Imaging the Universe

Horsehead & Flame Nebulas with Alnitak - photo by Steve Jones

The universe is a beautiful creation. I love discovering it’s mysteries (notice I said mysteries, not answers!).

The above image is of IC434 (Horsehead Nebula) and NGC2024 (Flame Nebula). The bright star on the left is Alnitak, the left-most star in Orion’s Belt. These are some of my favorite objects to image because of…well…just look at them!

I have a ZWO Seestar S50 Imaging system. I’ve been using this for about a year and a half and I love it so much! In fact, I call it a “gateway drug” for astrophotography, because I have since invested in upgraded mounts, telescopes, cameras, guiding camera, planetary cameras, a ZWO ASIAir, and more to try to not only get amazing pictures, but to do science! (I am not sponsored by ZWO, nor do I get any compensation for talking about their products, but if they happen across this site, I’m listening….) The S50 is easy for anyone interested in getting amazing images of the night sky to use. It is operated with a simple app that allows you to choose an object and let the camera do the rest. You can watch the images stack in real time! You can also download the FITS files for doing processing on your own if you would like (don’t know what that sentence means? Stay tuned, true believers!)

Using the S50, I took the above image over a 4-hour period from some Bortle 4 skies in southern Kentucky. I plan to share more images on here, along with information about how I took them and some tips on how you the reader can do the same!

Do you have any particular topics you would like me to cover? Anything you would like me to image and post?

Seestar S50 at work - photo by Steve Jones