Orion

Eta Carinae(Key Hole) Nebula 22nd December Wide Field Mosaic

I have wanted for some time now to produce a wider field image of the Eta Carinae Nebula that included some of the peripheral nebulosity, often left out of standard portraits, and also include the nearby Gem Cluster(top left).

Acquired this image using my trusty old modified Canon 450D, SWED80 Refractor Telescope on my just as'old and trusty' SWEQ6 German Equatorial Mount.

The image consists of 30 images (thats 6 seperate stacks of 5 x 2 minute exposures all reconstructed and stacked in Nebulosity and then assembled as one image in Photoshop.  

Then back to Nebulosity for initial stretching and digital enhancement of the colour and spatial details.

Then back the Photoshop for brightness and contrast adjustment, colour levels (RGB) enhanced along with some specific masking that allowed me to enhance the central red nebulosity without over brightening and adding in noise in the surrounding star field.

Clarenden 3rd December 2016

Took these shots with a Canon 760D  with a Vixen Polaire tracking the sky.   Generally each astrophoto is 10 x 1 minute exposures then combined with some processing in Nebulosity and then a few final tweeks in Photoshop.

Crab Nebula and nearby Star Cluster

Southern Cross.

Southern Cross and the dark Coalsack Nebula.

The Hyades with the red giant star Aldabaran in Taurus,

The 'Iron Pot' of Orion featuring the great orion nebula top centre right and the Horsehead and Star burst nebulae bottom centre right.

The Small Magellanic Cloud with two Globular clusters, 47 Tucanae centre right and the smaller NGC362 just above left of centre.

Below is the Constellation of Carina featuring the massive Eta Carinae 'Keyhole' nebula and surounding star clusters.  The faint red nebula just rigt of and above centre is part of the fainter  Running Chicken Nebula.

Waddamana, Tasmania, 25th 26th November 2016