CCAS Astrophotography
Here are photographs taken by our members. If you have original photographs that you would like posted on our site, please contact us!

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NGC 925 in Triangulum by Dave Hockenberry A barred spiral about 45 million light years distant. Shot with Starlight Xpress H9C camera, stack of 13 10-minute images through Astrotech AT8RC telescope at 1650mmFL, Losmandy G11 mount. Autoguided with SX Lodestar camera and MaxIm DL5. Stacked/calibrated with MaxIm using SD Mask, all other stretch/color adjustment with Photoshop Cs3.

M109 in Ursa Major by Dave Hockenberry This barred spiral galaxy is the largest of about 50 galaxies that comprise the "M109 group." M109 is approximately 83.5 million light years distant, and has an apparent magnitude of 9.8. Some of the smaller galaxies can be seen in the photo surrounding the main galaxy. Shot 4/19/2010 with Starlight Xpress SXVF H9C through TeleVue NP 101is, stack of 14 5-minute images, guided with Meade LX200R and SX Lodestar camera. Stacked and median filtered with MaxIm DL5, color adjusted and occasional hot pixel removal with Photoshop CS3.

NGC 4565 by Dave Hockenberry The "Flying Saucer" Galaxy. Shot 5/1/2010 with Starlight Xpress SXVF H9C camera, stack of 14 400-second exposures. Shot through TeleVue NP101is with Meade LX200R mount, autoguided with SX Lodestar camera and Maxim DL5. No filters. Stacked in Maxim DL5, histogram stretch, color adjustment, and sharpening filters in Photoshop CS3.

M101 in Ursa Major by Dave Hockenberry This is the "other" Pinwheel Galaxy as professional astronomers name by convention. This is a large face-on galaxy about 23 million light- years distance, and is almost twice the size of our Milky Way at 170,000 light- years disk diameter. The faint "bent" arm seen on the top of this image is thought to be a distortion from a near-collision with another galaxy sometime in the distant past. Shot 4/18/2010 with Starlight Xpress SXVF H9C camera through TeleVue NP 101is, no filters, stack of 14 5-minute images combined with SD Mask in MaxIm DL5. Stretched, color adjusted and hot pixel removal in Photoshop CS3. Autoguided with MaxIm DL5 using Lodestar camera on Meade LX200R mount.

M48 by Dave Hockenberry M48, an open cluster in Monoceros. Taken on 03/27/10. Stack of 14 3-minute images, shot with Starlight Xpress M25C camera, through TeleVue NP101is. Median stacked in MaxIm DL5, Color layer adjusted and occasional hot pixel removal in Photoshop CS3. Autoguided with SX Lodestar and MaxIm DL through Meade LX200R, through some high clouds earlier that night.

M81 by Dave Hockenberry Another take at M81. My original photograph was boosted and cleaned up by Brent Crabb. The photograph was shot on 12/8/2009 through TeleVue NP 101is with SXVF H9C color camera, stack of 7 5-minute images. Median stacked and processed with MaxIm DL5, Color level adjusted and hot pixel removal in Photoshop CS3.

Hickson 44 by Dave Hockenberry Hickson 44 is a group of faint galaxies located in Leo's mane. 5 are seen here, NGC 3193 (left uppermost), NGC 3190 (central), NGC 3187 (curlicue right up from center), and NGC 3185 (with the ears at lower right). Two other faint galaxies complete the picture. Shot with Starlight Xpress SXVF H9C color camera through TeleVue NP 101is, stack of 14 5-minute images, stacked using SD Mask in Maxim DL5, hot pixel removal and color balanced in Photoshop CS3. Autoguided with SX Lodestar and Meade LX200R, with MaxIm guiding software. Shot 2/19/10.

Lunar Landscape by Dave Hockenberry Lunar Landscape, shot 6/5/07 though Meade LX200R 10" scope with Meade LPI webcam imager, stack of 12 0.04 second images autoprocessed with Envisage software. Image sharpened with Gaussian curve in Photoshop CS3. Unusually clear and steady air allowed good definition on this imaging run.

M45, The Pleiades by Dave Hockenberry M45 shot 10/20/09, through TeleVue NP101is, with Starlight Xpress SXVF H9C color camera, stack of 6 80-second exposures. Median stacked in MaxIm DL5, image stretched and color balanced in Photoshop CS3. No filters. Autoguided with SX Lodestar and Meade LX200R. This image doesn't include the entire cluster, but does show some of the glowing surrounding gases that have condensed into these very young stars.

NGC 2244 by Dave Hockenberry NGC 2244 is an open star cluster in Monoceros. Surrounding the cluster is the Rosette nebula, part of which is seen here. NGC 2244 lies approximately 5,200 light- years away, and the cluster plus the surrounding nebula have an estimated diameter of about 130 light years. This is a stellar nursery, with VERY hot young stars providing the energy to make the surrounding nebula glow as an emission nebula. Shot with Starlight Xpress SXVF H9C color camera 2/19/10, through TeleVue NP101is, stack of 14 300-second images. Autoguided and median stacked with MaxIM DL5. Occasional hot pixel removal and slight blue/green color balance adjustment with Photoshop Cs3. Guided with SX Lodestar camera and Meade LX200R.