One Swan... One Thousand Mosquitos:

July 15^th was a clear night to shoot M17 The Swan Nebula. I just had to wait until around midnight for moonset. I was set-up, aligned, tracking and had M17 nicely centred. I just had to fine-tune focus, and then start shooting. It was a beautiful night to be outdoors... but unfortunately the mosquito population agreed...
        ...I say all that to make this excuse: My focus on this shot isn’t dead-on!.. and it’s not my fault! It’s the mosquitoes fault!! I was absolutely being eaten alive while I tried to obtain perfect focus – I was swatting my arms and head and stamping my feet vigorously! I’m sure I looked  like I was performing some ritualistic star dance! Thank goodness it was dark!
I did take time, once I had covered the street light (don’t tell the town of West Lincoln) to sit back and look up. I was given an anti-gravity chair for father’s day so I can lay back and star gaze - it's awesome! It is so overwhelming, when you look up this time of year... the Milky Way sprawled overhead. What a privileged perspective we have! In Psalm 17 David looks up to God and says “I am praying to you because I know you will answer, O God. Bend down and listen as I pray.  Show me your unfailing love in wonderful ways. (Ps 17:6-7 NLT)... God is the amazing and powerful creator of the whole universe, yet he is always ready to bend down and listen to our simplest thoughts! 

M17, The Swan Nebula is roughly 6000 light years away and is guessed to be 15 light years across. We are actually looking at it edge on - Face on it is thought to be up to 40 light years across.

M17 image technical details:

8" Skywatcher Newtonian on NEQ6pro (auto-guided) and DSLR Canon T3i Camera (Gary Honis Mod)
33 light frames x 3 minutes = 99 minutes total exposure @ 1600 iso + (15 darks and 15 flats)
Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and processed in Photoshop CS2 free.

The Lagoon Nebula

The first real test for my new "Full Spectrum" modified T3i Canon DSLR Camera!
M8 The Lagoon Nebula was captured early morning of June 15th at our local RASC Observatory. Myself and a friend imaged M8 all night long (once the moon set at midnight) despite the heavy dew, fog and intermittent cloud. Much time was lost, but a total of 75 minutes of exposure were stacked to create this image.
The Lagoon Nebula is 4000-6000 light years away and measures 110 light years across. The features of M8 that intrigue me the most are the little black clouds called "Bok Globules". They are dark collapsing clouds of proto-stellar material and they contain the right ingredients to hatch a new star. Wikipedia has more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bok_globule
I keep a photo album at home of my space images. Each image is captioned with the Psalm number that coincides with the objects Messier number... So for M8, here is the verses that jumped off the page from Ps.8:
 Psalm 8: 3-6 (NLT)
When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers— the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?
Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority.

25 subs x 3minutes = 75 minutes total exposure at 1600iso - Stacked with DSS and processed with Photoshop CS2free

May 2013 - Spring Globular Clusters:

The beginning of May provided two beautiful warm & clear nights. May 1st & 3rd were dedicated to imaging Globular Clusters M3 and M13. Both nights were perfect for sitting back in my lawn chair and gazing into the starry blackness above!
I should mention: Some of the bonus darkness I enjoy at home is courtesy of a kind and supportive neighbour! When she sees me out setting up my telescope, she makes sure all her outside lights and yard light are shut off for the night. You can't beat neighbours like that!!
I shot both clusters with the same settings, under the same "seeing" conditions, same exposure times and an equal frame size. This provides a direct visual comparison of these two giant star clusters from our distant perspective here on Earth. Both of these clusters are roughly 90 light years diameter but M3 has a hard time competing with M13, as it rests 33,900 light years away. M13 is much closer at only 25,100 light years. M3 may lose a little in quality, but it makes up for it in quantity: M3 has 500,000 stars while M13 only holds 300,000 stars!
Close examination of both clusters reveal a colourful array of bluish to orangey stars.
Look for many 'small' distant galaxies in the peripheral as well.



M3 - Globular Star Cluster in Canes Venatici - 40 x 2.5min exposures = 1hr 40min total exposure @ 800iso

M13 - Globular Star Cluster in Hercules - 40 x 2.5min exposures = 1hr 40mins total exposure @ 800iso





Camera and Tripod

March 2013: I have been taking some pictures with my Canon T2i DSLR camera and an old manual lens FD 35-105mm zoom. It took some searching on-line to find an adapter that would let me join a 25 year old lens to a 2 year old camera... Amazon.ca saved the day!
I was able to get a couple pictures of Comet PanSTARRS in mid March, before it became to dim to capture. (A car zoomed by in the second frame).
The picture of my favourite constellation "Orion" is ten 15 second long frames stacked, ISO 800. Orion stands (from top to bottom stars) about 890 light years tall. The top left bright star "Betelgeuse", if placed where our sun is, would reach past the orbit of Jupiter, thus consuming the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and Jupiter!
God challenged Job by reminding him that He is in control! - God said:
        "Can you direct the movement of the stars, binding the cluster of the Pleiades or loosening the cords of Orion?" Job 38:31 (NLT)
My response would be..."ummm, no... ok God, you're in control! Sorry for doubting you - Big Guy!"
I also included a quick 1/3 second shot of the cloud covered moon.

Finally... Clear Skies! 
Friday night, March 8th was an ideal night to set up and try out my new telescope. I am now shooting with an 8" Skywatcher Newtonian OTA. I sold my 6" SCT in the fall and picked up the 8" Newt about a month before Christmas. There has been very few clear nights but finally, Friday was one!
Spring is galaxy season so I decided to shoot the Pinwheel Galaxy M101 (or NGC 5457). 
The Pinwheel has a diameter of 170,000 light years and it's about 21 million light years away! It's located above the handle in the Big Dipper.
Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of His great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing. (Is 40:26)

Pinwheel Galaxy M101 - 36 x 4min sub frames = 2hrs 24mins total exposure @ 800iso



Venus Transit - June 5, 2012

June 5, 2012 - Venus Transit Day:


Boeing...

In the days approaching Transit Day, I scoped out different location that would have a clear view of the setting sun and access to a power outlet (for powering my mount). A small hill at our church’s side yard was the spot. I set up mid afternoon and was ready to shoot pictures about 45 minutes before it started. We saw an airplane flying straight for the sun and hoped it would cross… and it did!!! I was lucky enough to capture these three shots!!!



Going...



Gone!!!

 

...Here is my best shots of the real Transit, of Venus:

Just before sunset with Venus and another airplane!!!

 

 

 

 

June 20, 2012 - The day of the Trifid
I set up at home as far down my driveway as possible to improve my viewing angle of this southern sky nebula. I was shooting just over top the house and backyard trees. 
M20 the Trifid Nebula is an emissions nebula in the constellation Sagittarius:  

M20 The Trifid Nebula (2200 lys) - 40 frames x 4 minutes (re-processed in CS2-free, Apr/13)

Spring 2012 - Galaxies:

Our sun is so big you could fit almost 1 million earths in it. It’s an average sized star and it’s only one of 200 billion stars in the Milk Way Galaxy. So… to start wrapping my brain around the fact that other galaxies exist (maybe 400 billion more) is mind blowing. Actually observing and imaging those galaxies… Unreal!!!

This is the Whirlpool Galaxy M51 located under the handle of the Big Dipper estimated to be 37 million light years away. It is home to roughly 100 billion suns (about half as many as our home galaxy , The Milky Way). You can also see neighboring galaxy NGC5195.

I shot 140 - 5.25minute exposures over two nights early last week… I manually selected only 50 of the clearest shots, stacked them and processed colour levels, brightness, contrast and saturation in Gimp.  (Total exposure time is 4 hours, 23 minutes)

Side note: I lost so many of my original shots because part way through the second night the wires hanging from my small guiding scope came in contact with my telescopes focusing knob – As the mount rotated (or tracked) the focuser was turned ever so slightly by the wires, thus defocusing my scope!!! Another hard lesson learned!

The first time I ever observed M51 visually was three years ago, at our club observatory, with our 16” Newtonian Reflector Telescope.

 

M104

I set up at our club observatory and shot M104, the Sombrero Galaxy.

It is a little edge-on galaxy in Virgo and is recognized right away in the eyepiece. I believe it's core is one of the biggest estimated black holes!

I started firing shots by 10pm and was all packed up by 2:30am so I could be chipper at work the next day. In that time I shot 33 – 4minute frames and stacked them for a total exposure of 2 hours, 12 minutes.

The most exciting part of the night was the discovery of a mom raccoon and her four little nursing pups (only days old and furless) who have taken up residence in our main observatory building. We only entered the building to sign in-and-out so we could leave her alone. Her pups squeaked and chirped  the hole time we were there, probably fighting over the best milk supply! There was some satisfaction in knowing this little family was safe from the howling coyotes we were also hearing: