https://www.astrobin.com/users/WCA65/

Astrowaut Astro Photography, Deurle (2026)

05/06/2023

M100 The Blowdryer Galaxy (COM) - Blowing away the last nights of darkness, but not the clouds and the satellites (C8 EHD)

Messier 100 (also known as NGC 4321) is a grand design intermediate spiral galaxy in the southern part of the mildly northern Coma Berenices. It is one of the brightest and largest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster and is approximately 55 million light-years from our galaxy, its diameter being 107,000 light years, and being about 60% as large.

This is probably the last DSO-data I managed to get, before summer passes over and the astronomical darkness returns to a sufficient duration at night. It has dropped to below 1 hour over here, and pretty soon it will be non-existent, most nights obscured by clouds anyway these last months.

Two short nights of data (I also had a third night, but that was during full moon, with the moon in striking distance of M100, so a complete waste - how desperate do you need to be to even try that)

Way too short on integration time, just enough to get some detail and colour, and avoid graininess. Framing a bit off-centre, as I also wanted to have some neighbouring galaxies in the frame, as always RA aligned to X, Dec to Y.

M100 & friends
C8 EHD, LRGB, 2600MM, EQ6R-Pro (no reducer, no BIN, no crop)
Framing: RA aligned to X, Dec to Y
Photons: LRGB 34x 10x 10x 10x 180s = 3:12 hours
20230426-0516
PixInsight, BlurXt, NoiseXt, StarXt, EZ
Astrobin: https://astrob.in/olnsad/B/

Happy to hear your thoughts …

01/06/2023

M94 The Croc’s Eye Galaxy (CVn) - A short glimpse at the crocodile, before running away (C11 EHD)

Messier 94 (also known as NGC 4736) is a spiral galaxy in the mid-northern constellation Canes Venatici. Although some references describe M94 as a barred spiral galaxy, the "bar" structure appears to be more oval-shaped. The galaxy has two ring structures.
M94 has an inner ring with a diameter of 70 arcseconds (″) (given its distance, about 5,400 light-years) and an outer ring with a diameter of 600″ (about 45,000 light-years). These rings appear to form at resonance points in the disk of the galaxy. The inner ring is the site of strong star formation activity and is sometimes referred to as a starburst ring. This star formation is fueled by gas driven dynamically into the ring by the inner oval-shaped bar-like structure.
M94 seems to be known as either the Croc’s Eye Galaxy, or the Cat’s Eye Galaxy

Months of cloudy nights, and only at the moment where spring/summer night are getting too short, there’s finally a fluke clear night. In the run-up to the night, all the weather-apps all said ‘yes’, but the clouds said ‘no’. Only at the moment where the weather-apps finally recognised their defeat, and admitted it was going to be ‘no’, the sky suddenly cleared.
I brought out the scopes (C8 EHD, C11 EHD), and while the C8 was running it’s program, I continued to get the C11 into BAU-mode. A new test-target: M94, only 2 hours integration time, astronomical darkness is eroding away fast, lots of satellites, but I tried to optimise all of that in the processing.

A bit of a crude image, grainy, too short on time … I rather see this as a dragon of crocodile's eye, instead of a cat's eye ... but it feels like finally having water (clear sky) in a desert of cloudy nights.

M94 - The Croc’s Eye Galaxy
C11 EHD, UVIR, 2600MC, CEM70 (no reducer, no BIN, no crop)
Framing: RA aligned to X, Dec to Y
Photons: 43x 180s = 2:09 hours
20230516
PixInsight, BlurXt, NoiseXt, StarXt, EZ
Astrobin: https://astrob.in/1b8f0g/0/

Happy to hear your thoughts …

23/05/2023

Moon 91.4% (+) - A mineral Copernicus-area, with a paint-can dropped on Aristarchus

Copernicus is a lunar impact crater located in eastern Oceanus Procellarum. It was named after the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. The circular rim, with a diameter of 93km, has a discernible hexagonal form, with a terraced inner wall and a 30 km wide, sloping rampart that descends nearly a kilometer to the surrounding mare. The central peaks consist of three isolated mountainous rises climbing as high as 1.2 km above the floor. The crater rays spread as far as 800 kilometers across the surrounding mare, overlying rays from the craters Aristarchus and Kepler. The rays are less distinct than the long, linear rays extending from Tycho

Aristarchus is a lunar impact crater that lies in the northwest part of the Moon's near side. It is considered the brightest of the large formations on the lunar surface, with an albedo nearly double that of most lunar features. The feature is bright enough to be visible to the naked eye, and displays unusually bright features when viewed through a large telescope. It is also readily identified when most of the lunar surface is illuminated by earthshine. The crater is deeper than the Grand Canyon

As part of the first test-runs to get the C11 EHD operational for DSO (see previous posts related to the moon test-mosaic and NGC 3718), I also had a quick test run-on Copernicus. A short video, not enough frames for stacking to yield the fine details, seeing below par, but a nice capture to get some data in during these cloud-cast weeks

In the mineral processing, the bright-lit areas get the colours ‘over-stretched’. The result on the crater-rims of Aristarchus is quite similar to, like Tom Gray had so nicely put it, having had a paint-can dropped on it (Couldn’t have described it any better)

Just a quick test-run, in long waiting for Clear Skies … or kingdom come, whichever might be sooner …

C11 EHD, UVIR, 2600MC, CEM70
Photons: 930 frames, 25% stacked
20230503 00:05cedt
AutoStakkert, PixInsight, Photoshop
Astrobin: https://astrob.in/cy7jpj/0/

Happy to hear your thoughts …

22/05/2023

Moon 91.4% (+) - A mineral test mosaic (3 panels) of the south-west (Schickard to Ptolemaeus)

During the night of May 2nd, I was working to get the C11 EHD operational (see the story on the previous image). First thing, I aimed the C11 manually at the moon to configure the focusing/EAF (first crude manual focus, and then fix the EAF to the focuser)

Before trying to sort out polar alignment and the guiding, as a quick test, I took a couple of short video’s of the moon with the ASI2600MC. A bit short on frames (only 250 frames stacked), so this isn’t crystal sharp, but the aim was mainly to get C11 EHD step-by-step operational. The mount was only roughly polar aligned, so the moon was drifting a bit in the image (only allowing some short videos) and the ASI2600MC was running in USB2.0 (very low fps)

Four videos/images captured, three of them matching into a mosaic (the fourth as a separate post, if it is any decent). Quickly processed, and as this is a colour image, I decided to squeeze out the mineral colours, although the capture was a bit short on frames. Initial mosaic, and cropped/mineral version uploaded

Colours are perhaps a bit over-saturated and not ‘deep’ enough because of not enough frames captured. The moon looks like a big rusty rock, with a paint-can dropped on Tycho. Considering these are test shots, I’m reasonably satisfied with the outcome ... especially given that this is nearly the only thing I'm able to capture these days because of the bad weather.

In the image
South: Schickard, Schiller, Scheiner, Biancanus, Clavius (half)
East: Tycho
Middle/Upper Area: Mare Nubium, Mare Cognitum, Ptolemaeus

C11 EHD, UVIR, 2600MC, CEM70
Photons: 930 frames, 25% stacked, 3 panels
20230502 23:50-23:58cedt
AutoStakkert, PixInsight, Photoshop
Astrobin: https://astrob.in/yc5lkw/0/

Happy to hear your thoughts …

21/05/2023

NGC 3718 / ARP 214 (Uma) - A first C11-DSO-light of (my) Murphy’s Law Galaxy (C11 EHD)

NGC 3718, also called Arp 214, is a galaxy located approximately 52 million light years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. It is either a lenticular or spiral galaxy.
NGC 3718 has a warped, s-shape. This may be due to gravitational interaction between it and NGC 3729, another spiral galaxy located 150,000 light-years away.
NGC 3718 is a member of the Ursa Major Cluster.
At the bottom of the image, also a group a galaxies can be seen, called Hickson 56, aka ARP 322

In the past year, I had been struggling to get my C11 EHD fully operational, only some quick planetary and lunar imaging was attempted, but for DSO, I couldn’t get guiding to work, etc … typical Murphy’s law.

This was the first time I had all of the titbits of the C11 EHD working in unison, framing wasn’t exactly what I had planned for, but I had the scope running for 3 hours on its first DSO object.

Trying to beat Murphy’s Law is a hard thing to do, but at least I got a first result in. A bit crude, too short on time, not exactly crisp, heavily tainted with a huge moonlit damp gradient across the image, but suppressed in the processing.

As the mantra goes: all learning is good learning.

NGC3718 / ARP 214
C11 EHD, UVIR, ASI2600MC, CEM70
Photons: 63x 180s = 3h09
PixInsight, BXT, StarXT, NoiseXT, EZ
20230502
Astrobin: https://astrob.in/wvxjn1/0/

Happy to hear your thoughts …

15/05/2023

M81 Bode’s Galaxy & M82 Cigar Galaxy - Re-processing spare-time, with whisks of IFN

Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy) is a grand design spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.

Messier 82 (also known as NGC 3034, Cigar Galaxy or M82) is a starburst galaxy approximately 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It is the second-largest member of the M81 Group.

A reprocessing of my image of Bode’s Galaxy, together with the Cigar Galaxy. Similar to previous reprocessing, I felt there was more to be found in the original data than my earlier processing skills managed to bring out. More colour in the Galaxy, crispier details in the core and spiral arms, and notably more dust in the surrounding area, which I have checked to be whisks of the IFN being visible.

M81 & M82
TS140, LRGB, ASI2600MM Pro, CEM70G
Photons: LRGB 8x 4x 4x 5x 300s = 1h45
PixInsight, BXT, NoiseXT, StarXT
Astrobin: https://astrob.in/onu7eq/D/

Happy to hear your thoughts …

11/05/2023

The Hidden Galaxy (IC342 - Cam) - A reprocessing, shrouded in more dust

IC 342 (also known as Caldwell 5) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Camelopardalis, located relatively close to the Milky Way. Despite its size and actual brightness, its location behind dusty areas near the galactic equator makes it difficult to observe, leading to the nickname "The Hidden Galaxy"

A reprocessing of my image of The Hidden Galaxy. Similar to previous reprocessing, I felt there was more to be found in the original data than my earlier processing skills managed to bring out. More colour in the Galaxy, crispier details in the core and spiral arms, and notably more dust, containing structure, shrouding the galaxy.

TS140, Baader LRGB, ASI26000MM Pro, CEM70
Photons: LRGB 40x 15x 15x 18x 300s = 7h20
20211122
PixInsight, BXT, NoiseXT, StarXT
Astrobin: https://astrob.in/xnx6mi/B/

Happy to hear your thoughts …

25/04/2023

Abell 85 / CTB1 / LBN 576 - (CAS) The Popped Balloon / Onion - A faint leftover shell of balloon filaments floating in space - Full Re-Process

CTB 1 / Abell 85 or LBN 576 is a very faint Supernova Remnant in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It is located approximately 9780 light years away, spans approx 98 light years in diameter and is thought to be around 10,000 years old.

The original data, no changes, captured with the TS140 scope.
Full re-process of the data, using new skills, new techniques. I felt that there was much more in the data, compared to what I initially managed to bring with my first processing. The popped balloon as HHOO, stars with RGB data. Much more detail in the filaments. The Oiii shell is nicely visible. The background nebulosity stands out much more.
The processed image is 64bit, comforted into 16bit TIF for upload. Somehow that makes the hues much 'stronger/harder'

TS140, ASI2600MM, CEM70
HO 160x 10x 300s + 15x 10x 600s = 18:50 hrs
RGB stars 6x 21x 18x 180s = 2:15 hrs
Total 21:05 hrs
20220724-20220905
PixInsight, BXT, NXT, StarXT
Astrobin: https://astrob.in/w6dcib/C/

Happy to hear your thoughts …

23/04/2023

Cygnus - Veil Nebula - A re-process of old rags into a new veil

The Veil Nebula is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus.

It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant, many portions of which have acquired their own individual names and catalogue identifiers. The source supernova was a star 20 times more massive than the Sun which exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago

Re-Process, bringing out more of the nebulosity, background nebulosity, better star-processing (BXT, NXT, StarXT). Stars seem a bit smeared out in the upper left corner, maybe the camera was slightly tilted, backfocus was ok.
A detailed and crispy bat nebula. Pickering’s Triangle is crisp and crystal sharp. The witches broom is flying high …

TS94, L-Enhance, ASI2600MC
Photons: 165x 180s = 8hrs 15min
20220627-20220704
PixInsight
Astrobin: https://astrob.in/7co9yu/B/

Happy to hear your thoughts …

19/04/2023

Whirlpool Galaxy (M51 - CVn) - Going for a spin with the C8 EHD

In spite of hardly any clear sky, I did manage to get some 9 hours of data together on M51, some of it during full moon. I was still looking to get extra data in, but the forecast is just too bleak.

With the full focal length of the C8 (no reducer, no BIN, no crop, capturing with RA aligned X and Dec to Y), I’m getting as close as I can to this galaxy, allowing to pick up the finer detail in its spiral arms. Straight UVIR capture with the ASI2600MC, no extra Ha added, but those Ha regions are standing out nicely in the image. The dark structures in the spiral arms, leading right up to the core, seem to have come out nicely as well

Maybe I’ll get the chance to add data in the future, but for now … I’m happy with this result

The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a (M51a) or NGC 5194, or ARP85, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. It is about 31 million light-years (9.5 Mpc) away from Earth and 76,900 ly (23,580 pc) in diameter.
The galaxy and its companion, NGC 5195, are easily observed by amateur astronomers, and the two galaxies may be seen with binoculars.

M51
C8, UVIR, ASI2600MC, EQ6-R Pro
Photons: 184x 180s = 9h12
20230327-0402-0403-0404
PixInsight
Astrobin: https://astrob.in/72j97h/B/

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17/04/2023

Tiger’s Eye Galaxy (NGC 2841 - UMa) A little tiger being chased by an old horse (TS140)

The ‘old horse’ in this case, is my TS140 scope. As I switched to the C8 EHD telescope recently, I have been neglecting my TS140 a bit. But last Monday, while my C8 was chasing M64, I aimed my TS140 on NGC 2841

The focal length is a bit short for this distant galaxy, so I took the same approach as with my M51 image on this scope earlier: BIN2. This gets me a bit closer, a bit of loss of resolution, but still sufficient to get some small detail in the galaxy. The Tiger’s Eye still remains quite small

It’s a very small tiger to catch, but I’ve seen a glimpse of its eye with this telescope. Maybe a revisit with a bigger telescope in the future …

NGC 2841 is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Major. Initially thought to be about 30 million light-years distant, a 2001 Hubble Space Telescope survey of the galaxy's Cepheid variables determined its distance to be approximately 14.1 megaparsecs or 46 million light-years. The optical size of the galaxy is 8.′1 × 3.′5
This is the prototype for the flocculent spiral galaxy, a type of spiral galaxy whose arms are patchy and discontinuous

TS140, LRGB, ASI2600MM, CEM70
Photons: LRGB 45x 10x 7x 6x 180s = 3h24
PixInsight
Astrobin: https://astrob.in/dq28zm/0/

Happy to hear your thoughts …

Astrowaut Astro Photography

05/06/2023

01/06/2023

23/05/2023

22/05/2023

21/05/2023

15/05/2023

11/05/2023

25/04/2023

23/04/2023

19/04/2023

17/04/2023

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