L: 18x10', RGB: 6x5' each
Total: 4.5 hours

This is not the image I had planned for last Saturday. I had planned to use my C9.25 with the STL and the new Moonlite focuser I just got, and play with them for a while, but that evening there were some friends at the DARC Observatory checking "how astrophotography was done", and I decided to do something "easy" instead. The problem is that I just "nicely" framed the two Messiers in the picture, but that's not what I would have done, should I have come prepared. I noticed a bit too late. I'm almost sure I will come back to this object later this summer.

L: 10x10'
RGB: 4x10' each channel
Total: 3.6 hours

These two objects are very low on the horizon where I live. Although I drove 2.5 hours all the way down to Lake San Antonio to image this, we're still talking about a N35.5 degrees latitude. Guiding was the worst I've had in a very long time (seeing was pretty bad this low on the horizon), but the short focal length helped here.

So because of all these challenges, basically my goal wasn't so much to take a breathtaking image but mainly being able to say "got it!".

Got it! ;-)

L: 20x10', RGB: 4x10' each, Ha: 3x15'
Total: 6.08 hours

This image was selected as NASA's May 21, 2009 Astronomy Picture of the Day.

IC 4592 is a reflection nebula in Scorpius, sometimes named "the blue horsehead", that surprisingly is not photographed very often, as it's a beautiful and colorful object. It's also very large (relative to us), especially compared to it's cousin, the most popular Horsehead in Orion.

I have to credit my wife Ariana for being the one who came up with the framing of this object. I'm very happy she's the one who came up with it - I can't think of a better way to frame the "blue horsehead". Thanks Ariana!

As for the session, it was a very warm night at the DARC Observatory (average 70F), which forced me to cool the STL at "only" -5C. Despite I'm fighting a flexure problem with the focal reducer, this image didn't turn out too bad. I was originally planning to add more RGB subs to get more accurate colors - yes the image is super colorful but the color data wasn't very detailed. In the end I decided to leave it as it is, and perhaps revisit this object next year.