Another from the last few nights, and also including some earlier frames to help further reduce noise.

25 x 1-minute unguided exposures at ISO 6400 (taken 4 & 5 July 2019) and 9 x 5-minute manually off-axis guided exposures at ISO 1600 (taken in July 2013).

Astro-modified EOS 600D & Revelation 12" f/4 Newtonian reflector telescope.

Registered and stacked using DeepSkyStacker; curves adjusted in Canon Photo Professional; noise reduction via CyberLink PhotoDirector.

Here is a view of the Whale and the Pup Galaxies (NGC 4631 and NGC 4627) found in the constellation Coma Berenices. This galaxy is roughly 22 million light years away from Earth.

Tech Specs: Orion 8" f/8 Ritchey-Chretien Astrograph Telescope, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ASI071MC-Pro, ZWO AAPlus, ZWO EAF, 57 x 60 seconds at -10C, processed using DeepSkyStacker and PixInsight. Image Date: March 16, 2023. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W95), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).

34,000 light years away towards the constellation of Canes Venatici lies the impressive globular star cluster Messier 3 (NGC5272). It contains upwards of half a million stars and is actually heading our way. M3 is moving towards our solar system at approximately 147.6 Kilometers per second!

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -10c, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO asiair plus.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in StarTools.

Nikon d610 stock

TS72 APO + TS72flat

settings: 432mm, f6, iso1600, 6.5hrs

-

Tracking: Skywatcher Star Adventurer unguided

software:

Stacking: Deepskystacker 4.2.2 (drizzle2)

Processing: Adobe Photoshop, Photokemi Startools action set, GradientXterminator, Nik software, HLVG

NGC2264 Cone and Tree Nebulae in Monoceros contellation taken on 29th December 2019.

12 images of 600 seconds each, taken with a ZWOASI071-MC Pro camera and Skywatcher ED120 telescope, at Ganacia 100 and -05º C. Processed with DSS, PI LE and PSCC2019.

Fecha: 29-12-2019, de 00h26m a 02h41m U.T.

Lugar: Las Inviernas, Guadalajara

Temperatura ambiente: de -03.5ºC a -01.5ºC

Cámara: ZWO ASI071MC Pro

Óptica: Telescopio refractor Skywatcher ED120, de 120 mm de diámetro y 900 mm de distancia focal (f/7.5)

Montura: Skywatcher EQ6 Pro Synscan v.3.25

Guiado: Automático con QHY-5 mono y PHD Guiding v.1.14.0, utilizando un telescopio refractor Orion 80mm de diámetro a f/5.

Filtros: Ninguno.

Exposiciones:

12 imágenes de 600s cada una, a -05ºC y 100 de ganancia

en total, 2h00min.

30 darks de 600s, a -05ºC y 100 de ganancia

30 bias de 0.001s, a -05ºC y 100 de ganancia

Software: APT Astro Photographic Tool v.3.82

DeepSkyStacker v.4.2.0

PixInsight LE 1.0

Here is a 50-minute stacked image of Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF.

Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120ED Telescope, ZWO AS2600mc-Pro running at -10C, Celestron CGEM-DX mount, ZWO EAF, ZWO ASIAir Pro, 50 x 60 seconds. Processed using DeepSkyStacker and PixInsight. Image Date: February 4, 2023. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).

The nebula is an emission nebula located in the constellation Orion and is associated with the open star cluster NGC 2175. It is located about 6,400 light-years away from Earth.

Telescope: William Optics ZenithStar 81 Refractor

Mount: Losmandy GM 811G

Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro

Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme Dual-band Filter

Site: Elk Grove, California, USA Bortle 6

Processing: DeepSkyStacker, Photoshop 2020

Calibration Files: None

Guiding: None

The star Sirius is a beacon in the dark night. It looks like a mother of pearl that Poseidon himself was in charge of cultivating and polishing to light the way for the intrepid sailors who cross the expanse of its seas.

Sirius is the brightest star in the sky visible from Earth, reaching a magnitude of -1.09. Located in the constellation of Canis Major, Alpha Canis Majoris (one of its official names), it is 8.60 light years away from us and forms an amazing double system, where its companion is very difficult to observe, since it is a white dwarf of magnitude 8.44. In this modest image, Sirius is accompanied to the left by the beautiful open cluster Messier 41 (M 41), with a small red star at its center. Below to the left of Sirius, three red-toned stars stand out. These are the beautiful Nu 1, Nu 2 and Nu 3 Canis Majoris.

Around you, you can see a sea of stars and there is a lot to say about them. I'll just say that when I was a kid, I used to ask my mom how many stars there were. While we looked at the dark sky of country nights, with great grace and mischief he answered me "sin cuenta" which, in Spanish, means that it is not possible to count and is pronounced the same as "cincuenta", which in English is fifty. So I, with a lot of effort and taking care not to get lost and count the same star twice, began the task of counting the fifty stars in that immense sky. At my young age, I knew that if I could get past that number, I would be ready to refute my mother's argument. In the end, I was contemplating her beautiful face her, barely illuminated by that immense starry sky.

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I captured this photo with my old Nikon 75-150 lens, from the 1980s, at 100mm and my Nikon D5600 camera. 8.40 minute integration, Iso 1000. Processed with DeepSkyStacker, Siril and Gimp.

Rural area, Concordia, Entre Ríos, Argentina. 30-03-2023, 23:09 hs.

The Double Cluster in Perseus is a set of two open star clusters, h Persei and chi Persei. They lie close to Cassiopeia, which is easily recognizable by its distinctive M or W shape. Once you find Cassiopeia, scan between it and Perseus with your naked eyes or binoculars and you'll notice a glowing blob of light which is these groups of stars.

These clusters are approximately 7,500 light-years away. Each cluster contains several hundred stars, including young, hot supergiants that are thousands of times more bright than our Sun.

The Double Cluster is resides within the Perseus arm of the Milky Way galaxy, while our solar system is located in the Orion arm. Observing the Double Cluster means looking through our local spiral arm and into the next arm outward from the galactic center, which is just super cool!

Equipment:

SkyWatcher EQ6-R

Nikkor 500mm f/4 P AI-S at f/5.6

Sony a7rIII (unmodified)

ZWO 30mm Guide Scope

GPCAM2 Mono Camera

Acquisition:

Taos, NM: my front yard - Bortle 3

85 x 75-second exposures for 1 hour, 46 min, and 14 sec exposure time.

5 dark frames

15 flats frames

15 bias frames

Guided

Software:

SharpCap

PHD2

DeepSkyStacker

PixInsight

Photoshop

Lightroom

My a7rIII and adapted Canon FD 300mm f/4 L lens were mounted to my SkyWatcher EQ6-R mount using a vixen rail. The guidescope/camera were fixed to the front of the rail. I used SharpCap to achieve "excellent" polar alignment. I shot ISO 800 at f/5.6. I took 151" exposures using PHD2 with my guidescope to keep tracking accurately. I brought the lights/darks/flats/bias frames into PixInsight for stacking and aligning and then used: STF, Cropping, Dynamic Background Extraction, BlurXTerminator, plate solving, color correction, NoiseXTerminator, and then the galaxy was separated from the stars using StarXterminator, and both files processed and stretched separately and then recombined using PixelMath. That file was brought into Lightroom for Metadata and EXIF tags, light post-processing, and cropping. I used Photoshop to sharpen the final image.

Located in the constellation Cepheus and probably better known as the Wizard Nebula. I have to say, from the perspective we see it from 7,000 light years away here on Earth, it does look like a wizard wearing a pointy hat in a robe with baggy sleeves.

The NGC number 7380 is actually for the young 5 million year old open star cluster that has formed within the nebula.

Do you see the wizard in the image?

All data gathered on the 01/08/2024 at www.astronomycentre.org.uk/

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 101, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO filter drawer, ZWO asiair plus.

120s exposures.

Best 80% of 75 light frames.

Darks, Flats, Dark Flats & Bias.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in PixInsight & Affinity Photo.

Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN): First trial.

I hope to get better results in the next days. 😉

Shooting data:

#Light frames: 160

#Dark frames: 30

Shutter speed: 2.5 s

ISO: 3200

F-Stop (equivalent): f/2.8

Lens: CSJ 135mm f/3.5 + LT II

Camera: Sony A6000

Date: 08/10/2025

Time: 19.15 - 19.45 CEST

Software: DeepSkyStacker, Lightroom.

Location: Giffoni Valle Piana, Italy

Messier 102 (M102), also known as the Spindle Galaxy, is an edge-on lenticular galaxy located in the northern constellation Draco. The Spindle Galaxy lies at a distance of 50 million light years from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 10.7. It has the designation NGC 5866 in the New General Catalogue.

Tech Specs: Orion 8" f/8 Ritchey-Chretien Astrograph Telescope, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ASI071MC-Pro, ZWO AAPlus, ZWO EAF, 108 x 60 seconds at -10C, processed using DeepSkyStacker and PixInsight. Image Date: March 16, 2023. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W95), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).

The pinwheel is a face on spiral galaxy found in the constellation of Ursa major, the great bear. Which is a circumpolar constellation, meaning that it never sets below the horizon in the Northern hemisphere.

21 million light years away and some 170,000 light years in diameter, the galaxy is estimated to contain upwards of one trillion stars. It was first observed by Pierre Méchain on the 21st of March 1781.

M101 is just about visible through a pair of 10x50 binoculars under a dark sky with the right conditions. Though a telescope of 6" and above would be preferable.

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -10c, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO asiair plus.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in StarTools & Affinity Photo.

A guided image of the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and its companion galaxy NGC 5194 taken with a Canon 400mm f/5.6 L lens on a Canon dslr camera and a 30mm Svbony guide scope with a ZWOASI224MC guide camera. The final image was created from 16 115 second images combined together with Deepskystacker and enhanced with Gimp and Adobe Lightroom.

The core of the Milky Way skirts the horizon for us folks in the North. However, that doesn't discourage us from the challenge of pulling fascinating details out of the muck!

I would have loved to go even lower to get the Lagoon - but it was behind the trees! I hope you had a chance to watch the video of the night this was taken! 👊

Photo Details:

25 x 30-Seconds at ISO 1600

Camera Lens set to F/2

Stacked in DeepSkyStacker (with Darks)

Processed in Photoshop 2020

Gear Details:

Tripod: bit.ly/2OohDct

Star Tracker: bit.ly/staradventurer

Camera: amzn.to/339j1bw

Lens: amzn.to/2DmmUig

Thanks for looking, and clear skies!

Fujifilm X-T10, Samyang 135mm f/2.0 ED UMC @ f2.0, ISO 1600, 50 x 90 sec, tracking with iOptron SkyTracker Pro, stacking with DeepSkyStacker, editing with Astro Pixel Processor and GIMP, taken Sept. 26, 2019 under Bortle 3/4 skies.

This extent contains three frequently imaged nebulae: the Dark Shark Nebula (LDN 1235, center), the dark nebula LDN 1251 (lower left), and the Wolf's Cave nebula, which includes VdB 152, a reflection nebula and LDN 1217, a dark nebula. Other visible objects include the dark nebula LDN 1221 (lower right of VdB 152) and Dengel-Hartl 5, a blue and red planetary nebula (below VdB 152).

I've always loved this extent, which was high on my list of targets for the Samyang 135. I wasn't too happy with my first attempt, but am very happy with this result. Shooting raw, imaging when it was as high as possible, using the "remove light pollution' tool of Astro Pixel Processor, and some more experience processing made the difference.

M51

First light test of a QHY163M and a Optolong LRGB filter set.

5min subs L x 12

2min subs RGB x 8 each

RC6 - @F9 - QHY163M - Optolong LRGB, EQ6. finderguider. 50mm

Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE photographed on the beach at Wassenaar, NL, at around 02:35CEST on 12 July 2020.

There's a slight hint of the straight ion tail to the left of the main dust tail, and in the scene there's surf, foreground clouds, and a bank of faint noctilucent clouds behind in the twilight sky.

The picture is looking approximately north, out over the North Sea.

Nikon D7000 + 85mm lens at f/2, ISO 400, stack of 10 x 3 sec images, registered and stacked in DeepSkyStacker, with post-processing in LightRoom.

Total of 4h exposure of the Heart Nebula taken with my modified EOS60D.

Mount: Skywatcher NEQ6

Lens: Canon 300mm f2.8 L

Camera: Canon 60D (Astro modified)

Sub Frames: 70 x 210s (ISO 1600)

Stacked with Deepskystacker, Edited with Photoshop

Messier 3 (also known as M3 or NGC 5272) is a globular cluster found in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici. M3 is one of the three brightest globular clusters in the Northern hemisphere (along with M13 and M5).

Tech Specs: This image is composed of 8 x 60 second images at ISO 3,200 with 4 x 60 second darks and 4 x 1/4000 second bias frames using a Meade LX90 12” telescope and Canon 6D camera mounted on a Celestron CGEM-DX mount. Guided using a Canon 400mm lens and ZWO ASI290MC camera. Imaging was done on April 14, 2017 from Weatherly, Pennsylvania.

First attempt at hydrogen-alpha 12nm narrowband using an DIY astro-modified second-hand Canon 450D and the superb nifty-fifty lens for astro. Had to remove a number of frames due to northern lights flooding the light frames, and struggled to stack and stretch the files in PixInsight and DeepSkyStacker, producing a lot of noise and banding patterns. Sequator let through some hot pixels, but can live with that as the background noise was a lot lower than wiht PI and DSS. Final edit in Adobe Lightroom. The light frames were a sea of red though, so I wonder if longer exposures at lower ISO400 may be better? Read somewhere that ISO400 is the sweet spot for dynamic range versus gain on the 450D.

Canon EOS450D (low pass-filter 2/hot mirror removed)

Astronomik H-alpha clip-in filter

Canon 50mmf1.8@f4.0

Skywatcher Star Adventurer mini mount

Skywatcher 3/8 tripod

Stacked in Sequator: (Light 29x120sec, Dark 22x, Flat 19x, ISO800, f4.0)

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Traked with Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi, guided shots with PHD2, unmodified Sony A7M3 camera and Sony FE 100-400mm GM lens.

Tomas guiadas con PHD2, camara Sony A7M3 no modificada y objetivo Sony FE 100-400mm GM.

- Date/Fecha: 08/29/2022

- Location: Mirador de Burgo (La Guingueta d'Àneu, Lleida) (42°37'12.8"N 1°09'00.8"E)

- Alt: 1.273m.

Bortle 3 location

GEAR

- Tracker Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi EQ Mode

- Guiding with QHY 5L-II Mono and guidescope EZG-60

- Camera Sony ILC3-A7M3 APS-C Mode

- Lens Sony FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS

IMAGE

- 33 Lights at 600mm, ISO 8000, 30seg, f5.6

- 13 Lights at 600mm, ISO 8000, 120seg, f5.6

- 10 Darks at 600mm, ISO 8000, 30seg, f5.6

- 7 Darks at 600mm, ISO 800, 120seg, f5.6

- Total time of exposition 42m.

SOFTWARE

- Stellarium & PHD2 to guide the tracker

- Stacked with DeepSkyStacker

- Image viewer Adobe Bridge

- Image processing with Adobe Camera Raw and Adobe Photoshop

©2022 All rights reserved. MSB.photography

Thank all for your visit and awards.

M106 can be found in the constellation Canes Venatici. Binoculars will show it as a smudge in a dark enough sky. However, an 8 inch telescope will start to reveal some detail. It's a wonder we see it at all, given that it's almost 24 million light years away from us. Maybe it's the light of the estimated 400 billion stars it holds within that helps us to see it.

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -10c, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO asiair plus.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in StarTools.

27 tomas de 1min

iso 3200

canon 6D + Canon 400mm f5,6L @5,6

apilado en DSS

procesado en pixinsight y photoshop

montura ecuatorial skywatcher star adventurer

I love the juxtaposition of the dark nebulosity in Taurus with the bright Pleiades. Once I figured out mosaics, I knew this would be my second after Orion.

This is a mosaic of 5 different panels taken on two nights, Oct. 2, 2019 and November 20, 2020, 188 x 1 minutes of imagery. All subs were taken with my Fuji X-T10 and Samyang 135 mm on the iOptron SkyTracker Pro. Each sub is 60 seconds, taken at ISO 1600 with the Samyang 135mm open to f2.

I used the same process as that of my previous mosaic of Orion: I integrated individual panels using DeepSkyStacker, and used the 'remove light pollution' tool of Astro Pixel Processor to flatten integrations, which had substantial vignetting from being shot at f2. These flattened panels were then mosaiced with Astro Pixel Processor using the process outlined here: www.astropixelprocessor.com/part-3-register-normalize-int.... Curves adjustment, star reduction, and color tweaking were then done with GIMP. This image is downscaled to 70% of the original mosaic.

This is a pair of interacting galaxies in the constellation Pegasus designated as NGC 7253A and NGC 7253B. Halton Arp divided his “Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies” into groups based on purely morphological criteria. The pair of galaxies here received the designation Arp 278 as a pair of interacting galaxies.

Tech Specs: Meade 12” LX-90 SCT Telescope, Antares Focal Reducer, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at 0F, 105 x 60 seconds, Celestron CGX-L pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in DSS and PixInsight. Image Date: August 22, 2025. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).

A portion of the Milky Way in these summer days with the Dark Horse Nebula.

This nebula is one of the largest object of the deep sky. It is made up of many "small" dark nebulae mainly composed by interstellar gas clouds so dense to block light passing through.

Thanks to this simple mechanism we can detect the presence of such objects: by observing their silhouettes.

More extra info: the horse's back paw is usually called Pipe Nebula. And yet, in the belly of the horse lies a "small" (but fortunately visible in this photo) dark nebula with an "S" shape called Snake Nebula. Can you see them?

____________________________________________

⚙️ TECHNICAL DETAILS:

Canon EOS 60D (unmodded) and Canon 50mm STM f1.8 on a HEQ5 guided mount (QHY5L-II + 60/200).

Photos were acquired with Astrojan Tools and PHD Guiding.

Calibration and stacking with Deep Sky Stacker and post processing with Photoshop.

50mm - f/3.5 - ISO800

Light Frames: 6x180''

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Referred to as Bode's Nebula, it is however, a spiral galaxy located close to the Big Dipper or Plough asterism in Ursa Major. It has a close companion galaxy M82 the Cigar galaxy, so close together, they are often imaged as a pair.

Lying about 12 million light years from Earth and about 90,000 light years across. Binoculars will pick up M81 as a faint fuzzy patch of light under reasonable sky conditions.

First discovered by a German astronomer by the name of Johann Elert Bode in 1774, hence Bode's Nebula. At the time no one had any clue it was a whole other galaxy.

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 110, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO asiair plus.

Darks, Flats & Bias.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in StarTools.

Stacked (comet center only), plus a few brush adjustments...came out much better than I initially expected (seeing conditions were pretty poor). Probably would have been better if I did it at 135 mm on Tuesday night, but it's something! DeepSkyStacker: 200 mm, f/2.8, 12800 ISO, 1.6 sec x 48 frames.

This diffuse emission nebula also designated SH2-86 in the Sharpless catalogue is the home of the young open star cluster NGC 6823, visible in the centre of the image.

The nebula is estimated to be just under 6,000 light years from us and can be found in the constellation Vulpecula.

Data gathered at www.astronomycentre.org.uk

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 101, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO filter drawer, ZWO asiair plus.

120s exposures.

Best 80% of 57 light frames.

Darks, Flats & Bias.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in PixInsight & Affinity Photo.

From the Sharpless catalogue, this is an emission nebula about 5,600 light years away in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan.

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 110, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO asiair plus.

Darks, Flats & Bias.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in StarTools.

At the risk of boring you guys rigid, I had to post this as the difference is quite pronounced. This is the same image as my previous post (different orientation, to avoid boring repetition). I was faffing around with this (as you do) in Match Colour in PS and hit the Neutralize check box, which removes any difficult colour casts. I didn't even realise the image had a colour cast until this came out. An improvement in colour I think :)

27,000 light years away in the constellation of Hercules, M92 is one of the brightest and oldest globular clusters we know.

Tightly packed together it contains a mind bogglingly 330,000 stars, you know, give or take.

The German astronomer Johann Elert Bode is credited with the discovery of M92 in 1777.

Boring techie bit.

Skywatcher quattro 8" S & f4 aplanatic coma corrector

EQ6 R pro mount guided with an Altair 50mm & GPcam setup

Canon 450D astro modded with Astronomik CLS CCD EOS APS-C clip filter. Intervalometer used to control the exposures.

70 exposures of 90 seconds at ISO 800 stacked together using DeepSkyStacker along with calibration frames.

All other processing done with StarTools.

Mit 61,3m ist der Pinneberg nicht nur die höchste Erhebung der Insel Helgoland, sonder auch des Kreises Pinneberg, zu dessen Verwaltungsbereich die Insel gehört.

- 50 Frames a 13s für den Sternenhimmel

- 20 Frames a 30s für den Vordergrund

- 10 Darkframes

- F1.4, ISO 3200

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With 61.3m, the Pinneberg is not only the highest point on the island of Helgoland, but also of the Pinneberg district, to whose administrative area the island belongs.

- 50 frames / 13s each for the starry sky

- 20 frames / 30s each for the foreground

- 10 dark frames

- F1.4, ISO 3200

Second of two shtos from this night. This night was unfortunately slightly less transparent than the other night I was out (at least in this part of the sky), but still had ok seeing. At 340 mm, I was only able to manage 60 second exposures with reasonable reliability given the tracking accuracy I was dealing with. 19 of the 30 exposures I took proved usable, and I more or less got the shot I wanted out of it, given the alotted time. Nikon Z6III settings: 340 mm, f/5.0, 60 s, ISO 3200. Stacked with DeepSkyStacker.

An astrophoto of our sister galaxy, Andromeda (Messier 31).

This is a spiral galaxy that sits approximately 2.5 million light-years away from us. It has a diameter that spans over 220,000 light years form tip to tip, and carries somewhere around 1 trillion stars.

I created this image from 30 tracked exposures, each running at 30 seconds, using ISO 1600. I also used darks, flats and bias frames. Final editing done in photoshop to get this image right, especially because I was dealing with light pollution in the city. Taken in my backyard on a clear night with no moon, in the city.

Setup: Canon 7D + 300mm F4

Also in the image are two other galaxies, M110 and M32. See if you can spot them.

(C) Moe Ali Photography

www.moealiphotography.com

The open star cluster M41 in the constellation Canis Major. The picture is a combination of twelve 30 second images processed using DeepSkyStacker, Gimp, and Lightroom.

Picture an unguided image of the globular star cluster M92 in Hercules taken with a ZWOASI183MC camera through a 130mm f/5 reflecting telescope and processed using DeepSkyStacker and Lightroom.

An unguided image of the The Pleiades star cluster and reflection nebula taken over Monticello, NY through a Canon 400mm f/5.6 L lens using a Canon 7D MKII dslr camera on a Celestron AVX mount. Ten 60 second images and four dark frames were stacked using DeepSkyStacker, then enhanced with Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop Elements.

Here is a view of Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) from April 1, 2020. This is a 55-minute stacked exposure showing the comet as it is traveling through the constellation Camelopardalis.

Technical Specs: Meade 12” LX-90, ZWO ASI071mc-Pro, Antares Focal Reducer, 55 x 60 second exposures, Gain 200, Temp -5C, guided using a ZWO ASI290MC and Orion 60mm guide scope. Captured using SGP v3.1 and processed in DeepSkyStacker. Image date: April 1, 2020. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA.

BLOG: darksideobservatory.com

The 'Boneyard' - Kiama, on a very windy night ... Pentax K1 w HD15-30 stacked and blended image ... this one was a bit of a challenge .. no moon and very little starlight .. pretty happy with the result :-)

Shotdate: 4-20-2015

Camera: Nikon D4s

Optics: Nikkor 80-400mm f4.5-5.6 @ 400mm f9.0

Exposure: 300sec

ISO-speed: ISO3200

Guiding: LVI SmartGuider2 on F500mm f90mm(f5.5) guidescope

Mount: SkyWatcher NEQ6 Pro

Stacked in DeepSkyStacker 3.3.2

Stacking mode: Custom Rectangle

Alignment method: Automatic

Drizzle x3 enabled

Stacking 76 frames (ISO: 3200) - total exposure: 6 hr 20 mn

RGB Channels Background Calibration: No

Per Channel Background Calibration: No

Method: Kappa-Sigma (Kappa = 2.00, Iterations = 5)

Offset: 50 frames exposure: 1/8000 s

Method: Kappa-Sigma (Kappa = 2.00, Iterations = 5)

Dark: 26 frames exposure: 5 mn

Method: Kappa-Sigma (Kappa = 2.00, Iterations = 5)

Flat: 58 frames exposure: 1 s

Method: Kappa-Sigma (Kappa = 2.00, Iterations = 5)

Post-processing in PixInsight 1.8

Crop, DBE, Histogram, Core brightness, Green adaptation and ACDNR functions used.

Stacks : best 233 out of 234

Stack program : DeepSkyStacker

Stack mode : Maximum

Exposure Time : 233x30sec (116.5 min total)

ISO : 400

Camera : Sony A700

Mount : -

Tube : Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8

Focal length : 11mm

Aperture : F/2.8

Autoguide : Nope

Vimeo link : vimeo.com/38598451

image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/ask/a10840.html

Yes, finally. My longest project so far. 6 hours on IC 2944 with a stock DSLR.

Setup:

Long Perng 66/400mm

iOptron CEM25P

Canon SL1

121x180s ISO 800

DARKS, FLATS and BIAS.

All part of the Veil Nebula in Cygnus - aka the Cygnus Loop - this is the Western Veil and Pickering's Triangle (the triangular looking bit). It's the remnants of a supernova in the distant past.

There's lots of it missing, but I doubt I'll be able to pick up much more with a DSLR and my skies. Had to throw every weapon in my processing armoury at it to get this much! Having said that, I may have another crack next year :)

This is 38 x 5 minute subs (just over three hours) with the usual kit.

This was a tricky one for me. This is a stack of 12 x 3 minute exposures, tracked on an iOptron Sky Tracker. I originally tried stacking this both in DeepSkyStacker and Photoshop, but the results were blurry and not very good. That was because there was a lot of thin, wispy cloud blowing through as I was shooting this.

I tried stacking this one again tonight removing all the worse frames where clouds had obstructing too much of the frame. What started as 90 minutes worth of exposure was thereby whittled down to 36 mins. There were still clouds in the other pics, as can be witnessed by the halos around the brighter stars, but overall the amount of cloud was manageable so that median stacking would eliminate most of their effect. Then, rather than my usual method of processing Milky Way images, I used a workflow I'd normally use for deep sky objects. Due to the level of detail captured.

And this is the end result. It's not as perfect as I'd like it to be, but overall I'm pretty happy with the final result.

Nikon D750

Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8 @ 35mm

iOptron SkyTracker

12 x 3 minute exposures @ ISO 400

NGC 7635 The Bubble Nebula.

The open star cluster to the upper left is M52 the Salt & Pepper cluster.

Discovered by William Herschel in 1787, the Bubble Nebula lies within the boundaries of the constellation of Cassiopeia at a distance of 7,100 light years away. The bubble itself spans some 7 light years across. For perspective the nearest star to our Sun is only 4 light years.

The bubble is expanding at a phenomenal rate. There is a super massive star that is creating the 'stellar winds' causing the bubble to expand. It can be seen in the image to the upper centre within the bubble. These 'stellar winds' are moving at upwards of 4 million miles per hour!

The star is estimated at 4 million years old, so it's just a baby really. Though because it's so massive, it will burn through it's fuel much more quickly. NASA estimate just 10 - 20 million years before it goes BANG as a supernova.

The open star cluster M52, contains over 100 stars and is a little closer to us than the Bubble Nebula. Discovered by Charles Messier in 1774 it's distance is estimated to be somewhere around 4000-5000 light years away.

Image captured on Saturday 24th of September 2022 at The Astronomy Centre, Todmorden, UK.

Boring techie bit.

Skywatcher quattro 8" S & f4 aplanatic coma corrector

EQ6 R pro mount guided with an Altair 50mm & GPcam setup

Canon 450D astro modded with Astronomik CLS CCD EOS APS-C clip filter. Intervalometer used to control the exposures.

35 light frames 5 minutes each at ISO 800

Stacked with darks, flats, dark flats & bias in DeepSkyStacker.

All processing done with StarTools.

Project 366-1 2009 September 15 258/365

Another clear and clean night sky. Another beautiful view of the Milky Way.

Technical note: I used ISO 1600 and took 4 minutes of light frames and 12 minutes of dark frames. The low amount of digital noise with a 3:1 dark:light ratio is pretty worth the effort.

The sky-gods surprised me last night with 3 semi-clear hours. I quickly set up the RedCat 51 and Canon EOS Ra for some wide-field deep-sky images in Auriga.

Here is 50 x 3-minutes at ISO 1600 on the Flaming Star Nebula and Tadpole Nebula at a true 250mm focal length.

You can also see the "Spider and the Fly" in there.

This was a fantastic test of the Ha sensitivity of the Ra using a dual bandpass filter (Optolong L-eNhance).

Canon EOS Ra

Optolong L-eNhance Filter

William Optics RedCat 51

William Optics Uniguide 50mm

ZWO ASI290mm Mini

Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro

Astro Photography Tool

PHD2 Guiding

DeepSkyStacker

Photoshop 2020