Category: Astrophotography

Friday night was another good night at the River Ridge Observatory. I got this image of the North America and Pelican Nebulas with my Samyang F/2 135mm with ZWO ASI294MC Pro on AVX mount. This was made from 4 hours of two minute subs. North America (NGC 7000) is clearly visible on the left while the Pelican (IC 5070) is more subtle almost exactly in the middle. It actually looks like a Pterodactyl head oriented downward to me. That bright star at the top is Deneb, Tail of the Swan and the last star in the Summer Triangle. In rural skies or darker, you can see this patch of nebulosity with your unaided eyes though not the details.

Please click the picture for a full scale view.

Thursday night was another good night at the River Ridge Observatory. I had two rigs running. My C11 with Hyperstar and ZWO ASI533MC Pro camera on CGEM DX mount was one, my Samyang F/2 135mm with ZWO ASI294MC Pro on AVX mount was the other.

Please click the pictures for a full scale view.

Last week, I shot this region, and more, with my Samyang 135mm and ZWO ASI294MC Pro. I knew right away that I needed more power as that scale was too small. Enter the C11 with Hyperstar and ZWO ASI533 MC Pro a week later. The scope has 3x+ the focal length and the camera a smaller FOV but also smaller pixels. This is two hours of five minute subs using an Antlia Triband Ultra RGB light pollution filter.

WR-134 is a Wolf-Rayet star (very large and very hot) with a strong stellar wind that is pushing interstellar gas away from it while also energizing that gas so that it glows with green Oxygen III light.

From the River Ridge Observatory.