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]
So this is a set of data I took earlier this year. I was having some issues with my remote setup at the time and didn't like some aspects of how things were working and so I went off on a troubleshooting sidetrack and never got back to this. Eventually I kinda forgot I had taken the data at all. As it turned out, even with some issues the the data was good enough to make a decent image, although I think it could have benefitted from more subframes. As it is, I ended up with about 8 and 1/2 hours worth of frames, mostly in narrowband, with a typically small stack of RGB data to add back in natural color stars. This object is reasonably bright, and does have signal in all 3 narrowband wavelengths that are typically used. As is often the case, the Hα signal is the strongest, with the OIII and SII signals being noticeably weaker. I would have taken a little more data in SII and OIII to compensate a bit had I not interrupted my data collection on this. IC410, as it is otherwise known, is a nebula in the constellation Auriga, and is located approximately 12,000 light years away from Earth. A number of newborn stars have been detected in this relatively energetic star forming region. The namesake tadpoles can be seen in the just left of center of the image, 'swimming' towards the center of the frame :) Equipment: ZWO ASI1600MM-C Camera @ -15C 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 Software Bisque TheSkyX Light Frames: Ha: 28 x 360 secs ( 2 hrs 48 mins) OIII: 26 x 360 secs 2 hrs 36 mins) SII: 28 x 360 secs (2 hrs 48 mins) Red: 12 x 30 secs (6 mins) Green: 10 x 30 secs (5 mins) Blue: 10 x 30 secs (5 mins) 8 hrs 28 mins total Dark Frames: 10 x 60 secs, RGB (10 mins) 10 x 360 secs (1 hr)
