Ha is all I can get with the increasing LED light pollution rouind here.
| Object ID | NGC 6992 |
| Details | 2025-10-23 |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian MPCC |
| Camera | AA IMX571 mono @-5C |
| Filters | Baader Ha |
| Exposure(s) | 180s per sub, 4 panes |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
This is a MASSIVE 12 pane mosaic of IC1396 containing the Elephant Trunk nebula. Full size here (48.8Mb 13079 x 15000px).
| Object ID | IC1396 |
| Details | 20,24,25,26,31/08/2025, 2,4/9/2025 |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian MPCC |
| Camera | AA IMX571 mono @-5C |
| Filters | Baader Ha |
| Exposure(s) | 180s per sub, 12 panes |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
8 pane mosaic of North America and Pelican Nebulae. Full size here.
| Object ID | NGC 7000 / North America Nebula IC 5070 / Pelican Nebula |
| Details | 13, 14, 16/08/2025 |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian MPCC |
| Camera | AA IMX571 mono @-10C |
| Filters | Baader Ha |
| Exposure(s) | 180s per sub, 8 panes |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
Imaged in Nautical Twilight
| Object ID | Cygnus Wall in NGC 7000 |
| Details | 2024-08-01 23:29 – 00:43 UT |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian MPCC |
| Camera | AltairAstro IMX571 mono @-10°C |
| Filters | TriBand |
| Exposure(s) | 12x240s |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | APP, PS |
Using the ASE’s new facility at Trevinca Skies in Spain that I set up.
| Object ID | Sadr region of Cygnus |
| Details | 2023-08-24 |
| Telescope | 94EDPH f4.4 JTW Trident P75 mount |
| Camera | ToupTek 2600 colour |
| Filters | L-eNhance |
| Exposure(s) | 60 x 180s subs for each of 2-pane mosaic |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | Final in Photoshop |
Using the ASE’s new facility at Trevinca Skies in Spain that I set up.
| Object ID | LBN 487 Iris Nebula |
| Details | 2023-08-08 |
| Telescope | 94EDPH f4.4 JTW Trident P75 mount |
| Camera | ToupTek 2600 colour |
| Filters | L |
| Exposure(s) | 300 of 354 60s subs |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
Still mono Ha
| Object ID | Sh2 101 |
| Details | 2022-10-12 22:04:33 -UT |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian MPCC |
| Camera | Atik 460EX @-10°C |
| Filters | Baader 7nm Ha |
| Exposure(s) | 18 x 300s |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
Taken over 2 nights: 10-11/08/2022. The old CCD still does a great job of Ha imaging.
| Object ID | Cygnus Wall in NGC 7000 |
| Details | 10 – 11/08/2022 |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian |
| Camera | Atik 460EX @-10°C |
| Filters | Baader Ha |
| Exposure(s) | 4 panes each 10 x 300s |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
Strong Moonlight interfering but an unexpected clear night so all good. Nice sharp open cluster and 7129 is a HOYS object I image a lot.
Below is a less processed image showing the Moon gradients. By processing them out you definitely lose details.
| Object ID | NGC 7142 Open Cluster NGC 7129 Cepheus |
| Details | 2021-12-16 |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian MPCC IDAS D3 |
| Camera | QHY168C @-15°C |
| Exposure(s) | 20 x 280s darks, flats, bias |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | APP Photoshop |
Looking for more obscure objects again. This is a young star forming region, contains masers too. Very close to the Bubble Nebula but just across the constellation boundary in Cepheus. In the Perseus arm of the Milky Way.
| Object ID | NGC 7538 |
| Details | Open Cluster and Nebula Cepheus 2021-11-24 |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian MPCC Tri-band |
| Camera | QHY168C @-15°C |
| Exposure(s) | 28x300s d,f,b |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
Cepheus near the border with Cygnus. Bright Moonlight causing some background gradients.
NGC 6939, discovered by William Herschel of course, is quite old for an Open Cluster, between 1 and 1.3 billion years. It also lies about 400 parsecs above the galactic plane, a little unusual for Open Clusters as they are usually within the plane of the galaxy, hence the alternative name of Galactic Clusters.
NGC 6946 (also discovered by William Herschel) is about 25 million light years away and resides in the Virgo Supercluster. It’s known as the Fireworks Galaxy because it seems to be a hive of supernovae; ten have been observed in the 20th and 21st centuries alone. This is about 10 times the rate observed in our own galaxy, even though the Milky Way has twice as many stars. In fact more supernovae have been observed in this galaxy than any other.
During 2009, a bright star within NGC 6946 flared up over several months to become over one million times as bright as the Sun. Shortly thereafter it faded rapidly. Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope suggest that the star did not survive, although there remains some infrared emission from its position. This is thought to come from debris falling onto a black hole that formed when the star died. This potential black hole-forming star is designated N6946-BH1. The progenitor is believed to have been a yellow hypergiant star. Wikipedia
| Object ID | NGC6939 & NGC 6946 / C12 Fireworks Galaxy |
| Details | Galaxy and Open Cluster Cepheus 2021-11-20 |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian MPCC Tri-band |
| Camera | QHY168C @-15°C |
| Exposure(s) | 25x300s d,f,b |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
A star forming region I often image for the HOYS project. Bright moonlight but narrowband keeps most of it out of the image.
| Object ID | IC5070 Pelican Nebula |
| Details | Emission nebula Cygnus 2021-11-20 |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian MPCC Tri-band |
| Camera | QHY168C @-15°C |
| Exposure(s) | 30x300s d,f,b |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
Contains a pillar
| Object ID | Sh2-86 with cluster NGC 6823 Vulpecula |
| Details | 2021-11-03 |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian MPCC Altair Astro triband filter |
| Camera | QHY168C @-15°C |
| Exposure(s) | 18x300s darks, flats, bias |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
A planetary nebula with a diameter of 1 ly and about 200 ly away (Wiki says 2800 but parallax says 15.7mas ~200ly). Another William Herschel discovery. You can see the central star is still quite bright but is now a cooler white dwarf. There’s a nice double star system just top right of the nebula, although I suspect from their parallaxes (2.13 mas and 1.97 mas) it’s not a binary system. The nebula is much closer with a parallax of 15.7 so not associated with the double star.
| Object ID | NGC 7008 |
| Details | Planetary Nebula Cygnus Mag. 12 Size 1.4’x1.1′ |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian MPCC IDAS D3 |
| Camera | QHY168C @-15°C |
| Exposure(s) | 7x180s d,f,b |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
Horizontal banding sorted. Camera into USB 2 not 3, and not through a USB hub.
Not very happy with the processing.
| Object ID | Sh2-155 / C9 Cave Nebula |
| Details | 2021-09-02 |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian Tri-band filter |
| Camera | QHY168C @-15°C |
| Exposure(s) | 20x300s darks, flats, dark-flats |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
One I often observe for HOYS but purely for imaging this time. Some horizontal banding noise from somewhere – to be resolved.
| Object ID | IC 1396, Elephant Trunk Nebula |
| Details | 2021-08-14 |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian Tri-band filter |
| Camera | QHY168C @-15°C |
| Exposure(s) | 15x300s darks, flats, bias |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
First DSO for a while
| Object ID | IC 5146 Cocoon Nebula, C19 |
| Details | 2021-08-13 |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian Tri-band filter |
| Camera | QHY168C @-15°C |
| Exposure(s) | 15x300s darks, flats, bias |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
Strong moonlight
| Object ID | Cave Nebula Sh2-155 Cepheus |
| Details | 2021-01-23 Mag. 10.7 Size 50’x30′ |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian MPCC |
| Camera | QHY168C @-15°C Tri-band |
| Exposure(s) | 15x300s 2/20 gain/offset darks, flats, bias |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoise AI |
Last one was narrowband, this attempt is full colour with the CMOS camera. Also first time using NINA for capture. Looks a great tool.
Replaced image after trying demo of Topaz de-noise – excellent.
| Object ID | Cygnus Wall Tail of NGC 7000 North America Nebula |
| Details | 2020-10-24 20:38- |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian MPCC |
| Camera | QHY168C @-10°C 2/20 gain/offset IDAS P2 |
| Exposure(s) | 25x180s darks, flats, bias |
| Capture | NINA |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop, Topaz De-noise |
Bringing out the all the dusty, dark material leaves me with a horrible background.
| Object ID | Iris Nebula NGC 7023 / C4 |
| Details | 2020-09-19 Mag. 6.8 |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian, MPCC |
| Camera | QHY168C @15°C 2/20 gain/offset IDAS P2 |
| Exposure(s) | 28x180s 10/50 darks, flats, bias |
| Capture | APT |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
The Iris Nebula is a bright reflection nebula in the constellation Cepheus. The designation NGC 7023 refers to the open cluster within the larger reflection nebula designated LBN 487. The nebula, which shines at magnitude +6.8, is illuminated by a magnitude +7.4 star designated SAO 19158.
Wikipedia
New camera testing. Different way of working with Gain and Offset needing to be chosen and probably using more shorter exposures than the CCD.
32Mb lights instead of 10Mb for the CCD means much longer processing in APP. Couldn’t use the flats as I moved the camera between flats and lights.
| Object ID | NGC6992 Eastern Veil Nebula |
| Details | Mag. 7, Size 3° |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 OO Newtonian MPCC |
| Camera | QHY168c @-15°C Gain/Offset: 10/50 (unity) No filters |
| Exposure(s) | 30x60s lights 20x darks |
| Capture | APT |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
Imaged areas around this a lot for HOYs but never this actual part. First time back using the MPCC without the LP filter this time to avoid internal reflections. Stars are better at 3 corners but top right still off – probably focuser alignment.
| Object ID | IC1396 Elephant’s Trunk |
| Details | 2020-08-08 |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian, MPCC |
| Camera | Atik 460EX @-15°C Baader Ha, OIII filters |
| Exposure(s) | 10x300s each Ha, OIII Darks, flats, bias |
| Capture | APT |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
Just Ha possible because of twilight and moonlight
| Object ID | NGC 6888 Crescent Nebula, C27 |
| Details | 2020-05-08 22:44 UT – Mag 7.4, size 18’x12′ Cygnus |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian |
| Camera | Atik 460EX @-15C |
| Exposure(s) | 15x300s Ha 1×1 darks, flats, bias |
| Capture | APT |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
Because sky conditions were very poor I went back to globulars as nebulosity can easily disappear in LP and fog. APP got rid of the massive gradients and LP quite well I think.
| Object ID | M92 (NGC6341) |
| Details | Size 14′, Mag. 6.3 Hercules |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian |
| Camera | Atik 460EX -15C |
| Exposure(s) | 10x180s ea RGB 1×1 darks, flats, bias |
| Capture | APT |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
Could only fit part in the FOV
| Object ID | NGC 6992/6995 Eastern Veil, Caldwell 33 |
| Details | Size 60’ x 8′ |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian |
| Camera | Atik 460EX -16C |
| Exposure(s) | 10x180s ea RGB 1×1 |
| Capture | APT |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
