AstroCrescent

Welcome to my astronomy & astrophotography site. I'm KGB and among other interests, I'm an amateur astronomer and astrophotographer. My interest started when very young and now years later I practice astronomy and astrophotography in my back garden at home in the crescent. Primarily, my site is aimed at beginners who need help with this obsess-, er, scientific pursuit and also the focus is on the modern CMOS cameras as regards astrophotography. I am hoping to show what can be done with modest gear and very bad UK skies, as opposed to £14,000 cameras and a 18 inch remote telescope in a desert. I hope you find this site useful.
KGB.

GEAR USED FOR ALL IMAGES ON THIS SITE:

William Optics ZenithStar 81 APO Doublet Refractor (Unless mentioned otherwise, all images since the 24th April 2024).

Sky-Watcher Evostar 72ED DS-Pro. (Images up to 22nd April 2024).

SkyWatcher HEQ5 PRO SynScan GOTO Equatorial Mount.

ZWO ASI 533MC-PRO USB 3.0 Cooled Colour Camera.

Pegasus Pocket Powerbox Micro.

Optolong Dual-Band L-eXtreme Filter.

Optolong L-Pro Light Pollution Broadband Filter.

ASIAIR Mini Hardware & Software.

PixInsight (Software).

Astrophotography

Please click on the photos for more information. The photos contain information such as gain and exposure settings which you can copy and use with your own camera. This info is very useful for beginners.

#NGC 4565 #Galaxies #Stars #Caldwell 38 #Needle Galaxy #Astronomy #Astrophotography

#M67 #Messier 67 #Open Cluster #Stars #Astronomy #Astrophotography

#Perseus #NGC 1333 #Nebula #Embryo nebula #Astronomy #Astrophotography

#IC 443 #Gemini #Nebula #astronomy #astrophotography

NGC 2112, Barnard's Loop, astronomy, astrophotography, astrophotography, E.E.Barnard, Orion, M42, B33,

SH2-249, VDB 75, IC 444, IC 443, Mu Geminorum, Tejat

M37, clusters, star clusters, Messier, astronomy, astrophotography,

NGC 6946, NGC 6939, galaxies, open clusters, astronomy, astrophotography,

M45, Pleiades, seven sisters, Messier, open clusters, astronomy, astrophotography,

Cassiopeia, SH2-157, nebula, stars, astronomy, astrophotography,

Barnard 26, Barnard 27, Barnard 28, VDB 31, AB Aurigae,

Veil Nebula, NGC 6979, NGC 6974, Pickerings Triangular Wisp, astronomy, astrophotography,

IC 361, open cluster, Camelopardalis, astronomy, astrophotography,

NGC 6992, Cygnus, The Veil Nebula, Cygnus Loop, Astronomy, Astrophotography,

Cygnus, Veil Nebula, nebulae, stars, astrophotography, astronomy,

NGC 6820, NGC 6823, nebula, stars, astrophotography, astronomy

Cassiopeia, open cluster, NGC 663, NGC 659, NGC 654, astronomy, astrophotography,

Cassiopeia, Heart Nebula, emission nebula, IC 1805, star cluster, Melotte 15,

NGC 457, open cluster, stars, astronomy, astrophotography,

Barnard 363, B363, LDN 1007, LDN 1008, nebula, nebulae, Cygnus, stars, astronomy, astrophotography,

Cygnus, Cygnus Wall, North America Nebula, nebulae, stars, astronomy, astrophotography,

Star Charts

While I acknowledge that if you have a computer controlled telescope, then you do not need a star chart. Personally, while I now have the luxury of a go-to mount, I learned my way around the sky using star charts and a 60mm telescope, that was if nothing else, a teacher of patience. I also find star charts fascinating in their own right, so I include them here for those who feel the same way.

All the star charts are created with Skychart, a free celestial atlas available here: https://www.ap-i.net/skychart/en...