Deep sky from the Al Quaa desert
Laniakea Observatory is a remote imaging setup in Abu Dhabi. One frame shows almost nothing. Hundreds, stacked, show a nebula.
Recent images
A handful of favourites from the observatory rig. Select an image to see it full size.
Where each image sits in the sky
Pick a target to see where it lives on the celestial sphere. The blue line marks what is crossing the meridian at the observatory right now.
A remote telescope in the Abu Dhabi desert
Laniakea Observatory sits at the Emirates Astronomical Observatory in Al Quaa, far from the glow of the cities. The name is Hawaiian for immeasurable heaven, and it is also the supercluster our galaxy belongs to.
I run the rig remotely, then calibrate, stack and process every frame myself.
FRA600 refractor
A 108 mm aperture collects the light. It runs at 600 mm native, or 480 mm with the reducer.
0.8x reducer
Used on some targets. It shortens the focal length from 600 to 480 mm for a wider, faster field.
Chroma filters
LRGB for colour, and 3 nm narrowband filters for hydrogen, oxygen and sulphur.
Poseidon-M Pro
3.76 micron pixels, which gives 1.62 arcseconds per pixel with the reducer and 1.29 without.
Sequenced with NINA from 23.6046 N, 54.7503 E, Al Quaa, Abu Dhabi.
What the sky looks like right now
An allsky camera watches the whole dome through the night.
Live view
The latest allsky frame will appear here, refreshed through the night.
Last night's timelapse
A short video of the previous night, dusk to dawn, will play here each morning.
Prints, questions, collaboration
If you want a print, have a question about the rig, or want to image together, send a message. New work also goes up on Astrobin.
Or write directly to arunvijayp@gmail.com, or find the work on Instagram.