Category Archives: Picture of the Week

This week we look right into the bright core of the Orion nebula to see the famous Trapezium group of stars. For me this is a rare image as it is clearly not taken with a Hyperstar or a Sky90. … Continue reading →

The Virgo/Coma cluster of galaxies in negative B&W for easier viewing. This is a combination of a 12-frame mosaic taken with the original Hyperstar and H9C OSC CCD, and a 2-frame mosaic using the 200mm lenses and M26C OSC CCDs. … Continue reading →

The aptly named Coathanger cluster. Around 6 hours of exposure time with a single Sky90 refractor and M25C OSC CCD.

The “Sword of Orion” region in the constellation Orion. This image comprises many hours with a single Sky90 refractor and M25C OSC CCD. In addition to the RGB data provided by the M25C, there were also several hours of infrared … Continue reading →

Mu Cephei, the Garnet Star, many hours with the Sky90 array and the M26C OSC CCDs. Mu Cephei sits at the top of the huge emission nebula IC1396 which contains the dark nebula known as the “Elephant’s Trunk”. Although very … Continue reading →

I have taken many 2-frame mosaic images of Arcturus, but this is probably one of the better ones. Sub-exposure times need to be short as Arcturus is so bright, and that makes it difficult to bring out all the surrounding … Continue reading →

The stunning Iris nebula in a sea of dark nebulosity captured with the Hyperstar III on a C11 with an M25C OSC CCD. This image comprised 4-hours of 15-minute subs, where a 15-minute sub is the equivalent of a 75-minute … Continue reading →

This is a 2-frame vertical mosaic of the Heart nebula taken with the Sky90/M26C OSC CCD combination on the MiniWASP array. Each frame would be in excess of 12-hours of 15-minute subs.

The Crescent nebula and surrounding emission nebulosity in Cygnus. This is a single frame Sky90/M26C OSC CCD image taken on the MiniWASP array and comprises in excess of 12-hours of 15-minute subs.

This week we feature the Cone nebula region, a 3-frame (horizontal) mosaic taken with the Hyperstar III on the C11 with an M25C OSC CCD. On the left we have the Cone nebula, the central beautiful golden open cluster is … Continue reading →