Your best photos submitted to the magazine this month

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

The Dark Shark Nebula, LDN1235

Catalin Cosar, Henlow, Bedfordshire, 22–28 February 2022

Catalin says: “Along with the dark Shark Nebula, LDN 1235, two reflection nebulae are visible here, vdB 149 and vdB 150, as well as the distant spiral galaxy PGC 67671, behind the shark’s ‘fin’. Gathering the data was easy – the moonless nights helped – but processing it was a different story. It took a few weeks until I was satisfied with the final image.”

Equipment: QHY 268C and QHY 268M cameras, Takahashi FSQ-85EDX refractor, Sky-Watcher EQ8 Pro mount

Exposure: RGB 165x 180”, L 198x 180”

Software: StarNet++, PixInsight

Catalin’s top tips: “For faint, dusty objects like this, there’s no substitute for dark skies, fast optics and lots of integration time (I had over 18 hours). To bring out the nebulosity without distorting the stars, I processed my two stacks, RGB from my colour camera and luminance from my monochrome, separately. Each was stretched and denoised (cleared of unwanted artefacts), then the luminance was deconvoluted (contrast improvement) and the RGB was colour calibrated before combining them. After removing the stars with StarNet++, I stretched them again before adding the RGB stars back in.”

Star trails

Andy Parker, Dungeness Beach, Kent, 1 April 2022

Andy says: “This is a superb dark-sky spot on the coast. I had to edit out a couple of aircraft trails using the eraser tool. If you look closely there’s a meteor near the tower.”

Equipment: Canon EOS RP mirrorless camera, Canon 35mm lens, 3 Legged Thing Punks Travis tripod

Exposure: stars: ISO 200 f/5.6, 5x 14’; foreground: ISO 100, f/8, 183”

Software: Photoshop

ISS transit

Julian Whitfield, Bristol, 17 March 2022

Julian says: “This was four years in the making. Finally, a clear sky combined with an ISS shadow transit of 0.61-second duration.”

Equipment: ZWO ASI174MM camera, Sky-Watcher 300P Flextube Dobsonian

Exposure: 8fps, 0.64ms, gain 102

Software: Photoshop

The Trifid Nebula

Adriano Almeida, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, 19 May 2021

Adriano says: “I was especially pleased with how this shows off the surrounding reflection portion of the Trifid Nebula.”

Equipment: ZWO ASI2600MM camera, William Optics FLT132 refractor, Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount

Exposure: Ha 3h 5’, OIII 8h; stars: RGB 2h

Software: APP, Photoshop

Elan Valley nightscape

Thomas Winstone, Claerwen Dam, Rhayader, 25 March 2022

Thomas says: “The capture of this picture – of the Milky Way, an ISS pass, the Zodiacal Light and a meteor over the Elan Valley – involved a 15-minute off-road drive on a bumpy track and a climb up the valley wall in the dark with walking poles and a head torch.”

Equipment: Canon EOS R5 mirrorless camera, Sigma 14mm lens, Gitzo CF tripod

Exposure: ISO 2000, f/2.2, 8x 25”

Software: Photoshop, Lightroom

LBN 531 and LBN 532 in Cepheus

Yann Sainty, Vosges and Moselle, France, 3–10 March 2022

Yann says: “This is the hardest processing I’ve ever done, due to mixing the Ha (Hydrogen-alpha) in with the LRGB, and separately processing the planetary nebula.”

Equipment: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro camera, Takahashi FSQ-106ED refractor, Sky-Watcher ER6-R Pro mount

Exposure: 65h 45’ total

Software: Siril, PixInsight, Photoshop

The Moon

Roger Hyman, Sparkford, Somerset, 8 March 2022

Roger says: “I love all the details and features to see in this waxing crescent Moon I shot from my back garden.”

Equipment: Altair Hypercam 183C Pro camera, William Optics Zenithstar 126 refractor, Celestron CGX mount

Exposure: 12.5ms, gain 400, 500 frames, best 25 per cent stacked 

Software: SharpCap, AutoStakkert!, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoise AI

The Antennae Galaxies

Basudeb Chakrabarti, via Telescope Live, Hurtado Valley, Chile, 13 March 2022

Basudeb says: “It was very difficult to bring out the details of the core area.”

Equipment: FLI ProLine PL9000 camera, Planewave CDK24 astrograph, Mathis MI-1000 mount

Exposure: 4h 20’ total

Software: DeepSkyStacker, PixInsight, Photoshop

Sunspots

Arturo Buenrostro, Dallas, Texas, 27 March 2022

Arturo says: “These are the sunspots AR 2975/6, which are part of the fantastic solar activity we are now experiencing in Solar Cycle 25.”

Equipment: ZWO ASI178MM camera, Lunt 60mm H-Alpha telescope, doublestacked 50mm filter, B1200 blocking filter, Sky-Watcher AZ-EQ6 Pro mount

Exposure: 50” video, 2,500 frames stacked

Software: AutoStakkert!, RegiStax, Photoshop


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