My grandpa imaged the Needle Galaxy over 4 nights this week. He got almost 8 hours on it but we had to remove about 2 hours bringing the total to 6. I love how this one turned out! Lots of detail and color, and all of that has been carefully preserved in the core. It's naturally brighter than the rest of the galaxy, but dim enough where you can still make out the details in it.

To the left of the Needle is it's satellite galaxy NGC 4562. To the bottom right of the Needle is it's other satellite galaxy IC 3571, represented in a small blue smudge, which is confirmed to be interacting with the Needle due to a bridge of material between them.

90x240s lights (6 hours) stacked and edited in PixInsight
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🌌 The Needle Galaxy (NGG 4565)
🔭 Celestron EdgeHD 8" (Scope), Celestron CGEM-II (Mount)
📸 ZWO 294MC Pro (Main)
📅 Jefferson, WI (Bortle 5)
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#highpointscientific #needlegalaxy #ngc4565 #zwo #294mcpro #zwo294mcpro #galaxy #astrophotography #astronomy #jeffersonwisconsin #wisconsin #jeffersonwi #space

My grandpa captured the Fireworks Galaxy in the middle of May and got almost 5 hours on it! The Fireworks Galaxy is located on the border between the constellations Cepheus and Cygnus. It is a bright, colorful galaxy with a yellowish core, large clusters of blue stars, and many Ha regions (which aren't shown in this image). It's called the 'Fireworks' Galaxy because 10 supernovae have been observed in it over the past century.

70x240s lights (4.67 hours), flats, darks, and biases stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, edited in Siril and background extraction and noise reduction applied with GraXpert.
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🌌 Fireworks Galaxy (NGC 6946)
🔭 Celestron EdgeHD 8" (Scope), Celestron CGEM-II (Mount)
📸 ZWO 294MC Pro (Main), ZWO 224MC Color (Guide)
📅 Jefferson, WI (Bortle 4.5)
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#fireworksgalaxy #galaxy #ngc6946 #spiralgalaxy #astrophotography #astronomy #photography #highpointscientific #jefferson #jeffersonwi #wisconsin #jeffersonwisconsin #wi #suburb #suburban #suburbs #celestron #edgehd #edgehd8 #schmidtcassegrain

NGC 3227 is a rarely-imaged spiral galaxy located in the constellation Leo that interacts with the elliptical galaxy, NGC 3226. My grandpa imaged this galaxy from late April to early May and got 9.6 hours on it. I like the color of this galaxy a lot and it looks like it has a gradient of color that goes from a light blue to more of a golden brown.

144x240s lights, flats, darks, and biases stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, edited in Siril and background extraction and noise reduction applied with GraXpert.
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🌌 NGC 3227/NGC 3226
🔭 Celestron EdgeHD 8" (Scope), Celestron CGEM-II (Mount)
📸 ZWO 294MC Pro (Main), ZWO 224MC Color (Guide)
📅 Jefferson, WI (Bortle 4.5)
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#jeffersonwi #jeffersonwisconsin #jefferson #ngc3227 #ngc3226 #galaxy #interactinggalaxies #astrophotography #astronomy #highpointscientific #deepskystacker #dss #siril #graxpert

After getting 4 hours on the Horsehead Nebula in December, my grandpa decided to collect some more data on it, bringing it to a total of 9 hours of data! The extra data really brings out the faint dust around the red cloud of ionized hydrogen, adding a lot of depth to the photo. I also really like how this image is rotated as it makes the image look more dramatic.

137x240s lights, flats, darks, and biases stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, edited in Siril, and noise reduction applied in Adobe Lightroom mobile.
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🌌 IC 434/Barnard 33
🔭 Celestron EdgeHD 8" (Scope), Celestron CGEM-II (Mount)
📸 ZWO 294MC Pro (Main), ZWO 224MC Color (Guide)
📅 Jefferson, WI (Bortle 4.5)
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#horsehead #nebula #ic434 #barnard33 #astrophotography #highpointscientific #zwo #294mcpro #zwo294mcpro #adobelightroom #dss #deepskystacker #siril #photography #horse #jefferson #jeffersonwi #jeffersonwisconsin #wisconsin

Last month me and my grandpa both went after M106 and both images look awesome. Lots of small details can be seen in the bright core of Leonard's image, and a surprising amount of detail can be seen when you crop into my widefield image, even of the smaller, nearby galaxies. This was a fun galaxy to shoot, and many more are coming very soon!

104x240s lights (6.93 hours), darks, flats, and biases stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, and edited with Siril and GraXpert.
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Image 1:
🌌 M106
🔭 Celestron EdgeHD 8" (Scope), Celestron CGEM-II (Mount)
📸 ZWO 294MC Pro (Main), ZWO 224MC Color (Guide)
📅 Jefferson, WI (Bortle 5)

Image 2:
🌌 M106
🔭 Celestron Astromaster 114 (Scope), SkyWatcher GTi (Mount)
📸 Canon Rebel T4i (Main), ZWO 120MC Mini (Guide)
📅 Bloomington, MN (Bortle 8)
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#m106 #ngc4258 #galaxy #bloomington #bloomingtonmn #minnesota #jefferson #jeffersonwi #wisconsin #newtonian #schmidtcassegrain #edgehd8 #edgehd #celestron #skywatcher #graxpert #nina #siril

The Rosette nebula!! A year ago I couldn’t even imagine getting a shot like this, or not even in October when I first captured it! The Optolong L-eNhance has greatly helped achieve this, along with the auto guider which allows me to not worry about backlash and take even longer exposures that the filter allows.

Over 3 nights last week I got over 110 5-minute subs which got me close to 10 hours of data total! The data is also very clean and it allowed me to stretch a lot of faint details from the center of the nebula without bringing out too much noise.

116x300s lights (9.67 hours) at ISO 1600 with darks, flats, and biases stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, edited in Siril, GraXpert, and noise reduction applied in Adobe Lightroom mobile.
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🌌 Rosette Nebula (NGC 2244)
🔭 Modified Celestron Astromaster 114 (Scope), SkyWatcher GTi (Mount)
📸 Stock Canon Rebel T4i (Main), ZWO 120mm Mini (Guide), Optolong L-eNhance (Filter)
📅 Bloomington, Minnesota (Bortle 8)
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#highpointscientific #nebula #rosettenebula #rosette #ngc2244 #skywatcher #gti #meade #telescope #astrophotography #astronomy #siril #deepskystacker #adobelightroom #lightroom #adobelightroommobile #minnesota #mn #bloomingntonmn #jeffersonwi #wi #wisconsin #city #dss

Last week I wanted to image another nebula before galaxy season starts, but there was only had one night with a few hours that were clear, so I figured I would go after Orion that night since it was pretty bright and would look good with only 2 hours on it (second image). But after processing the data from that night, it looked so good that I completely changed my plans and continued to image it for another two nights to get as much data as I could on it, and I’m so glad I did!

359x60s lights (5.98 hours), darks, flats, and biases stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, edited in Siril, and noise reduction applied in Adobe Lightroom mobile.
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🌌 Horsehead Nebula (IC 434)
🔭 Meade RB-70 (Scope), SkyWatcher GTi (Mount)
📸 Stock Canon Rebel T4i (Main), Optolong L-eNhance (Filter)
📅 Bloomington, Minnesota (Bortle 8)
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#highpointscientific #nebula #horsehead #horseheadnebula #ic434 #skywatcher #gti #meade #telescope #astrophotography #astronomy #siril #deepskystacker #adobelightroom #lightroom #adobelightroommobile #jefferson #jeffersonwisconsin #jeffersonwi #wi #wisconsin #bortle5 #dss

Earlier this month I got two clear nights, the first for a while after this Winter, and continued to add to my 2 hours of data I had previously captured in December. I gathered another 7 hours, but due to backlash and wind, I ended up getting rid of about 2 hours. But I still got a respectable 7.15 hours, and the final image turned out fantastic!

286x90s lights, darks, flats, and biases stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, edited in Siril, and noise reduction applied in Adobe Lightroom mobile
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🌌 Horsehead Nebula (IC 434)
🔭 Meade RB-70 (Scope), SkyWatcher GTi (Mount)
📸 Stock Canon Rebel T4i (Main), Optolong L-eNhance (Filter)
📅 Bloomington, Minnesota (Bortle 8)
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#highpointscientific #nebula #horsehead #horseheadnebula #ic434 #skywatcher #gti #meade #telescope #astrophotography #astronomy #siril #deepskystacker #adobelightroom #lightroom #adobelightroommobile #jefferson #jeffersonwisconsin #jeffersonwi #wi #wisconsin #bortle5 #dss