M101 - Supernova

[JimFox]

I joined the Supernova bus! I found there is plenty of room for all of us to find a seat.

This is from last Thursday night. I was checking the weather over the whole state of California, and the only area I could find that had clear skies at night and no wind was around Yosemite National Park. Doing Deep Space Astro in Yosemite itself isn't a great idea as the valley is surrounded by tall peaks so it limits too much of the sky. Though perhaps up in Tuolumne Meadows it would be possible. What I did find was an area in the foothills to the west of Yosemite, Hensley Lake Recreation Area. It's located NE of Madera. I found a nice campsite with an open view of the sky. I forgot to check what the Bortle setting is there, but it did have a large light pollution bubble so Milky Way imaging was not ideal.

My intent was to actually image Rho Ophiuchi complex, but.... as I was driving I somehow got into the Supernova bus. I decided I could still image Rho Ophiuchi next time, but I have no idea how long the Supernova will last. So I decided it was the priority. It was up all night, so I spent all night imaging it.

22 - Lights at 180 secs with the Optolong L-Enhance Filter
30 - Flats
30 - Dark/Flats
10 - Darks

74 - Lights at 120 secs with the Optolong L-Pro Filter
30 - Flats
30 - Dark/Flats
10 - Darks

iOptron Gem28
ZWO ASI2600mc Pro
ZWO 120mm Mini - Guide Camera
Askar Fra500
Stacked in Pixinsight
BlurXterminator
NoiseXterminator
StarXterminator
Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop

All comments are welcome,

Jim

Crop with Supernova ID

 

[Dan Moorehead]

Fantastic

 

[Todd H]

Sweet! I also photographed it in my front yard using my 500mm F/8 mirror lens. However, due to so much light pollution, and haziness in the sky, it didn’t turn out very well. But I could clearly see the supernova.

nice image Jim

 

[chuckp]

Nice shot Jim

 

[JimFox]

Sweet! I also photographed it in my front yard using my 500mm F/8 mirror lens. However, due to so much light pollution, and haziness in the sky, it didn’t turn out very well. But I could clearly see the supernova.

nice image Jim

Thanks Todd, I appreciate that.

Do you have any filters? I use the Optolong L-Pro as my basic filter on all of my Astro. It's a Broad Band so you can use it on Galaxies and Nebula's. It's great at cutting through the Light Pollution.

 

[JimFox]

Nice shot Jim

Thanks so much Chuck!

 

[Alisa]

This is so cool Jim!

 

[Todd H]

Thanks Todd, I appreciate that.

Do you have any filters? I use the Optolong L-Pro as my basic filter on all of my Astro. It's a Broad Band so you can use it on Galaxies and Nebula's. It's great at cutting through the Light Pollution.

I don’t have any filters. Not sure they would do me any good unless I go elsewhere other than my front yard. There is a baptist church two doors down that is heavily lit up with high lumen LED lights and it’s bad. Worse when the humidity is high. So I’d have to go somewhere else to escape the light, but I don’t have a secure location yet for that.

may pathetic image of M101 from my front yard. Just a 60 second exposure. With my Sony A7RV and Nikon 500mm f/8 lens

 

[M_J_Helin]

Very nice.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Jim,

Great work on this one. Lots of color and detail. The supernova is very bright still for sure. I have some data on this one too that I have been working on. It is a very short stack but I expect will be able to become some sort of an image. I probably was not going to shoot it at all before talking to you so thankful for that.

Great job,

ML

 

[JimFox]

I don’t have any filters. Not sure they would do me any good unless I go elsewhere other than my front yard. There is a baptist church two doors down that is heavily lit up with high lumen LED lights and it’s bad. Worse when the humidity is high. So I’d have to go somewhere else to escape the light, but I don’t have a secure location yet for that.

may pathetic image of M101 from my front yard. Just a 60 second exposure. With my Sony A7RV and Nikon 500mm f/8 lens

View attachment 61627View attachment 61628

Hey Todd,

Sorry for the late reply.

That's awesome that you got it. Even if it's not the greatest, you captured it.

I am not an expert in Light Pollution, but I have read that the LED lights at night are a pain. When I am in SoCal, I typically drive out to Joshua Tree to do my Deep Space Astro. For the longest time, I would just set up my gear in one of the pull outs of the loop road that goes through the Park. I have now added one of the campgrounds there that has 4 sites of the 100 campsites that has good clear skies viewing without tall Joshua Trees in the campsite blocking much of the sky. But being in the park is best, because there are probably about 40 to 50 pull outs on that loop road, so I can set up my Deep Space Astro next to my truck and then I will run and place a couple of camera about a 1/2 mile or so out in the desert to do Milky Way Timelapses.

 

[Todd H]

Hey Todd,

Sorry for the late reply.

That's awesome that you got it. Even if it's not the greatest, you captured it.

I am not an expert in Light Pollution, but I have read that the LED lights at night are a pain. When I am in SoCal, I typically drive out to Joshua Tree to do my Deep Space Astro. For the longest time, I would just set up my gear in one of the pull outs of the loop road that goes through the Park. I have now added one of the campgrounds there that has 4 sites of the 100 campsites that has good clear skies viewing without tall Joshua Trees in the campsite blocking much of the sky. But being in the park is best, because there are probably about 40 to 50 pull outs on that loop road, so I can set up my Deep Space Astro next to my truck and then I will run and place a couple of camera about a 1/2 mile or so out in the desert to do Milky Way Timelapses.

Yes the LED lights are LAME! They have electric photocells in them that I could use a red laser pointer to turn them off, but they aren’t facing my direction. I just need to drive elsewhere like you and take my photos. It’s nice that you can easily get to a locationto shoot, unfortunately I don’t have that luxury anymore since moving back to southeast Texas.

 

[JimFox]

Jim,

Great work on this one. Lots of color and detail. The supernova is very bright still for sure. I have some data on this one too that I have been working on. It is a very short stack but I expect will be able to become some sort of an image. I probably was not going to shoot it at all before talking to you so thankful for that.

Great job,

ML

I am glad you got it Mike, and I look forward to seeing your results. It's kind of cool how we sometimes will image something we hadn't planned on until one of our friends images it or talks us into it. I know I am glad I captured it.