M 27 under a First Quarter Moon

Well, it has been a while since I last posted, mostly due to cloudy skies and rain. But last night I used my Celestron NexStar 6i scope to image the Moon which is now past "First Quarter" (I will post it later).

But typically I don't image dim deep sky objects (galaxies, nebula, etc) because of the bright moonlit sky. But just for the fun of it I slewed the scope to M 27, aka the Dumbbell Nebula. In my enthusiasm I did not connect the autoguide scope so I was only able to get 10 second exposures without star smearing. Using 6400 iso on my Canon T3i camera I took a single image...dark, almost nothing there (as I expected).

The second shot below is the same shot but merely lightened... UUGGH!  Lots of grain and you can barely see the nebula...

However, in the desire to have some fun I started taking 118 of these 10 second shot (yes, that is a lot of pics!) and gave it a go using DeepSkyStacker to integrate them. The result... ok, the graininess is gone but nothing to write home about yet...

But now for the "magic" of post-processing to bring out detail and color that you can't see easily!
After post-processing with Luminar 2018... WOW! Who would have thought! Here is a "before and after" post-processing screen capture:

Now for the BIG REVEAL:

M 27  aka The Dumbbell Nebula

WOW! Total integration time: just under 20 minutes of overall exposure time, some time with post-processing and, well, there it is!

By the way, this was taken with an unmodified stock Canon T3i. There is a lot more red available but I would need to use a modified camera without the standard infrared filter. Maybe later...

Lesson:
So, even if you can only get short exposures with astrophotography due to the limitations of the light of the Moon, poor guiding, etc... go ahead, get A LOT OF THEM and you just might be surprised by what you get after post-processing the final image!

First Light (imaging-wise) on M 32 with a Celestron C6 scope!

M 32 Andromeda Galaxy.

"First Light" with a Celestron C6 scope. Since this scope is naturally f/10, I added a focal reducer to the scope to drop it down to f/6.3, which both abbreviated the exposure times and widened the field of view to include more of the galaxy. I was concerned that my ZWO guide camera and scope might not be powerful enough to guide properly but it guided very well (and even did without the focal reducer.) Here's the data on the image above:

Date - August 27 Time - 11 pm
Weather - Clear Temp - 58*F Humidity 42%
Camera - T3i unmodded
Scope - Celestron 6 inch SCT with focal reducer
ISO - 800
Frames - 5
Exposure time each - about 7 minutes
Total integration time - 35 minutes
Stacked - DeepSkyStacker
Post-processed - Luminar 3

To The MOON !

The Moon doesn't get the respect it ought at times... it's brightness overwhelms the fainter "prettier" objects in the night sky. But it is there, beckoning to be paid some attention to. So last night, with high clouds pushing in I gave it some love.
First of all, an HDR image of it. HDR stands for "high dynamic range" photography. One takes a few under-exposed shots, some normal exposure shots and some over-exposed shots. Then a HDR program aligns and puts them all together. Of course, I pushed it beyond what one normally sees but this is HDR, you know.
DATA: Meade LX200GPS 8" telescope, Canon T3i camera. Prime focus. Post processed with Aurora HDR 2019 software.

Then I used the movie mode of the Canon camera, with its ability to zoom in on specific areas of the Moon to create some short movie clips. As you know, movies are nothing more than individual photos presented in rapid succession to create the illusion of movement.

Software can take those individual shots, find the sharpest ones and stack them for the best possible capture. Then another bit of software can sharpen it up even more!

There are times as the Sun's light moves across the Moon, that certain features stand out better than at other times. Last night the illusion was of an "X" on the terminator (edge) of the light/dark of the Moon.

Here it is up close!

Messier 13 Hercules globular star cluster

M 13

Three clear nights in a row! Messier 13, the Hercules globular star cluster.
Data: Meade LX200GPS 8", focal reducer, Canon T3i camera.
Imaging: Four 120sec subs stacked (total 8 minutes) with DSS, iso800

The Whirlpool Galaxy after hours of frustration

M 51 The Whirlpool Galaxy

After 21 days of rain and clouds I was able to reopen the obs and get back to astro-imaging. However, I had to waste nearly 3 hours trying to figure out why my Meade LX200GPS 8" telescope would not accept commands from both Cartes du Ciel (Star Chart) and PHD2 (guiding program). Frustrating. By the time I got it figured out it was well past midnight. Part of this is the consequence of lack of use for 3 weeks, part due to GPS issues with the government resetting their GPS satellites. So what images I did get were not worthy of posting. Last night I went out again, expecting to begin imaging early... but again issues kept me from imaging for well over an hour. Finally I was able to capture M 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy shown here. I used a Meade focal reducer/field flattener but I was not pleased with the soft focus result (even though I did focus it precisely). Data: Single shot of 16 minutes, Canon T3i, 1600 iso, no cropping. Taken 6/3/2019 at 11:30 pm PDT.

Success in autoguiding with the Meade LX200GPS 8" mount & M 64

M 64 aka the Blackeye Galaxy (cropped about 50%)

Taken last night with the Moon starting to flood the night sky with light. One hour of imaging with my Meade LX200GPS 8 inch telescope (12 images @ 5 minutes each = 60 minutes). DSS Live. Canon T3i @ 3200 iso. Image is cropped about 50%. Guided with ZWO ASI120MM-S, Meade 50mm scope and PHD2.

After some failure to get my computer to control the Meade mount, success at last!

The issue/problem was that I could get the mount to receive instructions/commands from one program (Cartes du Ciel) OR PHD2 (guiding program) but not both at the same time.
It turns out that the mount has two RS232 ports and by connecting (via serial/USB) each to the computer and having each program use a separate COM number, it works like a charm!
In fact, I have never gotten flatter PHD2 graphs... EVER! AWESOME!

A Lunar Conjunction with M 44, The Beehive, open star cluster

 Moon and M 44 (HDR & desaturated)

Moon and M 44 (HDR & in color)

Last night the Moon passed in front of an open star cluster known as "The Beehive" aka M 44. Those on the east coast of the USA (if they had no clouds) were able to capture it from beginning to end as the Moon moved from right to left. But for us here on the west coast of the USA, the Sun was only just setting.
However, I attempted to capture a few images of it though the sky was still not dark (about 9 pm PDT). By manipulating the exposures and finally by stacking them in HDR I was able to at least get a shot of the Moon existing the area of the cluster. The star cluster are those very faint stars to the right of the Moon. Enjoy!
Data: Daystar 480mm f/6.5 scope, Canon T3i (unmodded), Celestron AVX mount, ISO varied from 100 to 800, exposures varied from about 1/600th sec to 4 sec. Post processing using GIMP to layer, stack and adjust image.

The individual frames: