http://www.saratogaskies.com/category.pl?c=New SaratogaSkies update. Jim Solomon's Astropics new images. en-us http://www.saratogaskies.com/img/rss_title.gif http://www.saratogaskies.com/category.pl?c=New http://www.saratogaskies.com/image.pl?i=134 This is my first planetary image with the new TMB 152/1200 APO Refractor. I used a (also new) 5x PowerMate to crank up the focal length to 6000mm. The 7th of the 15 AVIs I captured this night produced the best stacked image, which is shown above. The other ones had worse seeing, worse …

]]> http://www.saratogaskies.com/image.pl?i=134 http://www.saratogaskies.com/image.pl?i=136 This is a test shot of B33, aka, the “Horsehead Nebula”, a dark nebula in the constellation of Orion. This is Second Light for my new TMB 152/1200 APO Refractor and my new Astro-Physics (AP) 1200GTO German Equatorial Mount. I spent all night trying to get PoleAlignMax to work (note …

]]> http://www.saratogaskies.com/image.pl?i=136 http://www.saratogaskies.com/image.pl?i=135 This is a test shot of NGC 7293, aka, the “Helix Nebula”, a planetary nebula in the constellation of Aquarius. This is First Light for my new TMB 152/1200 APO Refractor and my new Astro-Physics (AP) 1200GTO German Equatorial Mount. I snuck in these two exposures, one each of my …

]]> http://www.saratogaskies.com/image.pl?i=135 http://www.saratogaskies.com/image.pl?i=132 This is NGC 7008, a planetary nebula n the constellation of Cygnus. Love the purple hues in this nebula, a color that is relatively rare in deep space objects. This is an LRGB composite, with the Luminance binned 1×1 and the color data binned 3×3. A higher resolution image is also …

]]> http://www.saratogaskies.com/image.pl?i=132 http://www.saratogaskies.com/image.pl?i=133 This is NGC 6804, a planetary nebula n the constellation of Aquila. Had some tracking/focus/both problems in the acquisition of this image, but Neil Fleming's Star Trail Removal trick worked very well, after applying a generous …

]]> http://www.saratogaskies.com/image.pl?i=133 http://www.saratogaskies.com/image.pl?i=131 This is NGC 6781, a planetary nebula n the constellation of Aquila. After a couple of false starts trying to figure out the new camera, scope, and mount, this one came in pretty well on a night of only average to below average seeing and transparency. A higher resolution image is available. North …

]]> http://www.saratogaskies.com/image.pl?i=131 http://www.saratogaskies.com/image.pl?i=130 This is a photo and animation (5 MB) of what threatens to become one of the largest wildfires in Santa Clara County history, according to the San Jose Mercury News. The images were captured from my house in Saratoga, roughly 35miles west of Henry Coe …

]]> http://www.saratogaskies.com/image.pl?i=130 http://www.saratogaskies.com/image.pl?i=128 This is M16, aka, the “Eagle Nebula”, an emission nebula in the constellation of Serpens. This is my first Narrowband (aka “Tricolor”, aka “False Color”, aka “Emission Line”) Image with my new SBIG ST-2000XM camera and Astrodon SII, H
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