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Fred Danowski sent in this colorful view of Messier 42, the Orion Nebula, which is his first attempt at imaging a deep-sky object! It was taken on December 14, 2021 with a 10-inch Meade LX200 EMC (Alt/Az) telescope and a Nikon D5300 camera. The image is based on 18 stacked 13-second exposures. The software he used for image acquisition and processing included Astro Photography Tool, Deep Sky Stacker, and GIMP.
Fred then used StarNet++ to remove all the star images and leave just the nebula to produce the lower image. This approach can help astrophotographers process bright star images and dim nebulae separately.
On a February trip to Florida, Don Filer captured two classic deep-sky targets. Don writes: “I had plans to go to the Winter Star Party in the Florida Keys this year but they were cancelled at the last minute. Since I was going anyway, I switched gears and went to Kissimmee Prairie State Preserve which is in the middle of the state and is a designated Dark Sky Park. They have a separate camping area for astronomers with 5 sites. The skies were indeed fairly dark (Bortle 3) and no obstructions on the horizon. Last year I purchased an EvScope which I have enjoyed and find easy to use. Below are two photos I took during this trip.”
