Your best photos submitted to the magazine this month
PHOTO OF THE MONTH
The Rosette Nebula and the Cone Nebula
Tim Barry, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, 6, 7, 13 and 26 February 2023
Tim says: “I’ve been looking for a good target to try out US astrophotographer Chad Leader’s ‘HoSS’ palette for a while, and the area around the Rosette Nebula and the Cone Nebula has proved to be a good candidate. I like the moody, smoky look that it brings to the image, with the teal highlights in the sulphur areas. The image was shot over several nights from a Bortle 5 location just outside Milton Keynes.”
Equipment: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro camera, Samyang 135mm lens, Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro mount
Exposure: SII and OIII 115x 5’, Ha and OIII 55x 5’
Software: PixInsight, Photoshop
Tim’s top tips: “Using Chad Leader’s HoSS palette makes a nice change from processing in SHO and HOO. Using two dual-bandpass filters with a one-shot colour camera opens up lots of different palette choices in addition to the traditional SHO palette. I used an IDAS dual-band nebula-boosting filter (NBZ) for H-alpha and OIII, and an IDAS narrowband nebula filter (NB3) for SII and more OIII.
The HoSS palette uses a blend of H-alpha and OIII in the red channel, and SII data in both the green and blue channels. This can be achieved in PixInsight by using the PixelMath tool. The H-alpha data can also be used as a luminance layer using PixInsight’s LRGB Combination tool.”
The Monkey Head Nebula
Sara Harvey, Cork, Ireland, 5 and 25 January, 22 February 2023
Sara says: “I just upgraded my telescope and this seemed like the perfect target to get first light. After trying a few different narrowband combinations, I settled on an OHS palette.”
Equipment: ZWO ASI1600MM Pro camera, Takahashi FSQ-85ED refractor, Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro mount
Exposure: OIII 35x 360”, Ha 48x 360”, SII 43x 360”
Software: APP, PixInsight
Venus and Jupiter
James Robertson, Croydon, 2 March 2023
James says: “I saw the planets in a lucky gap between trees and buildings, set up very quickly, and was very happy to capture Jupiter’s moons with such a short exposure.”
Equipment: Canon 750D DSLR, Olympus Zuiko 75–150mm lens, tripod
Exposure: 3”
Software: Photoshop
NGC 1097
Massimo Di Fusco, remotely via Chilescope, Chile, 13–19 January 2023
Massimo says: “This barred spiral galaxy is very difficult to process due to the very bright nucleus. I managed to obtain a balanced result processing the nucleus and the whole galaxy in different ways and, at the end, combining it all.”
Equipment: FLI PL16803 camera, ASA RC-1000 Ritchey–Chrétien, ASA altaz mount
Exposure: Ha 7x 600”, L 22x 600”, RGB 7x 300”
Software: APP, PixInsight, Photoshop
The Sombrero Galaxy
Dan Crowson, remotely via Telescope Live, El Sauce Observatory,Chile, August–September 2022
Dan says: “M104, the Sombrero Galaxy, 28 million lightyears away, is one of my favourite galaxies. It was one of the first that I attempted to image from my backyard near Saint Louis, Missouri in the US.”
Equipment: QHYCCD QHY600M camera, PlaneWave CDK24 astrograph, Mathis MI-1000 mount
Exposure: 7.8h total
Software: PixInsight, Photoshop
The Sun
David Hoskin, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 15 February 2023
David says: “A clear sky and temperature well above freezing was all the encouragement I needed to image the always fascinating photosphere and chromosphere of our nearest star.”
Equipment: Player One Apollo-M Mini camera, Orion ST80A reflector (white light, left), Lunt 40mm solar scope (Ha, right), Baader solar filter, Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer mount
Exposure: 0.062ms, 2ms, 4,000 frames per video
Software: AutoStakkert!
The Moon, with a Boeing 737
John Tipping, Northwich, Cheshire, 11 June 2022
John says: “I was lucky to catch an aircraft passing by – it was a Ryanair Boeing 737 going from Malaga to Edinburgh.”
Equipment: Canon 700D DSLR, Sky-Watcher SkyMax 180 Pro Maksutov, iOptron iEQ45 Pro mount
Exposure: 12,000 frames
Software: RegiStax, FastStone Image Viewer
The California Nebula
Neil Corke, Castilléjar, Spain, January–February 2023
Neil says: “I chose this nebula as I’d just upgraded to a full-frame camera and could fit it in the field of view with my Takahashi refractor. I used narrowband filters and processed it in the SHO Hubble palette, resulting in a colourful rainbow-like image.”
Equipment: Moravian C3-61000 Pro camera, Takahashi FSQ-106 refractor, Software Bisque Paramount MX+ mount
Exposure: 49h total
Software: PixInsight, Photoshop
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