AAA member Stanley Fertig shares his deep sky images taken from a cabin near North-South Lake where the AAA does out of town observing and from a great Advanced Astrophotography Workshop at Kitt Peak National Observatory in southern Arizona.
Stanley says, “Yes, I took the weekend class in astrophotography at Kitt Peak and the three images from there were the result of the course. ˆàGreat program they have, I actually wrote an article about it in Eyepiece two years ago (Jan. 2014). ˆàThey offer an intro workshop in the spring, and an advance astrophotography workshop (which I attended) in the fallòÀÔthis year itòÀÙs October 21-23 and the course covers imaging, processing and the theory behind bothòÀÔitòÀÙs really a huge amount of information and practice in a short amount of time and is worth the rather pricey fee ($650 including room and board for 2 nights).”ˆà Click here for Kitt Peak workshop information.
These first three were all taken at Kitt Peak on Nov. 1, 2013, using a 16″ RCOS Richey-Chretien scope and an SBIG camera, all belonging to Uncle Sam.ˆà They are all in LRGB for 30 minutes each for a total of 120 minutes, not including calibration shots.
Bubble Nebula in Casseiopeia (NGC 7635) shot from Kitt Peak.
NGC 891, edge-on spiral galaxy in Andromeda (but not the Andromeda galaxy!) shot from Kitt Peak.
Dumbbell Nebula M27 in Vulpecula shot from Kitt Peak.
The next two were all shot on Nov. 2, 2015 in Maplecrest, NY, where I rent a cabin, near North-South Lake in the Catskills.ˆà The equipment (mine) is a Meade 12òÀÝ LX200ACF at F/6.3 and an SBIG STF-8300 camera. Exposures were: Jupiter, RGB 30 exposures each of 20 seconds each for a total of 30 minutes.ˆà No Luminance files shot. M13, LRGB, 30 exposures each of 15 seconds for a total of 30 minutes.
Jupiter and moons, shot from Maplecrest, NY.
Globular cluster M13 in Hercules, shot from Maplecrest, NY.