Saturday, September 29, 2018

NGC 6946: The Fireworks Galaxy

I purchased an ASI1600MM Pro back in February and never really had a chance to use it until July. First light revealed that there were hardware issues with the camera and it needed sent to ZWO in China for repair. This image is the first I have taken since receiving the camera back. Overall very happy, the pattern noise has been completely eliminated with the repair. The Fireworks Galaxy is a spiral galaxy located in Cepheus. The name was given due to the frequency of supernova observed, 10 in total. NGC 6946 is approximately 22 million light years away. Details: Lum: 100x300s, Gain 139 RGB: 40x300s per channel, Gain 139 Gear: ASI1600MM, AT6RC, Astronomik 1.25" LRGB, APCCDT67, Atlas EQG Captured with Sequence Generator Pro, PHD2, EQMOD Processed in Pixinsight


Messier 29

I have been sitting on this data since 2017 and just recently found the time to process it. Nothing fancy, but I have always been a fan of open clusters. Messier 29 is a open cluster located in Cygnus. Longer exposures and hydrogen alpha data would have brought out more of the nebulosity in this region, but this was meant to be a quick project during a near full moon. As it stands, you can just barely spot hints of the background nebulosity, as well as a few areas with dark nebula. Gear: AstroTech AT6RC, Atik 428EX, Astronomik LRGB