M27 - DumbBell Nebula - 20150917

The Dumbbell Nebula (also known as Apple Core Nebula, Messier 27, M 27, or NGC 6853) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1,360 light years.
This object was the first planetary nebula to be discovered; by Charles Messier in 1764. At its brightness of visual magnitude 7.5 and its diameter of about 8 arcminutes, it is easily visible in binoculars, and a popular observing target in amateur telescopes.

Images was captured at the 2015 Okie-Tex Star Party on September 17, 2015.  The scope used was an AT6RC mounted on a CI-700 mount and tripod.  The image was captured with an Orion StarShoot Pro II camera using Nebulosity 4 software.  Auto-guiding was preformed with a an 80mm fl 560mm scope suing PHD2.5 software. Preprocessing was done using Nebulosity 4 and finished using Photoshop CS5.  The images is made up of nine 10 minute sub-frames for a total of 90 minutes of data.

M42 - Orion Nebula - 20140825

The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated south^[ of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is located at a distance of 1,344 ± 20 light years^[3][6] and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. The M42 nebula is estimated to be 24 light years across. It has a mass of about 2000 times the mass of the Sun.  M42 is one of the most viewed and imaged deep space objects.

This image of M42 was shot the morning of  August 24 using an Orion StarShoot Pro Version II camera I borrowed from John Love, WD5IKZ. The camera was mounted to a Celestron C6N six inch Newtonian telescope.  The C6N was mounted on a Celestron CI-700 mount and tripod.  Auto guiding was preformed using an 80mm refractor with a Meade DSI Pro camera with PHD 2.3 software. The image is a combination of 6 five minute exposures.  The images were calibrated, stacked and combined using Nebulosity 3.2.1.  Final processing was done using Photoshop CS5. 

Lunar Eclipse - 20140415 - With Mars & Spica

Lunar Eclipse 20140415 image was taken at approximately 02:04 AM on April 15 from my backyard.  The cameras was a Canon T3i using a Canon 55-250mm f8 zoom lenses set to 55mm focal length.  The image is a single shot.  The camera was mounted on a camera tripod which lacks a lot to be desired in stability.  The two stars shown faintly in the image are: Spica, the star to the lower right of the Moon and Mars in the upper right of the image.  Click on the image to see a larger view.

Lunar Eclipse 20140415 - Sometimes Called "Blood Moon"

Lunar Eclipse 20140415 image was taken at approximately 02:01 AM on April 15 from my backyard.  The cameras was a Canon T3i using a Canon 55-250mm f8 zoom lenses set to 250mm focal length.  The image is a single shot.  The camera was mounted on a camera tripod which lacks a lot to be desired in stability.  The two stars shown faintly in the image are: Spica, the star to the lower right of the Moon and Virgo 76 the faint star to the upper left.  Click on the image to see a larger view.

Comet ISON - C/2012 S1

C/2012 S1, also known as Comet ISON or Comet Nevski–Novichonok, is a sungrazing comet discovered on 21 September 2012 by Vitali Nevski (Виталий Невский, Vitebsk, Belarus) and Artyom Novichonok (Артём Новичонок, Kondopoga, Russia).^[5] The discovery was made using the 0.4-meter (16 in) reflector of the International Scientific Optical Network near Kislovodsk, Russia and the automated asteroid-discovery program CoLiTec.

The image above was taken at the Eldorado Star Party the morning of November 2, 2013. The image is a combination of 15 two minute images taken with an Orion StarShoot DSII through a Celestron 6" f5 Newtonian scope.  Autoguiding was accomplished with a Meade DSI Pro camera through a 80mm f7 Refractor.  The mount used was a Celestron CI-700.  Capture, Preprocessing and calibration of the sub-frames was done using Nebulosity 3.  Final Processing was done using Photoshop CS5.  The star trails in the final image represent 44 minutes of elapsed time.  Seven sub-frames were thrown out of the 22 total images taken due to defects.

M27 - Dumbell Nebula- 20131001

The Dumbbell Nebula (also known as Apple Core Nebula, Messier 27, M 27, or NGC 6853) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1,360 light years.
This object was the first planetary nebula to be discovered; by Charles Messier in 1764. At its brightness of visual magnitude 7.5 and its diameter of about 8 arcminutes, it is easily visible in binoculars, and a popular observing target in amateur telescopes.

The images was taken at Okie-Tex Star Party on September 30, 2013.  The images is made up of 17 ten minute sub-frames combined .  Images were taken with an Orion Star Shoot DSI II color mounted on a Celestron 6" f5 Newtonian. Auto-guiding was accomplished with and 80mm f7 refractor piggybacked on the 6" Newtonian. The optical instruments were mounted on a Celestron CI-700. Calibration and pre-processing was done in Nebulosity 3.  Final processing was done using Photoshop CS5.

NGC7635 - Bubble Nebula - 20130930

NGC 7635, also called the Bubble Nebula, Sharpless 162, or Caldwell 11, is a H II region^[2] emission nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia. It lies close to the direction of the open cluster Messier 52. The "bubble" is created by the stellar wind from a massive hot, 8.7^[2] magnitude young central star, the 15 ± 5 M_☉^[4] SAO 20575 (BD+60 2522).^[7] The nebula is near a giant molecular cloud which contains the expansion of the bubble nebula while itself being excited by the hot central star, causing it to glow.^[7] It was discovered in 1787 by William Herschel.^[6] The star SAO 20575 or BD+602522 is thought to have a mass of 10-40 Solar masses.

The images was taken at Okie-Tex Star Party on September 30, 2013.  The images is made up of 2 ten minute sub-frames and4 five minute sub-frames combined .  Images were taken with an Orion Star Shoot DSI II color mounted on a Celestron 6" f5 Newtonian. Auto-guiding was accomplished with and 80mm f7 refractor piggybacked on the 6" Newtonian. The optical instruments were mounted on a Celestron CI-700. Calibration and pre-processing was done in Nebulosity 3.  Final processing was done using Photoshop CS5.