Starlight Sandia Astronomy

Starlight Sandia Astronomy This is a page for me to post my Astrophotography images and discuss any Astronomy related topics.

Here we have the barred spiral galaxy M61. It located 55 million light years away in the constellation of Virgo. Also...
04/21/2026

Here we have the barred spiral galaxy M61. It located 55 million light years away in the constellation of Virgo. Also in the frame are a couple of other small galaxies NGC4292 and NGC4301. M61 is one of the larger galaxies in the Virgo cluster at about 7 arcminutes across. This image is a pretty heavy crop for a close in view.

Image Details:
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800 with 0.7x reducer
Camera: ZWO ASI294mc Pro at -10C and unity gain
Filter: Baader UV/IR cut
Exposures: 33 x 180 seconds, 1.65 hours total integration
Mount: Sky Watcher CQ350
Processing: PixInsight

Here we have the interacting galaxy pair of NGC5426 and NGC5427. The galaxies are about 130 million light years away in...
03/21/2026

Here we have the interacting galaxy pair of NGC5426 and NGC5427. The galaxies are about 130 million light years away in the constellation of Virgo. I saw a spectacular and more professional image posted online of this pair and I had to give it a shot. This very small target was pretty low on the horizon and not really in the best position for imaging in the northern hemisphere at the moment. I had problems with guiding likely due to poor seeing conditions for such a low target. These unusual interacting and distorted galaxies are some of my favorite targets so it was definitely worth the try.

Image Details: Cropped from micro 4/3 sensor
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800 with 0.7x reducer
Camera: ZWO ASI294mc Pro at unity gain and -10C
Filter: Baader UV/IR cut
Exposures: 16 x 180 seconds, 48 minutes total integration
Mount: SkyWatcher CQ350
Processing: PixInsight

Here we have the small irregular galaxy NGC4449. It's located 12.5 million light years away in the constellation of Cani...
03/14/2026

Here we have the small irregular galaxy NGC4449. It's located 12.5 million light years away in the constellation of Canis Venatici. This galaxy is categorized as a starburst galaxy for the exceptional rate of star formation present in the active emission nebulae seen here in the red hydrogen alpha regions. To capture the striking reds in this galaxy, I processed this as a composite image of the broadband RGB data with narrowband Ha and OIII data. The narrowband data emphasizes the areas of emission nebulosity while the broadband gives the natural colors of the stars and galaxy. I think this image came out great. It's my first image after a 2 month hiatus due to problems with my automation systems.

Image Details: Cropped from micro 4/3 image
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800 with 0.7x reducer
Camera: ZWO ASI294mc Pro at unity gain and -10C
Filters: Baader UV/IR for broadband, Optolong L-Enhance for Ha and OIII
Exposures: 63 x 180 seconds in broadband
42 x 300 seconds in narrowband
6.6 hours total integration time
Mount: Sky Watcher CQ350
Processing: PixInsight

Here we have the second target from this past weekend's imaging session, Jones-Emberson 1 also known as the Headphones n...
01/20/2026

Here we have the second target from this past weekend's imaging session, Jones-Emberson 1 also known as the Headphones nebula. This is a planetary nebula located 1600 light years away in the constellation of Lynx. Planetary nebulae are the remains of stars that are too small to go supernova and instead swell up until they exhaust their fusion fuel leaving behind a nebulous cloud with a white dwarf star in the center.

Image Details:
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800 with 0.7x reducer
Camera: ZWO ASI294mc Pro at Unity Gain and -10C
Filter: Baader UV/IR cut
Exposures: 26 x 180 seconds, 1.3 hours total integration
Mount: Sky Watcher CQ350
Processing: PixInsight

Here we have NGC2336 cropped in close, a very cool small spiral galaxy located 100 million light years away in the const...
01/18/2026

Here we have NGC2336 cropped in close, a very cool small spiral galaxy located 100 million light years away in the constellation of Camelopardalis. Also present in the image on the bottom right is the small galaxy IC467 which is about 78 million light years away. For this image I switch back to long focal length using my Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. It ended up being a short image session on this target as I was having trouble guiding. This was the first time my OAG couldn't reliably detect enough guide stars. I had to go with 6 second guide exposures and even then it was losing the stars. It still came out better than expected for such a short integration time.

Image Details:
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800 with 0.7x reducer
Camera: ZWO ASI294mc Pro at unity gain and -10C
Filter: Baader UV/IR cut
Exposures: 16 x 180 seconds, about 48 minutes total integration
Mount: Sky Watcher CQ350
Guiding: Celestron OAG with ZWO ASI174mm
Processing: PixInsight

Here's my annual best of the year collage for 2025. Happy New Year everyone and keep looking up!
12/31/2025

Here's my annual best of the year collage for 2025. Happy New Year everyone and keep looking up!

Here we have the original object that interested me in astrophotography. The spectacular Horsehead and Flame nebula! Al...
12/22/2025

Here we have the original object that interested me in astrophotography. The spectacular Horsehead and Flame nebula! Also known as Barnard 33. It's located about 820 light years away in the constellation of Orion near the bright star Alnitak. This region is amazing as it contains emission, reflection and dark nebulae in one big bright region. It's been a long time since I've imaged this target and this is the first time with the hyperstar. I used a technique called drizzling to effectively double the resolution of the image (at the cost of signal to noise ratio). This works extremely well with the hyperstar lense which takes my telescope all the way down to f1.9 which is just ridiculously fast light gathering power. It brought out lots of the dark clouds around the nebulae and gave very good detail of the Horsehead itself (it cropped nicely).

Image Details:
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800 with Hyperstar V4
Camera: ZWO ASI294mc Pro at unity gain and -10C
Filter: Baader UV/IR cut
Exposures: 51 x 120 seconds, 1.7 hours integration
Mount: Sky Watcher CQ350
Processing: PixInsight

Here we have NGC1554 and NGC1555 which includes Struve's Lost Nebula and Hind's Variable Nebula. This object is located...
12/14/2025

Here we have NGC1554 and NGC1555 which includes Struve's Lost Nebula and Hind's Variable Nebula. This object is located 550 light years away in the constellation of Ta**us. It was discovered in 1868. These two objects are often lumped together as one object because NGC1554 has basically become less visible over time leading to the Lost Nebula designation. It's speculated that it may have been a transient portion of the reflection nebula complex in this area of the sky.

Image Details:
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800 with Hyperstar V4
Camera: ZWO ASI294mc Pro at -10C and unity gain
Filter: Baader UV/IR cut
Exposures: 61 x 180 seconds, About 3 hours total integration and drizzled
Mount: Sky Watcher CQ350
Processing: PixInsight
Cropped in about 50%

Here we have the emission nebula Cederbald 214. It's located 317 light years away in the constellation of Cepheus. My ...
11/01/2025

Here we have the emission nebula Cederbald 214. It's located 317 light years away in the constellation of Cepheus. My widefield image includes some of the greater molecular cloud complex Sharpless 2-171 which is much farther away. I found it while I was scrolling around the Sky Safari application looking for something to image using narrowband filters and came across this uncommonly imaged nebula. This image was quite difficult to process as it's done in a false color palette where the colors represent emission lines from certain elements (Sulphur, Hydrogen, Oxygen) rather than broadband true color which would be mostly red due to the dominant abundance of hydrogen alpha emission. I am still pretty new to using the Hubble Palette (SHO) and my colors are a little off what you'd typically see. I think it came out pretty well. I need to get more practice as most people get the greenish colors to come out more of a gold color. The purple is an off color and I'm not sure how to fix it.

Image Details:
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800 with Hyperstar V4
Camera: ZWO ASI294mc Pro at unity gain and -10C
Filters: Askar C1 (HaOIII) and Askar C2 (SII-OIII)
Exposures: 36 x 180 seconds with C1, 24 x 180 seconds with C2
Mount: SkyWatcher CQ350
Processing: PixInsight

Here we have NGC6992, The Eastern Veil nebula. This is a close up of a section of the larger Veil Nebula. The Veil neb...
10/21/2025

Here we have NGC6992, The Eastern Veil nebula. This is a close up of a section of the larger Veil Nebula. The Veil nebula is a very large supernova remnant 2400 light years away in the constellation of Cygnus.

Image Details:
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800 with Hyperstar V4
Camera: ZWO ASI294mc Pro at -10C and unity gain
Filter: Baader UV/IR cut
Exposures: 37 x 120 seconds, 74 minutes total integration
Mount: Sky Watcher CQ350
Processing: PixInsight

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