My best images taken with my new equipment in 2022

      Other than my new mount, I have purchased 2 new filters.  Since I am using a monochrome camera (black & white), I use specific filters between the telescope and camera sensor.  I use Red, Green and Blue filters to capture and produce an image similar to what the human eye can see, like a normal camera.  The other filters I use are Ha (Hydrogen Alpha), OIII (Oxygen III) and, SII (Sulfur II).  So if I am taking a normal colored picture I need to take 3 separate exposures.  An RGB image uses the 3 coloured filters, Red, Green and, Blue.  When I am taking narrow band images using SHO (the Hubble pallet), I use the SII, Ha, and OIII filters. This combination produces enhanced coloured pictures similar to what you've seen from the Hubble Telescope.  There are other variations of images using these filters in different combinations.  One combination I often use is HOO,  not all deep space objects emit SII light.  In producing a coloured image, I use Photoshop where I combine the individual images to produce a coloured picture.  If it's a standard image I just make Red as Red, Green as Green, and Blue as Blue.  If it's a SHO image, I make SII as Red, Ha as Green, and OIII as Blue.  A HOO images is Ha as Red, and OIII as Green and Blue.  There are other combinations as well.

     The reason for using SHO narrow-band filters is to eliminate light pollution in the sky.  With the SII, Ha, and OIII gas emissions being so faint they need much longer exposures to become visible. Taking an average RGB image I take a 120-second exposure, and with SHO narrow-band images I take 300-second exposures.  The better the filter the better the final picture.  Some of the filters I started with produced halos around bright stars,  and also allowing unwanted light through than they should, so you end up with a less sharp image.  I ended up replacing two filters, the Ha, and OIII.  I was getting coloured halos around my stars, which takes allot of time to control in processing.    

   And Now To The Pictures

IC5070 "The Pelican Nebula"  Captured Oct. 2021 using SHO filters.

IC410 "Tadpole Nebula"

     This image was captured late Dec. 2021.  I used the S H O filters taking 300sec. exposures threw each filter for a total 3 hour exposure.

The Flame and Horse head Nebula.  Captured Jan. 2022 using the  Ha, Green, and Blue filters.

This is just with the Ha filter

 

The Rosette Nebula.  Captured Feb. 2022 using Ha, SII, OIII filter combination.

For this image I used the filter combination of Ha, OIII, OIII

M13 "The Great Hercules Cluster" Spring 2022. This is a RGB image.

NGC6888 "The Crescent Nebula" Summer 2022. This is a HOO image.

The Iris Nebula.  Summer 2022.  Captured in RGB.  The bright blue star in the center is lighting the surrounding dist in space.

 

 

The Cocoon Nebula. Fall 2022.  A very dusty patch of space. Captured using RGB filters.

 

NGC6960 "The Witches Broom" The western section of the Veil Supernova Complex.

This was captured Sept. 2022 using the Ha and OIII filters and processed in HOO.  With my new filters I was able to pull out allot of detail without a large halo around the central star.

 

"The Cygnus Wall" A section of NGC7000.  I captured this in Aug. 2022 using SHO filters.

 

 

NGC281 "The Pack Man Nebula"  Captured Fall 2022 in SHO

NGC7380 "The Wizard Nebula"  Captured Fall 2022 using SHO filters.

 

The Helix Nebula  Captured Fall 2022 

     This was captured using Ha and OIII filters.  This time in processing I wanted the nebula to appear more transparent than previous versions Ive done,  like viewing it threw a telescope. 

 

 IC63 "The Ghost of Cassiopeia"

Captured this Oct. 2022.  This time I used a Ha filter for the Red nebula and RGB filters for the stars.

The "Double Cluster" Fall 2022 in RGB