The Sun on September 3, 2024

 AR3813 (largest spot toward bottom of the disk), has the potential to produce M-Class flares.

The Sun on September 1, 2024

  AR3806 (center left on disk) has the capability to produce X-Class flares.

The Sun on August 31, 2024

AR3806 (the spot group towards the bottom of the disk), has the potential to produce X-Class flares.

The Pelican

 The Pelican Nebula.is part of the North America Nebula complex, and is an active stellar nursery. There are several Harbig-Haro objects in this image. Harbig-Haro objects are bright patches of nebulosity associated with newborn stars. This image is a stack of about 2 hours of integration time. It was processed in Siril, Topaz Denoise, Affinty, and Photoshop Express.

A Bit of Fun with the Pachyderm’s Snoot!

 Just for fun, here’s a”Hubbleized” version of my last post of the Elephant’s Trunk.

The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula

 The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula (IC 1396), is a site of star formation, and a tempting target for the Seestar. This image has a total integration time of just over four hours. Stacking, histogram stretch, and star processing in Siril, with tweaks in Affinity and PS Express.

The Sun on August 27, 2024

M-Class flaring continues from 5 major spot groups on the solar disk.

The Sun on August 26, 2024

 The Sun continues to be active with M-Class flaring.

The Sun on August 25, 2024

Many of the spot groups have the potential to produce M-Class flares.

The Heart of the Heart

 These images were created from a stack of 3 hours of integration time on IC 1805--the Heart Nebula. This image is of the core of the Heart; the cluster Melotte 15. I've posted a version with stars, and a starless version that shows the complexity of the nebulosity.

The Tulip Nebula

 SH2-101, the Tulip Nebula, is an HII emission nebula in Cygnus. This image has around 3.3 hours on integration time. The lovely OIII component did not visualize in this image. It probably needs much more integration time. Processed in Siril, Topaz Denoise, and Affinity.

The Omega Nebula

 M17, the Omega Nebula (among other names). M17 is one of the brightest and most massive stellar nurseries in the galaxy. The open cluster of stars, NGC 6618, powers the nebula. This image is a stack of 380 x 10s integrations. I stacked and processed in Siril, and tweaked in Affinity. It was quite a challenge to bring out the subtleties in the nebulosity without blowing out the central region. I ended up with this image, which looks rather like the fireball of an explosion.

The Trifid Nebula

 A combination of an emission nebula, a reflection nebula, and a dark nebula, the Trifid is a wonderful object for amateur imaging. I could only manage an hour of integration time, but under Bortle 5 skies (I'm visiting my daughter in rural Indiana), the Seestar really performed. My last image of this object (it's never visible from my home observatory due to trees) was with my 14 inch scope in 2016. This image is far superior, which shows just how far imaging has come in 8 years! The image was stacked and processed in Siril and Afinity.