Questo inizio anno 2026 continua ad essere molto singolare: si susseguono settimane di meteo sfavorevole e instabile. Le sere/notti serene sono state rarissime; infatti ho dedicato alla famosa Nebulosa Medusa, catalogata con la sigla IC 443 nella costellazione dei Gemelli, tutto il mese di febbraio. E non immaginavo fosse una nebulosa così evanescente ed ostica dal punto di vista elaborativo, tanto che ho dovuto utilzzare oltre 25h di integrazione per riuscire a gestire un disceto segnale. Devo ammettere che durante l'acquisizione delle immagini il cielo non è mai stato molto trasparente e la luna in un paio di sessioni ha peggiorarto le cose, con la conseguente presenza di discreto rumore e gradiente.

Ho fatto molti tentativi per cercare di evidenziare il segnale soffocando il rumore con i tool a mia disposizione. Fortunatamente l'applicazione Siril continua a grandi passi ad arricchirsi di nuovi scripts di terze-parti sempre più performanti, interessanti e miglliorati. Uno fra tutti il nuovo antirumore SyQon-Prism che in questa occasione si è dimostrato leggermente migliore rispetto all'ottimo GraXpert. E così sono riuscito a domare il rumore di fondo a favore del segnale e grazie al rapporto focale f/4 si riesce a scorgere la debolissima presenza di Ha e OIII attorno a questa bellissima nebulosa.

Altra faticaccia è stato il riverbero della stella multipla, composta da 3 componenti, Eta Geminorum, nota come Propus o Tejat Prior, che presentava un alone antiestetico credo di natura ottica. Solo con PS ho cercato di gestirlo nel miglior modo possibile.

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This start to 2026 continues to be very peculiar: weeks of unfavorable and unstable weather follow one another. Clear evenings/nights have been extremely rare; in fact, I dedicated the entire month of February to the famous Jellyfish Nebula , catalogued with the acronym IC 443 in the constellation Gemini. And I didn't imagine it was such an evanescent and processing-challenging nebula, so much so that I had to use over 25 hours of integration to manage a decent signal. I must admit that during image acquisition, the sky was never very transparent, and the moon made things worse in a couple of sessions, resulting in a fair amount of noise and gradient.

I've made numerous attempts to highlight the signal while suppressing the noise with the tools at my disposal. Fortunately, the Siril application continues to grow rapidly with new, increasingly efficient, interesting, and improved third-party scripts. One of these is the new SyQon-Prism noise suppressor, which on this occasion proved slightly better than the excellent GraXpert. Thus, I was able to tame the background noise in favor of the signal, and thanks to the f/4 focal ratio, I was able to discern the very faint presence of Ha and OIII around this beautiful nebula.

Another hardship was the reverberation of the multiple star, composed of three components, Eta Geminorum, known as Propus or Tejat Prior, which presented an unsightly halo, I believe of optical origin. Only with PS did I try to manage it as best as possible.

Google Translate

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Optic: APO Refractor Askar 103APO + 0.6X

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC-Pro

Mount: Sky Watcher HEQ5 Synscan

Seeing: 4 (scala Antoniadi)

Narrowband filter: Optolong L-eNhance 2"

-307x300s 250gain/ 35dark /27flat /80 bias

t° sensor: -10°C

Date: 2026-02-06+11+18+22+24

Integration: 25h 35m

Temperature: 5°C (media)

location for: Biancavilla -Catania-(Italy) 515m slm (Bortle 5-6) flic.kr/p/8AWHek

Acquisition: NINA, PHDGuiding

Processing: SIRIL1.4.2, GraXpert, SyQon-Prism, PS

On top of Haleakalā - a volcano on the island of Maui - are a handful of deep space telescopes dotting the barren landscape.

The Sadr Region (also known as IC 1318 or the Gamma Cygni Nebula) is the diffuse emission nebula surrounding Sadr (γ Cygni) at the center of Cygnus's cross. The Sadr Region is one of the surrounding nebulous regions; others include the Butterfly Nebula and the Crescent Nebula. It contains many dark nebulae in addition to the emission diffuse nebulae.

Sadr itself has approximately a magnitude of 2.2. The nebulous regions around the region are also fairly bright.

The Crescent Nebula (also known as NGC 6888, Caldwell 27, Sharpless 105) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, about 5000 light-years away from Earth. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1792. It is formed by the fast stellar wind from the Wolf-Rayet star WR 136 (HD 192163) colliding with and energizing the slower moving wind ejected by the star when it became a red giant around 250,000 to 400,000 years ago. The result of the collision is a shell and two shock waves, one moving outward and one moving inward. The inward moving shock wave heats the stellar wind to X-ray-emitting temperatures.

It is a rather faint object located about 2 degrees SW of Sadr. For most telescopes it requires a UHC or OIII filter to see. Under favorable circumstances a telescope as small as 8 cm (with filter) can see its nebulosity. Larger telescopes (20 cm or more) reveal the crescent or a Euro sign shape which makes some to call it the "Euro sign nebula".

EQ6R Pro mount

William Optics GT81 iv Scope

Asi2600mc camera cooled to -10c

Optolong L Extreme Filter

ASIAIR Pro

ZWO EAF

ZWO mini guide scope and camera

50 x 300 second exposures

30 x darks

30 x dark flats

30 x flats

Stacked and processed in Pixinsight

Bortle 6 Sky (Kent UK)

Newton 200x1000 - HEQ5.

Guidage chercheur + ASI120mc.

123x2min - ISO400.

CANON 1000Dd - Filtre Idas LPS D1 - Correcteur de coma Baader MPCC Mark III.

PixInSight - PS.

Ciel Bortle 8.

The Embryo Nebula NGC 1333 is located at the edge of the Perseus molecular cloud, 1,000 light-years away. The red star-forming regions are clearly visible.

358x180s

17,9 Std

ONTC 10" f4 Newton

Nexus 0,75

Svbony SV605cc

Pegasus NYX-101

January 2026

home location

The comet to see of 2021 ~57 million miles away from Earth in the pre-dawn sky over Taos, New Mexico. | December 4, 2021.

Equipment:

Celestron CGEM Mount

Nikon 500mm f/4 P AI-s at f/5.6

Sony a7RIII (unmodified)

Altair 60mm Guide scope

GPCAM2 Mono Camera

Acquisition:

Taos, NM: my front yard - Bortle 3

4 x 75" for 5 minutes and 4 seconds of exposure time.

5 dark frames

15 flats frames

15 bais frames

Software:

SharpCap

DeepSkyStacker

Photoshop

Guided

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/5.6 and 75" exposures. I stacked lights/darks/flats/bias frames in deepskystacker. I then processed the TIFF file in photoshop stretching the file, cropping and I used Astronomy Tools Action Set to help bring out details and colors along with Topaz Denoise to help smooth things out.

I have been waiting and waiting since November to have a clear night with no wind or moonlight on a weekend. Finally, I got my chance in late March, and it was my last shot until next November as Orion will start to fade below the horizon in April.

Orion is one of my favorite deep space objects to photograph, but the bright core makes it a challenge to capture well. I really like how this turned out!

(Explore # 84)

www.rossellet.com

Explanation: A bright spiral galaxy of the northern sky, Messier 63 is about 25 million light-years distant in the loyal constellation Canes Venatici. Also cataloged as NGC 5055, the majestic island universe is nearly 100,000 light-years across, about the size of our own Milky Way. Known by the popular moniker, The Sunflower Galaxy, M63 sports a bright yellowish core and sweeping blue spiral arms, streaked with cosmic dust lanes and dotted with pink star forming regions. This deep exposure also reveals an enormous but dim arc extending far into the halo above the brighter galactic plane. A collaboration of professional and amateur astronomers has shown the arc to be consistent with the stellar stream from a smaller satellite galaxy, tidally disrupted as it merged with M63 during the last 5 billion years. Their discovery is part of an increasing body of evidence that the growth of large spirals by cannibalizing smaller galaxies is commonplace in the nearby Universe. (text: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100911.html)

This picture was photographed during April 2016 in Rozhen observatory, Bulgaria.

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

Mount WhiteSwan-180 with a control system «Eqdrive Standart», camera QSI-583wsg, Televue Paracorr-2. Off-axis guidecamera QHY5L-II.

LRGB filter set Baader Planetarium.

L = 54 * 900 seconds , bin.1, RGB = 21* 450-600 seconds, bin.2 each filter. 22 hours total.

FWHM source in L filter 1.80"-2.96", sum in L channel - 2.32"

The height above the horizon from 56° to 83°, the scale of 1"/ pixel.

Processed Pixinsight 1.8 and Photoshop CS6

M78 is is the blue reflection nebula in the centre of the frame and Barnards loop is the red / pink area to the left of the frame.

The nebula Messier 78 (also known as M78 or NGC 2068) is a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780.

M78 is the brightest diffuse reflection nebula of a group of nebulae that include NGC 2064, NGC 2067 and NGC 2071. This group belongs to the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex and is about 1,600 light years distant from Earth.

Barnard's Loop (Sh2-276) is an emission nebula in the constellation of Orion.The loop takes the form of a large arc centered approximately on the Orion Nebula. The stars within the Orion Nebula are believed to be responsible for ionizing the loop. Recent estimates place it at a distance of between 518 light years and 1434 light years giving it dimensions of either about 100 or 300 light years across respectively. It is thought to have originated in a supernova explosion about 2 million years ago, which may have also created several known runaway stars.

This is another image taken with the dual rig.

Details

M: Mesu 200

T: Takahashi FSQ85 0.73x

C: QSI683 and Moravian G2-8300 with Baader RGB filters, 3nm Ha Astrodon filters and Hutech IDAS.

70x300s RGB

30x1800s Ha

45x1200s Luminance

​Total exposure time 47 hours 30 mins.

This has been blended as a simple RGB combination, then with the Ha data added into the red channel. The luminance layer was created using the luminance data and some Ha data added.

Lapis colored filaments of Oxygen marbled with veins of ruby like Hydrogen, part of a vast supernova remnant in the constellation Vela.

See on Fluidr

OTA: Takahashi FSQ-106

MOUNT: Software Bisque Paramount MX

CAMERA: SBIG STX-16803

GUIDE CAMERA: SBIG STX built in

REDUCER: na

SOFTWARE: SGP, PhD2, TheSkyX, Pixinsight, Starnet++, Photoshop

FILTERS: Astrodon LRGB; Hα 5nm, SII 5nm, OIII 5nm

ACCESSORIES: SBIG FW-7 Filter Wheel

LOCATION: M & K Observatory, NSW Australia

To see more of my work and to buy prints visit www.jklovelacephotography.com/pages/space

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) in the early morning of January 27, 2023.

The comet was discovered in March 2022 at the Zwicky Transient Facility telescope, thus the ZTF name.

Equipment:

SkyWatcher EQ6-R

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

Sony a7RIIIa (unmodified)

ZWO 30mm Guide scope

GPCAM2 Mono Camera

Acquisition:

Taos, NM: my back yard - Bortle 3

4 x 121" for 8 minutes and 4 seconds of exposure time.

2 dark frames

15 flats frames

15 bias frames

Software:

SharpCap

DeepSkyStacker

Photoshop

Lightroom

My Sony a7RIII and adapted Nikkor 500mm f/4 P AI-S were mounted on an ADM vixen rail and secured to the SkyWatcher EQ6-R mount. I polar aligned my mount using SharpCap Pro. I struggled with getting guiding going and decided to trust my mount to track accurately. I took 4 121-second exposures and dark, flat, and bias frames. DeepSkyStacker was used to combine all frames, and then I processed the TIFF file in Photoshop. I stretched the 32-bit file using Levels. I then made it a 16-bit file and continued to stretch the file in levels and curves. I used the color sampler tool and levels to do my best to help keep colors accurate. I then used my skillset, including some dodging & burning, and relied on Astronomy Tools Action Set and Topaz Denoise to give the image a polished look. I brought it into Lightroom to do final color corrections and add EXIF data. I did not attempt to account for the comet's movement, and you can see the nucleus is elongated.

Equipment:

Epsilon 130ED dual rig

QHY268m + CFW3M

Touptek IMX571 + ZWO EFW

Astronomik MaxFR

Skywatcher EQ8

September 2022

Processing: PixInsight/affinity photo

Situated 7500 light years away in the ‘W’-shaped constellation of Cassiopeia, the Heart Nebula is a vast region of glowing gas, energized by a cluster of young stars at its centre. The image depicts the central region, where dust clouds are being eroded and moulded into rugged shapes by the searing cosmic radiation.

Details

M: Avalon Linear fast reverse

T: AT 8" RC CF

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

17x1800s Ha

9x1800s OIII

totalling 13 hours so far

Here is a selction of some of my astro images from 2015. A wide selection of mono, narrowband and LRGB taken with two very differernt focal lengths and two different camera's.

It's been an interesting 2015 and I am really looking forward to what 2016 brings!

From top left the images are as follows. There's a clickable link to show the picture.

DWB111 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/18055155179/in/dateposted-pu...

IC5146 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/20956920656/in/dateposted-pu...

IC1805 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/20847210896/in/dateposted-pu...

IC1396 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/22841402303/in/dateposted-pu...

IC1848 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/23065199495/in/dateposted-pu...

IC1871 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/23065199495/in/dateposted-pu...

NGC7635 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/21672256872/in/dateposted-pu...

M1 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/16155482830/in/dateposted-pu...

IC434 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/16265877975/in/dateposted-pu...

NGC7023 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/18877814869/in/dateposted-pu...

Veil Complex - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/21230850569/in/dateposted-pu...

NGC1333 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/23235920719/in/dateposted-pu...

NGC2359 - www.flickr.com/photos/swag72/23529756720/in/dateposted-pu...

I imaged the Pleiades about a month ago. I used my 300mm lens. After getting some time on the Dumbbell Nebula, I took off the teleconverter and shot this target again with a longer focal length than I had before. I also used ISO 3200 and f/5.6 to bring out those diffraction spikes, which I think look really cool.

Equipment:

Celestron CGEM Mount

Nikkor 500mm f/4 P Ai-s at f/5.6

Sony a7RIII (unmodified)

Altair 60mm Guide scope

GPCAM2 Mono Camera

Acquisition:

Taos, NM: my backyard - Bortle 3

35 x 90" for 53 min and 5 sec of exposure time.

9 dark frames

15 flats frames

15 bais frames

Guided

Software:

SharpCap

PHD2

DeepSkyStacker

Photoshop

My mount was polar aligned with SharpCap (what an amazing system for aligning). I'm not comfortable using my SCT as my lens yet. My solution is to piggyback my Sony a7RIII and adapted Nikkor 500mm f/4 P Ai-s on a ADM dovetail rail on the top of my optical tube. I used DeepSkyStacker to combine all frames and then processed the TIFF file in Photoshop. I stretched the 32 bit file and used Gradient XT on the image. I then made it a 16 bit file and stretched in level, then curves. I used the color sampler tool and levels to do my best to keep the background space black. I then using my skillset and relyed on Astronomy Tools Action Set, and dodging and burning a bit to give the image the finishing touches.

IC5070 (the Pelican nebula) is located in the constellation of Cygnus at approximately 1800 light years from Earth. You can see on the right of the image a large pillar of gas and at the tip of this is a Herbig-Haro object.

Herbig-Haro 555 is a narrow jet of gas and matter, ejected by newly born stars at speeds of several hundred kilometres per second. It collides with nearby gas and dust in the interstellar medium, producing bright shock fronts that glow as the gas is heated by friction while the surrounding gas is excited by the high-energy radiation of nearby hot stars.

Details:

M: Mesu 200

T: TMB152

C: QSI683 WSG with 3nm Ha filter

26x1800s Totalling 13 hours

Before you draw your conclusions about this image, please read the description.

The sky and foreground were captured back to back at the same focal length and with the same equipment from a single tripod position.

The camera position was roughly 2 miles away from the mountain station, and the telescope/camera combination has an extremely narrow field of view of only 1.5° x 2°. The resulting telephoto compression makes the otherwise tiny Orion Nebula appear huge.

Two years ago, I had already captured a similar deepscape, but I was never really satisfied with it. The problem was lacking data for my sky, especially in the green channel, as clouds moved in towards the end of the imaging session.

Of course, I could have recaptured the missing data or the entire Orion Nebula from a different place, but that's not my style. After waiting two years for an opportunity to reshoot the image, I finally got my chance this February.

The weather this time was perfect, which made capturing the sky pretty straightforward, but otherwise, the conditions were still as demanding as 2 years ago.

Getting the foreground in focus with a monochrome micro 4/3rd astro-cam and RGB filters through a 500mm f/5.6 telescope is a real pain. Furthermore, snowcats grooming the slopes caused constantly changing, extremely bright illumination. Considering this, I am quite happy that I was able to capture a usable foreground.

EXIF

Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro (cooled monochrome MFT astro-cam)

Telescope: William Optics Megrez 88 (500mm f/5.6)

Filters: Baader HaRGB

Other equipment: ZWO EFW and EAF

Autoguider: ZWO ASI 385MC

Mount: Equatoriallly mounted Skywatcher AZ-GTI

Rig control: ASIair

Sky:

25min RGB (each)

21min Ha

Foreground:

5x 60s RGB (each)

10 x 60s Luminance

www.astrobin.com/2fxjsj/

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• Sky-Watcher Quattro 250P

• Sky-Watcher EQ8-R Pro

• ZWO ASI294MM-Pro

• ZWO Hα 7nm: 26x600s bin1 gain 200

• ZWO OIII 7nm: 54x600s bin2 gain 200

(total integration 13.3h)

• 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

LDN 1622 is located near the galaxy plane in the constellation of Orion. It is close to Barnards loop, a huge cloud that surrounds the emission nebulas found in the Belt and Sword of Orion.

LDN 1622 is thought to be much closer to the more famous Orion Nebula, perhaps only 500 light years away.

The REALLY interesting thing about this image is that I have got a pre-main-sequence (PMS) star .... Please take a look at my website to find out more www.swagastro.com/ldn1622.html

​Details.

M: Mesu 200

T: TMB 152/1200

C: QSI690 3nm Chroma Ha filters

​5x1800s in each pane - Totalling 15 hours of total exposure time.

A small section of the nebula known as the Vela Supernova Remnant

See on Fluidr

OTA: Takahashi FSQ-106

MOUNT: Software Bisque Paramount MX

CAMERA: SBIG STX-16803

GUIDE CAMERA: SBIG STX built in

REDUCER: na

SOFTWARE: SGP, PhD2, TheSkyX, Pixinsight, Starnet++, Photoshop

FILTERS: Astrodon LRGB; Hα 5nm, SII 5nm, OIII 5nm

ACCESSORIES: SBIG FW-7 Filter Wheel

LOCATION: M & K Observatory, NSW Australia

To see more of my work and to buy prints visit www.jklovelacephotography.com/pages/space

The Cocoon Nebula (Sh2-125, IC 5146) In the constellation Cygnus, an active star forming region.

See on Fluidr

OTA: Takahashi CCA-250

GUIDER: None

MOUNT: Software Bisque Paramount ME-II w/AOE encoders

CAMERA: FLI PL-16803

GUIDE CAMERA: none

REDUCER: Takahashi 645 CA 0.72X (f/3.6)

SOFTWARE: SGP, PhD2, TheSkyX, Pixinsight, Starnet++, Photoshop

FILTERS: Astrodon LRGB; 5nm Hα

ACCESSORIES: FLI CFW 5-7 Filter Wheel

LOCATION: SRO

To see more of my work and to buy prints visit www.jklovelacephotography.com/pages/space

The Pleiades also known as the Seven Sisters.

Equipment:

Epsilon 130D dual rig

QHY268m + CFW3M

TS2600MP (Touptek IMX571) + ZWO EFW

Astronomik DeepSky RGB

Skywatcher EQ8

12x180s red

12x180s green

12x180s blue

84x180s Luminanz

NGC 6334 in Scorpius

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Diameter: 30 light years.

Distance: 3,300 light years.

Apparent size: 31.0 arc min

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Field of View: 77.4′ x 51.6′

Exposure: 72 min (120 sec x 36)

Image Date: 2021-05-31

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Telescope: SkyWatcher Esprit 120

840 mm f/l @ f/7

Imaging camera: ZWO ASI 071

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My Flickr Astronomy Album

NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 are known as the Antennae, or sometimes called the "rat-tail" galaxies. They are located near the western edge of Corvus.

This pair of interacting galaxies was discovered by William Herschel in 1785. The Antennae Galaxies are the nearest and youngest example of a pair of colliding galaxies. About 1.2 billion years ago, the Antennae were two separate galaxies. Simulations of colliding galaxies suggest that the two will eventually form a single elliptical galaxy.

A high resolution image and full imaging details available at astrob.in/e2yddz/0/

Remotely imaged over 5 nights in April 2024 from Los Coloraos, Gorafe, Spain.

55 x 120 second exposures with Red, 52 x Green, 19 x Blue and 131 x 120 seconds of UV IR Cut

Total image time: 12 hours 19 minutes

Telescope: Celestron C14 EDGE HD

Camera: ZWO ASI6200MM Pro cooled to -5C

Filter: Astronomic Deep-Sky Red, Green and Blue and UV-IR Cut

Mount:Sky-Watcher EQ8

Captured with: NINA, processed with PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom Classic

Thank you for viewing!

M 101 A spiral galaxy in the Constellation Ursa Major. Distance from Earth 21 million light years

To be honest this is more my son Matthew's hobby than mine but I must admit the results are quite surprising even though lacking a little in resolution!

Messier 56 is a globular cluster of stars in the constellation of Lyra. It was discovered in 1779 by Charles Messier.

Spanning 84 light-years in diameter and approx 32,900 light years away it is believed to be about 13.7 billion years old, It is believed to contain around 80,000 stars.

​

A globular cluster is a spherical collection of stars that orbits a galactic core as as satellite. Globular clusters are very tightly bound by gravity, which gives them their spherical shapes and relatively high stellar densities toward their centres.

​Details.

M: Mesu 200

T: TMB 152/1200

C: QSI683 Baader LRGB filters

30x600s Luminance

30x600s Red

30x600s Green

30x600s Blue

Totalling 20 hours.

Horse head late Feb 2023

103x300s h-alpha

174x300s OIII

20x300s red

14x300s green

18x300s blue

26 hours total

french Alps

August 2024

Equipment:

Takahashi Epsilon 130D dual rig

Epsi1:QHY268m (IMX571)

Epsi1: QHYCFW3M-SR

Epsi1: QHY OAG + ASI220m

Epsi2: TS2600MP (Touptek/RisingCam IMX571)

Epsi2: ZWO EFW

Filter: Astronomik LRGB DeppSky

Filter: Astronomik MaxFR

JTD Dual Rig Alignment Saddle

Sywatcher EQ8

N.I.N.A

Pegasus NYX-101

90x120s - ISO400.

Newton 200x1000 SUR heq5 + Canon 1000Ddp + filtre Idas LPS D1.

Neighbors, but not close neighbours! On a two dimensional image these targets appear in close proximity to one another. In fact they are separated by more than 10,500 light-years.

IC 410, the Tadpoles nebula is a faint and dusty emission nebula approximately 12,000 light-years away from Earth in the northern constellation of Auriga.

IC 405,also known as the Flaming Star Nebula, is an emission and reflection nebula in the same constellation. IC405 is approximately 1,500 light-years away from Earth.

Image captured over 7 nights; 2022-11-19, 22, & 23, and 2023-01-01, 18, 19 & 22

17 hours 10 minutes total integration

Ha subs 23 * 1,200 sec = 7 hours 40 min

OIII subs 10 * 1,200 sec = 3 hours 20 min

SII subs 14 * 1,200 sec = 4 hours 40 min

R subs 15 * 120sec = 30 min

G subs 15 * 120sec = 30 min

B subs 15 * 120sec = 30 min

Imaging Equipment:

SharpStar 94EDPH with reducer at 414mm focal length,

Rainbow Astro RST-135,

ZWOASI2600MM Pro camera

SHO 3.0nm filters & RGB filters

Facebook | Instagram | Moonrocksastro

Located about 5000 light years from Earth, the center image shows the Rosette star formation region. The stars of NGC 2244 formed from the surrounding gas only a few million years ago. A survey of the nebula with the Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed the presence of numerous new-born stars inside optical Rosette Nebula and studded within a dense molecular cloud. Altogether, approximately 2500 young stars lie in this star-forming complex, including the massive O-type stars HD 46223 and HD 46150, which are primarily responsible for blowing the ionized bubble. Most of the ongoing star-formation activity is occurring in the dense molecular cloud to the south east of the bubble.

This is a part of my new project currently under construction: Part One and two of ten panels. (this image is made up of two panels) This will eventual form a skyscape including Caldwell 49 up to and including the Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Cluster. See moonrocksastro.com/index.php/2016/01/13/rosette-nebula-2/

www.facebook.com/moonrocksastro

Imaging telescope or lens: Vixen VSD

Imaging camera: Starlight Express SXVR-H18

Mount: Software Bisque Paramount MX

Guiding telescope or lens: Vixen VSD

Software: Sequence Generator Pro

Filter: Baader Ha, Hb, OIII & SII

Accessory: Starlight Xpress Lodestar Guider

Resolution: 2281x1743

Dates: Dec. 8, 2015

Frames: 78x1800"

Integration: 39.0 hours

Avg. Moon age: 26.30 days

Avg. Moon phase: 11.32%

Locations: Home observatory, Valencia, Spain

Las galaxias son al universo como la arena a la playa, mires por donde mires hay galaxias, sólo hace falta la suficiente exposición (en este caso 12h) y una relación focal rápida (f3.8) para que vayan aflorando por el fondo de una imagen, fotones extremadamente lejanos y antiguos emergiendo de entre el oscuro y vasto universo viajando durante millones de años a la máxima velocidad que permite la física conocida, para terminar entrando en nuestros telescopios, impactando en los sensibles sensores digitales y excitando sus píxeles.

En ésta imagen a parte de M31 la gran galaxia de Andrómeda y sus galaxias satélite M32 y M110, estan enmarcadas y ampliadas al 500% algunas de las lejanas galaxias que hay de fondo.

Hypothetical giant exoplanet orbiting a binary star system. The mountains and hills of one of its satellites can be seen on the foreground. Another satellite is shown on the lower right corner of the frame.

Three giant worlds found orbiting twin suns

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"A team of Carnegie scientists has discovered three giant planets in a binary star system composed of stellar ''twins'' that are also effectively siblings of our sun. One star hosts two planets and the other hosts the third. The system represents the smallest-separation binary in which both stars host planets that has ever been observed." (Text credits NASA -

exoplanets.nasa.gov/news/1386/three-giant-worlds-found-or...)

EXOPLANETS

==================================================

Confirmed 3439

Candidates 4696

Solar systems 2569

Earths 348

Data from NASA (exoplanets.nasa.gov/)

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My Friday night was spent setting up my scope and targeting the Andromeda Galaxy. It is the furthest object visible to the naked eye as it lies relatively close to us at only ~2.5 million light years from Earth.

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

36 x 210" for 2 hours, 6 min, and 30 sec exposure time.

5 dark frames

15 flats frames

15 bias frames

Guided

Software:

SharpCap

PHD2

DeepSkyStacker

Photoshop

Lightroom

My Sony a7RIII and adapted Nikkor 500mm f/4 P AI-S were mounted on an ADM vixen rail and secured to the SkyWatcher EQ6-R mount. I polar aligned my mount using SharpCap Pro. The guide scope/camera was attached to the camera's hot shoe. I used PHD2 to autogude during the imaging session. DeepSkyStacker was used to combine all frames, and then I processed the TIFF file in Photoshop. I stretched the 32-bit file using Levels. I then made it a 16-bit file and continued to stretch the file in levels and curves. I used the color sampler tool and levels to do my best to help keep colors accurate. I then used my skillset, including some dodging & burning, and relied on Astronomy Tools Action Set and Topaz Denoise to give the image a polished look. I brought it into Lightroom to do final color corrections and add EXIF data.

Red hydrogen emission and blue reflection nebulae, dark molecular clouds and a bright star sitting in the middle, flooding the scene its yellow light... Sounds like the Rho Ophichui region?

Sure. There is, however, another smaller, but similarly colorful area in the sky:

Meet the Cave Nebula!

Officially designated Sh2-155, the Cave Nebula in the constellation Cepheus, is a diffuse nebula of ionized hydrogen with ongoing star formation activity, at an estimated distance of 2400 light-years from Earth. It lies within a larger complex containing emission, reflection, and dark nebulosity.

The name "Cave Nebula" for Sh2-155 was coined by Patrick Moore, presumably derived from photographic images showing a curved arc of emission nebulosity corresponding to a cave mouth. Earlier, the name was already used to refer to another brighter but unrelated reflection nebula in Cepheus, known as Ced 201. The name's application to Sh2-155 has come into vogue through the nebula's inclusion in Moore's Caldwell catalogue as object Caldwell 9.

EXIF

ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro

Baader Ha, Oiii, RGB filters

William Optics Megrez 88, f/5.6

Skywatcher AZ-GTI controlled with ASIAir

ZWO ASI 385MC for autoguiding

PixInsight processing

Total integration time: 5h10min

Generated By Midjourney V6

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**Prompt :**

Vaisseau spatial futuriste massif au design aérodynamique, fusion de métal poli noir et de structures luminescentes bleu électrique et orange incandescent, traversant à très haute vitesse un champ d’astéroïdes dense et chaotique dans l’espace profond. La scène capture un moment de tension extrême : plusieurs chasseurs d’escorte plus petits, aux formes anguleuses et agressives, filent autour du vaisseau principal en formation serrée, laissant derrière eux des traînées d’énergie ionisée brillantes.

L’environnement spatial est spectaculaire et riche : des centaines d’astéroïdes de tailles variées, textures rocheuses détaillées avec fissures, poussières et reflets métalliques, flottent dans toutes les directions. En arrière-plan, une nébuleuse flamboyante mélange des teintes de rouge, orange et violet, illuminant partiellement la scène avec une lumière diffuse et volumétrique. Des étoiles scintillantes et quelques planètes lointaines ajoutent de la profondeur cosmique.

Le vaisseau principal présente des détails mécaniques complexes : panneaux imbriqués, turbines lumineuses, réacteurs à fusion incandescents, lignes d’énergie pulsantes visibles sous la coque. Les moteurs projettent des jets de plasma extrêmement lumineux avec effets de distorsion thermique et particules dynamiques. L’éclairage est cinématographique avec forts contrastes, reflets réalistes sur les surfaces métalliques et effets de lens flare subtils.

Angle de caméra dynamique en contre-plongée, proche du vaisseau principal, donnant une sensation d’échelle monumentale et de vitesse fulgurante. Profondeur de champ maîtrisée, motion blur sur les chasseurs et astéroïdes proches pour accentuer la vitesse. Style hyperréaliste, rendu 8K, détails extrêmes, textures photoréalistes, illumination globale, rendu digne d’un blockbuster de science-fiction, ambiance épique, immersive et intense.

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**Prompt:**

A massive futuristic spacecraft with a sleek aerodynamic design, blending polished black metal with glowing electric blue and incandescent orange energy lines, racing at extreme speed through a dense and chaotic asteroid field in deep space. The scene captures a moment of intense tension: multiple smaller escort fighters, with sharp and aggressive angular designs, dart around the main ship in tight formation, leaving behind bright ionized energy trails.

The space environment is rich and spectacular: hundreds of asteroids of varying sizes, featuring highly detailed rocky textures with cracks, dust, and subtle metallic reflections, drift in all directions. In the background, a blazing nebula swirls with vivid hues of red, orange, and violet, casting soft volumetric lighting across the scene. Countless stars shimmer in the distance, with a few distant planets adding depth and cosmic scale.

The main spacecraft showcases intricate mechanical details: interlocking panels, glowing turbines, fusion reactors burning with intense light, and visible pulsating energy conduits beneath the hull. The engines emit powerful plasma jets with thermal distortion effects and dynamic particle emissions. Lighting is cinematic, with strong contrast, realistic reflections on metallic surfaces, and subtle lens flare effects.

Dynamic low-angle camera shot, positioned close to the main ship, emphasizing monumental scale and blistering speed. Controlled depth of field, with motion blur applied to nearby fighters and asteroids to enhance the sensation of velocity. Hyperrealistic style, 8K resolution, extreme detail, photorealistic textures, global illumination, rendered like a high-budget sci-fi blockbuster, epic, immersive, and intense atmosphere.

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--ar 16:9 --v 6 --style raw --q 2 --s 750 --chaos 15 --seed 12345

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Thanks to all for your comments , for some health problems I can't respond 💕

The Rosette Nebula is a Hydrogen II region located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy. The nebula is at a distance of 5,000 light-years from Earth and measures roughly 130 light years in diameter.

Taken from my backyard in Gérgal, Almería, Spain over multiple nights. The narrow band imaging started in November and December 2021 and final RGB images in January 2022. Total usable imaging time 20 hours. The image is a classic Hubble colour palette with RGB stars added.

Equipment details can be found at astrob.in/j9lej9/0/

10se, F/4, iso 400

DWB111 Propeller Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus. The Propeller Nebula is actually part of a much larger nebular complex which are common in this area of the sky.

Imaging camera: Starlight Xpress SX-814 Trius

Imaging telescope: Vixen VSD @ F3

Chroma filters: Ha 3nm x10x1800 OIII 3nm x 10x1800. SII 10x1800

moonrocksastro.com/index.php/2016/06/30/dwb111-propeller-...

Version LHaRVB.

100x180s (5h) - Filtre Idas LPS D1 - gain 120, -10°C - ciel Bortle 4.

80x300s (6h40) - Filtre Optolong L-Extreme - gain 120, -10°C - ciel Bortle 7.

Lunette TS triplet 80x480.

Réducteur TS x0.79.

Monture HEQ5 pro goto modifiée.

Caméra ZWO ASI294mc pro.

Guidage chercheur SW 9x50 + ASI120mm mini.

Asiair pro.

Pixinsight, PS.

The North America Nebula (NGC 7000 or Caldwell 20) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus. The remarkable shape of the emission nebula resembles that of the continent of North America, complete with a prominent Gulf of Mexico. The North America Nebula is large, covering an area of more than four times the size of the full moon; but its surface brightness is low, so normally it cannot be seen with the unaided eye. The North America Nebula and the nearby Pelican Nebula, (IC 5070) are in fact parts of the same interstellar cloud of ionized hydrogen. The distance of the nebula complex is though to be approx 1800 light years away.

Details

M: Avalon Linear Fast reverse

T: Takahashi FSQ85 0.73x

C: QSI690-wsg with 3nm Ha filter and Starlight Express Trius M25C

This is a 2x2 pane mosaic for the Ha data

29x1800s in Ha

And 35x600s with the OSC camera.

This has been combined as LHaRGB

Total exposure time 20 hours and 20 minutes

newton skywatcher 150/750 pds canon eos 600D modificada con filtro baader bcf, sobre neq6 pro2.

3,5h de integración dividida en subtomas de 30, 60, 120, 240 y 360 segundos

The Eastern Veil nebula is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation of Cygnus, located at around 1470 light-years from Earth. It is part of the Cygnus Loop which is a 7000 years old, faint supernova remnant, covering roughly 3° on the sky (almost 6 full moons). The red hues in this image are from ionized hydrogen gas clouds, emitting light in the H-alpha wavelength, while the cyan hues are from oxygen ions.

Prints available: ralf-rohner.pixels.com

EXIF

Camera & Filters:

ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro

ZWO EFW / Baader Ultra Narrowband

3,5nm H-alpha

4,5nm Oiii

Telescope:

William Optics Megrez 88 f/5.6

Mount:

Skywatcher AZ-GTI

Camera, Mount & Focus control:

ZWO ASIair

20x 300s H-alpha

20x 300s Oiii

HOO image processing with PixInsight and Photoshop

The Pelican Nebula (also known as IC 5070 and IC 5067 is an emission nebula associated with the North America Nebula in the constellation Cygnus. The gaseous contortions of this nebula bear a resemblance to a pelican, giving rise to its name. Technical Info:

53 x 300 sec. Astronomik Ha 12 nm filter

23 x 300 sec. Optolong L-eXtreme filter

Gain 200, Offset 50, Binning 1x1

Total Integration 6.3 hours

Explore Scientific 102mm f/7 APO Refractor

Sensor cooled to -20°C on ZWO ASI1600MM Pro (mono)

Calibration frames: Bias, Darks, and Flats.

Plate Solve-ASTAP via N.I.N.A. 1.11

Image processing Pixinsight 1.8.8 and finished in Photoshop CC 2021

Markarian's Chain is a stretch of galaxies that forms part of the larger Virgo Custer in the constellation of Virgo. The two bright galaxies on the lower section of the chain are M84 and M86 discovered by Charles Messier in 1781. In this field of view approximately 30 identified galaxies are visible making it a spectacular target to image.

A combination of 10 nights imaging in January and February 2022 and May 2023 using two different cameras. 2022 images were taken using a mono camera and 4 filters, 2023 images were taken using a colour camera and a single filter.

Imaging and processing details can be found on my Astrobin page at: astrob.in/full/zy1fpo/0/

Thank you for looking.

Technical summary:

Captured: 7,8,29,30,31 Jan 2022, 1,2,3 Feb 2022 and 13,14 May 2023

Imaging Sessions: 10

Location: Gérgal, Andalucía, Spain 2022 and Gorafe, Granada, Spain 2023

Bortle Class: 4 Gergal, 3 Gorafe

Total Integration: 23 hours 10 minutes

Blue 116x 120s 3hr 52m BIN 1 Gain 100 -5C

Blue 4x 300s 20m BIN 1 Gain 100 -5C

Green 123x 120s 4hr 6m BIN 1 Gain 100 -5C

Green 11x 300s 55m BIN 1 Gain 100 -5C

Red 149x 120s 4hr 58m BIN 1 Gain 100 -5C

Red 8x 300s 40m BIN 1 Gain 100 -5C

UV/IR 142x 120s 4hr 44m BIN 1 Gain 100 -5C

UV/IR 3x 300s 15m BIN1 Gain 100 -5C

Moon & Skyglow: 40x 300s 3hr 20m BIN 1 -5C

Pixel Scale: 2 arcsec/pixel

Telescope: William Optics GT 81 385mm

Imaging Cameras: ZWO ASI6200MM Pro and ZWO ASI2600MC Pro

Guiding: ZWO UniGuide 50mm - ZWO ASI120MM-S

Filters: ZWO R, G, B, UV/IR and Baader Moon & Skyglow

Mount: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro

Capture Computer: Eagle 4

Capture software: NINA, PHD2

Editing software: PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom

Avevo iniziato nel 2015 ad acquisire queste immagini flic.kr/p/CCbNR7 , flic.kr/p/CCejHs , flic.kr/p/CCi68y per realizzare un mosaico con 5 pannelli. Purtroppo solo la 1° acquisizione è stata buona, mentre le altre hanno avuto vari problemi e il 4° pannello aveva poca integrazione quindi speravo di rifarmi quest'anno, ma non è stato possibile.

Malgrado ciò, ho unito i 4 pannelli ed ho tentato di elaborare il mosaico nel modo migliore possibile.

Il risultato (work in progress) mi è sembrato molto gradevole quindi lo condivido con piacere con voi.

I dati EXIF sono riferiti all'acquisizione del 4° pannello in data 20/08/2016

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I started in 2015 to acquire these images flic.kr/p/CCbNR7, flic.kr/p/CCejHs, flic.kr/p/CCi68y making a mosaic with 5 panels . Unfortunately only the 1st acquisition was good, while the others have had various problems and the 4th panel had lower integration so I was hoping to solve this year, but it was not possible.

Despite that, I joined the 4 panels and attempted to process the mosaic in the best possible way.

The result (work in progress) seemed very nice so I share it with pleasure with you.

The EXIF data refers to the acquisition of the 4th panel on 08.20.2016

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Lens: Zenit Giove-11A 135mm f/4

Camera: Canon EOS 550D (Rebel T2i) mod. Baader BCF

Mount: Sky Watcher HEQ5 Synscan

flic.kr/p/CCbNR7 > 30x300s 1600iso / 21 dark / 21 flat / 21 bias

date 16/07/2015(24) - 18/08/2015(6)

flic.kr/p/CCejHs > 30x300s 1600iso / 21 dark / 21 flat / 21 bias

date 16/07/2015 (11) - 19/08/2015 (19)

flic.kr/p/CCi68y > 33x300s 1600iso / 21 dark / 21 flat / 21 bias

date 13/08/2015 (13) - 19/08/2015 (20)

4th panel > 22x300s 1600iso / 21 dark / 21 flat / 21 bias

date 20/08/2015 (10) - 12/09/2015 (12)

Total Integration 9h 35min

Location: Rifugio Margio Salice, monti Nebrodi (Sicily-Italy) 1250m slm

Elaborazione DSS + PSCS3.

NGC7380 or Sh2-142 - The Wizard nebula - is approximately 8000 light years away in the constellation of Cepheus.

This is a reprocess of some old data as I was never happy with the original

Details

M: Avalon Linear Fast reverse

T: Takahashi FSQ85 0.73x

C: Atik 460EXM with 3nm narrowband filters

24x1800s Ha

15x1800s OIII

15x1800s SII

Total integration time - 27 hours