Swansea Astronomical Society Blog

Stack of 161 x 30s exposures of the Pacman nebula from a Seestar S50 in EQ mode. Stacked and part processed in PixInsight and further processed in GraXpert, CS2 and Gimp. Rendered as Hubble palette, Blend of Hubble and RGB, and RGB. All images with RGB stars.

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The Packman nebula

Hubble palette rendering

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 7:45 PM 0 Comments

Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN) imaged with a Seestar S50 on October 29th. 5 x 30s exposures stacked in ASIDeepStack and processed in PixInsight, GraXpert and Gimp.

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Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN)

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 4:32 PM 0 Comments

AstroDMx Capture was used with an SV605CC OSC colour CMOS camera and an Altair Starwave ASCENT 60ED doublet refractor with 0.8 reducer/flattener and a Pegasus Focuscube v2. An Altair 2” magnetic filter holder version 2 containing an Altair quadband filter was placed in the optical train. 26 light frames, 5 dark frames, 50 bias frames, 50 flatfields and 50 dark flats were captured. The data were calibrated, debayered, stacked and part processed in PixInsight and completed in GraXpert, Seti Astro Suite Pro Cosmic Clarity and Gimp. A Pixinsight Cosmic Photons script was used to Generate a Hertzprung Russel diagram of the stars in the image.

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Hertzprung Russel diagram of the image stars

posted by astroimager  # 7:08 PM 0 Comments

This wide field image of the Garnet star region was taken with a 1300D DSLR Canon camera with a Rokinon 135mm prime lens. The camera was mounted on a Skywatcher EQ5 GOTO mount. Settings were 180 images, 30s exposures at ISO 800, 30 darks, 30 flat frames, and 40 flat-dark frames. They were all stacked in ASTAP and further processed in GraXpert, and StarNet ++, and finished off in Gimp 2.10. I used a 10s timer on the camera between captures and a Bahtinov mask to focus on a bright star. 

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Garnet star region

Chris Playle

posted by astroimager  # 2:31 PM 0 Comments

 51.1% waxing Moon. 25% of a 7 minute RAW AVI from a Seestar S50 was stacked in Autostakkert!4, wavelet sharpened in waveSharp and finished in Gimp.

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Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 2:41 AM 0 Comments

The Sun in white light with a Seestar S50 in EQ mode using a Baader solar filter.  50% of a 6 min RAW AVI stacked in Autostakkert!, wavelet processed in waveSharp and finished in GIMP.

The Seestar S50 was controlled by an 11" iPad.

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posted by astroimager  # 5:17 PM 0 Comments

In a new processing method of dualband OSC data I combined all of the S2O3, HaO3 dualband data (HaO3 and S2O3) on the Pacman nebula into a single lot (100 minutes in total) and the same with the flats. Then I stacked and processed them in one batch as if they were quadband data. Processed in PixInsight and Gimp.

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SHO rendering

Alternative rendering

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 1:42 PM 0 Comments

Seti Astro Suite Pro is developed by Franklin Marek. It is written in Python with Qt6 and is open source donationware. It runs on Windows, Linux, MacOS x86-64 and Apple silicon.

It is set apart from other programs by offering Multi-Frame Deconvolution Stacking (Image MM) in addition to offering regular stacking.

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Seti Astro Suite Pro running Multi-Frame Deconvolution Stacking

I have written a detailed article on Seti Astro Suite Pro and Multi-Frame Deconvolution Stacking.

To see all of the details and images Click HERE

Steve Wainwright

posted by astroimager  # 9:49 PM 0 Comments

Clear skies were in short supply last night, with just 30 minutes of data captured on my DSO imaging before we were clouded out. I did manage another wide field image of comet R2 Swan though with my Sony E10 and Sigma 23mm lens and have collated it with the two other sessions taken over the past week to show how far it has moved against the background stars.I used Paul's Quark again yesterday afternoon with his SW 80 Esprit on the Sun and processed a few of the runs into a montage.

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Chris Bowden

posted by astroimager  # 9:39 AM 0 Comments

Reprocessing of a wide field image of the North America and the Pelican Nebulae taken with a 1300D DSLR Canon camera with a 135mm Rokinon prime lens at f/2. The camera was attached to a Star Adventure 2i pro tracking mount.  Settings were 50s exposure and 800 ISO. I captured 200 images, 30 flat frames, 30 dark frames and 30 Flat-dark frames. All were stacked in ASTAP, processed in Siril, GraXpert and Star Net ++ and  finished off in Gimp 2.10.  I used an intervalometer to control the camera and a Bahtinov to focus on a bright star.

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The North America and the Pelican Nebulae

Chris Playle

posted by astroimager  # 11:02 PM 0 Comments

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Animation of comet C/2025 R2 Swan: On the night of the 20th October we were able to locate comet C/2025 R2 Swan from Alentejo Portugal using Jim Startup's 8" RC scope by entering dynamic coordinates for the fast moving comet into SharpCap. The comet was tracked for 24 minutes with data captured using SharpCap with some 143 frames taken with an Altair mono camera. The gif was produced by using the Blink utility of Pixinsight and Adobe Photoshop to make a short animation showing the comet against the background stars.

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Stacked images of comet C/2025 R2 Swan: The 143 FITS images were comet aligned in Pixinsight to produce a stacked image of the comet with both normal and starless versions produced using StarXterminator to remove the stars.

Images of the Sun montage using a Chromospheric Quark: On the 20th October Various captures were taken of the Sun from Alentejo Portugal using a 6" refractor with a Chromospheric Quark attached (see equipment image taken during captures). The various data sets were stacked in Autostakkert!4, wavelet processed in Registax with further post processing carried out in Pixinsight's solar toolbox and Adobe Photoshop to create the montage.

Chris Bowden

posted by astroimager  # 10:58 PM 0 Comments

The Sun in white light with a Seestar S50 in EQ mode using a Baader solar filter on Oct 22.  50% of a 6 min RAW AVI stacked in Autostakkert!, wavelet processed in waveSharp and finished in GIMP.

The Seestar S50 was controlled with a 10.1" Fire tablet

The Sun in white light

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 3:45 PM 0 Comments

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Sun in White light and Ha montage: Two images of the Sun taken on the 16th October; the white light one was taken through partial cloud with a Sony ZV E-10 milc camera using a 350mm lens protected by a Baader OD5 filter with 20% of 49 frames stacked in Autostakkert!4, wavelet processed in Registax and post processed in Pixinsight Solar Toolbox and Adobe Lightroom. The Ha one was taken using Astro DMx Capture with a Player One Apollo-M-Mini camera attached to a Lunt 50 Ha scope, with some 20% of a 4,400 frame SER stacked in Autostakkert!4, wavelet processed in Registax and post processed in Pixinsight Solar Toolbox and Adobe Lightroom. 

LDN 1355 (The Helping Hand nebula): 16 hours of LRGB data taken over the nights of the 17th and 18th October using an ASI 533MM camera attached to an Altair 60EDF refractor fitted with a 0.8 x FR. Data integration and processing were done in Pixinsight, with final adjustments made in Adobe Lightroom.

Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon with Orionid meteors: 23mm and 70mm lenses were attached to a Sony ZV E-10 milc camera mounted on an MSM tracker to take some time-lapse images of the comet rising in the dawn sky. On both runs two bright Orionid meteors were captured in the same field of view in two single frames from each of the runs. The 23mm Sigma lens image was taken at F2, ISO 800 with a10s exposure and the 70mm one at F4.5, ISO 100 and 10s exposure. Processing was done using Adobe Lightroom.

Comet C/2025 R2 Swan near M16 & M17: A wide field image of the green comet passing close to the red Eagle and Omega nebulae in Sagittarius on the evening of the 17th October taken with a Sony ZV EV-10 camera mounted on an MSM tracker using a 23mm Sigma lens at F2 and ISO 800. This is a stack of 59 x 15s exposures, giving ~ 15 mins total exposure time. The Sony ARW's were stacked in Adobe Photoshop 2025 with final processing done in Pixinsight and Adobe Lightroom.

Moon (18th October): 20% of a 6,125 frame SER of the slender decrescent moon taken on the morning of the 18th October with an ASI 533MM camera attached to an Altair 60EDF refractor fitted with a 0.8 x FR following a deep sky imaging run. Data were stacked in Autostakkert!4, wavelet processed in Registax and post processed in Adobe Lightroom.

Chris Bowden

posted by astroimager  # 7:02 PM 0 Comments

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M7

M9

M19

M28

M54

M55

M62

M70

M75

Jim Startup

posted by astroimager  # 6:46 PM 0 Comments

My wide field image of the M52 star cluster region in Cassiopeia taken with my 1300D DSLR Canon camera, my Rokinon 135mm prime lens at f/2. The camera mounted on my star Adventure 2i pro tracking mount. Settings were 45s exposuresand 800 ISO. I captured 100 images, 25 flat frames, 25 dark frames and 30 flat-dark frames. All were Stacked in ASTAP and processed in GraXpert, Siril and Star Net ++ and finished off in Gimp 2.10.  I used an intervalometer to control the camera, and a Bahtinov mask to focus on a bright star. 

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M52 star cluster region

posted by astroimager  # 10:53 PM 0 Comments

Comet C/2025 A6 (LEMMON) from last Saturday 11/10/2025 at 9pm.

17 images at 60 seconds processed in PI.

AsI2600 Pro colour camera on William Optics 90 Megrez tracked with a Star Adventurer mount.

I was in Cumbria and lucky to have a very good north horizon and very clear skies, however the moon rose over the hills causing the rising mist to brighten but very happy with this one.

Still, its taken me a week to get round to prosessing it and still no chances of having an other go at imaging it yet. 

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Comet C/2025 A6 (LEMMON)

Paul Pocklington

posted by astroimager  # 10:45 PM 0 Comments

It was clear last night so I had my Seestar out. I'm still using AltAzimuth as I haven't got the hang of Equatorial mode yet (but I'll have another proper go at it soon!)

I had a go at Wizard Nebula and M76 and processed just with the onboard facilities of my Android phone. 

posted by Gaynor Thomas  # 9:44 AM 0 Comments

Dr Andrew McLean (SAS) gave a live and Zoom talk about making sense of the Cosmic Background Radiation. The talk was particularly important and interesting as it was told from a personal viewpoint of someone who has been involved in some of the studies. It was well recieved and generated interesting questions.

posted by astroimager  # 11:00 PM 0 Comments