Dual Band Ha/Oiii Tarantula Nebula and surrounds, Large Magellanic Cloud, 160,000 Light Years Distant and 1000 Light Years Wide. Vixen ED80 Doublet with 0.85 Reducer Flattner and Modified Canon 550D DSLR. Tracked on Skywatcher EQ6 Mount with an ASIair Mini, 50mm Guidescope and ASI120mc Guide Camera.

30 x 120 Second frames, Stacked and Post Processed in PixInsight. It was a good night relatively speaking with mostly sub-arcsecond guiding.

 

Helix Nebula (planetary nebula) NGC7293 23x5Minute Exposures ASI183MCPro and Sharpstar 100Qii Refractor. 26th August 2025 HaOiii Dual Band Forrax Pallet.

 

Cropped

Original FOV

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.

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.

NGC 6604 (Star Cluster top,Left of Centre) and SH2-54(The Nebula) 5000 Light Years Distant. 40 Plus 300 Second Images Taken With a ZWO183MC Pro Camera and a Sharpstar 100 Qii Refractor

 

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!!!

The Mysterious Weekend of Astronomy at Font Hill, somewhere near Oatlands, at the end of March 2023. Part One and Part Two!

 

Rho Ophiuchus and Surrounding Nebulae 20x600 seconds (10 Minute Exposures, 3 Hours in total) taken with Sharpstar 100Qi Telescope and ASI183MC Pro Camera. Post Processed in PixInsight and Phototshop

 

Globular Cluster NGC5286(35000 Light Years Distant) and Bright Star M Centauri(263 Light Years Distant) in the Constellation Centaurus. 40x30Second frames taken with Celestron C8 HD Edge Telescope and ZWO ASI533 Pro OSC Camera. processed in Pixinsight

 

Open Star Cluster, Gem Cluster NGC 3293(7600-8400 Light Years Distant) in the Constellation of Carina. 40 x 30 Second Frames taken with C8 HD Edge Telescope and ASI533 Camera RGB and Dual Narrow Band Ha Oiii processed in Pix Insight and Photoshop

This OSC RGB Image(Above) features blue reflection nebulosity that the OSC HaOiii Image(below) doesn't.  For more  https://www.joecauchi.com.au/nebulae/ngc-3293-the-gem-cluster-2/