From the archives: Images from an unsually cold and snowy winter, December 2010 in Cologne, now in the gallery here.
Aus dem Archiv: Bilder eines ungewöhnlich kalten und verschneiten Winters, Dezember 2010 in Köln, jetzt hier in der Galerie.
A quick capture during a clear mid summer night. An “advantage” of the light polution here: even so astronomical twilight isn’t reached, the sky brightness is for approx. 3 hours in the range of SQM 19.5 to 19.9. SQM 20.0 is the maximum I measured in my backyard in spring 2020 with the excellent “lock-down” skies.
Hopefully a break in the currently cloudy and rainy weather for some additional O3 und S2 data during the next days before the moon returns.
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Fast schon aus Verzweiflung ;-) zwischendrin ein paar H-alpha Daten vom Seelennebel, mehr war bei Mond und leichter Schleierbewölkung nicht drin, das Wetter in Köln ist leider in den letzten Monaten wenig astrofreundlich.
Nicht die erste Variante, die älteren finden sich im kompletten Artikel.
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“Squares 2” gibt es jetzt auch als Fotobuch bei Blurb. Einfach nur durchblättern ist natürlich auch herzlich willkommen, hier entlang. ;-)
Runde zwei der “Squares” findet sich hier in der Galerie, auch als Fotobuch in der Produktion.
A completely clear night – not that many of them lately – provided several hours of H-alpha to catch the nebulosities above. Meanwhile I switched from the Optolong LRGBSHO filter set to the new Baader CMOS-optimized filters. At least H-alpha seems to work better in the combination with the Esprit 100 ED and QHY 268M, but still some problems with the flats.
See Astrobin here and here for details.
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Still a work in progress, mastering the QHY268M with the Optolong LRGBSHO filter set. Seems like a setup with reserved filters is required for the Esprit 100 ED with the original flattener, in order to avoid strange reflections from bright stars such as Deneb or Sadr. Shooting a familiar target here.
Technical details at Astrobin.
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Continuing the explorations with the QHY268M, a two panel H-alpha mosaic. And the first time I used NINA to control the imaging session.
Backyard astrophotography in light-polluted Cologne-Dellbrück (SQM 19.7)
Skywatcher Esprit 100/550 ED, Skywatcher Flattener, Optolong Ha 7nm / QHY268M
OAG with Lodestar X2
Mount AZ EQ6 GT
Image acquisition: CdC, NINA, PHD2, dithering
Ha: 2 x 6 x 600s, mode 1, gain 56, offset 10, -5C, 10 flats, 50 bias, 20 darks
Data calibration/integration: PixInsight
Image processing: PixInsight, Lightroom, two panel mosaic
First steps into the realm of mono astrocams with the QHY268M. Pretty amazed what 3 x 10 min were able to pull out of my suburban skies.
In memoriam Dr. Carsten Jacobs, ad astra!
Backyard astrophotography in light-polluted Cologne-Dellbrück (SQM 19.7)
Skywatcher Esprit 100/550 ED, Skywatcher Flattener, Optolong Ha 7nm, QHY268M
OAG with Lodestar X2
Mount AZ EQ6 GT
Image acquisition: CdC, APT, PHD2, dithering
Ha: 3 x 600s, mode 1, gain 56, offset 40, -10C, 20 flats, 40 bias, 12 darks
Data calibration/integration: PixInsight
Image processing: PixInsight, Lightroom
Black and white version (Ha) of the previously posted image. This is the bright central region of NGC 7822, also cataloged as Cederblad 214.