The constellation of Cassiopeia the Queen, framed with the 85mm lens and including many star clusters: M52 at right, the Double Cluster at left, and M103 and NGC 457 on the left side of the W of five stars that marks Cassiopeia. The Heart Nebula, IC 1805, is at upper left, and the Pacman Nebula, NGC 281, is at lower centre. This is a stack of 4 x 2-minute exposures at f/2 with the 85mm Rokinon lens, and modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600. A final exposure taken through the Kenko Softon A diffusion filter adds the star glows. Taken December 11, 2017 at the Quailway Cottage in southeastern Arizona near Portal.
Cassiopeia, with the 135mm telephoto lens, at f/2.5 for a stack of 6 x 2 minute exposures with the Canon 5D MkII at ISO 800. Plus star glows added with a layer of 2 x 2 minute exposures with the Kenko Softon filter. Field is similar to binoculars. Taken on a frosty night Feb 6, 2013, using the new iOptron SkyTracker tracking platform with the iOptron ballhead. It worked very well, though another 4 shots taken in the series were trailed slightly. 6 were fine.
This is a portrait of Cassiopeia the Queen that takes in the red emission nebulas in the constellation as well as recording some of the larger star clusters. The area is also laced with dark lanes of dust. At lower left are the Heart and Soul Nebulas IC 1848 and IC 1805; at upper right of centre are the nebulas NGC 7822 and Ced214; at lower right is the Pacman Nebula NGC 281; while in the upper right corner are the nebulas around the star cluster M52. The star cluster NGC 7789 is prominent to the right of Caph, the righthand star of the W. The star clusters NGC 663 and NGC 457 are visible near the star Ruchbah, the second star of the W. At lower left is the bright Double Cluster in Perseus. At upper left is the large and loose cluster Collinder 463. This is a stack of 25 x 2-minute exposures with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 59mm and f/2.8, on the red-sensitive Canon Ra at ISO 1600, all on the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. The lens was also equipped with an URTH light pollution reduction filter. The sky was slightly hazy this night from incoming smoke, and an aurora to the north was adding sky glow. However, the glows around the bright stars are from an exposure taken at the end of the sequence through a Kase/Alyn Wallace StarGlow filter. An application of a Pro Contrast filter from the Color EFX plug-in from the Nik Collection 5 helped snap up contrast. An application of RCAstro's Gradient Xterminator filter plug-in helped eliminate the worst of the sky gradients.
