Iris Nebula

The Iris Nebula/NGC 7023/Caldwell 4 is a bright reflection nebula in Cepheus surrounded by substantial dust around 1300 light years from Earth. It is a circumpolar object which means that it is visible throughout the year and never sets, I imaged it from Austerfield late August/early September 2019 when it is highest in the sky.
99 x 120s Red Gain 0

100 x 120s Green Gain 0

99 x 120s Blue Gain 0

~10 hours total integration ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro, Takahashi FSQ-106

The Fish Head Nebula - A different take

IC1795 The Fish Head Nebula 

This version of the previously posted image utilises a different palette that is similar to the Hubble one but instead Oxygen was mapped to Red and Sulphur to Blue. Then the colours were painstakingly altered to achieve different hues of blue to make the nebulosity appear to be water with the 'Fish' leaping out. The Fish is traditional Hubble Palette (SHO) mapped data that has been blended into the blue mapped data, so two images processed alongside each other and then blended together. 

Ha 58 x 360s Gain 200 Ofset 50

OIII 56 x 360s Gain 200 Ofset 50

SII 51 x 360s Gain 200 Ofset 50

The Fish Head Nebula

IC1795 The Fish Head Nebula

Part of the Heart Nebula Complex (IC 1805) which lies in Cassiopeia, around 6000 light years from Earth, it is a star forming region comprised of glowing gases and obscuring dust. This 'false colour' image utilises the Hubble palette where narrow-band emission data from Sulphur, Hydrogen and Oxygen gas is mapped to Red, Green and Blue channels respectively with a little bit of mixing to get good transitions of colour. The object Melotte 15 is also visible to the bottom left of the image which lies at the centre of the Heart Nebula. Captured using my own ZWO astro-cam attached to our astronomical society's telescope (Takahashi) and mount. The data was acquired over 5 different nights between October and December. Processed mostly in PixInsight with finishing touches in Photoshop and Lightroom. This is only my second narrow-band image and I am very pleased with how it turned out. It is just under 17 hours of data and it has probably taken me about the same amount of time to process the image.

Donington Hall Star Trails

September 2019.

157 x 30s exposures, Sigma Art 14mm F4, ISO 100, Nikon D750. At least 6 hours of post processing work here.

The mist looked nice but caused the lights to bloom - hence all of the post work to tame it. Also a dew heater would have helped keep condensation off the lens.

Cusworth Hall and Lake Star Trails

September 2019, 35mm Nikon D750, around 30 minutes of exposures.

Very tricky to edit because of cloud in a lot of the shots, I could have discarded those frames but that would mean much shorter trails. So some photoshop magic was involved to remove them, the reflection in the lake is not real, for two reasons, the aforementioned cloud and also there was a swan and other water foul floating around which made trails. So I copied the vista, flipped it and using one of my cleaner 'real' reflection frames as a reference I blurred (it was fairly still but a bit of a breeze which moved the water surface), stretched and darkened the reflection to match what it should look like.

Cusworth Hall Star Trails

September 2019, 50mm Nikon D750, around 30 minutes of exposures.

Noctilucent Clouds over the Aqueduct

Tamron 24-70mm @ 24mm F4, Nikon D750, 10s ISO 800 F4 for the sky, 30s ISO 800 F4 for the foreground.

M81 & M82 Galaxies

The data was acquired on 26th/27th Feb, 7th/29th March, 21st April and 4th May 2019, using my ZWO ASI1600 attached to the Tak at Austerfield.

152 x 90/100/120s Red G0 O10

52 x 120s Green G0 O10

137 x 120s Blue G0 O10

43 x 300/360s Ha G200 O50 ~15 Hours Total

The Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33)

The Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) is a small dark nebula in the Orion constellation. The Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) is located to the lower left of the image and is an emission nebula. Reflection Nebula NGC 2023 can be seen below and left of the Horsehead and some other smaller nebulae IC435 (bottom) and IC432 (left).

It is around 1500 light years from Earth and around 3.5 light years wide.

25 x 2s Lum Gain 0

25 x 5s Lum Gain 0

187 x 20s Lum Gain 0

100 x 60s Red Gain 0

123 x 45s Green Gain 0

120 x 45s Blue Gain 0

25 x 360s Ha Gain 139 (Unity)

Imaged using my ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro camera attached to the society's Tak telescope at Austerfield over 3 nights, 30th Jan,2nd & 4th Feb 2019. Processed in PixInsight, Photoshop and Lightroom.

Orion's Belt

The beginning of February 2019, I piggybacked my modded Nikon D5300 with the Nikon 180mm lens set to f3.5 onto the ODK whilst I imaged the Horsehead Nebula through the Tak with my ZWO camera - the ODK and the Tak are on the same mount, for those that don't know.

61 x 5s ISO 800 - To get the stars in the trapezium

17 x 120s ISO 800 - For everything else

20 Flats

50 x 120s darks - probably overkill, but I was still imaging with the Tak/ZWO so just left the Nikon taking darks with the cap on

100 x Bias

Star Trails over the Aqueduct

Star trails over the bridge that allows the River Dun Navigation to cross over the River Don. When imaging star trails it can get a little boring because once you have set up the camera and got a composition and exposure that you are happy with you just leave it to do it's thing for ~1hr 20mins in this instance. So I tried some light painting to keep me occupied and here is the result.

154 x 30s Sigma Art 14mm f1.8 @ ISO 500 and 7 x 30s @ ISO 800 stack for some bits of the foreground that were over(from blend)/underexposed. Nikon D750.

Noctilucent Clouds and a tree

Another NLC shot close to Barnby Dun from 2018.

The Milky Way, LMC & SMC above Lake Tekapo, NZ

The band of the Milky Way only visible from the Southern Hemisphere, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds above the Church of the Good Shepherd at Lake Tekapo, New Zealand in December 2017.

~700m elevation, class 2 Bortle sky. (Austerfield is class 5 Bortle).
Sigma Art 14mm, f1.8, ISO 1600 30s, sky and foreground processed separately. Nikon D750.

The Southern Cross and Coal Sack Nebula

The Southern Cross (Crux) and The Coalsack Nebula.
One of the brightest and yet smallest of the constellations.
The Jewel Box Cluster can be seen to the lower right of the bottom star (Mimosa).
The Coalsack is the most prominent dark nebula in the skies, is around 600 ly away.
180mm Nikkor, f2.8, ISO 1600, 6 x 50s. Diffraction spikes added to accentuate the constellation. Nikon D750. Star Adventurer Mount.
Imaged from New Zealand in January 2018.

The ISS crosses the Milky Way over Lady Bower Reservoir

Imaged in July 2017 looking south towards Bamford, the International Space Station crosses the band of the Milky Way above Lady Bower Reservoir.

3 x 20sec frames vertical panoram, 24mm, f2, ISO 3200 Nikon D750.

IC1805 - Heart Nebula in Cassiopeia

This was our 'first light' with our new dedicated astro camera. We were very excited to try out our new kit and the forecast fell lucky with beautiful clear skies.

It lies some 7500 light years away from Earth and is located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia

Skywatcher Evostar 80ED 

HEQ5 pro

 ZWO ASI120

 ZWO ASI294mc pro (-5)  L-eNhance Optolong filter

30 x 5min Subs 

124 gain

NGC7000 North American Nebula in Cygnus

A reprocess of NGC7000 in colour.

This was taken during a full Moon with just under 3 hours of astronomical darkness. This supported our decision to shoot using Hydrogen alpha.


Roughly 2.5 hours of 6min subs SW Evostar ED80 HEQ5 Pro 600D mod + Astronomik Ha clip ZWO ASI120 Guide

NGC6960 - Witches Broom Nebula

The Witches Broom nebula taken in the little 'dark' that we have at this time of year. This is our first go using our L-eNhance Optolong filter.


6 min Subs 1hr 54 total exposure HEQ5 pro Skywatcher Evostar ED80 600D mod + L-eNhance filter

NGC7000 - North American Nebula in Cygnus

With the Moon being spectacularly bright, we have been sticking to Hydrogen Alpha images. 

Roughly 2.5 hours of 6min subs SW Evostar ED80 HEQ5 Pro 600D mod + Astronomik Ha clip ZWO ASI120 Guide