Howard Bird's First Two AP Images

 Wow, Howard, you're off the starting line in a FLASH!!

These are really impressive and a great example of your first work in astrophotography.

Howard is a relatively new member of NJAA but if this is an example of his grasp at collecting photons, his newfound dedication to the hobby will provide him (and us) with a lot of fun for quite a while.

He lives in Clinton Twp, New Jersey not far from NJAA's observatory so he is usually within a Bortle 7 night) sky.

For the Eastern Veil Nebula, he used his Celestron 8" Edge on a CGEM II mount with ASIAir Plus guiding and a 0.7 focal reducer to a Celestron OAG ASI290 Mini Guide Scope, a ZWO ASI2600MC camera. He used a Dual Band Antile filter (6.5 hours of 3-minute x 130 subs)  and an SVbony UHC filter (4.5 hours of 90 x 3-minute subs) from his driveway. 

Howard said he chose to image the Veil Nebula after talking to friends that he met at the Cherry Springs Star Party in Pennsylvania (Bortle 2) with consideration of his local field of view(FOV).

Processing was done in Pixinsight

Howard's very first astroImage was of M101! That's an excellent first go at imaging a difficult target. Impressive!!! 203 subs x 180 seconds each.

Here's his next image ~ the Eastern Veil Nebula as noted above:

And finally, Howard shared his Green Flash photo taken while on his trip to Florida this past spring.

I'm jealous... I've tried to see this phenomenon for years and years (and years)... without success. 

Great shot Howard.

Keith