iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Roadside Canvas, Halloran Springs, CA Canon R6 Mk II and RF 24-105mm f/4L IS

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Nebula Sh2-124 in SHO narrowband (Hubble Palette) - @skywatcherusa.bsky.social Wave 100i and 100mm Apo at f/5.7. ZWO 2600MM and Optolong SHO 7nm filters. Taken from Long Beach, CA. 1000 minutes exposure time. #astronomy #astrophotography #nebula #space #narrowband

0202

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Sh2-215, Sh2-216 (Abell 71), Weinberger 1-10, VDB 134, LBN 381, etc in Cygnus in Hubble Palette (SHO). More in alt text @celestronuniverse.bsky.social #astronomy #astrophotography #celestron #skywatcherusa

After several recent nights of getting shut down early by clouds, I managed to get 3 nights in a row with clear skies until the early hours of the morning.

I decided to shoot an area of Cygnus that I had rarely seen imaged and never in a single shot. With 6 hours per filter, I was able to keep the best 85% of the frames and still wind up with over 15 hours total exposure time. 918 minutes, to be exact.

The main highlights are the nebula Sh2-115 at the bottom and the two planetary nebulae Sh2-116 (also known as Abell 71) 1/3 up the frame near the right and the very faint Weinberger 1-10 near Omega Cygni 1 and 2 and the reflection nebula VDB 134 at upper right. LBN 381 fills most of the frame and gives me the feeling of waves crashing together from different directions.

Celestron RASA 8, Sky-Watcher USA Wave 100i mount, ZWO ASI2600MM camera, and Baader 6.5nm f/2 SHO narrowband filters. Acquired with the ASIAir Plus and processed in DSS, PixInsight, GraXpert, and Photoshop.

Scout is showing off the rig used to take the image in the second picture, though she would much rather be barking at squirrels!

0172

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

B142/143 - Barnard's "E" Dark Nebula in Aquila. @celestronuniverse.bsky.social RASA 8, @skywatcherusa.bsky.social Wave 100i mount, ZWO ASI071MC camera, and IDAS LPS-2 filter. 1 hour of exposure time in Bortle 2 skies. #astronomy #astrophotography #darkskies #easternsierra

0210

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Sh2-119 - Clamshell Nebula in Cygnus. @celestronuniverse.bsky.social RASA 8, @skywatcherusa.bsky.social Wave 100i, ZWO ASI071MC, IDAS LPS-P2 Filter. ~5 hours exposure time from dark Bortle 2 skies. #astronomy #astrophotography #cygnus #rasa8

1534

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Milky Way rising over a Bortle 2 site at 10,000 feet in the Eastern Sierra. @canonusa.bsky.social R6 Mk II, Canon 50mm f/1.4L VCM lens at f/2, fixed tripod. 2 panels at 10 x 13 sec images at ISO 8000. #astronomy #astrophotography #milkyway #canon #dakrskies

419525

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

Images of the sun from my backyard today with the @skywatcherusa.bsky.social Heliostar 76 scope and Star Adventurer GTi mount. A @celestronuniverse.bsky.social XCel LX barlow was used on the higher detail monochrome image. #astronomy #astrophotography #daytimeastro #sunlight

0160

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

IC 5146 - The Cocoon Nebula - Images with the @celestronuniverse.bsky.social Origin by my friend Rod and processed by me in PixInsight and Photoshop. 290 minutes exposure. #astronomy #astrophotography #nebula #starrysky #celestron

0232

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

Scorpius and the Cygnus Rift from Landers, CA. Canon R6 Mk II and RF 50mm f/1.4 L VCM. #astronomy #astrophotography #milkyway #starrysky #canon #r6mkII

1568

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

I love you even more now than the day we married, @barbaraisrad.bsky.social! I'm so glad to share my life with you. One decade together, many more to come! #anniversary

010

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Avenue of the Giants, Humboldt Redwoods State Park Canon R6 Mk II and RF 14-35mm f/4L IS - 7 frame mosaic #canon #redwoods #humboldtcounty

010

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Jupiter, the Great Red Spot, and 3 of the 4 Galilean moons last night. @celestronuniverse.bsky.social EdgeHD 8 on an AVX mount. Best 750 frames out of 3000. #astronomy #astrophotography #jupiter #solarsystem #planet #moons

4998

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Dawn on the water - Canon R6 Mk II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II lens - with and without a 1.4x TC II. Taken at Bolsa Chica Wetlands Wildlife Preserve #birds #nature #wetlands #canon #r6mkii

030

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

A bit too cloudy for stargazing last night. Canon R6 Mk II and RF 14-35mm f/4L IS lens at 14mm, f/4. 20 sec at ISO 6400. #astronomy #astrophotography #canon #nightsky

0292

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Lunar Eclipse Sequence - Celestron Regal M2 80mm spotting scope and Canon 5D Mk IV. 1/1600s at ISO 800 x6 plus 0.4s at ISO 3200 for totality. #astronomy #astrophotography #eclipse #moon #celestron

0347

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Lots of interesting prominences around the sun today. Lunt 60 tilt-tuned, Player One Apollo M-Mini, Sky-Watcher USA Star Adventurer GTi. 750 frames stacked. #astronomy #astrophotography #solarpower #hydrogen

1231

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

New rig, who dis? Seriously, though, the colors right out of camera on the @canonusa.bsky.social R6 Mk II blow my old 5D Mk IV out of the water! So much lighter and faster, also! Can't wait to try it under the night sky this summer! #canon #r6mkii #canonphotography #photography

All images taken with the R6 Mk II and either the RF 24-105 f/4L IS or an EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS II lens.

180

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

NGC 2244 and 2264 - Rosette and Cone Nebula / Christmas Tree Cluster widefield in HaRGB. Taken this weekend under Bortle 4 skies at Songdog Ranch outside of New Cuyama, CA. #astrophotography #nebula #rosette #nightsky #astronomy

ZWO ASI2600MM/1600MC, Rokinon 135mm f/2 lens at f/2.8, Sky-Watcher USA Star Adventurer GTi. Baader 6.5nm Ha f/2 filter, Hutech NBZ filter. 270 minutes exposure time.

1403

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Good morning, all! Lots of activity on the sun today especially around sunspot AR3978 (double-lobed bright spot near lower left) and the limb above it in this image. #sun #solarastonomy #halphasolar #lunt #celestron #skywatcherusa #solarpower #backyardastronomy

Lunt 60 single-stacked tilt-tuned, Celestron 2x X-Cel LX barlow, Player One Apollo-M Mini, Sky-Watcher USA Star Adventurer GTi mount. Best 750 frames stacked in AutoStakkert!3, processed in imPPG, Registax, PixInsight, and Duotone false color and final contrast adjustments added in Photoshop.

020

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Over the last few weeks, I have been assembled a page on my photography website to showcase a collection of what I consider my best (or at least my favorite) images I have taken over the past 20 years. Hope you enjoy! hendrenimaging.net/selected-fav... #photography #astronomy #astrophotography

http://hendrenimaging.net/selected-favorite-images.html

0755

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

The Flame Nebula - NGC 2024 and IC 432 in Orion. Just east of the bright star Alnitak in Orion's belt lies one of the most colorful regions of the winter sky. Taken by me this past weekend in Landers, CA. #astronomy #astrophotography

The Flame Nebula - NGC 2024 - is a stellar nursery about 1350 light years away shrouded at its center by tendrils of dark dust. Due to the ionization of the hidden bright O-class star IRS-2B blended with the influence of other nearby stars reflecting their own light through the hydrogen gas, NGC 2024 shows a warmer golden color in images than is usual for emission nebula.

To the upper right of the Flame, the nebula IC 432 shows both a red emission and blue reflection component around its central star. Around both nebulae, faint tendrils of bright and dark hydrogen fil the frame.

Taken at the Nerdery Observatory at GMARS in Landers, CA. 485 minutes total exposure time. HaRGB data taken from a Celestron EdgeHD 1100 at f/10, ZWO ASI6200MM, and Astrodon 5nm Ha and RGB filters on an ASA DDM85 mount. Additional one-shot color data added from the piggybacked Pentax 125 SDP and a ZWO ASI071MC camera.

Good guiding even with less than perfect seeing.

2479

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Simeis 147 - Also known as the Spaghetti Nebula - taken in HaRGB. This is a large supernova remnant in Taurus imaged with a 135mm camera lens. #astronomy #astrophotography #taurus @bot.astronomy.blue signup

Simeis 147 is around 3000 light years away in the constellation of Taurus and spans around 160 light years. This nebula is too wide for any of my normal telescope setups, so I imaged it with a 135mm lens in front of 2 ZWO cameras, switching from a one shot color ASI071MC with IDAS LPS-P2 filter to a monochrome ASI2600MM camera with H-alpha filter as the moon rose around 10 PM. This composite image of more than 6 hours at f/2.8 allowed me to pull out the faint structure in the nebula with other hydrogen clouds surrounding it.

Sky-Watcher USA Star Adventurer GTi, Samyang 135mm f/2 lens at f/2.8.

160

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

Got a break in the smoke to head down and catch the sunrise and birds down at Bolsa Chica. There were more cormorants and snowy egrets out than I have ever seen at one time. All images taken with a Canon R7 and EF 100-400mmL IS II or RF-S 18-150 IS lenses. #bolsachica #wetlands #canon #wildbirds

010

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Spectrum of the B7III class blue giant star Elnath (Beta Tauri) taken last night. Shelyak Alpy 600 spectrograph and @celestronuniverse.bsky.social EdgeHD 800 on an AVX mount. #celestron #spectrum #starrysky #spectroscopy #taurus #shelyak #winterstars

As a B7 class star toward the cooler end of that class, Elnath shares similar spectral features to a slightly cooler A class star like Vega (A0V) - primarily the deep Hydrogen Balmer absorption lines. The main visible difference with Elnath vs Vega is that the peak of the spectrum shifts farther left here into near UV beyond the blue edge of the spectrum, while Vega's peak is closer to 4000 Angstroms.

020

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Jupiter taken from my back yard. @celestronuniverse.bsky.social EdgeHD 8"at f/20 with a ZWO ASI290MC camera. Best 1250 frames out of 5000. #jupiter #astrophotography #celestron #planet

Planet Jupiter at ~4000mm focal length with a Celestron EdgeHD 8" telescope, 2x Barlow, and ZWO ASI290MC camera. Taken in SharpCap and stacked in AutoStakkert!3. Processed in imPPG, PixInsight, and Photoshop. Best 1250 out of 5000 frames.

0101

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Every winter, I look forward to Orion rising, and with it the Orion Nebula. This is one of my deepest images yet. Almost 10 hours of imaged at f/2 from light-polluted Long Beach. #celestron #rasa8 #orion #hargb #backyardastronomy #skywatcherusa #zwo

The Sword of Orion. M42, M43, and NGC 1977. 584 minutes HaRGB with a Celestron RASA 8, Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro, and ZWO ASIAir. Color data was taken with a ZWO ASI071MC camera and IDAS GNB filter (Ha, Hb, OIII + NIR). Hydrogen Alpha Luminance was taken with a ZWO ASI2600MM camera and Baader 6.5nm f/2 high speed Ha filter.

Processed in DSS, GraXpert, PixInsight, and Photoshop. Taken over 3 nights from light polluted Long Beach, CA.

040

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

After Arches, my wife and I explored Canyonlands National Park. Cold and foggy to start, the day gradually cleared by late morning. #canyonlands #nps #nationalpark #vacation #roadtrip #nature

031

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Skies were dark over Arches NP Thursday night. I was able to capture a couple of Milky Way landscape images over well-known arches. #arches #nationalpark #milkyway #darkskies #canon5dmkiv #rokinon24 #longexposure

Pleiades and Hyades clusters rising over The Windows.

000

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

My wife and I took a National Park trip for this long holiday weekend. Here are pictures from Arches, NP taken Thursday. #arches #nationalpark #roadtrip #highdesert #holiday #moab #utah

010

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Lots of prominences on the sun near maximum. Processed with inverted surface detail and false color to better show their structure. Lunt 60 single stack Ha scope, Sky-Watcher USA Star Adventurer GTi, Player One Apollo-M Mini camera. #sun #solarpower #hydrogen #daytimeastro

The sun in Hydrogen Alpha light processed with inverted surface detail.

010

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Fall colors in Yosemite, November 9, 2024. My wife and I drove 700 miles in a day to catch the national park on her birthday in all it's autumnal glory. #yosemite #nps #fallcolors #canon5dmkiv #travel #vacation #halfdome #roadtrip

0131

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

M45 - Pleiades deep field LRGB with the Celestron RASA 8, AVX, and SSAG. ZWO 2600MM mono and 071MC color with IDAS LPS-P2 filter. #pleiades #astrophotography #space #darkskies #celestron #zwo

M45 - Pleiades deep field LRGB with the Celestron RASA 8, AVX, and SSAG. ZWO 2600MM mono and 071MC color with IDAS LPS-P2 filter.

I've wanted to take another shot of the Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, for several years, but weather or travel plans just never seemed to line up. I finally got my chance last night after the comet set, but I spent hours dodging clouds and ultimately had to toss over half of my luminance data after a post-meridian flip plate solving error (caused by those pesky clouds, no doubt!)

I ended up with 90 minutes of one shot color data and 101 minutes of monochrome data. Most of the images were 3 minutes, but I used 30 second images for the stars and brightest parts of the nebula to avoid blowing them out. The entire field here is filled with dust illuminated by the bright blue stars of the cluster, which lies about 440 light years away in the constellation of Taurus.

I'm extremely happy with this one, and while more data could have helped a bit in the darker areas, I feel content calling this complete.

080

Hendrenimaging @hendrenimaging.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

NGC 253 - the Sculptor Galaxy. The first galaxy I ever saw details on in 2003 with a 6" Telescope. Imaged in 2024 with my Celestron 8" EdgeHD and ZWO ASI2600MM. 234 minutes exposure time. #celestron #telescope #astronomy #space #galaxy #universe #stars #darksies #astrophotography

NGC 253 - the Sculptor Galaxy.

In August of 2003 my dad and I took my new 6" Schmidt-Newtonian telescope out on an overnight camping trip to Cottonwood Campground at the southern edge of Joshua Tree National Park. It was the first time I had owned a telescope of this size and also the first time I had done a serious night of stargazing under skies dark enough to really see the Milky Way.

In going through a list of recommended targets, I sent the telescope slewing to NGC 253 and was amazed when I could faintly see the mottled detail of the two main spiral arms with the brightening of the bar across the middle. From that night, this has been my favorite galaxy, but I have never really felt like I had done it justice in my images taken with short focal length telescopes. The Sculptor Galaxy is also too far to the south for me to image from my observatory at GMARS, as the southern wall blocks anything below about 30 degrees.

Last night, I finally got the chance to rectify that. I got out to the dark skies of Red Rock Canyon State Park just after sunset and planned to get as much data as I could with my Celestron EdgeHD 8" telescope at f/10 with a ZWO ASI2600MM-P camera and Optolong LRGB filters on a Sky-Watcher USA EQ6-R Pro mount.

The seeing was extremely poor for the first part of the night, and strong smoke and airglow to the south made color balancing a real chore, but things settled down to average-ish seeing by about 11 PM. This image is the best 234 minutes (3.9 hours) of LRGB data.

Acquired with ASIAir and processed with DSS, Pixinsight (BlurXterminator saves the day again!), and Photoshop.

060