[Chetan_Rao]

There really ought to be a 'bowing down' emoticon in the forum text editor. That'd be my true reaction and only contribution to this ongoing magnificent thread.

[ex-innova-guy]

What on Earth did I just see?

Ohh wait these were from outside this world! Absolutely amazing pictures Graaja sir!

[graaja]

Originally Posted by ex-innova-guy

Absolutely amazing pictures Graaja sir!

Thank you so much for the kind words ex-innova-guy!

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

There really ought to be a 'bowing down' emoticon in the forum text editor...

Thank you so much for the kind words Chetan! You are very kind

Originally Posted by Rajain

Going through your thread is so immersive, so satisfying that I got myself a nice cup of tea, sat on the lazy boy and totally soaked in the entire thread again from the beginning. Stopping every now and then to check the equipment.

Your pictures are so amazing that it has led me to do some more reading and checking on the constellations...

Thank you so much for the kind words Rajain! I hope you start exploring this universe and some day, our paths cross in some star party

Originally Posted by aviator1101

As always, fantastic photographs graaja Sir.

...Only gives a feeling of how vast is the universe and how tiny we are.

Thank you so much for the kind words aviator1101! As you rightly said, looking at the universe makes one feel small in both space and time. Being in Hanle amplifies this feeling as the mighty Himalayas makes you feel so small too!

[ampere]

Originally Posted by graaja

That's all folks I have for now. Will come back with more updates and pictures once the Astrophotography season starts in December. This year, the focus will be more on quality vs. quantity. I will be shooting less targets but collect more data on each target to get more details on the targets.

Really Brilliant!

By any chance have you also started reading Jayant Narlikar, Fred Hoyle, Carl Sagan like folks! Will make a great reading to complement the already brilliant endeavour that you have taken!

[am1m]

My god, what images!

Stunning is an understatement. And when we think that it is now possible for an individual (albeit, an exceptional one like graaja!) to be able to access these with commercially available equipment, it is simply mind-blowing.

Thank you again graaja, for bringing back that feeling of wonder!

[supertinu]

Thanks Graaja for sharing these. The pictures are an absolute joy and kindles the child in my like nothing else. The beauty of space is unparalleled. So much that human race is yet to explore.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by ampere

Really Brilliant!

By any chance have you also started reading Jayant Narlikar, Fred Hoyle, Carl Sagan like folks! Will make a great reading to complement the already brilliant endeavour that you have taken!

Thank you so much for the kind words. I have not read books of these authors yet. I have been focusing on the technical part of photography so far. I plan to read The Cosmos by Carl Sagan soon.

Originally Posted by am1m

Stunning is an understatement. And when we think that it is now possible for an individual (albeit, an exceptional one like graaja!) to be able to access these with commercially available equipment, it is simply mind-blowing.

Thank you so much for the kind words.

True. Compared to 10 years back, today we get lots of advanced equipment for astrophotography easily in the market with several Indian vendors from whom we can buy these equipment by paying INR.

Originally Posted by supertinu

Thanks Graaja for sharing these. The pictures are an absolute joy and kindles the child in my like nothing else. The beauty of space is unparalleled. So much that human race is yet to explore.

Thank you so much for the kind words!

[Quad47]

Brilliant pics Graaja !!!
i have started astrophotography just 6 months back and below are few of my clicks.
my equipment :
Founder optics 86mm APO Triplet
Bresser Exos2 goto mount
Canon 600D

I am planning to upgrade my camera to an air cooled one- but the prices are prohibitive !
Any leads on where i can find used ASI cameras in India.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by Quad47

have started astrophotography just 6 months back and below are few of my clicks...

Any leads on where i can find used ASI cameras in India.

Superb pictures you captured there

Indian used equipment market is still not that great. It will be very difficult to find used cameras unless you are in many Astro related groups and catch some sale.

What is your budget? ASI533MC is a very good camera with great read noise performance (same sensor as the ASI2600MC, but with a smaller area) which is available for about 85K.

[Quad47]

Thanks

My budget is around 1.5L , but that is for monochrome - i want to take the leap and step into narrow band imaging , hence the budget includes camera, EFW and LRGB/NBI filters.
The cameras that i have narrowed down to are ASI533MM or ASI183MM and will have to fit in filters in the rest .
Till then will continue using 600d and maybe an astromodified used 6D.

But i have surrendered to the idea that this is going to be an expensive hobby

[graaja]

Astrophotography Trip to Coorg


BAS (Bangalore Astronomical Society) conducts star parties in Talacauvery during new moon weekends during winter. Every year, I try to attend 2 or 3 of these parties.

In February, the star party was organized for 5 nights from February 8th to 12th. I stayed for 4 nights from the 8th to the 11th and photographed some deep space objects. The night of the 10th was dedicated for newbies and we had more than 50 participants on that night.

For the first time, I took two sets of equipment with me. One was a long focal length using which I shot galaxies. The other was a wide-field setup using which I shot nebulae in our own Milky Way. I also took some Milky Way pictures and timelapses. Except for the 10th when we had clouds till about 11:00PM, all other nights were clear, and I could collect good data on 7 targets.

In this post, I will share some pictures from the journey and the event. In the next post, I will share the pictures of deep-space objects and details about these objects and the pictures.

On the day before the journey, all the equipment was collected in one place and ready to be loaded in the car.


Equipment loaded in the car. Most of the equipment filled the boot.


The 8" telescope was placed on the rear passenger seat and secured with bungee ropes. The battery went into the footwell.


The roof box is filled with some bags.


Started from home at 5:30 in the morning. Drove through some beautiful country roads near Bhavanisagar.


Unusually high truck traffic in the 27 hairpin bends in the Dimbham ghat section.


Coffee break near Kushalnagar.




Arrived at the destination at 2:30 in the afternoon.


Unpacked and assembled the setups.


Visual Astronomy area with telescopes ranging from 8" Dobsonians, 150mm refractors to 16" Dobsonian telescope.


The Astrophotography area.


The telescopes in the visual area are covered in the daytime.


The astrophotography equipment during daytime.


Introductory session for newbies on the 10th evening.


The customary group picture.


The long focal length telescope in action. The screen on the iPad shows the image of the NGC2903 galaxy being captured.


One of the key attractions of these star parties. Everyday evening a nearby hotel delivers tea and snacks.


Morning ritual - fresh coffee from the French press.


Another morning ritual - some strength training with a kettlebell.


Another famous morning activity. Birdwatching and photography.


A short video summarising this trip.

https://youtu.be/TajCR7Mrt6A

[graaja]

Equipment and Target Selection:


Usually, I carry only one set of equipment on these astrophotography trips. During my Hanle trip, I bought a ZWO AM5, a compact harmonic mount that can be easily packed in the car for a one-month road trip. This time, I decided to carry both the bigger and heavier EQ6-R Pro mount and the lighter AM5 mount. I used a Redcat51 refractor telescope (with a focal length of 250mm) paired with a cooled color camera with the AM5, and the GSO RC8 telescope (with a focal length of 1250mm) paired with a cooled monochrome camera with the EQ6-R Pro mount.

The equipment. To the left is the EQ6-R Pro with RC8 and to the right is the AM5 with Redcat 51.


Both these setups can cater to different types of deep-space objects. The 250mm scope can do wide field photography of large nebulae in our own Milky Way, while the 1250mm scope can go deeper in space and shoot galaxies, galaxy groups and planetary nebula which are very small. I chose several targets for each of these setups.

Target list for the AM5 + Redcat 51:

1. Jellyfish and Monkeyhead nebula in a single frame
2. Christmas tree cluster
3. Spaghetti Nebula

As all these targets were up in the sky from about 8PM to 2AM, I limited to one target each for every night.

Target list for the EQ6-R Pro + GSO RC8:

1. ARP-273 or the Rose Galaxy
2. HCG44 or the Hickson's Close Group 44
3. NGC 2903 Galaxy
4. Abell-36 Planetary Nebula

These targets were up in the sky at various times of the night. So, I ran an advanced shooting sequence where three objects were shot in one night and this sequence was repeated for two or more nights with one of the targets being replaced every night. This way, I collected data of these targets over two or three nights.

Below is the target planning worksheet.

[graaja]

In this post, I will share the objects shot with the EQ6 R Pro + RC8 setup. Below is the list of equipment and software details used for all the images in this post. All these images are shot with a monochrome camera with LRGB and SHO (Sulphur, Hydrogen, and Oxygen) filters and combined during post process.

Equipment Details:
EQ6 R Pro Equatorial mount
GSO RC8 telescope at 1250mm focal length (with reducer)
ZWO ASI 2600MM Pro monochrome camera
ZWO OAG
ZWO ASI 174mm guide camera
ZWO 7x36mm filter wheel
Antlia LRGB V Pro filters
Antlia 3nm SHO filters
Pegasus Power Box Advance (for power distribution)

Software:
N.I.N.A for capturing
PixInsight for stacking and processing
Lightroom for final processing

ARP273 - The Cosmic Rose

ARP 273 is a pair of interacting galaxies 350 million light years away in the Andromeda constellation. The larger of the galaxies is named as UGC1810 and it's smaller companion UGC1813.

The outermost arm of the larger spiral appears to have been pulled into a wide ring around the galaxy — a characteristic astronomers often see in galaxy pairs where one galaxy has passed through the other. The ring around this galaxy is off-center, though. This suggests the smaller galaxy plunged through the larger one

It is thought that the smaller galaxy has gone through the larger galaxy. The encounter seems to have also tipped the large galaxy's inner arms relative to the rest of the galaxy, while the smaller galaxy has become somewhat stretched out, with two sprawling tails on either end.



Exposure Details: 5 hours 35 minutes
L - 37 * 300 seconds
R - 10 * 300 seconds
G - 10 * 300 seconds
B - 10 * 300 seconds

Some interesting facts on this image:

• I processed this image on the 13th of February and sent this to my wife for Valentine's day
  
• This is the farthest object I have shot intentionally and with details (earlier, I had unintentionally captured a small galaxy in the Hercules Globular cluster, which is about 500 million light-years away). The light that I have shot today left these galaxies 350 million years before. These galaxies may have moved farther away from us and also between each other now.
  
• This image looks smudged and lacks details because of the distance and the size of the object. The below picture shows the full frame in the L channel. Note how small an area these galaxies occupy.

My wish is to shoot this target in more detail with a longer focal length. I have ordered a 9.25" EdgeHD telescope with a focal length of 2350mm. I will revisit this target next year with this focal length.

ARP316 / HCG 44

Scanning the skies for galaxies, Canadian astronomer Paul Hickson and colleagues identified some 100 compact groups of galaxies, now appropriately called Hickson Compact Groups. The four prominent galaxies seen in this image are one such group, Hickson 44, about 100 million light-years distant toward the constellation Leo.

The two spiral galaxies in the center of the image are edge-on NGC 3190 with its distinctive, warped dust lanes, and S-shaped NGC 3187. Along with the bright elliptical, NGC 3193 at the bottom right, they are also known as Arp 316. The spiral in the upper left corner is NGC 3185, the 4th member of the Hickson group. Like other galaxies in Hickson groups, these show signs of distortion and enhanced star formation, evidence of a gravitational tug of war that will eventually result in galaxy mergers on a cosmic timescale. The merger process is now understood to be a normal part of the evolution of galaxies, including our own Milky Way. For scale, NGC 3190 is about 75,000 light-years across at the estimated distance of Hickson 44.

Two dwarf spiral galaxies named PGC 86788 (left center) and PGC 2806871 (top right) are also part of the group but are not included in the Hickson catalog



Exposure Details: 9 hours 21 minutes

L - 216 minutes (72 * 180 seconds)
R - 120 minutes (24 * 300 seconds)
G - 120 minutes (24 * 300 seconds)
B - 105 minutes (21 * 300 seconds)

This is my most favorite image from this trip.

NGC 2903 - A Barred Spiral Galaxy

NGC 2903 is an isolated barred spiral galaxy in the equatorial constellation of Leo. It was discovered by German-born astronomer William Herschel, who cataloged it on November 16, 1784. This galaxy is located about 30 million light-years away from the Milky Way and is a member of the Virgo Supercluster.



Exposure Details: 4 hours 21 minutes

L - 1 hour 51 minutes (37 * 180 seconds)
R - 50 minutes (10 * 300 seconds)
G - 50 minutes (10 * 300 seconds)
B - 50 minutes (10 * 300 seconds)

Abell 36 - Planetary Nebula

This gaseous shroud of a dying sunlike star, planetary nebula Abell 36 lies a mere 800 light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. At that distance it spans over 1.5 light-years. Shrugging off its outer layers, the nebula's central star is contracting and becoming hotter, evolving towards a final white dwarf phase. In fact, in Abell 36, the central star is estimated to have a surface temperature of over 73,000 K, compared to the Sun's present 6,000 K temperature. As a result, the intensely hot star is much brighter in ultraviolet light, compared to its visual appearance here. The invisible ultraviolet light ionizes hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the nebula and ultimately powers the beautiful visible light glow.



Exposure Details: 10 hours 55 minutes

Ha - 3 hours 40 minutes (44 * 300 seconds)
Sii - 3 hours 35 minutes (43 * 300 seconds)
Oiii - 3 hours 40 minutes (44 * 300 seconds)

Though I collected close to 11 hours of data (the longest for any target during this event), this image still lacks details and has lots of noise. Not a satisfactory result. Planetary nebulae are usually very dim and need lots of data to bring out the details and contrast.

[graaja]

In this post, I will share the objects shot with the AM5 + Redcat51 setup. Below is the list of equipment and software details used for all the images in this post. All these images are shot with a color camera with an Optolong L-Extreme filter, which is a tri-narrowband filter.

Equipment Details:
ZWO AM5 Harmonic Mount
William Optics Redcat 51 Petzval Refractor
ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro color camera
William Optics 30mm guide scope
ZWO ASI 224mm guide camera
Optolong L-Extreme filter
Pegasus Power Box Advance (for power distribution)

Software:
N.I.N.A for capturing
PixInsight for stacking and processing
Lightroom for final processing

NGC2264 - Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Cluster

NGC2264 designates both the Cone Nebula and the Christmas Tree cluster and lies in the constellation Monoceros.

The cone nebula (at the top of the image) resembles a cone and resides in a star forming region. It is a monstrous pillar of cold gas common in large regions of star birth. The cone nebula is 7 light years long and resides at 2500 light years from earth. The Christmas Tree cluster is a large, bright cluster made of about 80 stars of 8th magnitude. The cluster spans 20 light years and lies about 2600 light years from earth. The cluster gets its name due to the resemblance to a christmas tree.



Exposure Details: 5 hours 30 minutes
Lights - 66 * 300 seconds
Darks - 25
Flats - 25

SH2-240 Spaghetti Nebula

Simeis 147, also known as the Spaghetti Nebula, SNR G180.0-01.7 or Sharpless 2-240, is a supernova remnant (SNR) in the Milky Way, straddling the border between the constellations Auriga and Taurus. It was discovered in 1952 at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory by Grigory Shajn and his team using a Schmidt camera and a narrowband filter close to the Hydrogen Alpha transmission line. It is difficult to observe due to its extremely low brightness.

The nebulous area has an almost spherical shell and a filamentary structure, which resembles spaghetti, and hence the name. The remnant has an apparent diameter of approximately 3 degrees, an estimated distance of approximately 3000 (±350) light-years, and an age of approximately 40,000 years. At that distance, it spans roughly 160 lightyears.

It is believed that the stellar explosion left behind a rapidly spinning neutron star known as pulsar PSR J0538+2817 in the nebula core, emitting a strong radio signal.



Due to the filaments being very dim, it is very difficult to bring out the details of this nebula without bumping up the noise as well. I had shot this nebula from Hanle in October 2023 (documented here) and had collected 4 hours and 50 minutes of data. I added another 3 hours 55 minutes of data from Coorg. Even with close to 9 hours of data, there still is lot of noise in this picture. This target needs 20+ hours of data. Will keep adding data to this target whenever possible.

Exposure Details: 8 hours 45 minutes
Lights - 58 * 300 seconds (From Hanle in October 2023)
Lights - 47 * 300 seconds (From Coorg in February 2024)
Darks - 25
Flats - 25

IC443 and NGC2174 - Jellyfish and Monkeyhead Nebulae

IC 443 (also known as the Jellyfish Nebula and Sharpless 248 (Sh2-248)) is a galactic supernova remnant in the constellation Gemini. Its distance is roughly 5,000 light years from Earth and it is roughly 70 light years in size. NASA’s latest research estimates the age of this supernova remnant to be tens of thousands of years, which aligns with previous work that estimated IC 443 to be about 30,000 years old. IC 443’s true age remains in question, as other scientists have inferred much younger ages of about 3,000 years.

NGC2174 named the Monkey Head Nebula is a star forming H-II emission nebula located in the constellation Orion. It is about 6400 light years away from earth. It is an area where new stars are being born at a fierce rate. The stellar winds formed by these stars blows the gas and dust away giving the ape like structure to the nebula.



Exposure Details: 5 hours
Lights - 60 * 300 seconds
Darks - 25
Flats - 25

Note:

I have shot both these nebulae individually with the GT81 refractor at 400mm. This image combines both in the same frame. Below are the links to the posts where these individual images can be found.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shift...ml#post5419584 (Rendezvous with The Universe | My Astrophotography Hobby)
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shift...ml#post5467382 (Rendezvous with The Universe | My Astrophotography Hobby)

Conclusion:

That's all folks, I have for now.

The next star party in Coorg will happen in the new moon weekend in March. Will share more pictures after this event. In between, I will also be shooting some targets from my terrace after full moon. Will share once I have some results.

Hope you liked these pictures. Do let me know which of these is your favorite.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by Quad47

My budget is around 1.5L , but that is for monochrome - i want to take the leap and step into narrow band imaging , hence the budget includes camera, EFW and LRGB/NBI filters.
The cameras that i have narrowed down to are ASI533MM or ASI183MM and will have to fit in filters in the rest .
Till then will continue using 600d and maybe an astromodified used 6D.

But i have surrendered to the idea that this is going to be an expensive hobby

Apologies for having missed your post.

The ASI533MM is a very good camera. It has the same sensor as the ASI2600MM, just a smaller sensor. If this fits your budget, I will highly recommend getting this one.

Wishing you all the best. Please keep sharing your images with the current and future equipment.