Category Archives: Gallery

M51 Whirlpool Galaxy Image

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M51 Whirlpool Galaxy Image by Graham Caller

M51 Whirlpool Galaxy by Graham Caller

Another lovely astroimage from member Graham Caller.  This is the interacting galaxies which make up M51, the “Whirlpool Galaxy” (as first listed by Charles Messier).

M51A and the smaller object M51B are interacting.  You can even see this galaxy combination with decent binoculars (but not quite as clearly as in this image!).

Graham comments:

“One M51 finished image attached.

Out of 18 images I got 10 usable that didn’t have noticable trailing. I suspect the defective shots were the result of periodic error in the mount tracking.

The 10 images stacked had flats and bias frames added but no darks as I haven’t taken 5 mins exposure darks before. That’s something to do on the cold and cloudy nights which we have no shortage of 🙂 “

M81 and M82 Image

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M81 and M82 by GCaller
Image of M81 and M82 (above) captured by our member Graham Caller using a Canon Dslr.

Graham comments:

“Amazing what a bit of accurate polar alignment does for the shots. I’d been having trouble with star trails appearing after 60 sec exposures.
A bit of research later, lots of learning how to polar align accurately without plugging into a computer or mastering drift aligning and voila 150 secs exposures. (I should have pushed 180 but that’s another night)
It was cold and late when I finished but imagine what another hour of data could show. Good to see less noise with longer exposures. Attached also (below) is my first attempt on 2nd Feb.”

M81 M82 - earlier attempt by Graham Caller

M101 Pinwheel Galaxy Image

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M101 Pinwheel Galaxy by Graham Caller

M101 Pinwheel Galaxy by Graham Caller (stacked final)

M101 Pinwheel Galaxy (single unstacked image)

M101 Pinwheel Galaxy (single unstacked image)

Image of the Pinwheel Galaxy M101, by our member Graham Caller.

The two images above (the finished final stacked image together with a single unstacked sub-image), clearly demonstrate the power of stacking many images of the same object. Deep Sky Stacker software was used.

Graham comments:
The fruits of my labour over the last two evenings.
3.5 hours of photos with the best 3 hours stacked and processed.

M101 is 21 million light years from us. For perspective, Andromeda is 2.5 million light years away.

This was a tricky target as I couldn’t see it through the telescope and only just in a 1 mins exposure.

See attached example of a single frame and the finished stacked image. Perhaps display these side by side to demonstrate what can be achieved by stacking.

Orion Nebula Image – Fluorescent Light White Balance

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Orion Nebula M42 image captured using Fluorescent Light White Balance

Last night Ted suggested taking images in fluorescent light setting (rather than the normal White Balance), based on advice on his Northern Lights trip.

So we did.  Here is a resulting image of the Orion Nebula.  The colour temperature of Fluorescent light is lower (warmer – more yellow)

Additional data:-

The Canon dSLR has eight white balance presets on its cameras.

AWB (Auto White Balance) will look at any scene as it’s being shot and attempt to neutralize the color it sees from 3000-7000 K.

Daylight uses Canon’s default color temperature of 5200 K;

Shade works at 7000 K; Cloudy at 6000 K; Tungsten at 3200 K; White Fluorescent is set to 4000 K (there are huge color temperature variations in fluorescent lights); Flash at 6000 K; and Custom White Balance, which can neutralize light with a color temperature anywhere between 2000 and 10,000 K.

Constellation of Perseus Image

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Perseus constellation

In a recently rare clear night, Ivan Walton (CADSAS Astrophotography Director) captured this image of the constellation of Perseus, nearly overhead on the evening of 1st January 2013.

20 RAW frames, each of 10secs. were taken at 800ASA using a Nikon D40 dSLR with a fixed 50mm f1.8 lens.

The frames were then stacked in Deep Sky Stacker software & adjusted in Adobe Photoshop to produce this splendid view of one of the beautiful winter constellations.

Two objects have been identified.

  • Algol (Beta Persei) is the best known eclipsing binary star, ranging from magnitude 2.12 to 3.40 over a period of 2.8673 days!
  • M34 (NGC 1039) is a fine open cluster, which can just be glimpsed with the naked eye.

Mercury, Venus and Saturn planet alignment, plus crescent Moon this morning..

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Mercury Venus Saturn and crescent Moon alignment this morning 11/12/2012Mercury Venus Saturn and crescent Moon alignment this morning 11/12/2012

Mercury, Venus and Saturn, plus waning crescent Moon planetary alignment this morning.

Image taken by Ivan Walton (CADSAS Astrophotography Director) at 06:57 GMT on 11th December 2012 with a Nikon D40 with zoom lens set at 50mm & an exposure of 1/5 sec at f/5.6 (ISO 800ASA)

Orion Image Stacked

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OrionStacked22frames2m56s

Ivan Walton (CADSAS Astrophotography Director) captured this image on the evening of 5th December of the well known constellation of Orion.

22 RAW frames, each of 10secs. were taken at 800ASA using a Nikon D40 dSLR with a fixed 50mm f1.8 lens.

The frames were then stacked in Deep Sky Stacker software to produce this splendid view of one of the beautiful winter constellations.

Capella and Auriga stacked image

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AurigaCapellaStacked23frames2m10s

Image taken on 4th December by Ivan Walton (CADSAS Astrophotography Director).

23 x 10secs. frames taken at 800ASA using a Nikon D40 dSLR with fixed 50mm f1.8 lens, stacked in Deep Sky Stacker.

It shows the constellation of Auriga, with Capella (alpha Auriga) the bright zero-magnitude star to the top left of the image.