Vega is a bluish-white star, two and one half times th
August 19, 2018
…trying to reveal the nearby stars to Vega.
…2 sec shots, total exposure time 46 sec.
This is an image taken with the lum filter with the ZWO 1600 camera and the Skywatcher Mak Newt 190mm, 1000mm telescope. The image was cropped and processed in Photoshop CS2 and Luminar 2018.
Vega – 2017-09-28- Lunt Telescope, 70 mm, 420 mm, ZWO 224 camera, from a video (less than 20 sec) stacked in Registax and processed in Windows 10 Photo Editor
Vega – 2017-05-28- Telescope 1000mm, 190mm, Canon 70D EOS, 30 sec, iso 800, post processing in Windows 10 Photo Editor
Ring Nebula (M57) – 2017-07-18- Telescope 1000mm, 190mm, Canon 70D EOS, post processing in Astrotoaster
The Ring Nebula is a planetary nebula in the Constellation Lyra. The central star is the remainder of a sun-like star which will eventually cool down to become a white dwarf. The Ring Nebula is very easy to locate between Sheliak and Sulphat.
Notes
Through my 8 inch telescope using a 20 mm eyepiece (50X magnification) the Ring Nebula shows itself as a hazy ring. Slightly more detail may be detected with a 2x or 4x barlow but any color or central detail such as the central star is not apparent. I found that the Orion Ultra Block Filter is quite useful for finding this type of nebula but gives no more added detail … just a bit more contrast
Ring Nebula, M57 July 14,2018: Image stacked during video EAA as fits files (39 sec total), Skywatcher 190, 1000 Mak Newt and ZWO 224 color camera. Post processing in SkyTools and Luminar 2018
The following is a video in avi format taken for less than 30 sec and the resultant images derived from stacking and processing shown below.
The images above were taken with the same telescope but using a ZWO 224 camera and Sharpcap software. The top images were derived from an avi video file less than 30 sec and stacked in Registax. The resultant Tif file was processed in Lightzone, converted to a Jpg and the clarity increased again in Windows Photo Editor. The bottom file was from a Ser video file acquired with the same camera, using Firecapture.
Notes: I did not do precise polar alignment but this was not a problem using the ZWO 224 camera as the images are acquired rapidly allowing more images to be acquired before motion affects the image. However the resultant avi and ser videos of less than 30 sec produced a surprisingly more detailed image…the center stars of the nebula could now be seen. (see cropped image, top right)
Astronomy Notebook 