2024

With the dismal weather late Autumn 2024, this is the first deep sky image since mid October! Here are two,Sharpless objects, SH280 and 282.. Quite close to each other in Monoceros just West of M42 and not often imaged. Took a while to capture because of the poor weather recently, initial Hydrogen alpha from 7th January 2025, but I managed to finish it off with data from the beautifully clear night of 29th January. So in total 17 x 15 minutes Hydrogen Alpha to capture these relatively faint objects, 5 x 15 minutes each Oxygen III and Sulphur II. In the end there was very little of those colours, so H-a predominates. LRGB each 6 x 5 minutes, all processed and combined in Photoshop with StarNet used to remove the stars from the narrowband grouping before combining with the LRGB starfield. Sh282 is the lower of the two gas clouds. The small cluster just above SH282 is Collinder 110. All binned 2x2 with QSI683 camera on TS65 Quad telescope. Full size.

These three galaxies in Leo are quite faint, but a clear night on 27th January 2025 gave me an opportunity to image them. From bottom to top they are respectively mag 11.2 NGC 2964 , mag 11.9 NGC 2968 and mag 13.7 NGC 2970. As I say, faint, but interestingly different, and there is a faint tidal tail joining 2968 and 2970. Unfortunately barely visible in this image - my skies are rarely clear and dark enough, but it has been reported elsewhere and there is a good image on Stargazers Lounge here. QSI 683 on RC10. Luminance 12 x 15 minutes, RGB each 6 x 15 minutes. Full size

NGC 2903 is a large mag 8.8 galaxy in Leo, surprisingly not listed by Messier. I imaged it in 2005, but it was well overdue for a revisit to this impressive galaxy with its extended faint spiral arms. Although I've been lucky of late with several sunny days, clear moonless nights have been in very short supply this season. But a few in mid Spring gave me an opportunity. So data was collected on the nights of 28th February and 18th and 19th March 2025. QSI 683 with Starlight Xpress Active Optics unit on RC10 telescope. Luminance 22 x 10 minutes, RGB each 10 x 10 minutes, all binned 2x2 Full Size

NGC5754 is the attractive mag 13.1 spiral galaxy at the centre of this image. The associated smaller galaxies are (almost touching) mag 14.1 NGC5752, then moving up, the distorted barred spiral mag 13.5 NGC 5755 and the small mag 15 NGC 5753. Located in the constellation Boötes, NGC5754 is also named Arp 297. There are numerous distant galaxies shown. The interaction between 5754 and the much smaller 5752 has produced a long westward pointing tail of stars, just visible in this image. I started imaging this attractive small group on the night of 1st April 2025, but following that a combination of away from home, moonlight and unfavourable weather meant I was unable to complete it until the night of 1st May 2025, the last night of the season with some full darkness. No more now for me until August. So other than possibly some narrow band filtered or very bright objects this will be the last deep sky target for this season. One of the poorest due to adverse weather throughout. QSI 683 camera with Baader filters and Starlight Xpress Active Optics unit on RC10 telescope. Luminance 17 x 10 minutes, RGB each 8 x 10 minutes, all binned 2x2 Full size