Mars at Perigee

Poor seeing conditions for this one. Mars through some thin cloud means a loss of detail but I'm pleased with the result. Taken using my old Meade 105 Etx pe and a ZWOasi120mc camera shooting a 1200 frame AVI shows how good this camera is. I only wish I had and 8" scope.

M92 Globular Cluster in Hercules

Situated in the constellation of Hercules, it is one of the oldest cluster and is often overlooked due to its more spectacular neighbour M13. Its 26,700 light years away and is positioned close to M13 high above the disc of our galaxy. Its diameter is 218 light years and is packed with 330,000 stars.

M13 revisited

M13 Globular Cluster in the constellation of Hercules taken early this morning. One of the 152 known clusters in our galaxy. A ball of 300,000 stars some 22,200 light years away 145 light years in diameter.
Stacking 5 minute exposures @ ISO1600 
If you can see the tiny galaxy just left and down from centre that's NGC 6207 which is 200 times more distant at 46 million light years away.
I have had some positive feedback (from twitter) on the white drop shadow frame and I like the way it can be used to add a title. A lot of time and effort goes into an astrophoto so I think it deserves a frame and a title.

Mare Crisium, Sea of Crisis

Stacked in Registax from an AVI shot with my Meade Etx on an HEQ5 pro mount using a ZWO120ASI120MC camera. A x2 barlow lens was used to achieve the magnification.

I can imagine the amazing view that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had all those years ago when I was 10 years old.

Messier 53 (NGC 5024) Globular Cluster

This cluster of over 500,000 stars is one of the more distant clusters known.
Imagine our galaxy as a flat disc and we are about a third of the way out from the centre.
M53 lies some 58,708 light years above (or to the north) of us and way above this disc.
Discovered in 1775 by Johann Elert Bode, its some 220 light years across and is about 12.67 million years old.
There are 158 know clusters in the milky way at present (I'm sure there are many more to be discovered that are currently hidden by are own galaxy) and at first glance they appear a bit boring, but when you look at them closely they are all different and are quite beautiful.

This image is made from 13 x 180 second exposures @ ISO 1600, stacked in Deepskystacker with 35 each of Darks, Lights and Bias frames.

White Mill Sturminster Marshall

This old 14th century water mill was used to grind corn and animal feed.
It was rebuilt n 1776 and is now owned by the national trust.
This image was taken at sunset but unfortunately the sky stayed dull so I will try again another day.

M82 Bodes galaxy & M81 The cigar galaxy

Both of these superb galaxies are nearly 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.

Messier 81 on the left (also known as Bode's Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy first discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1774. Its 90,000 light years across and contains more than 250 billion stars.

Messier 82 on the right (also known as the cigar galaxy) is a starburst galaxy.
From our point of view the smaller cigar galaxy is almost side on. Its 38,000 light years across and contains more than 30 billion stars.

Our galaxy The Milky Way is 120,000 light years across and contains around 400 billion stars (one of which is the Sun).

Both galaxies cannot be seen with the naked eye as they are just too faint.
I think its such a shame that these wonders cannot be seen by just gazing at the sky.

Image details include 45 light frames @240 seconds (3 hours) plus 36 dark frames, 34 flat frames and 34 Bias frames. Camera was Canon 40d astromodified and scope was a field flattened skywatcher Evostar ED80 pro. Guided with a Skywatcher ST80 fitted with a ZWOASI120MC camera, software was PHD guiding. Stacked in Deepsky stacker and finished in Photoshop CC.

Jupiter, Callisto transit

Jupiter is 365 million miles away and is so big that 1300 Earth's could fit inside.
The black dot showing on Jupiters surface is the shadow cast by Callisto just to the right of the shadow,
one of its 62 moons. Callisto has a diameter 1.4 times bigger than our moon.
To the left of Jupiter is the moon Io which is almost the same size as our moon.
Our Moon orbits the Earth every 27 days, however, Io orbits Jupiter in just 1.8 days
so I could see it travel across Jupiter in just 3 hours.

The image was made from 1201 frames taken using my ZWOASI120MC camera
and my Meade Etx 105 Maksutov Cassergrain telescope.
Captured using Sharpcap and stacked with Registax. The mount was a Skywatcher Heq5 pro.

Messier 3 Globular Cluster (NGC 5272)

Messier 3 is a globular Cluster in the constellation of Canes Venatici.
It is not possible to see with the naked eye and appears as a faint smudge in binoculars.
Discovered in 1764 by Charles Messier it contains 500,000 stars like our Sun.
The Earth is 4.5 billion years old but this cluster is much older at 11.4 billion years old.
Its over 200 light years in diameter and 34,000 light years away.
To put this distance into perspective:
Light takes just 4.1 light hours to travel from the Sun to the farthest planet Neptune.
Oh and by the way M3 is hurtling towards us at 331,200 mph.

This image took 2hrs of exposure at ISO1000.

The Horsehead Nebula

Also known as Barnard 33 this dark nebula is 1500 light years away in the constellation of Orion, just below Alnitak (the left hand star in Orion's belt). The horse head is easily recognisable and is made up of thick black dust. Just below and to the left is the Reflection Nebula NGC 2023 and to the left of that is the amazing Flame Nebula.
Imaged with only 20 minutes of data very near to a full moon its my first go at this amazing object with my astromodified dslr. Hopefully I can do better next year when Orion comes around again!!