2005

For all these images, click on the thumbnail for a medium size image (normally 800x600) and on the link in each description for the full size (around1390 x 1040) image.

M42 is rather difficult for me. There's a 20KV High voltage overhead line running along the field to the South of my Observatory, and until M42 is well past the zenith the wires are bang across the target. But on 14th. January 2006 even though it was Full Moon, it was the first clear night for ages! So on with the narrowband filters and have a go. Unfortunately it was a bit hazy at the lower altitude, indeed the session was cut short by thin cloud, and maybe my focus was slightly soft, but I managed to get enough information to produce a reasonable image. Artemis 285, TMB105 refractor. Luminance from Ha, colours using Ha, O3, S2. Ha 4 min and 2 min. frames (to get the core), O3 and S2 3 min. frames. Then played around with in Photoshop to produce a reasonably technicolour tho' probably totally false image. Full Size

On 21st. January 2006 a clear early evening gave me an opportunity to visit NGC2237 - the Rosette Nebula in Monoceros. This large and quite bright nebula is well coloured which comes out quite markedly in this narrow band filtered image. Artemis285 with TMB refractor and .63 reducer. I will be revisiting this with the reducer fitted closer to the camera in th hope of improving the star shapes towards the edges of the image. Full Size

IC 443 is a Supernova remnant in Gemini, just East of 3rd. magnitude eta Geminorum. Although the magnitude is listed as 12, it is quite large at 50 x 40 arc-minutes, so the surface brightness is low, making it a difficult target in skies that are not completely dark. But I was able to capture this image in the early hours of 22nd. January 2006 with the last quarter Moon just rising, and well away from the target. Artemis 285 with TMB 105 refractor and 0.63 reducer. Luminance 12 x 4 minutes H-alpha filter, Colours each 3 x 3min binned 2x2 H-a, O3 and S2. Full Size

New Moon, no wind and crystal clear sky! Too good to be true? Well almost, because on 29th. January 2006 although conditions were ideal for the first time in weeks I had equipment problems and a jammed patio door which didn't help! I got the equipment sorted, but the door is still jammed (next day). So time slots were lost, and none of the original targets imaged. BUT I decided to try for a crisper image of Messier 82 than my previous attempt in December 2004 with my MX716 camera. And fortunately everything behaved itself - good guiding and excellent contrast. Full size. Artemis with Mirage at f6.3. Luminance 12 x 4 minute, RGB each 3 x 2 min binned 2x2 plus extra red from 12 x 4 minute H-alpha - this nicely shows up the gas outbursts. Further images showing a supernova can be found here

M82 as can be seen from the above image is very disturbed with huge outbursts of gas. These are believed to arise from star birth and supernovae triggered by an encounter with the nearby M81. This stretched image faintly shows further extensions of the gas plumes. The UK skies will probably never be clear or dark enough to fully capture these, but they are beautifully realised in an image from Jim Misti's 32" telescope in Arizona, here. Note that my stretched image is rotated from the above to match the orientation of Jim's.

The Cone Nebula, NGC2264 in Monoceros is part of a much larger area of nebulosity. The upper section of this image is part of the 'Fox fur' nebula, so named because of its similarity to a fox skin laid out. This was taken with the TMB 105 refractor and .63 reducer. The combination isn't perfect, hence some distortion nearer the edges and a degree of blurring due to poor seeing is also apparent. I hope to revisit this area next season (2006/7). Luminance 10 frames x 6 minutes Hydrogen-alpha, RGB each 3 x 4 minutes. Artemis camera, 17th. February 2006 Full Size

Despite forecasts of sleet and snow, after early cloud the night of 28th. February 2006 settled down to crisp clarity. And I was able to capture decently contrasty frames of the relatively low surface brightness magnitude 10.6 beautiful galaxy NGC 3718 in Ursa Major. Also in the frame (top left) mag. 11.0 NGC 3729, and the delightful knot of distant galaxies at the bottom, from left to right PGC 35631, UGC 6527, UGC 6527B, UGC 6527A and PGC 35609. all around 16th. magnitude. Luminance10 frames x 5 minutes, RGB each 3 frames x 3 minutes binned 2x2. Artemis with Mirage 8 at f 6.3 Full Size

I then visited, for the first time, Messier 109 in Ursa Major. Again this is a relatively low contrast target, requiring clear skies to capture the delicate shading. Luminance 14 frames x 5 minutes, RGB each 3 frames x 3 minutes binned 2x2. Artemis with Mirage 8 at f 6.3 . The small galaxy near the upper left is mag. 15.4 UGC 6969. This image was published in the September 2006 Astronomy Now, and again in the March 2013 and March 2014 issues. Full Size

The clear night of 28th February 2006 was followed by yet another on 1st-2nd. March. So although short of sleep from the previous night, I just HAD to stay up again! And visit Messier 108 in Ursa Major for the first time. Rather an ill-defined galaxy, with knots of activity a little like M82 although less violent. Luminance 10 x 5 minutes, RGB each 6 x 2 minutes binned 2x2. Artemis 285, Mirage at f6.3 Full Size
Previous attempts at M104 - the Sombrero galaxy in Virgo, had been a bit disappointing, but the Southern horizon was pretty clear, so I made it the next target, it having just culminated at 23 degrees altitude. And this time I obtained a reasonably satisfying image, with a little detail in the dust lane. Luminance 12 x 5 minutes, RGB each 3 x 2.5 minutes binned 2x2. Artemis with Mirage at f 6.3 Full Size
After M104, I visited the interesting spiral Galaxy NGC5033 in Canes Venatici. Not such a well known galaxy, tho' well placed for Northern Hemisphere observers. Rather unusual spiral arms well flung out and appear to lie outside the plane of the core, but this may be an optical illusion. There was cloud building when I took this, so no colour information. Revisit necessary. Luminance 8 x 5 minutes,. Artemis 285, Mirage at f6.3 Full Size

After a cloudy spell the skies cleared on 21st. March, and I tackled the interesting spiral galaxy NGC3184 in Ursa Major. A relatively low surface brightness galaxy but nicely face on with well defined spiral arms from a slightly barred centre. L 15 x 5 minute frames, RGB each 5 x 5 minutes. Artemis 285 with Mirage 8 at f 6.3 This was notable for a supernova in 1999, SN 1999gi. No luck this time! Full size

I then decided to take a peek at Messier 87 - Virgo A, which is notable for the jet emanating from the massive black hole in the centre. Only short exposures were required to avoid losing it in the main galaxy glow. 12 x 1 minute frames at f10, 2030 mm fl, Artemis 285. Cropped out of the full frame. Looks like I've got the two main glowing areas, easily seen of course in the Hubble image here. (Mine is oriented North up.) Monochrome for now. I will return another night to image the full galaxy!

22/23 March 2006 was also clear although a bit hazy. So I imaged Messier 100, a nice spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices, although again with fairly low surface brightness. What I hadn't realised was that there was a new supernova in the galaxy, SN2006X, discovery on 7th. February shared by Shoji Suzuki (Japan) and M. Migliardi of CROSS (Italy). A type Ia supernova found 1-2 weeks before maximum light. Just as well I didn't try to claim it for myself! The cross hairs point to it. Art285, Mirage8 at f6.3, L 16 x 5 minute frames, RGB each 6 x 2 minute frames binned 2x2. The hazy sky unfortunately robbed the image of some fine detail and colour. Full size

After a week of almost continual clear skies in Turkey, I expected to come home to wind, rain, 100% cloud cover etc. But it was a beautiful evening here in NE England (4th. April), so despite being travel weary I stayed up most of the night! I originally intended to pick up a couple of Virgo Messiers to add to my collection, but was diverted by the unusual arrangement of NGCs 4298 and 4302. (4302 on the left) Both mid 11th magnitude. The tiny one to the left again is mag 17.7 PGC 169114. Art285, Mirage at f6.3, Luminance 14 frames x 5 minutes, RGB each 3 frames x 5 minutes. Full Size
I then had a look at the fragmented comet 73P Schwassmann-Wachmann which was brightening nicely, although at the 1280 mm focal length I couldn't pick up more than one fragment. This is the 'C' fragment. I processed 10 x 1 minute frames centred on the comet, hence the blurry stars. Late April/early May will be the best time for England. Art285 with Mirage at f6.3
I know I shouldn't have, but as the Moon was getting out of the way by 3 am or so, I decided to visit M51. First serious attempt with the Artemis. Pleasing structure, but I still can't get the lovely beads of colour seen in some pics. I need to improve my processing skills! Next opportunity I'm going to take some H-alpha frames to try to pick up the reddish sections. Art285, Mirage at f 6.3, Luminance 9 frames x 5 minutes, RGB each 3 frames x 3 minutes binned 2x2 Full Size

Well, the night of 6th. April 2006 again was clear, and although the Moon was approaching first quarter, I decided to try for some deep sky Hydrogen Alpha frames of M51. With some success. I processed them into the earlier Luminance image, with this result. a bit better in the red, but still not quite what I was looking for. Full Size
Then Noel Carboni, a regular visitor to the UK Astro Imaging Group although he lives in Florida, had a play with my two images. He is a master of Adobe Photoshop, and indeed markets a very useful set of macros for that program (See his web page here). And this was the result. Thank you very much, Noel, this is exactly what I was trying to achieve. This is easily my best M51, and I think I'll be hard pressed to do better from my Hexham site! Full Size But 5 years later, see here
I then revisited Comet 73P Schwassmann-Wachmann. Previously I had only imaged one fragment, but this time with new coordinates managed to find and image three fragments. This is the 'B' fragment. All fragments were imaged with the Artemis 285 and Mirage at f6.3, 10 x 3 minute frames in the early hours of 7th. April 2006. This one from 0210 to 0240 UST The frame sizes are approximately 22 x 17 arc-minutes.
The 'C' Fragment. Imaged from 0300 to 0330 UST . There is a 158 KB .avi file showing the motion over the 30 minutes here. Indeo codec, should play in Windows Media Player. Also 148 KB DivX codec here.
The 'G' Fragment. Much fainter than the other two. Imaged from 0106 to 0136 UST

With the light nights approaching I hoped to capture a few more images, but the weather was not too kind for the next New Moon time! However the night of 27th. April gave me an opportunity to image Messier 101 - the nice open spiral galaxy in Ursa Major. Very near the zenith and I experienced problems with mirror shift which led to some frames being rejected, but a considerable improvement on my MX716 image from May 2004. Art285, Mirage at f6.3, Luminance 6 frames x 6 minutes, RGB and H-alpha each 2 frames x 3 minutes binned 2x2. Full Size

I'm gradually collecting Messier targets, although I tend to be sidetracked! But the night of 3rd. May 2006 was promising, and although I had to wait until late for dark skies, I was able to capture this image of the magnitude 9.4 Virgo galaxy M90, also showing 13th magnitude galaxy IC 3583 and a handful of distant galaxies. Artemis 285 with Mirage 8 at f 6.3. Luminance 10 x 6 minutes, RGB each 3 x 6 minutes. Full Size

My Messier 101 on 27th. April turned out quite well considering the relatively small number of frames. But as for my earlier M51 I wasn't entirely happy with the colour rendering. So I sent the original frames to Noel Carboni in Florida and he kindly reprocessed them. These images are Noel's result above and my Luminance below using the colour information from his image. Again, many thanks, Noel. This galaxy contains several named NGC bright nebulae. The medium size image with annotations can be seen here.  Lower image full size A wider field image can be found here And a supernova in 2023 here

NGC 6543 - the Cat's Eye Nebula in Draco is a nice bright planetary nebula. I previously imaged it with my modified Vesta Pro Webcam, but on the night of 1st. June 2006 decided it was time to let the Artemis have a crack at it - the bright summer night sky at my latitude precludes much faint object imaging. It's rather lost in the much larger chip of the Artemis 285 compared to the webcam! IC4677 can just be seen in this stretched (uncoloured) crop from the main picture. The subframes were all 1 minute at f10 with the Mirage - longer subs will probably show up IC4677 more clearly, also the outer halo of the Cats eye. But that will have to wait for darker Autumn skies. A deeper monochrome image here. Full size

In mid June My Artemis 285 'died'. It had for some time exhibited an occasional fault, but this time it did not return to life. Steve Chambers, the principal designer of the camera, kindly replaced the Artemis main board for me, and the camera returned to life just long enough for me to obtain plenty of data of the beautiful Iris Nebula, NGC 7023 in Cepheus, on the nights of 14th and 15th. July 2006. Artemis and Mirage at f6.3. The cluster just to the right of centre is Collinder 427. Luminance 10 x 4 minutes, RGB each 4 x 4 minutes. Full size

Unfortunately the replacement main board for my Artemis which Steve Chambers sent me died after imaging the Iris Nebula., and I returned the entire camera to him. He found a dry joint from his original repair, and again the camera was operational. So on the night of 28th. August 2006 I targeted NGC6822, Barnard's Galaxy in Sagittarius. Alas the camera again died after 7 x 5 minute frames, so I only got monochrome information. Mirage 8 at f6.3 This galaxy was low in my sky at only 20 degrees maximum altitude, and a degree of turbulence has robbed the image of fine detail. Full size

A new board was purchased for theArtemis, but again disaster struck when the GPO managed to damage it in transit. But it was eventually repaired and fitted, and the camera returned to full working order. The night of 7th September 2006 saw an extremely bright Full Moon, but was also crisp and clear, so Narrow Band imaging was the order of the night, and IC1795, a bright Nebula in Cassiopeia was the selected target. Artemis with Mirage at f6.3 All sub frames 6 minutes binned 2 x2, 12 Ha, for luminance, then 6 of the Ha, and 6 each OIII and SII for RGB.

The following night of 8th. September 2006 was also clear, although with a degree of thin high haze, so again Narrow Band imaging was required, this time for the Bubble Nebula, NGC7635 in Cassiopeia. Artemis with the Mirage at f6.3. Luminance 7 x 8 minutes Ha, RGB Ha, OIII, SII each 5 minutes binned 2x2

Messier 74, the beautiful face on spiral galaxy in Pisces is a tricky target, having a fairly low surface brightness. My previous MX716 image from November 2004 was rather disappointing, but this time round, with 22 x 5 minute Luminance frames from both 23rd. September 2006 and earlier attempts, and RGB colour information (each 3 x 3 minute binned 2x2) from 23rd. September, this was the eventual reasonable result. Artemis 285 and Mirage 8 at f6.3 This image is the Astronomy Now M74 Messier Challenge winner, and was featured in the November 2006 issue . It appeared again in the May 2010 issue.  Full size

The 2006 Autumn Kielder Star Camp, 18-22 October, was very well attended but cursed by a complex area of low pressure all weekend. I was deeply thankful that I wasn't camping - my heart goes out to those on the field- I didn't dare go up there on the Sunday morning to see the quagmire following several bouts of heavy rain! Not much observing. A chance at a rather low comet SWAN when the clouds lifted briefly on the Thursday night, but poor conditions and an unworthy image. A decent window on the Saturday night, albeit always a bit hazy. I only had my little Roboscoped EQ3-2 mount with me, but managed several frames of the Heart nebula (IC1805 in Cassiopeia) with my Artemis and 135 mm camera lens. H-alpha filter, 11 x 4 minute subs unguided, binned 2x2.  Definitely one to go back to!

After the disappointing cloudy and wet conditions over the weekend at Kielder, of course the following Monday night 23rd. October turned out mostly clear and calm. And since I'm only 30 miles South of Kielder, I bet it was good there too! So well done, anyone who stayed on the extra night.  Anyway, I'd got a new reducer (AP) for my TMB 105 refractor and wanted to try it out. With pleasing results. NGC752 (large open cluster in Andromeda) LRGB. Artemis 285 at 460 mm focal length. Luminance 6 x 3 minutes, RGB each 3 x 1 minute binned 2x2. There's a handful of tiny distant galaxies lurking in there - see if you can spot them! This image appeared in the October-December 2008 issue of the SPA magazine  Full Size

Following NGC752, I tackled a target I've had on my 'to do' list for some time. NGC281 - the 'Pacman' in Cassiopeia. 9 x 10 minute subs, H-alpha only. Artemis 285 and TMB 105 refractor at 460 mm focal length. Full Size

Three years ago (at Dalby Forest Star Camp in 2003), Mike Alexander was promoting his new venture - he had just upped sticks and moved to darkest Galloway and set up an Astronomy centre there. See http://www.gallowayastro.com/  I'd been tempted for a while, and eventually went over there for a night on Tuesday 24th. October  The disturbed weather pattern from the previous weekend seemed to have eased off a bit. And sure enough, we had a couple of hours of gorgeous clear sky before the weather closed in again around 10 pm.  Mike had his big 16" fork mounted Newt set up, and I wanted to take wide field of comet Swan, so I was able to fix the Artemis 285 complete with 135 mm lens onto a camera bracket mounted on the telescope. The 16" is an excellent visual instrument, but isn't really designed for imaging and was a bit susceptible to gusts, but I managed to get a fair number of frames.   I took some full resolution, but needed binned 2x2 due to the short 1 minute frames. (Longer exposures produced excessive comet movement, even at this short focal length) 7 subs stacked on the comet head. Next step at home, weather permitting, is to take extended exposures guiding on the head.

26th October was stormy and cloudy. But late in the evening (well after midnight!) the wind started to drop, and the sky cleared. If I hadn't looked out of the window as I was getting ready for bed....  So clothes back on and out to a pristine sky. Couldn't decide what to go for, and started on the Flaming Star Nebula, after my mount decided to behave itself - I guess it also was ready for bed!  But I realised after one frame that a more interesting target was lurking nearby, so spent the remaining clear sky imaging NGC 1893 in Auriga. 9 x 10 minute subs in H-alpha, Artemis 285 on TMB refractor with AP reducer (effective f4.4). I tried for colour with RGB filters, but the stars were too bloated (3 minute subs binned 2 x 2). So I need to return with O3 and S2 filters. Then perhaps some interesting colour and improved contrast. But for now here is the Luminance on its own. Full Size

On 31st.October 2006, Autumn finally arrived with a cold Northerly airstream, and a crisp clear (albeit moonlit for the first part) night. I spent the moonlit part imaging the North American and Pelican nebulae in Cygnus with the Artemis 285 and 135 mm fl camera lens. MUCH better than my effort last year! Luminance H-alpha 8 x 10 minutes, RGB each 4 x 4 minutes binned 2x2, Ha, O3 S2 narrowband filters. Full size

Once the Moon had set, I moved on to the large and very faint supernova remnant Sh2-240 (Simeis 147) in Taurus. 6 x 15 minute Ha Luminance frames, and 5 x 6 minute RGB frames were required. The RGB were H-a, S2 and O3 binned 2x2. A bit 'noisy' at first, but adding another 10 Luminance frames the following night showed an improvement. Still a little fussy, probably due to the high level of stretching required, and the resolution limits of the small lens. Full Size (Note: 540 KB!)

A bit unsettled for a few days, then I had an opportunity on the night of 8th-9th November 2006 to image Sharpless 2-155 - the 'Cave' nebula in Cepheus. This emission nebula area is liberally mottled with dust clouds, and responded quite well to the narrowband imaging filters. Luminance 14 x 10 minutes, RGB each 6 x 4 minutes Ha, O3, S2. Artemis 285 and TMB 105 at (native) f 6.2 Full size

I had hoped to revisit comet SWAN before it faded again following it's brightening on 24th. October. But I had to catch it in the early evening from around 7 pm, and alas on the only opportunity before the Moon got too bright, I had another engagement. By the time the Moon was out of the way, and I was available in the early evening of 9th. November 2006, the comet had faded considerably. So this was the result of stacking 18 x 5 minute frames, with the Artemis on the TMB refractor with AP focal reducer to give a focal length of 460 mm. The head was just bright enough to guide on, but the tail was faint. It's interesting to see the secondary (dust?) tail off to one side. The smearing across the image is due to the median stacking used, and is from the numerous stars in the original images. This single frame is taken from the middle of the sequence. The long tail is not visible, and the stars are slightly streaked due to tracking on the comet head which moved relative to the stars during the 5 minute exposure.

The satellite galaxies of M31, M110 and M32 are not often imaged independently of their huge neighbour. But they are deserving of attention, their closeness gives them a relatively large angular size. Disturbed weather conditions forced me to collect data over three nights, and even then several frames were affected by thin cloud. But 10 good frames gave me this image of M110. 16/17/18th. November 2006, Artemis 285 and Mirage 8 at f6.3. Luminance 10 x 5 mins, RGB each 5 x 3 minutes binned 2x2. Full size

The night of 18th. November cleared around 10 pm, and after I obtained the colour information for M110, I targeted M32. Conditions remained stable, and I was able to collect all the data I needed within a couple of hours. Artemis 285 and Mirage 8 at f6.3. Luminance 12 x 5 minutes, RGB each 4 x 3 mins binned 2x2. The closeness of M32 to M31 is obvious, with the edge of M31 and dust clouds well shown. These two images are the Astronomy Now Messier Challenge winners (2006) and also appeared in the September 2010 and (m32 cropped) in the October 2018 issues of the magazine. Full size

Following the capture of M32, the night was still young (!) and I was hoping to capture some Leonid meteors. Alas that was not to be as the weather closed in around 3.30 am on 19th. November 2006. But in the meantime I had targeted the 'Tadpoles' in NGC 1893, imaged earlier on 26th. October in a wider field. Although the clouds arrived before I collected colour data, I had obtained 12 good subs in Hydrogen-alpha light. Artemis 285 and Mirage 8 at f6.3. 12 x 10 minutes. Full size

The night of 21/22 November turned out fine despite a dire forecast. - First on my list was the emission front IC5067 in the Pelican, (previously imaged with the MX716 camera) complete with the Herbig-Haro jets at the tip of the 'trunk'. Art285, Mirage8 at f6.3, Lum 10 x 10 min Ha, RGB each 5 x 4 min binned 2x2 Ha, O3, S2. This image was featured as Image of the Month in the January 2007 issue of Practical Astronomer, and in The Sky at Night BBC TV programme, August 2012  Full Size

Then I moved over to try for a better image of NGC 891 than my previous attempt, again the Art 285, but this time at prime (Cassegrain) focus of my Mirage 8, so 2030 mm focal length. And obtained a satisfactory image!  Luminance 12 x 10 minutes, RGB each 5 x 6 minutes. Full Size

I dunno - lots of cloud, rain wind etc. recently, yet we've had some pretty clear nights. And the night of November 23/24 was one of them. I was home quite late so didn't have time for a *really* long session, so decided to have a go at M1 and add data to a few frames I collected some weeks ago. Very windy and poor seeing, so the guiding wasn't perfect and I used the Astro Plugins Star Rounder tool to improve the slightly elongated stars. But good enough until I get a still night! Artemis 285, Mirage 8 at f10 (2030 mm fl) Luminance 15 x 10 minutes, RGB each 4 x 5 minutes. Full Size The Hubble space telescope produced a superb image of M1. I've matched it to mine and made a 'mouseover' for comparison. It shows that the finer features in my image aren't processing artifacts. It also shows how mediocre mine really is! Must try harder!! Click here for the mouseover image.

NGC 925 is an interesting barred spiral galaxy situated in Triangulum, not far from the much better known Messier 33. Low surface brightness, and with poor weather it took me a few attempts to collect enough data. But the night of 28/29 November 2006 started out clear, and although it clouded over for a while, it then improved later and remained clear. So I was able to complete the data set. Gusty wind spoilt some of the frames, but enough survived! Artemis 285 and Mirage 8 at f6.3 Luminance 6 x 10 minutes, RGB each 3 x 4 minutes. Full Size

After I'd finished with NGC925, the night was still (relatively!) young and the sky clear, so I decided to image IC342, another low surface brightness but large and beautiful spiral in Camelopardalis. Again quite long subframes were needed, but the weather held, and this was the result. Artemis 285 and Mirage 8 at f6.3 Luminance 8 x 10 minutes, RGB each 4 x 5 minutes. Full Size

I first briefly monochrome imaged the Cassiopeia 'Heart' nebula IC1805, in October 2006, and vowed then to revisit it. My opportunity came on the night of 8/9th. December 2006 when although in a run of terrible weather, it stayed clear with only moderate breezes all night. And this was the result. Artemis 285, 135 mm camera lens. Luminance 12 x 15 minutes H-alpha, RGB each 5 x 15 minutes Ha, Oxygen 3, Sulphur 2. A waning gibbous Moon was high in the sky for much of the imaging, but the narrowband filters successfully cut out the Moonlight. The nebulosity lower left is most of IC 1848, and the bright portion upper right is separately classified as IC 1795 and NGC896. The cluster upper centre is NGC 1027. Full Size

Despite a prolonged period of wet and windy weather, there were occasional clear spells between the weather fronts. The night of December 11/12 2006 was one of them., and I went for the California nebula, NGC1499 in Perseus. Very windy, but the wide field escaped the buffeting for the most part - only a couple of frames were scrapped. I went for long exposures, and lost a couple to passing clouds, so only 6 x 15 minute Ha subs for Luminance. So a bit noisy. But the following week the weather relented and I was able to capture more luminance frames on 18/19th December, giving 15 in all. RGB each 3 x 15 minute subs Ha, S2, O3. Art 285 and 135 mm camera lens at f5.6. This image was published in the March 2007 issue of Astronomy Now, and appeared again in the October and December 2009 issues. Also in the March-April 2013 Popular Astronomy magazine.  Full Size

2007