Scott's Astrophotography

Equipment: William Optics GT71, AsiPro183 color camera, skywatcher eq6rpro, guided with the asi120mini guide camera.

NCG 6992, the Eastern Veil nebula, is a heated cloud of ionized gas.  Located in the constellation Cygnus it is part of a bigger cloud complex known as the Cygnus Loop.  This area is a supernova remnant with a composition of Hydrogen, oxygen and sulfer making it a perfect target for the optolong l-enhance filter.  The gas remaining in this area is from a star that violently exploded 7,000 years ago and is approximately 1,470 light years away from earth.

IC 1396 (The Elephant Trunk Nebula) is a large and relatively faint emmision nebula that spans a swatch of the sky 100 light years across in Cepheus.  Designated IC 1396A and also know as the Elephant’s Trunk nebula is located in the cloud.  About 2400 light years from us, the elephant’s trunk itself is approximately 20 lightyears across. Image is a result of 40x6minute subexposures, 20 darks, 40 flats and 40 dark flats.

The Double Cluster contains two open star clusters. NGC869 and NCG884 reside in the constellation of Perseus. At a distance of 7,500 light years away this pair of clusters is visible to the naked eye.

The Horsehead and Flame Nebulae. Lot’s of room for improvement on this image.  Cloudy months in western PA obscured this amazing section of the orion constellation from me this winter. I would like to do a multiple night session on this region but I only had a few hours before it set over the neighbors roof. This image is only 2.5 hours of 6 minute subs.

This version of the Lunar surface is known as a “mineral moon” image. There are very slight color variations in the Moon’s soil. Careful post processing techniques in astrophotography bring detail that we can’t see to life. 

I think this is my best image of the moon to date. By stacking a few hundred shots you can remove any atmospheric turbulence giving you the clearest image possible.

M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) lies about 2.5 million light years away in the constellation of Andromeda. It's approximated to have a radius of 110,000 light years. Our closest neighboring galaxy is headed directly towards us and will collide with our Milky Way in about 4.5 billion years. Amazingly, the distance between stars is so vast that there will be next to no stellar collisions. This was the second image taken with my GT71.

Image Details: 50x360 light frames, 20 dark frames, and 60 flat/dark flat frames.

Gear: William Optics Gt71, Canon t3i, Skywatcher Eq6rPro and guided by Orion SSAG and 50mm guidescope.

The Orion Nebula (m42) is the closest region of massive star formation to earth. The stellar wind from these young stars is what shapes the gas that surrounds them. Visible to the naked eye albeit not like this, it is the second fuzzy "star" in orions sword. The running man nebula is in the upper left. This was my first image with the ASI 183mcpro color camera. 

Thor’s Helmet (NGC2359) Is an emmision nebula in the constellation Canis Major. Approximately 11,970lyrs away and 30lyrs in size, this beauty is home to an extremely hot Wolf-rayet star. WR7 is believed to be in a brief pre-supernova state and it is the cause of the ionization and shape of this awesome nebula. 

Gear: William Optics Gt71, ASI183McProColor, Eq6rPro, Orion 50mm guidescope, ASI120mini

Equipment: Canon 6dmarkii, tripod, edited in Adobe Lightroom

Equipment: Celestron 8se, Skywatcher EQ6RPro, CanonT3i, Edited in Adobe Photoshop