Tuesday, May 19, 2009

M94, subexposure test


I did this as a test shot using shorter sub-exposures. This is 9 ten-minute images. I am not sure I gained anything with more images to stack. I think my set-up works best with 13 minute minimum sub-exposures. The faint outer shell was visible, but was exceedingly noisy, so I had to tone it way down during processing. The longer subs would have brought it out.

I did this with my ST7 and C6 at F6.3

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Floating in the Sky


I found a balloon today, just before sunset. It made a nice target for my 300D and 100mm F6 refractor telescope. They launch these several hundred miles to the east of my house. It was way up there, floating on the edge of space.

Friday, May 15, 2009

M104 Sombrero Galaxy


Well, the Sombrero looks more like a ring in this image. I tried to emphasize the ring of dust around this otherwise elliptical galaxy. It is theorized that this is an elliptical Galaxy that collided with a spiral many billions of years ago. The dusty ring is the final remains of the spiral galaxy.

I did not get a lot of detail, but the ring is clearly visible.

Spiral Galaxy M100

This galaxy is a fairly dim one, but has a very bright, almost star-like core when seen visually. I have never taken a good image of it. This Luminance image with my ST7 is about the best so far, though it is not that great.

CCD: SBIG ST7
No Filters
Scope: Celestron C6 sct @F6.3
8 fifteen minute images stacked

Friday, May 1, 2009

Added color to M51

I added C/M/Y color to the M51 I did earlier. Each color channel binned 3x3 and ten minutes duration.