Nathaniel

Nathaniel

@nrutkowski.bsky.social

An aerospace engineer that likes photography πŸ”­ - #astrophotography πŸ“· - #photography πŸš€ - #engineer

547 followers96 following137 posts

It's been a very busy year for me. Excited to have been part of the team to make this happen!

Rocket Lab@rocketlabcorp.com

πŸš€ Launch Complex 3 is here! We’re ready to cut the ribbon on Neutron's new world-class test, launch, and landing facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. Join us for the live broadcast of our opening reception around 10 a.m. EST: rocketlabcorp.com/live-stream/

One of my favorite shots yet of Comet ATLAS by @jeanetteastro.bsky.social! Unfortunately it looks like the comet may already be breaking apart and is only visible in the southern hemisphere.

Jeanette @jeanetteastro.bsky.social

More Comet ATLAS :) Taken on the 21st Jan, 2025. 11x13sec subs, stacked. Canon 700D @ ISO1600, Canon Nifty 50 lens @ F2.8 #comet #astronomy #astrophotography

Added a bit more Oiii and SII data to NGC2264 at the beginning of the month which is going to finish off this project for now. Messed around editing with the Foraxx palette for this version. Planning to do one more wide field target before setting up both mounts for galaxies. #astrophotography

1/2 Processing Details in Siril - light frames stacked - Continuum Subtraction on Ha and R channel using pixel math - recombine R+NB/G/B with pixel math for color image - GraXpert for BE and denoise - Color calibration, deconvolution, star removal - GHST stretch on starless image

Had to go back and bump up the saturation. Really makes quite a difference in comparison. #astrophotography

Nathaniel@nrutkowski.bsky.social

First attempt at learning to edit NB + RGB with a mono setup. This is M33 with 75 mins on each HΞ±/R/G/B filter. Still working out some kinks with the new setup. πŸ”­ - Askar 130PHQ πŸ“· - ASI2600MM Pro #astrophotography @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

First clear night in a few weeks had some highs and lows on M33 -Askar 130PHQ optics are perfect -OAG mirror is causing the bad vignetting -guide camera on OAG could achieve correct back focus -EFW failed to set repeatedly Hopefully I can resolve all these issues tomorrow #astrophotography

Finally got the first bit of Sii in on NGC2264 so could put together this initial SHO edit. Planning to add more time to improve SNR in Oiii and Sii. πŸ”­ - RC51 πŸ“· - 2600MM Pro πŸ•“ - 12h Ha, 4h Oiii, 8h SII #astrophotography

Between traveling for the holidays and cloudy skies haven't been imaging. In the meantime, I have been putting together a second imaging rig with some parts I got used. 2024 got me back into this hobby so super excited to see what I complete in 2025! - details in alt-text. #astrophotography

Managed to get about 20 hrs so far on NGC1499. Planning to still add more this week but did some quick processing tonight since it's cloudy in HSO and SHO. Which one do you prefer? #astrophotography #nebula #space

For reference here is a ~3 hour stack of 10 minute exposures with meh seeing. #astrophotography

Nathaniel@nrutkowski.bsky.social

Finally have a few hours of clear-ish skies so getting in some Oiii on NGC1499 - The California Nebula The Oiii emission is pretty faint compared to the HΞ± and Sii but I promise it's there. This is just a single 10min exposure and stacking will ring out more detail #astrophotography #space #nebula

Ok so the clouds didn't even let me get 3 hours on O3 and nothing in S2 but here's a quick and dirty HOO edit of NGC1499. Seeing wasn't great as evident by the halos. Really liked the structures I was getting so definitely going to spend more time on this. #astrophotography #nebula #space

Finally have a few hours of clear-ish skies so getting in some Oiii on NGC1499 - The California Nebula The Oiii emission is pretty faint compared to the HΞ± and Sii but I promise it's there. This is just a single 10min exposure and stacking will ring out more detail #astrophotography #space #nebula

Wasn't happy with how the initial edit came out so was going to scrap 90+ hours I had on Sh2-126, but after this re-edit on the Ha I think I'm going to revisit it. #astrophotography #space

This will probably be my last update on Sh2-129 & OU4 for the year. Maybe I'll revisit next year for more Oiii and Sii. Definitely a challenge to edit and took a couple tries until I was happy with it. πŸ”­ - WO Redcat 51 πŸ“· - ASI 2600 MM Pro #astrophotography #astronomy #space

First clear night in a while so starting a new project on NGC1499 while I wait for other works in progress to rise. This is a single 10 minute expsoure of the California Nebula through an HΞ± (energized hydrogen gas) filter #astrophotography

Re-edit of IC1848 - The Soul Nebula in SHO since it's been cloudy out. For reference original edit is on the right. πŸ”­ - WO Redcat 51 πŸ“· - ZWO 2600MM Pro #astronomy #astrophotography #space

Nathaniel@nrutkowski.bsky.social

IC1848 aka the Soul Nebula from a few months ago in SHO for my introduction into mono. This was over 25 hours of total imaging time #astrophotography

Looking through some older edits has been fun so wanted to share my first attempt on M31 - the Andromeda Galaxy - which I took with a star tracker and modified DSLR before upgrading to my current set-up #astrophotography #astronomy

Started a new project so wanted to share a quick edit of about 12 hours of Ha on NGC 2264 aka The Cone Nebula & Christmas Tree Cluster. πŸ“· ZWO ASI 2600MM Pro πŸ”­ WO Redcat 51 #astrophotography #astronomy