Observatory 8

An inconveniently placed tree made getting an image of this comet difficult. On 24-10-25 I only got 3 subframes that were of any use. However, this did serve as a good learning curve for the following night when I decided to have another attempt. The equipment used was a Skywatcher 150P and ZWO ASI 294MC-Pro OSC. FOV is 2.13 x 1.45 degrees at 1.85 arcsec/pixel.

• StarNet2 to remove the stars from the 47 comet images (it took a while)
• PixInsight (PI) Comet Alignment used to create 47 frames with the comet head centred
• Weighted Batch Preprocessing (WBPP) was used to attempt stacking but proved less than satisfactory, however, the debayered images were used from this process
• PI Image Integration was used to stack the debayered images from the WBPP run
• GraXpert Background Extraction
• GraXpert denoise
• PI STF and Histogram Transformation was used to stretch the image
• Splitting the image into RGB channels the green and blue channels with slightly enhanced (‘S’ curve) using PI curves transform and the channels recombined
• SetiAstro FAME mask was used to remove residual surrounding background created by the tree leaves (!). A PI curves transform was run on the masked image
• Finally the ‘best’ image was used to extract the stars and PI PixelMath used to recombine the comet and stars images

Here is the Astrometry of where this image was taken (between Corona Borealis, Bootes and Serpens):

Click here for a comparison of Jupiter images taken with the CUAS Northumberland telescope and SkyWatcher Esprit 120ED APO refractor.

Take a look at the above Solar System/The Planets menu to see my recent images of Mars and exciting occultation of Mars by The Moon on 8 December 2022

Comet C/2019 Y4 Atlas could become a bright naked eye object in May 2020. The picture below was taken on 28 March 2020.

C/2019 Y4 Atlas

Comet C/2019 Y4 (Atlas) is currently approaching our Sun at over 35 km/s and will be closest to Earth on 23 May and closest to the Sun on 31 May. Comets are a mixture of frozen gases and rock that can sometimes develop an impressive tail, millions of miles long, as things warm up and they approach the Sun. We are well placed to witness this comet’s closest approach to the Sun in May and the Earth, especially in the northern hemisphere, could have a spectacular ring-side seat.
Currently, you can see the beginnings of a tail. The picture has also captured a small galaxy in the bottom right that is only a mere 2100 million light years away!

I estimate the dimmest star in the picture is around magnitude 17.
The comet picture consisted of 9 luminance shots mostly at 5 minutes a piece and 5 each of RGB at 3 mins each. Processed in PixInsight with a brief touch up in photoshop.
The centre of the shot is at RA 8h 16m 42.3s and Dec 68 32’ 16.9’’

Messier 51 is an interacting spiral galaxy in the constellation of Canes Venatici. It lies at a distance of approximately 23 million light years and is about 76,000 light years across.
The pronounced spiral structure of the Whirlpool Galaxy is believed to be the result of the close interaction between it and its companion galaxy NGC 5195, which may have passed through the main disk of M51 about 500 to 600 million years ago. In this proposed scenario, NGC 5195 came from behind M51 through the disk towards the observer and made another disk crossing as recently as 50 to 100 million years ago until it is where we observe it to be now, slightly behind M51.
Three supernovae have been observed in the Whirlpool Galaxy – 1994, 2005 and 2011.

Luminance: 25 frames, 240s, -20C, 1×1 bin, high gain
RGB: 15 frames each, 120s, -20C, 2×2 bin, low gain
Processing: PixInsight
Taken 26 March 2019
Orion Optics AG12 and QSI683 camera with Baader LRGB filters

The nebula lies about a quarter of the way from Altair to Deneb and consists of gases expelled from the central star that are being excited by the strong UV radiation emitted by this star and emit strongly at certain wavelengths.
Taken on 24-9-18, 12 subs each of LRGB, 120s exposures at 1×1 binning with a QSI 683 camera and a 300mm Orion Optics AG12. I’ve been working my way through Warren Keller’s book on PixInsight and this is my first attempt to process a set of subframes entirely with PixInsight. Compare the final result with 1 of the raw luminance subframes.

M27 Final

M27 – One of the raw luminance subframes

This is my first attempt to use my new observatory and equipment after a year or so gap having moved house to Cornwall and built a new observatory. Having spent until 1:30am drift aligning the mount (I got nowhere with the Gemini II polar axis correction feature) I was determined to get a picture of something! LRGB image of messier 64. QSI 683 camera operating at -30C : 5 sub-frames each, luminance 300s 1×1 bin high gain; RGB 200s 2×2 bin low gain. Calibrated and aligned in Maxim DL. High pass filter applied and LRGB combine in photoshop.