🔭 A Deep-Sky Dream - The Pazmino's Cluster by
A Deep-Sky Dream - The Pazmino’s Cluster! I was not expecting this when I planned this image. I love shooting star clusters with Ha, but never thought this combination would turn out so dreamy in this region. This cluster really is a beautiful thing to see, with bright and colorful stars and the Ha gives it a nice touch. Regarding the Ha blending, you really need to carefully subtract the continuum so you don’t mute the broadband dust detail that you can clearly see in a form of V shape surrounding the cluster.
astro.midnightA Deep-Sky Dream - The Pazmino’s Cluster! I was not expecting this when I planned this image. I love shooting star clusters with Ha, but never thought this combination would turn out so dreamy in this region. This cluster really is a beautiful thing to see, with bright and colorful stars and the Ha gives it a nice touch. Regarding the Ha blending, you really need to carefully subtract the continuum so you don’t mute the broadband dust detail that you can clearly see in a form of V shape surrounding the cluster.
🔭 A deep look out to the Tadpole Galaxy and far beyond by
The eye-catching object located near the centre of this image is known as the Tadpole Galaxy, which lies at a distance of about 420 million light years in the constellation Draco. The image spans about 25'x27' at a plate scale of 0.47"/pixel, and is the result of nearly 60 hours of integration, split roughly equally between luminance and RGB colour, with 180-sec subs acquired over the course of 14 nights in late May and mid June.It appears that the Tadpole underwent a collision with another galaxy a few hundred million years ago, tell-tale signs of which include the long tidal tail, which spans some 300,000 light years and contains millions of young blue stars, and the distortion of its galactic disk. These giant tidal disruptions give the Tadpole a well-deserved place in Halton Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, which gives it the designation Arp 188 (the galaxy is often referred to by its entry in the Uppsala General Catalogue of Galaxies, UGC 10214). The Tadpole was the subject of a beautiful image by the Hubble, which apparently resolves the intruder galaxy as seen through the foreground spiral arms; however, of all the reprocessed versions that I've seen (including the original Hubble!), that tiny spiral is best seen, by far, in the version produced by Bill Snyder, which was featured in this APOD post.The image is dominated by the Tadpole and three other sizeable galaxies, and out of curiosity, I used the Interactive Map utility of the DESI Legacy Imaging Survey to identify the others, and then used the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database to look up the redshifts [Tadpole (0.03111); and, from top-to-bottom: LEDA 57109 (0.03033); LEDA 57108 (0.03125); and LEDA 57087 (0.04984)]. This suggested that the Tadpole and the face-on spiral and elliptical above it form a sparse galaxy cluster; so I poked around the web and stumbled upon the WBL catalogue of "poor" galaxy clusters, which does indeed list the three as a cluster (WBL 608-003, 608-002, and 608-001, respectively). This deep image is also littered with hundreds if not thousands of tiny "faint fuzzies", barely-resolved galaxies seen out to many billions of light-years, along with a number of somewhat larger and better-resolved galaxies with a variety of interesting morphologies. Scanning the field gives a sense of the tremendous range of distances that it encompasses; for example, among the many small red galaxies bunched together near the bottom-left corner, at least two galaxy clusters have been identified, one at a distance of about 2.5 billion light years, and the other at a distance of about 3.6 billion light years.
htrottierThe eye-catching object located near the centre of this image is known as the Tadpole Galaxy, which lies at a distance of about 420 million light years in the constellation Draco. The image spans about 25'x27' at a plate scale of 0.47"/pixel, and is the result of nearly 60 hours of integration, split roughly equally between luminance and RGB colour, with 180-sec subs acquired over the course of 14 nights in late May and mid June.It appears that the Tadpole underwent a collision with another galaxy a few hundred million years ago, tell-tale signs of which include the long tidal tail, which spans some 300,000 light years and contains millions of young blue stars, and the distortion of its galactic disk. These giant tidal disruptions give the Tadpole a well-deserved place in Halton Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, which gives it the designation Arp 188 (the galaxy is often referred to by its entry in the Uppsala General Catalogue of Galaxies, UGC 10214). The Tadpole was the subject of a beautiful image by the Hubble, which apparently resolves the intruder galaxy as seen through the foreground spiral arms; however, of all the reprocessed versions that I've seen (including the original Hubble!), that tiny spiral is best seen, by far, in the version produced by Bill Snyder, which was featured in this APOD post.The image is dominated by the Tadpole and three other sizeable galaxies, and out of curiosity, I used the Interactive Map utility of the DESI Legacy Imaging Survey to identify the others, and then used the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database to look up the redshifts [Tadpole (0.03111); and, from top-to-bottom: LEDA 57109 (0.03033); LEDA 57108 (0.03125); and LEDA 57087 (0.04984)]. This suggested that the Tadpole and the face-on spiral and elliptical above it form a sparse galaxy cluster; so I poked around the web and stumbled upon the WBL catalogue of "poor" galaxy clusters, which does indeed list the three as a cluster (WBL 608-003, 608-002, and 608-001, respectively). This deep image is also littered with hundreds if not thousands of tiny "faint fuzzies", barely-resolved galaxies seen out to many billions of light-years, along with a number of somewhat larger and better-resolved galaxies with a variety of interesting morphologies. Scanning the field gives a sense of the tremendous range of distances that it encompasses; for example, among the many small red galaxies bunched together near the bottom-left corner, at least two galaxy clusters have been identified, one at a distance of about 2.5 billion light years, and the other at a distance of about 3.6 billion light years.
🔭 Cepheus Narrowband Mosaic - 12 Panels, 415 hours by
This one took a while! I started in August 2024 and finished capturing it in November 2025. There’s roughly 32 hours on each of the twelve panels, with 10:10:10 SHO. I shot one to two hours for RGB on most of the panels except where I wanted to blend in some RGB for the vdB objects (and a little on the Lion), where I shot a little more. I also shot a ton of extra O3 on the Squid and Wizard panels. I’m done with this area for now—at least with the FSQ. But I may return to this project in a couple of years and see if I can expand it to get some of the nice things in Auriga. Unfortunately, to get this to upload to Astrobin, I had to downsample it to 75%. My main goal with mosaics is to provide interesting context for some of the objects we’re all so familiar with. In that context, the product is the whole field presented at a proper viewing distance. But in this particular case, the goal was also to go deep enough to capture things in this area you don’t normally see in single dedicated frames, much less large mosaics. That starts with SNR G108.2-0.6 to the east of the Wizard. It continues on to the bow shock created by the runaway star λ Cephei—the blue SNR-looking patch about a third of the way from the Wizard to the Squid. There are also the vdB objects I mentioned above. And finally, I did my best to produce some detail on the half dozen or so small planetary nebulas that appear in the field. So if you’re so inclined, please dive in and have a look around.Edited to add: I’ve spent the last eight months building out a website that employs OpenSeaDragon deep-zoom treatment to images. The site is not ready for an official launch yet, but aside from some possible cosmetic issues, I think all the plumbing is in place. As luck would have it, I just got this image loaded into it last night. So if you want to take a deep-zoom look at the full-resolution image, go here:https://www.casualcosmologist.com/astroimagenew/cepheus-narrowband-mosaic-2024-2025
AccidentalAstronomersThis one took a while! I started in August 2024 and finished capturing it in November 2025. There’s roughly 32 hours on each of the twelve panels, with 10:10:10 SHO. I shot one to two hours for RGB on most of the panels except where I wanted to blend in some RGB for the vdB objects (and a little on the Lion), where I shot a little more. I also shot a ton of extra O3 on the Squid and Wizard panels. I’m done with this area for now—at least with the FSQ. But I may return to this project in a couple of years and see if I can expand it to get some of the nice things in Auriga. Unfortunately, to get this to upload to Astrobin, I had to downsample it to 75%. My main goal with mosaics is to provide interesting context for some of the objects we’re all so familiar with. In that context, the product is the whole field presented at a proper viewing distance. But in this particular case, the goal was also to go deep enough to capture things in this area you don’t normally see in single dedicated frames, much less large mosaics. That starts with SNR G108.2-0.6 to the east of the Wizard. It continues on to the bow shock created by the runaway star λ Cephei—the blue SNR-looking patch about a third of the way from the Wizard to the Squid. There are also the vdB objects I mentioned above. And finally, I did my best to produce some detail on the half dozen or so small planetary nebulas that appear in the field. So if you’re so inclined, please dive in and have a look around.Edited to add: I’ve spent the last eight months building out a website that employs OpenSeaDragon deep-zoom treatment to images. The site is not ready for an official launch yet, but aside from some possible cosmetic issues, I think all the plumbing is in place. As luck would have it, I just got this image loaded into it last night. So if you want to take a deep-zoom look at the full-resolution image, go here:https://www.casualcosmologist.com/astroimagenew/cepheus-narrowband-mosaic-2024-2025
🔭 Fornax Dwarf (UGC 10093) wide field by
The Fornax dwarf galaxy, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, contains six globular clusters – the brightest, NGC 1049, was discovered even before the galaxy itself. The galaxy is receding from the Milky Way at 53 kilometres per second.Presumably, the outskirts of the galaxy extend beyond the field of view, meaning that it would be over 1° in size along its longitudinal axis. I also find it striking that there is a clearly visible difference in star density between the inner and outer regions.Object type: Dwarf Galaxy (dE2)Size: at least 55‘ x 44‘Constellation: FornaxDate: 2025-07-24+29+30+31 + 08-01+02+03+17+18+19+20+23+24Exposure time: 331 x 295 sExposure time total: 27 h 07 minOliver Schneider, Faried Abu-Salih and I work together as "DSI (Deep Sky Imaging) Team" at our observatory at the Rooisand Desert Ranch, Namibia.
Markus_BlauensteinerThe Fornax dwarf galaxy, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, contains six globular clusters – the brightest, NGC 1049, was discovered even before the galaxy itself. The galaxy is receding from the Milky Way at 53 kilometres per second.Presumably, the outskirts of the galaxy extend beyond the field of view, meaning that it would be over 1° in size along its longitudinal axis. I also find it striking that there is a clearly visible difference in star density between the inner and outer regions.Object type: Dwarf Galaxy (dE2)Size: at least 55‘ x 44‘Constellation: FornaxDate: 2025-07-24+29+30+31 + 08-01+02+03+17+18+19+20+23+24Exposure time: 331 x 295 sExposure time total: 27 h 07 minOliver Schneider, Faried Abu-Salih and I work together as "DSI (Deep Sky Imaging) Team" at our observatory at the Rooisand Desert Ranch, Namibia.
🔭 [TEAM OMICRON] NGC 205 in the outskirts of the Andromeda Galaxy by
Hi friends,This autumn, we improved our image of NGC 205 captured by Serge Brunier with the T1000. The color frames still had room for improvement...As a result, I deleted the previous version since this one is rendered so much better. The SPCC calibration with SIRIL enabled a more accurate reproduction of the contrast between M31 and NGC 205. The different stellar populations are now much easier to see.There are also dozens of globular clusters in this image, confirmed and globulars candidates displayed when hovering the mouse. 99% of the bright points do not belong to our own galaxy.Enjoy the journey.JF
jeffbaxHi friends,This autumn, we improved our image of NGC 205 captured by Serge Brunier with the T1000. The color frames still had room for improvement...As a result, I deleted the previous version since this one is rendered so much better. The SPCC calibration with SIRIL enabled a more accurate reproduction of the contrast between M31 and NGC 205. The different stellar populations are now much easier to see.There are also dozens of globular clusters in this image, confirmed and globulars candidates displayed when hovering the mouse. 99% of the bright points do not belong to our own galaxy.Enjoy the journey.JF
🔭 Blue Sprites in the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud (SNR G013.3-01.3) by
This SNR’s oxygen jets form blue "sprites" in the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud (M24). My team member framed this up beautifully within LDN336, B93, and NGC6603. We started this project late in the summer, but didn’t have enough data to finish. We made a second effort to try to acquire data in the fall, even though the target was low, but we had a very large rejection rate. Blinking the recent subs was like looking at a fun hour mirror. I’d love to revisit next year to get more Oiii. It was challenging to balance the gorgeous star density with the nebulosity.
ktastroThis SNR’s oxygen jets form blue "sprites" in the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud (M24). My team member framed this up beautifully within LDN336, B93, and NGC6603. We started this project late in the summer, but didn’t have enough data to finish. We made a second effort to try to acquire data in the fall, even though the target was low, but we had a very large rejection rate. Blinking the recent subs was like looking at a fun hour mirror. I’d love to revisit next year to get more Oiii. It was challenging to balance the gorgeous star density with the nebulosity.
🔭 NGC 2170 - The Angel Nebula - LRGB - 2025 by
My 2025 take on the beautiful Angel reflection nebula in Monoceros
SliverSnakeMy 2025 take on the beautiful Angel reflection nebula in Monoceros
🔭 Volcanic Crater and Geminid Meteor Shower by
Please find my capture of the Geminid meteor shower over Al Wahbah Crater in Saudi Arabia which is the largest volcanic crater in the Middle East with a diameter of ~1.25 miles and 820 deep.
SpastroofPlease find my capture of the Geminid meteor shower over Al Wahbah Crater in Saudi Arabia which is the largest volcanic crater in the Middle East with a diameter of ~1.25 miles and 820 deep.
🔭 Antlia Cluster — Deep Field Exploration by
This image explores a deep region of the Antlia Cluster, revealing a rich population of background galaxies embedded in a delicate web of faint galactic cirrus and ionized hydrogen.A remarkable 186 hours of Hα integration were dedicated to this project. Most of this narrowband data was acquired under moonlit skies, which made signal extraction and noise control significantly more challenging. To preserve the natural broadband appearance of the galaxies while isolating genuine emission features, a careful continuum subtraction was applied, allowing the Hα signal to enhance only real ionized structures without contaminating stellar or galactic continua.The result is a complex and subtle field: massive elliptical galaxies characteristic of the Antlia Cluster dominate the central regions, while countless distant spirals and edge-on systems populate the background, each frozen at a different epoch of cosmic history. Wisps of faint hydrogen emission and galactic dust weave through the scene, adding depth and context to this otherwise galaxy-dominated field.Hope you like it!
rafaelss123This image explores a deep region of the Antlia Cluster, revealing a rich population of background galaxies embedded in a delicate web of faint galactic cirrus and ionized hydrogen.A remarkable 186 hours of Hα integration were dedicated to this project. Most of this narrowband data was acquired under moonlit skies, which made signal extraction and noise control significantly more challenging. To preserve the natural broadband appearance of the galaxies while isolating genuine emission features, a careful continuum subtraction was applied, allowing the Hα signal to enhance only real ionized structures without contaminating stellar or galactic continua.The result is a complex and subtle field: massive elliptical galaxies characteristic of the Antlia Cluster dominate the central regions, while countless distant spirals and edge-on systems populate the background, each frozen at a different epoch of cosmic history. Wisps of faint hydrogen emission and galactic dust weave through the scene, adding depth and context to this otherwise galaxy-dominated field.Hope you like it!
🔭 The Geminids meteor shower 2025 by
A winter night of falling starsGeminids are one of the most active meteor showers of the year. The radiant of the shower is located in the constellation Gemini, and the peak of activity occurs in mid-December — in 2025, on the night of December 13–14. Under ideal sky conditions, it is possible to observe as many as 120–150 meteors per hour at maximum.The photograph was created the day before and during the night of the shower’s peak activity. During this time, together with Łukasz Remkowicz and Jarek Cmk, we covered over 20 km at night in the Tatra Mountains, in typically winter conditions. Crampons on our boots, heavy backpacks weighing around 15 kg, snow and ice underfoot.The first night brought almost ideal observing conditions — a clear, starry sky and very good atmospheric transparency, despite equipment problems, including a tripod failure. The second night was clearly more difficult: a struggle with clouds and variable transparency. In both cases, short breaks were spent quickly warming our hands with a cup of hot tea, after which we returned to the tripods.In the foreground, the characteristic “Betlejemka” (the Central Training Center of the Polish Mountaineering Association) on Hala Gąsienicowa is visible, while the sky forms a panorama of the winter Milky Way together with Orion and its surroundings. To the left of the Milky Way lies the region of the sky where the radiant of the Geminids is located.The material was recorded using six cameras working continuously in timelapse mode. From a total of over 10,000 exposures, we selected about 140 frames in which meteors were captured, and then combined them into a single image.Working on such a project is very demanding, but watching the final version of the photograph gives us immense satisfaction.Authors: Marzena Rogozińska and Łukasz Remkowicz
marzenarogoA winter night of falling starsGeminids are one of the most active meteor showers of the year. The radiant of the shower is located in the constellation Gemini, and the peak of activity occurs in mid-December — in 2025, on the night of December 13–14. Under ideal sky conditions, it is possible to observe as many as 120–150 meteors per hour at maximum.The photograph was created the day before and during the night of the shower’s peak activity. During this time, together with Łukasz Remkowicz and Jarek Cmk, we covered over 20 km at night in the Tatra Mountains, in typically winter conditions. Crampons on our boots, heavy backpacks weighing around 15 kg, snow and ice underfoot.The first night brought almost ideal observing conditions — a clear, starry sky and very good atmospheric transparency, despite equipment problems, including a tripod failure. The second night was clearly more difficult: a struggle with clouds and variable transparency. In both cases, short breaks were spent quickly warming our hands with a cup of hot tea, after which we returned to the tripods.In the foreground, the characteristic “Betlejemka” (the Central Training Center of the Polish Mountaineering Association) on Hala Gąsienicowa is visible, while the sky forms a panorama of the winter Milky Way together with Orion and its surroundings. To the left of the Milky Way lies the region of the sky where the radiant of the Geminids is located.The material was recorded using six cameras working continuously in timelapse mode. From a total of over 10,000 exposures, we selected about 140 frames in which meteors were captured, and then combined them into a single image.Working on such a project is very demanding, but watching the final version of the photograph gives us immense satisfaction.Authors: Marzena Rogozińska and Łukasz Remkowicz
🔭 Cometary Globules CG3 & CG25 - HaRGB Continuum Subtracted by
Cometary Globules 3 & 25 are small, dense clouds of gas and dust located in Puppis. Like other cometary globules, they have a distinctive elongated shape with a compact “head” and a faint “tail,” sculpted by the intense radiation and stellar winds from nearby massive stars. These harsh forces compress the globule’s material, sometimes triggering the formation of new stars within its core. Although relatively faint, Cometary Globules offer astronomers an excellent laboratory for studying how stellar feedback shapes interstellar clouds and influences the earliest stages of star formation.…Don’t miss the little PGC 21393 & 492678 ;)
charles_astro_33Cometary Globules 3 & 25 are small, dense clouds of gas and dust located in Puppis. Like other cometary globules, they have a distinctive elongated shape with a compact “head” and a faint “tail,” sculpted by the intense radiation and stellar winds from nearby massive stars. These harsh forces compress the globule’s material, sometimes triggering the formation of new stars within its core. Although relatively faint, Cometary Globules offer astronomers an excellent laboratory for studying how stellar feedback shapes interstellar clouds and influences the earliest stages of star formation.…Don’t miss the little PGC 21393 & 492678 ;)
🔭 Jupiter, Ganymede & Io | 20-Dec-25 by
Finally managed to get some good seeing for this Jupiter apparition - been a while! Plenty of fine details visible across the disc with Ganymede & Io somewhat nearby. The bright Tros Crater can be seen on the eastern (left) limb of Ganymede.Heavy-handed wavelets also revealed the minor moon of Amalthea several hours earlier in the session but I’ve left this out of the final process due to a significant difference in timing. See a GIF of the moon exiting Jovian occultation:📷 Amalthea24" Dob, APM 2.7x (@3.25x), ADC, Uranus-C/M at 8800mm f/14.7. ~20 mins total. This set uses IR wavelet decomposition, although the VIS data was fairly close in resolution already.
tw__astroFinally managed to get some good seeing for this Jupiter apparition - been a while! Plenty of fine details visible across the disc with Ganymede & Io somewhat nearby. The bright Tros Crater can be seen on the eastern (left) limb of Ganymede.Heavy-handed wavelets also revealed the minor moon of Amalthea several hours earlier in the session but I’ve left this out of the final process due to a significant difference in timing. See a GIF of the moon exiting Jovian occultation:📷 Amalthea24" Dob, APM 2.7x (@3.25x), ADC, Uranus-C/M at 8800mm f/14.7. ~20 mins total. This set uses IR wavelet decomposition, although the VIS data was fairly close in resolution already.
🔭 Ced 110 and Ced 111 by
A colorful gem of the southern sky: This 2-frame mosaic captures the reflection nebulae Ced 110 and Ced 111 in Chamaeleon, nestled within the delicate dust clouds of one of the nearest star-forming regions. While Ced 111 glows in cool blue, Ced 110 in warm yellow. In addition the yellow Cha-IR-Nebula and several HH-Objects which are annotated on my website.
FranzHofmannA colorful gem of the southern sky: This 2-frame mosaic captures the reflection nebulae Ced 110 and Ced 111 in Chamaeleon, nestled within the delicate dust clouds of one of the nearest star-forming regions. While Ced 111 glows in cool blue, Ced 110 in warm yellow. In addition the yellow Cha-IR-Nebula and several HH-Objects which are annotated on my website.
🔭 Christmas sky with a view of the Tatra Mountains 19/12/2025 by
Hi, 👋🤩❄🏹✨🏔️🌌 🇸🇰✨🎄Christmas sky on the first day of winter🎄✨What wouldn't you do to see the starry sky accompanied by the Tatra Mountains! It was a good decision; watching the weather, the forecast showed hope for a clear night from Thursday to Friday, so without hesitation, I called a friend to ask if he wanted a quick trip to the Tatra Mountains. A quick pack, and by 11 a.m. I was in the car, packed, and heading south. It was a long drive, about 460 km, but if you're willing, it's easy. That's what I needed: a break from this gray everyday life and a walk, under the starry sky crunching on the ice while hiking through the Białka Valley. That's how this panorama was created while returning to the car at the parking lot in Łysa Polana, on the Slovak side. If I'm not mistaken, which I could be, we can see the constellation of Orion just above the peaks of the High Tatras, just above Rysy, and the entire autumn-winter Milky Way, accompanied by the Biała River, in a still-winter setting, as the snow in the Tatras disappears before our eyes. While photographing the stars, I'm accompanied by the beautiful sound of the river, and let me tell you, it's truly magnificent!Panorama RGB+HA:Canon EOS R modSigma 28mm f1.4 ART Tripod40 x 15s ISO8000 f2.5Białka Valley 19.12.2025 Slovakia 🇸🇰✨On the occasion of Christmas, I wish you that the birth of Jesus Christ brings you peace, joy, and love. Have a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner in 2025✨🎄🎅
LukaszZak77@@@Hi, 👋🤩❄🏹✨🏔️🌌 🇸🇰✨🎄Christmas sky on the first day of winter🎄✨What wouldn't you do to see the starry sky accompanied by the Tatra Mountains! It was a good decision; watching the weather, the forecast showed hope for a clear night from Thursday to Friday, so without hesitation, I called a friend to ask if he wanted a quick trip to the Tatra Mountains. A quick pack, and by 11 a.m. I was in the car, packed, and heading south. It was a long drive, about 460 km, but if you're willing, it's easy. That's what I needed: a break from this gray everyday life and a walk, under the starry sky crunching on the ice while hiking through the Białka Valley. That's how this panorama was created while returning to the car at the parking lot in Łysa Polana, on the Slovak side. If I'm not mistaken, which I could be, we can see the constellation of Orion just above the peaks of the High Tatras, just above Rysy, and the entire autumn-winter Milky Way, accompanied by the Biała River, in a still-winter setting, as the snow in the Tatras disappears before our eyes. While photographing the stars, I'm accompanied by the beautiful sound of the river, and let me tell you, it's truly magnificent!Panorama RGB+HA:Canon EOS R modSigma 28mm f1.4 ART Tripod40 x 15s ISO8000 f2.5Białka Valley 19.12.2025 Slovakia 🇸🇰✨On the occasion of Christmas, I wish you that the birth of Jesus Christ brings you peace, joy, and love. Have a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner in 2025✨🎄🎅
🔭 NGC 346 in the SMC by
This is my first visit to SMC…and I liked it quite a bit. The moment the images starting coming on for this object I was really intrigued. I do see images of this nebula on AB and other places- but not as many as I might expect given the complexity of this one. I do not have a long write up for this one. I guess I expended that on my previous image of the Pulsar Bow Shock image. I feel the Pulsar image was important because it is incredibly important to field of astrophysics and our understanding of Pulsar physics in general. However, it didn’t have a single color image! I just had to fix that. :)NGC 346… lots of images. However, I do have a comment. Typically when H-alpha dominates in a emission line nebula, most people will increase the strength of the weaker channel(s) when processing. However, for objects like NGC 346 that dominate in OIII there appears to be a hesitancy to apply the same logic. It seems inconsistent to me. So I guess my image will appear “different” than others, but in my mind I am actually being consistent in my approach and not different. To get this level of color variation was extremely challenging (as is typical for a weak emission line). On top of that, the myriad of stars in this field made it absolute hell to get the nebula to have enough contrast to be seen against all of them.So here I attempted to capture as much as possible. I wanted the three clusters, I tried to show the inner extremely bright part and the other features, and of course I wanted to show the H-alpha ionization fronts that though are weak- and trace the kinematics of the gas in the nebula. You will note I acquired SII as well. However, I did not use it as a third color- instead I incorporated it as Red as well. This helped give me color in the center. I have included the grayscale version of the SII so you can see what I mean. The H-alpha doesn’t have this signal to this degree at all. I did this same “trick” on my image of NGC 6302.Finally, I also have a “revision” that is a starless version of the field. This isn’t the final contrast of everything (it is an intermediate file)- but it gives you a sense of this field and everything within it.-Adam
CWTauriThis is my first visit to SMC…and I liked it quite a bit. The moment the images starting coming on for this object I was really intrigued. I do see images of this nebula on AB and other places- but not as many as I might expect given the complexity of this one. I do not have a long write up for this one. I guess I expended that on my previous image of the Pulsar Bow Shock image. I feel the Pulsar image was important because it is incredibly important to field of astrophysics and our understanding of Pulsar physics in general. However, it didn’t have a single color image! I just had to fix that. :)NGC 346… lots of images. However, I do have a comment. Typically when H-alpha dominates in a emission line nebula, most people will increase the strength of the weaker channel(s) when processing. However, for objects like NGC 346 that dominate in OIII there appears to be a hesitancy to apply the same logic. It seems inconsistent to me. So I guess my image will appear “different” than others, but in my mind I am actually being consistent in my approach and not different. To get this level of color variation was extremely challenging (as is typical for a weak emission line). On top of that, the myriad of stars in this field made it absolute hell to get the nebula to have enough contrast to be seen against all of them.So here I attempted to capture as much as possible. I wanted the three clusters, I tried to show the inner extremely bright part and the other features, and of course I wanted to show the H-alpha ionization fronts that though are weak- and trace the kinematics of the gas in the nebula. You will note I acquired SII as well. However, I did not use it as a third color- instead I incorporated it as Red as well. This helped give me color in the center. I have included the grayscale version of the SII so you can see what I mean. The H-alpha doesn’t have this signal to this degree at all. I did this same “trick” on my image of NGC 6302.Finally, I also have a “revision” that is a starless version of the field. This isn’t the final contrast of everything (it is an intermediate file)- but it gives you a sense of this field and everything within it.-Adam