Astroimages & Music

The seemingly endless cloudy nights have driven me to review my astroimages taken throughout the years and combine them in a video. It was a great stress reliever doing it and I found it immensely satisfying. I never get tired watching how each images appears on the screen, reliving the moments when I first took them. Hope I can add some more beautiful images in the years to come!

IC 4592 Blue Horsehead in Scorpious

Not having a modded camera, I was limited to shooting reflection nebula with my unmodded 400D DSLR. First was M78 and next was this obscure object in Scorpious. I knew this will be challenging as it was very faint. Caliraya skies might not be dark enough to acquire good data but that burning desire to revisit this object led me to image it again. The usual process went on - acquisition, processing & post-processing. I got a pleasant surprise during post-processing when I noticed that it had striking resemblance with the Witch Head Nebula I shot last year. Both were looking at a bright star. The witch head at Rigel, and now the Blue Horse head at Graffias or Beta Scorpii. But the similarity ended there. The Blue Horse head is extremely faint. So faint that I might be so foolish to shoot it with a stock DSLR. I was wondering why there were not many images of it on the web compared to its namesake-horsehead nebula in Orion. Now I know-it is not photogenic!

M78 in Orion

M78 in Orion. My modded 350D DSLR was having err99 message last Sunday so I have to use my trusty un-modded 400D to capture this bright reflection nebula in constellation Orion. The sky allowed only 50 minutes total exposure before clouds rolled in. Initially, I didn't recognize the reddish hue at lower left, thinking it might have been a severe color gradient due to light pollution. It took time for me to realize that it was actually part of the huge Barnard's Loop!

Flaming Star Nebula & Surrounding Region

I was looking for the very faint supernova remnant, Simeis147 when I chanced upon this object. I reckoned that the SNR was between the two bright stars in the Taurus-Auriga area so I slewed my camera towards that area. But, what appeared in the display was the familiar shape of the Flaming star nebula. Aware of the possibility of short time of clear sky, I continued to shoot several frames until clouds covered the area. I was glad that I made the welcome "mistake" and I was able to image this object! However, Simeis 147 is still in my short list of imaging projects.