The Milky Way rising over Siding Spring Observatory (NSW, Australia) while my amateur telescope observes under a dark sky. Single, 30s exposure, frame using a CANON 5D Mark III with 14mm lens at f2.8, ISO1600, taken the 22nd April 2021at 2:09am local time. Minimum process (curves, luminosity, contrast, saturation and noise reduction) with Photoshop Raw. This is part of a time-lapse I still have to process!
Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (AAO-MQ)
Full resolution image in my Flickr.
Updated version of my test image of the Lagoon Nebula (M8) with the first light of the ZWO ASI1600MM Pro camera and broad-band filters.
This image combines:
H-alpha data taken on 21st Aug 2020, L-Pro and B data taken on 23rd Aug 2020, from my backyard at home, 15 km North from Sydney’s city center.
Telescope: Skywatcher Black Diamond 80, f=600mm (f/7.5)
Equipment: I used the ZWO ASIAir to control the camera, the mount (Skywatcher AZ-EQ6) and the guiding system (ASI120MM + Orion 50mm finderscope). ZWO filter drawer for changing filter.
The [O III] data taken on 18 August 2021, including the Orion 0.75x focal reducer and the ZWO 7×2″ filter wheel.
Processing: Data processed with Siril software. FITS converted on TIFF using NASA’s Fits Liberator considering a logarithmic function. Color / saturation / levels / contrast / smart sharpen with Photoshop.
Full resolution image in my Flickr.
Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (AAO-MQ).
Deep H-alpha image of the Prawn nebula (IC 4628) in Scorpius obtained from my backyard, 15 km from Sydney’s city centre.
This image combines:
Total integration time: 14h 32 min.
The data were taken on the nights of 24th, 25th, 28th, 29th and 30th August and 7th and 12th September 2020.
Telescope: Skywatcher Black Diamond 80, f=600mm, with an Orion x0.8 focal reducer (effective focal length 480 mm, f/6).
I used the ZWO ASIAir to control the camera, filter wheel, the mount (Skywatcher AZ-EQ6) and the guiding system (ASI120MM + Orion 50mm finderscope).
Equipment: ZWO ASI1600MM Pro cooled at -30 C. I used the ZWO ASIAir to control the camera, the mount (Skywatcher AZ-EQ6) and the guiding system (ASI120MM + Orion 50mm finderscope). The filters were manually changed using the ZWO filter drawer.
The data have been processed with SIRIL, then converted into TIF using Fits Liberator using a logarithmic stretch, and finally combined in Photoshop to get the colours and the final details.
Processing: Data processed with Siril software. Darks, flats and biases were used. FITS converted on TIFF using NASA’s Fits Liberator considering a logarithmic function. Color / saturation / levels / contrast / smart sharpen with Photoshop.
Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (AAO-MQ).
Full resolution image in my Flickr.
This image combines 50 x 1″ exposures, ISO 800, obtained with my CANON 5D Mark III attached at primary focus of my Skywatcher Black Diamond 80mm f600mm (F/7.5) during the Total Lunar Eclipse on Wednesday 26 May 2021, between 9:00pm and 9:04pm, Sydney local time.
The frames were manually aligned with Photoshop, then extracted as new frames to Lynkeos, that did the fine alignment. Drizzling x2 was also used. Then the combined image was taken to Photoshop, where the colour, highlights/shadows, and contrast were tuned. This got only the image of the eclipsed moon.
Additionally, I combined the full 266 x 1″ images I took during totality using Siril to get the stellar background.
They two combined frames (eclipsed moon + stars) were combined with Photoshop with a bit of extra tuning to get a nice background.
The image taken at 9:03pm was used as reference for the alignment.
All the data were taken during the 4 hours “ONLINE” event “Conversaciones astronómicas bajo la luna eclipsada” that I organised with the “Red Andaluza de Astronomía” (RAdA), “Agrupación Astronómica de Córdoba” (AAC), “Asociación de Lengua y Cultura Española” (ALCE) de Australia and the “Spanish Researchers in Australia-Pacific” (SRAP-IEAP), that was followed by many schools in Spain.
I also want to thank Alicia Lozano (RAdA), Héctor Socas-Navarro (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias), María Ribes (Universidad de Alicante) and Alberto Aparici (Instituto de Física Corpuscular de Valencia) for the conversation they had during the event while I was taking this images.
Full resolution image in My Flickr.
Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (Australian Astronomical Optics, Macquarie University).
Deep H-alpha image of the Helix Nebula obtained from my backyard, 15 km from Sydney’s city centre.
This image combines the best 40 frames of the 82 frames I got the nights of 24-30 August, 7, 12 and 15 September 2020 using the ZWO ASI1600MM Pro and the H-alpha Baader 3.5nm ultra-narrow filter.
All frames had an exposition time of 900s (15 minutes), hence this image combines a total of 10 hours of telescope time!
Telescope: Skywatcher Black Diamond 80, f=600mm (f/7.5)
Equipment: I used the ZWO ASIAir to control the camera, the mount (Skywatcher AZ-EQ6) and the guiding system (ASI120MM + Orion 50mm finderscope). The H-alpha filter was in the ZWO filter drawer.
Processing: Data processed with Siril software. FITS converted on TIFF using NASA’s Fits Liberator considering a logarithmic function. Color / saturation / levels / contrast / smart sharpen with Photoshop.
I hope to get soon some data in broad-band filters to get the colours!
Full resolution image in my Flickr.
Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (AAO-MQ).
Dr Ángel R. López-Sánchez 