Canadian Skies

Last week I went on a fishing trip to Pine Island Lodge. The lodge is located on a small island on the Winnipeg River in Canada. Although the main focus was fishing with the family (it was great fishing, I caught a 39" Northern Pike and Kim earned a Master Angler certificate for Smallmouth Bass), I also realized the skies were going to be dark and with no moon. So naturally I brought my "grab & go" astrophoto rig -- the Canon XSI and AstroTrac mount.

My travel rig fits neatly into a backpack and into the overhead bin on the plane, while the tripod stows in the checked bag. Fortunately, I was not given any grief by security (the AstroTrac might take some explaining).

One thing I learned about being this far north in the summer -- it only gets dark between about 12:30am to 3:30am. So I woke up around 1:30 and shot for about an hour. I wanted to get the Milky Way over the Winnipeg River, so I fought mosquitoes to get this single exposure (2 min) shot.

I then noticed the Big Dipper parked nicely over one of the cabins, so I shot another 2 min exposure.

Once I got home I got a big surprise...

Notice anything interesting about these shots? Although they were too faint to see naked eye, I picked-up the Northern Lights! They were faint but definitely there. I processed the Milky Way image first and thought the odd green cloud might be the aurora but was unsure. But when I saw the cabin image it was obvious.

Anyway, a really great trip and a nice surprise upon returning home!

Spelunking

Here is my image of the Cave Nebula in the constellation Cepheus. Why is it called the Cave? Hell if I know. Apparently somebody saw a "cave" in here somewhere. I'm expecting there to be a whole slew of Michael Jackson nebulae catalogued soon.

Anyway, I shot this image last month (the same trip as my previous 2 images). I did not really have quite enough data to pull all of the detail I wanted, but it is still pretty. I must adopt a bit more patience and spread my imaging of these faint targets over several nights. But it is hard! The sky is filled with so many cool objects I want to see more! Ah, but just looking at some other images of this target with 8 hours of data (compared to my measly 4) is motivation for patience -- they are very impressive.

My stats:

FSQ 106EDX f/5
STL-11000M -10C
Ha,L,R,G,B
45x60x50x30x50
Maxim, CCD Stack, CS3

Inside Rho

The Rho Ophiuchus area is HUGE, and this is only a "small" piece of it that fits in my field of view. As such, it almost feels like we are inside of it.

You may recall (or not) that I imaged an extremely WIDE field of this area along with the entire Scorpius constellation back in April -- my "Scorpius Rising" image. Anyway, this is a much tighter shot that focuses on some of the incredible dark and dusty nebulosity found there.

I had some issues collecting the data for this image (clouds, trees, gradients, tequila) but after a bit of processing I was able to arrive at something I like. Heck, I love it! Space is just so damned neato (feel free to quote me on that).

For fans of stats...

FSQ 106 EX f/5
STL 11000M -10C
L,R,G,B
100x10x15x15
Maxim, CCD Stack, CS3

Trifid & Lagoon

I know, I know... it sounds like a cop show. But this is actually the Trifid and Lagoon nebulae in Sagittarius, one of the summer highlights in the Milky Way. At a dark site, you can actually see these two naked eye (as little white smudges). But with longer exposure their colors burst forth!

This was my second outing with the new STL camera. Okay, I am officially impressed. Now I know why this camera has been a staple in astrophotography for a number of years. It is a tank and creates fabulous data.

I am still experimenting with my processing workflow, but seem to have hit a sweet spot by calibrating/aligning in Maxim, then data rejecting/combining in CCD Stack (and of course putting it all together in Photoshop CS3).

Here are da stats:

FSQ 106EDX f/5

STL-11000M -10C
Ha, L, R, G, B

50x90x50x25x50

Maxim, CCD Stack, CS3

Don't you love stats?

Gama Cygni -- First Light!

Well, I went and done it -- I went ahead and bought a "true" astro camera to compliment my FSQ scope. After learning the ropes with my little QHY8 one-shot color camera (a really nice little camera by the way) I decided to step-up to the "big league" with the STL-11000M camera from Santa Barbara Imaging Group.

The STL is mono large chip (11 megapixel) that images through a built-in filter wheel to record color data in a series of passes. Why mono? Well, the mono chips are much more sensitive, and separate color passes provide much greater fidelity (think composite video vs. component video). Also this camera has much deeper wells than the QHY8, which translates into increased dynamic range, for resolving all those faint details. It also has programmable cooling and other features.

Processing the LRGB images (separate Luminance, Red, Green, Blue) is much more daunting than simple one-shot color. There is at least 4 times as much data, and additional calibration frames are a must. But the end results speak for themselves. Although this image is a quick test, I am already excited about the differences I am seeing in the data (and you know you're a nerd when "data" excites you).

This image is from the Gamma Cygni region in the Cygnus constellation. It is a large complex of Hydrogen Emission nebulosity. Hence, I shot my luminance data through the HA filter of my new camera (another boon to this type of camera -- just program the filter wheel to whatever filter you want, then bang away).

Anyway, this is my "first light" image -- the first time this camera has seen starlight. This is also my first attempt at using a new program to process my data (CCD Stack), and of course the first time I have tackled a LRGB image. But I must say, I am very happy with my progress thus far (and yes, it is also a bit nerdy to say "thus").

Image stats:

FSQ 106EDX f/5
STL-11000m -13C
Ha,R,G,B
60x10x10x10
CCD Stack, Cs3

Milky Way Over Atoka

The Texas Astronomical Society had a "work party" at their dark site in Atoka, OK about a week ago to do some maintenance. I went up to lend a hand (and eat some damn fine pork ribs).

It was hot during the day, but cooled off nice at night. There were high clouds, but once the moon set (around midnight) the clouds disappeared and the skies were awesome.

It is always worth the trip to a dark site to see the Milky Way rise. That bright "star" on the horizon is Jupiter. I got some great views of the ol' gas giant through a club member's TEC 160 refractor -- nice!

This image is a simple 60 sec exposure taken with my Nikon D80 on a fixed tripod.

My Mexican Hat

Here is the famous Sombrero Galaxy (also known as M104). This galaxy was discovered in 1781 and has been a favorite for generations. It is a great example of a "lens-shaped" galaxy and has a dense accretion disc that is beautifully silhouetted by over 400 billion stars.

I captured the light of these 400 billion suns at the recent TSP.

LX200 10" f/6.7
QHY8 camera
21 x 10 min
Maxim, CS3