

First, let me say Happy New Year to everyone, and hopefully 2021 will be much easier year than 2020 was for the all of us on Earth. Like most astronomers, I always wonder what is visible beyond the capabilities of my equipment, budget, and competency. After a bit of time searching online, I realized to really get great images of objects outside our solar system I would need to learn to layer photos taken over long periods of time. Furthermore, I would need to use much more powerful equipment to see further back in time in the galaxy. I reached out to Grand Mesa Observatory located about 30 miles outside of Grand Junction, Colorado. It is located about 6,100 feet above sea level, with almost no humidity and zero light pollution. I sent an email to the Director, Terry Hancock, and inquired about remote access to their telescopes and capturing images. This could really increase my capabilities and understanding of capturing and editing images. Terry was kind enough to get me started with monochromatic image layers of The Veil in the Cygnus Constellation. The Veil is a supernova remnant from a star that exploded about 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. The star was about 20 times more massive than our own sun. My main goal was to get familiar with editing and layering hundreds of images in Photoshop or Deep Sky Stacker. The bottom image is the a base monochrome layer, and the top is after working with it for over an hour. Very unimpressive, but that is an example of how technical and tedious astrophotography is. The complexities of image capture as well as the time spent processing afterwards is what makes the field so exciting. This is a just a first step, so hopefully I will be able to share more impactful images soon. As always, look up!
