Cats and war and peace

There are a number of beautiful nebulas in the constellation of Scorpio. I have tried to image a few of them. The image below is a framing of two of them. The "Cat's Paw" nebula and the "War and Peace" nebula. The first one I understood the naming of. It is obviously a cat's paw. But the second I didn't. Read up on it, and the story is that in infrared, the scientists studying it, thought one part looked like a skull and the other like a dove. Hence War and Peace...
Anyhow. This image is a 6-hour exposure of this area. Taken over two nights in Namibia. For all the objects I imaged, I tried to keep them above 40 degrees altitude. This to minimize the difference in extinction between the highest and the lowest point during the night.

Tech details : Pentax K5, ISO640, 60x6 minutes for a total of 6 hours exposure, William Optics Zenithstar 71mm F/4.9 five-element flatfield apo, Skywatcher EQ6 mount, guided by QHY5II and PHD. Stacked in DSS, DDP by FitsLiberator, processed in PS and IrfanView.

100 billion stars

The Milkyway strecthing across the skies is truly a wonderful sight. Every night, when waiting for my exposures to finish, I lie on a sunbed and just enjoy the view. Watching a few meteors burn in a long streak of light. I brought a wideangle zoom lens with me. And I decided to take a widefield image of the beauty. I needed three images to get most of the parts that are not visible from Norway. At the lower right, the Large Magellan Cloud is visible. Click on the image to get a full view of the Milkyway in all its glory!

Tech details : Pentax K5, ISO640, Sigma 10-20mm @10mm, three panels of 12x5 min each. Stacking with DSS, DDP with FitsLiberator, and stiched with Microsoft ICE. Enhanced and cropped in Irfanview.

Blue horsehead nebula

This beautiful nebula lies in the Rho Ophiuchi area, where the star Jabbah is the "eye" of the horse. This star is the source of the light in the nebula The nebula was a bit difficult to image, given its low brightness. Even with 4 hours of exposure, I needed to do some stretching and enhancements to pull it out of the background.

Tech details : Pentax K5, ISO640, William Optics Zenithstar 71mm 5-element flatfield apo, Mounted on an Skywatcher EQ6 guided by QHY5II and PHD. 24x10 min subs, 30 flats. Stacked in DSS, processed in FitsLiberator, PS and Irfanview.

Antares area

Antares is enveloped in a beautiful reflection nebula. It glows in yellow from the star. Nearby are even more nebulosity that shines in red and blue. And even some dark nebulae to complete the picture. As if the nebulosity wasn't enough, there are even a couple of globular clusters thrown in for good measure. One of the most beautiful patches of the sky. During my trip to Namibia, I got the chance to photograph this object among other beautiful objects on the southern skies. Click on the image for a larger version.
Tech details : Pentax K5, ISO 640, William Optics Zenithstar 71mm 5-element flatfield APO, 24 x 10 min subs, 4 hours total. 30 flats. Stacked in DSS, processed in PS and Irfanview.