Comet Hartley 2010; The final animation.

Ever seen a comet flying? This is Comet Hartley, visible to the naked eye, late 2010. The animation consists of 30 frames with an exposure time of 5 minutes each and shows the movement of the comet in a time span of 2 and a half hours!

Messier 31; My Nemesis :-)

This is our closest galaxy neigbour; Messier 31. So it should be an easy object. But I find it so hard to get a decent result. There has to be something wrong here :-). This image from 2010, consists of 20 frames of 5 minutes each (Canon 400D - ISO800). I used the 8" newton Skywatcher to catch the light. If anyone has any tips, please let me know :-).

Orion nebula and the trapeziumstars

After restoring my Celestron C8, it was time to try some deepsky. The C8 is equiped with an ETX70 frome Meade, as guiding scope. The combination is placed on an EQ6 Syntrek mount. This image consists of 7 frames with an exposure time of 5 minutes each, at ISO1600 (Canon 400D - Baader mod.). The image is processed in PhotoShop. I used 5 layers to achieve the high dynamic range. Although some collimation on the telescope has to be done, the scope passed the first test.

Messier 78

Sometimes you have to make maximum advantage of the moment. Although it was very cold last night, I managed to make another picture. This time Messier 78 in Orion. In total 25 frames where used with an exposure time of 3 minutes. ISO 1600. Skywatcher 8" Newton - Canon 400D (Baader mod.)

Messier 97 and 108

Finaly clear skies again. Clear but cold. During the imaging session last night I went inside to warm up and put the telescope on remote control (via remote desktop). I used 15 frames of 3 minutes exposure time. Skywatcher 8" Newton on an EQ6 mount - Canon 400D (Baader mod.).

Elephants trunk

This one of those images that lurked on the harddisk, waiting to be processed. On the single frames there wasn't much to see. Had to pull those levels very hard to get any results. Skywatcher 8" Newton - Canon 400D - Baader mod. Exposure time 2,5 hours at ISO800.

Jupiter and Io oktober 4th, 2010

I hate those days with snow, rain and clouds. TTo kill of some time I worked on some images that where waiting for processing. This Jupiter ans on of its moons; Io. It's a stack of 815 frames processed with Registax. Telescope; 8" Skywatcher Newton; Philips SPC900 NC webcam.

Cocoon nebula

A result from last summer; IC5146 or the Cocoon nebula. This image also took over two hour exposure time. It was hard to make the dark nebula visible (notice the absence of stars below the nebula)

Flaming star nebula

Trying to get the more difficult objects lately.... This is IC405, a.k.a. the Flaming Star nebula. Took me over two hour of exposure time to get a resonable result. Skywatcher 8" Newton telescope - Canon EOS 400D (Baader mod.).

Solar eclips

Very fortunate to be able to photograph this event. The cloud cover broke open just after the sun rose.
Canon EOS 350D with a Tamron 70-300 lens (at 300mm); 1/500 sec. at f11.

This weekend I shot a lot of frames to capture Comet Hartley2. Because the stacked picture was a little disappointing, I dicided to make an animation. This is the result! (click on th link below...)

Animation Comet Hartley2

Jupiter and my C8 again

After some collimation the C8 scope looks just fine. Image taken on september 22nd 2010. This image consits of 830 frames, taken with a Philips SPC900.

Jupiter with C8

Finally the Celestron C8 is restored. Last night I had to make some test images To see if the telescope was reassemble in a correct way. This image was taken with a Philips SPC900 webcam. 900 frames where stacked in Registax. The C8 was placed on an EQ6 Syntrek mount. At the left hand side of the image is Io visible.

The effect of a Ha filter

This weekend the new Ha-filter arrieved. This 12nm EOS clip-inn filter had to be put up for the test. The week before I allready had the chance to image NGC281; The Pacman nebula. So I added 12 frames of Ha (360 seconds at ISO1600). After scouting the internet on Ha processing I came up with this result. Left without Ha signal; right with Ha signal.

ngc 6888 2010

ngc 6888 2010
Originally uploaded by dutchskywatcher

Nice those warm summer nights. Astrophotography is wonderfull during this time of year. Taking pictures at warm temperatures. A setback is the amount of noise the camera picks up. This is the Cressent nebula (NGC 6888). This nebula born due to a Wolf Rayett star that shedded it's outer layer. The picture consists of 20 frames; exposure time is 5 minutes at ISO800.

m65-m66-ngc3628 - 2010

m65-m66-ngc3628 - 2010
Originally uploaded by dutchskywatcher

This is the latest ateempt on the "leo triplet". This photo is uploaded via Flickr. It also has the new website logo from the website astrodigitaal, wich i use. Let's see how this goes :-).

Messier 101

To fight the noise in the picture I did two things; Decrease the ISO value and simply take more frames. For this image I used 45(!) frames. By far the most frames I made for just one image. The total exposure time is almost 4 hours. The stacking was done with DeepSkyStacker. The final touch-up was done with Photoshop.

Messier 13 (again)

With the (already not so new anymore) modified Canon I had to have a go at Messier 13. This massiv globular cluster is one of the brightest in the sky. For this image I used two sets of images; one as general image; and one for the core - to prevent overexposure. In total the image has an eposure time of 90 minutes. I used the ISO1600 setting; a little over the top. The temperature outside is to high for this setting but who an I to complain :-)

Messier 106

This image has an exposure time of 2h45m. Messier 106 is a spiral galaxy in Canis Venatici. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light years away from. It is also a Seyfert Galaxy. It is suspected that part of the galaxy is falling into a supermassive in the center. NGC 4217 in the lower right corner is a possible companion galaxy of Messier 106.

Messier 109 in Ursa Majoris

This is the longest exposure up till now! 3h45m! In this picture are Phad (the bright star in the upper right corner and one of the stars of "the pan" in the Big Dipper) Messier 109 (the bright barred spiral galaxy in the lower left corner. Furthermore there are several dimmer galaxies visable.