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.
The Heart Nebula (at right, aka IC 1805) and the Soul Nebula (at left, aka IC 1848, ad also the Foetus Nebula), in Cassiopeia. Just right of upper centre is the open star cluster NGC 1027. The star cluster in the middle of the Heart Nebula is called Melotte 15. The patch of nebulosity at upper right detached from the rest is NGC 896. The field is filled with numerous other clusters and dark nebulas from lesser known catalogs. The field lies right on the Galactic Equator, with most objects here located in the Perseus spiral arm, the next one out from ours, some 6000 to 7500 light years away. This is a 3-segment mosaic, taken Nov 15 and 16, 2014 from New Mexico. Each segment is a stack of 12 x 6 minute exposures with the filter-modified Canon 5D MkII camera at ISO 800, through the TMB 92mm apo refractor at f/4.4 using the Borg 0.85x field flattener/reducer. Stitched in Photoshop.
The Heart Nebula (aka IC 1805) at right, and the Soul Nebula (aka IC 1848) at left, in Cassiopeia. The round nebula at top right is NGC 896. The star cluster at right embedded in the Heart Nebula is NGC 1027. Shot from home in Alberta on November 21, 2019. This is a stack of 16 images, half of the set shot through a light pollution reduction filter to suppress sky background and enhance the colours of the nebulas, particularly in the red end of the spectrum from H-alpha emission. The eight filtered shots are all 8-minute exposures with the Canon EOS Ra mirrorless camera at ISO 1600, and through the Borg 77mm f/4 astrographic refractor at f/4 with an IDAS LPSv3 filter in place. The 8 unfiltered shots are all 8-minute exposures as well but at ISO 800 (with no filter the images require less exposure) and with the same camera and scope but without the IDAS filter for a set of “natural light” images. Blending the two versions provides the benefit of the enhanced nebulosity of the filter but the better colour balance of the unfiltered shots. The EOS Ra camera features a factory-modified IR block filter that transmits a higher level of the red H-alpha visible light, making such a photo possible. The additional IDAS filter does bring out the fainter parts of the nebulas but tends to make the nebulas quite “in-your-face” red, rather than present a more balanced look with magenta and blues adding to the colour. This was shot from a fairly dark rural site, so the IDAS filter wasn’t essential for urban sky glow suppression but for nebula enhancement. All images aligned and stacked in Photoshop 2020. We don’t need no Deep Sky Stacker.
