Images

M42 – Orion Nebula in Color

Following the plain H version, here the false-color HSO image of the Orion Nebula, M42. I went for a unconventional color scheme, which highlights the structure of the nebula outside of its main part… lots of dynamics. Exposure: H 16x60sec + 14x300sec + 8x900sec, S 11 x 1800sec, O 18 x 1800sec Date: 2016-1-17 Setup: […]

M42 – Orion Nebula in Mono

Something simple for a change… the Orion Nebula, M42, and its neighbourhood in H-alpha light. This mono image results from an HDRComposition of stacked frames with three different exposures to cover the large dynamic range of this target. Exposure: H, 16x60sec + 14x300sec + 8x900sec Date: 2016-1-17 Setup: Takahashi FSQ106 EDXIII with QSI 683WSG-8 Site: […]

EGB6 – An Ancient Planetary Nebula

This in an incredibly faint object – EGB 6 – discovered by Ellis, Grayson, and Bond in 1984 in a visual search through prints from the Palomar Sky Survey. Here is a link to their original paper. EGB 6 is an old and hence large planetary nebula with extremely low surface brightness. The image is […]

M78 – Reflection Nebula in Orion

M78 is sometimes forgotten reflection nebula in the constellation of Orion and part of the Orion molecular cloud complex. It includes NGC 2064, NGC 2067 and NGC 2071 and other nebulae. This image is an LRGB composite with more than 15 hours of data taken at Deep Sky West. Again my first attempt at processing […]

Horsehead and Flame Nebula

A famous scenery, the Horsehead Nebula (B33), the Flame Nebula (NGC2024), and the blue supergiant star Alnitak the east-most star in the Belt of Orion surrounded by more subtle nebulosity. This is an LRGB composite image using a total of around 8 hours of data taken at the Deep Sky West observatory. The processing was […]

LDN1622 – “Boogie Man” Nebula

This is a HaRGB image of LDN1622, a striking dark nebula in the constellation Orion not far from M78. It has been dubbed Boogie Man nebula, but there are other more sinister interpretations as well. I used the Ha data together with all RGB to create a luminance channel and combined it with the RGB […]

Jellyfish Nebula – IC443

An image of the Jellyfish Nebula, IC443, in Ha light. Composed from a total of 8 hours of exposure time. Just a first snapshot of this target… more is comming. Exposure: Ha, 16 x 1800sec Date: 2015-12-02…2015-12-04 Setup: Takahashi FSQ106 EDXIII with QSI 683WSG-8 Site: Deep Sky West Observatory, NM, USA

NGC1333

A dramatic scenery of structures and colors – NGC 1333 and its surroundings. This is a star-forming region, about 1000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus, home of hundreds of newly born stars. NGC 1333 is the blue reflection nebula, surrounded by dusty regions with contrasting red emissions from Herbig-Haro objects, jets and glowing […]

Heart of the Heart Nebula – IC1805

The central section of the Heart Nebula (IC1805) with the open cluster Melotte 15. The stellar wind and radiation from this cluster of massive host stars, about 1.5 million years young, has sculputured the emission nebula and dark dust clouds into a dramatic scenery. This Ha image was taken from my light-polluted backyard (Bortle class […]

Heart Nebula – IC1805

The Heart Nebula IC1805 – it is kind of obvious why it got its name. The Heart Nebula is an emission nebula and star forming region of almost 200 light-years across, located within the Perseus Arm of our Milky Way galaxy, about 7500 light-years away in the northern constellation Cassiopeia. This is a complete narrowband […]

Open Cluster in Perseus – NGC1342

NGC1342 is an impressive open cluster in Perseus with more than 50 stars and an apparent diameter of 15 arc-minutes across and was discovered by William Herschel in 1799. The cluster is dominated by multiple magnitude 8-10 stars lying in a horizontal band. NGC1342 lies at a distance of 1,170 light-years away and is estimated […]

Soul Nebula – IC1848

The Soul Nebula (IC1848, Sh2-199, LBN667), looks more like a toddler if you ask me. The companion of the Heart Nebula, both expansive emission nebula difficult to observe visually but a rewarding catch on chip. Unlike the usual narrowband composites, this is an RGB image with Ha used as luminance channel. I will have to […]