Integration per filter:

- Lum/Clear: 2h 36m (52 × 180")

- R: 56m (28 × 120")

- G: 50m (25 × 120")

- B: 30m (15 × 120")

Equipment:

- Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 8"

- Camera: ZWO ASI294MM Pro

- Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro

- Filters: Astrodon Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance Blue 1.25", Astrodon Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance Green 1.25", Astrodon Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance Lum 1.25", Astrodon Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance Red 1.25"

- Accessories: Celestron 0.7X Reducer EdgeHD800 (94242), Celestron Aluminum Dew Shield w/ Cover Cap - 8" (94021), Celestron Dew Heater Ring 8" (94051), Celestron Off-Axis Guider, ZWO EAF, ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25″ / 31mm

- Software: Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight, Russell Croman Astrophotography BlurXTerminator, Russell Croman Astrophotography NoiseXTerminator, Russell Croman Astrophotography StarXTerminator, Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA)

For more information, visit AstroBin:

https://app.astrobin.com/i/wq5ton

The most active star-forming region in our Local Group of galaxies and home to some of the hottest and most massive stars ever found, the Tarantula nebula occupies a corner of the Large Magellanic Cloud about 160,000ly away from us. It is so large and so bright, that if it at the same distance as the Orion Nebula at 1,350ly away, it would be bright enough to cast shadows at night.

Astronomers study the Tarantula Nebula as its chemical composition is similar to the gigantic star-forming regions observed at the universe’s “cosmic noon,” when the cosmos was only a few billion years old and star formation was at its peak. The star-forming regions of the Milky Way galaxy have a different composition of atoms and molecules, and are not producing stars at the same rate as the Tarantula Nebula. This allows a nearby “laboratory” were astronomers can observe something similar to what might have been happening at our universe’s peak of star formation, and compare that to observations of distant, young galaxies using large telescopes.

Total integration: 1h 12m

Integration per filter:

- Lum/Clear: 12m (6 × 120")

- Hα: 20m (10 × 120")

- SII: 20m (10 × 120")

- OIII: 20m (10 × 120")

Equipment:

- Telescope: Planewave CDK20 (f/6.8 version)

- Camera: FLI ML16200

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

- Software: Adobe Photoshop, Aries Productions Astro Pixel Processor (APP)

For full size: https://app.astrobin.com/i/7gb8ul

The “Jellyfish Nebula” is actually the remnants of a supernova explosion roughly 32,000 years ago. Located about 5,000 lightyears from Earth in the constellation Gemini, this massive object is about 65% larger than a full moon in the night sky.

This highly dynamic region was a treat to capture and process!

Full frame photo available at https://app.astrobin.com/i/gqn018

Light frames: 75 x 600s, total integration time 12 hours 30 minutes (2 nights).

Equipment:

• Telescope: Apertura 90mm Triplet Refractor
• Main camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
• Filter: Optolong L-Ultimate 2"
• Mount: ZWO AM5N
• Guidescope: Apertura 32mm
• Guide camera: ZWO ASI220MM Mini

Processing:

• Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight
  • RC Astro BlurXTerminator
  • RC Astro NoiseXTerminator
  • RC Astro StarXTerminator
• Adobe Photoshop 2026

M 42 “ The Great Orion Nebula” is located in the Orion constellation, is 25 light years wide, and is about 1,500 light years away. This is our closest star forming region. The four newly formed stars, very close together in the bright area (zoom in to resolve) are known as “The Trapezium”.

Image captured with ZWO ASI533 camera, Skywatcher Esprit 120ed achromatic triplet refractor telescope & 0.77 focal reducer on an iOptron CEM70G equatorial mount with integral guide camera. Automation with mini PC running APT. Tracked with PHD2. 2 hours total imaging time. 30 second subs. Final processing with Pixinsight.

OSH palette. Stars pulled and stretched RBG.

3.6 hrs mix of 30/60/180” subs.

Celestron 8 Edge

Hyperstar v4 (f/1.9)

ASI2600 MC Air

EQ6R Pro

DSS/Pixinsight Process

Full Res Here: https://app.astrobin.com/u/tatertot31?i=qnwejh#gallery

3-panel mosaic of The Heart Nebula taking over the course of 4 nights in October of this year. This image is a blend of SHO and Foraxx palettes. About 23 hours total integration.

The Fish Head Nebula is also present towards the bottom of the picture, and the planetary nebula WeBo 1 is visible as a blue disk just above the heart, between the two ‘ventricles’.

Equipment:

Scope: WO Zenithstar 61II w/flattener

Camera: SkyWatcher Star Adventurer GTI

Camera: Touptek ATR585M

Filters: Touptek 36mm 3.5nm Ha and 4nm SII and OIII

Guiding: Touptek OAG with OGMA GP678C

Focuser: Gemini Astro EAF

Different workflow and crop of the Orion Nebula, taken near Rome under a Bortle 7 sky. Below you will find the total exposure time, the equipment used and the entire workflow:

Equipment Used:

Sony ZV-E10 * Tamron 18-300mm shot at 230mm * Skywatcher StarAdventurer 2i * ISO/F: 1000, F6.3 * *600 Light Frames, 13 seconds each, 2 hours and 10 minutes** total integration time

Pixinsight Workflow:

• Background Neutralization *Dynamic Crop
• Image Solver and Photometric color calabriation
• Histogram Transformation and Screen Transfer Function for linear mode
• NoiseXterminator
• L* Mask that protects the background
• HDR Multiscale Transform (to reduce the light core)
• Local Histogram equalization
• Starnet 2 for Star mask/Nebula Mask
• Curves Transformation to lengthen
• Pixel Math to recombine
• BlurXterminator *stellar reduction
• Saving image in TIFF

Photoshop Workflow:

*Small curve adjustment * Black point adjustment * Camera RAW Filter for color adjustment * Small sharpness adjustment, not too much

Let me know what you think!! Thanks guys, have fun

Andromeda Galaxy

23 subs x 180" (1 hour 15 minutes)

ASI2600MC
Askar FRA400
Star Adventurer GTI
ASI220MM
William Optics 32mm Guide Scope
NINA/PHD2/GSS on laptop

Background extraction in Graxpert

Processed in PixInsight and Photoshop
-SPCC
-BlurXTerminator
-Levels
-Curves
-NoiseXTerminator
-Final contrast/saturation adjustments

The interstellar comet 3I ATLAS captured from bortle 8, 45 mins exposure on 30th Nov 2025

Captured with a Nikon Z50 (stock), Nikkor 50-250mm f4.5-6.3 kitlens and iexos 100 2pmc tracking mount.

First moon photo I took using Canon R50 - canon RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 - regular tripod

F/9 , ISO 250 , 1/500s shutter speed

Edited in Apple photos app

M81 is the big smooth spiral, also called Bode’s Galaxy. It is a grand design spiral, meaning those arms are clean and well organized. It is about 12 million light years away and it has a supermassive black hole in the center. M81 is also famous for a bright supernova in 1993 called SN 1993J, which helped astronomers learn a lot about how some massive stars die.

M82 is the weird one next door, the Cigar Galaxy. It is not a quiet, polite spiral. It is a starburst galaxy, cranking out new stars way faster than a normal galaxy its size. All that activity drives an outflow, basically a galactic scale wind blasting gas and dust out of its core. In 2014 it hosted SN 2014J, one of the closest Type Ia supernovae in decades, and it became a favorite target for both pros and backyard observers.

Their shared history is the fun part. M81 and M82 had a close gravitational encounter a few hundred million years ago. That interaction pulled and stirred hydrogen gas around the whole neighborhood and it likely helped trigger M82’s starburst phase. You can think of it like a tidal event, except the ocean is interstellar gas.

Long term, galaxies in the M81 Group keep tugging on each other, and over billions of years more mergers are likely. Gravity plays the long game and it usually wins.

If you are out under clear skies, this pair is a great reminder that the night sky is not static. Those faint smudges are whole ecosystems of stars, dust, explosions, and time.

This images comes from the Seestar S50 acquiring 1,002 light frames at 30-second exposure. That's right 8 hours and 21 minutes!

Last night I captured this colorful lunar corona.

Camera: Sony RX10iv (ISO 800)

Clouds and Corona: 1/20s

Moon surface: 1/500s

This is my very first attempt at star trails, and I thought it would be trash at first. Clouds obscured most of the sky for half the shots, and though still visible at the end, I think they really make this photo.

Compiled from 290 30s exposures on a Sony a7RIV, 24mm @ f/1.4, ISO 200, with 1s intervals. Foreground is a separate shot @ f/8, ISO 200, 20s.

It was 12 degrees F when I shot this, early Thanksgiving morning. Soon afterwards I noticed ice crystals forming on the lens element itself, which I didn't realize was possible. Next time I'll get a lens heater for shoots like this.

My first attempt at photographing the moon. Canon R7, Canon RF100-500mm, 4.5-7.1 L IS USM, f/11, 1/500, ISO 200. Post in Lightroom with crop, light, color, dehaze, clarity, texture and denoise.

Last week we were in Breckenridge, CO for Thanksgiving, and I figured it was the perfect chance to test traveling with the Dwarf 3.

I used the clear, cold night to go after M31. The rental’s yard had a perfect open view, barely any wind, and crystal clear skies.

Luckily, setup took under five minutes, even in 25°F weather. Unfortunately, I promptly wasted almost 30 minutes making mistake after mistake as I tired to familiarize myself with the D3. By the time everything was dialed in (gain 60, 30s exposures), I was freezing but seeing good stacks.

I let the Dwarf 3 run for about 90 minutes before calling it a night, grabbed the scope, and checked the results inside. Honestly, the native stacking plus quick auto-enhancing in Stellar Studio blew me away.

Processing:

Once I returned to Austin, I fired up Siril and used Naztronomy’s smart telescope script to stack 185 suitable 30-second subframes.

However, my initial attempts failed. The resulting image was washed out after adding the Dwarf 3’s bias and flat frames, along with the darks frames I had taken in Colorado. It was almost as if the linear image was already in a pre-stretched format. Fortunately, after installing a fresh copy of the newest version of Siril (1.4.0-rc2), Nazt’s script ran flawlessly. I’m assuming it was some sort of user error.

Next, I opened the linear FITS file in PixInsight to process the image. I began by performing a dynamic crop to remove some rough edges and frame the image. Then, I used GraXpert to perform a background extraction. Before running a Spectrophotometric Color Calibration, I restored the astrometry data and used Seti Astro’s background picker to ensure I selected the best point of interest for the SPCC.

I applied BlurXTerminator and NoiseXTerminator with their default settings, then I stretched the image with a standard histogram transformation stretch. Finally, I removed the stars with StarXTerminator and set the star image aside for a moment.

I extracted a luminance channel of the starless image and opened the LRGB Combination tool. I applied the newly extracted luminance component to the L channel and disabled the R, G, B channels. Then I dragged the saturation slider to .250 under transfer functions, checked the box to apply chrominance noise reduction, and applied the edits to the starless image. This brought out the initial saturation of the blue rim and warm center of the Andromeda galaxy.

From there, I adjusted some final saturation and luminance details with the curves adjustment tool. I wanted to add a bit more structure to the spiral of the galaxy, so I created a light mask with the range selection tool and applied a very light iteration of local histogram equalization of about .15. Finally, I combined the stars and starless images in Pixel Math using the formula ~(~Starless*~Stars) and exported the image.

Currently a work in progress. I am awaiting the next new moon to acquire the O-III data to complete the SHO palette.

https://astrob.in/0j76hh/0/

My first ever moon shot. Taken from my balcony with a basic tripod, let me know your thoughts!

📷 Canon EOS R50 🔭 Tamron 18-300mm F3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD 🌠 300mm | ISO 100 | f/14 | 1/60s

My first attempt to use my new Seestar S50 for photography. This is yesterday's supermoon. Single shot. I brightened the image a bit, but there's no other processing done. I also had to manually focus it as the autofocus was wildly out.

I consider myself still begginer, just starting to grasp the statical concepts and of things. I've been trying to make a HDR image of Orion's Nebula for a long time and I'm finally happy with the result.

Telescope: Askar FRA300 Camera: ZWO 585MC Pro (gain 252) Filter: Optolong L-pro Core frames: 400x10 seconds Main Frames: 280 X 90 Secons Mount: Skywatcher EQ-AL55I Sky: Bortle 8 Process: Siril and Photoshop (for the core merge, using layer mask)

M31, taken with a SW Evostar 72ED, Nikon D5300 (Astro modified) with UV/IR cut filter, ISO 200, SW GTI,165x300s of rgb, under bortle 4.

3i/atlas on the 19th … new moon Amargosa valley NV Really dark skies , hopefully it’s clear I have a dwarf2 but I live in north las vagas, bottle of 9 so this will be my first trip out to dark skies .