M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy

After a long spell of clouds of rain, on sunday evening I took advantage of a few clear hours to get some more data on M51. This image is a combination of raw images from April 20th and May 10th. The total exposure time is now at 64 minutes.

32x120s, Nikon D7000, ISO1600, 127mm f/8 refractor

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Active Region 2339

Today the sunspot called AR2339 featured prominently on the sun’s disk:

IMG_7838_1600px IMG_7838_1600px-2

the images are single exposures using a Canon EOS 60Da, and a 127mm f/8 apochromatic refractor, using Baader Solar Film ND3.8 ISO100, 1/8000s

Springtime Galaxies NGC 4565 and Markarian’s chain

After I acquired the 127mm refractor I was on the search for an affordable mount suitable for astrophotography, serendipitously I learned that my astronomy club is in the possession of an old but working Meade LXD 650 mount. It turns out, the LXD carries the refractor quite nicely, here are the first images shot with that combination:

 

NGC is a long time favourite of mine, the galaxy is beautiful in the eyepiece as well as in pictures:

NGC 4565, Astro-Physics 127mm f/8 refractor, Nikon D7000, Meade LXD650 mount, 14x120 sec., darks, flat, processed in Deep Sky Stacker, Lightroom and Photoshop

NGC 4565, Astro-Physics 127mm f/8 refractor, Nikon D7000, Meade LXD650 mount, 14×120 sec., darks, flat, processed in Deep Sky Stacker, Lightroom and Photoshop

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Sunspots 2015-04-18

Today the sun had some nice sunspots and offered a good opportunity to test the new mount I have on loan from the VAA, my astronomy club.

Planets

In 2015 I got a planetary camera for my birthday, so I started taking pictures of Jupiter again. I am still very much working on refining my processing workflow, therefore the images turn out quite different each time…

Jupiter 2015

Rotation of Jupiter

09.04.2015 Rotation of Jupiter

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