SPECIAL Weather Event: On January 15-17, 2007 a Winter Ice Storm hits South Texas. Click here to see images of ice accumulation at Horizontal Heavens Observatory.

(Below) NGC7380 The "Wizard" Nebula - NP-127, ST-10XME, (Left) SII(13)20m 2x2, H-alpha (9)20min 1x1, OIII (15)20m 2x2. (Right) H-alpha (9)20min 11/15/2008. This is 3 hours of H-alpha, yet I think I may want to double this as weather permits. Auto-downsizing appears to make the largest image to appear blocky/pixilated so you may want to choose which version to view 1240x827 and 1800x1200

(Below) IC2169 Nebula in Monoceros - NP-127, ST-10XME, H-alpha (6)20min, (6)10min Green, (5)10min Blue, 11/8//2008. I tried something new in processing the left image. In ImagesPlus, I used the "Star Size Reduction" tool and checked "erosion" and "alternate neighborhoods. FWIW, I think this tool works well "IF" you keep the sixe of the image no more than ~60% when using a ST-10XME. Larger mega-pixel CCDs (STL-6303, STL-11000, etc.) will better hide the artifacts that are introduced when using this star reduction tool because they have so many more pixels to work with. I tend to call this Artificial Resolution because even the super large array of pixels in something like the STL-11000 still has to be downsized to fit on our 1280x1024 monitors. Personally I am getting tired of complaining about it (jealousy) and am now wishing I could afford to join that big-chip imagers club <VBG>.

(Below) IC5067 Pelican Nebula - NP-127, ST-10XME, H-alpha (8)20min, 11/8//2008.

(Below) M51 Whirlpool Galaxy - 10" LX200R, ST-10XME w/.63x at f/7.1 FOV=1775mm, LRGB, L (best 6 of 11)15m, R(8)15m, G(9)15m, B(10)15m, 4/29/2008 and 5/2/2008. The first night was great with 5/5 seeing and the second night sucked with high cirrus passing all night. I had to shoot through the clouds and lost much contrast as a result. All said and done, it came out better than I expected.

(Below) M81 Spiral Galaxy - 10" LX200R, ST-10XME w/.63x at f/7.1 FOV=1775mm, (right) RGB (8)10m, and Ha(9)20m added for (left) Ha+R,GB, 4/15/2008. I need to quit being lazy and shoot flat frames for this imaging setup. The Ha+R,GB ended up severely clipped in the corners so I went with the flow and dodged around the entire galaxy for a darker sky, seeking to average out the FOV. Still a work in progress...

(Below) NGC3628 Galaxy in Leo Triplet - 10" LX200R, ST-10XME w/.63x at f/7.1 FOV=1775mm, LRGB Lum (4)8m, RG (2)8m, B (2)10m, 4/11/2008.

(Below) M66 Galaxy in Leo Triplet - 10" LX200R, ST-10XME w/.6x at f/7.1 FOV=1775mm, Lum only (1)10m + (2)8m, 4/5/2008.

(Below) M81 Galaxy - NP-127, ST-10XME, Single 20m H-alpha layered on top of just two 8m Lum frames, 2/13/2008. This was imaged while the first quarter moon was at zenith and I was fooling around with making adjustments on the focuser and mount. Had to darken background due to the moon casting a gradient across the image.

(Below) IC405 Flaming Star - NP-127, ST-10XME, H-alpha (9)20min, 2/7/2008.

(Below) NGC2359 Thor's Helmet - NP-127, ST-10XME, H-alpha (12)20min, 1/19/2008.

(Below) M78 Reflection Nebula - NP-127 w/.8x reducer for 528mm at f/4.2, H-alpha (12)20min, 12/30/2007.

(Below) Comet P-17 Homes - NP-127, ST-402ME, 660mm, (27)10sec each RGBs w/auto-dark. This was a quick and dirty grab right before the comet hit the meridian and I called it a night, 11/4/2007.

(Below) ISS and Shuttle Pass 10-24-2007 - Here is my attempt at shooting over my local light dome for the double pass. The ISS was obviously much brighter than the Shuttle as they both passed just above the teapot in Sagittarius. Just a hint of the Milky Way is visible if you look real hard. Jupiter is in the lower right just at the tree-line. Last image is a quick alignment that shows the parallel paths of the two spacecraft.

(Below) IC1848 Fetus Nebula - TMB80/480 w/.8x reducer for 384mm at f/4.8, H-alpha (10)20min, 10/22/2007.

(Below) NGC869, NGC884 Double Cluster - NP-127w/ST-10XME, (50)1min RGBs, 9/13/2007.

(Below) M31 Andromeda Galaxy - P-127w/ST-10XME, (4)5min RGBs, 9/12/2007. So few opportunities to image this year have lead to desperate imaging! Here is the first night in 2 months and only the 4th in 4 months of imaging opportunities. This is far from the greatest shot but at least it got me out under the stars.

(Below) Lynd's Dark Nebula LDN532 (Barnard 104) - NP-127w/ST-10XME, (14)1min RGBs, 9/6/2007. Located just North (North is left) of Beta Scuti in Scutum, LDN532 trails off to the left and just peeking in is LBN91 (Lynd's Bright Nebula) on the very left side of the image in red.

(Below) IC1274, IC1275, - NP-127w/ST-10XME, (4)5min R, (12)5minGB, 8/12/2007.

(Below) M20 Trifid Nebula - NP-127w/ST-10XME, (3)5min RGBs, 8/6/2007. I managed to squeeze this in just before clouds rolled back in and only got 15min of each RGB. First time in three months that the sky cleared to get anything.

(Below) M109 Galaxy in Ursa Major - NP-127w/ST-10XME, (5)15min RGBs, 5/14/2007. This image contains many artifacts and gradients due to the low transparency and passing clouds. The gradient, I believe is due to the close proximity of Pheceda (Gamma) in Ursa Major or Big Dipper.