Pictures at an Exhibition - the photography thread

All of the images sent back to us by Hubble have been absolutely amazing. But I didn't know until recently that deep sky objects (objects outside our solar system) could actually be captured in detail using amateur equipment. It involves a lot of time in post-processing, stacking images, enhancing luminance, cleaning backgrounds, etc. I am in no way proficient at it, but I captured these in the last few months from my driveway with a mirrorless camera, and most recently an astromodified DSLR with a Canon 300mm f4L lens. Eventually I will get a telescope (probably quite a few if I end up as absorbed in this as others I have seen on the web) and dedicated narrowband cameras to advance my repertoire. This is likely to get expensive.

This is NGC 6960, 6992, 6995, 6974. Combined form the Veil Nebula. Very dirty production.

    

The first galaxy I captured. M51, also known is the Whirlpool galaxy, appx. 25,000,000 light years away. Its actually 2 galaxies that have collided. The core to the right, NGC 5194 has actually passed through from our perspective and is further away from us. It was quite a rush the first time I saw the galaxy on my view screen. It is cropped way down as it only takes up about 1% of the screen at the focal length I use. 

  

This is M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy. It is really difficult to get color out of this galaxy. Background much dirtier than I like. About 21,000,000 light years away. I really like the really tiny, much further away background galaxies to the right. There is also an elliptical galaxy to the left.  

This is the easiest deep sky object (pair actually) I have captured. NGC 7000, known as the North America nebula, and IC 5070, the Pelican Nebula. I have imaged this 3 times now, so when it is in the sky it will be my litmus test for new equipment. The first image is with my full-frame Canon EOS R. It is not astromodified so it is missing a lot of the hydrogen data which is red. The bottom is with an EOS 77d that has been modified with the red-eye filter removed. I like the full view with the EOS R that includes the bright star Deneb to the right. However, the hydrogen data of the second, more red image grants much more detail. Especially on the left side feature known as the Cygnus Wall.

Another photography subfield that I find intriguing is full spectrum photography. You can really get some bizarre effects on landscapes. 

Yes, the racks make a guest appearance. There's another 600 or so out of view to the left.    

Great astrophotos! I've been hesitating shortly about investing in astrophotography, but decided not to go that route, and since I'm mostly sleeping at night I continue to photograph clouds, when I look up at the sky (not at hand now, but I have different series of those).

Just a recent one from my chair in front of the house - it's called "Dinnertime":