Jim Cuca's Astro Photography PageThe following images were taken by Jim Cuca from Cloudcroft, New Mexico, May 23-29, 2006. All photos, except M51, were shot through Nikon and Canon lenses and a Canon 20Da DSLR, piggybacked on an 8-inch Meade LX200. M51 was shot through a 16-inch LX200, with an SBIG ST-2000XCM ccd camera (scope and camera rented from New Mexico Skies Observatory). Exposure times for the DSLR images ranged from 30-60 minutes (5-minute sub-exposures at ISO 800). Exposure for M51 was 60 minutes (four 15-minute frames). Processing was performed by Jim, primarily with Images Plus, Photoshop CS, and Neat Image.
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Antares
M8 M20
M51
Milkyway
Sagittarius
Scorpius
The following images were taken and processed by Jim Cuca at the New Mexico Skies Observatory, between December 28, 2005 and January 3, 2006. The pictures were taken with an SBIG ST-2000XCM color CCD camera, attached to a 16-inch Meade Schmidt Cassegrain telescope, operating at f/5. Each image is a stack of 15-minute sub-exposures, totaling 1 to 2 hours. The images were processed using CCDSoft, CCDOps, Photoshop CS, and Neat Image.
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Cone Nebula
Crab Nebula
Flame Nebula
Horsehead Nebula
M66
M81
NCG 891
NCG 2683
NCG 2841
NCG 2903
NCG 3184
