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  1. Bill Richards

    I Got a New Horse

    Very nice, Jim!
  2. Bill Richards

    West Veil Nebula (aka "Witch's Broom")

    The Western Veil or "Witch's Broom" Nebula (aka NGC 6960) is a supernova remnant about 1400 light-years away. This debris cloud was blasted out from the cataclysmic explosion of a dying star (supernova) over 10,000 years ago. The interstellar shock wave plows through space sweeping up and...
  3. Bill Richards

    Eagle Nebula

    No ETA on the EdgeHD 8 yet - they are saing it could be the end of the year. I'm also considering a new mount, but we'll see...
  4. Bill Richards

    Eagle Nebula

    The Eage Nebula (aka M16) is about 7000 light years away. It contains several active star-forming gas and dust regions and was made famous as the "Pillars of Creation" image taken by the Hubble telescope (https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-pillars-of-creation). If my new telecope ever...
  5. Bill Richards

    Super Flower Blood Moon

    I took 1500 images last Sundary night and spent most of the week stacking and processing them to generate a result that I was finally happy with.
  6. Bill Richards

    Bodes Galaxy - M81

    These 2 videos explain calibration very well. They also answer the questions about flat darks and bias frames: https://www.youtube....annel=AdamBlock https://www.youtube....annel=AdamBlock Adam Block is an astrophotogaphy post-processing legend. The videos are primarily aimed at...
  7. Bill Richards

    Bodes Galaxy - M81

    Great start, Jim! Glad to be of assistance Friday night - it's always rewarding to be able to help solve problems. Your ASI2600MC will certainly capture a lot more of the red and near-infrared than your unmodded DSLR. I had the same issue when I was using my DSLR and that was one of the two...
  8. Bill Richards

    Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)

    The Whirlpool Galaxy (aka M51) is a target that's a bit too small for my current equipment, but worth shooting anyway. It's a spiral galaxy 31 million light-years from Earth. NGC 5195 is the small, yellowish galaxy at the outermost tip of one of the arms which appears to be tugging on the arm...
  9. Bill Richards

    M81, M82, and NGC3077

    These targets are a bit too small for my astrophotography gear (until my new equipment comes off extended backorder), so not one of my better images. But larger targets are hard to come by this time of year so you take what you can get. These 3 galaxies are Bode's Galaxy (top-center, aka M81)...
  10. Bill Richards

    M3 Globular Cluster

    Thanks, Jim!
  11. Bill Richards

    M3 Globular Cluster

    Since I know that @JimFox has been waiting patiently to see this... Messier 3 (M3, aka NGC 5272) is a globular cluster of about 500,000 stars, centered about 32,600 light-years from Earth and estimated to be 11.4 billion years old. Although it may be difficult to see in these images due to the...
  12. Bill Richards

    M42 - The Orion Nebula

    The Orion Nebula (aka M42), with about 4 more hours of open shutter time added to the images taken last year. This version has more detail; if you zoom in on the core of the nebula, you can see the "Triangulum" (a tight-knit collection of 4-5 stars). Capturing the Triangulum, the bright colors...
  13. Bill Richards

    Pleiades

    I love NINA - it's a very flexible, powerful, and reliable utility. Additionally, the developers are very supportive when issues arise.
  14. Bill Richards

    Pleiades

    No external filter on this one since this is a reflection nebula. The ASI2600MC-Pro has a built-in IR/UV cut filter, though.
  15. Bill Richards

    Comet Leonard

    Both DSS and PixInsight have tools that stack a set of subs on stars and again on the comet. Then you need to blend them, which can be tricky. Getting the backgrounds to match is the key.
  16. Bill Richards

    Comet Leonard

    43 subs at 120 sec each
  17. Bill Richards

    Heart Nebula

    From what I've seen, the L-eNhance yields pretty nice results. It's not as good as the L-eXtreme at filtering out light pollution since the pass bands are a bit wider, but halos around bright stars are not as prominent with the L-eNhance, which is a major pain-in-the-butt with the L-eXtreme.
  18. Bill Richards

    Comet Leonard

    We have another comet - Leonard. This one's not as bright as NEOWISE, but I managed to capture it as it passed in front of M3 (a large Globular Cluster consisting of about 500,000 stars, 32,600 light years from Earth). The last time Comet Leonard passed by us was 70,000 years ago. It will be...
  19. Bill Richards

    Horsehead and Flame Nebulas

    The very familiar Horsehead Nebula (aka Barnard 33) is ~1,375 light-years from Earth and is one of the most identifiable nebulae because of its resemblance to a horse's head. It's a small dark nebula in the constellation Orion. The super-bright star to the left of the Horsehead is Alnitak, the...
  20. Bill Richards

    Soul Nebula

    The Soul Nebula (aka IC 1848) is an emission nebula about 6500 light-years from Earth. It's a star-forming region that includes several open clusters of stars and large evacuated bubbles formed by the winds of young massive stars. This image is the result of 6-2/3 hours of exposure time (50...
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