Swansea Astronomical Society Blog

On the morning of the 14th November 2026 I was treated to a splendid early morning pair of conjunctions of the planets Mars and Jupiter near Regulus in Leo and dazzling Venus close to Spica in Virgo. I grabbed my Sony ZV-E10 camera to take some images of the pairings and shot a short time-lapse of Venus and Spica rising over the chimney pots. In one image I was also able to make out the four Galilean moons which were all on one side of Jupiter and checked their positions in Cartes du Ciel to confirm this. I watched until the Sun had risen and was still able to see Jupiter (mag -2.1) and Venus (mag -4.6) despite the brightening sky.

Chris Bowden

Crop and enlargement of Mars and Jupiter with its Galilean moons Sony ZV-E10 105 mm ƒ/6.7 6 sec ISO 1000

Venus & Spica Sony ZV-E10 105 mm ƒ/5.6 10 sec ISO 500

Venus & Spica rising out of the mist time-lapse

posted by Chris B  # 7:11 PM 0 Comments

We captured FITS data on the Whole Elephant's Trunk nebula with Nicola's AstroDMx Capture (pre-release version 3) through an Altair Ascent 60mm ED refractor with an 0.8 flattener/reducer and Player One 5-position EFW with Altair 7nm HaO3 and S2O3 dualband filters. Using Live stacking to produce a good preview (plus saved image if required).  90 minutes worth of total exposure were captured (45 minutes worth of 3 minute exposures through each filter) using an SVBONY SC571CC 16 bit OSC camera.

Equipment used

Screenshots of AstroDMx Capture (pre-release version 3) Live calibrated stacking HaO3 data

Live calibrated stacking S2O3 data

The live calibrated stacking produces a pleasant-to view preview and sigma clipping removes all but the brightest satellite trails if there are none in the first 2 (user controlled) frames. Any that do get through become fainter as the stacking proceeds. The stacking can be set to save an 8-bit PNG of the stack and a 32 bit FITS file of the stack when a given capture run ends if this is required. This could be useful for outreach.

Stacking, RC-Astro Process StarXterminator and NoiseXterminator in PixInsight. Plus my PI scripts: Dualband-Narrowband-Palettes-processor_SJW.js, Unlinked_stretching_SJW.js, Vibrance-control-SJW.js and SelectiveColour-SJW.js. Further processing in PI, SetiAstroSuitePro, GraXpert and GIMP3.

All of the tricolour narrowband palettes were produced plus HOO and SOO and a colour selective blending of the HOO amd SOO images to reveal the H, S and O predominated regions.

The Hubble palette

OHS

HSO

OSH

HOO

SOO

Colour selective blending of the HOO amd SOO images

The Predominantly H regions are gold, S predominated regions are redder and O is blue.

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 7:08 PM 0 Comments

A Mosaic image of the California nebula taken with a Dwarf mini in eq mode at 60s exposure and gain 70.  250 images were stacked. Processing in Stellar Studio and Star Net ++ and finished of in Gimp 2.10. 

Chris Playle

posted by astroimager  # 5:19 PM 0 Comments

On the evening of the 11th Nov 2026 several SAS members made a group visit to see Brian Cox' "Emergence" tour at Swansea's Arena, with stunning graphics and inspirational material enjoyed by all.

Chris Bowden

posted by Chris B  # 2:39 PM 0 Comments

On the afternoon of the 12th Nov 2026 an Apollo-M-Mini camera was used to take data of the Sun in SharpCap Pro using an Acuter Elite Phoenix 40mm Ha scope and an Altair 60EDF doublet refractor fitted with an Altair Herschel Wedge with the camera fitted with a x2 Barlow lens. For the Ha image 50% of a 9,841 frame SER was stacked and for the WL one 50% of a 6,087 frame SER was stacked. Processing was done in Registax/Pixinsight/Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop with the solar disc oriented correctly with false colour applied.

Chris Bowden

posted by Chris B  # 2:23 PM 0 Comments

The HorseHead and Flame nebulae using a Dwarf mini in EQ mode at 60s exposure and gain 70. 200 images were stacked. Processing in Stellar Studio, Star Net ++ and Gimp 2.10.

Chris Playle

posted by astroimager  # 11:50 AM 0 Comments

We captured the Wizard nebula on two different nights with two different scopes and filter sets. 1.5 hours total exposure comprising 30 minutes worth of 3 minute exposures through each of Ha, O3 and S2 filters were captured while testing Nicola's AstroDMx Capture pre-release version 3, of NGC 7380 through an Askar 71F flatfield astrograph refractor with an iOpron AEF, an Altair 7 x 2" EFW XL, containing Pegasus Astro narrowband filters and an Altair Hypercam 533M 14 bit mono CMOS camera. On a separate evening a StellaMira 66mm ED APO refractor with field flattener and Altair 5-position EFW with low cost  Askar C HaO3 and S2O3 dualband filters was used to capture 90 minutes worth of total exposure were captured (45 minutes through each filter). The data were processed as previously described and the two final images were blended in Picture Window Pro 2.5 using shift, rotate an scale.

Blended Hubble palette image

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 11:44 AM 0 Comments

 A five hour SHO integration of the Shrimp nebula (SH2-188) using 5 minute subs taken with an ASI 533MM Pro camera attached to a Sky-Watcher Esprit 80 triplet refractor fitted with a field flattener. The Shrimp nebula is a planetary nebula in Cassiopeia.

Chris Bowden

posted by Chris B  # 8:14 AM 0 Comments

On the morning of the 12th November 2026 A 2 pane mosaic of the Flame and Horsehead Nebula was captured with a Dwarf Mini configured in EQ mode using 60s subs. Each panel was imaged for 30 minutes each, with the data integrated two ways; Dwarf Labs Stellar Studio and Pixinsight.

Chris Bowden

posted by Chris B  # 8:05 AM 0 Comments

I imaged the Triangulum galaxy (M33) with the Dwarf Mini over several occasions with the most recent being an hour's worth taken on the morning of the 12th November 2026. I used Dwarf Labs Mega Stack and Stellar Studio online editors to combine the latest capture with the previous three runs to give  total integration time of 3.6 hours.

Chris Bowden

posted by Chris B  # 6:50 AM 0 Comments

We captured FITS data on the Wizard nebula with Nicola's AstroDMx Capture (pre-release version 3) through a StellaMira 66mm ED APO refractor with field flattener and Altair 5-position EFW with low cost  Askar C HaO3 and S2O3 dualband filters. Using Live stacking to produce a good preview (plus saved image if required).  90 minutes worth of total exposure were captured (45 minutes through each filter).

Stacking, RC-Astro Process StarXterminator and NoiseXterminator in PixInsight. Plus my PI scripts: Dualband-Narrowband-Palettes-processor_SJW.js, Unlinked_stretching_SJW.js, Vibrance-control-SJW.js and SelectiveColour-SJW.js. Further processing in PI, SetiAstroSuitePro, GraXpert and GIMP3.

posted by astroimager  # 9:29 PM 0 Comments

I managed to increase the total exposure of this dark nebula to just over 17 hours to produce this final LRGB image edit taken with a Sky-Watchers Esprit 80 triplet refractor and ASI 533MM Pro camera and EFW.

Chris Bowden

posted by Chris B  # 5:46 PM 0 Comments

Workflow

Capture FITS data with Nicola's AstroDMx Capture (pre-release version 3) through a StellaMira 66mm ED APO refractor with field flattener and Altair 5-position EFW with Askar C HaO3 and S2O3 dualband filters. Using Live stacking to produce a good preview (plus saved image if required).

Equipment

In PixInsight

Stacking, RC-Astro Process StarXterminator 

SJW scripts

Dualband-Narrowband-Palettes-processor_SJW.js

Unlinked_stretching_SJW.js

PI Process CurvesTransformation

RC-Astro Process NoiseXterminator

SJW scripts

Vibrance-control-SJW.js

Animation showing subtle before and after Vibrance control

Note the checkbox showing the original image for comparison

SelectiveColour-SJW.js

Used to construct the Hubble palette from the SHO image

SetiAstro PI script to produce 'RGB' stars from the HaO3 and S2O3 stars

PI Toolbox script to put the stars back into the image

SetiAstroSuitePro Cosmic Clarity sharpening stellar and non stellar

GIMP3 Levels, Scale and export final image

Selection of palettes

SHO image

Hubble palette

HOS, Canada, France, Hawaii Telescope, CFHT palette

OHS

HSO

HOO bicolour

HOO-SOO-blend

Steve Wainwright and Nicola Mackin

posted by astroimager  # 5:55 PM 0 Comments