Orion Nebula

An evening of 19th of January 2017 was clear, so I caught the first deep sky image in the new year!

I brought my motorized EQ5 to my backyard, put Canon EOS 600D (with Jupiter 37A lens) on it and captured a series of frames up to full discharge of Canon's battery (an outside temperature was -6*C approximately). I managed to capture 27 lights (about half of them with the best quality I used for image creation).

The target was the Great Orion Nebula (M42). This is my second attempt to catch the Nebula.

Calibration and alignment of 13x120s light frames were made using IRIS (7 darks, 7 offsets, and 7 flats were used for calibration). Calibrated frames were stacked using FITStacker. Gamma-correction and initial color balance were done in FITStacker too. Then the resulted png image was post-processed in RawTherapee (additional level and color balance); image noise was reduced in NeatImage. The resulted jpeg image was slightly fitted by FSViewer. The image is cropped (see the second one for full version).

Full (uncropped) image.
The same set of frames processed in DeepSkyStacker (calibration, alignment, stacking). Then the stacked result was treated by FITStacker (gamma-correction, initial color balance). Post-processing was done in RawTherapee (additional level and color balance) and NeatImage (noise reduction).

Annotated version of images (by nova.astrometry.net)

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.