Comet 45P Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova

Last evening I caught a comet 45P (Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova) near the horizon (altitude <10 degrees).
It seems that comet's magnitude is about 7.5m.

Date/Time: 2016-12-30 ~17:23(UT+2)
Place: Kyiv

Crop 5x5 degrees

Canon EOS 600D + EF 50mm F/1.8 @2.5; 10 frames by 2s, ISO=800; Processed in DSS[20 offsets, 20 darks] + FITSwork4

Annotated picture (by nova.astrometry.net):

Full Moon Corona

Full Moon last night [13-Dec-2016] surrounded by corona -- an optical phenomenon, which appears when light transmits through thin clouds.

[Canon EOS 600D + EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II. ISO 100; exposure 1/2s; F/5; focal length 146mm]

Animation (approximately 10 seconds):

Gamma Cygni Region

A star Gamma Cygni (Sadr) is a supergiant surrounded by a complex of emission nebulas. It is catalogized as IC1318 (Butterfly Nebula) 

Canon EOS600D with Jupiter37A lens (a Soviet clone of Carl Zeiss Sonnar 135 f/3.5) @F/5.6 on motorized EQ5.

45 frame x 120 sec (ISO 800) + 23 darks + 23 offsets + 11flats.

Processed with IRIS, FITStacker, AstraImage, NoiseWare.

Kyiv (Osokorky district)

7,28x4,23 deg

Gamma Cygni -- a supergiant star -- is in the center of the image. The Butterfly emission nebula is above it.
The Crescent Nebula NGC 6888 is also visible to the bottom-left from the center: it is an outer shell of Wolf–Rayet star which is blown away by the intensive stellar wind.

9,18x6,06 deg

Annotated image (nova.astrometry.net)

[UPDATED]

Another threatment:

NGC 7789 "Caroline's Rose" open cluster

The cluster in a contellation Cassiopeia is named for Caroline Herschel who discovered it in 1783.

It lies about 8000 light-years away.

Kyiv (Osokorky district)

Angular size of the image is 2.14 x 2.14 deg

Canon EOS 600D + Jupiter37A (old clone of Sonnar 135 f/3.5) @f/5.6 on motorized EQ5; ISO=800; 19x120sec; 11 darks, 11 biases, 7 flats. IRIS+FITStacker+FSWorks4+RawTherapee+PixInsightLE

Wide-field view (captured with EF-S 18-55mm lens @18mm). A position of the above picture is depicted by the yellow square.

NGC7000: North America Nebula

Last night: the first trial of Jupiter37A lens (a Soviet clone of Carl Zeiss Sonnar 135 f/3.5) with Canon EOS 600D on motorized EQ5.

71 frame x 60 sec + 25 darks + 25 offsets;  F/4; ISO 800.

Calibration and adjustment in IRIS, stacking with FITStacker, color and gamma-correction: FITStacker, then some post-processing with FITSwork4, RawTherapee, NoiseWare.

M27 "Dumbbell" planetary nebula in Vulpecula (2)

Planetary nebula Messier M27: a remnant of a dead star (hot star's nucleus which transformed into white dwarf is visible in the center). Linear size of the nebula is several light years so our Solar System would be less than a pixel in this scale.

The picture is a result of processing 108 frames (60sec each) captured during three nights this summer.
Setup: Canon EOS 600D + EF-S f/4-5.6 55-250mm IS II standard lens @250mm, f/7 on motorized EQ5.
A stack of 108 frames + offsets + darks + flats was calibrated and aligned using IRIS, then stacked with FITStacker, and post processed with FITSwork4 and RawTherapee.

M57 Remastered

This is an image of Messier 57 nebula obtained using frames captured in the night from 16 to 17 of June 2016 with Canon EOS 600D + Canon EF-S F/4-5.6 55-250mm IS II lens (@ 250mm; F/7) fixed at EQ5 motorized mount.

The nebula is a remnant of a star, which ended active life and expelled its outer layers. A core of the dead star -- a white dwarf -- could be hardly distinguished in the center of the nebula.

Greenish color of the nebula is caused by double-ionized oxygen; a reddish color of outer layers corresponds to hydrogen and ionized nitrogen. A density of glowing gas is very small yet many times denser than interstellar medium.

Estimated size of the nebula is about a light-year, a distance to it is ~2300 light-years.

The previous image was made using DeepSkyStacker: good yet not perfect program. This picture (which is definitely more realistic) is a result of stacking of 40 frames (30s exposure each) using FITStacker program. Images were calibrated and aligned using IRIS (15 offsets, 15 darks, and 15 flats were used for calibration).

M51 "Whirlpool" Remastered

A double-galaxy in Canis Venatici

This is a result of stacking frames captured during two nights: from 8 to 9 of Jul + from 13 to 14 of Jul. Signal-to-Noise ratio is somewhat better than in the previous image.

A pair of intensively interacting galaxies are in the image; it is supposed that the main galaxy and its smaller companion have already passed by or through each other. The smaller galaxy (which probably was an ordinary spiral) has lost its arms and is significantly disrupted.

Canon EOS 600D + EF-S 55-250 f/4-5.6 55-250mm IS II + EQ5

102 light frames in total (98*30sec + 4*120sec)

Last edition on 2016-07-16; IRIS: calibration, stacking using FITStacker12; postprocessing: FITSwork4, RawTherapee; noise reducing: Noiseware Community Edition

The galaxy is located near star Alkaid of Ursa Major. Borders of the picture are depicted in the following photo (which I captured in Spring of 2014):

M51 "Whirlpool" Galaxy

M51 "Whirlpool" Galaxy in Canes Venatici, at a distance of about 30 million light years from us, is swallowing its smaller companion.
The companion probably was an ordinary spiral galaxy before the clash, now it's lost many of its stars and interstellar clouds (a portion of them created a faint bridge between galaxies).
The main galaxy is smaller than our own Milky Way (is about 2/3 of it) while it is brighter because of many hot young stars have been forming as a result of the collision.

Canon EOS 600D + EF-S 55-250 f/4-5.6 55-250mm IS II + EQ5.

49 frames by 60sec, f/7, ISO 800; 15 darks, 15 bias, 15 flats. The picture is cropped. Processed with IRIS, FITSwork4, RawTherapee.

M101 "Pinwheel" Galaxy

Messier 101 "Pinwheel" Galaxy in Ursa Major

This is one of so-called "grand-design spiral galaxies" with well-defined spiral arms. The galaxy is located at a distance of about 20 million light years, it is somewhat bigger than our Milky Way. An estimated number of stars it M101 is about 1 trillion.

Two dwarf galaxies are also seen in the photo: NGC 5474 in the upper-left corner and quite dimmed NGC 5477 to the upper-right from the M101 (see an annotated picture beneath). They are both gravitationally-bound satellites of Pinwheel.

The image was obtained using Canon EOS 600D camera with EF-S f/4-5.6 55-250mm II IS lens @250mm and f/6.4. The camera was fixed on an EQ5 motorized mount.
52 individual frames (60sec each) were calibrated and stacked using IRIS (13 offsets, 13 darks, and 13 flats were used). FITSwork4 and RawTherapee were also used. The image is cropped.

M13 Globular Cluster in Hercules

Globular cluster M13 captured using Canon EOS 600D + EF-S F/4-5.6 55-250mm @250mm and F/7. The camera was put on EQ5 motorized mount.

The cluster's diameter is about 145 light years; it is composed of about half million stars and is distanced more than 25000 light years from Earth (according to Wikipedia).

M27 Nebula

M27 Nebula

A picture was taken in the night from 19 to 20 of June under very bad conditions: full Moon plus haze. Taking into account that clear nights are quite rare phenomena this spring and summer here in Kyiv, I tried to make the picture even under such an unfavorable situation.

Setup: Canon EOS 600D + EF-S f/4-5.6 55-250mm IS II on EQ5 (unguided).

There were 43 individual frames (32 sec each) which were averaged using DeepSkyStacker (with 15 darks and 15 offsets). Then the result was processed with FITStacker (gamma correction, gradient background removing), RawTherapee, NeatImage (noise reduction) and, finally, was slightly modofied using FSViewer including 50% shrinking (there was 2x drizzling in DSS so now the image has its original resilution).

Ring Nebula M57

Night from 16 to 17 of June was almost clear. Humidity was extremely high, lens became steamed up quickly so I used a hairdryer to warm it up.  Near midnight stars had been dimmed by a haze.

This was the second test of my new EQ-5 mount with motor drives. It was used as a sky-tracker which holds Canon EOS 600D DSLR.

I chose M57 nebula for test capture. I made 40 light frames in total with exposure of 30 sec each (qDSLRdashboard Android application was used to control the camera). Canon EF-S F/4-5.6 55-250mm IS II lens was used at 250mm focal length and F/7 stop (to reduce optical aberrations).
Frames were averaged with DeepSkyStacker (using 15 dark frames, 15 offset frames, and 16 flats). Darks and offsets were captured right after the main session, flats were captured next morning.

The result (1x1 arcdegree crop) is shown below, 4x zoomed part is in the inset.

Ring Nebula (Messier 57) is a planetary nebula: a gas shell ejected by a star at the end of its active life. A size of the nebula is about a light year, an estimated distance to it is ~2300 light years. The nebula glows because a star's remnant (white dwarf) in the center of it ionizes atoms which compose the expanding shell. A blue-green color of inner parts of the nebula caused by an emission of double-ionized oxygen, reddish color of outer layers caused by hydrogen and ionized nitrogen emission lines.

Mars through 65mm Newtonian Again

After a cloudy day, the sky became clear near midnight (night from 28 to 29 of May).
I brought my small telescope (65mm Newtonian) to my backyard and recorded a couple of movies in eyepiece projection using Canon IXUS 132 compact camera.
Here is an average of 70% of 5300 frames from a movie. I used PIPP, Autostakkert2, RegiStax6 for main processing and FSViewer for cosmetic.

Kyiv, 28-May-2016 ~23:57 (UT+3)

[updated 30-May-2016: some RGB align using Registax]

Mars orientation (according to calsky.org):

Central Meridian = 71*

The Sun and Other Objects

Last Saturday (21 May 2016 @~18:48 (UT+3)) I made a picture of the Sun using Canon EOS 600D camera with common ES-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II lens (BAADER Astrosolar film was used as a sunfilter).
A rather big sunspot is visible in a disk of the Sun. To emphasize a size of the spot I put my old image of Jupiter (taken with small 65mm Newtonian + Canon IXUS 132 compact camera) near the spot with the same scale (linear sizes of the planet and the Sun were taken from Wikipedia).
To the left of Jupiter is an image of Earth (from Google Earth, also in the same scale -- it could be simple blue ball because almost no details are visible at such scaling)

The picture is a result of an averaging of 10 individual frames processed with PIPP, AS2, Registax6.
Initial frames were captured at the following conditions:
ISO=100
F=1/11
Exp=1/4000s

Mars through 65mm Newtonian

There was a clear night (it's rare for this spring in Kyiv) from 21 to 22 of May. The Moon was full.

Despite relatively bad seeing I tried to catch Mars image using my ultra-simple setup (65mm Newtonian on an azimuthal mount + Canon IXUS 132 compact camera).

A short movie was recorded at ~00:35 (UT+3) [22-May-2016]. It was processed using PIPP, AS2, and Registax6. Some final operations were made with FSViewer.

I did not expect to see many details (if any), however near the South pole Mare Sirenum could be distinguished (bottom right), probably covered by clouds (they seem to be visible also at the limb).

Mars' poles are positioned like in the scheme below:

According to Stellarium 0.12.1, a visible diameter of the planet was 18"; altitude (at the time of capturing) was ~18 degree.

Mercury Transit across the Sun -- continued

Today (9 May 2016) a quite rare phenomenon occurred: a transit of Mercury across the Sun.
Here is an animation of four subsequent frames with an interval of about half an hour between.
A small moving spot is Mercury, other features on Sun's disk are sunspots.

Before stacking, Sun's images were manually aligned (rotated) using the first frame as a reference; angle of rotation was determined by sunspots. Of course, such an alignment is quite approximate.
(Sun orientation itself is arbitrary)

The picture beneath is a result of processing of 5 frames shotted at ~15:03 (UT+2).

ISO=100; F/11; 1/4000s (5 frames of 10). Processing: PIPP (10 frames); Autostakkert2 (5 frames of 10); RegiStax6 (wavelets, contrast, gamma); AstraImage (adaptive filter); FSViewer (rotation, cropping, zooming).

See also time-lapse video of a beginning of the transit:

Part of the video, processed with PIPP+Autostakkert2+Registax6:

Mercury Transit across the Sun

Today (9 May 2016) I tried to capture a transit of Mercury across the Sun.
This is the best picture obtained during the session (I used Canon EOS 600D with EF-S 55-250mm IS II on a tripod. A solar filter was made from BAADER AstroSolar film.
An initial sequence of 60 frames captured between 15:16 and 15:18 (UT+3) was processed by PIPP, then 18 frames were selected manually; 50% of them (9 frames) were stacked using AutoStakkert2. Postprocessing was performed in AstraImage (deconvolution etc.).

(Sun orientation is arbitrary)

See also time-lapse video of a beginning of the transit:

Comet 252P/LINEAR: continued

The comet is substantially dimmer than it was in the beginning of April. Nevertheless, it is much brighter than expected (~18m by http://theskylive.com/comets?s=252p).

2016-05-01 23:36-23:44 (UT+3)
Kyiv (Osokorky)

The comet is near the center, a bright star to the left is Alpha Ophiuchi.
An open cluster IC 4665 is visible near the bottom edge, to the left of the center, close to Beta Ophiuchi.
Image size is 15 x 15 deg (by nova.astrometry.net).
Actually, we only see an inner part of comet's coma. The comet itself is quite diffuse, outer parts of coma are too faint to be visible in the image taken in the light-polluted area with short exposures.

Canon EOS 600D + EF 50mm f/1.8 II; ISO3200; F/2.8; 73x3s.
Processing: DSS; FITStacker; RawTherapee; NeatImage; FSViewer.

The Sun #3

Another shot of the Sun made in the approaching of Mercury transit.

27 Apr 2016 ~14:37-14:39 (UT+3)

Setup: Canon EOS 600D + EF-S 55-250 f/4-5.6 @250mm on tripod.

Self-made sun-filter from BAADER AstroSolar film was used.

Parameters: ISO 100; f/11; 1/4000s (50 frames)

Processing: PIPP, AutoStakkert2 (26 of 50 frames), AstraImage, RawTherapee.

The Sun #2

Sun today (24 Apr 2016 at ~14:26-14:30 (UT+3))
A new group of spots appears today (not visible in the yesterday images). A faculae field is visible near limb in the upper-left.
There were light clouds while capturing (which, probably, caused shadows on Sun's disk)

Canon EOS 600D + EF-S 55-250 f/4-5.6 IS II @250mm on tripod
ISO=100; F/9; 1/4000
PIPP, Autostakkert2 (27 frames of 56), Registax6 (wavelets), AstraImage (filter)

Later at ~18:07-18:09 (UT+3)

ISO=100; F/7; 1/4000s
PIPP, Autostakkert2 (46 frames of 60), AstraImage (deconvolution, filter)

The Sun

The Sun today (23 Apr 2016) at 13:23 (UT+3). Kyiv (Osokorky).

Captured with Canon EOS 600D + EF-S 55-250 f/4-5.6 IS II at 250mm with sun-filter made from BAADER AstroSolar film.
14 individual frames were stacked (using PIPP+Autostakkert2), deconvolution was made using AstraImage.
Frames were captured at ISO 100; F/13; shutter speed 1/4000s.

The next image is a result of stacking of 34 frames (ISO 100; F/7; 1/4000s) captured at ~16:20 (UT+3)

The spot:

The setup:

Mercury Again

Mercury on 20 Apr 2016 at 21:10 (UT+3)
Kyiv, South Bridge

Canon EOS 600D + EF 50mm f/1.8 II; ISO=200; F/2.8; Exp 2s; crop

Processed with RawTherapee, NeatImage, FSViewer.

Mercury over South Bridge #2

Mercury over South Bridge, Kyiv

2016-04-18 21:18 (UT+3)

See also YouTube video (20:54-21:45)

Mercury over South Bridge

Mercury on 17 Apr 2016 at 21:06 (UT +3) over South Bridge, Kyïv.

... and few minutes before (21:02)

Comet 252P/LINEAR #2

The comet this morning just before dawn (last frames were actually captured at twilight) is in front of Ophiuchus.
Place: Kyïv (Osokorky)
Time: 2016-04-12 04:55-04:59(UT+2).

Equipment: Canon 600D + EF 50mm f/1.8 on tripod; 50x3,2s; f/2.5; ISO=3200.

Processing: DSS, FITStacker, RawTherapee, FSViewer.

Size (by nova.astrometry.net) is 16.5 x 11 deg.

Here is zoomed part of the image (2x2 degree)

Comet 252P/LINEAR (remastered)

Image of a comet 252P/LINEAR captured on 5 Apr remastered.
150 frames (3.2s each) were processed in DSS using bigger region (resulted image size is 14.8x8.34 degrees). Gradient background was removed using FITStacker, final processing was made using FSViewer, NeatImage, and RawTherapee.
Except the comet, several deep sky objects are visible in the image: globular clusters M14 (to the upper left-left of the comet), M10 (in the upper-right corner of the picture), and NGC 6366 (dim spot to the right of the comet). According to nova.astrometry.net, a size of the picture is 14.8 x 8.34 deg.

*** Image updated on 2016-04-15: contrast enchanced ***

Comet 252P/LINEAR

Comet 252P/LINEAR last night from Kyiv (Osokorky). While sky was clear, substantial atmospheric  haze dims stars. Comet is quite visually bright while its predicted magnitude is low (expected ~14m only; last visual observations give brightness ~6m [cometbase.net]). Fuzzy orange "star" to the upper-left of the comet is globular cluster M14.
The comet is periodic (orbital period 5.33 years). This is near-Earth object, it passes quite close both Earth and Jupiter (Earth-Jupiter family comet). In the past, it probably was Jupiters Troyan.

Time: 2016-04-05 (4:24-4:36 UT+3).
Angular size of the image is 4x4 degree (by nova.astrometry.net).
Canon EOS 600D + EF 50mm f/1.8 II on tripod.
150 frames by 3.2s; f/2.5; ISO=3200

The image was made in two steps: initial 150 frames (3.2s) where groupped by 10 and stacked in DSS, then resulted 15 frames where stacked again with alignment by the comet.
To be honest, result with alignment by the comet differs a little from result made using alignment by stars.
Resulted image was treated with FITStacher (background subtraction and gamma-correction) and then postprocessed in RawTherapee.

Mars, Saturn and Antares

At the end of the night before dawn (on 27 of  March) I captured three bright celestial bodies: two planets (red Mars on the upper-right, Saturn on the left) and Antares (the brightest star in the Scorpius; in the picture it is in the bottom corner of the triangle). The name Antares is derived from the Ancient Greek word which means "equal to-Ares" = "equal to-Mars". It is called so because of its reddish color (like Mars).

The picture was shooted while unsuccessful hunting of the comet 252P/LINEAR. I found out later that the comet is quite diffuse so it is hardly to register especially when sky is partially covered by clouds.

C/2014 S2 PANSTARRS in Draco

2016-03-26 ~19:42-19:57(UT+2); Kyiv

Image angular size: 5x5 degrees (by nova.astrometry.net).

Comet is in the center of an image: small green spot.

According to cometbase.net, apparent magnitude of the comet was about 9.7m

Canon EOS 600D + EF 50mm f/1.8 II on tripod
105x3.2s; f/2.5; ISO=800
DSS, FITStacker, RawTherapee.

Iridium 95 Flare

Iridium flare 21-Mar-2016 at 20:12:19 (UT+2) from Kyiv (Osokorky)

Canon EOS 600D + EF-S 18-55mm at 18mm; 60s; ISO=100; f/6.3

Maps from heavens-above.com: