Bubble Nebula NGC 7635 

Date: 08/04   Camera: Canon 300D   Scope: 16"LX200 @ F6.3

Exposure:  15-5min exposures at ISO 1600 , guided with an ST-9 and 4" refractor.

All where taken in RAW mode then using IP to convert, calibrate, align, excluded addition and stretched in DD. Final processing in Photoshop.

Spiral Galaxy NGC 6946 

Date: 09/04   Camera: Canon 300D and 10D    Scope: 16"LX200 @ F6.3

Exposure:  It consisted of 35-5min exposures using the 300D(modified) at ISO 1600 and 20-6min exposures with the 10D at ISO1600.  A total of 5 hours of exposure.  

These were taken on 2 different nights from different locations one was using a 16" LX200 on a fork mount and the other a 16" LX200 on a Paramount ME. Guided with a FSQ-106/STL11000 on the paramount and  ST9 on the fork mount.

All where taken in RAW mode then using IP to convert, calibrate, align, excluded addition and stretched in DD. Final processing in Photoshop.

IC 1396

 Large File 50% crop of original

Date: 09/04   Camera: Canon 300D    Scope: FSQ-106 @f5

M31 The Andromeda Galaxy Mosaic

Less than 50% size

Date: 09/04 and 9/03  Camera: Canon 300D/09/04  and Images from 10D/09/03    Scope: FSQ-106 @f5

Exposure:  It consisted of 30-5min exposures using the 300D(modified) at ISO 1600  for each part of the 2-part mosaic and 30-5min exposures at ISO800 with the 10D  each half of the mosaic from last year for  A total of 5 hours of exposure.

All where taken in RAW mode then using IP to convert, calibrate, align, excluded addition and stretched in DD. Final processing in Photoshop.

Veil Complex at 50% 

Date: 09/04   Camera: Canon 300D and 10D    Scope: FSQ-106 @f5

Exposure:  It consisted of 20-5min exposures using the 300D(modified) at ISO 1600 and 20-5min exposures with the 10D at ISO1600. All where taken in RAW mode then using IP to convert, calibrate, align, excluded addition and stretched in DD. Final processing in Photoshop.

Double Cluster

Date: 09/04   Camera: Canon 300D     Scope: FSQ-106 @f5

Exposure:  5-3 min exposures ISO1600

M57 The Ring Nebula 

Date: 07/13/04   Camera: Canon 300D    Scope: 16" LX200 at F10

Exposure:  It consisted of 30-70sec exposures at ISO1600 in Raw mode.  All images were converted in IP to 16bit tiff. files.  Using the median combined dark frame I calibrated all the  images and then aligned them. Then I used min max excluded average to combine them and Digital Development to do the initial stretch to the image.  The rest of the  processing  was done in Photoshop CS.

M3 Globular Cluster 

Date: 04/13/04   Camera: Canon 10D    Scope: 12" LX200 at F5

Exposure:  It consisted of 25-2min exposures at ISO800 in Raw mode.  All images were converted in IP to 16bit tiff. files.  Using the median combined dark frame I calibrated all the  images and then aligned them. Then I used min max excluded average to combine them and Digital Development to do the initial stretch to the image.  The rest of the  processing  was done in Photoshop CS.

M94 Spiral Galaxy

Date: 04/13/04   Camera: Canon 10D    Scope: 12" LX200 at F5

Exposure:  It consisted of 25-5min exposures at ISO1600 in Raw mode.  All images were converted in IP to 16bit tiff. files.  Using the median combined dark frame I calibrated all the  images and then aligned them. Then I used Images Plus  min max excluded average to combine them and Digital Development to do the initial stretch to the image.  The rest of the  processing  was done in Photoshop CS.

M78 and McNeil's Nebula

Date: 01/19/04   Camera: Canon 10D    Scope: FCT-150 at F5

Exposure:  It consisted of 16-4min exposures at ISO1600 in Raw mode.  All images were converted in IP to 16bit tiff. files.  Using the median combined dark frame I calibrated all the  images and then aligned them. Then I used min max excluded average to combine them and Digital Development to do the initial stretch to the image.  All done in IP.

When I caught wind about the new discovery (which I had recently imaged) I went back and sure enough there it was,   I was thinking that there was something strange about this image as I had imaged this nebula before but didn't know what it was  and just moved on (now I know)  Congrads to McNeil what a wonderful feeling!

NGC 4216 Edge on Spiral Galaxy in Virgo 

Date: 02/25/04   Camera: Canon 10D    Scope: 12" LX200 at F10

Exposure:  It consisted of 16-5min exposures at ISO1600 in Raw mode.  All images were converted in IP to 16bit tiff. files.  Using the median combined dark frame I calibrated all the  images and then aligned them. Then I used min max excluded average to combine them and Digital Development to do the initial stretch to the image.  All done in IP.

Now using Photoshop CS I created a false flat frame and layered them together.  I  also had to crop some of the stars as the tracking was not perfect.  

M1 Crab Nebula 

Date: 02/15/04   Camera: Canon 10D    Scope: 12" LX200 at F6.3

Exposure:  It consisted of 17-5min exposures at ISO1600 in Raw mode.  All images were converted in IP to 16bit tiff. files.  Using the median combined dark frame I calibrated all the  images and then aligned them. Then I used min max excluded average to combine them and Digital Development to do the initial stretch to the image.  All done in IP.

Now using Photoshop CS I created a false flat frame and layered them together.  I  also had to crop some of the stars as the tracking was not perfect.  

I did many other odds and ends to get to the final image to many to list.

M45 Pleiades

Date: 12/25/03   Camera: Canon 10D    Scope: Tak FSQ-106 at  F5 Piggybacked on a 12" LX200 unguided. 

Horse Head Nebula Region

Date: 09/30/03   Camera: Canon 10D    Scope: Tak FSQ-106 at  F5 & F8 Piggybacked on a 12" LX200.

Exposure:  This was a 2-night affair with good transparency both nights. 

It was taken with a Takahashi FSQ-106 at F5 & F8 and a Canon 10D at ISO 1600 piggybacked on a pier mounted 12" LX200 located at Yanna Research Station the dark sky site of the Madison Astronomical Society.

 It consisted of 20-4min exposures at F5,15-5min exposures at F8 and 6 Median combined darks. The 15-F5 exposures were untracked and the F8 images were tracked with a STV Deluxe.

 All F5 images were converted, calibrated (median), aligned and combined (averaged) and initially stretched using Digital Development. A mask was then used to brighten the red outlying regions and blurred and added to the original image, all done in Images Plus. The list goes on…  

The F8 images were converted, calibrated (median), aligned and combined (averaged) and initially stretched using Digital Development resized in Photoshop before combining them to the F5 images with a mask.   

This image took 3-4 days to process to get the result I was looking for. Allot of experimenting with different filters, stretches and sharpening techniques.  

All in all I was very pleased with the result.

M42 Region The Great Orion Nebula 

Date: 09/30/03   Camera: Canon 10D    Scope: Tak FSQ-106 at  F5 Piggybacked on a 12" LX200 unguided.

NGC 1499 California Nebula 

Date: 09/30/03   Camera: Canon 10D    Scope: Tak FSQ-106 at  F5 Piggybacked on a 12" LX200 unguided.

Rosette Nebula

Date: 10/06/03   Camera: Canon 10D    Scope: Tak FSQ-106 at  F5 Piggybacked on a 12" LX200 unguided.

Exposure:  The exposures consisted of 20 exposures at ISO 1600 each were 3.5 min and in Cannon Raw mode. 6 Dark frames were also taken.  

All images were then converted to 16 bit tiff. The darks were then median averaged to make a single combined dark. Then each converted image was dark subtracted using the single averaged dark frame. Now I aligned, combined using (Minimum and Maximum excluded average) and applied an initial stretch to the combined image using DD in Images Plus. 

Now, I used a Mask to bring out the nebulosity without bloating the stars. Using the mask function in IP I made a copy of the image and used Local/Region growing and Segmentation function to remove most of the stars in the image. Then using Color/Brightness, Levels & Curves/Background, contrast stretch I stretched the Mask image, then I combined them using addition and 30% of the mask.

The Helix Nebula NGC 7293

Date: 10/01/03   Camera: Canon 10D    Scope: Tak FSQ-106 at  F8 Piggybacked on a 12" LX200 unguided.

Exposure:  It consisted of 30-4min exposures at ISO1600.  15 were taken in Raw mode with no darks the other 15 were taken in Fine Jpg mode and 6 respective darks (this was all because I focused in the middle of the set and forgot to change the mode back to Raw) Well I stacked all of them anyway.  It was very cool that night about 25F so that helped with the noise.

Image is 80% crop

Processed in Images Plus and Photoshop.

Date: 9/2003   Camera: Canon 10D    Scope: Tak FSQ-106 at  F8 Piggybacked on a 12" LX200 unguided.

Exposure:  It consisted of 30-5min exposures at ISO800 for each half of the mosaic. Putting the mosaic together proved to be the most time consuming part of this venture. Due to the sky glow and the 30 exposures of each half the first half was plagued with some ambient light and needed to be matched up with the second darker half. After a few days of playing around with the 2 images I finally got them as close as I could.

Processed in Images Plus and Photoshop.

Date: 8/22/03   Camera: Canon 10D    Scope: Tak FSQ-106 at F8.

Exposure:  This was 30-5  min exposures at ISO800 , dark subtracted and processed in IP and PS6. This image is 50% size.