Nebulae

Melotte 15 – Heart of the Heart Nebula

Melotte 15, a cluster of young super-giant stars in the heart of the heart nebula. The strong stellar winds from this cluster sculpture the gas clouds in their vicinity, creating pillars and cavities. A spectacular array of shapes and colors. This is a narrowband composite using more than 14 hours of data in Ha, OIII, […]

Cygnus Region – Super-Wide-Field Mosaic

This is the main part of the constellation Cygnus, including Deneb and Sadr as main stars, covering a field of about 20 by 20 degrees. This image focusses on the rich H-alpha nebulosity in this region. In contains some of the famous emission nebulae, e.g. the North America Nebula, the Pelican Nebula, the Crescent Nebula, […]

Eastern Veil Nebula – First Light QHY 163m

This is the official first-light for my new QHY 163m cooled CMOS camera. For this, I decided to go for the Eastern Veil Nebula, again. The Veil is definitely one of the most striking supernova remnants. The supernova that created it has exploded 8000 years ago and the remnant has been expanding since then. The […]

IC1396 – Again

Yet another take of the Sh2-131 emission nebula in Cepheus with the embedded star cluster IC1396 and home to the famous Elephant’s Trunk Nebula VDB142. It is a large emissions nebula with stunning inlays of dust clouds absorbing most of the lights. The total size of the complex corresponds to about 10 times the full […]

Iris Nebula – AP175 Refractor

This is the Iris Nebula, NGC7023, as seen with the Astro-Physics 175 Starfire Refractor from the Deep Sky West Observatory.   Exposure: LRGB (21,27,23,10) x 900sec Date: 2017-07-17…2017-09-21 Setup: Astro-Physics 175 Starfire with FLI PL16070 Site: Deep Sky West Observatory, NM, USA

Cocoon Nebula

The Cocoon Nebula, IC5146, seen with the RH-305 setup at the Deep Sky West Observatory. I was hoping to get a more prominent appearance of the dark lane extending from the Nebula itself… will have to reprocess this image to get out more. Still, the colors are beautiful. Exposure: LRGB, (63,22,13,18) x 600sec Date: 2017-05-05…2017-09-16 […]

Pelican Nebula – NB vs. RGB

Two different perspectives on the head of the Pelican Nebula: false-color narrow band (above) and real color RGB (below). Both taken with the same setup, the new Astro-Physics 175 mm f/8 Starfire EDF at the Deep Sky West Observatory. Processing was very straight forward, no tricks necessary.   Exposure: HOS (13,5,10) x 1800sec LRGB (14,15,14,9) […]

M20 – Trifid Nebula

This is the Trifid Nebula, M20, with the open cluster M21, my first test target from the new Astro-Physics 175 mm f/8 Starfire EDF at the Deep Sky West Observatory. Processing was very straight forward, no tricks necessary. Exposure: LRGB, (22,8,9,10) x 600sec Date: 2017-06-14…2017-06-30 Setup: Astro-Physics 175 Starfire with FLI PL16070 Site: Deep Sky […]

Cygnus Region – Wide-Field Mosaic

This is the central part of the constellation Cygnus, including Deneb and Sadr as main stars, covering a field of about 13 by 10 degrees. This image focusses on the rich H-alpha nebulosity in this region. In contains some of the famous emission nebulae, e.g. the North America Nebula, the Pelican Nebula, and the Crescent […]

Flaming Star Region – Wide Field

The Flaming Star Region, including the Flaming Star Nebula (Sh2-229, IC405), the Tadpole Nebula (Sh2-236, IC410), the Spider Nebula (Sh2-234, IC417), the Fly Nebula (Sh2-237), the Starfish Cluster (M38), and some more stuff. This is a wide field monochrome image using 3 hours of Ha data taken from my backyard in the light-polluted Frankfurt area […]

Cone Nebula & Christmas Tree – Wide Field

This is a very wide field monochrome image of the region around the Cone Nebula and the Christmas Tree Cluster. They are sitting in the middle of a much larger emission nebula with lots of structures. Composed of more than 6 hours of Ha data taken from my backyard in the light-polluted Frankfurt area – […]

Barnard 22 and Little Flame

Dark nebula Barnard 22 with embedded reflection nebula IC2087. An LRGB composite using 30+20+20+20 individual frames with 900 sec exposure time. Data taken at the Deep Sky West Observatory. Exposure: LRGB, (30,20,20,20) x 900sec Date: 2017-01-22…28 Setup: Takahashi FSQ106 EDXIII with QSI 683WSG-8 Site: Deep Sky West Observatory, NM, USA