M57 widefield

I like to pick big and bright objects to image, partly due to short focal length of my scope. But Lyra was so tempting that Saturday night, and since I got no more planned targets, I tried to snap just one frame of the Ring Nebula to see how small it is on my 558mm FL scope. Sure enough it was so tiny. I decided not to shoot additional frames as I though it was just a waste of time. Now I realized that I wasted my time NOT shooting it. How ironic! This is just one 3-minute frame of the famous Ring.

Centaurus A (NGC5128)

Uniqueness and peculiarities always trigger my curiosity. That's why I could not resist of slewing my scope to the peculiar galaxy Centaurus A. After doing some shots of the Omega Centauri, I reckoned that Centaurus A was about the same R.A. as the Omega. I just needed to swing a little bit on the Declination. And there was I, pushing the camera shutter button several times to capture a beautiful galaxy. Yet, that beauty was not in my shots! My scope was not tracking well. Well, got to fire away before the Moon rises, I said to myself. I will re-visit this Galaxy definitely next time and will attempt to capture its elusive beauty!

Omega Centauri (NGC5139)

Globular clusters are not my favorites deep sky objects. They all look the same to me. In fact, I haven't spent considerable time scrutinizing globulars ever since. But, I guess some things can change. Last Saturday, I and Irving made a stubborn attempt to do stargazing at Buso-buso. I was so excited to bring out my gears again after a long time of accumulating dust. So excited indeed that I foolishly forgot to do proper polar alignment. I used the polar alignment scope without reference to the date & time. Result-I was offset by considerable amount. This I learned when I got home when processing the images. Anyway, my attention was called by Irving by pointing out Omega Centauri low in the southern horizon. I looked at it through my Megrez and from that time on, I knew that my old impression with globulars will change. I found myself looking at a cluster of enormous number of stars resembling a heap of sugar! This image is a pale representation of what was stuck in my memory. I do like globulars after all!

M101 Galaxy

M101 is one of my favorite galaxies. I have always dreamed of imaging it one night. This is a fulfillment of that dream. My fascination with M101 was sparked by a Sky & Telescope magazine article about it. I first viewed it in 2006 at Caliraya during my participation on the yearly Messier Marathon. That time, I found myself stuck at the eyepiece drinking the majestic view of the galaxy, briefly forgetting that it was a marathon. I had the opportunity to image it last February at Spring of Life Adventure Camp and boy, was I very glad! This is a re-processed image from that night.

3 minutes X 10 frames

Canon EOS 400D at ISO 800

Megrez 90FD at FL=558mm

21 February 2009

Buso-buso, Antipolo City

M83 Southern Pinwheel Galaxy

This is again a re-processed image from our session last 21 February 2009. I tried adjusting the colors and saturation resulting in a somewhat pale image compared to my initial M83 image. Details are:

3 minutes X 6 frames exposure

Canon EOS 400D at ISO 800

Megrez 90FD at FL 558mm

21 February 2009

Buso-buso, Antipolo City

Horsehead & Flame Nebula

I re-processed the Horsehead & Flame Nebula last night using the newly discovered features of IRIS. The dynamic & asinh strecthing proved to be useful in bringing out faint details. Here, I allowed the bright stars to saturate to coax as much faint details as possible.
Details of the image:
3 minutes X 14 frames exposure
Canon EOS 400D at ISO 800
Megrez 90FD at FL=558mm
Calibration/Stacking=IRIS
Touch-up=Photoshop CS/NeatImage
31 January 2009/Caliraya, Laguna

Caliraya Night

It was a adventurous trek to Caliraya, Laguna last Saturday. I brought along my family to see where I have been going for skygazing. Just last Friday night, my wife and I made a quick stop at Robinsons to buy a tent for our use overnight. We set-up our tent immediately when we arrived with the help of our two kids. Then I started to set-up my scopes. But it was a night of poor weather! My disappointment set in when I realized that it was next to impossible to get decent images with the strong winds and haze prevailing that night. Anyway, I tried to shoot between the clouds and all I got was a measly 16-minute exposure total for the Rosette and only one minute for Lulin! The sky grew worse until it started to drizzle. I thought that it was now time to hit the sack. By around 4 am, we dismantled the tent and scopes and headed home.