More Information

Winter 2018

Winner’s Name: Matt Dahl

Object Imaged (common name): Whirlpool Galaxy

Fall 2018

Winner’s Name: Scott Carness

Object Imaged (common name): Milky Way, taken at the Table Mountain Star Party

Summer 2018

Winner’s Name: Jeff Bottman

Object Imaged (common name): August 2017 Total Solar Eclipse

Spring 2018

Winner’s Name: Tom Reese

Object Imaged (common name): Jet passing in front of the Moon

Winter 2017

Winner’s Name: Darryn Lavery

Object Imaged (common name): Bubble Nebula

Fall 2017

Winner’s Name: Denis Comfort

Object Imaged (common name): 2017 August Total Solar Eclipse

Summer 2017

None

Spring 2017

Winner’s Name: Shing Ma

Object Imaged (common name): Wolf Moon Setting over Seattle at Sunrise

 

Image Details

Object #: N/A

Date Taken: January 12, 2017, at 7:34 am

Location: Bellevue, WA

Telescope: N/A

Mount: Gitzo tripod

Camera: Nikon D610 with a Nikkor 300 mm f/2.8 lens

Exposure: 1/15 seconds at f/9

Processing: Cropped and minor adjustments

Winter 2016

Winner’s Name: Wayne Hixson

Object Imaged (common name): Witch's Broom/Western Veil Nebula

 

Image Details

Object #: NGC 6960

Date Taken: June 28, 2016

Location: North Seattle (Home)

Telescope: TeleVue NP127is

Mount: Astro-Physics AP1100

Camera: QSI 690

Exposure: 220 minutes. 11x600 H-a, 11x600 O-III (Astrodon filters)

Processing: Captured, calibrated, stacked and aligned with MaximDL. Processed with StarTools 1.4 (Windows 10) using Bicolor technique - H-a:Red, O-III:Blue, and 50/50 H-a/O-III:Green

Fall 2016

Winner’s Name: Rick Ellis

https://www.flickr.com/photos/136923237@N02

Object Imaged (common name): Shark/Dark Nebula

 

Image Details

Object #: LDN 1235

Date Taken: Aug 4th, 5th and 6th

Location: Eden Valley (TMSP)

Telescope: Skywatcher Esprit 80

Mount: Mach1GTO Mount

Camera: QSI583ws cooled CCD camera w/Astrodon LRGB filters with QHY miniguide scope + ZWO ASI120MM-S guide camera

Exposure:

Lum = 4.3hrs (52 x 5min)
RGB = 1hr each (12 x 5 min) binned 2x2

Summer 2016

Winner’s Name: Matt Dahl

https://www.flickr.com/photos/128352927@N02/albums/72157650606143101

Object Imaged (common name): Rho Ophiuchus and Antares Nebula Region

 

Image Details

Object #: LDN 1688

Date Taken: June 3, 2016

Location: Mauna Kea Observatories Visitor Center

Mount: SkyWatcher Star Adventurer

Camera: Canon 6D (Hutech Modified) DSLR with on 300mm f/4L at f/5 Lens

Exposure: 61 minutes (61 x 60 seconds)

Processing: Processed in PixInsight 1.8

Spring 2016

Winner’s Name: Dylan Ma

https://www.flickr.com/photos/49501285@N04/albums/72157662594221510

Object Imaged (common name): The Orion Nebula

 

Image Details

Object #: Messier 42

Date Taken: December 30th, 2015

Location: Bellevue, Washington

Telescope: Stellarvue SV80 ED

Mount: iOptron ZEQ25

Camera: Canon T3i (modified)

Exposure: 10 Darks, 20 Flats, 20 Biases

50 x 60 seconds at f/7, ISO 800

10 x 30 seconds at f/7, ISO 800

10 x 10 seconds at f/7, ISO 800

Processing: Stacking, basic histogram adjustments in DeepSkyStacker. Color Saturation, Levels, Contrast, Brightness, Highlights and Shadows, and Sharpness adjustments made in Adobe Photoshop.

Winter 2015

Winner’s Name: Matt Dahl

https://www.flickr.com/photos/128352927@N02/albums/72157650606143101

Object Imaged (common name): The Soul Nebula in the Hubble Palette

 

Image Details

Object #: IC 1848 (Sh2-199 or Westerhout 5)

Date Taken: November 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29, 2015

Location: near North Bend, WA.

Telescope: TEC 180FL @ f/5 using an Astro-Physics Quad-TCC reducer

Mount: Astro-Physics 900

Camera: QSI 683 wsg-8 with Starlight Xpress Lodestar Autoguider

Exposure: This is a narrowband four-panel mosaic, consisting of the following exposure times:

Ha: 

Panel 1: 255 minutes (17 * 15 min, bin 1x1)
Panel 2: 255 minutes (17 * 15 min, bin 1x1)
Panel 3: 255 minutes (17 * 15 min, bin 1x1)
Panel 4: 270 minutes (18 * 15 min, bin 1x1)

OIII: 

Panel 1: 240 minutes (16 * 15 min, bin 1x1)
Panel 2: 240 minutes (16 * 15 min, bin 1x1)
Panel 3: 240 minutes (16 * 15 min, bin 1x1)
Panel 4: 225 minutes (15 * 15 min, bin 1x1)

SII: 

Panel 1: 120 minutes (8 * 15 min, bin 1x1)
Panel 2: 120 minutes (8 * 15 min, bin 1x1)
Panel 3: 120 minutes (8 * 15 min, bin 1x1)
Panel 4: 120 minutes (8 * 15 min, bin 1x1)

Total Integration Time: 
Each Panel: 615 minutes (10 hours 15 minutes)
Total Image: 2,460 minutes (41 hours)

Processing:  Processed in PixInsight 1.8. I used the modified J-P Metsavainio tone map processing technique as described on the L'arciere celeste website to combine the narrowband color data. Additionally, I used PI's GradientMergeMosaic tool to combine the 4 different panels. The seeing was not good during this exposure run, so that created some processing challenges.

Fall 2015

Winner’s Name: Dylan Ma

https://www.flickr.com/photos/49501285@N04/albums/72157662594221510

Object Imaged (common name): Sagittarius “Core of the Milky Way”

 

Image Details

Date Taken: August 15th, 2015

Location: Table Mountain Star Party - Eden Valley Ranch, Oroville, Washington

Mount: iOptron Skytracker

Camera: Nikon D610 with Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor

Exposure: 177.0 seconds at f/3.2, ISO 1600

Processing: Color Saturation, Levels, Contrast, Brightness, Highlights and Shadows, Sharpness, and Clarity adjustments made in Adobe Lightroom.

 

Summer 2015

Winner’s Name: Dylan Ma

https://www.flickr.com/photos/49501285@N04/albums/72157662594221510

Object Imaged (common name): The North American Nebula

 

Image Details

Object #: NGC 7000

Date Taken: August 29th, 2014

Location: the Goldendale Star Party, Brooks Memorial State Park, Goldendale, Washington

Mount: iOptron ZEQ25

Camera: Nikon D600 with a Nikon 300 mm f/2.8 ED Lens

Exposure: 118.0 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 2500

Processing: Color Saturation, Levels, Midtone Contrast, Brightness Highlights and Shadow, and Cropping adjustments made in Adobe Photoshop Elements Version 6.

Spring 2015

Winner’s Name: Andy Ermolli

https://www.flickr.com/photos/andyinsea

Object Imaged (common name): Bode's Galaxy

 

Image Details

Object #: Messier 81

Date Taken: Luminance in March of 2015 and RGB in Early Spring of 2014

Location: Luminance: Potholes state park and RGB: Skagit Wilderness area.

Telescope: Luminance: Astro-tech 10"RC truss tube. And RGB: Takahashi TOA130.

Mount: Luminance: Astro-physics AP900GTOCP3 mount. And RGB: on Astro Physics Mach 1 mount.

Camera: Luminance: QSI532wsg and RGB: QSI 583wsg

Exposure: Luminance: (40) 5minute subs. And RGB: (10)ea 10minute subs.

Processing:  Data acquisition: Sequence Generator pro, Auto guiding: PHD guiding. Calibrated, stacked and processed with Pixinsight.

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