Parnon Mountain
July 25, 2009
Parnon Mountain, in the heart of Peloponese, offers a very dark sky which makes it an ideal place for astrophotography!
Below you can see images captured with the Canon EOS 450D piggybacked on the Vixen ED81S refractor. The mount was Vixen Great Polaris with Skysensor 2000 PC.
The image processing steps were the following:
- RAW images calibrated in DeepSkyStacker and converted to TIFF
- Hyperbolic histogram modification of the TIFF images in ImagesPlus
- Levels, Brightness, Contrast adjustment in Photoshop
Antares region, Canon EOS 450D, 10 min, ISO 800
This is one of the most colorful areas in our galaxy. The bright blue reflection nebula at the top, IC 4604, is associated with the triple star, Rho Ophiuchi. Antares (Alpha Scorpii), at the bottom left, is surrounded by a yellow area of nebulosity, IC 4606. Antares literally means "like Mars", due to its bright yellowish-red color. Antares is 60,000 times brighter than our sun, and is so large that its disc can be easily measured -- if it were in our solar system it would almost reach to Jupiter! The blue star towards the middle is Sigma Scorpii, and is surrounded by a red emission nebula. Below Sigma Scorpii and to the right of Antares is the globular cluster, M4.
The Summer Milky Way, Canon EOS 450D, 10 min, ISO 800
Milky Way Horse Dark Nebula, Canon EOS 450D, 10 min, ISO 800
Milky Way Center, Canon EOS 450D, 10 min, ISO 800
This is a zoom image towards the Galactic Center.
Altair, Beta and Gamma Aquilae, and dark nebulae B142 and B143, Canon EOS 450D, 10 min, ISO 800
B142 and B143 are a pair of dark nebulae in Aquila in the rich summer Milky Way star fields near Tarazed (Gamma Aquilae).Dark nebula are clouds of non-luminous matter in space that obscure the stars behind them.
NGC7000, the North American Nebula, Canon EOS 450D, 10 min, ISO 800
The North America Nebula (NGC 7000 or Caldwell 20) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, close to Deneb (the tail of the swan and its brightest star). The remarkable shape of this emission nebula resembles that of the continent of North America, complete with a prominent Gulf of Mexico.
NGC6992, NGC6960, NGC6995, the Veil Nebula, Canon EOS 450D, 10 min, ISO 800
The Veil Nebula, also known as the Cygnus Loop or the Witch's Broom Nebula, is a large, relatively faint supernova remnant in the constellation Cygnus. The source supernova exploded some 5,000 to 8,000 years ago, and the remnants have since expanded to cover an area of ~3x3 degrees; about 6 times the diameter or 36 times the area of a full moon.
NGC884-869, the Double Cluster, Canon EOS 450D, 10 min, ISO 800
The Double Cluster is the common name for the naked-eye open clusters NGC 884 and NGC 869, which are close together in the constellation Perseus. NGC 884 and NGC 869 are at distances of 7600 and 6800 light-years away, respectively, so they are close to one another in space as well.
Observing site, Canon EOS 450D, 10 min, ISO 800