Nebulae in Cygnus and Cepheus

This photo, taken early Sunday morning, 9/21/09 at the Black Forest Star Party, shows partial regions of Cepheus and Cygnus that feature nebulae. In Cepheus, on the right, is IC 1396 near Herschel's Garnet Star, and in Cygnus are the familiar North America (NGC 7000) and Pelican Nebulae (IC 5067, 5068 and 5070) near Deneb. Also within Cygnus at lower left around Sadr is another nebua complex including IC 1311 and 1318. Camera: guided Canon Digital Rebel (with IR filter removed), six stacked images with a total exposure time of 10 minutes, 15 seconds.

Here is a close-up of the North America and Pellican nebulae. Two of my 4 2-minute frames did not track properly; hence I prefer the photo I took earlier this year (seen below).

North America & Pelican Nebulae

My latest attempt using my Canon Digital Rebel with the filter removed. Taken under less than ideal conditions at Cherry Springs, exactly one month before the rained-out spring star party...

M42 with newly modified Canon Digital Rebel

Recently I had my camera modified by having the internal IR/UV block filter removed. I've only tried a few photos since I've gotten it back, but here are the results. Exposure time is greatly reduced, though I still need to work on the exact ideal exposure and sensitivity settings. Below is a comparison with some older pre-filter removal photos.

Wide Field Omega Centauri

Quite possibly my best image yet of this southern beauty, I was able to piggypack four 2-minute exposures as it scraped over the horizon of a mountain ridge (visible in image), then stack together, on the night of 3/17/07 using my Canon Digital Rebel with a Quantaray eyepiece fully zoomed in. Taken at New Mexico Skies.

Wide-Field Milky Way Objects

These two images were among the last taken on my Memorial Day Weekend Cherry Springs trip. My Canon Digital Rebel rode piggyback and used a Quantaray 300mm lens.

M81, M82 & neighbors

North America Nebula (NGC 7000)

Taken the same night as M31. I took four images, but somehow they were rotated slightly in relation to each other and I could only get two to align decently. Some sing the virtues of photography because it brings out details you can't observe visually. In this case, Bill, Bill & Bob (also at SOS that night) and I were unable to see this at all visually, yet there it is in the photograph.

Andromeda Galaxy

(M31 with M32 & M110) Andromeda AGAIN? Yes, this is a photo I just took last night (11/5/05) at Steelmantown Observation Site (SOS). I subtracted a dark frame, which I hadn't previously. This is a stack of three images; however, one of them was a much shorter exposure, so I duplicated the brighter ones and, in effect, stacked five images, you see. Is it "better" than before?...