This is another narrowband image, this time color blended to give a more 'natural' color palette. The Swan or Omega Nebula is a bright region that is very active in Ha, OIII, and SII emissions. This is the first image whose data was entirely captured using the Innovations Foresight ONAG for guiding and focusing. Equipment: ZWO ASI1600MM-C Camera @ -20C and Gain:200 Offset:50 Software Bisque MyT Mount Stellarvue SVQ100 Astrograph Refractor, 580mm @ f/5.8 Innovations Foresight ONAG Software: Pixinsight Commercial Version 1.8 Lightroom CC Photoshop CC Innovations Foresight SkyGuard Light Frames: Ha - 41 x 360 secs ( 4 hrs 6 mins) OIII - 33 x 360 secs (3 hrs 18 mins) SII - 41 x 360 secs (4 hrs and 6 mins) Red: 21 x 30 secs (10 mins 30 secs) Green: 22 x 30 secs (11 mins) Blue: 21 x 30 secs (10 mins 30 secs) 12 hrs 2 mins total Dark Frames: 10 x 60 secs (20 mins) Bias Frames 60 Flat Frames 20 each filter More Details From Wikipedia: The Omega Nebula, also known as the Swan Nebula, Checkmark Nebula, and the Horseshoe Nebula[1][2] (catalogued as Messier 17 or M17 or NGC 6618) is an H II region in the constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745. Charles Messier catalogued it in 1764. It is located in the rich starfields of the Sagittarius area of the Milky Way. The Omega Nebula is between 5,000 and 6,000 light-years from Earth and it spans some 15 light-years in diameter. The cloud of interstellar matter of which this nebula is a part is roughly 40 light-years in diameter and has a mass of 30,000 solar masses.[3]
The aptly named Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) floats against a field of stars, with other very small galaxies in view. One of the most iconic astroimaging targets is normally imaged at a higher magnification but still presents an impressive sight when imaged at a wider field of view. This image is a result of only 48 minutes of total data imaged through LRGB filters. Equipment: ZWO ASI1600MM-C Camera @ -20C and Gain:139 Offset:21 Software Bisque MyT Mount Stellarvue SVQ100 Astrograph Refractor, 580mm @ f/5.8 Software: Pixinsight Commercial Version 1.8 Lightroom CC Photoshop CC Light Frames: Luminance: 12 x 60 secs (12 mins) Red: 12 x 60 secs (12 mins) Green: 12 x 60 secs (12 mins) Blue: 12 x 60 secs (12 mins) Dark Frames: 20 x 60 secs (20 mins) Additional info from Wikipedia: The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a, M51a, and NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus.[7][6][8] It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy.[9] Its distance is estimated to be 23 million light-years away from Earth. The galaxy and its companion, NGC 5195,[10] are easily observed by amateur astronomers, and the two galaxies may be seen with binoculars.[11]
The Seagull Nebula (IC 2177) is an emission nebula between the constellations Monoceros and Canis Major. It emits in all the of the main emission bands used in amateur astrophotography, Hα, OIII, and SII. This rendition uses the SHO palette with some of the Hα green contribution reduced to bring out the subtle coloring in the weaker OII and SII channels. From Wikipedia: IC 2177 is a region of nebulosity that lies along the border between the constellations Monoceros and Canis Major. It is a roughly circular H II region centered on the Be star HD 53367.[5] This nebula was discovered by Welsh amateur astronomer Isaac Roberts and was described by him as "pretty bright, extremely large, irregularly round, very diffuse."[6] The name Seagull Nebula is sometimes applied by amateur astronomers to this emission region, although it more properly includes the neighboring regions of star clusters, dust clouds and reflection nebulae. This latter region includes the open clusters NGC 2335 and NGC 2343.[7] Equipment: QHY268M Camera @ -10C and Gain:56 Offset:25 Software Bisque MyT Mount Stellarvue SVQ100 Astrograph Refractor, 580mm @ f/5.8 Antlia Pro Filters (3nm narrowband plus LRGB) Askar FMA180 Guidescope/ASI290MM Software: Pixinsight Commercial Version 1.8 Lightroom CC Photoshop CC N.I.N.A. Control Software BlurXTerminator (Russell Croman) Star XTerminator (Russell Croman) Noise XTerminator (Russell Croman) Light Frames: Ha - 14 x 480 secs ( 1 hr 52 mins) OIII - 14 x 480 secs (1 hr 52 mins) SII - 11 x 480 secs (1 hr 28 mins) Red: 14 x 30 secs (7 mins) Green: 13 x 30 secs (6 mins 30 secs) Blue: 13 x 30 secs (6 mins 30 secs) 5 hrs 32 mins total Dark Frames: 10 x 30 secs (5 mins) 10 x 480 secs (1 hr 20 mins) Flat Frames: 10, each filter Bias Frames: 60
