Deimos

Your best photos submitted to the magazine this month  Mars, Phobos and Deimos

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY Harvey Scoot, Finchingfield, Essex, 14 September 2020

Harvey says: “This is a composite of two separate

GALLERY
captures: an over-exposed image of the moons and an
image of Mars itself. The image of the moons was taken
More with autoguiding and using 30-second exposures.

ONLINE Phobos
Although the seeing was pretty good, the transparency was very
variable, so I’m pleased with how it turned out, all things considered.”
A gallery containing
these and more Equipment: ZWO ASI 462MC one-shot colour camera, Celestron
of your images EdgeHD 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain, Mesu-Mount 200
Exposure: 60 x 30” Software: FireCapture, RegiStax, AutoStakkert!,
Astra Image, GIMP

Cycling to
the Moon 
Susan Snow,
Cleeve Hill,
Gloucestershire,
27 September 2020
Susan
says:
“On this
evening
I had taken a couple
of shots of the Moon
rising when I saw the
cyclist approaching.”
Equipment: Canon
77D DSLR, Orion
ShortTube 80
refractor, Orion
AutoTracker mount
Exposure: ISO 200
f/5, 1/320” Software:
Canon Digital
Photo Professional

 The Cygnus Wall

 Ced 214 Nebula
Daniel Zoliro, Chouteau, Oklahoma, USA, 21–26 August 2020
Daniel says: “Ced 214 is a
beautiful narrowband target
that you don’t see imaged
very often. With several clear
nights in a row, I wanted this
to be my longest integration project to date
– 16 hours [imaging time] in total. I should
have taken more OIII (Oxygen-III) data
– it made combining the channels a little
challenging – but I was able to make it work.”
Equipment: ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro camera,
Astro-Tech AT115EDT refractor, Sky-Watcher
EQ6-R Pro mount Exposure: Ha 26x 300”,
77x 180”, OIII 106x 180”, SII 95x 180”
Software: PixInsight, Photoshop, StarNet++
Daniel’s top tips: “I think that producing a
great image comes down to three things:
1) good data – refine your capture skills and
don’t be afraid to throw out bad subs;
Matthew Baker,
Ashbourne, Derbyshire,
18-25 September 2020
Matthew says:
“I made the error
of misaligning my
PHOTO framing between
sessions as I had
OF THE
to clean some dust, and that
MONTH
caused me to only focus on
the Cygnus Wall rather than the
2) integration time – it’s exciting to process entire North America Nebula.
that single hour of data, but several hours But it was a blessing in disguise,
makes processing so much easier and I’m really happy with the result.”
will make your images much cleaner; and Equipment: ZWO ASI 1600MM
3) better processing – put some serious time Pro camera, TS-Optics 90mm
into your processing skills. It will pay off. apo refractor, Sky-Watcher
This hobby can be extremely frustrating, HEQ5-Pro mount Exposure:
but also very rewarding if you’re persistent Ha 30x 300”, OIII 44x 300”
and learn from your mistakes. One last Software: PixInsight
thing: get a good equatorial mount!”

80 BBC Sky at Night Magazine December 2020 December 2020 BBC Sky at Night Magazine 81
The Milky Way  Heart and Soul Nebulae
over Sicily  Prabhakaran (Prabhu), Buraq and Mleiha,
Dario Giannobile, Punta UAE, 14, 15 and 21 September 2020
Bianca, Sicily, 27 June 2020 Prabhu says: “Processing the
Dario says: “To make colours of narrowband images is a
this shot, I used www. bit tricky, but I was so delighted to
lightpollutionmap. see the colours the way I wanted.”
info to find a location Equipment: ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro camera,
in Sicily that had a dark sky on the Samyang 135mm f/2.8 lens, Sky-Watcher
horizon. Getting there involved a AZ-EQ6 mount Exposure: 4.5 hours: Ha 4x 10’,
rough road, and to align the Milky 6x 5’, 10x 3’, OIII 3x 10’, 7x 5’, 4x 3’, SII 3x 10’,
Way I had to ford a stretch of sea 11x 5’, 1x 3’ Software: PixInsight, StarNet++
to reach the rock under the hut.”
Equipment: Canon 6D DSLR,
Sigma 20mm lens, Manfrotto
 The Crescent Nebula
tripod Exposure: ISO 800 f/2, Jamie Macdougall, Ely, Cambridgeshire,
1200” Software: Photoshop 1-13 September 2020
Jamie says: “I captured the
 NGC 5367 Crescent Nebula in 2015. After five
and CG12 years of building up my processing
skills and saving up for new
Nicolas Rolland, El Sauce equipment, I thought I’d give it another go.”
Observatory,
Equipment: ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro camera,
Chile, August 2020
Sky-Watcher Evostar 80ED DS-Pro
Nicolas says: refractor, Sky-Watcher NEQ6 Pro mount
“Cometary Globule Exposure: Ha 54x 600”, OIII 66x 600”
12 [CG12] is rarely imaged. It’s Software: Siril, StarNet++, Photoshop
associated with NGC 5367, which
reflects light from two blue stars.”
Equipment: SBIG STXL-11002
camera, PlaneWave 17” CDK
astrograph, Paramount ME
mount Exposure: L 23x 1200”,
R 15x 1200”, G 15 x 1200”,
B 16x 1200” Software:
CCDstack, PixInsight, Photoshop

 The Triangulum Galaxy

Emil Andronic, Bushey, August 2018 and September 2020
Emil says: “Capturing the Triangulum Galaxy has been a pleasure since I started
shooting it in 2018. I got good results with my Canon 600D in 2018, but I decided to
add more data to it this year with the ASI 294MC. I’m very pleased with the result.” 
Equipment: Canon 600D DSLR, ZWO ASI 294MC Pro camera, TS65 quadruplet
f/6.5 imaging telescope, Sky-Watcher EQ3 mount Exposure: 43x 600”, 43x 300”, 159x 300”
Software: APT, SGP, PixInsight, Photoshop

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love to see your images. Email them
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com. Ts&Cs: www.immediate.co.uk/
terms-and-conditions
We’ve teamed up with Modern Astronomy to offer
the winner of next month’s Gallery a BAADER
AstroSolar Safety Film. This specially designed
film can be used to make a solar filter for telescopes and binoculars,
enabling safe observations of the surface of the Sun. Comes with full
safety instructions. www.modernastronomy.com • 020 8763 9953

82 BBC Sky at Night Magazine December 2020 December 2020 BBC Sky at Night Magazine 83