Who

The "Boogey Man" was made in collaboration with Dylan O'Donnell in Byron Bay, Australia and Andrea Girones in Ottawa, Canada.  Dylan produces excellent YouTube videos about astrophotography ("Star Stuff").  Andrea and I met him through his Patrion invitation to participate in a collaborative imaging project. We all have the same telescope and essentially the same imaging camera.

What, Where, When

We photographed LDN1622 (a.k.a. the “Boogey Man”), a dark nebula in the constellation Orion; Dylan from eastern Australia, Andrea from Ottawa, and I from outside Boston.  Our project began in late December 2023 and finished in March 2024.  It was winter for Andrea and me with the luxury of early sunsets.  It was summer for Dylan.  We all suffered from a paucity of clear skies.

Why

First, it was fun. 

We were able to make many more images together than any of us could have done individually in the same period of time. Our discussions along the way were wonderful.  I enjoyed the project and learned from both Dylan and Andrea, for which I remain grateful.

How

At the beginning of the project we discussed framing the nebula and what “data” we’d collect. We decided to image the red, green, and blue channels as well as luminance (greyscale) and hydrogen alpha (Ha) separately using monochrome cameras with specific filters.  Dylan and Andrea imaged red, green, and blue broadband channels.  Andrea and I imaged Ha (red/pink).  I added luminance data to our project.

We calibrated our own images locally, applying dark, flat, and bias frames to reduce noise and vignetting.  We shared our images on Google Drive.  In the end, we had 389 images of this menacing dark nebula!

Each of us brought our own creative vision to the accumulated “data.”  As you will see in Dylan’s video, our final images are unique; each with a different interpretation of the “Boogey Man.”

“Making of the Boogey Man” YouTube video

Dylan made a video about our collaboration, “I finally did it … A strange dark nebula shot from three different countries.”  Here’s a link:

https://youtu.be/E_wm4fGDIbg?si=-QwuKzlz5gdM1Od4