Kayron Mercieca

IC1396 Elephant Trunk Nebula in Narrowband Bicolour - AstroBin Link and Flickr Linkby Kayron MerciecaThe Elephant Trunk Nebula (seen precisely to the top of the image) is located within a large ionised gas region in the constellation Cepheus. The Elephant Trunk Nebula shows up with a very bright rim to the nebulosity due to heating from a massive star nearby. The cavity within the Elephant Trunk Nebula is thought to have been emptied by stellar winds from star formation. 

This image was captured from O'Hara's Battery in Gibraltar, located 420 metres above sea level. It is a single frame and contains a relatively small amount of data, at only 6 hours total. This consists of 12 Hydrogen-Alpha and 12 Oxygen-III exposures, each 15 minutes long. The use of both narrowband filters forms the basis of the Bicolour Palette used in this image. A synthetic luminance channel was made and combined to further bring out the fine detail. Exposures were captured on an Avalon M-Uno mount, Borg 45EDII refractor and QSI 660wsg-8 monochrome CCD camera. The filters were used Astrodon Hydrogen-Alpha 3nm and Oxygen-III 3nm. PixInsight was used for all processing. 

NGC7000 North America Nebula and IC5070 Pelican Nebula in Narrowband Bicolour - AstroBin Link and Flickr Link by Kayron MerciecaThe North America Nebula (left in image) and Pelican Nebula (right in image) together form a significant feature of the nebulosity located in the constellation Cygnus. The North America Nebula is nearby the star Deneb and alone visually corresponds to about four times the size of the full Moon in the night sky. The Pelican Nebula is a very interesting region of nebulosity due to the fast-evolving dynamics of the ionised Hydrogen gas, caused by nearby star formation heating this gas and pushing it apart. Both nebulae surround the well-known Cygnus Wall (the dark region in-between both nebulae in the image). The Cygnus Wall, prominently featured here, features extremely dense regions of star formation. 

This image was captured from O'Hara's Battery in Gibraltar, located 420 metres above sea level. It is a 2-panel mosaic and consists of a total of 60 exposures (30 Hydrogen-Alpha and 30 Oxygen-III), each 15 minutes long. The use of both narrowband filters forms the basis of the Bicolour Palette used in this image. A synthetic luminance channel was made and combined to further bring out the fine detail. Exposures were captured on an Avalon M-Uno mount, Borg 45EDII refractor and QSI 660wsg-8 monochrome CCD camera. The filters were used Astrodon Hydrogen-Alpha 3nm and Oxygen-III 3nm. PixInsight was used for all processing. 

IC1318 Gamma Cygni Nebula in Hydrogen-Alpha - AstroBin Link and Flickr Linkby Kayron MerciecaThe Gamma Cygni Nebula is a very large diffuse nebula located in the heart of the constellation Cygnus and surrounds the star Sadr (the bright one on the top-left in this image). This is an extremely nebulosity-rich region of the night sky. 

This image was captured from O'Hara's Battery in Gibraltar, located 420 metres above sea level. It is a single frame and consists of a total of only 11 Hydrogen-Alpha exposures, each 15 minutes long. Exposures were captured on an Avalon M-Uno mount, Borg 77EDII refractor and QSI 660wsg-8 monochrome CCD camera. The filter used was an Astrodon Hydrogen-Alpha 3nm filter. PixInsight was used for post-processing after calibration and stacking in DeepSkyStacker. 

IC1805 Heart Nebula in Hydrogen-Alpha - AstroBin Link and Flickr Linkby Kayron MerciecaThe Heart Nebula is located in the constellation Cassiopeia and is roughly 7,500 lightyears away. The radiation output from a group of stars in the centre is mostly responsible for the formation of the nebula itself, which is mostly comprised of ionised Hydrogen. Some of the stars in the centre of the Heart Nebula are around 50 times the mass of the Sun. 

This image was captured from O'Hara's Battery in Gibraltar, located 420 metres above sea level. It consists of a total of 35 Hydrogen-Alpha exposures, each 15 minutes long, spanning a 2-panel mosaic. Exposures were captured on an Avalon M-Uno mount, Borg 77EDII refractor and QSI 660i monochrome CCD camera. The filter used was an Astrodon Hydrogen-Alpha 3nm filter. PixInsight was used for post-processing after calibration and stacking in DeepSkyStacker. 

NGC6992 Eastern Veil Nebula in LRGB - AstroBin Link and Flickr Linkby Kayron MerciecaThe Eastern Veil Nebula is located in the constellation Cygnus. It is part of the much larger Veil Nebula, a supernova remnant dated around 5,000 to 8,000 years. The massive clouds of heated and ionised gas were created when a star went supernova. This portion of the nebula is opposite the portion nicknamed the Witch's Broom. 

This image was captured from Gibraltar, from both Spur Battery and Europa Point. It consists of a total of 90 exposures. 30 Luminance exposures were captured, each 3 minutes long. 20 Red, 20 Green and 20 Blue exposures were captured for colour. The Red and Blue exposures were each 5 minutes long and the Green exposures were each 4 minutes long. Exposures were captured on an Avalon M-Uno mount, Borg 77EDII refractor and QSI 660i monochrome CCD camera. The filters were Baader's LRGB filters, with a Hutech IDAS LPS filter in front of Borg's focal reducer. PixInsight was used for post-processing after calibration and stacking in DeepSkyStacker.