Markarians Chain

With more Messier numbers and Ngc's than you scan shake a stick at Markarian’s Chain can be found on the outer edge of the Virgo constellation, Sandwiched between Denebola and Vindemiatrix, a small section of the Virgo Super cluster is aptly named Markarians Chain. You can see highlighted from the graphic that each galaxy looks like it is linked to the next to form this spectacular galactic chain. I wanted to frame this image slightly different but found myself reluctant to rotate the camera angle and the need for new calibration frames. I can't decide whether I like the horizontal or vertical view, let me know what you think.

Moon

 A while ago I imaged the moon with the DSLR and here are a few results. Not the highest of resolution or greatest of contrast and sharpness, but none the less images with my own fair hand and processed in a way I enjoy.

California Nebula

 A rework of a previous capture. Using the new to me Arcsinh Photoshop curves processing. A piece of software designed for PIXinsight. Can be found here. Photoshop Colour Preserving Stretch (markshelley.co.uk) Along with a fantastic explanation and several You tube videos showing it's use. A great one from Astro Ed (1) Astrophotography: The ABSOLUTE BEST way to STRETCH your Astro Image data in Photoshop [PS]! - YouTube demonstrates some new techniques for the teasing of data from images, especially keeping those stars small too. I used two itterations and combined it with a Starnet++ frame. Not the cleanest of data but great fun to play with. 

Multiple M45 views

The Pleiades is always a favourite from Autumn to spring, 2020 saw a few different compositions. from a conjunction with Venus to an unfinished multi panel mosaic.

 

Leo Triplet

 I swear it is only ever clear the night of and after a full moon. Just my luck really, We have not had any decent nights for a while it seems, I wanted to get out and do something. I bought from                 U.K. Astronomy Buy & Sell (astrobuysell.com) a new Optolong  L Pro filter a light pollution filter that is more and more needed even in my rural location. Optolong LPS filter L-Pro for deep sky nebula consteallation photography-Optolong Optics Co.,Ltd

My only real unobstructed view is to the East and is the town of Watton is just 3 miles as the crow flies so the glow of the town radiates into view and the filter is needed. So my first test was the beautiful Leo triplet of galaxies. This image was taken over two nights using the filter and worked well I think. Only a very small gradient was noticed after some aggressive processing which was easily removed. I am quite happy with this image after some really poor seeing and the guiding on the first night never achieving better than 1.2 arc sec (usual average is 0.75.

59 x 5 minute sub exposures controlled with the ASIair pro2, stacked in Deep sky stacker and processed in Photoshop.

This trio is now accepted as part of the M96 group of galaxies and then part of an even larger group still.  I think to the accepted idea is also that M66 is a disturbed Barred Spiral. The front arm certainly looks like it has seen tidal interaction by a passer by whilst the rear arm looks somewhat undisturbed.