M78, March 2010 Version
Astronomy images: Takahashi TOA 130 Telescope (a 5" APO refractor telescope) with the flattener, AP 900GTO mount, QHY8 CCD Camera. Other pictures from the camera are are here. Images processed using my Astronomy Image Processing Workflow.
3 hours total exposure (36 x 5 minute each) from Friday & Saturday night, 3/12-13/2010 at the HAS site. Takahashi TOA 130 Telescope (a 5" APO refractor) with flattener, AP 900GTO mount, and QHY8 CCD Camera & normal workflow. See McNeil's Nebula identified and more on my main M78 page.
M82 above: a new (from the HAS site, March, 2010) image consisting of 14 frames x 5 minutes each = 70 minutes total exposure. Processed using Drizzle Image Processing with Deep Sky Stacker for maximum detail. Being a "low in the sky" object at "only" 70 minutes with the flattener at f/7.7, this is somewhat underexposed. I'll keep keep doing exposures of this area of the sky to blend in with both the wide-field Antares-area shots as well as the IC4603 and IC 4604 shots.
This deep southern object was too tempting and I gave it another go. Above is a "rough cut" 27x5 min = 2.25 hours exposure from Friday night, 3/12/2010 at the HAS site. It needs a few tweaks but it's not bad. Check my Centaurus-A page for more info.
M47 is the open cluster on the right, while the other NGC object is on the lower left quarter frame. Details: 5x5 min = 25 min exposure. See more on my M46 and M47 Page.
NGC2438 is a nice little planetary nebula listed as magnitude 6.7 in The Sky6. M46 is composed of 4x5 = 20 minutes total exposure. See more on my M46 and M47 Page
I added 9x5 = 45 minutes total exposure to this image of Spiral Galaxy M63 in Canes Venatici. See SEDS M63 page for additional info. The above is a new blend of 45 total images and 2 hrs 6 minutes total exposure over 3 different imaging session with the DSLR and CCD camera. Added 9x5 minutes from 3/12-13/2010 at the HAS site. Takahashi TOA 130 Telescope (a 5" APO refractor) with flattener, AP 900GTO mount, and QHY8 CCD Camera & normal workflow. See more at 63 Sunflower Galaxy Page.
March 13, 2010 HAS Site
Shadows are lengthening late in the day. The cirrus clouds complicated observing a bit, but I think there was enough "clear" for good views.. The Orion area, where I was imaging M78, was clear until about 10:00. I decided to pack it in at 10:20 due to the uncertain skies. Skies were better the Friday night; see below.
March 12, 2010 HAS Site
I arrived early on Friday afternoon to get everything set up. The skies seemed quite clear all night, though a few of my images showed some thin high clouds.
Centaurus A
HAS Site pix indexed here
Galaxy M82 from Jan 2010.
Astronomy Pictures: Dick Locke's Astrophoto Gateway page....
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