I've attempted to image this for years but it's always got the better of me. I'm happy with this attempt, though.

Telescope: Apetura Carbonstar 150

Mount: Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro

Camera: ZWO ASIAIR 294MC PRO

42*300 second exposures. Stacked in Autostakkert and processed in Pixinsight.

This post is to give you an idea of where some of my favorite deep space targets reside within the Milkyway. From top to bottom we have:

1. Eagle Nebula (M16) / Pillars of Creation - Home to towering columns of gas and dust roughly 4 to 5 light-years tall, comparable to the distance between our Sun and Proxima Centauri, the nearest star.
   
2. Omega Nebula (M17) - A massive stellar nursery roughly 5,000 to 6,000 light-years away, where young stars illuminate and sculpt the surrounding gas.
   
3. Lagoon, Trifid & Chinese Dragon Nebulae - A 16-panel hydrogen-alpha mosaic revealing an enormous network of glowing hydrogen clouds, including the winding structure known as the Chinese Dragon Nebula.
   
4. Trifid Nebula (M20) - A spectacular combination of glowing hydrogen, blue reflection nebulosity, and dark dust lanes dividing its brightest region into three sections.
   
5. Lagoon Nebula (M8) - A vast star-forming region spanning roughly 100 light-years, filled with young stars and intricate clouds of gas and dust.
   
6. Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex - Located approximately
   460 light-years away, this is one of the closest stellar nurseries to Earth and one of the most colorful regions of our night sky.
   Equipment:
   * Eagle: 10" Meade LX200 & ASI2600mm Pro
   * Omega, Trifid, Lagoon & 16-panel mosaic: Celestron EdgeHD 8" & ASI2600mm pro
   * Rho Ophiuchi: Nikon Z5, 400mm lens + 2x teleconverter

Can anyone explain the strange glare on that image?

Telescope coordinates +03 58 57.89 +35 47 27.5

Taken with my iPhone 16 pro; 30 second exposure; minimal editing in the Lightroom app

NGC 3603 – A Closer Look at a Stellar Powerhouse | SHO

I wanted to take a closer look at NGC 3603, one of the most spectacular star-forming regions in our Galaxy, by zooming in on the central star cluster and bringing it into the foreground.

Surrounded by an intricate landscape of glowing gas, dark dust lanes and delicate nebulous structures, the cluster stands out as a brilliant concentration of stars embedded in a turbulent stellar nursery. The SHO palette reveals the different structures of the nebula, with contrasting shades that emphasize its complex morphology.

This image is the result of 2 hours and 30 minutes of total integration, captured through Hα, OIII and SII filters and processed in PixInsight.

Acquisition details

• Target: NGC 3603 — zoomed-in view of the central cluster
• Telescope: PlaneWave 20" CDK (510 mm, 3411 mm focal length, f/6.8)
• Camera: FLI ProLine 16803 CCD
• Mount: PlaneWave Ascension 200HR
• Filters: Hα, OIII, SII
• Exposure: 5 × 600 s per filter
• Total integration: 2 h 30 min
• Processing: PixInsight
• Palette: SHO

I hope you enjoy this closer view of one of the Milky Way's most fascinating stellar nurseries.

What do you think of this close-up and the way the central cluster stands out against the surrounding nebulosity? Clear skies! ✨

I drove over halfway to another country at 4 AM this Sunday to position myself in the path of a celestial event I’ve been anticipating for nearly two years: the International Space Station transiting Jupiter.

Captured from Burlington, Washington, at 6:03 AM PDT, this image contains seven human beings onboard the ISS (Jessica Watkins, Luke Delaney, Joshua Kutryk, Sergey Teteryatnikov, Pyotr Dubrov, Anil Menon, and Anna Kikina) in the same frame as the surface of Jupiter. In the full frame image on my Instagram (@aj.smadi), the Galilean moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto) are also visible.

With this long-awaited capture complete, Mercury remains the only planet outside the distant ice giants left to photograph for my ongoing “ISS Meets” series.

Equipment: C9.25, ZWO ADC, UV/IR cut filter, ZWO ASI662MC.

I don't see this one very often so I decided to go for it with a wide FOV from my Parisian balcony - I also captured the Bubble Nebula, M52, cluster NGC 7510 and Northern Lagoon Nebula. I quite like the result!

Equipment and acquisition:

- Askar FMA180Pro

- Asi585MC Air

- Teseek 17

- SvBony + asi120mm guide camera

- ZWO EAF, ZWO EFW

- L-Ultimate filter: 205 x 180 sec

- Antlia ALP-T SII-OIII 3nm: 253 x 180 sec

(Almost 23 hours in total)

- 30 darks, 30 flats per filter, 30 bias

Processing (PI)

WBPP, SetiAstro AutoDBE, SPCC, blurX correct only, starX

On starless images: DBXtract, linear fit, then channel combination (will also be used as luminance later on). SetiAstro statistical stretch (soft), then manual curves transformations with different color and range masks, noiseX. For luminance, stretch and masked curves to bring up details, noiseX. LRGB combination.

For stars: setiastro NB to RGB star stretch, pixelmath to recombine with starless

Last night I took 110 15 second exposures at 800 ISO using the SVBony SV545 & a Canon Rebel EOS 6Ti, one-shot color, no filters. I used StackingWizard & AstroWizard for processing.

For tracking I used the original Sky Adventurer on a rickety tripod, which I hope to replace at some point.

I live in a Bortle 7/8 area and I have NEVER viewed M31 with either a telescope or unaided eye, though I might have been pointed in the wrong area.

This is how I hoped it would turn out. I've been in astrophotography for a short time.

WOW!!! I DID THIS!

✨EXPOSURE DETAILS 🌌

🎯 Target: Clamshell Nebula, SH2-119

🔭 Telescope: William Optics Spacecat51 V1

📷 Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC - Pro

🏗️ Mount: ZWO AM5 w/TC40

🎯 Guide Scope and Camera: William Optics UniGuide + ZWO 290mm mini

🌈 Filters: Optolong L-eXtreme

🌌 Bortle Scale: 4

Social: https://www.instagram.com/lowell_astrophotography?srtk=M3FjZXEycTUyZGg5

⏱️ INTEGRATION TIME

⚪ 180 sec x 175

Total Integration: 8h 45m

💻 Control: ASIAIR Plus

⚙️ Editing: PixInsight + Lightroom

2015 BP519 is now known as Geyagugv.

Discovery: 2015-01-17 / Dark Energy Survey / Cerro Tololo / W84 Geyagugv ( ᎨᏯᎫᎬ ) is a Cherokee metaphysical being called upon during a prayer as a ᎦᎸᎾᏘ messenger to aid in healing and wellbeing. Geyagugv is known to reside in the highest level, galvnati ( ), the sky-vault. This being is one of the many messengers between the Cherokee people and the Creator.

Moon photo taken with Nikon Z8 and Takahashi TSA-120 telescope. One frame processed in Photoshop.

Unusually faint, it has a weird tilt and a retrograde orbit. They say it’s 7-17 earth masses but since it’s unusually faint we can narrow it down to 7-14 earth masses. It is also impossible for random noise to act like a planet so it may be real. What can explain its retrograde orbit is that it is the 5th giant that didn’t get fully ejected due to some debris. Link: https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/planet-9-iras-akari-survey-evidence

Acuter 40

Touptek 678 mono

ZWO EAFN

Skywatcher solar quest mount

Best 6000 of 12000 frames stacked

Stacked in PIPP and AS4

Impgg: convolution sharpening and inversion

PI: solar tools - contrast and color, BlurXT ML5

PS: color, contrast and saturation

I had a few questions about a couple recent findings. So Dark matter might be tiny primordial black holes rather than undiscovered subatomic particles? If so, how would that fit with the reported dark-star findings, since those stars are proposed to be powered by dark-matter particles? If black holes explain the gravitational effects attributed to dark matter and the accelerating expansion attributed to dark energy, why retain those hypothetical explanations instead of identifying black holes as the cause? Would that confirm the hypotheses or replace them? And if dark matter is black holes, why would only some black holes drive cosmic expansion would primordial black holes have the same relevant interior physics, and if not, what physically justifies the difference?

Hey guys, first post here so obligatory how’s everyone’s day/night going?

I am going to Cherry Springs State Park this weekend and they have a mandatory red light only rule in place for obvious reason. I was just wondering if my phone’s built in red hue is enough to abide by the rule or should I just do a red light filtering screen protector and call it a day? Trying to save as much money as possible since the Airbnb wasn’t cheap lol. Thanks in advance

Edit: provided a picture of my settings so whoever has an iPhone can try it out and let me know

La voie lactée plonge dans les côtes de la manche

Bortle 6 avec quelques nuages

S25 ultra

1h30 (poses 20s)

Iso 800

Have always wanted to get a shot of Orion with its beautiful red H-alpha (Hα) emission. Usually, my schedule doesn’t line up well for the winter Milky Way season because of the frigid temperatures and college, but this weekend the clear skies and perfect conditions were too tempting, so I drove 6 hours out to shoot this beauty. And I’m super glad I did. 

Now this is my first time capturing Orion the way I’ve always envisioned it. When I first got into astrophotography, it was during the winter of 2024. Orion was one of my first targets I shot, and I always wonder how people shot those red burning flames surrounding the constellation. I kept trying to get that shot with my stock Canon R6, and it would never work out. Little did I know, it required using a modified camera and an Hα narrowband filter to get that signal fully.

Looking back now, I’m glad I was faced with all those dead ends and kept learning. I wouldn’t have appreciated the craft if I knew all the answers right away. The most fulfilling part of astrophotography is that it’s an endless masterclass that always brings me back for more. 

So now, I present to you Orion, in all its glory, reflecting off Pharaoh Lake in the Adirondacks.

📸 Shot on my Astro-modified Canon R+ EF 24-70mm f/2.8 II

Sky: 2x3 panels| f/2.8 | 60s | ISO 1600
Hα: 4 frames stacked | f/2.8 | 240s | ISO 3200 
Foreground: 3 panels | f/2.8 | 180s | ISO 1600

Processed using Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Pixinsight, Auriga Registar, and ASTAP

Check out more of my work on my Instagram and website!

Remember to Leave No Trace :)

Does anyone know why the relation between the small circle arc and the great circle arc is CD=AB Cos(AOC)?

I have tried to look it up and I don't use AI so I am struggling a bit

Hi, hope this fits the rules as I couldn’t find any other community.

But has anyone joined the RGM telescope astronomy courses or the membership and if so would you recommend it? I have been wanting to learn more about astronomy and i don’t have a telescope so looking out for any in london

Thanks

Astrobin Top Pick

Taken from Bortle 6 Location on the nights of October 2 and 4, 2026

Equipment and Imaging Details: - ZWO ASI2600MC Air - ZWO Electronic Automatic Focuser (2025) - Apertura CarbonStar 200 (with Primary Mirror Mask) - Apertura 2" Coma Corrector - Apertura Dew Shield - ZWO AM5N - ZWO CAA - Gain 100 - -10° C cooling - 196 x 180" light exposures (82 + 114), 30 x biases, 60 x flats (30 each night)

PixInsight Processing: - WeightedBatchPreprocessing - BlurXTerminator (Correct Only) - SpectrophotometricFluxCalibration - MultiscaleGradientCorrection - SpectrophotometricColorCalibration - BlurXTerminator - StarXTerminator - MultiscaleAdaptiveStretch (separate HistogramTransformation and ScreenTransferFunction for stars only image) - CurvesTransformation - NoiseXTerminator - PixelMath (recombine stars only and galaxy images)

https://app.astrobin.com/i/b3z240

Total integration: 8h 40m

Integration per filter:

- Hα: 4h 10m (50 × 300s)

- SII: 3h 40m (22 × 600s)

- OIII: 50m (5 × 600s)

Equipment:

- Telescope: Explore Scientific ED APO 152mm f/8 FCD1 ED

- Camera: ZWO ASI6200MM Pro

- Mount: 10Micron GM2000 HPS II

- Filters: Chroma H-alpha 5nm Bandpass 50x50 mm, Chroma OIII 3nm Bandpass 50x50 mm, Chroma SII 3nm Bandpass 50x50 mm

- Accessories: Explore Scientific 3" 0.7x Reducer (FFFR507X-00), PrimaLuceLab EAGLE4S, Starlight Xpress Maxi USB filter wheel, WandererAstro WandererCover V4-EC

- Software: Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight, Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA)

https://app.astrobin.com/i/lmhurr

I live in the city where there's too much light pollution. But I took a vacation out to a bortle 1 sky under the recent new moon phase and decided to try to capture Pleiades's reflection nebula with my camera. I know this isnt as detailed as most thats posted on here. But I'm quite proud and happy with my results.

Camera: Canon R5

Lens: Canon ef 75-300mm F5.6 (cheapest Canon lens) w/rf converter

Star Tracker: MSM Nomad on top of my tripod

Took 100 2 min exposures. 87 were deemed ok by me. 13 had some issue with the heavy winds we had that night that left a fur ball of star trails around the stars.

Stacked in deepskystacker. No dark/bias frames (totally forgot to do them).

Hi all!

I’m a student at West Virginia University performing a very basic study about the effects and implications of radio frequency interference (RFI) from satellite constellations on radio astronomy. I put together a short survey about this topic, and I’m looking for respondents who have experience in radio astronomy or with RFI. All questions are optional, and it’s not a very difficult or long survey.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated and would significantly help my study. The survey is linked below.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc75-NtoZ7kE9sJBdDUOxav5-CKR4gN1BCPjIWux44iJgR-Hg/viewform?usp=header

I captured this image during this year’s summer vacation at a campsite in China’s Tengger Desert—a location with a Bortle Class 2 sky (low light pollution).

The equipment used included an FRA400 400mm APO refractor, a APS-C cooled astronomy camera, and a harmonic-drive equatorial mount.

No filters were used.

Unfortunately, the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) was around 0.1 that day—higher than the typically low AOD levels usually found in this region. I suspect this might have been due to moisture transport from a typhoon in the Pacific Ocean at the time.

This is my first time posting in this community; please let me know if there’s anything I could improve upon. Thank you!

Telescope: FRA400 f/5.6

Mount: Dual 17 Harmonic Drive Equatorial Mount

Camera: ASIAIR 2600MC APS-C Cooled Camera

Uses ZWO guiding system

The processing software is Siril.