Your best photos submitted to the magazine this month

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

Eta Carinae

Taranjot Singh, Brisbane, Australia, 12 March 2022

Taranjot says: “I started my journey in deep-sky photography from this nebula and shot it with my DSLR. The moment I saw the first image, I felt something really amazing. Since then I wanted to photograph this target as well as possible. The only difficulty I had was the cloudy weather, so this photograph is the result of multiple sessions.”

Equipment: ZWO ASI1600MM Pro camera, Askar FRA400 f/5.6 astrograph, Sky-Watcher EQ-6R Pro mount Exposure: Ha 60x 3’, SII 40x 3’, OIII 40x 3’

Software: APP, PixInsight, Photoshop

Taranjot’s top tips: “Make sure that your mount is polar-aligned accurately and well balanced with counterweights. This helps to track and frame your target more easily.

I check for sharpness every 10–15 images and adjust as necessary. Take calibration frames to remove all the unwanted artefacts, and stack and stretch the image carefully, keeping dynamic range in mind.

I convert each stack into a starless version using StarNet++, as this helps to bring out the structure of the target. Don’t be afraid to experiment with levels, curves, filters and noise removal in Photoshop.”

The Cygnus Wall

Larry Byrge, Jacksonboro, Tennessee, USA, 29 May 2022

Larry says: “This target is very hydrogen-rich, ideal for a multi-bandpass narrowband filter with my one-shot colour camera. It gave me an opportunity to try post-processing the data in the SHO colour palette.”

Equipment: ZWO ASI294MC Pro camera, Explore Scientific ED102 refractor, Sky-Watcher EQ6-R mount Exposure: 72x 300” Software: DeepSkyStacker, Photoshop, Starnet++

The Sun in Hydrogen Alpha

John Chumack, Dayton, Ohio, USA, 18 June 2022

John says: “It is wonderful to see a very active Sun once again. There were nine active regions on the Sun on this day, along with many sunspots and a large filament stretching at least 370,100km. That’s almost the distance from the Earth to the Moon.”

Equipment: QHY5L-II CMOS camera, Lunt 60mm 50HA filtered solar telescope, Bisque MyT mount Exposure: 64ms, 480 frames Software: RegiStax, Adobe RAW

The Pinwheel Galaxy

Gary Opitz, Rochester, NY, USA, 2, 3, 4, 8 June 2022

Gary says: “I chose M101 because it’s one of the most beautiful of all the iconic spiral galaxies. I was using a new camera with quite high resolution and I’m very happy with how it turned out.”

Equipment: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro camera, TEC 140 f/7 refractor, Orion Atlas EQ-G mount

Exposure: 6h

Software: PixInsight, Photoshop

Shades of Betelgeuse

Soumyadeep Mukherjee, Kolkata, India, 14 October 2021

Soumyadeep says: “I wanted to bring science and art together in an image. One of the challenges was that I had no reference image to look at before creating this.”

Equipment: Nikon D5600 DSLR, Sigma 150–600mm lens, tripod

Exposure: ISO 1000 f/6.3, 258x 1/3”, 498x 1/6”, I544x 1/8”

Software: AutoStakkert!, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoise

The Eastern Veil Nebula

Martin Bracken, Chelmsford, Essex, 13–17 June 2022

Martin says: “This is one of my favourite targets. I had to use a dual-band filter due to a lack of astronomical darkness, and this highlights the hydrogen alpha (red) and oxygen (blue) elements in the clouds of ionised gas, giving rise to the intricate details in the structure.”

Equipment: ZWO ASI294MC Pro camera, Sky-Watcher Esprit 100ED refractor, Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro mount Exposure: 104x 300” Software: PixInsight, Photoshop

The North America Nebula

Christopher Kelly-Brown, Strabane, County Tyrone, 31 May 2022

Christopher says: “On the one clear night in my half-term holiday I imaged the striking North America Nebula. I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, but there’s an interesting balance between the nebula and the fainter dust. I’m very happy with the result!”

Equipment: Nikon D5300 DSLR, Soligor 135mm lens, Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer mount

Exposure: 6x 60”

Software: Siril, GIMP, Lightroom

The Monkey Head Nebula, NGC 2174

Andrei Pleskatsevich, Minsk, Belarus, 12 January 2022

Andrei says: “Not many beginners know you can use the HOO palette with oneshot colour cameras. If you have a good narrowband filter then you can use the R channel as H-alpha, and the G and B channels as OIII, then process your image in HOO.”

Equipment: ToupTek ATR3C571 camera, SharpStar 76EDPH f/4.5 refractor, Radian Triad Ultra 2-inch filter, iOptron GEM28 mount Exposure: 16x 600”

Software: DeepSkyStacker, Photoshop

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Whether you’re a seasoned astrophotographer or a beginner, we’d love to see your images. Email them to contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com. Ts&Cs: www.immediate.co.uk/terms-and-conditions

We’ve teamed up with Modern Astronomy to offer the winner of next month’s Gallery a Hama Lens Pen, designed for quick and easy cleaning of telescope optics, eyepieces and camera lenses. It features a retractable brush and non-liquid cleaning element. www.modernastronomy.com • 020 8763 9953