Being January, Orion once again is the obvious choice for deep-sky imaging.  But how about some deep-sky imaging with a difference?  What about some infrared imaging?  Silicon-based CCD detectors will detect photons up to 1um in wavelength, although the efficiency of CCDs drops to near zero at this long wavelength.  Deep red extends to around 6900 Angstrom or 690 nm or if you prefer 0.69 um.  So a filter that only transmits beyond say 720 nm would be useful in deep-sky imaging as an infrared filter for your Silicon CCD imager. (more…)

Always a good one to image at this time of year as it doubles up as a nice picture to put on the front of a Christmas card.  The Cone nebula and the associated Christmas Tree cluster [NGC2264] of stars make a rather imposing sight. (more…)

This Month’s gems are a pair of beautiful emission nebulae in the constellation Auriga.  Of the two, IC405 is the more famous as it is the well-known “Flaming Star” nebula, a region of H-alpha emission, but with an amazing reflection nebulosity in the “head” of the nebula caused by the reflection of short (blue) wavelengths of light by dust particles. (more…)

This month I have chosen one of my all-time favourite objects, and one that I feel is a bit of an enigma.  IC1396 is a huge emission nebula in Cepheus that doesn’t have a “popular” name.  It contains the beautiful Garnet star - mu Cephei, and the well-known “Elephant Trunk” nebula VdB 142, as well as a number of other fascinating regions of dark nebulosity.  Yet - not only does this nebula not have a popular name, it isn’t imaged that much either. (more…)

The beautiful face-on galaxy M33 in Triangulum is quite a challenge for the deep-sky imager.  For one, it’s low surface brightness is deceiving and it requires a lot more, lot longer subs than you might think.  Secondly - it is pretty big! (more…)

It’s still not great imaging during August due to the continuing light evenings and early mornings, and I see from my notes that it is still getting on for 11.00 p.m. before it is worth setting up for an imaging session (more…)

It’s still not good with regards to dark skies or sociable hours to image during July.  I see from my notes that it is not worth starting imaging much before 11.00 p.m. but after no imaging for the whole of June - cabin fever starts to set in. (more…)

There is no imaging object of the month for June!

Looking back over the years I see that it is not only far too late before it is dark enough to start imaging, but also that it gets light far too early in the morning as well.  At best there are only 3-4 hours maximum of imaging time, and even then the sky doesn’t get really dark, so the quality of your images obtained during this month won’t match those acquired at other times of the year. (more…)

There are a superb pair of galaxies that are ideally positioned during May for imaging, and I find myself drawn back to them year after year.  The galaxies are M81, also known as Bode’s galaxy and M82, also known as the Cigar galaxy, both residing in Ursa Major.  M81 lies at a distance of 4.5 million light years and shines at magnitude 6.9, whereas M82 is about 17 million light years away and is a rather faint magnitude 8.4.  M81 is a nice spiral galaxy, whereas M82 (also known as Arp 337 a unique Arp galaxy, and NGC 3034) is a strange cigar-shaped irregular galaxy associated with an arc of three magnitude 20 quasars, and a peculiar jet of filaments (which show up very well under H-alpha) emanating from the nucleus.  There’s plenty more yet in this region! (more…)

Spring is galaxy season in the imager’s diary, and for my April imaging object of the month I am choosing not a single galaxy, but a whole chain of galaxies, Markarian’s Chain at the border of the constellations Virgo and Coma Berenices.

You need a wide field of view to capture this galaxy-rich region of space, and the accompanying image is a 2-frame mosaic using the already large field of view of 3.33 by 2.22 degrees of a single Sky 90/M25C frame!  (more…)