Author Archives: paul

Society and “truth”, Peter and Pete – a sad reflection

Posted on May 13, 2023 by paul

Growing fear/distrust leads to sad outcomes such as Peter & Pete. Continue reading →

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The Whale and the Hockey Stick

Posted on June 4, 2022 by paul

This is NGC4631 and NGC4656-7 better known as the Whale and Hockey stick galaxies. Imaged over several nights 21-25th April 2022, I managed only a few hours total due to bad weather.

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The Sadr region – first light for my Samyang 135mm F2 lens and home brew mount.

Posted on June 4, 2022 by paul

This is a “first light” image taken with my new wide-field setup. Here we have the star Sadr in the constellation of Cygnus. Using narrowband Ha (56mins) and Oiii (30mins) filters I’ve captured the glowing dust in the region surrounding … Continue reading →

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Messier 51 in 2022

Posted on April 30, 2022 by paul

I’ve taken a shot at Messier 51 again. Compared to Messier 51 and first light for my Orion Optics 250mm rebuild from last year it is more successful: Conditions were much better and my guiding is considerably better with <> … Continue reading →

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NGC 4725 and NGC4747 have collided

Posted on March 29, 2022 by paul

This is NGC 4725 and cohorts. It looks NGC 4725 had a tangle with 4747 and neither came off well. Imaged from the 22nd to 25th March, total integration time was 9 hours and 15 minutes, (2h20 Blue, 2hr53 Green, … Continue reading →

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The Tadpole Nebula in Auriga – IC410

Posted on March 26, 2022 by paul

IC410 is a dusty star forming region about 12,000 light years away. I’ve finally grabbed enough O3 to attempt an HOO combination. This time of year, the nebula stays above the neighbours’ trees for about 2 hrs after dark. I … Continue reading →

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Messier 106 and the faint fuzzies

Posted on March 11, 2022 by paul

On one of three clear nights in February, I managed to capture this amazing image: Just three hours of RGB data has captured a host of bright and many faint galaxies. Some of the faintest detected are very red indicating … Continue reading →

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Messier 81 and Messier 82 – a classic pairing

Posted on March 10, 2022 by paul

Making the most of my improved guiding I have been using the big 250mm Newt to image some classic galaxies: This is a combination of several partial sessions that I had to stop for one reason or another. 10hrs split … Continue reading →

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NGC 891, an edge on galaxy in Andromeda

Posted on January 20, 2022 by paul

Broadband imaging is already tricky in the suburbs but I perhaps didn’t help myself by trying to image this lovely galaxy with an almost full moon chasing it across the sky and haze. But still, for 4 hrs of data … Continue reading →

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M103 – A small, bright, open cluster in Casseopeia

Posted on January 8, 2022 by paul

Captured while waiting for M1 to clear some trees. This is an ideal target for a quick imaging session. 1.5hrs of RGB imaged with the ASI1600 on my 250mm Newtonian. Simple stacking a processing in Pixinsight. On this occasion I … Continue reading →

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