M17 Omega Nebula

Here's this years attempt at M17. I'm much happier with the results this year from last. 36 images at 1 min each.

M20 Trifid Nebula first data

Here's the 1st data I collected for the Trifid Nebula last night. My plan is to capture more data tonight (hopefully more of the bottom area) and mosaic the two images together. This will be my first attempt so we will see how it goes. I was actually able to capture 5 minute images last night with no star trails, however it over saturated the image so I went to 2 minute captures for this (15 good ones out of 25). I also caught a satellite in one of the images and saw it coming in Stellarium. That was kind of neat. (Update) After taking a look as some other images of Trifid, I decided I have probably captured about all I'm going to get so moved on to something different for tonight.

This years Dumbbell

Here's this years attempt at M27 the Dumbbell Nebula. The autoguider is working much better now and therefore I can take nice long exposures without losing the framing. I still have a few more bugs to work out but it's much better than last year. Also the "dog house" is coming along nicely and was able to store the scope on the pier outside now, so setup times should be much better.

M16 Eagle Nebula

I was able to capture guided 2 minute images of the Eagle Nebula tonight. Here's the results.

Just a note the dark "spire" in the middle of the photo is the "Pillars of Creation".

NGC6826 The Blinking Nebula

Finally had some clear skys tonight, so had a chance to fine tune the alignment of the mount to the new pier. Figured I would give it a quick test. Found the Blinking Nebula and snapped of 15 mins of images.

From Wikipedia:

NGC 6826 is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Cygnus. It is commonly referred to as the "blinking planetary", although many other nebulae can exhibit such "blinking". When viewed through a small telescope, the brightness of the central star overwhelms the eye when viewed directly, obscuring the surrounding nebula. However, it can be viewed well in the peripheral vision (averted vision), which causes it to "blink" in and out of view as the observer's eye wanders.
A distinctive feature of this nebula are the two bright patches on either side, which are known as FLIERs, or Fast Low-Ionization Emission Regions. They appear to be relatively young, and moving outwards at supersonic speeds. According to Bruce Balick (University of Washington), "some of their observed characteristics suggest that they are like sparks flung outward from the central star late in the very recent past (a thousand years ago). Yet their shapes ... seem to suggest that they are stationary, and that material ejected from the star flows past them, scraping gas from their surfaces. Future Hubble observations will monitor any changes in the positions of FLIERs to resolve this issue. In either case, the formation of FLIERs cannot be easily explained by any models of stellar evolution.

M65

While I was out doing some 'testing' of the software and mount I decided to try to image something. I was on the "other side' of the meridian  (I normally shoot everything on the east side) and just picked something bright.
Here's my 1st attempt at M65. (only 5 images stacked / 30 seconds each).

NGC7023 The Iris Nebula

Here's my first attempt at the Iris Nebula. Guiding and polar alignment are getting easier. 2 minute images (15 each) total 30 mins of data.

from Wikipedia:

The Iris Nebula, also NGC 7023 and Caldwell 4, is a bright reflection nebula and Caldwell object in the constellation Cepheus. NGC 7023 is actually the cluster within the nebula, LBN 487, and the nebula is lit by a magnitude +7 star, SAO 19158.^[1] It shines at magnitude +6.8. It is located near the Mira-type variable star T Cephei, and near the bright magnitude +3.23 variable star Beta Cephei (Alphirk). It lies 1,300 light-years away and is six light-years across.