Recent Winter Images (12/22/2023 through 2/9/2024)

Below are some of the better DSO images acquired between the title dates. The usual setup Celestron 8, Starizona Night Owl(F/4) focal reducer corrector, ASI294 MC Pro guided by Celestron AVX and Orion Magnificent Mini Auto-guider.  

Messier 46 (Open Cluster),
NGC2438 (Planetary Nebula)

NGC2301 (Open Cluster)

NGC2353 (Open Cluster)

Messier 34 (Open Cluster)

Messier 103 (Open Cluster)

NGC129 (Open Cluster)

NGC281 (Pacman Nebula)

NGC1528 (Open Cluster)

NGC1545 (Open Cluster)

IC410 (Star Forming Region)

Barnard 33 (Horsehead Nebula), NGC2023 (Reflection Nebula)
NGC2024(Flame Nebula), Star Alnitak

NGC2174 (Monkey Head Nebula)

GraXpert game changing freeware.

A number of weeks ago I stumbled upon a game changing piece of freeware, GraXpert. GraXpert's algorithm analyzes your deep sky image distinguishing stars and nebulosity from back ground sky and generates a background that eliminates gradients and reduces light pollution. A standalone app GraXpert is easy to use while offering settings that allow you to tweak the algorithm for better results. Prior to downloading this awesome piece of free software dealing with gradients, inherent to my  ASI294MC Pro was a bit tedious. With GraXpert you just load the stretched image*, create the grid, calculate the back ground and save the processed image. That's it. You can adjust the sensitivity of the grid creating algorithm to background intensity and you can move, add or delete grid points to distinguish nebulosity from the background. Aside from reducing my workload the colors in my images have improved. Some recent images follow. Thor's Helmet nebula was actually imaged from my 3rd floor balcony in my heavily light polluted south of Boston suburban skies with 120 15s sub exposures. 

*Stretching the histogram in Paintshop Pro seems preferable to the GraXpert stretching routine which seems to throw away black side data. 

Comet C2022E3 ZTF (2/15/2023)

Comet C/2022E3 ZTF  (2/8/2023)

Comet C2022E3 ZTF (1/30/2023)

Comet C/2022E3 ZTF (1/27/2023)

IC443, Sharpless 248, Jellyfish Nebula--Supernova Remnant. 

M42 Orion Nebula

M48 --Open Cluster

Flame Nebula (NGC2024) , NGC2023, Horsehead Nebula(B33)

NGC2264

NGC2353 Open Cluster

NGC2359 (Thor's Helmet Nebula)

M46(NGC2437) Open Cluster + Planetary Nebula NGC2437

NGC2232 Open Cluster

Messier 50 Open Cluster

Short Cold Night at Harvard

The December 8 forecast was to be in around 32 by 9PM I decided to keep the night short. Astro-twilight was about 6:05 PM so I  arrived at the town of Harvard parking dark site around 4:30PM. Setup and all star polar alignment went smoothly. I deviated from the original target list dropping  M31 and NGC 1342 while adding M77 and NGC 2024. I probably should have stuck with NGC1342 instead of M77 which would be better imaged at a longer focal length. A combination of the dew hood and an ~8 mph breeze from the north challenged the auto-guider. And, having forgotten to bring my balaclava head covering the wind chill challenged my face during tear down at the end of the night. Fortunately I did remember to bring gloves and hand warmers. The five targets imaged appear below. Additional notes follow the images.

IC 5146

M33 (Triangulum Galaxy)

Messier 77(NGC 1068)

NGC663

NGC2024 (Flame Nebula)

All imaging was done at F/4 (800mm) with Celestron 8 AVX + Starizona Night Owl focal reducer corrector + ZWO ASI294MC Pro. Image area reduced to 3104x2116 pixels. Imaging temperature -10C. Of note, optical configuration was kept assembled and dark frames acquired the following day. Processing was with Autostakkert! I decided to experiment with acquiring dark frames with camera rotated slightly clockwise and counterclockwise from original. These were found to have little effect on post processing. For this reason I will likely acquire flat frames after the night of imaging with a reassembled optical configuration. I'll also return to the Orchard site which has less of an issue with passing cars.