So yesterday a #dwarf3 telescope arrived and I was disappointed because it was cloudy and raining but I poked my head out at about 10pm and saw stars so I thought I’d give it a try. Easy to set up and in minutes I was finding stars. Took my first photo of the Lagoon Nebula and I’m thrilled! Then the clouds returned. So hopefully next weekend I’ll get some good ones.
Here is my Lagoon Nebula photo. 40x15s photos stacked up and then processed to reduce noise.

#astrophotography

We have been blessed/cursed by a very dry Djeran / Autumn period. Cursed because no rain after a long, hot Bunuru( Second Summer) and blessed because the nights are cold, and very clear.

This and @rdm having to be on Munich time for a few days prompted some enthusiastic astrophotography sessions ahead of the news that the clouds were finally coming to us with some rain.

We figured that we'd do a lot of astrophotography, and then write it up and share photos during the rainy cloudy bits to keep us going.

So here we are - this is my first post about it, and it's about the last day of the clear sky.

We have here NGC 4945 or Caldwell 83 - also known as the Tweezers Galaxy (I personally think it looks more like an orange peeler).

I was leafing through Astronomy Australia 2025 and found it as a target for May. I hadn't come across this galaxy before, and was thrilled to find a galaxy that's a big enough apparent size to suit my #dwarf3

These are great books and the last of this great almanac that they'll publish, after 30 years - so get yours today - https://quasarastronomy.com.au/product/astronomy-2025/ even though it's a yearbook it's still going to be useful down the track. If you're in Australia or close enough. #SouthernHemisphereAstronomy folks. I grabbed some of their back catalogue - incredibly cheap and plenty of interesting stuff in there, if only historically. 🙂

So, anyway, back to the galaxy - I plonked the #SmartTelescope on the roof later in the evening so it's only a few hours exposure. Gain was 80, exposure was 60. Got a few hundred frames in two sessions as I belatedly realised that I should get the telescope to shut down before the closest Sun made itself apparent.

So then, in the morning @rdm ran me through the Mega Stack and Stellar Studio provided through Infinity Lab within the telescope, which was super easy, and then I did some cropping in Snapseed.

And this is the result, I hope you enjoy!

#Astrodon #Astronomy #BackyardAstrophotography #DrivewayAstrophotography #Galaxy

What should I target this evening with my #Dwarf3 ?

Southern hemisphere , of course

#Astronomy #astrophotography #Astrodon

So I'm attending a tech conference in Munich this week - virtually. This means I am keeping CEST, and that lunchtime is 6pm local.

So at lunchtime, I set up my #dwarf3 on the back roof, and let it run for the 'afternoon'.

My target was Messier 6 aka NGC6405 aka "The Butterfly Cluster". There is some very nice nebulosity right next to it. so I framed things a little off, and also got the smaller open clusters NGC6383 (aka NGC6374) and the tiny NGC6404.

I ended up with 240 frames out of 300, at 60s per frame - or 4 hours of usable data.

I then ran it through the Dwarflab postprocessing tools, and finished off with some work in Google photos and Snapseed.

#nebula #OpenCluster #M6 #NGC6383 #NGC6406 #Astrodon #Astronomy #astrophotography #Scorpius

Compared to other astronomer gears, this small #dwarflab astrograph might be a toy - but it is a serious one…

M101 „Pinwheel Galaxy“.
Composed with 102 images á 30s plus 139 images á 60s from my #dwarf3 - overall about 3 hours.
Post processed with #siril , #graxpert and others.

#astronomy #astrophotography #stargazer

Today we have a mosaic of two images, both taken the same night by two #Dwarf3 #SmartTelescopes from the roof of the studio at the back of our house, where we left them running all night, with the help of a pair of 10Ah USB-C powerpacks.

I targeted The Cat's Paw Nebula (NGC6334), while @leece targeted part of the nearby NGC6357. We both made sure to have the individual nebulae off-centre frame enough that we could get a slight overlap.

For both we have around 7 hours of exposure - 420ishx60s@80, both with the internal Ha/OIII filter.

We ran both images through the Dwarflab Stellar Studio to do a star removal, and recomposed both images with a star mask. Some final tuning in Snapseed, and then a manual combining of the two shots.

All up, about 2 hours actual effort, over three days.

#Astrophotography #Astrodon #NGC6334 #NGC6357 #MosaicImage #Nebula #Astronomy #Dwarflab #Snapseed

Noch nicht mal ganz voll und schon so hell…

(97% Mond, Imagestack mit 100 Bildern je 1/500s bei Gain 0 mit Astrofilter, beschnitten, leicht geschärft und entsättigt)
#dwarf3 #astrophotography

A couple of nights ago I let my #Dwarf3 stay out all night with a stellation mask, which bagged me about 8 hours worth of #Antares , #Messier4 , and other goodies, including the Antares #ReflectionNebula.

I ran it through the #DwarfLab #StellarStudio tools, and then did a bit more cleanup in #Snapseed and #GooglePhotos - about 15 minutes work.

I'm pretty darned pleased with the results.

#astronomy #astrophotography #Astrodon #SmartTelescope #Nebula #Star #GlobularStarCluster