This is a 4x3 mosaic captured over 6 sessions at three different places. At the time of taking this image I believe it' the deepest image of this field taken so far, and yet, as I mention in just a minute, the number of subframes to acquire this image is in fact, minimal.

The areas of the California nebula (the red nebula on the bottom left, also known as NGC 1499) and the Pleiades (the blueish area on the top-right, AKA M45) also use individual images of these objects. I took the image of M45 from Calstar on September'09, and the California nebula was captured the week after over two sessions at Henry Coe State Park, but I never published it as I was hoping to get more data for the image and instead I decided to do this mosaic.

The color is a bit "spotty" because I had very little color data. All luminance frames are 10 minutes, although each frame has a different number of subexposures (from 4 to 10 -yes, some frames are only 4 "subs", for example, the area on the left/top of M45). For the RGBs they all are 4x5' bin 2x2, not ideal, but just enough to get some signal and at least give color to the image. The different number of subexposures for the L caused some areas to be better defined than others. The reason I wasn't consistent was mainly the rush to "get something" and later run out of time to accumulate more subs.

This image was selected as NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day on November 3rd, 2009

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DATE October 1st, 2009 PHOTO Exposure for each frame of the mosaic:       L: 4~10 x 10', RGB: 4x5' each, bin 2x2 Total:       13 hours approx. (not including NGC1499       and M45 areas) Focal: 385mm, f/3.6

EQUIPMENT Imaging Scope: FSQ 106 EDX w/Reducer Camera: STL11k Guide Camera: StarShoot Autoguider Imaging Scope: EM-400

SITE & CONDITIONS DARC Observatory, Deep Sky Ranch and Henry Coe State Park, California Seeing: Average to Good Transparency: Good to Very Good SOFTWARE Stacking: DeepSkyStaker Mosaic: Registar Processing: PixInsight & Photoshop

What you see above is just a crop. Please click on the image to see the complete panorama.

The panorama is a composition resulting from taking well over 60 different frames - no, I didn't use them all in the final image!

I think it captures the breathtaking view that is to see that huge blanket of fog over the Silicon Valley.

Venus, Saturn and Mercury can all be seen, in the far right. Venus, the brightest point in the sky is hard to miss. The also bright point below Vnus is Saturn, and even lower and a tad brighter than Saturn, is Mercury. That's their position on Saturday morning (October 10th, 2009) around 6-6:30am.

The images were taken from this vista point on Friday and Saturday morning:  in Skyline Blvd., a road that cruises along the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains on the west of the Silicon Valley.

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DATE October 10th, 2009 PHOTO Exposure: Total: 0 minutes Focal: 17mm, f/4

EQUIPMENT Camera: Canon 40D Camera Lens: 17~85mm EOS Lens Mount: Tripod and EM-400

SITE & CONDITIONS Vista Point near Montebello OSP, California Seeing: Very Good Transparency: Good SOFTWARE Processing: Hugin and Photoshop