The extensive Gum Nebula area in Vela, an interstellar bubble blown by winds from hot stars, with the False Cross at left. This is a stack of 4 x 5 minute exposures at f/3.2 with the Sigma 50mm lens and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 800. Taken from Coonabarabran, Australia, December 2012. High cloud added natural glows around stars. Star clusters NGC 2516 (below False Cross) and IC 2391 (right of false Cross) stand out. Superhot star Gamma Velorum is at centre.
A portrait in monochrome of the rich nebulous region around the North America and Pelican Nebulas in northern Cygnus, with the star Deneb at right of centre. This is shot through a deep-red narrow-band filter that lets through only Hydrogen-alpha light, the emission line that nebulas like these primarily radiate at. This was taken in a bright moonlit, though rural sky (with a waxing gibbous Moon in the opposite side of the sky) as a test of a new autoguider system and through the William Optics RedCat 51mm f/4.9 astrographic refractor, also under test. The camera was the Canon EOS Ra, sensitive to H-a light. The filter was the 12nm Astronomik clip-in filter. The field is about 8° x 5°. This is a stack of just 6 x 12-minute exposures at ISO 2500. Due to the low signal through the dense filter and the fact that only 1/4 of the Bayer-array pixels are receiving signal, such images really need lots more exposure time and sub-frames to do the best job and keep noise down. Local contrast adjustments made with luminosity masks created by Lumenzia extension panel.
Hadar, Beta Centauri, the second brightest star Centaurus, and one of the southern Pointer stars. The sparse cluster at top is NGC 5381. This is a stack of 4 x 4-minute exposures with the Canon 6D at ISO 1600 plus a short 1-minute exposure, both through the 106mm Astro-Physics Traveler telescope, from Tibuc Cottage April 12, 2016. Taken with the waxing crescent Moon up.
