Emission, Reflection and Dark: Astrophotography by Dave Adshead

IC 1848 The Baby nebula

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:47:53 GMT

The Baby nebula in Cassiopeia also known as the Soul nebula, the catalogue designation IC 1848 actually refers to the open star cluster in the Baby's belly.

Constellation: Cassiopeia. Distance 7000 light years.
Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED f5 refractor at prime focus
Camera - Modified Canon 40D
Filter - Astronomik CLS
Autoguiding - TMB 80 mm f6 refractor, Starlight Express Lodestar camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.
Exposure - 32 x 300 seconds
Dark frames
Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquisition, aligning and stacking. Photoshop CS3 with Noel's Actions and Russell Croman's Gradient Xterminator.

Temperature 12° to 9° Celsius

NGC 6992 & 6995 The Face

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 13:20:25 GMT

The Face, a supernova remnant the eastern part of the Veil nebula in Cygnus.

Constellation: Cygnus. Distance 1,400 light years.
Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED f5 refractor at prime focus
Camera - Modified Canon 40D
Filter - Astronomik CLS
Autoguiding - TMB 80 mm f6 refractor, Starlight Express Lodestar camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.
Exposure - 36 x 300 seconds
Dark frames, Flats and Dark Flats used
Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquisition, aligning and stacking. Photoshop CS3 with Noel's Actions and Russell Croman's Gradient Xterminator.

Temperature 12° to 9° Celsius

NGC 7635 The Bubble nebula and M52 open star cluster

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:32:33 GMT

The Bubble nebula in Cassiopeia near to the boundary with the constellation Cepheus. The central star in the Bubble - actually it's just left of centre - is a powerful Wolf-Rayet star 40 times more massive than the sun. Its energy output and stellar winds have blown this gigantic bubble of ionised gas, 6 light years in diameter.

Constellation: Cassiopeia. Distance 7,500 light years.
Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED with Extender-Q 1.6X at f8
Camera - Modified Canon 40D
Filter - Astronomik CLS
Autoguiding - TMB 80 mm f6 refractor, Starlight Express Lodestar camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.
Exposure - 24 x 360 seconds
Dark frames, Flats and Dark Flats
Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquisition, aligning and stacking. Photoshop CS3 with Noel's Actions and Russell Croman's Gradient Xterminator.

Temperature 12° C to 9.6° C

vdB142 The Elephant's Trunk

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:19:20 GMT

The Elephant's trunk VdB142 or van den Berg 142 is a star forming region, because these type of regions have the look of a comet, they have been designated cometary globules. Actually this globule is within IC1396, a large emission nebula in the constellation of Cepheus, and that nebula doesn't even have a common name.

Constellation: Cepheus. Distance 2,500 light years.
Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED with Extender-Q 1.6X at f8
Camera - Modified Canon 40D
Filter - Astronomik CLS
Autoguiding - TMB 80 mm f6 refractor, Starlight Express Lodestar camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software. Exposure - 12 x 360 seconds
Dark frames.
Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquisition, aligning and stacking. Photoshop CS3 with Noel's Actions and Russell Croman's Gradient Xterminator.

Temperature 12° C to 9.6° C

The North America and Pelican nebulae

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:24:18 GMT

First light for modified Canon 40D.

Constellation: Cygnus. Distance 1,800 light years.
Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED f5 refractor at prime focus
Camera - Modified Canon 40D
Filter - Astronomik CLS
Autoguiding - TMB 80 mm f6 refractor, Starlight Express Lodestar camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.
Exposure - 29 x 300 seconds
Dark frames, Flats and Dark Flats used
Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquisition, aligning and stacking. Photoshop CS3 with Noel's Actions and Russell Croman's Gradient Xterminator.

Temperature 12¡ to 9¡ Celsius

IC5146 The Cocoon nebula

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:09:18 GMT

This is an emission and reflection nebula situated at the eastern end of multiple Barnard and Lynds dark nebula. Constellation: Cygnus. Distance 3,900 light years.

Picture of the month, home page of the Webb Deep Sky Society, 28th October, 2009

Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED f5 refractor fitted with Tak Reducer-QE 0.73x giving f3.6
Camera - Standard Canon 40D
Filter - Astronomik CLS
Acquisition - Canon EOS Utility
Autoguiding - TMB 80 mm f6 refractor, Starlight Express Lodestar guide camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.
Exposure - 30 x 300 secondsDarks used.
Software - Nebulosity for focus, aligning and stacking. Photoshop CS3 with Noel's Actions and Russell Croman's Gradient Xterminator.
Temperature 14° to 12° Celsius

Barnard's E

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Sat, 30 May 2009 12:06:01 GMT

These dark fingers of dust, silhouetted against a rich background of countless stars, are collectively called Barnard's E, named after Edward Emerson Barnard who compiled a catalogue of dark nebulae. This pair are numbered B142 (on the right) and B143.

Society for Popular Astronomy, Home page 15th June, 2009.

Picture of the week, British Astronomical Association, 29th June 2009.

Constellation: Aquila. Distance 2,000 light years.
Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED f5 refractor at prime focus
Camera - Standard Canon 40D
Filter - Astronomik CLS clip
Acquisition - Canon EOS Utility
Autoguiding - TMB 80 mm f6 refractor, Imaging Source DBK 21AF04.AS camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.
Exposure - 21 x 300 seconds
Dark frames, Flats used.
Software - Nebulosity aligning and stacking. Photoshop CS3 with Noel's Actions and Russell Croman's Gradient Xterminator.

The Rosette nebula

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:58:10 GMT

Astronomy Now magazine, "Picture of the month", April, 2009, issue.

Astronomy Now, 2010 yearbook. "Pictures of the year", page 34.

Constellation: Monoceros. Distance 5,000 light years.
Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED f5 refractor at prime focus
Camera - Standard Canon 40D
Filter - Astronomik CLS
Acquisition - Canon EOS Utility
Autoguiding - TMB 80 mm f6 refractor, Imaging Source DBK 21AF04.AS camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.
Exposure - 19 x 300 seconds
Dark frames, Flats and Dark flats used.
Software - Nebulosity aligning and stacking. Photoshop CS3 with Noel's Actions and Russell Croman's Gradient Xterminator.
Temperature 2° C to -0.4° C

NGC 1952 (M1) The Crab nebula

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 14:35:54 GMT

The remains of a supernova explosion that occurred in 1054. Messier object M1

A Median Combine in Registar of two separate images of M1.

The first image was a series of subexposures taken with a Takahashi FSQ_106ED at f5 the second taken a few days later with the Takahashi at f8 fitted with a 1.6 x extender.

On both occasions there was a high hazy thin layer in the sky.

Messier object M1

B33 the Horse Head and other nebulae

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:46:17 GMT

This image shows the dynamic region around the blue supergiant star Alnitak, which is the left hand star in the belt of Orion.
Alnitak is the bright star to the left of centre. Below it is NGC2024, known as the Flame nebula, The large red emission nebula to the right of Alnitak is IC 434, this throws into silhouette in the centre of the frame B33, the Horse Head nebula, one of E. E. Barnard's dark nebulae, and just below the Horse Head in the 7 o'clock position, is a blue reflection nebula NGC 2023.

Constellation: Orion. Distance to B33, 1,500 light years
Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED f5 refractor at prime focus
Camera - Standard Canon 40D
Filter - Astronomik CLS
Acquisition - Canon EOS Utility
Autoguiding - TMB 80 mm f6 refractor, Imaging Source DBK 21AF04.AS camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD guiding software.
Exposure - 7 x 300 seconds 16 Dark and 30 Flat frames
Software - Nebulosity, aligning and stacking. Photoshop CS3 and Noel's Actions.

NGC 6960 The Witch's Broom

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:45:51 GMT

Part of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant which occurred 10,000 to 30,000 years ago.

Herschel object H V-15
Very large nebula.

Constellation: Cygnus. Distance 1,500 light years.
Imaging scope - TMB 80 mm f6 refractor with 0.8 flattener/reducer
Camera - Standard Canon 10D
Filter - Astronomik CLS
Exposure - 30 x 120 seconds
Bias, Darks and Flat frames
Software - Nebulosity, aligning and stacking. Photoshop CS3 and Noel's Actions.