Celestron Origin (1)

My husband has been taking one image per clear evening in our back yard with his new Celestron Origin Intelligent Home Observatory.

He has been changing the exposures every night from 20 minutes to over 90 minutes…taking pictures of galaxies and nebulae: Whirlpool Galaxy, Bode’s Nebula, Fireworks Galaxy, and Bubble Nebulae. The images below are created without post processing outside the telescope!  

The skies at our house are not particularly dark; there is one streetlight that is particularly problematic…and a neighbor’s house with twinkle lights around their deck. Our house blocks the streetlight in front of our house – which is good. Still – the initial days with the new telescope have been positive ones. There is a huge advantage to doing things in the back yard in a couple of hours each night rather than driving someplace, staying up all night (dosing in the tent during longer exposures) making the most of the night, and then either sleeping in a tent in the early morning hours or driving home.

He is planning to go to the Okie-Tex Star Party at the end of September. Then he’ll go into the mode of staying up all night…getting the most out of the dark skies for photography and interacting with other amateur astronomers. I’ll stay home to care for our 3 cats.