Great Lakes Star Gaze in Gladwin Michigan: September 2023

I've had the honor of meeting some fantastic guys from MI thanks to Doug Bock who hosted online imaging sessions that I joined up with in 2019. Doug, Awni, Tony, and Steven invited me into their FB Messenger group. I've been able to share a few days with them at GLSG in September the last three years. They really are fantastic guys. The GLSG offers Bortle 3 skies, which is very dark.

Northern Milky Way

Southern Milky Way

Overhead Milky Way

Jupiter rising

The Dark Shark Nebula (LDN 1235)

Last year I blew the effort to get this amazing Shark, I ended up with the wrong rotation and cut off his head. 😬

This year, I'm delighted with the effort.

Photo Capture Info:

(38) two minute exposures in Blue
(39) two minute exposures in Green
(40) two minute exposures in Red
(153) 90 second exposures with Luminance

Equipment Used:

FILTERS:
- Baader - Red, Green, Blue
- Chroma LoGlow Broadband Light Pollution Reduction Filter
Scope: Explore Scientific ED APO 127mm f7.5 FCD-100 Refractor
Starizona Apex ED 0.65x Focal Reducer
Camera: ZWO 2600MM Pro
Mount: Losmandy G11
Beelink Mini PC, Mini S
Focuser: ZWO EAF

This is one where I should have tuned my telescope back focus. I got lazy and left it so that the stars in the corners are oblong.

The dust did come out better than last year but overall, I'm comparably disappointed.

The Iris Nebula

Photo Capture Info:

~12 hours worth of 5 minute exposures stacked.

Equipment Used:

Optolong L-Pro Light Pollution Filter
Scope: William Optics 61mm Refractor
Camera: ZWO 183MC Pro
Mount: iOptron GEM 28
Beelink Mini PC, Mini S
Focuser: ZWO EAF

The Amazing Pleaides

Photo Capture Info:

(31) two minute exposures in Blue
(31) two minute exposures in Green
(32) two minute exposures in Red
(112) 90 second exposures with Luminance

Equipment Used:

FILTERS:
- Baader - Red, Green, Blue
- Chroma LoGlow Broadband Light Pollution Reduction Filter
Scope: Explore Scientific ED APO 127mm f7.5 FCD-100 Refractor
Starizona Apex ED 0.65x Focal Reducer
Camera: ZWO 2600MM Pro
Mount: Losmandy G11
Beelink Mini PC, Mini S
Focuser: ZWO EAF

Processing:

Stacking: Deep Sky Stacker

PixInsight Processes:

Blur Xterminator (Lum)
SpectrophotometricCC_RGB (RGB)
Histogram Stretch to get to Linear State
Noise Exterminator (Lum)
Another round of Blur Xterminator (Lum)
HDRMultiscaleTransform (Lum)
Slight S-Curves Adjustment (Lum)
LocalHistogramEqualization @ 25 (Lum)
LocalHistogramEqualization @ 75 (Lum)
MultiscaleLinearTransform with small values to Sharpen (Lum)
LRGB Combination using just (L)
Slight Saturation bump using Curves (Lum)

I just love this asterism of stars! This was my first view through a telescope back in my early 20s. I have been hooked on astronomy ever since.

Commonly called the Pleiades or Seven Sisters, M45 is known as an open star cluster. It contains over a thousand stars that are loosely bound by gravity, but it is visually dominated by a handful of its brightest members. Reference NASA

The light from the blue star reflects off the surface of 'pitch-black clouds of cold gas laced with dust.' This produces a reflection nebula.

Luminance

Some of my favorite objects to image are dark or dusty nebulae. Whenever I come to GLSG, I always avail myself of the dark sky to shoot these objects I can't shoot from home very well.

LDN (Lynds’ Dark Nebulae) 673 is a highly fractured and very dense dark cloud complex of about 7 light-years across, located in the center of the Aquila Rift, some 300 – 600 light-years from Earth in the northern constellation of Aquila (the Eagle).

LDN 673

Photo Capture Info:

(35) two minute exposures in Blue
(35) two minute exposures in Green
(35) two minute exposures in Red
(145) 90 second exposures with Luminance

Equipment Used:

FILTERS:
- Baader - Red, Green, Blue
- Chroma LoGlow Broadband Light Pollution Reduction Filter
Scope: Explore Scientific ED APO 127mm f7.5 FCD-100 Refractor
Starizona Apex ED 0.65x Focal Reducer
Camera: ZWO 2600MM Pro
Mount: Losmandy G11
Beelink Mini PC, Mini S
Focuser: ZWO EAF

Processing:

Stacking: Deep Sky Stacker

PixInsight Processes:

Blur Xterminator (Lum)
SpectrophotometricCC_RGB (RGB)
Histogram Stretch to get to Linear State
Noise Exterminator (Lum)
Another round of Blur Xterminator (Lum)
HDRMultiscaleTransform (Lum)
Slight S-Curves Adjustment (Lum)
LocalHistogramEqualization @ 25 (Lum)
LocalHistogramEqualization @ 75 (Lum)
MultiscaleLinearTransform with small values to Sharpen (Lum)
LRGB Combination using just (L)
Slight Saturation bump using Curves (Lum)

LDN 1295 and 1296

Photo Capture Info:

(206) two minute exposures

Equipment Used:

Optolong L-Pro Light Pollution Filter
Scope: William Optics 61mm Refractor
Camera: ZWO 183MC Pro
Mount: iOptron GEM 28
Beelink Mini PC, Mini S
Focuser: ZWO EAF

More dusty nebulae 😀

Luminance