Category Archives: Astrophoto Posts

Two quick time lapse sequences of the southern sky taken on a recent camping trip to the West Australian gold fields.

Two clusters, one region of the sky. The Jewel Box is, arguably, one of the best examples of an open cluster. The great Omega Centauri globular cluster is the best example of its kind. (click on images for a closer … Continue reading →

An LRGB image of NGC 2070, the Tarantula Nebula, taken under poor seeing conditions. (click on image for a closer view)

High in the northern sky and slightly out of focus, an image of the Rosette nebula encircling the open cluster NGC 2244. Click on the image for a closer look.

A quick unguided LRGB image (10 x 300s L, 5 x 300s RGB ) of the outer regions of the great nebula in Carina. Click on the image for a closer look.  

The Running Chicken  – a rich emission nebula illuminated by a cluster of massive stars. It contains Thackery’s Globules (see inset) – dark clouds of dark cosmic dust often associated with star forming regions. Image acquired at D21 on May … Continue reading →

A rare and beautiful apparition. Jupiter and the moon dance over the course of an hour or so in the early evening of February 18th. Click here to view an animated sequence of the egress. Other images: (click image for large … Continue reading →

Click to view movie:  

A last image of Sol, resplendent with sun spots, before the great Venus transit of 2012. This image was acquired with a Canon 5D at the prime focus of a 132mm refractor using Baader solar film on May 21st, 2012 (click image … Continue reading →

NGC 5078 and NGC 5101 appear in this two field mosaic.  The combined field is just under 40 arc minutes wide by 20 arc minutes high. (click on image for full size version)

(Click to Enlarge)

NGC 253 imaged under light polluted and hazy (smoke filled) skies on October 31st. A combination of 2 hours of luminance, combined with 30 minutes each of RGB. The image was hurriedly processed in PixInsight, and tweaked in Photoshop. (click … Continue reading →

These two famous objects were targeted recently in order to test some of the features of the PixInsight image processing software. 47 Tuc (NGC 104) is comprised of several BVR sub frames using 60s exposures. Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) has … Continue reading →

This LRGB composite of the Sombrero galaxy (M 104) was created using the PixInsight image processing workflow from data captured under the light polluted skies of D21. (click to enlarge image)

Despite intermittent clouds and rain, some images of the June 16 Lunar Eclipse were successfully obtained at D21, using a 132mm refractor and a DSLR.  

Image details: 60 minute each of HaLRGB over 2 nights (click to enlarge).

Image details: 30 minutes through Ha (click to enlarge).

Image details: 120 x 60s images (click to enlarge).

Image details: 60 minutes each of LRGB obtained over 2 nights (click to enlarge).

Jupiter, although now well past opposition, is overhead in the evening. Here’s an image of Jupiter and Callisto taken on October 6th, 2009.

A new image of Jupiter taken around midnight on August 1st.

M83 imaged on 2nd May.

A re-processed crescent Moon mosaic using some new Photoshop techniques. (click on image for larger version)

C/2007 N3 (Lulin) Imaged at 5:00 local time, February 6th 2009, Perth Western Australia. (click on image for larger version) 

The Orion Nebula – M42 (click for larger version).

Some images of last night’s unique conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter and Venus. (click on images for larger version)

The first hi-resolution image of Jupiter in colour, using the DKM21 camera. 

The latest moon image from Shenton Park Observatory. (click on image for full size version)

Comet McNaught captured from Perth Western Australia. (click on image for full size version)