Since moving to Texas last year I haven't had much time to indulge in astroimaging. This was mainly due to my work, but also because I no longer have my own observatory, which means my equipment now needs to be set up each time I use it, which is a very time consuming procedure.

I recently treated myself to a new mount (Celestron CGEM DX), which has more advanced electronics than my old LX200. Amongst other things, makes it a lot quicker to set up and start imaging as there is no need to drift align.

Here is my first passable deep space image with the new setup. NGC7331, a galaxy similar in size to our own and an estimated 49 Million light years distant.

My image processing skills are a bit rusty, so this is certainly not my best work. I also need to go back and get some colour data on another clear night.

My deep space imaging was cut short with the arrival of the Moon, so I created a mosaic of 4 shots. Photoshop did a nice job of stitching them together for me .

Wow. Those are some outstanding pics. I especially like the one of NGC7331

That's amazing, I didn't know you could do something like that home.

Thanks guys . I'm guessing it is over a year since I have done any imaging. Longer for deep space imaging.

RK, it really is amazing what you can do these days. It costs no more than a lot of hobbies and once you have the equipment, there are very few reoccurring costs (although there is always the temptation to upgrade your gear).

Always enjoy seeing these from you. One day I will get back to looking at the stars.

Really impressive images, thanks for posting them!

Wow!

Look forward to when you post more. Are you planning to build a new observatory in the near future?

That is simply spectacular !

Very, very, very nice!

Thank you for the pictures.

How does location affect your images? For example, I am very near Baltimore in the suburbs and the evening light from the city is always on the horizon. I heard it affects how much you can see, even with a telescope.

Really??? How old ARE you?




The Jedi Master

Legend, yes. My wife and I are planning on having another observatory built, but right now we have some other priorities to take care of first.


Light pollution is a big factor Destructis, especially for visual observing.. You can still do narrowband imaging under light polluted skies though.


Sometimes I feel positively ancient

Paul, really great to see you back, posting images. I no longer have a telescope, but occasionally get out West on a clear night, and just "naked eye" the skies.

It never gets old.

Thanks LJ,it's really great to be doing this again. I went out again last night and shot an image of M27, known as the Dumbell Nebula.

I'm not sure I like how I processed it, so I may have to start over with that...

I reduced the color saturation, which I think helps a little.

I still get awed when I think about how far some of these galaxies are from our own Milky Way.

49 million light years...

So even a ship going at the speed of light would take 49 million years to arrive at NGC 7331.

The speed of light just isn't fast enough. We need to learn how to create stable worm holes .

Well, for the traveller it's not so bad, just means
when you want to go home, things have changed by
100 million years. The old neighbourhood may be
hard to recognize

Or learn how to create super mathematical geniuses who can fold space.

Well just need to find the right spice. If you know what I mean.