Latest Whirlpool Galaxy - M51

The latest image of M51 taken over 4 nights

Scope: Sky Watcher ED80 DS Pro
Mount: Celestron Advanced GT mount
Camera: Altair Astro Hypercam 183C
Guide cam: QHY 5L-II-C
Guide software: PHD2 

Total of 6h 22m exposures comprising:

34 x 3m 28s Lights & Darks
25 x 3m 39s Lights & Darks 
10 x 5m 54s Lights & Darks
10 x 5m 34s Lights & Darks
10 x 5m 49s Lights & Darks 

Stacked in DSS, processed in Photoshop Elements.

Last Orion Nebula for the 2018-19 season

This will be my last image of the Orion Nebula for the 2018-19 season, it's now disappearing behind nearby houses and every night it gets a little further west and the sky gets a little brighter. I decided to concentrate on this one object over a period of 5 nights rather than a single night and it has paid off in getting a much smoother image.

Scope: Sky Watcher ED80 DS Pro
Mount: Sky Watcher CG4 motorised with modified controller for guiding.
Camera: Altair Astro Hypercam 183C
Guide cam: QHY 5L-II-C
Guide software: PHD2 

166 x 2 min plus 41 x 1 min exposures. 

Stacked in DSS and finished in PS Elements.

Pleiades 1962 to 2019

A few weeks ago a friend gave me a book on astronomy published in 1962, in it was an image of the Pleiades. Luckily it was of a similar scale to my images, so as an experiment I overlayed and aligned one of my images with a scan from the book and it shows some stars that have moved in the intervening 57 years.

The alignment isn't perfect but the stars that move do so contra to others nearby so must be real. The image with the spikes on the big star (Alcyone) is from 1962 overlaying my image from 2019 with a 50% transparency. Play it full screen and take a look at the stars at the top, left of centre. Look closely and you'll see others that also seem to have moved.

Latest Pleiades

The latest image of the Pleiades. There's a bit more detail and colour graduation in the nebulosity than in previous images.

Scope: Sky Watcher ED80 DS Pro
Mount: Sky Watcher CG4 motorised with modified controller for guiding.
Camera: Altair Astro Hypercam 183C
Guide cam: QHY 5L-II-C
Guide software: PHD2

25 x 5min Light
24 x 5 Min Dark 
24 Flats

Stacked in DSS, processed in Photoshop Elements and GIMP.

M78 - Diffuse Nebula

First attempt at this object, or rather a collection of ojects, M78 (Brightest part), NGC2071, NGC2067, NGC2064 and McNeil's Nebula.

Scope: Sky Watcher ED80 DS Pro
Mount: Sky Watcher CG4 motorised with modified controller for guiding.
Camera: Altair Astro Hypercam 183C
Guide cam: QHY 5L-II-C
Guide software: PHD2

22 x 5min Light
22 x 5 Min Dark 
22 Flats

Stacked in DSS, processed in Photoshop Elements and GIMP.

Not a great image, it would benefit from more subs.

Latest Flame and Horsehead

A new image of the Flame and Horsehead in Orion

Scope: Sky Watcher ED80 DS Pro
Mount: Sky Watcher CG4 motorised with modified controller for guiding.
Camera: Altair Astro Hypercam 183C
Guide cam: QHY 5L-II-C
Guide software: PHD2

24 x 5min Light
24 x 5 Min Dark 
24 Flats

Stacked in DSS, processed in Photoshop Elements, GIMP and Photoshop Express for iPad.

A windy night but PHD2 did a great job keeping the image stable with not a single lost sub.

Lunar Eclipse 21/01/2019

With considerable cloud cover seeing wasn't great. As the onset of totality arrived the skies clearded for a short time.

Camera: Pentax K-S2
Lens: Tamron: LD DI 70-300mm zoom, set at 300mm, F4
ISO: 1600
Exposure 2"

Just before totality

About mid point of totality