The Eagle, Take Two

The Eagle Nebula
Reprocessed image of the Eagle Nebula achieves better color rendition and higher detail.

Click for High-Quality Prints

  • Telescope: Stellarvue SVA130T-IS
  • Mount: Losmandy G-11 with Gemini 2 controller
  • Autoguiding: Yes
  • Optical Configuration: 1x 910 mm (f/7)
  • Camera: Canon 60Da
  • Light Frames: 24, 300-s subframes stacked (120 min.)
  • Calibration: None (no darks, no flats, no biases)
  • Exposure Time(s): 2 h or 120 min. (24 x 5 min.)
  • ISO: 800
  • Pre-processing & Processing: PixInsight
  • Post-Processing: Photoshop CC
  • Imaging Location: Sierra Nevada Mountains (Altitude: 8,600 ft)

Reprocessing image data of the Eagle Nebula (M16) that was shot last year has yielded better detail and higher color accuracy.

Home to the famous “Pillars of Creation,” the Eagle Nebula in the constellation Serpens is a diffuse emission nebula about 7,000 light-years from us. The small dark region of gas and dust near the center of the nebula resembles the silhouette of an eagle, hence the name. This small area of the nebula also defines the so-called Pillars of Creation made famous by a composite high-resolution image taken with the Hubble Space Telescope.

https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-goes-high-definition-to-revisit-iconic-pillars-of-creation

The deep red color of the Eagle Nebula originates from light emitted by singly ionized hydrogen gas (H-alpha). The vast clouds of gas and dust in nebulae make them effective stellar nurseries, where the stuff of the universe is transformed into gleaming new stars.

The Horsehead Nebula…from L.A.

The Horsehead Nebula

The Horsehead Nebula and Flame Nebula shot with a DSLR from L.A. in H-alpha light

Click for High-Quality Prints

  • Telescope: Stellarvue SVA130T-IS
  • Mount: Losmandy G-11 with Gemini 2 controller
  • Autoguiding: Yes
  • Optical Configuration: 0.72x field flattener & reducer (f/5)
  • Filter: 12-nm narrowband H-alpha
  • Camera: Canon 60Da
  • Light Frames: 12, 4-min. exposures
  • Calibration: 13 darks, 100 biases, 30 flats
  • Exposure Time: 48 min. (12 x 4 min.)
  • ISO: 1600
  • Pre-Processing: PixInsight
  • Processing: Photoshop CC (processed in a single red channel and flattened)
  • Imaging Location: Los Angeles, Calif.

Photographing wispy deep-sky objects (DSOs) in the light-polluted skies of Los Angeles is not for the faint of heart. L.A. was an early adopter of LED streetlights; so night has now become day, ablaze with broadband sky glow. But those gossamer DSOs can be photographed under such conditions, as the image above of the Horsehead Nebula and Flame Nebula proves. The trick is to use a narrowband filter in front of the camera sensor, which blocks all wavelengths of light except the ones of interest. In this case, the wavelength of interest is the red emission line of singly ionized hydrogen at 656 nm…aka, H-alpha. The Horsehead and Flame nebulae both emit at the H-alpha wavelength, so the filter allows their “voices” to be “heard” above the raucous roar of urban light pollution.

This image makes use of a narrowband H-alpha filter with a full-width half-max transmission window of 12 nm. It is a proof-of-concept shot intended to flush out the process and nail down some of the parameters (see bulleted details above). Wind and the meridian precluded taking more light frames, which would have further enhanced the quality and detail of the image. During the imaging session, a very bright LED streetlight gleamed at full intensity about 50 yards away, and the full moon (two days past full) was rising in the east. Yet, the results speak for themselves. It can be done, and done well.

Stay tuned for more narrowband images to come on this website.

Nighttime Lights of L.A.

The city lights of L.A. transform night into day.

2017 Solar Eclipse, Take Two

Eclipse 2017 Corona, HDR Print, Brighter, Reduced

This high-dynamic-range image showcases the solar corona and the Moon during The Great American Eclipse of 2017.

Click for High-Quality Prints

  • Telescope: Stellarvue SVA130T-IS
  • Mount: Losmandy G-11 with Gemini 2 controller
  • Autoguiding: No
  • Optical Configuration: 0.72x field flattener & reducer (f/5); no solar filter during totality
  • Camera: Canon 60Da
  • Light Frame(s): 6 frames from 1/500 sec to 1 sec
  • Calibration: None (no darks, no flats, no biases)
  • Exposure Time(s): 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30 sec, and 1 sec
  • ISO: 100
  • Processing: Photoshop CC using HDR Pro
  • Imaging Location: Prairie City, Ore.
  • Click for high-quality prints

This high-dynamic-range image of the 2017 solar eclipse, originally posted August 25, 2017, has been reprocessed to reveal more detail of the solar corona and the Moon.

Super-heated plasma escaping from the sun creates the solar corona and becomes the solar wind that blows through our solar system at a million miles per hour. The charged particles that make up the coronal plasma follow the magnetic field lines of the sun and form streamers in the corona, like iron filings around a magnet.

Sunlight reflecting from Earth during the eclipse illuminates the Moon and bounces back to Earth as “earthshine.” Because of this earthshine, lunar features such as the “seas” and several large craters (Tycho, Copernicus, etc.) can be imaged during totality. The blue color of the Moon comes from our blue sky.

Waxing Crescent

Waxing Crescent

Two-day-old waxing crescent

  • Telescope: Stellarvue SVA130T-IS
  • Mount: Losmandy G-11 with Gemini 2 controller
  • Autoguiding: No
  • Optical Configuration: 2x Barlow (f/14)
  • Camera: Canon 60Da
  • Light Frames: Single frame, 1/125-sec. exposure
  • Calibration: None (no darks, no flats, no biases)
  • Exposure Time: 1/125 sec.
  • ISO: 1250
  • Processing: Photoshop CC
  • Imaging Location: Sierra Nevada Mountains (Altitude: 8,600 ft)

This two-day-old waxing crescent of the Moon was shot while waiting for darkness to fall in the High Sierra.