Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Nebulosity in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Taken with ASI183MC Pro Camera and Sharpstar 100qii Refractor. 145 5 Minute Frames Stacked and Processed in PixInsight and Photo Shop

The nebulosity in this region doesn't seem to have specific designations, only the star clusters either contained within or in front or behind.

From left to right, starting at the top left, Star Cluster NGC330, middle left Star Cluster NGC 346,  middle right, NGC 371,  Next to the right NGC 395 with an area of deep red nebulosity, NGC 395 and just above it, Star Cluster IC1624.  Below a PixInsight anotated version which adds a few more in.




Monday, August 25, 2025

NGC 6188 in Constellation Ara, The Dragon's Head, 30 x 5 Minute Frames, 2 and a holf hours Integration. Taken with Celestron C8 HD Edge and ASI533MC Pro Camera. Processed in PixInsight and Photoshop.


 

Dwarflab2 Camera Images Stacked and Processed in PixInsight taken at a Sidewalk Astronomy Event, Mawson Place Hobart

Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae(Stack of 187 15 Second Images) Mawson Place Hobart Processed in PxInsight.
For comparison original stack from DwarfLab Camera below.




Jewel Box Open Star Cluster(Top Left) and Beta Crux(Lower Middle) Stack of 46 15 Second Frames. Processed in PixInsight.

Omega Centuri Globular Cluster (Stack of  over 200 15 Second Frames). Processed in PixInsight.








Monday, July 28, 2025

IC 4628 Bright Nebula in Scorpius, 2700 Light Years Distant, Sharpstar 100qii Refractor Telescope and ASI183MC Pro Camera, 27x300 Second Frames Stacked and Processed in PixInsight and Photoshop.

 Had some 'Mount Capers' to deal with before I did this test run on a bright nebula in Scorpius, IC 4628, some 2700 light years distant.

I had setup the mount and telescope a night or so before and found some of it's Auto Guiding (locking onto single stars to stop the mount slowly drifting off target) behaviour problematic.
With some spare time Saturday I proceeded to pull the offending DEC axis apart to inspect and clean the worm gear as pictured below. I also discovered a huge (relatively speaking) gouge in the metal rim where one of the worm adjustment grub screws, after being tightened too enthusiastically by myself at some time in the past, had dug into the metal rim that is supposed to hold it in place to go no further. Pictured too is the offending rim after a 'jury rigged' patchup with Loctite glue and a hard vinyl strip.
The long sad story cut short here sees a happy ending with the resulting image from last / yesterday (Sunday) night where I was quite happy with an improvement in tracking and guiding and took just over 2 hours of data ( 27x5 Minute Frames ). I have combined and enhanced them in PixInsight and Photoshop to bring out the vivid red colour of this emission nebula.
The last image is of the ASIAir (My imaging and Mount controll computer) App screen with a single raw frame and you might notice the red and blue wriggly graph lines at the top near centre which tells me how the mount is behaving while auto guiding. The closer and more superimposed those two lines and the smaller the numbers next to them are the better!
For my ancient 20 year old (albeit upgraded) Skywatcher EQ6Pro Mount. not too bad. If you have made it this far reading this thanks and hugs!!!






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