Any star gazers and amateur astronomers ?

IC 405, the Flaming Star Nebula. 93 minutes integration. Stretched in Affinity Photo 2, star reduction with StarTools. Light pollution filter used.

 

Do you know what the striations in the center of the nebula are?

 

That's a good question. I looked up the structure and came across the following: "
The hydrogen emission gas makes up the “flame” of IC 405, while the blue reflection nebula resembles smoke. The Flaming Star Nebula spans about 5 light-years across, with an apparent visual magnitude of +6.

The rippling dust and gas lanes of red and blue are what give the Flaming Star Nebula its name. The intensely bright star AE Aurigae is so hot that it is blue, and emits energetic light that knocks electrons away from the surrounding gas."

My telescope and the short duration was not capable of resolving the blue coloration however...

 

The striations appear to be processing artifacts or walking noise.

Here’s the Tadpole nebula taken from my backyard observatory.

 

Very nice photo. I'm relatively new to astrophotography so I appreciate your comments. I typically look for "better" images of objects to compare mine to. HJere is what I'd looked at to sanity check my image. The image I posted is no where as detailed and representative as the comparison image. I'm trying to learn on the fly...

After reading your comments I'm going to redo the image to also include the Tadpole nebula as well. Very poor weather recently... I would aspire to being capable of generating an image similar to yours!

 

If you haven’t already, register at Cloudy Nights and soak up the knowledge there. The “beginning astrophotography” forum is excellent.

 

Anyone seen this site? You can watch or stream your own astrophoto stuff on here. https://www.nightskiesnetwork.com/

Also I like this site too. https://welcome.astrobin.com/

Maybe this has been posted already.

 

Cool moon guide from NASA:
https://moon.nasa.gov/moon-observation/daily-moon-guide/

 

Trevor Jones aka Astrobackyard, published a really cool lunar photo the other day.

 

This is the Leo Triplet; took this last year, couldn’t this year given the constant clouds this year.

 

The Pelican Nebula taken on 07/11/2023. Bortle 5 skies, Dual Band filter (Vaonis), total integration time 1:19:20 (476 10 second subs), ColvalENS mosaic mode. Resulting jpeg modified in Affinity Photo 2 and StarTools. First clear skies in many weeks! Had to stop the imaging due to trees...

 

Nice. I was doing EAA on that exact target last night with my Tak 130 and my QHY 410c.

 

We have been so screwed for clear skies lately. Well, what seems like forever--either it was raining or hot but marine layer all night.

I found this article about an amateur astronomer in Japan. He's discovered more than a few Supernovas. I thought it was a pretty good story.

 

Great article! From the looks of his setups and his success I'd say he's much closer to an astronomer than just an amateur stargazer.
I live a few miles from the Atlantic ocean here in RI, so I can sympathize with your "marine layer" woes...

 

I think his humbleness prevents him from taking credit for his expertise. I'm just blown away by his dedication and development of techniques for finding them. Something very similar used to be done at Lick Observatory. Images were taken and developed on glass plates then compared--nothing like today.

 

Thanks, I'm looking forward to your image!

 

Dumbbell Nebula. 520 10 sec subs. Dual band filter. Stretched in Affinity Photo 2, stars reduced in StarTools:
Image was updated to reflect latest stretch and adjustments

 

Not my pic But cool nonetheless..
https://twitter.com/mastronomers/status/1681315998065127425?s=46

Uncropped:

 

M81 Bode's Galaxy. Stretched in Affinity Photo 2 and processed in StarTools:

 

Tulip Nebula mosaic 1911 10 sec subs. Stacked in Affinity Photo 2 and processed in Startools. Dual band filter was used. Skies were a little hazy, Bortle 5 conditions.