The North American Nebula

Last night the temperatures were a wee bit lower, which made for better astrophotography conditions. We spent a little over three hours setting up and taking thirty 180-second images of the North American Nebula, which I stacked and processed this morning. I was really pleased with the outcome. 

If you squint just right, you might be able to make out the shape of North America, which is why this nebula was so named. 

Pinwheel Galaxy and Witch's Broom

I've been spending countless hours trying to become a little proficient at processing our astrophotos. I keep trying different programs, and find things I like - and things I don't like - about each of them. Right now I'm playing with three programs:  Nebulosity, StarTools and ASTAP. I also bring the images into Affinity Photo, sometimes, for fine tuning. 

This first image is of the Western Veil, which is located "next door" to the Eastern Veil, which I've already posted a few days ago. The Western Veil is also known as The Witch's Broom. 

And the one below is the Pinwheel Galaxy.

Eastern Veil Nebula

The colors in a cloudy evening sky can be beautiful ...

... and we've been seeing a lot of clouds roll in around sunset lately. Beautiful as they are, they have made our astrophotography pretty much impossible.

But on Tuesday evening, the sky looked promising, and we set up the telescope in preparation for a photo session.

Dan recently bought a filter, which helps with the ambient light - porch lights and street lights in the neighborhood. We think it's helping a lot.

We started shooting the Pinwheel Galaxy around 9:30 p.m., and finished around 11:00. Since the skies were still good, we decided to pick a second target, the Eastern Veil Nebula, and go for it, as well. It was after 1:00 a.m. when we finished.

I have been a little discouraged, because I was failing at editing our photos properly. But last week I found an astrophotography app that worked for me (Star Tools), and bought it. I haven't worked on the Pinwheel Galaxy series yet, but I'm really happy with the outcome of the Eastern Veil Nebula. 

Fourth of July

Due to COVID, the City fireworks were canceled, as was the Belton parade. Dan and I had a quiet 4th of July, at home. We grilled a couple hamburgers, made it festive with corn on the cob and watermelon, and had strawberry ice cream later in the evening.

As it got dark, a lot of folks in the neighborhood set off fireworks, and I sat outside enjoying them for awhile ... until the mosquitos drove me back inside.

Happy 4th of July everyone!