NGC6357 - Gum 66 - War and Peace Nebula in Scorpius - 27/6/2014 (Processed cropped stack)

Imaged at Perth Observatory. A revisit of the War and Peace Nebula with my AP modified Canon 70D and the 8" PowerNewt, with far better detail and lower image noise. See also softened and uncropped versions. DeepSkyStacker 3.3.4 Stacked 85% of 11 Images ISO 800, 120 Sec @ ISO 800, 36 DARK @ 120 Sec @ ISO 500, 32 BIAS, 16 FLATS, Post-processed with Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 Telescope - PowerNewt 200mm f/4 with PowerNewt(ASA) f/2.84 Reducer/Coma Corrector, No filters, Baader BCF modified Canon 70D DSLR field 90' x 134' , Ambient 6C. EQMOD EQASCOM with Ascom 6 for mount control. Backyard EOS Pro 3.0.3 for Image acquisition. Mount - Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro. Guidescope - Orion ShortTube 80 with Starlight Xpress SuperStar (Mono) CCD Auto Guider and Stark Labs PHD auto guiding software.

Caldwell 80 - NGC5139 Omega Centauri Globular Cluster - 14/04/2012 (Processed and cropped stack)

The largest globular cluster in the Milky Way of approx. 40' extent (1 +1/3 Moon). It consists of about 4,000,000 stars and is 16,000LY away. 2X Powermate with borrowed f/4 Newtonian bringing the configuration to f/8. Slightly cropped to show only from the central portion of the image to minimise coma distortion. Wow, what an impressive collection of stars and easily my best image of this to date! The combination of focal length and DSLR pixel size are clearly a good match. DeepSkyStacker 3.3.2 Stacked 80% of 8 Images ISO 800 300 Sec, 32 DARK, 0 BIAS, 0 FLATS, Post-processed by Photoshop CS5 Telescope - Bintel BT200 f/4.0 Newtonian with no Coma corrector (borrowed from Stephen Boyd),Teleview 2X 2" Powermate, Hutech IDAS LPS-P2 filter, Canon 400D DSLR, Ambient 15C. Mount - Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro. Guidescope - Orion ShortTube 80 with Star Shoot Auto Guider.

IC2118 Witch Head Nebula in Eridanus - 1/12/2013 (Processed stack)

Imaged from dark sky site Kwolyin, WA. IC2118, commonly known as The Witch Head Nebula is an very faint reflection nebula believed to be an ancient supernova remnant or gas cloud illuminated by nearby supergiant star Rigel in Orion. Patchy high thin cloud made long duration imaging difficult, but managed to get 5 reasonable images of this object that is by far my best outcome for this to date. DeepSkyStacker 3.3.3b51 Stacked 60% of 9 (5) Images ISO 800 600 Sec, 0 DARK, 75 BIAS, 0 FLATS, Post-processed with Adobe Photoshop CS5 Telescope - Apogee OrthoStar LOMO 80/480 with Hotech SCA Field Flattener, no filter, Canon 40D DSLR field 106' x 159' , Ambient 16-15C. EQMOD EQASCOM with Ascom 6 for mount control. Backyard EOS 2.09 for Image acquisition. Mount - Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro. Guidescope - Orion ShortTube 80 with Starlight Xpress SuperStar (Mono) CCD Auto Guider and Stark Labs PHD auto guiding software.

Messier M31 - NGC224 - Andromeda Galaxy with M110 and M32 satellite Galaxies - 30/11/2013 (Processed cropped stack)

Imaged at dark sky site - Kwolyin, WA The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest true spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way galaxy at ~2 Million Light Years distance. At only 17 degrees above the northern meridian it has been a difficult object for me to capture, but this dark skies location gave a good opportunity. DeepSkyStacker 3.3.3b51 Stacked 85% of 10 Images ISO 800 600 Sec, 133 DARK @ 120 Sec, 75 BIAS, 0 FLATS, Post-processed with Adobe Photoshop CS5 Telescope - Apogee OrthoStar LOMO 80/480 with 0.8x Tele Vue Reducer/Flattener, no filter, Canon 40D DSLR field 132' x 199' , Ambient 17-15C. EQMOD EQASCOM with Ascom 6 for mount control. Backyard EOS 2.09 for Image acquisition. Mount - Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro. Guidescope - Orion ShortTube 80 with Starlight Xpress SuperStar (Mono) CCD Auto Guider and Stark Labs PHD auto guiding software.

IC434 Horsehead Nebula and NGC2024 Flame Nebula near Star Alnitak - 10/11/2013 (Processed cropped stack)

Imaged at Perth Observatory site. Unfortunately some stray light has caused the upper left corner circles that detracts from the outcome, probably caused by the star Alnilam just outside field. DeepSkyStacker 3.3.3b51 Stacked 85% of 13 Images ISO 800 300 Sec, 83 DARK @ 120 Sec, 75 BIAS, 27 FLATS, Post-processed with Adobe Photoshop CS5 with Noise Ninja Telescope - Apogee OrthoStar LOMO 80/480 with Hotech SCA Field Flattener, Hutech IDAS LPS-P2 filter, Canon 40D DSLR field 106' x 159' , Ambient 16-15C. EQMOD EQASCOM with Ascom 6 for mount control. Backyard EOS 2.09 for Image acquisition. Mount - Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro. Guidescope - Orion ShortTube 80 with Starlight Xpress SuperStar (Mono) CCD Auto Guider and Stark Labs PHD auto guiding software.

Caldwell 103 - NGC2070 - 30 Doradus Tarantula Nebula - 24/12/2011 (Colour enhanced Processed cropped stack)

My third night using the borrowed PowerNewt. See also uncropped version and the original less colour enhanced versions. I entered this in a Worth 1000 contest entitled "Sky 2012' and won first place for this image whihc you can see here http://www.worth1000.com/entries/675806/vivid-tarantula DeepSkyStacker 3.3.2 Stacked 70% of 32 Images ISO 800 120 Sec, 32 DARK, 0 BIAS, 0 FLATS, Post-processed by Photoshop CS5 Telescope - Jean Marie Locci's PowerNewt 200mm f/2.8 with Coma Corrector, Astronomik CLS-CCD EOS Clip filter, Canon 400D DSLR, Ambient 21C. Mount - Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro. Guidescope - Orion ShortTube 80 with Star Shoot Auto Guider.