Mintaka Double Star

This image was taken on 1/17/2017 from Peoria AZ from my backyard.Transparency was above average, seeing was 4/5, 0 clouds and city lights were not a factor. I used AS!2 to stack the best frames. Used RegiStax to adjust the Histogram and gamma. Further adjusted the final image using PaintShop Po 7 Ultimate.

M42 Trapezium Cluster with NexImage 5mp

This is my first attempt with taking an image of a DSO using my NexStar 8SE and NexImage 5mp webcam. This image was take on 1/17/2017. The location was Peoria AZ. Seeing was 4/5, Transparency was above average, no clouds. City light pollution was not a factor. I took a 1minute video with the webcam. I then processed the image with AS!2 to stack the best images. Registax 6 was used to adjust the Histogram, Gamma and RGB Balance. While the norm would be to use PhotoShop I used PaintShop Pro7 Ultimate to further adjust the image to bring out the color. After many tries with different adjustments This is the final out come.  I will try again with different exposure settings to see what works best. I know that this webcam is not the best for DSO but this did not come out as bad as I thought.

Mars on 7/9/2016

This picture of Mars was taken on July 9th 2016 at 10;04 pm from my back yard. Here is the reason why Mars looks blue in this picture.
On Earth, blue light from the Sun is scattered by air molecules and spreads around the sky to create a blue canopy. Mars has less the 1% of Earth's atmosphere, so we only notice the blue when looking through the greatest thickness of the Martian air (and dust) around the time of sunset and sunrise