Pacman Nebula NGC281 Taken in Cathedral City, CA 90/500 Refractor 2" Astro-Tech Field Flattener Canon 450d modded Baader 495nm Longpass filter Astronomik CLS CCD Clip Filter Celestron AVX Mount 10 Hours total exposure time 66 Lights varying 7-19 minute exposures at iso 200-400 60 Darks 40 Flats 80 Bias Stacked in DSS, edited in CS6 ..read more

Triangulum Galaxy M33 Taken over 2 nights at Lake Cuyamaca, CA 90/500 Refractor 2" Astro-Tech Field Flattener Canon 450d modded Baader 495nm Longpass filter Astronomik CLS CCD Clip Filter Celestron AVX Mount 5 Hours total Exposure Time 20x900s ISO 800 Lights 11 Darks 43 Flats 30 Bias Stacked in DSS, edited in CS6 The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 3 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is cataloged as Messier 33 or NGC 598, and is sometimes informally referred to as the Pinwheel Galaxy, a nickname it shares with Messier 101. The Triangulum ..read more

The Veil nebula has been my deep sky subject for the past month, and I'm finally done with the eastern portion. The desert heat and humidity we've had recently did not help at all, but us desert rats find ways to overcome this every summer.  Next up is the western portion of the Veil nebula, which contains NGC 6960 the Witches Broom Nebula. I'm hoping to get the western side done before the end of the month. NGC6992 Eastern Veil Nebula taken in Cathedral City, CA 5h40m total exposure time 61 lights 4,5, and 6 minute exposures 48 darks 64 flats 80 bias Stacked in DSS ..read more

This was my first attempt at imaging a comet, and after tons of research online I was actually able to pull off some interesting images, and even a video of its movement. Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak was not showing any signs of a tail, at least for now. The comets closest approach to the Sun is on April 12 2017, and it might start showing signs of a tail around then. Unfortunately, this comet is not really a naked eye object, and was even hard to spot in binoculars under our light polluted valley. This is why it's important to always turn off unnecessary lights at night, and if at all po ..read more

Bode's galaxy (M81) is a large bright spiral galaxy located approximately 11.8 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Ursa Major. The Cigar Galaxy (M82) can be found right next to M81 and resembles a cigar of sorts. This pair of galaxies look amazing next to each other, and the differences between them is striking. NGC3077 completes this trio of galaxies, but is more of a faint blob compared to its neighbors. I took these over a 3 week period in by backyard in Cathedral City California. Equipment used: Celestron Nexstar 6se 6.3 focal reducer AVX Mount Canon 450d 600s iso800 Or ..read more

I snapped an image of Clavius (crater) and Longomontanus (crater) the other night. The seeing was amazing, and the images show all kinds of detail. Celestron Nexstar 6se Celestron AVX Mount ASI120MC-S Camera Taken in Cathedral City, CA  Clavius (crater) Longomontanus (crater ..read more

The other night I was out in the backyard imaging Jupiter and decided to make a rotation video of the planet. I ended up with 2 separate videos because the seeing changed and I had to reduce my magnification a bit. The end results turned out pretty good though! These were made up of individual images taken every so often between 11pm and about 3am, so around a 4 hour period of rotation. Celestron Nexstar 6se Celestron AVX Mount ASI120MC-S Camera Taken in Cathedral City, CA Here is a couple still images from the videos ..read more

Finally, Jupiter is back in the night sky! Oh, how I have missed this beautiful gas giant of a planet. As much as I enjoy imaging deep sky objects, my first love will always be planetary imaging. There is just something about imaging our local neighbors that puts me in a wonderful mood. Watching Jupiter rotate throughout the night is a sight to behold, and for such a large planet it does so about every 10 hours as opposed to our 24 hour Earth rotation. This means I can watch the great red spot on Jupiter slide across the surface in a matter of hours, and I can even see the movement of its 4 br ..read more

The Rosette Nebula taken in Cathedral City, CA I've wanted to image the Rosette nebula for some time now, but with my Celestron 6se telescope it was not really feasible due to the large focal length of the scope. The Rosette nebula is huge! I decided to give it a try with my new Orion ST80, and I could not be happier with how it turned out. It is certainly not a Hubble image, but I did the best I could under light polluted skies, and man does it look beautiful. 5 hours total exposure time Canon 450d Orion ST80 Orion Skyglow filter Celestron AVX mount Stacked in DSS Edited it CS6 and LR ..read more

Orion Nebula and Running Man Nebula, 4 hours of exposure time. I've been hitting this one every chance I get, I love these 2 nebulae. They are probably my favorite to image. I'm hoping to end up with 8 hours or more of exposure time, cloudy for the next few days here so it will have to wait. 4 hours total exposure time Canon 450d Orion Skyglow filter Orion ST80 Celestron AVX Mount Asi120mc-s guide camera Cathedral City, CA ..read more