2018 Year in Review Poster

Annually I am making a poster (8"x12") of the best images I have taken that year. Though this year's imaging was sparse due to winter weather, summer forest fires and more than normal cloudiness, I was surprised to find enough images for this year (2018). Enjoy!

20181227 - The California Nebula and The Pleiades wide field image

Taken with a modified Canon XSI camera with a Canon 50mm lens set at f/3.5, ISO 1600 and exposed for 75 seconds, Celestron Advanced GT mount.
The original image was "over exposed" but I have discovered that that isn't always a bad thing in astrophotography of dim objects. When one "over-exposes" it is easier to increase the contrast and draw more color out. However, I might have been a little over-zealous in this shot!

Preliminary Results from imaging Comet 46P/Wirtanen

To catch a comet!

It cleared up Monday night (Dec. 11, 2018) long enough for me to get a few images of Comet 46P/Wirtanen !

I am still processing them but here is a sneak peak:

November 15, 2018 NGC 2175 The Rosetta Nebula (first effort)

Under less than ideal skies
Imaged with Canon T3i
250mm lens @ f/5.6
ISO 3200 - 6 frames stacked with DSS = 11 minutes total
(due to insufficient exposures and time this is the poor result)

November 15, 2018 M 42 The Orion Nebula & the Running Man Nebula FIRST CHANCE!

Imaged with Canon T3i (unmodded)
250mm f/5.6 (cropped)
ISO 3200 - 10

frames stacked with DSS = 19 minutes total

November 15, 2018 M 33 Triangulum Galaxy

Imaged with Canon T3i (unmodded)
250mm lens @ f/5.6  ISO 3200
6 exposures stacked with DSS = 12 minutes total

Full frame:

Cropped:

November 15, 2018 M 45 - The Pleiades

Imaged with Canon T3i (unmodded)
250mm  f/5.6  (image cropped 50%)
ISO 1600   5 image subs = 22 minutes
Stacked with DSS