Been a long time ...

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted anything here in a long while.  Well, not too surprised as I've been really busy at work, at home, at Church, etc. And the skies haven't been the best either.  However, here is a recap of what I've been doing since November.

First up, comet C/2017 T2 (PANSTARRS).  Been following this comet for a number of weeks. Here is a time-lapse video I took back in January:  Video

I'm taking a few more images this week as it continues its course to perihelion (closest to the sun) in early May. It is faint, and not expected to get much brighter. You'll need a telescope or good binoculars to see it. Not much of a tail either; just a small greenish fuzz ball.

In January I finally got around to processing my first mosaic. Subs were taken over the period 10/10/2019 to 11/02/2019. In fact, 480 of them. A mosaic in astrophotography is the process of taking groups of images and then stitching them together to create one final image. It is used when the object you are trying to image is too large to capture in the field of view of your telescope/camera. Generally, you have two options: buy a shorter focal length telescope or create a mosaic.

The object I imaged is IC 1396, the Elephant Trunk Nebula. I wanted to capture it in narrowband using the Hubble Palette. Since the SHO palette requires three sets of images (subs) taken with each NB filter, I needed to capture 40 subs x 3 filters x 4 panels, or 480 individual sub exposures, each one taking 5 minutes. This was a long involved session spanning quite a few evenings. Then the post-processing was a huge labor intensive effort. Not sure I will do this again, but here is the result of that effort.

IC 1396 - "Elephant Trunk Region" in SHO
WO GT102 APO with ASI 1600mm Pro
10 hrs total integration 

Next, the Jellyfish Nebula. This image, taken in late January, is a galactic supernova remnant (SNR) in the constellation Gemini, the remains of a star that exploded after using up all its nuclear fuel.

This image is a modified HOO palette: 30% Sii / 70% Ha in the Red, 100% Oiii in the Green and Blue channels. RGB stars were added.

IC 443 - The Jellyfish Nebula in HOO
WO GT102 and ASi 1600mm Pro
10 hrs total integration

Next up is the Helix Nebula.  This was actually taken back September and October, but the post processing was a little tricky and I only got it done recently.

NGC 7293, or the Helix, is an example of a planetary nebula, formed by an intermediate to low-mass star, which sheds its outer layers near the end of its evolution. Gases from the star in the surrounding space appear, from our vantage point, as if we are looking down a helix structure. The remnant central stellar core, known as the central star (CS) of the planetary nebula, is destined to become a white dwarf star. The observed glow of the central star is so energetic that it causes the previously expelled gases to brightly fluoresce. (wiki). This image was taken using the HOO palette (where the Ha filter is assigned to the red color, and the Oiii filter to both the green and blue colors. No Sii data was taken.

NGC 7293, The Helix Nebula in HOO
WO GT102 and ASI 1600mm Pro
Integration: 4.1 hours

On January 29, 2020, comet C/2017 T2 PANSTARRS photo-bombed the Double Cluster in Perseus.
Although I wanted to get the comet when it was closest to the cluster, I had to wait a couple of nights for the weather to clear. Here it is leaving the area, very close to 8 Per.

Finally, here is a grouping of galaxies known as the Leo Triplet. The Leo Triplet (also known as the M66 Group) is a small group of galaxies about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. This galaxy group consists of the spiral galaxies M65, M66, and NGC 3628. 

Leo Triplet
LRGB Image (1 hr in each RGB and 2.3 hrs in Luminance)
WO GT102 with ASI 1600mm Pro

M66 is at top left; M65 bottom left.  NGC 3628 is to the right.

Well, that's it for now.

With the COVID 19 virus on everyone's mind I thought posting this selection of images would give you something else to think about.  I'm currently at home, so I have plenty of time to image the sky. In fact, as I write this, my telescope is imaging comet C/2017 T2 once more, and then it will move on to another comet, C/2019 Y4 ATLAS.  More about this comet, which could become visible to the naked eye later this year, in the next installment.