Quickie tonight as I'm done after a hard week at work. Thanks to Lauren for being the hand model.

Exact same principle and procedure as last night.

This is number 246 of my 366.

Dark dust clouds together with bright reflection nebulae make a colorful scene.

Rho Ophiuchi complex

Telescope live

Nikon 200 mm F2 lens

4.5 hours total exposure, RGB

El Sauce Observatory

Río Hurtado, Chile

Mount: 10 Micron GM1000HPs German equatorial mount

Camera: FLI ML 16200

2021 data

The Pleiades also known as the Seven Sisters and Messier 45, is an asterism of an open star cluster containing young B-type stars in the northwest of the constellation Taurus. The cluster is dominated by hot blue luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years.

After lot's of clouds, rain and storms in Spain, I am really happy to be able to image this open cluster and reflection nebula in two short nights. A very simple capture and edit to kick off imaging during some moonless skies.

115 x 300s exposures totalling 9 hours 30 minutes.

Full details and a full resolution image available at astrob.in/kz8q2q/0/

M42

Televue NP-101IS

Takahashi EM-200 w/ SBIG ST-I OAG

SBIG STF-8300

Baader HaSiiOiii Filters

Ha 50x180s

Sii 21x300s

Oii 31x150s

Total Integration = 5.54hrs

Processed in PixInsight

The Heart Nebula (IC 1805) lies about 7,500 light years away from Earth in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. The brightest part of the nebula (a knot at its western edge) is separately classified as NGC 896, because it was the first part of the nebula to be discovered. The nebula's intense red output and its morphology are driven by the radiation emanating from a small group of stars near the nebula's center. This open cluster of stars, known as Melotte 15, contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of our Sun, and many more dim stars that are only a fraction of our Sun's mass. (ref: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_Nebula)

The Heart Nebula is located adjacent to the Soul Nebula forming a view referred to as the Heart and Soul Nebula. Now to splice the images together into a mosaic of the region.

Tech Specs: Williams Optics Redcat 51 APO, Celestron CGEM-DX mount (pier mounted), ZWO ASI071MC-Pro, Optolong L-eNhance 2” filter, 60 x 60 second exposures at a GAIN of 200, one hour total exposure with dark/bias frames, guided using a ZWO ASI290MC and Orion 60mm guide scope. Captured using Sequence Generator Pro (SGP) v3.03. Image date: November 25, 2019. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA.

DWB 111

10 hours H-Alpha ONTC 10" Newton

6 hours SII and 5 hours OIII Takahashi Epsilon130 ED

Equipment:

TS 10" f/4 ONTC Newton

1000mm f4

ZWO ASI 1600mmc

Astrodon H-Alpha

Skywatcher EQ8

Equipment:

Takahashi Epsilon 130D

ZWO ASI183mmPro

Baader 7nm h-alpha Filter

Guding:

Lodestar on TS Optics - ultra short 9mm Off Axis Guider

PHD2

H-Alpha 10 hours

SII 6 hours

OIII 5 hours

total exposure time: 21 hours

Processing: PixInsight/Capture One

2020

Taken over multiple nights from Joshua Tree, Yosemite, Sequoia and Frazier Park. Asi1600MM Pro and the Explore Scientific ed102

This rarely image part of the sky is a considered a dark nebula. It is part of a larger dark nebula region called Lupus 1 or The Dark Wolfe Nebula.

CDK24

Moravian Camera

El Sauce Observatory, Chile

L: 32x15m

R: 21x15m

G: 19x15m

B: 21x15m

Total Integration = 23.25h

PI (RGB): BXT, RGB, SXT, NXT, HT, CT, Rescreen

L: BXT, SXT, NXT, HT, CT, Rescreen

PS: ColorEfex, StarShrink, Selective Color, Shadow Highlights, Curves, Saturation

Data from Martin Pugh.

Equipment:

10" /f4 TS ONTC Newton

ASI1600mmc v2

ZWO EFW 8x

Guiding TS9 OAG Lodestar

Losmandy G11

2020

Processing: PixInsight/affinity photo

This wonderful little planetary nebula is found in the constellation Aquila and clearly shows an inner and outer halo when processed. It is about 4,200 light-years away and has a magnitude 12.0 with a magnitude 14.4 central star.

The image center is located at RA (hms): 20h 22m 22.776s and Dec (dms): +20° 05' 55.485" with an image size of 38.6 x 31.6 arc-minutes. North is to the right.

Tech Specs: This image is composed of 96 x 15 second images at ISO 5,000 with 5 x 15 second darks and 5 x 1/4000 second bias frames using a Meade LX90 12” telescope and Canon 6D camera mounted on a Celestron CGEM-DX mount. Imaging was done on November 6, 2016 and October 10, 2016 from Weatherly, Pennsylvania.

Online references:

DSO-Browser (dso-browser.com/deep-sky/7972/ngc-6804/planetary-nebula)

DeepSkyPedia (www.deepskypedia.com/wiki/NGC_6804)

No son las mejores, simplemente son las mias

Also called Caldwell 34 or NGC 6960, the Western Veil Nebula contains the very bright star, 52 Cygni. The expanding shock waves of the nebula are thought to be very thin and we observe only the edges giving it the appearance of fine filaments.

Televue NP-101is

Takahashi EM-200 mount.

SBIG STF-8300M

Baader HO Filters

This image was shot just outside the city center of New Orleans in Bortle 7 skies using narrowband techniques.

H 19x600s

O 25x600s

Pixinsight:

BPP / LN / Reg / Integration

DBE / HOO Combination

HOO Luminance: DC / MMT Noise Reduction

Photoshop:

Color Efex Pro - Detail Enhancer

Star Mask / Minimize

Curves

Praesepe (Latin for "Manger"), also known as the Beehive Cluster, is an open star cluster in the otherwise unassuming constellation Cancer. It is tucked between the stars Delta and Gamma Cancri, which form the eyes of the crab. With the naked eye it appears as a fuzzy patch in the sky, but binoculars or a telescope reveal numerous stars.

This image is one of the first taken with my new SharpStar 150mm f/2.8 Hyperbolic Newtonian Telescope (HNT) with a 420mm focal length. This is a stack of 11 x 180s exposures with a Canon 6D, processed in PixInsight.

Gear used:

■ Mount: Ioptron Cem60-ec

■ Telescope: skywatcher 200/1000 F/5

■ Autoguiding: Asi 120mm

■ Total exposure: 5H30m || 66 X 300 seconds

■ Camera: modified canon eos 700d astrodon

■ Filter(s): Astronomik CLS CCD eos clip

■ Other optic(s): baader coma corrector

■ Software : Siril / photoshopCC

Explanation: This pretty, open cluster of stars, M34, is about the size of the Full Moon on the sky. Easy to appreciate in small telescopes, it lies some 1,800 light-years away in the constellation Perseus. At that distance, M34 physically spans about 15 light-years. Formed at the same time from the same cloud of dust and gas, all the stars of M34 are about 200 million years young. But like any open star cluster orbiting in the plane of our galaxy, M34 will eventually disperse as it experiences gravitational tides and encounters with the Milky Way's interstellar clouds and other stars. Over four billion years ago, our own Sun was likely formed in a similar open star cluster.

This picture was photographed March, 09, 2015 in Khlepcha observatory, Ukraine.

Equipment: home assembled reflector 10 in., f/3.8

Mount WhiteSwan-180 with a control system «Eqdrive Standart», camera QSI-660wsg, Tevevue Paracorr-2. Off-axis guidecamera QHY5L-II.

LRGB filter set Baader Planetarium.

RGB= 10*100 each filter. 50 min. total.

FWHM 2.22″-3.12″

Processed Pixinsight 1.8, Fitstacker and Photoshop CS6

I am fascinated with faint supernova remnants. This one is particularity dim. It lies at the head of Cygnus the swan, on the border of Vulpecula. Located approximately 3,200 light years away.

Supernova remnants (SNR) are formed when a large star ends its life in a supernova explosion. About 300 of these remnants are currently known in our galaxy. One of the most famous remnants, the Veil Nebula, also located in the constellation of Cygnus. Although this is the most famous one in this constellation, it’s not the only SNR.

SNR G65.3+5.7 was discovered by Gull et al. (1977) during an OIII survey of the Milky Way. Some parts of this SNR were already catalogued by Stewart Sharpless in his SH2 catalog as SH2-91, SH2-94 and SH2-96, but they were not recognized as being part of a bigger structure at that time. The idea that they could be part of a larger SNR was postulated by Sidney van den Bergh in 1960, but it took until 1977 for this to be confirmed.

Image captured over 4 nights; 2023-08-14, 15, 16 & 24

24 hours total integration

Ha subs 35 * 1,200 sec = 11 hours 40 min

OIII subs 34 * 1,200 sec = 11 hours 20 min

RGB = 1 hour

Imaging Equipment:

Askar ACL200 200mm

Rainbow Astro RST-135,

QHY268M camera

HO 3.0nm filters

Entfernung: 2,5 Mio. Lj

Durchmesserca. 140.000 Lj

LRGB

Equipment:

TS 10" f/4 ONTC Newton

1000mm f4

GPU Aplanatic Koma Korrector

Moravian CCD G2-8300FW

Astrodon LRGB Filter

Losmandy G11/LFE Photo

Guding:

Lodestar on TS Optics - ultra short 9mm Off Axis Guider

PHD2

30x600 Luminanz

6x300 RGB

total exposure time: 6:30 hour

Processing: PixInsight/Lightroom

My Website

Facebook

www.astrobin.com/jr2o88/

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• Sky-Watcher Quattro 250P

• Sky-Watcher EQ8-R Pro

• ZWO ASI294MM-Pro

• ZWO Hα 7nm: 25x600s bin1 gain 200

• ZWO OIII 7nm: 20x600s bin2 gain 200

• ZWO SII 7nm: 18x600s bin2 gain 200

(total integration 10.5h)

• ZWO OAG & ASI290Mini guide cam

• TS GPU coma corrector

• ZWO EFW, ZWO EAF & Pegasus Astro Ultimate Powerbox 2

Trevinca, Valding, Spain

Bortle 3, SQM 21.8

processed with Pixinsight

the canberra deep space communication complex, tidnbinbilla, australian capital territory

Credits: www.instagram.com/robin_onderka

Gear: EOS 6D mod (Astronomik L3) + Samyang 135/2

Photographed from: Beskid Mountains

20 lights: 60" f/2.4 ISO 1600

10 darks, 20 flats, 50 BIAS

SW: Astro Pixel Processor, Photoshop

Main technique: nebulosity enhance using starless luminance mask, star reduction, color twearking

Messier 95

507x60s

total 8,45 hours

Equipment:

10" f/4 ONTC Newton

Coma Corrector GPU

SVBONY SV605CC

ZWO mini EFW

Skywatcher EQ8

March 2026

A proper experimental night tonight using a tool Chris very kindly gave to me. This is a combination of camera rotation, zoom and focus pulling, lens cap trick and back-lit cardboard.

This just grew from aimlessly trying out different techniques until I found an effect I could work into another image.

Straight out of the camera....and into Lightroom for some minor adjustments.

This is number 228 of my 366.

www.astrobin.com/lj25m9/

Really beautiful object catalogued as 881 on the Lynds' Catalogue of Dark Nebulae.

It's one of the jewels that you could find on gamma Cygni nebula, on SADR region of Cygnus, one of my favorites regions of the sky.

"A dark nebula or absorption nebula is a type of interstellar cloud that is so dense that it obscures the visible wavelengths of light from objects behind it, such as background stars and emission or reflection nebulae. The extinction of the light is caused by interstellar dust grains located in the coldest, densest parts of larger molecular clouds." (wiki)

It was necessary to integrate more than 70 hours to show all faint and nice details on the estructure.

Here was captured using the more natural palette, please also check my HSO palette on this link:

flic.kr/p/2jBZr7x

Technical card

Imaging telescopes or lenses:Teleskop Service TS Photoline 107mm f/6.5 Super-Apo , Altair Astro RC250-TT 10" RC Truss Tube

Imaging cameras:ZWO ASI183MM-Cool , ZWO ASI1600MM-Cool

Mounts:Skywatcher EQ6R Pro , Mesu 200 Mk2

Guiding telescopes or lenses:Celestron OAG Deluxe , Teleskop Service TSOAG9 Off-Axis Guider

Guiding cameras:ZWO ASI174 Mini , ZWO ASI290 Mini

Focal reducers:Riccardi Reducer/Flattener 0.75x , Telescope-Service TS 2" Flattener

Software:Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight , Seqence Generator Pro

Filters:Astrodon O-III 36mm - 5nm , Astrodon S-II 36mm - 5nm , Astrodon R Gen.2 E-series 36mm , Astrodon G Gen.2 E-series 36mm , Astrodon B Gen.2 E-series 36mm , Astrodon HA 36mm - 5nm , Astrodon L Gen.2 E-series 36mm

Accessory:ZWO EFW , MoonLite NiteCrawler WR30 , TALON6 R.O.R , MoonLite CSL 2.5" Focuser with High Res Stepper Motor

Dates:July 21, 2020 , July 22, 2020 , July 25, 2020 , July 26, 2020 , July 28, 2020 , July 29, 2020

Frames:

Astrodon B Gen.2 E-series 36mm: 90x30" (gain: 75.00) -15C bin 1x1

Astrodon G Gen.2 E-series 36mm: 90x30" (gain: 75.00) -15C bin 1x1

Astrodon HA 36mm - 5nm: 205x600" (gain: 200.00) -15C bin 1x1

Astrodon O-III 36mm - 5nm: 110x600" (gain: 183.00) -15C bin 1x1

Astrodon R Gen.2 E-series 36mm: 90x30" (gain: 75.00) -15C bin 1x1

Astrodon S-II 36mm - 5nm: 111x600" (gain: 183.00) -15C bin 1x1

Integration: 73.2 hours

Avg. Moon age: 5.35 days

Avg. Moon phase: 33.86%

Astrometry.net job: 3811358

RA center: 20h 18' 42"

DEC center: +39° 43' 1"

Pixel scale: 1.007 arcsec/pixel

Orientation: 90.555 degrees

Field radius: 0.405 degrees

Resolution: 2328x1726

Locations: AAS Montsec, Àger, Lleida, Spain

Data source: Own remote observatory

Remote source: Non-commercial independent facility

A complete mosaic of this region. Cygnus is very rich in nebulosity, in which North America nebula, Pelican nebula and Ha region around Sadr are the most recognizable even in nightscape photography due to its unique shape and stronger response. The remarkable shape located on a bottom right are supernova remnants, known as Cygnus Loop (or Veil Nebulae). Also the Crescent nebula put a little smile on my face when I saw it in my data as a little bonus :-)

Photographed from: Beskid Mountains, Czech Republic

Gear: EOS 6D mod + Rokinon 135/2

10 panels) - 5 lights each

60" f/2.4 ISO 1600

20 darks, 20 flats, 50 BIAS

SW: Astro Pixel Processor, Photoshop

Questo target riprende la nebulosa NGC 6820, nota anche con le sigle Sh2-86 e LBN 135, all'interno della quale si trova l'ammasso aperto NGC 6823.

Avevo visto per caso questa nebulosa sul web e mi aveva attratto non solo la sua struttura ma anche il complesso di nebulose ad emissione, riflessione ed oscure che la circonda. Non ho fatto però i conti che l'immagine che avevo visto aveva un'integrazione di ben 48h. Avevo programmato l'acquisizione di una congrua integrazione in banda larga ma purtroppo sono ruscito ad acquisirne solo 3,5h. Speravo che acquisendo oltre 14h in banda stretta avrei potuto compensare la carenza della banda larga, ma così non è stato. E' stata una delle mie più complicate elaborazioni. Forse perchè le condizioni del cielo durante alcune sessioni non erano favorevoli, forse perchè la nebulosa è di per sè molto debole ma credo che un buon risultato si sarebbe ottenuto facilmente con molta acquisizione in banda larga.

Eppure penso che nel complesso la fatica elaborativa abbia dato i suoi frutti con questa immagine abbellita dal colore delle stelle acquisite in banda larga.

__________

This target captures the nebula NGC 6820, also known as Sh2-86 and LBN 135, within which lies the open cluster NGC 6823.

I had accidentally seen this nebula on the web and was intrigued not only by its structure but also by the complex of emission, reflection, and dark nebulae surrounding it. However, I hadn't noticed that the image I had seen had an integration of a full 48 hours. I had planned to acquire a suitable broadband integration, but unfortunately I only managed to acquire 3.5 hours. I hoped that by acquiring more than 14 hours in narrowband I could compensate for the lack of broadband, but that wasn't the case. It was one of my most complicated processings. Perhaps because the sky conditions during some sessions weren't favorable, perhaps because the nebula itself is very faint, but I believe a good result would have been easily achieved with extensive broadband acquisition.

Yet I think that overall the processing effort has paid off with this image embellished by the color of the stars acquired in broadband.

___________________

Optic: APO Refractor Askar 103APO + 0.6X

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC-Pro

Mount: Sky Watcher HEQ5 Synscan

Seeing: 4 (scala Antoniadi)

_

Filter: SVbony SV231

-71x180s 250gain /23 dark/ 21 ftats/ 80 biases t° sensor: -10°C only stars

date: 02/07/2025

location for: Monti Nebrodi (Sicily-Italy) 1600m slm

integration only stars 3h 33min

_

Filter: Narrowband Optolong L-eNhance 2" + SVbony UV-IR cut

-172x300s 250gain /250gain / 35 dark /21 flat / 18 darkflat /80 bias T°sensor:-5°C

Date: 6-22-23-24-25-26/08/2025

location for : Biancavilla -Catania-(Italy) 515m slm (Bortle 5-6)

Integration: 14h 20m

Temperature: 21°C (media)

Acquisition: NINA, PHDGuiding

Processing: DSS, SIRIL, PS, GraXpert

Explanation: To the eye, this cosmic composition nicely balances the Bubble Nebula at the lower left with open star cluster M52 above it and to the right. The pair would be lopsided on other scales, though. Embedded in a complex of interstellar dust and gas and blown by the winds from a single, massive O-type star, the Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7635, is a mere 10 light-years wide. On the other hand, M52 is a rich open cluster of around a thousand stars. The cluster is about 25 light-years across. Seen toward the northern boundary of Cassiopeia, distance estimates for the Bubble Nebula and associated cloud complex are around 11,000 light-years, while star cluster M52 lies nearly 5,000 light-years away. The wide telescopic field of view spans about one degrees on the sky or two times the apparent size of the Full Moon. (Text: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131008.html )

This picture was photographed during September, 4-6 , 2014 in Khlepcha observatory, Ukraine.

In this picture I discover an planetary nebula pKjPn8 (also known as PN G112.5-00.1) is a very unusual bipolar planetary nebula. Its complex structure is the result of irregular ejections of gas in different directions. (www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im1089.html)

Equipment: home assembled reflector 10 in., f/3.8

Mount WhiteSwan-180 with control "EQDrive Standart", camera QSI-583wsg, Tevevue Paracorr-2. Off-axis guidecamera QHY5L-II.

LRGB and narrow Ha filter set Baader Planetarium.

L = 32*450 sec.+20*90 sec. unbinned

RGB= 12*200-300 sec. bin.2.

Ha=24*900 sec., unbinned. Total 13 hours.

FWHM 1.99"-2.70" , sum in L channel - 2.42"

Processed Pixinsight 1.8 and Photoshop CS6

Another image from the Hullbull Remote Space Telescope. Later in the sequence of the same mini supernova, one of many, shown in previous images and a much wider field of view. The timing is past the stellar collapse and development and disappearance of the black hole. All that remains are energized molecular clouds, emission nebula of elements seeded prior to initiation of dimensional oscillation. The supernova shock wave is clearly visible. The nearby binary star system should be visible to the upper left, but gravitational lensing and distortion of light in the turbulence of the shock wave have caused a diffuse yellow light. A gravitationally lensed nearby light show supernova is visible to the lower left. Images of the black hole consuming matter created by the controlled Big Bang are still being processed.

Image from early in the light show heralding the opening of Metropolis 1, a new City of Light created some thousand light years away and presented by the intrepid space-time traveling photographer Alan Jaras. This image is from a large set of high-speed photos documenting the first mini-big bangs created by the impressive dimensional oscillator.

www.astrobin.com/vvc3mi/

Iteration on the Sharpless catalogue of faint nebulae.

It's not a common object, and here is the close up. Very faint and difficult. I am really proud of it :D

Sh2-170 is an emission nebula in Cassiopeia at around 7500 light years away.

The bright star at the centre of the nebula is ionising the surrounding hydrogen gas, causing the nebula to glow.

This nebula is about 2/3 the diameter of the full moon.

Technical card

Imaging telescope or lens:Altair Astro RC250-TT 10" RC Truss Tube

Imaging camera:ZWO ASI1600MM-Cool

Mount:Mesu 200 Mk2

Guiding telescope or lens:Celestron OAG Deluxe

Guiding camera:ZWO ASI174 Mini

Focal reducer:Riccardi Reducer/Flattener 0.75x

Software:Main Sequence Software Seqence Generator Pro, Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight

Filters:Astrodon L Gen.2 E-series 36mm, Astrodon HA 36mm - 5nm, Astrodon B Gen.2 E-series 36mm, Astrodon G Gen.2 E-series 36mm, Astrodon R Gen.2 E-series 36mm, Astrodon S-II 36mm - 5nm, Astrodon O-III 36mm - 5nm

Accessories:ZWO EFW, MoonLite NiteCrawler WR30

Resolution: 2328x1760

Dates:Sept. 25, 2019, Sept. 26, 2019, Sept. 27, 2019, Sept. 28, 2019

Frames:

Astrodon B Gen.2 E-series 36mm: 35x30" (gain: 75.00) -20C bin 1x1

Astrodon G Gen.2 E-series 36mm: 35x30" (gain: 75.00) -20C bin 1x1

Astrodon HA 36mm - 5nm: 97x600" (gain: 200.00) -20C bin 1x1

Astrodon O-III 36mm - 5nm: 35x600" (gain: 200.00) -20C bin 1x1

Astrodon R Gen.2 E-series 36mm: 35x30" (gain: 75.00) -20C bin 1x1

Astrodon S-II 36mm - 5nm: 30x600" (gain: 200.00) -20C bin 1x1

Integration: 27.9 hours

Avg. Moon age: 27.48 days

Avg. Moon phase: 6.38%

Astrometry.net job: 2980353

RA center: 0.392 degrees

DEC center: 64.612 degrees

Pixel scale: 1.007 arcsec/pixel

Orientation: 91.169 degrees

Field radius: 0.408 degrees

Locations: AAS Montsec, Àger, Lleida, Spain

Data source: Own remote observatory

Remote source: Non-commercial independent facility

olgeir.zenfolio.com/

The Iris Nebula or NGC 7023, is a reflection nebula, its color comes from the light of its central star, which lies in the constellation Cepheus. You can find it nearish to the North Star. It is located ~1,400 light-years away from Earth, and its gasses stretch ~6 light-years across.

Equipment:

Celestron CGEM Mount

Nikon 500mm f/4 P AI-s

Sony a7RIII (unmodified)

Altair 60mm Guide scope

GPCAM2 Mono Camera

Acquisition:

Taos, NM: my backyard - Bortle 3

101 x 181" for 5 hours 4 min and 41 sec of exposure time.

6 dark frames

15 flats frames

15 bias frames

Guided

Software:

SharpCap

PixInsight

Lightroom

Photoshop

My mount was polar aligned with SharpCap (what an amazing system for aligning). I then mounted my a7RIII and adapted Nikon 500mm f/4 P Ai-s lens to the top rail of my scope. I used SharpCap to achieve "excellent" polar alignment. I shot ISO 3200, f/4 and 181" exposures. Image frames were stacked and integrated and processed in PixInsight using: STF, Cropping, Dynamic Background Extraction, BlurXTerminator, plate solving, color correction, NoiseXTerminator and then the DSO was separated from the stars, 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 to the final image.

Explanation: Scanning the skies for galaxies, Canadian astronomer Paul Hickson and colleagues identified some 100 compact groups of galaxies, now appropriately called Hickson Compact Groups. The four prominent galaxies seen in this intriguing telescopic skyscape are one such group, Hickson 44, about 100 million light-years distant toward the constellation Leo. The two spiral galaxies in the center of the image are edge-on NGC 3190 with its distinctive, warped dust lanes, and S-shaped NGC 3187. Along with the bright elliptical, NGC 3193 at thebottom, they are also known as Arp 316. The spiral in the upper right corner is NGC 3185, the 4th member of the Hickson group. Like other galaxies in Hickson groups, these show signs of distortion and enhanced star formation, evidence of a gravitational tug of war that will eventually result in galaxy mergers on a cosmic timescale. The merger process is now understood to be a normal part of the evolution of galaxies, including our own Milky Way. For scale, NGC 3190 is about 75,000 light-years across at the estimated distance of Hickson 44. (text: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110829.html )

This picture was photographed March, 9, 15 and 16, 2015 in Khlepcha observatory, Ukraine.

Equipment: home assembled reflector 10 in., f/3.8

Mount WhiteSwan-180 with a control system «Eqdrive Standart», camera QSI-660wsg, Tevevue Paracorr-2. Off-axis guidecamera QHY5L-II.

LRGB filter set Baader Planetarium.

L=45*300 sec. bin.1, RGB= 35*100-150 sec. each filter, bin.2.

7 hours total.

FWHM 2.12″-2.98″

Processed Pixinsight 1.8 and Photoshop CS6

NGC 300 is a nearby spiral galaxy located in the Sculptor Group, roughly six million light-years from Earth. Viewed almost face-on, its delicate spiral arms reveal intricate dust lanes, glowing star-forming regions, and a rich population of young blue stars mixed with older stellar light. Its proximity and clarity make NGC 300 a favorite target for studying galactic structure and stellar evolution, offering a striking reminder of the quiet elegance found beyond our own Milky Way.

LRGB: 39/36/37/10x5m

HO: 48/60x5m

Total Integration = 19.2h

Data from Martin Pugh

A reprocess of some data I found on my hard drive. Originally taken in march 2015 and never used. This is M81 and M82 with a Canon 600D and C8N reflector.

"Head Shot" of the Fish Head Nebula, IC 1795. (2020-02-03 & 2020-02-14)

The Fish Head Nebula (IC1795) features glowing gas and dust in a star forming area in Cassiopeia. It s part of the Heart Nebula (IC1805) complex that is located at about 6000 light years away.

Equipment & Image Details:

Celestron 8" EdgeHD scope, Celestron CGEM II mount (hypertuned), ZWOASI1600MM Pro camera. Narrowband subs: 4*1,200 sec Ha filter, 6*1,200 sec OIII filter, 3*1,200 sec SII filter.

Processed with PixInsight and Photoshop.

spacepaparazzi.com/

Took the new 12-inch Meade LX200 out for a nice drive in the cosmos over the last few nights and put it through its paces.

The mount is still in need of some work but this scope is amazing!

The dark nebulae in this photo are part of a complex of Bok globules inside of the Rosette Nebula, NGC 2237. Bok Globules are dense opaque clouds of dust and gas, some of which are condensing under gravitational attraction to form stars and planets.

The Rosette nebula is located in the constellation of Monoceros approximately 6000 light years away.

Details:

M: Avalon Linear Fast reverse

T: AT 8" RC CF

C: QSI690-wsg with 3nm Ha and OIII filters

26x1800s Ha

22x1800s OIII

24 hours in total.

Planewave CDK24

Moravian Camera

Data from Martin Pugh

El Sauce, Chile

H: 26x5m

S: 27x5m

O: 24x5m

RGB: 15x3m

Total Integration = 8.7h

S/H/O/R/G/B: BXT

SHO: Gold-Blue / PS - Detail Extractor, Selective Color, Smart Sharpen, StarShrink, SXT

RGB: SXT / Rescreen stars on SHO

This image was a bit of an experiment, taken through a 1980's Orange Tube Celestron 8 to practice at longer focal-lengths during a backyard sessions over a couple of clear nights in Seattle, WA.

Mount: Astro-Physics Mach 1 GTO

Telescope: Celestron C8 @ f/10

Camera: QSI 683wsg

Luminance Integration: 84 x 30 sec (42 min), Binned 2x2

RGB Integration: 20 x 60 sec (20 min), Binned 4x4

Andromeda Galaxy a.k.a. Messier 31

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Andromeda, the largest galaxy in the so-called Local Group of Galaxies to which our galaxy also belongs, is 2.5 million light-years away and can be seen (even with the naked eye) in the constellation Andromeda. As general information, Andromeda is about 1.5 times larger than the Milky Way, with a diameter of 220,000 light-years (compared to the Milky Way which is 120-140,000 light-years in diameter) and contains more than 2 times as many stars. Although the first mention of this celestial object dates from 960, the first to give a more detailed description was the German astronomer Simon Marius, in the 1600s.

It should also be mentioned that Andromeda and the Milky Way are approaching with about 100 miles per second, experts estimate that in about 3-4 billion years the 2 galaxies will collide and thus form a new giant galaxy.

The attached image only shows part of Andromeda because the equipment I used was prepared for another target.

Equipment and settings:

Mount: Skywatcher EQ6R Pro

Telescope: Skywatcher 150PDS newtonian telescope

Camera: ASI 533MC Pro

Filter: Baader UV/IR cut

Integration: 52min

26 light frames x 2 min + calibration frames

Stacking with DSS. Edit in Pixinsight si Lightroom.

Location: my Bortle 6+ backyard

*Nebulosa Iris y fantasmas en Cefeo.*

La nebulosa Iris, a la izquiera, también conocida como NGC 7023 y Caldwell 4, es una nebulosa de reflexión azul brillante en la constelación de Cefeo. NGC 7023 es en realidad el grupo de estrellas dentro de la nebulosa LBN 487.

A la derecha se pueden observar unas nubes moleculares de polvo intelestelar con curiosas formas fantasmagóricas, la inferior, mas brillante, es conocida cómo el fantasma de la antorcha, vdB 141 o Sh2-136.

La nebulosa iris se encuentra a 1.300 años luz y los fantasmas a 1.200 años luz, con un tamaño de unos 2 años luz aproximadamente.

8h de integración total (25x600s + 15x900s) + tomas de calibración, 3 noches, durante marzo, abril y mayo, des de Àger, Lleida.

Newton Ts-Photon 154/600mm F3,9, Canon eos 600D modificada y refrigerada, filtro Baader bcf, corrector de coma Baader mpcc, Skywatcher Neq6 pro2 tuneada y correas rowan, guiado con Zwo asi 290mc y refractor Orion 50/162mm.

CSX Keystone Sub

Manila PA

50 Mio ly

Equipment:

10" /f4 TS ONTC Newton

ASI1600mmc v2

ZWO EFW 8x

Guiding TS9 OAG Lodestar

Losmandy G11

total 5,3 hours

2021

I photographed this handsome nebula about 2 weeks ago during a nearly full moon with the Optolong L-eXtreme filter.

NGC 7380 is a "must-shoot" object in Cepheus in my books. It's a fantastic target to try with a one-shot-color camera or DSLR, but a light pollution filter with narrow bandpasses will help keep those stars from taking over.

23 x 4-minutes (1.5 hours)

QHY 268C

Sky-Watcher Esprit 150\

DeepSkyStacker

Photoshop

Topaz DeNoise

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• Sky-Watcher Quattro 250P

• Sky-Watcher EQ8-R Pro

• ZWO ASI294MM-Pro

• Astronomik L: 22x300s bin1 gain 0

• Astronomik RGB: 23x300s bin2 gain 125

(total integration 3.7h)

• ZWO OAG & ASI290Mini guide cam

• TS GPU coma corrector

• ZWO EFW, ZWO EAF & Pegasus Astro Ultimate Powerbox 2

Trevinca, Valding, Spain

Bortle 3, SQM 21.8

processed with Pixinsight

Durante lo Star Party del Gruppo Astrofili Catanesi astrofilicatanesi.net/ (02-04/08/2024), il cielo pur essendo discreto a causa dell'Inquinamento luminoso non mostrava bene la Via Lattea a declinazione negativa. Ho dovuto scegliere un target vicino allo zenit: il Muro del Cigno. Una vasta e ricca nebulosità che fa parte della grande nebulosa Nord America (NGC7000) it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebulosa_Nord_America.

La prima notte purtroppo ho acquisito (non so cosa sia successo) senza raffreddare il sensore della ASI533MC-pro (circa 15°C). Speravo nella seconda notte ma a causa delle nuvole ho acquisito solo 5 frame.

Ciò malgrado l'immagine combinata era abbastanza buona. Ho deciso allora di riprendere da casa un pò di segnale in banda stretta per aggiungerlo all'immagine RGB ed enfatizzare il segnale H-alfa.

Sono rimasto piacevolmente sorpreso nel vedere durante l'elaborazione che la prima sessione di 43 frame a +15° aveva un segnale sufficente per regalarmi questo risultato.

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During the Star Party of the Gruppo Astrofili Catanesi astrofilicatanesi.net/ (02-04/08/2024), the sky, although discrete due to light pollution, did not show the Milky Way well at negative declination. I had to choose a target close to the zenith: the Cygnus Wall. It is a large and bright nebulosity that is part of the great North American nebula (NGC7000) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America_Nebula#:~:text=The%20...(NGC,its%20shape%20resembles%20North%20America.

Unfortunately the first night I acquired (I don't know what happened) without cooling the sensor of the ASI533MC-pro (about 15°C). I was hoping for the second night but due to the clouds I acquired only 5 frames.

Despite this the combined image was quite good. I then decided to take some narrowband signal from home to add it to the RGB image and emphasize the H-alpha signal.

I was pleasantly surprised to see during the processing that the first session of 43 frames at +15° had enough signal to give me this result.

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Optic: Rifrattore APO Scopos TL805 80mm/f7 + WO 0.8X

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC-Pro

Mount: Sky Watcher HEQ5 Synscan

Narrowband filter Optolong L-eNhance 2"

Seeing: 3 (scala Antoniadi inversa)

RGB 43x300s 121gain / 12 dark /20 flat / 21 darkflat /0 bias sensor +15°C

RGB 5x300s 121gain / 12 dark /20 flat / 21 darkflat /0 bias sensor -5°C

Ha+OIII 13x600s 121gain / 15 dark /21 flat / 21 darkflat /0 bias sensor -5°C

Date: 3-4-21/08/2024

Integration: 6h 10min

Temperature: 21°C (media)

Location for RGB: Maniace (CT) , monti Nebrodi (Sicily-Italy) 890m slm

location for Ha+OIII: Biancavilla -Catania-(Italy) 515m slm

Acquisition: NINA, PHDGuiding

Processing: DSS, GraXpert, SIRIL, PS.

[Explored on May 11, 2016]

[Chosen as AAPOD on 11 July, 2016.

www.aapodx2.com/2016/20160711.html ]

One of those moments, when results are better than it was planned ! Quite an amazing feeling. It's like when trying payes off and you feel relaxed - after merging 6 shots, I sat smiling :)

Shot taken in Georgia, Ertatsminda. It's several kms away from Kaspi.

Processed in Photoshop CC.

It's springtime and all of this dust certainly isn't helping my allergies! And there's a whole lot of it in this image of M81 and M82 (Bode's and Cigar Galaxies) in the form of the Integrated Flux Nebula. IFN is dust that lies outside of the galactic plane of the Milky Way but is illuminated from the starlight of the Milky Way itself. Since it lies so much further than intergalactic dust, it is WAY fainter and certainly demands dark skies and long integration times. Image acquisition is one thing, but the processing is a whole different beast and this definitely was a challenge. This is one of my longest projects in my entire astrophotography journey thus far and I'm happy with how it came out! Thanks to the super dark skies above my observatory, I was able to bring out some color in the IFN surrounding the galaxies and even a tiny hint of H-Alpha in it as well!

- Location: Remote Observatory (Bortle 1, SQM 21.99) near Fort Davis, TX

- Total Exposure Time: 50.7 Hours!!

Equipment:

- Scope: Esprit 100ED w/ 1x Flattener

- Imaging Camera: QHY 268M

- Filters: Chroma Ha (5nm)/L/R/G/B (36mm)

- Mount: Astro Physics Mach1GTO

- Guidescope: SVBony 50mm Guidescope

- Guide camera: ASI 120mm mini

- Focuser: Moonlite Nitecrawler WR35

- Accessories: Pegasus Ultimate Powerbox v2, QHY Polemaster, Optec Alnitak Flip Flat

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Software:

- N.I.N.A for image acquisition, platesolving, and framing

- PHD2 for guiding

- PixInsight for processing

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Acquisition:

- L: 400 x 3m

- R/G/B: 130 x 3m each

- Ha: 135 x 5m

- All images at Gain 56, Offset 25 (Readout mode 1) and -5C sensor temperature

- 20 flats per filter

- Master Dark & Bias from Library

- Nights: 3/13, 3/14, 3/23, 3/24, 3/25, 3/26, 3/27, 3/31, 4/1/22

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Processing:

- BatchPreProcessing to calibrate all images

- SubFrameSelector to reject/approve subs and weigh approved

- ImageIntegration with SFS weights

Ha/L/RGB Processing (Apply to each master):

- DynamicCrop

- MureDenoise

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction

Ha/RGB Processing:

- StarAlign Ha/G/B to R master

- PixelMath on Ha to make Ha_Clean image: Ha-Q*(R-med(R)) where Q=0.096

- ChannelCombination to combine RGB into color image

- PhotometricColorCalibration

- PixelMath to add Ha to RGB

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction on combined image

- BackgroundNeutralization

- GeneralizedHyperbolicStretch to bring to non-linear

- Several rounds of CurvesTransformation with and without RangeMask for further stretch

Luminance Processing:

- Deconvolution

- Duplicate Luminance to process IFN and galaxies separately

*Galaxy Processing*

- RangeMask + LocalHistogramEqualization to bring out core

- UnsharpMask using RangeMask to sharpen galaxy detail

*IFN processing*

- HistogramTransformation for stretch

- Duplicate and run Starnet to remove all but the brightest stars

- RangeMask to mask out galaxy and brightest stars

- PixelMath for exponential transformation: 1- (1-$T) * (1-$T)

- PixelMath to merge back with original: (1- (1-$T) * (1-starless)*F)+($T *~F) where F=0.15

- CurvesTransformation for contrast

Add Galaxies into IFN image:

- GAME Script to create masks for M81 and M82

- Apply mask to IFN image, protecting background/stars/IFN

- PixelMath to add galaxy image to IFN image so only the galaxy details are merged

Combine HaRGB with Luminance:

- StarAlign HaRGB to Luminance

- LRGBCombination with saturation at 0.35 and chrominance NR

- RangeMask and CurvesTransformation for saturation boost

- Starnet for star mask and ColorSaturation to increase star color

- MorphologicalTransformation using star mask to slightly reduce star size

- Various rounds of Curves and RangeMask for saturation/contrast enhancements

- DynamicCrop to remove edges

- Take to Lightroom for slight touch ups on color and slight luminance NR

- Bring back to PixInsight for final round of masked ACDNR

- CurvesTransformation with RangeMask for hue shift on M81 to make more blue

- ColorSaturation to saturate blue in M81

- Save and Export