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