Chris Howard's Astro Journal: I'm an amateur astronomer and astrophotographer in coastal New Hampshire, working in narrowband and RGB color, focusing mostly on deep space objects—nebulae and galaxies, with some intermittent planetary and solar photography (because our sun's the nearest star and the planets and our moon are simply beautiful). I post finished and processing-in-progress shots and my equipment setup information. I also post about building and devising better ways to automate and…
Setup and polar alignment for the portable astro rig was super fast. I was using the bluetooth connection to the AM3N mount, but switched to USB (short USB C to A cable from the back of the saddle to the 585MC Air). North America nebula (NGC 7000) is always a good bright test target for a new camera (when M42 or M31 aren't available). Clouds moved in around 2:30 in the morning and I ended up with…
I think this is the final component needed to complete my super portable astro rig. I now have a new EQ mount, the ZWO AM3N. I bought this last week and it showed up last night. I've been using ZWO mounts for almost five years. I pre-ordered the original AM5 when it was announced in 2021. The AM5 has always been an amazing mount, and this one, the AM3 is its little brother, smaller but still very…
I started capturing imaging data for the Iris around 2 in the morning, and ended up with 61 good subs around 4:45am. The Iris Nebula (LBN 487, NGC 7023, Caldwell 4) is about 1300 lightyears away in the constellation Cepheus. Imaging notes: April 11, 2026 astro session in the backyard, CarbonStar 150 imaging Newtonian (600mm FL, f/4), ZWO ASI715MC camera (gain 0, 2x2 binning), ZWO AM5 EQ mount, 61…
One from last night's session, the "Hamburger Galaxy" (NGC 3628) is a spiral galaxy, about 35 million lightyears away in the constellation Leo. We're seeing it edge-on from our perspective on our planet. Imaging notes: April 11, 2026 astro session in the backyard, CarbonStar 150 imaging Newtonian (600mm FL, f/4), ZWO ASI715MC camera (gain 0, 2x2 binning), ZWO AM5 EQ mount, 83 3-minute subs stacked…
The “Owl Nebula”, M97 (NGC 3587) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Ursa Major (Big Dipper), about 2000 lightyears away. The Owl is relatively new, forming in the last 8000 years or so from a small to medium sized star, ejecting ionized gasses, including hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur, toward the end of its life. This image is from my April 9, 2026 astro session in the…
A little frosty this morning after the imaging session. I'm still using the same mismatched (sort of) setup, with the Carbonstar 150 (600mm fl) scope and the ZWO ASI715MC camera. I spent the entire night capturing 120-second subs of M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy. Galaxy M 101 (NGC 5457), the "Pinwheel Galaxy" in the constellation Ursa Major (Big Dipper) is over 21 million lightyears away from us. M101…
It’s 5am, we’re just coming out of astronomical dark, and I’m reading through the following article while I’m capturing the 206th sub-exposure of M106/NGC4258 Galaxy: An Improved Distance to NGC 4258 and Its Implications for the Hubble Constant, M. J. Reid, D. W. Pesce, A. G. Riess, 2019, Volume 886, Number 2, The Astrophysical Journal Letters. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ab552d The first…
How to capture galaxies millions of lightyears away and have fun doing it! https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHoward/videos