The Jellyfish Nebula Region

This “widefield” image shows a view as wide as 10 full moons covering parts of Gemini and Orion. It shows a variety of objects, the Jellyfish Nebula and its fainter neighbor SH2-249, the bright emission and reflection nebula-Monkey head (NGC2174); and the familiar M35 star cluster at lower right. The hydrogen-alpha subs were taken from my place in Taguig City and the color subs were from Antipolo. I used “lighten mode” to initially combine the h-alpha with color but the numerous stars overwhelmed the field, so I blended the “red channel” of the color to the h-alpha and recombine with the composite color then used the HaR as luminance. I experimented in using the Canon 200 lens at brutally full F2.8 for both h-alpha and color!

Simeis 147

Simeis 147 Supernova Remnant. This is what remains of a star that exploded about 30,000 years ago. It so ancient that the expanding debris has expanded so much making it one of the faintest object in the night sky. The image is approximately 7 "full moons" in apparent diameter. It is so huge that it will not fit in the FOV of most telescopes in one go so I tried the FL200mm lens. It was also the "first light" of my STF-8300M and first time to use 10-minute long subs. It was also the first time I headed out to an astro site without testing my equipments so as expected, multiple surprises (read problems) arose. Anyway, the intention is just to capture Simeis 147. Hoping in the near future I can do justice to this beautiful object.

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.

M45 Stars and Dust

Along with the Witch Head Nebula, I got a 30 minute worth exposures of M45 sailing in constellation Taurus the Bull. Most images of M45 emphasizes the brilliance of the star cluster. However, in this image I opted to highlight the nebulous dust in the region. Previously thought as the birthplace of newly born stars, it was later understood that the star cluster has no relationship to the dusty nebula but rather simply passing through it.

I had no intention of capturing this object that night but since Orion was clouded out, I slew my camera lens to M45 which was clear at that time. I got a measly 30 minutes total exposure before it started to drizzle. It took me a week before I started processing this beautiful object. Hope its not yet too late to add more data next time we head out.. .