Recently I’ve been more or less focused in astrophotography on comet Q2 Lovejoy, but occasionally, some other celestial objects captured my attention.
I’m posting now a few images of deep-sky or planetary objects, some of low quality, while others not so poor perhaps.
I’m starting with a rather difficult (at least for processing) object, called the Rosette Nebula, in the constellation of Monoceros.
The following image was processed from frames acquired on the night of February 13th 2015, after imaging comet Lovejoy. The imaging location was Cota 1000 near Sinaia. Unfortunately I had some serious problems with the tracking on my mount, and all the frames were almost unusable. Still, processing those very poor frames proved to be a hard exercise, so the end result is quite a fulfillment for me.
To better understand the quality of the initial frames, I’ve also posted below a single resized-only frame, together with an inset showing the very poor tracking. The end result was made out from 11 such frames, acquired with the 65mm APO refractor at F/6.5 and Canon 550D at ISO 3200 and 4 minutes of exposure for each frame. The quality of the sky was also rather poor…
On the same night and the next, my wife acquired some frames with a 50mm lens, guided on a EQ3-2 mount. The subject was the constellation Orion, and she had to split the view into two regions, one covering the upper part of the constellation, while the second focused on the lower region. The second region was actually acquired on the first night, while the other the second night. This is why I had some serious problems with the processing, since in the first night the conditions were the same as for the images above. The second night the conditions were a bit better. The end result, after a lot of work:
This area will have to be done properly on a far better sky. Still waiting for those good conditions…
Next, on the 14th of February, and again from the same location as the above, I’ve imaged the Venus-Mars gathering shortly after sunset. Again I’ve used the 65mm refractor and since the separation of the two planets was still great, I had to make a two-panel mosaic:
And lastly, the greatest disappointment I had in recent years: planet Jupiter with my new 355mm F/5 modified Newtonian.
The reason of the disappointment is that after almost two months of working at this scope (for making it lighter to ride my undersized EQ6 mount), the seeing conditions were extremely poor. This is somehow of a rule with every new telescope I’ve ever bought. So, again, I’m still waiting for good skies…
Max
maximus photography 
Master Max, what you’re doing with this rainy days? Great pictures!
Thanks Mihai! Well…when it’s raining I’m trying to process stuff which got forgotten. You’ll see soon what staff…
Rome was not built in a day!
Poate povestesti, odata, cum se poate reduce greutatea unui newtonian sau, cum se poate micsora sarcina totala a unei monturi!
O sa fie la un moment dat un post dedicat modificarii Newtonian-ului. In curand cred. Mai intai sa am si un succes pe masura. Deocamdata, am reluat la proiectare si construire in sine partea superioara a telescopului, adica focuser+secundara. Asta presupune modificarea suportului principal pentru tot telescopul, si asta pentru ca am reusit sa reduc din nou greutatea semnificativ. Sper ca in maxim 2 saptamani sa am o versiune complet functionala.
like usually fantastic job, bravo max