Picture of the Week Winner
Congratulations to Joshua Kovach
Picture of the Week Nominees
May Picture of the Month Nominees
2023 Winners
Fossil Footprint, NGC 1491. 77hrs 20min 10min exposures, 157 S 161 O 146 H, Esprit 120mm, QHY268M, Optolong 3nm filters. SO bortle 1, H bortle9. NINA, Pixinsight, photoshop, lightroom.
The Tarantula Nebula shot from Brisbane Australia over three nights in November and December 2022. This is a narrow band SHO image with RGB stars with 12 hours of total imaging time. Astrobin link https://astrob.in/imxn76/0/ Imaging Telescope - William Optics ZenithStar 61 / ZS61 Imaging Camera - ZWO ASI1600MM Pro Mount - Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro Filter - ZWO Blue 36 mm · ZWO Green 36 mm · ZWO H-alpha 7nm 36mm · ZWO O-III 7nm 36mm · ZWO Red 36 mm · ZWO S-II 7nm 36 mm Accessories - ZWO EAF Software - Open PHD Guiding Project PHD2 · Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight · Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA) · EQMod Guiding Telescope - ZWO 30mm Mini Guider Scope Guiding Camera - ZWO ASI120MM-S Dates:5 Dec 2022 · 6 Dec 2022 · 11 Dec 2022 Frames: ZWO O-III 7nm 36mm: 41×240″(2h 44′) (gain: 139.00) -15°C bin 1×1 ZWO S-II 7nm 36 mm: 49×240″(3h 16′) (gain: 139.00) -15°C bin 1×1 ZWO H-alpha 7nm 36mm: 48×240″(3h 12′) (gain: 139.00) -15°C bin 1×1 ZWO Blue 36 mm: 74×30″(37′) (gain: 139.00) -15°C bin 1×1 ZWO Green 36 mm: 67×30″(33′ 30″) (gain: 139.00) -15°C bin 1×1 ZWO Red 36 mm: 57×30″(28′ 30″) (gain: 139.00) -15°C bin 1×1 Integration: 10h 51′ Darks: 50 Flats: 20 Flat darks: 20 Avg. Moon age: 14.42 days Avg. Moon phase: 93.51% Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 6.00
Melotte 15 By David Schaeffer SHO image with the Explore Scientific 127CF and ZWO 294MM pro 36x300s Each Optolong 3nm Filters Bortlte 7 Springfield Va.
Andromeda Galaxy By David Schaeffer Williams Optics GT81 Altair 294C with L Pro filter Aproximately 12 Hours of data ove 2 nights from Bortle 7 Springfield Va.
Mark Ellis IC 443 Jelly Fish SHO, 16.5 Hrs Intigration. ASKAR FRA 600, 268M Pro, Chroma 3nm Filters. Taken from my backyard Bortle 8 Sky's Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/g4in0a/
The Bloodstone - Rosette Section SkyWatcher Quattro 250P with Starizona Nexus Reducer. QHY294mm
Abell 85 SHO collaboration between Tom Peter and Shawn Nielsen. Data taken with Tom’s NP127is/ASI6200MM Pro, Astrodon 3nm filters, ASI Air Pro, CGXL mount. I violated all the rules of CMOS imaging…The Ha data was 600 & 1200 sec subs and the Oiii and Sii were 900 sec subs…total integration time was 15h 40m. I wasn’t happy with my processing and I reached out to Shawn after watching an old episode of AstroWorld where he mentioned he was imaging this object and it was so faint, it was hard to get good data. Shawn processed my data, his way, and brought out a lot more Oiii than I could and I just did some tweaking of the stars and a bit of toning. THANKS Shawn! Hope ya like it!
Taken with the Quattro 250P OSC ASI533 with L-enhance filter. And UV/IR for RGB OSC Stars 2 hours worth of Data.
Greg Meyer MD Pacman The Pacman Nebula. 9,200 light-years away from Earth, in the constellation Cassiopeia and covers a little more sky than the full Moon. 48 hours total integration Ha 113 x 10min Oiii 99 x 10min Sii 73 x 10 min OTA: Esprit 120mm 840 focal length f 7.0 Camera: QHY268M
Tom Peter M45 LRGB 144 Subs @300s Bin 1x1 gain 100, 36 subs each filter TeleVue NP127is, ZWO ASI6200MM Pro, Celestron CGXL, Astrodon LRGB 2GEN, ASIAIR Pro, Pixinsight
AZ4Runner IOTW submission 02-20-23 M42 - The Orion Nebula & friends taken between 01-17-23 thru 02-18-23 Main imaging scope William Optics Grand Turismo 71 with 0.8x R/FF 336mm FL @f/4.7 ZWO ASI2600MMPro Gain 100 Offset 50 Antlia V-Series Pro SHO 3nm Filters Guidescope Orion 30mm mini guide scope ZWO ASI120mm mini guide camera total integration 45hr0min S - 19hr0min H - 16hr0min O - 10hr0min Data Collaboration with Iceman Astro Imaged from my B6 backyard observatory in Yuma, Arizona Image Acquisition in APT Stacked in DSS Processed in Photoshop
Four hours each Svbony RGB Filters Taken with the Quattro 250p Reduced to 750mm With the starizona Nexus reducer at F2.9. Qhy294mm
AZ4Runner IOTW submission 05-01-23 M13 - The Hercules Cluster taken on 04-27-23 Main imaging scope Orion 8"RC with AstroPhysics (x0.72) reducer 1152FL @ f/5.7 ZWO ASI294MM Gain 120 Offset 10 Optolong LRGB 36mm Filters Guidescope Orion ST80 400mm FL @ f/5 Orion Starhoot Autoguider total integration 2hr2min L - 27min (54x30sec) R - 41min (82x30sec) G - 27min (54x30sec) B - 27min (54x30sec) Darks,Flats< Dark Flats,BIAS Imaged from my B6 backyard observatory in Yuma, Arizona Image Aquisition in APT Stacked in DSS Processed in Photoshop
Comments on This Post
Dave HarveyAuthor
Point’s and/or entries should be deducted/excluded using Photometric Colour Calibration – Colour should reflect own equipment and talent(s). Its basically cheating.
Daniel HigginsAuthor
Interesting Point. Perhaps something to bring up on the next show
NigelAuthor
Arnt you doing a PIC of the month for the March winners ?
Daniel HigginsAuthor
Yes…I just saw this comment! My apologies Nigel!
John GambaleAuthor
Askar FRA500/5.6 APO 90MM
ZWO 2600 MC-Pro
No Filters
22x300s
PixInsight
Dave HarveyAuthor
For our image of the month competition we designed a points system. This would helped the judging considerably as well as level the playing field up giving a fairer, balanced reflection of equipment, location and skill.
The $Money will invariably come out on top.
As you know I also think you should add a 2 points for not using PCC.
Besides the points system we used (shown below), an outside independent judge and members votes chose the winning image, i.e. independent outside judge giving points on favourite 3 images they choose giving accordingly 5 – 3 & 1 points.
The information required on an image must contain good details – e.g add to the description when uploading images(s).
Type of mount: Alt-AZ or Star Adventurer + 2.
EQ3 – EQ5 +1.
Advanced mount +0.
Type of Camera: DSLR +2.
OSC +1
Mono +0
Light pollution: City +2
Rural +1
Dark +0
Focal length: Greater than 750mm +2
500mm – 750mm +1
Less than 500mm +0
Data, total integration: Over 3 hours +3
2 to 3 hours +2
1 to 2 hours +1
Less than 1 hour +0
regards Dave.
Craig StocksAuthor
Regarding the point system- more data by itself doesn’t necessarily make a good image. Lots of poor data or poor processing can be surpassed by less but good data and better processing. In fact, I’d be tempted to add points for getting a good image with minimal data.
Gideon SandersAuthor
I see some have pictures with their name and some do not…. Did I miss some option?
Panagiotis GalanopoulosAuthor
I sent you my picture for this week and was not posted. Why?
Daniel HigginsAuthor
Which Pic? I did not see one for you this week
Daniel HigginsAuthor
I double checked there are only 3 pics in the entire drive from you
Panagiotis GalanopoulosAuthor
The question was from a month ago. No worries I loaded the picture again.
Abraham Jones - DIY_NASAAuthor
The Google Drive is full
Donna GoldsmithAuthor
Greg’s photos are spectacular!
Donna GoldsmithAuthor
Spectacular!
Abe JonesAuthor
I have been trying to enter images for over a month now…. your The Google Drive is full!!! and somehow folks load images that are over 15MB?
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn63_CDuHUy/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
https://www.astrobin.com/full/wsxo1a/B/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CoSylKEJOWb/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Daniel HigginsAuthor
Abe, I have been getting Images the whole time. Are you using the correct link?
Thanks
Dan
Abraham Jones - DIY_NASAAuthor
Still having the same issue….. I using the link from this page (where it says “Click here to Drop your files in our Google Drive” ), it always stops at the end of attempting to load, it has a popup that says Your Storage is full, But Storage or clear up space to upload files. Also, On the left it say 15GB of 15GB used
Abe JonesAuthor
Same thing happened in March. but finally tonight, I was able to see that finally there was more than 15GB allowed, and I uploaded my M42. Thanks 🙂
Daniel HigginsAuthor
Glad you got it !!!
Dan
Abe JonesAuthor
I forgot to put my name in the text file for the M42. Last week’s picture of the week.
Abe Jones aka @DIY_NASA