Comet ZTF !

 

Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF

Here's that comet the media is talking about: Comet 2022 E3 ZTF

This is stack of 10 - 60 second shots taken with my Canon T3i camera body using a 6" RC telescope.

Year in Review - 2022

 

Every year I try to gather some of my favorite images from my astrophotography of that year into one image... enjoy ! All were taken from southeastern Arizona with a variety of telescopes in my observatory.

(Click on the image once or twice to see a larger view)

IC 1848 The Soul Nebula

 

IC 1848 "The Soul Nebula"

10 subs @ 180 seconds

ISO 3200

480mm Daystar Refractor f/6

Modded Canon T3i body

Ok, why "Soul"? I guess because the Heart Nebula is so close someone thought "Heart and Soul" would be appropriate! (Matthew 22:37)

Both of these are near the constellation Cassiopeia (The big "W" of stars that are near overhead in the evening sky about 9 pm).

The visual "size" of this nebula is "larger" than the size of the full Moon but because it is dim one needs photography to see it in all of its beauty!

Heart Nebula - IC 1805

 My first attempt at this nebula IC 1805

between the Cassiopeia and Perseus constellations.

No wonder they call it the "Heart Nebula"!

I removed the stars in this photo so you could see the nebulosity better:

My past processing process resulted in the stars overwhelming the nebulosity

which I didn't like at all. Here's what that looked like...

compare this image with the first and you can see the total difference!

Stars are colorless and bloated. That is why I like my new process!

A Quick Report on the Total Lunar Eclipse of November 8, 2022

A quick image from last night's total lunar eclipse! A bigger report with pics to come! 

This was taken at the darkest time of totality (one is the cropped version of the other).

The Helix Nebula

 

M 33 The Triangulum Galaxy

 The clouds cleared for the first time in over 2 weeks (we are having a more-soon, that's like a monsoon but more of it).

This was taken with a 6" RC telescope and an unmodified Canon T3i DSLR.

It is a stack of 30 - 2 minute exposures for a total integration time of 60 minutes.