Although I haven’t had many good nights for astrophotography, I do have a couple of images to show. I spent many hours on each one, including the taking of images and then the processing. It was so cold one night I just quit. Now, the weather is back to more normal temperatures but tonight looks like it will be too cloudy again. And the moon is getting bright but with my new nebula booster filter I can still shoot for another week or so, assuming I get any clear skies. As always, a larger image can be seen by opening in a new tab or window.
Harold Lower and his son Charles were amateur astronomers and skilled telescope makers in the 1930’s. Harold reported that by utilizing red-sensitive film and a deep-red filter, he and Charles had encountered considerable success in imaging dim emission nebulae. Among these objects was a previously unknown nebula in Orion which decades later was given the catalogue designation Sh2-261. In honor of its discoverers, this nebula is commonly known as Lower’s Nebula. I have read that this is a difficult nebula to image, but I tried it last night and am very happy with the results. It is found in the Orion constellation. The Strawberry Nebula, Sh2-263, also located in the Orion constellation. This one took many hours of imaging to get this much signal. I could probably use a lot more. The nebula includes both emission and reflection nebulas. In our daily lives, we bask in the light of one star, look at all the stars in just this one image!At Highway Tank a few days ago, this female Common Goldeneye and a Redhead were new species for me at this eBird hotspot. I didn’t get any good shots of the Redhead but the Common Goldeneye came out nice. I now have 119 species at Highway Tank.
