Forgotten Light Frames
While digging though some old folders on Adobe Bridge, I stumbled across some unprocessed, 300 second light frames of the Flaming Star Nebula from November 2013! When you are desperate to get out and image a new target, this is like hitting gold. I was originally looking for my raw files of the Pacman Nebula, which I feel is in desperate need a new process. (Those stars look pretty rough) I found a folder labeled "Flaming Star - 5 Min Lights". I never processed this image! The Flaming Star Nebula is a colorful collection of glowing gas and dust lit u…
M42 – The Gorgeous Orion Nebula
Located below Orion's Belt, the Orion Nebula is now gracing our skies each night The skies were clear in Niagara last weekend, so I set up my telescope for a night of astrophotography imaging. There are so many great imaging options at this time of year. The Pleiades, the Pacman Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy, the Triangulum Galaxy and the Dumbbell Nebula are all on display right now, to name a few. I settled on the Orion Nebula because it's an "all-nighter" object from my backyard viewing area. I set my trusty Canon 450D to capture 60 three minute exposures while I slept. The focusing, fram…
M27 – The Dumbbell Nebula – Find it in Binoculars or Photograph it
M27 - The Dumbbell Nebula The Dumbbell Nebula is well photographed by professional and amateur night sky photographers alike. It was one of the first deep-sky objects I imaged way back in 2011. A member of the astronomy forum I was a part of suggested that I give it a try, as it is a very gratifying object to image due to it's brightness. Sure enough, there it was! Even a 30 second exposure was enough to make this interesting planetary nebula "pop" on my display screen. I have re-imaged this object several times since that first night, and realized that it takes hours of exposures to increase…
Sadr Region in Cygnus | IC 1318 and Emission Nebula
The Sadr Region in the Cygnus refers to the hydrogen emission nebula surrounding Sadr (Gamma Cygni) in the cross of the constellation Cygnus. In this area of the night sky, you will also find even more deep-sky astrophotography targets such as the Butterfly Nebula (IC 1318), and the Crescent Nebula. Sadr (a supergiant) has 12 times the mass of our Sun and about 150 times our Sun's radius. IC 1318 is considered to be the diffuse emission nebula surrounding Sadr. The image above shows the bright star, Sadr, at the top right of the image. This photo includes 72 x 4-minute exposures using a…
Sadr Star – Intersection of the Northern Cross
Photographing the Sadr Star in Cygnus If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed that I was poking around in the middle of the constellation Cygnus last weekend, specifically centered on to the extremely bright Sadr star. I really wanted to post a really snazzy wide field photo of this region on this blog, but I was unhappy with my results. I set my mount and telescope up for imaging in the South, at the far edge of my backyard. This spot was a poor location for shooting straight up overhead at the constellation Cygnus for me, as I ran into trees by 1:30 am. The result, only 1 hour…
