This is the field in Vulpecula the Fox that contains the famous planetary nebula, the Dumbbell Nebula aka Messier 27, at left, but also the faint emission nebulas NGC 6820 at right and Sharpless 2-88 above it. The small star cluster below centre is NGC 6830. A small star cluster, NGC 6823, lies embedded in NGC 6820. The field is yellowed by the interstellar dust reddening distant objects. This is a blend of filtered and unfiltered stacks: 18 x 6-minutes at ISO 2500 through the IDAS NB1 dual narrowband filter, and 16 x 3-minutes at ISO 1000 with no filter, all through the SharpStar 61 EDPHII apo refractor at f/4.6 with its reducer/flattener, and with the red-sensitive Canon Ra, all on the Star Adventurer GTi mount/tracker, autoguided with the Lacerta MGENIII autoguider, taken as part of testing the mount. No darks or LENR applied here, but the autoguider applied some dithering offset between each frame, to cancel out thermal noise hot pixels when the sub-frames were aligned and stacked. Taken Sept. 24/25, 2022 from home in Alberta on a very clear cool night. Shooting and then blending filtered with unfiltered shots provides the best of both worlds: the reddish nebulosity set in a sky preserving natural coloured stars and background tints. Nebulosity was brought out with DM1 and DM2 luminosity masks created with the Lumenzia plug-in panel for Photoshop. Finishing touches with a Paint Contrast layer added with TK Actions panel, and a mild application of the Nebula Filter from the PhotoKemi action set both boosted the nebulosity a bit more. All stacking, aligning and blending done in Adobe Photoshop.
The well-known Andromeda Galaxy, Messier 31, with its companion galaxies. M32, below it and seemingly embedded in M31's outer arms, and M110 above M31. Many yellow giant stars litter the field, as foreground stars in our Milky Way Galaxy. North is up in this framing. This is a stack of 6 x 8-minute exposures at ISO 800 with the Canon Ra and on the StarField Optics Géar80 apo refractor with its matching reducer/flattener for f/4.8. Taken from home through breaks in passing clouds as part of testing of this new scope. No darks or LENR used, just dithering between each frame using the MGEN autoguider. High pass sharpening and a Starizona Galaxy Enhance effect was added to bring out the dark dust lanes.
A framing of Andromeda and Triangulum showing both their respective galaxies, Messier 31 at top right, and Messier 33 at bottom left. As a bonus, the large star cluster NGC 752 is at upper left. The yellowish star that serves as a star-hopping starting point for M31 and M33, Mirach in Andromeda, is right of centre. The stars of Triangulum are at lower left. Almach in Andromeda is at upper left. This is a stack of 6 x 3-minute exposures with the Rokinon RF85mm lens at f/2.8 and Canon R5 at ISO 1600, on the Star Adventurer tracker. Taken from home on Sept. 25/26, 2022. Some light cloud added the star glows. Stacked and aligned in Photoshop.
