NGC 7293, Helix Nebula (Eye of God)

NGC 7293 is commonly called the "Eye of God" do to it's distinctive shape. The Helix Nebula is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius and discovered in the early 1800's. About 700 light years away. This image was taken near Fort Davis, TX on August 28, 2011 around 2am. It is a 5 min exposure. Total capture time was 125 minutes using a Celestron C11 HD and autoguided.

M33, Triangulum Galaxy

3 million light years away, the Triangulum galaxy lies in the constellation Triangulum. This image was taken in Fort Davis, TX in the early morning hours on August 28, 2011. 5-min exposure, exposed for over two hours duration.

Messier (M27) is a planetary nebula. Also commonly called the dumbbell nebula since it has the shape of a dumbbell. It is in the constellation Velpecula and is approximately 1300 light years away. It is a favorite summer time image since it lies in the summer triangle ( made up of three stars named Altair, Deneb, and Vega).
This image was taken in the early morning around 1am in my backyard in Midland, TX on July 29th, 2011. I used a light pollution filter and this image is at F2 with a QHY8 CCD camera and a Hyperstar. I used my 11" Celestron HD as my imaging platform.
A 5min exposure stacked with 10 images for the final result.
Click on the image for zooming.

Whirlpool Galaxy

This is my favorite object to image. I spend a lot of time trying to make this image better and better every time.

M51, designated the Whirlpool galaxy is 37 million light years from Earth.

Taken at Zodiac Ranch, June 2, 2011.

Equipment:
Celestron 11" HD w/ hyperstar, QHY8 CCD camera. 8-min exposure.

I actually had to cut the number of exposures do to some clouds that spoiled my last 5 images.

Leo Trio

The Leo Trio is a group of galaxies approximately 30 million light years from Earth. They lie in the constellation Leo the Lion. Their strong gravitational pull from one another distorts their shapes. This trio makes a great photograph. This image is an 8-min exposure.

Equipment:
Celestron 11" HD w/hyperstar and a QHY8 CCD camera. Captured with Nebulosity with a total of 12 images stacked for a final result.

Taken at Zodiac Ranch, Fort Davis, TX on June 1, 2011.

M101 with neighbors

M101, Pinwheel Galaxy and neighboring galaxies. To the left of M101, we have NGC 5474. Notice other smaller fainter galaxies in the field of view. This image is a 5min exposure. Total exposure time is 50 minutes. Processed with stacking software. No flats, but stacked with darks to get rid of some hot pixels. Need to try some flats to get rid of some vignetting. This image was taken on May 29, 2011 at around 3am at Zodiac Ranch, Fort Davis, Texas. M101 is found in the constellation Ursa Major. Check out my previous posts of another image of this object.