nebula gallery

	24th January 2008 - Paul Buglass took this image of the Great Orion Nebula (M42 and M43) using a Canon 350D DSLR camera at prime focus of a Skywatcher 80ED refracter, piggy-backed on his Celestron C14 SCT. A total of 6 exposures of 30 seconds each were aligned and stacked using K3CCDTools v3. Final levels and adjustments were made using Photoshop and Paintshop Pro.
	12th November 2007 - Paul Buglass took this image of the Great Orion Nebula (M42 and M43) using a Canon 350D DSLR camera through a 0.63 focal reducer on his Celestron C14 SCT. A total of 8 exposures of 10 seconds each were aligned and stacked using K3CCDTools v3. Final levels and adjustments were made using Photoshop and Paintshop Pro.
	6th February 2007 - M42/43 - Actually the 25th of July, in so far as it has taken me this long to produce the RGB (colour) image and combine it with the H-alpha image shown below. It's not too bad for a first attempt at LRGB, although I feel the brighter core of the nebula is a bit over saturated, but it is still possible to see the trapezium stars, and the fainter outer regions of the nebula, which was what I was aiming for. Fewer stars are visible due to using H-alpha as a luminance layer This is just a first experiment, as I feel this image is much poorer than the simple RGB image below.
	6th February 2007 - Paul Buglass took this image of the Great Orion Nebula (M42) using a Meade DSI II Pro CCD camera on his Skywatcher 80ED scope. Three groups of 20 exposures of 30 seconds were captured through three filters, red, green and blue. The images were captured, aligned and stacked using K3CCDTools v3. RGB registration and combineing was done using Photoshop. Final levels and curves adjustments were also made using Photoshop to allow the bright trapezium area, and the fainter outer regions, to be seen together.
	6th February 2007 - Paul Buglass took this image of the Great Orion Nebula (M42) using a Meade DSI II Pro CCD camera on his Skywatcher 80ED scope. 21 exposures of 30 seconds were captured through an Astronomik H-Alpha filter (13nm). The images were captured, aligned and stacked using K3CCDTools v3. Final levels adjustment was made in Photoshop to allow the bright trapezium area, and the fainter outer regions, to be seen together. At the same time separate Red, Green and Blue images were captured using colour filters, so once they are processed, a colour version of this image can be produced. See above.
	November 2006 - John Lockett took this excellent image of the M42 (Great Orion Nebula) region in Orion. To the top the "Runing Man" nebula is visible, with bith M42 and M43 shown in the centre of the image. John used a Canon 20D digital SLR to capture multiple images which were stacked and processed using Photoshop.
	November 2006 - John Lockett took this nice image of the the NGC 2024 (Flame nebula), and B33 (Horsehead nebula) region in Orion. To the left is the "Flame nebula", and the famous "Horsehead" nebula is visible in the centre of the image. The bright star just above the Flame nebula is Alnitak, the left most belt star of Orion. John used a Canon 20D digital SLR to capture multiple images which were stacked and processed using Photoshop.
	9th September 2006 - John Lockett took this excellent image of the North American Nebula (NGC 7000), and the Pelican Nebula, using a 50mm lens with an H-alpha filter, and Meade DSI CCD camera. He captured 37 minutes of exposure in total to produce the resulting stacked image. The bright star in the top right of the image is Deneb in Cygnus.
	30th August 2006 - Paul Buglass took this image of the Ring Nebula (M57) using a b&w modified long-exposure web cam on his C8 scope with an F6.3 focal reducer. 53 exposures of 10 seconds were aligned and stacked using K3CCDTools v3.
	30th August 2006 - Paul Buglass took this image of the Dumbell Nebula (M27) using a b&w modified long-exposure web cam on his C8 scope with an F6.3 focal reducer. 56 exposures of 10 seconds were aligned and stacked using K3CCDTools v3.
	24th August 2006 - John Lockett took this image of the Planetary nebula M27 (the Dumbell Nebula), using his 8" Meade LX200 with a Mogg focal reducer, and DSI CCD camera. He captured 20 x 30 second exposures to produce the resulting stacked image.
	24th August 2006 - John Lockett took this image of the Planetary nebula M57 (the Ring Nebula), using his 8" Meade LX200 with a Mogg focal reducer, and DSI CCD camera. He captured 34 x 30 second exposures to produce the resulting stacked image.
	Martin Whipp took this fantastic image of the Great Orion Nebula (M42) on the night of the 4th of February 2006 at the Crayke Star Party. He used his Canon 350D digital SLR at prime focus of John Robert's 150mm F5 Helios Refractor. It is produced from 16 images of varying ISO and exposure (15 and 30 seconds), stacked together with K3CCDTools tools, then processed in Photoshop, and finally cleaned up with the ImageNeat package (which came free with a recent "sky at night" magazine). The images were captured with a 6 day old moon nearby in a damp and somewhat light polluted sky!
	Neil Ward took this image of the great Orion Nebula (M42) and also M43, using his Nikon D70 digital SLR. This was a single exposure at prime focus of a Skywatcher 80ED refractor. Copyright - N J Ward 2005.
	23/12/05 - John Roberts took this nice image of the M43 nebula in Orion (Also known as "de Mairan's" Nebula), using his 8" Meade LX50 SCT and a F3.3 Focal Reducer. A Starlight Express MX7C CCD camera was used. This nebula as adjacent to the much bigger and brighter M42 (Great Orion Nebula), and is often overlooked.
	23/12/05 - Martin Whipp captured this image of the Rosette Nebula in Monoceros using his Mintron Video camera. 90 frames were stacked and processed to reveal the outline of this large, but very faint nebula.
	24/11/05 - John Roberts took this nice image of the Flame and Horsehead nebulas in Orion using his 80mm F5 wide field refractor and 0.6 Focal Reducer, piggy-backed on his Meade LX50 SCT. A Starlight Express MX7C CCD camera was used with a single 30 second exposure.
	15/01/05 - The same image as below, but reprocessed by Martin Whipp. He dropped the red level and added a little green and blue, then boosted the contrast. I think this has helped to give a darker background while still maintaining the definition of the Flame and horsehead. It just goes to show what can be done with digital images and image processing.
	13/01/05 - A mosaic image of the Flame and Horsehead nebulas (NGC2024 and B33) in Orion, taken using a modified web cam and a 80mm F5 refractor. The mosaic was made using iMerge, a freeware image processing application written by Jon Groves.
	The Horsehead nebula (B33) in Orion taken on 13/01/05 by Paul buglass with a modifed web cam, and an 80mm F5 scope. a focal reducer was used to widen the FOV and an IR block filter to reduce the flaring around the brighter stars. 69 x 30 second exposures were used to produce the final image and were processed, stacked and aligned using K3CCDTools.
	The Orion Nebula (M42 and M43), taken by Paul Buglass using a modified web cam and a 80mm F5 refractor. Over 100 exposures of 10 seconds were stacked to give the final image. The brightness of the nebula has been enhanced to reveal the fainter outer regions, which has casued the core region of the nebula to be over exposed, and bleached out. Compare this image to John Robert's similar image captured using normal film, which shows a much greater dynamic range than a simple 8 bit web cam.
	The Flame Nebula (NGC2024), taken by Paul Buglass using a modified web cam and a 80mm F5 refractor. 43 exposures of 30 seconds were stacked to give the final image which had to be greatly processed to reveal the nebula itself. The bright star is Alnitak, the left most belt star in Orion.
	The Orion nebula (M42 and M43) taken by John Roberts through an 8" Meade at prime focus using Fuji 400 ASA Sensia from his back garden. Exposure was 5mins.
	The Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) and the Horsehead nebula (B33) in Orion. taken by John Roberts with his 6" F5 Helios Refracter and conventional 35mm film.
	Martin Whipp's Mintron video camera captured this splendid wide-field view of Cygnus, showing the Milky Way and "Cygnus rift". Taken in October 2004 at the Kielder Star Camp.
	Martin Whipp captured this image of the Horsehead nebula with his Mintron video camera and a 80mm F5 refracter.
	Another of Martin Whipp's images from his Mintron video comera. This one shows NGC7000 (the North American Nebula) in Cygnus.
	29/6/03 - M57 - The Ring nebula (M57), is the most famous planetary nebula in the sky. Despite being quite small, it is never forgotten once found. Planetary nebula have nothing to do with planets, but gained their name in the 1700s when they were first seen and identified as bigger than stars and looking a little like planets. A planetary nebula is formed when a star similar to our Sun reaches the end of its life. The aging star "puffs" off layers of its outer material which expand into space around the star forming visible structures of many shapes and colours. M57 looks like a torus shape, although some people think we may be looking down a cylinder of ejected material. This image captues the 15th magnitude central star, and many others down to magnitude 16.5. It is the high levels of radiation given off by the small hot white dwarf star left behind which causes the ejected material to glow. Eventually, after a few Billion years, the white dwarf will cool and fade away. This image was taken by Paul Buglass and is made up of 32 images, each of 21 seconds exposure. The images were captured, aligned, stacked and processed using K3CCDTools, which is a freeware Astrophotography application written by Peter Katreniak. The telescope was a 10" F4.8 Orion Optics reflector, on a driven CG-5 mount, and the camera was a SC1 modifed Philips Vest Pro.
	10/12/02 - M42/43 - This image is of the "Great Orion Nebula", better known as Messier object 42 (M42) was taken by Paul Buglass. It is undoubtably the brightest nebula in the sky and can be seen with the naked eye under dark clear skies as a small fuzzy patch. Associated with M42 is M43 which can be seen to the top left of the image. The Orion nebula is an area of star formation, and it is the strong radiation from the hot young stars which have formed inside it which cause the surrounding gas to glow. One of the most unique visual feature of M42 is the "Trapezium", which is a tight group of 4 hot young stars. In reality there are additional fainter stars in the trapezium, but the 4 easily visible ones give it its name. This image is made up of 64 images, each of 10 seconds exposure. The images were captured, aligned, stacked and processed using K3CCDTools, which is a freeware Astrophotography application written by Peter Katreniak. The telescope was a 102mm Skywatcher F10 refractor, with a 0.6 focal reducer,on a driven CG-5 mount, and the camera was a SC1 modifed Philips Vesta Pro.
	16/10/02 - M42 - This image taken by Paul Buglass shows the core of the M42 Orion nebula. the trapezium has been washed out, but is the bright area above the middle of the image. Many faint stars within the nebula are captured in this image. It is made up of 29 x 10 second exposures, captured, aligned, stackd and processed using K3CCDTools. It was taken using a 10" F4.8 Orion Optics reflector and a SC1 modified Philips Vesta Pro web cam.
	17/12/03 - NGC 2024 - "The Flame Nebula". This image of NGC2024 was taken by Paul Buglass using an 80mm F5 Skywatcher refractor and a Philips Vesta Pro SC webcam. An IR block filter was used and 31 exposures of 60 seconds each were aligned, stacked and processed using K3CCDTools. The bright star just out of the frame to the lower left is Alnitak, the left most belt star in Orion. This object is an emmision nebula with some dark dust clouds bisecting it. The image had to be heavily processed in order to reveal the orange nebula details. It is obvious why it is called the "flame nebula".