After a few hit-or-miss attempts at Mars during the few clear nights we’ve had this fall, I decided to go back to hunting down galaxies, nebulas, and star clusters. Triangulum is a early fall favourite, rising high in the sky while the nights begin to dramatically lengthen. Along with Andromeda, M33 is anticipated to merge […]
Mars Opposition & Close Approach
When I purchased my new Celestron 9.25 EdgeHD and CGX mount in early August, I figured 2 months was plenty of time for it to arrive just in time for Mars opposition. I never have been one for planetary photography (good thing now, trees block them most of the time) but I was keen to […]
The Veil / Filamentary Nebula
I’m winding down my time with my Celestron 8″ SCT as new gear has begun to show up. With the Veil Nebula high in the sky, it’s a great time to shoot this Oxygen (green) and Hydrogen (Red) tendrils of this supernova remnant. Taken over 3 nights, September 20-22th 2020. 28 x 180 second exposures […]
Messier 26
Messier 16: The Eagle Nebula
Details to come.
M17: The Swan or Omega Nebula
Pinwheel Galaxy in Widefield
After several nights of frustration with nebula near the Milky Way, I decided to look to the North Western sky and an old favourite, the Pinwheel Galaxy Messier 101. Taken with the widefield RedCat51, 2 minute exposures with the autoguider gave pinpoint stars with lots and lots of colour. You can clearly see it’s companion […]
The Heart Nebula NGC 1795
The Cygus Wall & North America Nebula
Now that Galaxy Season is largely behind us, I’ve put away the Celestron 8″ SCT and installed the RedCat 51 on my AVX mount. For the next few weeks, I’m going widefield to capture much larger objects. It’s been a year since I added the deck onto the cottage and began to really explore the […]
VdB 141: The Ghost Nebula
For the third night of gloriously clear skies I attempted another new object: VdB 141: The Ghost Nebula. This one is particularly faint, with the “arms” of the ghost a dull brown. The “head” is the reflection of dust from the nebula’s central star. Technically, it’s part of the NGC 7023 cluster, which includes the […]