Notes from a Small Observatory
The trials, tribulations and small triumphs of a Charlotte, NC astronomer imaging under Bortle 8/9 skies.
Tuesday, November 4, 2025
The Soul Nebula with the Dwarf 3
Just for fun, here’s 6 hours on the Soul Nebula with the Destf 3. I normally fo lots of post processing, but I thought I’d see what I could do using nothing but my phone. I stacked in Megastack and processed in Stellar Studio (both free packages that conecwith the scope).. I decided to take the stars out so the details in the nebula would be more visible. I then tweaked color and sharpness in Photoshop PS. The scope was in EQ mode with 60s individual exposures,
Sunday, November 2, 2025
SH 2-132 The Lion Nebula. 10 Hours with the Seestar S50
Sh 2-132, the Lion Nebula is a great target at this time of year. This image has a total of 10 hours of integration time x 20s subs in EQ mode. The Lion Nebula is powered by two Wolf-Rayet stars which ionize the gas of the nebula and make it glow, raking it with intense interstellar winds. It's a little challenging to image and 10 hours is about the minimum needed to capture the finer details in the gas and dust that surround these stars.
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Jupiter--The Wonder that is Digital Processing :)
I found an old image of Jupiter I took in 2022 on 12/25. It was captured with a QHY camera and my 5 inch MAK. The stacked image looked so unpromising that I didn't process it. But then I noticed it on my desktop and, just for fun, dropped it into Registax 6. I was pretty impressed what the wavelet functions pullled out. I maxed out every one of them, and the resulting image is surprisingly decent. It's quite a tribute to the venerable Registax software! I've presented before and after images here for comparison. I also performed auto color balance in Registax.
Monday, October 27, 2025
North America Nebula Mosaic
This is a 3 hour mosaic of the North America Nebula. Stacked on the D3 and processed in Stellar Studio Photoshop PS. Yet again, the D3 did an outstanding job.
The Heart and Soul Nebulas with the Dwarf 3
This is a 2.5 hour mosaic of the Heart and Soul Nebula. Stacked in Megastack and processed in Stellar Studio and Photoshop PS. This is the first time I’ve been able to capture both of these objects in a single imaging session.
Friday, October 24, 2025
Melotte 15
This is around 24 hours of total integration time on Melotte 15, the open cluster in the center of the Heart Nebula, and the areas around it. Individual subs were 20 seconds in EQ mode. I processed in Siril, SETI Astro, Affinity 2, and Graxpert. I’m in Bortle 8/9, so I had some gradients to remove, but the S50 captured some nice detail in the dust and gas clouds.
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The Soul Nebula with the Dwarf 3
Just for fun, here’s 6 hours on the Soul Nebula with the Destf 3. I normally fo lots of post processing, but I thought I’d see what I could ...
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I had a couple of emails asking how to defork an ETX telescope. The ETX 90 and ETX 125 were optically superb scopes, but the mounts left a...
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The ZEQ25 doing its stuff on a cold night--imaging the Orion Nebula with an 8 inch f/4 astrograph. Note the lovely Christmas rug :) As ...
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One of the great things about being a part of an online community of people with similar interests is that you learn a lot from people who a...






