Your best photos submitted to the magazine this month
PHOTO OF THE MONTH
The Pelican Nebula
Vikas Chander, remotely via Insight Observatory, New Mexico, USA, 4–8 May 2022
Vikas says: “This is a popular target among astro imagers, so I wanted to do it differently. I added more Ha but also more blue, as the target seemed lacking in that filter. I wanted to keep the reds more ‘bubble gum’ than bright red, and I think I succeeded. 57 Cygni causes a bright halo and that was a challenge to tame. Since the filters could not be changed, I had to fight the halos in post-processing.”
Equipment: FLI Proline 16803 CCD camera, Dreamscope 16-inch f/3.7 astrograph reflector, Paramount ME mount
Exposure: Ha 28x 600”, L 10x 600”, R 12x 600”, G 20x 600”, B 20x 600”
Software: PixInsight, Noise Exterminator, Photoshop
Vikas’s top tips: “I spent time trying to bring out the faint nebula tendrils and tame the blue star halos. Russ Croman’s excellent Noise Exterminator was used to remove noise. I don’t like adding sharpness in processing and depend solely on the deconvolution process done on the luminance data to add detail and sharpness. If I were to image this target again, I’d do something about the blue filter to minimise halos. If that’s not possible I’d shoot the stars at a lower exposure time and then blend them in. Other than that, I’m quite happy with the outcome.”
Milky Way over Atacama
Tomáš Slovinský, Atacama, Chile, 30 April 2022
Tomáš says: “The amazing dark southern night sky from Chile. In the top left there’s a faint zodiacal light called gegenschein or counterglow.”
Equipment: Canon EOS 6D DSLR, Sigma Art 50mm lens, Leofoto LM-405C tripod, Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer mount
Exposure: ISO 5000, f/2.2, 25”
Software: Lightroom, Photoshop, PTGui, RegiStar
Partial solar eclipse
Sonia Turkington, North Reddish, Stockport, 25 October 2022
Sonia says: “It’s always a magical sight capturing nature at its best. The cloud was very thin, but I still had great viewing conditions to see it.”
Equipment: Google Pixel 6 smartphone, Sky-Watcher Skyliner 250PX 10-inch Dobsonian, Seymour Solar Thin Film
Exposure: ISO 41, f/1.9, 1/31”
Software: Google Photos
Saturn
John Beer, Swansea, 17 September 2022
John says: “I was hoping to image Saturn at opposition [on 14 August], but weather and work conspired to stop me. However, there were favourable conditions later and I was very lucky.”
Equipment: ZWO ASI224MC camera, Celestron NexStar 8SE Schmidt-Cassegrain, Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro mount
Exposure: 10,000 frames
Software: FireCapture, AutoStakkert!, RegiStax, GIMP
Harvest Moon
Chirag Upreti, New York, USA, 10 September 2022
Chirag says: “My location was planned using PhotoPills. The warm, vibrant colour change as the Moon descended towards the horizon was very nice to see.”
Equipment: Sony A7RIII mirrorless camera, Sony 200–600mm lens, Gitzo Mountaineer Series 2 tripod
Exposure: ISO 160, f/11, 1/13”, four frames stacked
Software: Photoshop
Occultation of Uranus
Agapios Elia and Siegfried Trattnig, Nicosia, Cyprus, 14 September 2022
Agapios says: “The enormous magnitude difference required multiple exposure sets, as well as extreme care.”
Equipment: ZWO ASI224MC camera, Celestron C9.25 Schmidt-Cassegrain, Celestron CGEM mount
Exposure: Uranus: 10’ video, Moon: 1’ video
Software: AutoStakkert!, RegiStax, Photoshop
The surface of the Sun
Joey Desmond, Dublin, Ireland, 10 August 2022
Joey says: “It was clear outside and I was trying out FireCapture. I normally do deep-sky astrophotography, so this was something new.”
Equipment: ZWO ASI 174MM camera, William Optics Zenithstar 73 refractor, Daystar Quark Chromosphere eyepiece, Sky-Watcher EQ5 mount
Exposure: 3,000 frames, best 20% stacked
Software: FireCapture, AutoStakkert!, GIMP, PixInsight
The ghost of Cassiopeia
Jim Owen, Swadlincote, Derbyshire, 24 September 2022
Jim says: “The ghost of Cassiopeia sits about 550 lightyears away. I’ve never been able to get a good moonless night to grab this very faint target, until this favourable night in early autumn.”
Equipment: Altair Hypercam 26C camera, Altair 8-inch f/4 Newtonian, Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount
Exposure: Ha 24 x5’, OIII 24 x5’
Software: APT, Astro Pixel Processor, PixInsight
Copernicus crater
Frank Dutton, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, 17 September 2022
Frank says: “I’ve always loved lunar imaging and Copernicus is a dramatic crater. This image revealed the terrace detail and the hundreds of ejecta craterlets beautifully.”
Equipment: Altair GP-CAM 290M camera, Altair 6-inch Classical Cassegrain, Celestron Evolution AZ mount
Exposure: 2,000 frames, best 50% stacked
Software: AutoStakkert!, RegiStax, Affinity Photo
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