Your best photos submitted to the magazine this month
PHOTO OF THE MONTH
Mare Crisium
Kevin Earp, Willington, Bedfordshire, 10 December 2022
Kevin says: “I’ve always loved the Moon. The richness of features, especially when near the terminator, change over the span of only a few minutes, and are delightful to observe. At lunar sunset, Mare Crisium (‘Sea of Crises’) is fascinating, with delicate wrinkle ridges around the edges of the ‘sea’, isolated mountain peaks, and a range of craters contrasting with the smooth maria floor.”
Equipment: ZWO ASI224MC Pro camera, Celestron C11 Schmidt-Cassegrain, Sky-Watcher NEQ6 Pro mount
Exposure: Mosaic of 9x 1,000-frame 15” AVI videos, 65fps, best 150 stacked from each
Software: FireCapture, AutoStakkert!, RegiStax, Photoshop
Kevin’s top tips: “The camera’s small field of view needed a mosaic to capture this view, with at least 25 per cent overlap between panels. To improve resolution, I used ‘lucky imaging’ – taking AVI videos and stacking the best frames. Capturing short videos helps avoid changes in illumination. Photoshop’s Photomerge is excellent for making a smooth mosaic, followed by RegiStax’s wavelet sharpening.”
The Cone and Christmas Tree Nebulae
Peter Briggs, Cranborne Chase International Dark Sky Reserve, Wiltshire, 10–13 December 2022
Peter says: “This season I decided to concentrate on narrow-band imagery. Unfortunately, our poor weather only allowed me three nights, but I think it came out well.”
Equipment: ZWO ASI294MM Pro camera, William Optics Zenithstar 73 refractor, Sky-Watcher EQ5 Pro mount
Exposure: 9h 59’
Software: APT, PixInsight, Affinity Photo
Mars at opposition
Robert Smith, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, 7 December 2022
Robert says: “Mars won’t be this close again until 2033. The volcano Olympus Mons is clearly visible as a bump on the surface just north of centre.”
Equipment: ZWO ASI178MC camera, Celestron 9.25-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain, Celestron Advanced VX mount
Exposure: 15ms, gain 197, best 5,000 frames
Software: AutoStakkert!, RegiStax, GIMP
NGC 1365, The Great Barred Spiral Galaxy
Fernando Oliveira de Menezes, Munhoz, Brazil, 1 August–24 October 2022
Fernando says: “I’ve always wanted to photograph this galaxy. I hope to acquire a colour camera soon just for capturing galaxies and clusters, as they’re my favourite things to image.”
Equipment: ZWO ASI6200MC camera, Sky-Watcher Esprit 150ED refractor, iOptron CEM120 mount
Exposure: 193x 300”
Software: SG Pro, PixInsight, Photoshop
Lunar solstice
Simone Lochi, Oristano, Sardinia, 21 December 2022
Simone says: “I was lucky enough to spend the night of the winter solstice filming molecular clouds in Taurus. This meant I was awake to see a spectacular moonrise, as the Moon rose just before the Sun from the same point on the horizon, so it looked like a real lunar solstice!”
Equipment: Canon 1100D DSLR camera, Canon EF-S 18–55mm lens, K&F Concept tripod
Exposure: ISO 3200, f/3.5, 8”
Software: Adobe Camera Raw, Photoshop
M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy
Paul Humberstone, Llandudno, Wales, 20–23 March 2022
Paul says: “Messier 51 has always been one of my favourite deep-sky objects to observe through an eyepiece or to image. In late March 2022, I took advantage of the (mostly) clear skies to capture this graceful, spiral galaxy and its smaller companion. I used a focal reducer and UV/IR cut filter to get the final shot.”
Equipment: ZWO ASI294MC Pro camera, Celestron 8-inch EdgeHD aplanatic Schmidt-Cassegrain, Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount
Exposure: 10h
Software: PixInsight
The Andromeda Galaxy
Steve Young, Liphook, Hampshire, 20 December 2022
Steve says: “Since starting astrophotography a few years ago, I’ve used Andromeda as a reference target to track my progress. My first attempts were little more than a smudge! With a few years of experience under my belt, I tried again in late December. This latest attempt used just over two hours of data, lots of calibration frames, and was processed using PixInsight.”
Equipment: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro camera, Askar FRA400 refractor, Celestron CGX mount
Exposure: 45x 180”
Software: PixInsight
Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF
John Chumack, Yellow Springs, Ohio, USA, 29 December 2022
John says: “The comet was shining at mag. +8.2 in the constellation Corona Borealis. You can see the bright nucleus, the nice green coma, the (brown) dust tail, and also the faint ion tail going off to the right, as well as some faint galaxies in the background and the 7th-magnitude star HIP 77721 in the lower right. I only got 24 minutes of data before the clouds killed it for me.”
Equipment: ZWO ASI294MC camera, TPO 12-inch f/4 Imaging Newtonian, Software Bisque Paramount ME mount
Exposure: 12x 2’
Software: DeepSkyStacker, Nebulosity, PixInsight
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