M17 The Omega Nebula

I'm still playing with Narrowband imaging. This is my capture of the Omega Nebula using Ha = Red, SII = Blue, and OIII = Green. 2 1/2 hours of data. I could probably have used more data but by the time I finished the guider was being blocked by the dog house. 

 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) 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.

First narrow band attempt.

Since I now have the camera working well along with dialing in my polar alignment to everything is guiding better. I decided to attempt my first narrow band image. Using the Ha filter for red, the SII filter for blue and the OIII filter for green and 3 hours of data here's the results for M8 the Lagoon Nebula

M 27 Dumbbell nebula. New coma corrector.

I have been pretty busy lately trying new techniques with the ZWO ASI1600mm-c camera. I decided to change from the GSO coma corrector to a Baader MPCC MarkIII coma corrector. It's shorter and is more 'purpose built' for astrophotography. It has made a major difference in my images! Included in this post is one of the first images taken with the new coma corrector. From Wikipedia: The Dumbbell Nebula (also known as Apple Core Nebula, Messier 27, M 27, or NGC 6853) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1,360 light-years. This object was the first planetary nebula to be discovered; by Charles Messier in 1764. At its brightness of visual magnitude 7.5 and its diameter of about 8 arcminutes, it is easily visible in binoculars,[5] and a popular observing target in amateur telescopes.

M42 Orion Nebula with ZWO ASI1600mm-c

We finally had enough clear sky that I could play with the new Astrophotography camera. This is my image taken last night. M42 Orion Nebula.

Camera: ZWO ASI1600mm-C
Telescope: Skywatcher 10 inch Newtonian
Mount: Orion EQ6g
Guider: Orion Starshoot
Software: Sequence Generator Pro, EQMOD, Carte Du Ciel, PHD2, Deep Sky Stacker, and final processing in StarTools.

Lum = 45 each @ 3 seconds
Red = 40 each @ 12 seconds
Blue = 40 each @ 9 seconds
Green = 40 each @ 11 seconds
Gain = 200 Offset = 60

Horse Head with new camera

I purchased a new astrophotography camera a few months ago. (In addition to a new observatory laptop!). The new camera is a ZWO ASI1600mm-c with filters. So it's a brand new world learning all of the secrets of imaging in mono and adding colors. It has been cloudy pretty much everyday since I purchased the camera! This was my first attempt using filters combined with Ha (hydrogen alpha). Hopefully I will get some clear skies and can do some more soon!!!

Telescope: SkyWatcher 254N

Mount: Orion Atlas EQ6g

Guided

Camera: ZWO ASI1600mm-c

Comet Catalina C/2013 US10

C/2013 US10

Comet

C/2013 US10 is an Oort cloud comet discovered on 31 October 2013 by the Catalina Sky Survey at an apparent magnitude of 19 using a 0.68-meter Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope. As of September 2015 the comet is around apparent magnitude 6.

I finally got the sensor/filter clean on my DSLR and went to grab some images. My thought was to use the .fit files so I dumped all of my .cr2 files and discovered that Deep sky stacker won't let you use different formats. So here's my image of comet Catalina with out the usual flats, darks, or bias frames!

20 each 2 min images
iso 800
SkyWatcher 254n
EQ6 mount
Canon 350d (modified)
post processed in StarTools

 

Portion of Rosette Nebula (NGC2237)

I decided to disassemble my Canon 350d that I had modified a few years ago. I have never been happy with the amount of dust that was on the new filter / sensor since I did the modification. I took everything apart and spent an hour and a half cleaning the filter and sensor. Reassembled and took it out to capture some new flat frames to see if there was any improvement. I am very happy with how clean everything came out. I can no longer see any dust in my flats so it appears I was successful. What this amounts to is now I can post process without having to spend a lot of time 'fixing' the areas that had so much dust.

I decided to try the Rosette Nebula as my 'test' to see how well my cleaning worked. Here's the results.

SkyWatcher 254N telescope
Orion Atlas EQ6g mount
Canon 350d (modified)
Guided
30 x 2 min images (guided)

from Wikipedia:

The Rosette Nebula (also known as Caldwell 49) is a large, circular H II region located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy. The open cluster NGC 2244 (Caldwell 50) is closely associated with the nebulosity, the stars of the cluster having been formed from the nebula's matter.
The complex has the following NGC designations:

• NGC 2237 – Part of the nebulous region (Also used to denote whole nebula)
• NGC 2238 – Part of the nebulous region
• NGC 2239 – Part of the nebulous region (Discovered by John Herschel)
• NGC 2244 – The open cluster within the nebula (Discovered by John Flamsteed in 1690)
• NGC 2246 – Part of the nebulous region

The cluster and nebula lie at a distance of some 5,000 light-years from Earth ^[3]) and measure roughly 50 light years in diameter. The radiation from the young stars excites the atoms in the nebula, causing them to emit radiation themselves producing the emission nebula we see. The mass of the nebula is estimated to be around 10,000 solar masses.
A survey of the nebula with the Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed the presence of numerous new-born stars inside optical Rosette Nebula and studded within a dense molecular cloud. Altogether, approximately 2500 young stars lie in this star-forming complex, including the massive O-type stars HD 46223 and HD 46150, which are primarily responsible for blowing the ionized bubble.^[4][5] Most of the ongoing star-formation activity is occurring in the dense molecular cloud to the south east of the bubble.^[6]
A diffuse X-ray glow is also seen between the stars in the bubble, which has been attributed to a super-hot plasma with temperatures ranging from 1 to 10 million K.^[7] This is significantly hotter than the 10,000 K plasmas seen in HII regions, and is likely attributed to the shock-heated winds from the massive O-type stars.