool camera but for various reasons they’ve mostly been short integration times in narrowband. It was therefore obvious that given this unexpected opportunity, on this occasion I should attempt to image everyone’s astrophotography favourite – M42 the Orion Nebula in LRGB.

At some 1,500 light years distance, M42 is the closest large star forming nebula to Earth and always holds great promise when imaging. I’d previously obtained some good images of the Orion Nebula with a modded-DSLR camera and more recently a few narrowband images in 2017 showed the promise of using the new ZWO CMOS mono camera. Now with unusually good weather I wanted to try and achieve an image that really showed off M42 and its neighbours M43 and the Running Man Nebula (SH-279) in all their glory, paying particular attention to the more difficult inner structures and associated Ha nebulosity. In order to achieve this I first imaged in HaLRGB at 180 sec exposures with Unity settings for 5½ hours and then at shorter 60 sec exposures for 1 hour over three consecutive nights.

Luminosity @ 180sec

Luminosity @ 60 sec

With much longer integration times than before, careful processing and manipulation to bring the long and short exposure images together, I’m very happy with the final result, which I believe achieves most of the aforementioned objectives. Internal structure and colour is shown to good effect but I’m especially pleased with the addition of the Ha data, which dramatically enhances those areas where present together with interstellar dust within and around the main objects; I’m already planning to add more Ha data next year to further intensify the aforesaid impact.

M42 Ha data

Obtaining such results at this late stage of February was completely unexpected and, I thought, would effectively mark the eleventh hour this year for Orion and the rich collection of other DSOs that are found across the winter sky. But no, there was much more to come – watch this space!

	IMAGING DETAILS
Object	M42 Orion Nebula + M43 & Running Man Nebula (SH2-279) etc.
Constellation	Orion
Distance	1,500 light-years
Size	65’ x 60’ or 24 light-years (M42 only)
Apparent Magnitude	+4.0

Scope	William Optics GT81 + 0.80 x Focal Reducer FL 382mm f4.72
Mount	SW AZ-EQ6 GT + EQASCOM computer control & Cartes du Ciel
Guiding	William Optics 50mm guide scope
	+ Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 camera & PHD2 guiding
Camera	ZWO1600MM-Cool mono CMOS sensor
	FOV 2.65^o x 2.0^o Resolution 2.05”/pix Max. image size 4,656 x 3,520 pix
EFW	ZWOx8 + ZWO LRGB & Ha OIII SII 7nm filters
Capture & Processing	Astro Photography Tool + PHD2 + Deep Sky Stacker & Photoshop CS3
Image Location & Orientation	Centre RA 05:35:09 DEC -05:08:31 Top Right = North Top = North East Bottom Left = South Bottom = South West
Exposures	(A) L 20 x 180 sec R 24×180 sec G 25 x 180 B 24 x 180sec Ha 17 x 180sec (Total time: 5hr 30 minutes) (B) 12 x 60 sec HaLRGB (Total time: 1hr)
	@ 139 Gain 21 Offset @ -20^oC
Calibration	10 x 180 sec & 15 x 60 sec Darks 20 x 1/4000 sec Bias 10 x HaLRGB Flats @ ADU 25,000
Location & Darkness	Fairvale Observatory – Redhill – Surrey – UK Typically Bortle 5-6
Date & Time	23^rd 24^th 25^th February August 2019 @ +19.40h
Weather	Approx. 7^oC RH <=75% 🌙 ¾ to ½ waning

Horseplay

February 22, 2019 by grahamrob in AstroBin, Deep Sky Objects, Imaging, Narrowband, Nebula, Processing and tagged Flame Nebula, Horsehead Nebula, Orion | 2 Comments

SHO2 CompF (Large)

Who doesn’t like Orion and its constituent parts – M42/43, M78, the Witch’s Head, Barnard’s Loop etc.? For many its annual appearance in the night sky is greatly anticipated and will form one of the main astrophotography highlights of the year as it passes across the sky between late November and February. For me a basic afocal image of the Great Orion Nebula for the first time in 2013 marked something of an epiphany, as it demonstrated the power of long exposures in capturing the otherwise hidden beauty and excitement of Deep Sky Objects.

Since taking up astronomy and then astrophotography, I always return to at least one of Orion’s objects each year, initially to see if I could just capture it on camera with my equipment and then to try and improve the image of each target. It’s been a gradual process but I’m pleased to say I’ve usually managed to achieve such improvements over time, which has been both satisfying and often exciting – such is the nature of these objects. Progress almost always resulted from one or more of four developments: new equipment, new software, new techniques and better processing.

Each step was usually small but occasionally a quantum change took place, such has been the case during the past two years: first with the change from DSLR to a CMOS mono camera and then, more recently, learning to plate solve. I was reluctant to change to a traditional CCD mono camera which usually requires very long exposures that, in my opinion, is incompatible with British weather, light pollution and the frequent overhead passage of aircraft where I live between Gatwick and Heathrow airports – if one doesn’t get me the other will, or the low flying helicopters that pass over my observatory throughout the night from nearby Redhill aerodrome!

It was therefore very fortunate that at the same time I wanted to upgrade my camera from a DSLR, the new CMOS sensor technology had literally just arrived on the market. With low read noise and shorter exposures, the ZWO1600MM-Cool mono camera I purchased has been a revolution for me, as well as the entire astroimaging community. Furthermore, the use of narrowband imaging has added a completely new dimension to my astrophotography – apart from the ability to image when the Moon’s about each month and defy light pollution, narrow Ha-OIII-SII wavelengths reveal a whole new world that is both interesting and often dramatic in appearance.

Notwithstanding these developments, I was hitherto hampered by limited integration times of just over two hours (at most) either east or west of the Meridian, until in 2018 I finally mastered (probably that’s overstating my current prowess) plate solving, thereby making integration times literally infinite. All I needed now was clear skies! Despite my enthusiasm for astrophotography, there have been times over recent months when I’ve questioned my choice of hobby and even maybe giving up. Given sufficient funds it is possible to have the most incredible imaging set-up, capable of obtaining equally incredible images – subject to user ability – but if the sky remains cloudy it’s no more than a pile of expensive junk!

Having obtained a very decent LRGB image of the Pleiades on 17^th November, armed with the ZWO1600 camera and my new plate solving skills, I decided to take on a project over the winter months. My objective was to obtain one very good image based on a much longer integration time than I’ve previously achieved, acquired by imaging the same object over as many nights as possible during December and January. However, as Robert Burns once put it “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, / Gang aft agley,” (translated – the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry). Apart from one evening that fortuitously coincided with the lunar eclipse on 21^st January, the skies here remained obscured by cloud from November 18^th until January 27^th (or 70-days!!!) and I thought my project was scuppered, that is until the other qualities required of astronomy came into play: patience and good luck.

My first image of the Horsehead & Flame Nebulae, 23rd November 2014: William Optics GT81 +FF, Canon 700D (unmodded), SW AZ-EQ6 GT mount, 30 x 90 secs @ ISO1600 + full calibration

The Horsehead and Flame nebulae are traditionally imaged in LRGB colour, indeed my first and subsequent images of these objects have been mostly undertaken in this way (see image above). However, inspired by a narrowband image of these objects I’d seen earlier last year, I too wanted to try and capture these nocturnal bedfellows in narrowband and process the subs using the Hubble Palette technique. Given the aforementioned cloud problem, by the time late January had been reached Orion was already slipping over the western horizon for another year and I thought the project was dead before it could even start, at which point good luck played its part. Starting on 27^th January and for three out of the four evenings, the sky cleared and I eagerly launched into the long awaited project.

Unfortunately by now Orion crossed the Meridian about 9 p.m. and most imaging could only be undertaken on the west side, thus limiting each night’s subs again to 2½ hours or less. But with three nights in the bag before inevitably the cloud returned on the 31^st January, I had secured 106 x 5-minute Ha, OIII and SII subs or 6 hours 50 minutes of total integration time, at least three times what I had ever previously achieved. The key was plate solving, as each night I could return to exactly the same part of the sky and continue imaging the same objects to the nearest pixel. Having obtained and reviewed the data, it was now time to start processing.

NGC 2024 Ha Starless2

Given the quality and quantity of data obtained I decided to take my time processing and, furthermore, try to use some new techniques to make the very best of the final image. I was particularly keen to tame some of the brighter stars like the blue supergiant Alnitak located uncomfortably close to the Flame and at the same time bring out the interstellar dust that is present in the foreground below the Horsehead and across the lower right quadrant, which becomes evident in the starless processed Ha layer (see image above). It took quite a while but in the end I am very pleased with the outcome, which I think shows all the benefits of longer data integration and the extra care taken processing. The final SHO narrowband version of the Horsehead and Flame nebulae looks a real cracker, perhaps one of my best and has been worth all the patience and additional time taken to show these two objects and the adjacent region literally in a new light.

Needless to say, I’m already thinking about next year, cloud permitting! I hope to return to the Horsehead and Flame for another playtime next winter, in order to acquire more subs with which to build further on the foundation achieved this year by a stroke of luck at the very end of Orion’s annual visit – can’t wait.

	IMAGING DETAILS
Object	(i)Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) & (ii) Flame Nebula (NGC 2024)
Constellation	Orion
Distance	1,500 light-years
Size	(i)8” x 6” & (ii) 30’ x 30’
Apparent Magnitude	+10.0

Scope	William Optics GT81 + Focal Reducer FL 382mm f4.72
Mount	SW AZ-EQ6 GT + EQ-ASCOM computer control
Guiding	William Optics 50mm guide scope
	+ Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 guide camera & PHD2 control
Camera	ZWO1600MM-Cool (mono) CMOS sensor
	FOV 2.65^o x 2.0^o Resolution 2.05”/pix Max. image size 4,656 x 3,520 pix
EFW	ZWOx8 + ZWO LRGB & Ha OIII SII 7nm filters
Capture & Processing	Astro Photography Tool + PS2, Deep Sky Stacker & Photoshop CS2, HLVG
Image Location & Orientation	Centre RA 05:40:57 DEC -02:30:55 Top = North
Exposures	40×300 sec Ha+34×300 sec OIII+32x300sec SII (Total time: 6hr 50min )
	@ 139 Gain 21 Offset @ -20^oC
Calibration	5×300 sec Darks 20×1/4000 sec Bias 10xFlats Ha-OIII-SII @ ADU 25,000
Location & Darkness	Fairvale Observatory – Redhill – Surrey – UK Typically Bortle 5-6
Date & Time	27^th, 28^th & 30^th January 2019 @ +21.30h
Weather	Approx. <=1^oC RH <=90% 🌙 ½ to ¼ waning

Headhunter

January 31, 2017 by grahamrob in Deep Sky Objects, Equipment, Imaging, Widefield Imaging and tagged Orion | Leave a comment

Orion constellation January 2016

Orion stars + apparent magnitude

The latter part of 2016 was very productive, especially around the end of November and early December. Remarkably the clouds were completely absent for over a week, it was cold but the air was unusually dry and furthermore it was only just past the New Moon, all-in-all excellent conditions for astrophotography. With Orion starting its Christmas-New Year parade across the night sky it was also a good time to investigate other parts of this fascinating constellation which I had not previously imaged.

Depicted in Greek mythology as Orion the Hunter, attention is most often given to the ‘sword’ that hangs from his belt – formed by three open star clusters which notably includes M42 the Orion Nebula. Located just above, in the eastern region of the Hunter’s so-called belt and is NGC 2014 the Flame Nebula and the nearby Barnard 33, or as it is more famously known – the Horsehead Nebula. I have imaged these and other targets such as the reflection nebulae M78 just above the aforementioned Flame Nebula and the difficult to image IC 2118, better known Witch’s Head nebula, situated just beyond the bright star Rigel which forms the Hunter’s left foot.

Barnard’s Loop & Lamda Orionis Nebula + Rosette Nebula on far left (east) : Vixen Polarie & modded Canon 550D + Sigma UWA lens @ 20mm | 14 x 240 secs @ ISO 800 | 14th January 2016

However, a much wider view of Orion shows the presence of very large regions of HII nebulosity enveloping the main constellation, which altogether form the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. Most notable of these areas is Barnard’s Loop, a large HII cloud that arcs across some 10^o of the sky encircling the lower, eastern section of the Orion star asterism. I have had some limited success imaging the Loop before but on this occasion I tried some of the other areas of HII nebulosity which are located within the higher parts of Orion the Hunter.

The combination of the William Optics GT81 and their x0.80 field flattener reduces the focal length from 478mm to 387mm and increases the speed from f5.9 to a fast f4.72. Apart from removing distortion at the periphery of the image, when used with the Canon 550D DSLR the field flattener increases the field-of-view by a staggering 64% or from 2.67^o x 1.70^o to 3.34^o x 2.23^o. This has its shortcomings when imaging galaxies which generally have a small FOV but is perfect for large DSOs such as my first target.

the-hunter-crop

The basic ‘anatomy’ of the Hunter is outlined by a number of stars that form his legs, waist and arms, with a club held above in his right hand and either a shield, lion’s pelt or bow held outstretched in his left hand. On this occasion I first attempted to image his head; catalogued as SH2-264 it is otherwise known as the Lamda Orionis Nebula or sometimes the Angelfish Nebula. This very large HII cloud is located, as would be expected, at the top of the Hunter’s body and should be a good target for the aforementioned equipment with a modded camera, now aided by the longer exposures from my newly found PHD2 guiding expertise.

Upper Orion constellation & Lamda Orionis setting

This HII-feature is broadly centred on the giant double star Meissa or Lamda Orionis, which is itself at the apex of a triangle with the red giant superstar Betelgeuse to the east and blue giant star Bellatrix to the west and thus forms the outline of the Hunter’s shoulders. Some 8^oin its entirety, the Lamda Orionis Nebula is enormous but consists mainly of very faint Ha-light, so that despite good imaging conditions, long exposures and good framing I was unable to obtain any sign of its presence on this occasion.

Frankly I was surprised there wasn’t at least a vestige of red Ha-light somewhere in the image but for now I will have to admit defeat. However, looking back I can see the Hunter’s head in previous wide-field nightscapes of Orion taken in January 2015 and 2016. Notwithstanding, together with other nearby stars Meissa forms the open star cluster Collinder 69, which on this occasion fortunately produced something of a pleasant alternative image.

Meissa double star & Collinder 60 open star cluster | William Optics GT81 + modded Canon 550D & 0.80 FF + Guiding | 14 x 300 secs @ ISO 800 & full calibration | 4th December 2016

sh2-264-041216-invertedannotated-large

Subsequently I slewed the telescope and camera to another, nearby HII-cloud, this time situated along the Hunter’s right arm, just above his elbow. Discovered by amateur Californian astronomers Harold and Charles Lower in 1939, at about 45’ x 45’ size H2-261 or Lower’s Nebula is much smaller than the Lamda Orionis Nebula but also faint and difficult to image. However, here I did manage to capture something of the Ha-feature, albeit that the image was rather noisy when processed and yes I did apply Gradient Exterminator, though it doesn’t look like I did.

Lower’s Nebula SH2-261 | William Optics GT81 & modded Canon 550D + FF + guiding | 12 x 30 sec @ ISO 800 | 4th December 2016

The Orion Molecular Cloud Complex is one of the best known areas for star formation that is closest to Earth and provides an abundance of wonderful imaging targets at this time of the year. However, as previously experienced with Barnard’s Loop, the large areas of HII cloud that encircle much of Orion’s constellation can be elusive and difficult to image, which will probably require a camera of greater sensitivity and many more exposures to achieve success. However, on this occasion the image of Lower’s Nebula was some consolation as I continue my quest for Orion’s scalp.

Reflections – 2016

January 1, 2017 by grahamrob in Autoguiding, Comments, Deep Sky Objects, General Astronomy, History, Imaging, Widefield Imaging and tagged Andromeda, Arizona, Einstein, Galaxies, Messier Objects, Milky Way, Orion, Photography, Science, Utah | Leave a comment

2016 was the second full year of Watch This Space Man (WTSM) and once again it’s been something of a mixed period. Faced with a major, apparently insoluble problem, by mid-year I actually thought of giving up but by year-end it’s all come good again, in fact very good. Reflections is a look back at the ups-and-downs of the past year, astronomically speaking and a peek into the next twelve months, which one way or another could determine the future of my astrophotography.

wtsm-visitor-map

I have been astonished by the interest in this website, with some 7,000 visits and 14,000 page views from more than 65 different countries during the year, the list is quite amazing. Though I write this blog for myself, I am increasingly aware of this unsolicited readership – you are all most welcome and I would be very pleased to hear from anyone who would like to get in touch with queries, comments or just to say hello – contact details are in the Contact drop-down section of the About main menu.

reflections-2016

JANUARY TO MARCH

The year started poorly, got much worse, then finally improved. Using my recently acquired Vixen Polarie I was pleased to start the year with an image of Barnard’s Loop, something notoriously difficult to photograph and had previously eluded me. Sadly I was not so successful with the Milky Way and have reluctantly come to the obvious conclusion that this can only be imaged in much darker skies than I’m ever likely to experience located just to the south of London and close to Gatwick airport!

As Orion starts to move on after Christmas and especially from February, I struggle to find suitable imaging targets; Coma Berenices and other constellations at this time contain numerous galaxies but they’re mostly too small for my William Optics GT81 and otherwise what might be doable I have already done before. Notwithstanding, after looking carefully I came across two HII nebulae still lurking in the early evening. The size and Ha-light of NGC 2174 Monkey Head Nebula and IC 2177 Seagull Nebula, provided just what I was looking for. Located close to Gemini and Monoceros constellations, both these DSOs are within the part of the Milky Way section of the sky, an area that thankfully produces many other similar opportunities at this time of the year for a modded DSLR camera.

Monkey Head Nebula

It’s often the small things that either alone or cumulatively can help transform the outcome with astrophotography. The quarterly period finished by acquiring two new pieces of equipment, one which could help improve the set-up and operation of the mount, the other which I hoped would help me move to the next level of imaging.

When working in the dark and worse still in the cold, the ergonomics and general convenience of operating the equipment becomes paramount. Since starting to use EQMOD-ASCOM and Cartes du Ciel for mount control and tracking, I encountered the problem of having to be in two places at the same time; in this case co-ordinating adjustments at the mount and the computer, in particular when making and syncing star alignments. The answer to this conundrum was a gamepad, which I purchased for a nominal sum on eBay and after watching the inimitable Chris Shillito’s video on setting up and using a gamepad with EQMOD-ASCOM, have never looked back. By using the gamepad the telescope can now be manually slewed, centred and synced on any object whilst remaining at the scope, thereby making the process of alignment much quicker and convenient.

Wireless gamepad provides extensive control of critical alignment functions without being at the computer: front x4 buttons are assinged to set various slew rates, the mount-telescope can be directed either via the rear (right) joystick or POV buttons on the right, button-1 parks and button-2 syncs. Other buttons have yet to be allocated.

Starlight Express Lodestar x2 Guide Camera can be used either via the mount’s ST4 port or via ASCOM and the computer for pulse guiding.

At the end of 2015 it was my intention to start guiding in the coming year, a prerequisite for the long exposures necessary to increase data capture and thus hopefully improve image quality. I had originally intended to use my ZWO ASI120 MC camera together with a William Optics 50mm guidescope for this purpose but there always seemed to be other problems to overcome first and to be honest, I was somewhat intimidated about tackling the black art of guiding. I was finally prompted to do something about this when in March a second-hand Starlight Express Lodestar X2 autoguide camera came up on the UK Astronomy Buy & Sell. From previous research I knew this was considered to be a very good and popular guiding camera, so as it had only just been posted on the website, I immediately went for it and was successful – timing is everything. Inevitably I had problems setting-up and in particular getting the camera to focus – which was my own fault – but by the end of March I was guiding! Truth is my guiding at this stage was not very good and I needed to look further into using the PHD2 guiding software but nonetheless, the equipment was at least now working together!

No	Date	Object*	Name
1	07/01/16	Orion	Barnard’s Loop
2	14/01/16	Orion	Barnard’s Loop
3	02/02/16	Catalina	Comet
4	02/02/16	Milky Way
5	10/02/16	IC 2087	Dark nebula
6		NGC 2174	Monkey Head Nebula
7		IC 2177	Seagull Nebula

*Record of quarterly photographic images taken in 2016

APRIL TO JUNE

After finishing the previous quarter on something of a high note by getting PHD2 working for the first time, I was now hopeful that from herein my exposures and thus images would show improvement – unfortunately I was soon to be very disappointed.

In April we went on a trip to the Southwestern USA – something of a geological pilgrimage for my wife and I (we are both geologists) – to see the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park as well as many other similar areas. Prior to going I had purchased a Sigma 10mm-20mm wide-angle lens in anticipation of all the big views that are characteristic of the region and was not disappointed by the lens or the scenery.

Being largely an uninhabited wilderness area, I also took the Vixen Polarie with a plan to at last capture images of the Milky Way. Unfortunately, whilst I had checked the sky beforehand on Cartes du Ciel, I think I must have made an error with the dates. We did get clear skies but unfortunately it turned out to be a full moon whilst there, which ruled out any hope of seeing, let alone imaging the Milky Way; oh well there’s always another day and it’s not going anywhere in the meantime. Notwithstanding I did manage some pleasing nightscapes at Monument Valley and Bryce Canyon.

IMG_6235 (Large)

Given my initial guiding success prior to visiting the USA, I had been looking forwards to getting to grips with improving guiding and imaging on my return. Furthermore, on 6^th May there was a rare solar transit of Mercury and in preparation, the week before I set up and tested all the equipment and then successfully took some test images of the Sun using a Baader solar filter. All was well on the appointed day which was also fortunately clear and sunny, so that shortly before contact I was all set and ready to try and capture the movement of a small black dot (Mercury) across the face of the Sun. Unfortunately it was not to be and the weeks that followed almost marked the end of my still nascent hobby of astrophotography!

In short, EQMOD crashed when I turned on the DSLR camera to image the transit! I tried re-booting and checked every other piece of equipment numerous times but to no avail. I subsequently spent weeks trying to track down the problem, checking and re-checking every cable, piece of equipment and updating or reinstalling all the relevant software without success. The nature of the problem strongly suggested there was a conflict between EQMOD-ASCOM and the camera and I therefore turned to the EQMOD forum for help, without success. Somewhat late in the day and by now desperate, I posted the issue on SGL and quickly received a reply from someone who had had a very similar problem, which though also very difficult to identify, turned out to be a very small break in the outer cover of the DSLR AC/DC power adapter cable. It’s not clear to me why this matters but I bought a new adapter and as they say, Bob’s your uncle, it worked! I have looked very carefully at my adapter and cable and can see nothing wrong but am very thankful for the advice.

AC/DC Adapter: How can something as basic as this cause so much disruption?

It seems ridiculous that this very minor problem was nearly terminal but just in case it happens again I have since bought another spare power adapter. Together with my daughter’s wedding in early June and the adapter meltdown, imaging for two of the three months during this period was almost non-existent. Still by July I was ready to start again but by then there was no astronomical darkness!

No	Date	Object	Name
8	April	USA	Monument Valley etc
9	06/06/16	M5	Globular cluster
10		M13	Globular cluster
11		M57	Ring Nebula

JULY TO SEPTEMBER

After the carnage of the last quarter, I was then unable to resume imaging in July due to travel commitments. So I used what time was available to improve my knowledge of PHD2 and once again, check everything was now working ready for the return of astronomical darkness and better night skies from 20^th July; I am of course now paranoid of another similar breakdown. At the start of August I manged to obtain a just passable image of the Eagle Nebula for the first time. Then shortly afterwards on the evening of 11^th / 12^th August, clear skies produced a decent night for viewing and imaging a few of this year’s Perseids meteor shower. But it was at month-end and continuing into September that my imaging in 2016 finally took off.

m27-comps-paintfile

At that time the weather was consistently dry and warm, providing more than a week of clear skies and almost nightly imaging. Dark nebulae are interesting features I’d hitherto not recognised as imaging opportunities and was therefore intrigued to successfully image the E-Nebula at this time. Thereafter I used the opportunity of the weather window to experiment with PHD2 by using M27 the Dumbbell or Apple Core Nebula as a control imaging object. Of course, each year is different but I’ll try to use any similar conditions in the future to sort out and develop old and new techniques, such unusual moments are precious for UK astronomers. At the end of nearly two tiring weeks I had PHD2 working quite well and have not looked back since. As a result of this work soon thereafter obtained good images of the Andromeda Galaxy, as well as the Veil, Crescent and Ring Nebulae.

No	Date	Object	Name
12	07/08/16	M16	Eagle Nebula
13		M11	Globular
14		B142-3	Dark E-Nebula
15	11/08/16	Perseids
16	23/08/16	LDN 673	Dark Nebula
17		NGC 6781	Planetary Nebula
18		M27	Dumbbell Nebula
19		Albireo	Double star
20		Moon
21	28/08/16	M11	Globular cluster
22		NGC 6905	Blue Flash Neb
23		Albireo	Double star
24		15 Aquilea	Double star
25		NGC 6960	W Veil / Witch’s Broom
26		M32	Andromeda Galaxy
27	29/08/16	M27	Dumbbell Neb
28		NGC 6960	W Veil / Witch’s Broom
29		NGC 7814	Pegasus galaxy
30		M15	Globular
31		M27	Dumbbell Nebula
32		M27	Dumbbell Nebula
33	08/0916	M27	Dumbbell Nebula
34		M27	Dumbbell Nebula
35		NGC 6960	W Veil / Witch’s Broom
36		NGC 6960	W Veil / Witch’s Broom
37		M31	Andromeda Galaxy
38	11/09/16	NGC 6888	Crescent Nebula
39		NGC 6992	Eastern Veil (NGC 6995)
40	13/09/16	M57	Ring Nebula

OCTOBER TO DECEMBER

Normal conditions resumed later in September and into the final quarter in the form of overcast skies. A minor break in the weather allowed a crack at the M33 Triangulum Galaxy towards the end of October but only in late November did another clear period occur, by which time the winter sky had arrived and temperatures had fallen to nearly 0^oC.

M33 Triangulum Galaxy – consisting of some 40-billion stars, the photons in this image have travelled 3-million light years in order to reach my camera sensor! | WO GT81 + modded Canon EOS 550D & FF guided | 18 x 300 secs @ ISO 800 & full calibration | 22nd October 2016

Unfortunately I am unable to establish a permanent observatory here at Fairvale and have to take-out the bring-in all the astronomy equipment each time. Apart from being inconvenient this has two practical disadvantages: (i) it can be uncomfortable even unpleasant working outside in such temperatures, and (ii) it is necessary to polar and star align every time; on occasion when using SynScan and EQMOD-ASCOM it can take up to 2-hours before starting imaging. Fortunately, I think I have now sorted out both these problems which should greatly help in the future.

By re-configuring the computer, mount and camera wiring, combined with establishing a wireless link between my tablet and the computer, once set-up I can now control most of the functions from indoors. The comfort of being indoors benefits operating in general and especially thinking, which can be quite difficult when astroimaging and made even harder when it is cold.

With prolonged periods of clear weather in the second-half of the year, I was sometimes able to set-up and leave the equipment for a few days under a waterproof cover, which meant that from day-to-day I could be up-and-running each time in less than 30 minutes! However, I expect this will only rarely be possible and nightly set-ups are likely to continue to be the norm. Fortunately, I have also recently discovered two techniques that should help both streamline and improve star and polar alignment in the future.

In addition to guiding, PHD2 has a very good polar alignment facility that eliminates the use of the SynScan handset and enables the procedure to be carried out from the computer; it can also be undertaken without sight of the Polaris star, which is a major problem at Fairvale Observatory where it is totally obscured by my house. At times when the mount can be left outside, I can also save and subsequently re-use the star-alignment model in EQMOD-ASCOM. All-in-all these and other procedures have made a very positive impact on my astronomy and astroimaging. The outcome of these changes led to a decent sequence of imaging with which to finish the year and, furthermore, hopefully provides a strong foundation for continuing improvements in 2017.

No	Date	Object	Name
41	22/10/16	M15	Globula cluster
42		M33	Triangulum Spiral Galaxy
43	28/11/16	M45	Pleiades
44		NGC 2024	Horsehead Nebula
45		M42	Orion Nebula
46	29/11/16	Hyades	Open star cluster
47		NGC 2244	Rosette Nebula
48	30/11/16	NGC 1499	California Nebula
49		IC 405	Flaming Star Nebula
50	03/12/16	M74	Spiral Galaxy
51		M77	Spiral Galaxy
52		M1	Crab Nebula
53		IC 2118	Witch’s Head
54		M78	Reflection Nebula
55	04/12/16	SH2-264	Lamda Orionis
56		SH2-261	Lower’s Nebula

ETCETERA

A few other astronomy and imaging related matters helped shape the past year for me. After coming across WTSM, I was surprised to be contacted by the Purley Photography Camera Club to give a lecture on astrophotography in March. I’m pleased to say the event went very well and, furthermore, the process of compiling the presentation beforehand helped expand my own knowledge of the subject too.

TTT Cover

In May I received a sun dial installed on a carved Purbeck Stone plinth as a retirement present. As a time piece it’s accuracy is limited but it is a beautiful addition to my garden and solar astronomy for which I am very grateful. By coincidence, later in the year I also came across a simple but charming sun dial set into the ground by the upper lake at Earlswood Common, a short walk from my home and Fairvale Observatory. Intriguingly it works by standing on a central stone, located depending on the season, and then uses your own shadow to read off the time – clever.

Sun dial at Earlswood Common

My new sun dial

In September we visited Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, home of William Fox Talbot in the 19th Century – photography pioneer and notable for developing photographic fixing and printing. The photography museum there is very good and it was fascinating to see his place of work in the house, where the very first photographic print is also displayed. His contribution to photography is unique and today he is generally recognised as the father of modern photography.

william-henry-fox-talbot-with-camera-141697035181903901-141210123557

As a Londoner born and bread, I like to think I know the city well and over my lifetime have visited most of its unique sites, old and new. However, for some inexplicable reason I had never been to Westminster Abbey, so decided to put that right in November. It is, of course, a building of unparalleled history, with numerous graves and memorials of centuries of kings & queens, as well as scientists, explorers, poets, actors etc. Noteworthy amongst these for the astronomer is the physicist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton and Second Astronomer Royal, Edmond Halley.

I must next give mention to the man who throughout the year dominated my reading, learning and thinking – Albert Einstein. His work during the early part 20th Century still dominates today’s physics and astronomy. We continue to make ground breaking discoveries that substantiate and build on his ideas that were originally postulated over 100-years ago. Pictures only recently obtained using the the Hubble telescope have spectacularly demonstrated the effect of gravitation lensing and in 2016 for the first time ever the existence of gravitational waves was confirmed. This year I therefore decided to understand the man and his work better. During the first half of the 2016 I read Walter Isaacson’s excellent biography of Einstein and have recently completed and 8-week Stanford University course on the Special Theory of Relativity. They were both very enjoyable, immensely interesting and time well spent.

CMB some 380,000 after Big Bang.

Einstein vindicated: gravitational lensing

Finally, this Christmas I was surprised and very pleased to receive a printed, bound copy of the WTSM blog for the period since its inception on 5th August 2014 until 10th November 2016. A lot of work has gone into producing this blog and I’ve always been concerned that somehow something might go wrong with the website or internet and it would all be lost. This book now safely preserves in print all the blogs and images posted during the aforementioned period. The production is generally very good and I have already enjoyed re-reading some of my blogs once again.

WTSM: The Book!

Favourite Images

As a result of the aforementioned issues, 2016 has certainly been a year of two halves. Having resolved the equipment problem and started to employ some very useful new techniques and software, I was eventually able to obtain some good images. My personal favourites in no particular order are shown here below:

Barnard’s Loop & Lamda Orionis Nebula : Vixen Polarie & modded Canon 550D + Sigma UWA @ 20mm | 11 x 240 secs @ ISO 1,600 + darks | 7th January 2016

Monument Valley by Night: order of buttes same as daytime photo above. Canon 700D + 10mm Sigma wide-angle lens | 20 x 15 secs @ ISO 6,400 | 10th April 2016

B142/3 Barnard Dark E-Nebula

M27 Apple Core Nebula | William Optics GT81 + 50mm Guide Scope & 10-point EQMOD-ASCOM alignment model | modded Canon 550D + Field Flattener | 3 x 300 secs @ ISO 1,600 & full calibration, 90% cropped | 30th August 2016

M31 | WO GT81 + modded Canon 550D & FF | 10 x 300 secs @ ISAO 1,600, darks + flats | 8th September 2016

First ever print, taken at Lacock Abbey 1835

The same picture by me September 2016

Round-up & goals for 2017

Despite the frankly awful start to the year, astronomically speaking 2016 finished on something of a high. Furthermore, contrary to initial indications I was in the end partially successful in achieving some of my objectives set out at the beginning of last year:

RECORD CARD – 2016
Goal	Specifics / Results	Outcome
*Increase imaging exposure times*	Improved equipment set-up and alignment and successfully started autoguiding with exposure times of up to 8-minutes.	DONE
*Improve processing*	Started using newer version of Photoshop CS2 + other related software. Improvement with post-processing using online tutorials and Nik Syzmanek’s booklet Shooting Stars.	GETTING THERE
*Start widefield imaging*	Purchased Vixen Polarie, with portability put to use in the USA but did not make UK dark sky sites as planned.	GETTING THERE

Getting better: PHD2 working screen 30th November 2016, DEC is good but room for improvement with the RA settings. Notwithstanding, the impact of tracking and image quality is noticeable.

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I’m concerned about setting more goals or the forthcoming year but I think it helps, so here goes:

Improve processing: As the headmaster’s report would say “room for improvement” and I will try. I have purchased Warren Keller’s book Inside PixInsight, considered by many to be the gold standard of post-processing software but is a nightmare to learn – this may be a step too far for now, we’ll have to see – maybe 2018?

Expand and improve widefield imaging: First – use the Vixen Polarie as had been intended last year to obtain nightscape images at UK dark-site locations. Second – look at ways of using a widefield set-up with the mount more successfully.

Start LRGB imaging: I spent a lot of time in 2016 considering the question – what next? I am keen to image smaller DSO objects, in particular galaxies and was on the verge of purchasing a larger telescope – probably another refractor. However, after attending a talk by Nik Syzmanek, one of Britain’s foremost astrophotographers, I have come to the conclusion that the next step should probably be a move to LRGB imaging, which if successful probably has the greatest potential to improve my pictures – let’s hope so.

Looking back 2016 was a funny old year, which for me was defined by three experiences:

Despite two wonderful periods at the end of August and November the weather for astronomy was mostly awful, with cloud cover for weeks on-end and when it was clear, it was a full moon – frustrating or what?

I had already learned that patience and perseverance are required in large quantities for astroimaging but the equipment break-down in May and June was so severe and apparently insoluble that, together with the aforementioned cloudy skies, I really thought of giving up.

However, this time there is a happy ending: after I finally solved the equipment problem and started autoguiding, I feel I have eventually made some great strides with my imaging in 2016 which, furthermore, holds much promise for the coming year and I hope can record in WTSM’s Reflections at the end of 2017.

Watch this space!

It’s All Relative

December 6, 2016 by grahamrob in Deep Sky Objects, General Astronomy, Imaging, Processing, Software, Universe and tagged DSO Imaging, Einstein, Monoceros, Orion, Perseus, Pleiades | 2 Comments

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I spent the first half of this year reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Albert Einstein, which apart from providing a fascinating insight into the man and his work, whetted my appetite to understand better the science. Following previous success studying astronomy courses online, I set out to find a suitable programme to achieve this goal. As a result I enrolled for Understanding Einstein: the Special Theory of Relativity run by Professor Larry Lagerstrom of Stanford University, USA, which after two months I have just completed. spacetime

The course is a good mix of qualitative and quantitative information, which at times has been quite challenging but nonetheless proved very worthwhile. The lecturer is very clear and thorough, an essential quality when dealing with this difficult and often bewildering subject. Einstein’s paper On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies outlines the Special Theory and was just one of four published at about the same time in 1905 (“The Miracle Year”) which included: Brownian motion, Mass-energy equivalence (E=Mc²) and The Photoelectric Effect, the latter of which won him the Noble Prize. At the end I now feel I understand the basics of Einstein’s ground breaking science properly, which apart from being interesting provides valuable insight and understanding of the Universe and related issues of space and time.

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During this period I have also been thinking about how to improve my astrophotography and the way forwards. I’ll be on the learning curve for years to come and accept that there’s much I can still improve on using current equipment and processes but after more than 2-years astroimaging, mostly with a DSLR camera, I feel I have reached something of a crossroads and need to change tack in order to achieve more meaningful advances once again. Inevitably this is likely to mean new equipment and most likely a move to LRGB / Narrowband format. In the interim, whilst I consider the options, I have also been researching suitable capture / sequencing software, post-processing techniques and programmes. I am concerned that this will result in another level of complexity but I think it has to be done in order to progress – watch this space.

Continuing a trend that’s been apparent for the past year, clear nights have been something of a rarity since mid-September; this is a concern if I am to pursue astrophotography to the next level. However, high pressure was unusually dominant over Fairvale Observatory during the last days of November and cold, clear skies have provided good conditions for astronomy at last.

Getting better – PHD2 screen 30th November 2016: DEC is good but room for improvement with the RA settings. The impact on tracking and image quality is noticeable.

Whilst I have certainly not fully mastered guiding I am now routinely using PHD2. This in itself has probably been the major breakthrough this year, which with the aforementioned clear skies I wanted to take full advantage of. Hidden within PHD2 I have also discovered and am now starting to experiment with the on-screen drift align routine, with reasonable results; using the gamepad for mount control and a new wireless link with my tablet computer, I can also make focus and alignment adjustments at the mount without returning to the computer each time.

As a result I have dispersed with the SynScan handset for alignment and can now completely set-up and control imaging with the computer and tablet; this is nothing short of a revolution which I am hopeful will greatly increase set-up time as well as improving control and tracking accuracy – yipee! Even with average guiding results I am now achieving good exposures of 5-minutes or more and therefore decided to put this success to work and re-image some winter wonders over three, yes three, consecutive nights at the end of November.

Imaging targets between 28th & 30th of November 2016 – for descriptions & previous images taken of these objects click on the following list of names: (1) M45 Pleiades (2) Barnard 33 The Horsehead Nebula & NGC 2024 Flame Nebula (3) M42 Orion Nebula (4) NGC 2244 Rosette Nebula (5) NGC 1499 California Nebula (6) IC 405 Flaming Star Nebula

The night sky at this time of the year contains many of my favourite objects, but surprisingly I had not imaged some of the chosen targets for more than a year or two and it was both enjoyable and pleasing to reacquaint myself again. With a new perspective gained from this exercise, the progress I have made with equipment and techniques is more apparent. Notwithstanding, it’s time to move on – everything’s relative.

M45 Pleiades, Taurus constellation: 12 x 300 sec @ ISO 800 | 28th November 2016

NGC 2014 Flame Nebula & Barnard 33 Horsehead Nebula, Orion constellation: 15 x 300 sec @ ISO 800 | 28th November 2016

M42 Orion Nebula & M43 De Mairan’s Nebula, Orion constellation: 2 x 300 sec @ ISO 800 | 28th November 2016

NGC 2244 Rosette Nebula, Perseus arm of Milky Way, Monoceros region: 21 x 300 sec @ ISO 800 | 29th November 2016

California Nebula, Perseus constellation: 12 x 300 sec @ ISO 800 | 30th November 2016

IC 405 & 410 nebulae: 15 x 300 @ ISO 800 | 30th November 2016

Notes: all images taken using a William Optics GT81 refractor telescope + PHD2 guiding + modded Canon 550D DSLR & x0.80 field flattner @ ISO 800 with full darks + bias + flats calibration and processed in Deep Sky Stacker & Photoshop CS2

The Sky’s The Limit

April 22, 2016 by grahamrob in Astronomy holidays, General Astronomy, Imaging, Widefield Imaging and tagged Arizona, Moon, Orion, Photography, Utah | 2 Comments

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Imaging the Milky Way is a popular objective that has so far eluded me, mainly as I suffer from bad light pollution here at Fairvale Observatory. Embarking on a trip to the Southwestern USA recently where dark skies abound, I therefore had high hopes of at last achieving this goal but alas it was not to be and will have to wait for another day.

The trip of a lifetime

As a geologist I have often visited parts of Nevada, Colorado, Utah and California but never the famous sites of the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Glen Canyon (Lake Powell), Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park, which this time formed the trip of a lifetime.

Alvan Clark & Sons 24″ refractor telescope at Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona

First stop was after flying into Las Vegas was Flagstaff, home of the Lowell Observatory, where Pluto was first discovered and amongst others houses a magnificent 24-inch Alvan Clark & Sons refractor telescope built in 1895, which I hoped to use for viewing at the observatory’s nightly public sessions. Unfortunately this was not to be as the sky remained resolutely overcast throughout the evening, despite good conditions earlier in the day. Notwithstanding, the observatory is a fascinating place and still remains an important centre of modern astronomy studies; the adjacent town of Flagstaff is also home to the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Northern Arizona University.

Final notes and paper published by Percival Lowell postulating the existence of a Planet X beyond Neptune, later confirmed by Clyde Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in 1930 and named Pluto

About 40-miles east of Flagstaff is the site of Meteor Crater, the best preserved meteorite impact crater on Earth. Nearly one mile in diameter and over 500 feet deep, the 50,000 year old crater is very big and very impressive. There’s a lot to like about Flagstaff if you’re into astronomy!

Meteor Crater, Arizona, USA

The Holsinger Meteorite: the largest remaining fragment of the 45 metre meteorite that created Meteor Crater

Moving on to the next stop at the Grand Canyon did not disappoint but staying just outside the park the location suffered some light pollution, compounded by cloud during the evening, thus prohibiting any imaging.

The incomparable Grand Canyon by day. Whilst we stayed around for sunset, unfortunately light pollution and cloud later prevented further nightscape imaging.

As a more remote location I had always envisaged that next stop at Monument Valley would be my first real opportunity to undertake some night imaging, for which purpose I had taken along the Vixen Polarie and a tripod. In preparation I had previously studied the sky in this part of the world using Cartes du Ciel, which indicated that the Milky Way would be well positioned during my visit; being 35^o latitude and 5,000 miles west of Fairvale Observatory meant that the sky was similar to that viewed in the UK three months ago and therefore included my favourite constellation Orion. Unfortunately I had overlooked one problem and my long-time nemesis, the moon.

The night sky from Lowell Observatory on 30th March 2016 – no Moon.

10-days later: night sky from Lowell Observatory on 10th April 2016, now with the Moon!

I was in the USA from 5^th to 17^th April but for some reason had modelled the sky in Flagstaff on 30^th March. It turned out that between then and 10^th April, when I was in Monument Valley, the by now half-moon had moved into the night sky and ruled out any chance of seeing or imaging the Milky Way. Of course, even if I had correctly identified the problem beforehand there was nothing I could do about it but it was still frustrating. Notwithstanding, it was a clear sky and not to be defeated turned to Plan-B, which instead took advantage of the moon’s position and in my opinion turned out quite well.

Monument Valley by Day: left to right – West Mitten, East Mitten & Merrick Buttes

Despite the remote location at Monument Valley there was noticeable light pollution from the hotel and ancillary facilities. However, being on the ground floor it was possible to set-up adjacent to the room’s balcony looking east, which was fortunately in the building’s own shadow, thus enabling a sequence of images to be taken of the night sky set against the buttes that typify this region. UnfortunateIy I overlooked setting the Vixen Polarie to half-sidereal tracking speed, which subsequently resulted in a blurred landscape when stacked but the original subs capture the buttes in some detail, themselves illuminated by the moon’s light = result!

Monument Valley by Night; order of buttes same as above. Canon 700D + Sigma 10mm wide-angle lens | 15secs @ ISO 6,400 | 10th April 2016

Monument Valley at Night – mulitple stacked shots: Sidereal tracking results in better sky but blurred landscape. Canon 700D & 10mm Sigma wide-angle lens | 20 x 15 secs @ ISO 6,400

Three days later I was in Bryce Canyon, the location of extraordinary geological features called hoodoos, which are the result of unusual and extreme weathering of the limestone cliffs found there. The land forms consist of thousands of various sized pillars of white and red limestone, seemingly lined up like soldiers along miles of the east facing limestone cliff face. Once again I used the moon to illuminate and capture the scene, this time using half-sidereal tracking. The result is somewhat haunting in nature but shows almost as much detail into the far distance as during daytime; I still find it incredible how sensitive the camera’s sensor is in gathering available light at night when extending exposure times and / or turning up the ISO setting.

Bryce Canyon at Sunset Point by Day

Bryce Canyon at Sunset Point by Night: Canon 700D + Sigma 10mm Wide-angle lens | 15 secs @ ISO 3,200 | 13th April 2016

It is clear I have much to learn about the deceptively simple nightscape photography using the Vixen Polarie but it is equally clear that the equipment provides significant potential and I look forwards to catching the Milky Way one day when the sky is clear and the moon absent. Notwithstanding the disappointment of missing out on the Milky Way this time, in the spectacular big country of Southwestern USA the sky’s the limit and I hope to go back again one day.