https://astrodavido.com/ Deep-sky, lunar, and solar astrophotography by David Joyce, with the story behind each object. en-us Sun, 27 Sep 2026 15:59:57 GMT https://astrodavido.com/images/1282860/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1282860/ Sun, 20 Sep 2026 17:45:37 GMT Everyone photographs the Clamshell for its glow. I ended up photographing what lives inside it. Sh2-119, the Clamshell Nebula, is a sprawling cloud of ionized hydrogen in Cygnus, about 2,200 light-years away, lit by the hot O-type star 68 Cygni. It sits only a couple of degrees from the far more famous North America Nebula, which is part of why it gets passed over. But threaded all through that red-gold gas is a whole population of dark nebula... https://astrodavido.com/images/1282497/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1282497/ Sat, 19 Sep 2026 12:06:18 GMT I’ve always wanted to image the Running Man Nebula on it’s own without it’s more famous neighbor and finally decided to dedicate some time to it. Pretty happy with the result here and used continuum subtraction to mix the Ha layer with the red channel to show more dust overall and not wash out the running man itself. https://astrodavido.com/blog/pleiades-seven-sisters/ https://astrodavido.com/blog/pleiades-seven-sisters/ Wed, 16 Sep 2026 16:00:00 GMT The Pleiades (M45), the Seven Sisters, glow inside a blue haze, but it isn’t the cloud they were born in. Here is what you are really seeing. https://astrodavido.com/images/1274823/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1274823/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 16:03:04 GMT As always, I was hoping to pick up more imaging time on this but alas, the clouds prevail. I ended up pretty happy with it as is though! https://astrodavido.com/images/1274319/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1274319/ Sat, 05 Sep 2026 13:03:46 GMT I attempted to take hundreds of frames of the moon yesterday morning but I just couldn’t get things to work like I wanted when stacking them for various reasons. In the end, I noticed how sharp one single frame was and used that instead overlayed another frame used for the background. https://astrodavido.com/images/1273436/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1273436/ Fri, 04 Sep 2026 11:28:25 GMT This was an area of the sky that I noticed on my ASIAir app that looked interesting when I needed something to image before my primary target was visible. I only needed to kill about 30 minutes each night so I would set up, start my plan and let it image this region for 30 minutes or so and then switch to my primary target for the rest of the night. After 6 clear nights of doing this, here are the results from a hydrogen only image of this area. https://astrodavido.com/images/1272956/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1272956/ Wed, 02 Sep 2026 14:06:50 GMT I spent the last 6 clear nights imaging the Lion Nebula in the constellation of Cepheus. I’m just thankful to have had some clear skies here lately! https://astrodavido.com/images/1270702/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1270702/ Fri, 28 Aug 2026 23:51:08 GMT On the night of August 28, 2026, I photographed a deep partial lunar eclipse from my backyard, catching the Moon at maximum eclipse around 12:13 AM when it was as far into Earth's shadow as it would get. It came within a few percent of being total; that thin bright edge along the top is the only part that never slipped into shadow. There was no automation on this one, just me, my daughter, and a remote shutter release, following the shadow acr... https://astrodavido.com/images/1270655/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1270655/ Fri, 28 Aug 2026 21:28:47 GMT 700 frames and about 3 hours of standing in the dark clicking a shutter by hand. This is the maximum eclipse from 12:13AM and the moon was as deep into the Earth’s shadow as it was going to get. It came within a few percent of being a total eclipse. That thin bright edge at the top is the only part that never made it in the shadow. No automation on this one. Just me, my daughter and a remote release on the camera, 10-15 frames every 5 minutes... https://astrodavido.com/images/1269351/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1269351/ Wed, 26 Aug 2026 11:23:46 GMT I was hoping to set out my telescope all night to continue my long term project but it looked like the clouds were not going to cooperate so instead I used my DSLR to capture about 400 frames of the moon to stack. Here is the result! https://astrodavido.com/images/1268813/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1268813/ Tue, 25 Aug 2026 11:25:41 GMT NGC246 is in the constellation of Cetus and is a planetary nebula. It is about 1600 light years away from Earth and is about 6600 years old. For the gear nerds out there, this is the first image I’ve taken using my new mount, the SkyWatcher EQ6R Pro. I love it! https://astrodavido.com/images/1255118/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1255118/ Sat, 01 Aug 2026 12:31:40 GMT First time I’ve used flats with a solar image. Using a Barlow made it necessary. https://astrodavido.com/images/1248721/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1248721/ Sun, 19 Jul 2026 01:08:24 GMT M27 is in the constellation of Vulpecula (the Fox) and is another planetary nebula. It is about 1200 light years away from Earth and is between 9000-14000 years old. This was another work in progress I had but I’m calling it done since my mount died. 🪦 https://astrodavido.com/images/1248163/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1248163/ Fri, 17 Jul 2026 21:04:45 GMT I had bigger plans for this one but my mount finally died for sure this time. 🪦 I planned on picking up RGB for true color stars as well as shorter subframes in narrowband to control the core better. Also, you can see NGC6552 in the lower right corner which is a galaxy that is ~350–400 million light-years away! https://astrodavido.com/images/1240828/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1240828/ Wed, 01 Jul 2026 21:32:00 GMT I wasn’t sure it was going to be worth doing any solar observing or imaging today because of how hot it was out there today at over 90 degrees but in the end, it was! The prominences were ok but the overall solar activity was a joy to see. https://astrodavido.com/images/1238956/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1238956/ Sat, 27 Jun 2026 15:49:24 GMT I’m finally considering this one done despite my original plan of collecting at least 36 hours of data including hydrogen alpha. The weather just didn’t cooperate and we’ve only had 3 clear nights in the last 8-10 weeks and this is disappearing from my skies. I am normally not organized enough for multi-year projects but we’ll see if maybe I can start this one back up next year. https://astrodavido.com/images/1235605/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1235605/ Fri, 19 Jun 2026 21:13:59 GMT Our Sun, captured from my backyard on June 19, 2026, in the light of hydrogen-alpha. This wavelength reveals the churning surface texture and the fiery prominences arcing off the edge that ordinary sunlight completely hides. Even our nearest star is a restless place, its surface constantly reshaped by powerful magnetic activity. https://astrodavido.com/images/1229539/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1229539/ Wed, 03 Jun 2026 22:57:06 GMT Finally getting some clear skies and I think I have repaired my mount….hopefully https://astrodavido.com/images/1226701/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1226701/ Thu, 28 May 2026 00:51:54 GMT The Sun on May 27, 2026, showing some striking prominences leaping off the edge. The rain here had been relentless, but the clouds broke for about five minutes, just long enough to set up my hydrogen-alpha telescope and grab a 30-second video before they closed back in. Hydrogen-alpha light reveals the seething surface detail and flame-like prominences that plain white sunlight conceals. https://astrodavido.com/images/1224465/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1224465/ Sat, 23 May 2026 23:08:23 GMT The rain here has been relentless for awhile but the clouds broke this afternoon for about 5 minutes. That was long enough for me to get set up, take a quick peek and take a 30 second video. I was going to take another quick video after refocusing but the clouds were back and haven’t let up again since so I made it just in time! I’m new to solar so I’m still needing work on getting it tuned properly but obviously didn’t have the time today. Ho... https://astrodavido.com/images/1223851/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1223851/ Fri, 22 May 2026 13:46:30 GMT Another edit of the sun from 05/16 while I await clear skies and work through trying to fix my telescope mount. https://astrodavido.com/images/1223326/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1223326/ Wed, 20 May 2026 21:46:10 GMT I’m still practicing processing solar images and waiting on clear skies. Also, my CGEM mount has reached its end I believe so I’m considering options for a replacement. I’ve uploaded 4 versions, color and black and white of both normal and inverted views. https://astrodavido.com/images/1221961/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1221961/ Sun, 17 May 2026 15:21:32 GMT I’m having a blast with my new solar telescope. I love learning new techniques! https://astrodavido.com/images/1221674/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1221674/ Sat, 16 May 2026 21:22:23 GMT My first image of the sun! I bought a solar telescope last week and used it for the first time today and am so happy i found a way to do astrophotography during the day! I was thrilled with how I was able to view the prominences. I can’t wait to try this more! https://astrodavido.com/images/1218295/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1218295/ Fri, 08 May 2026 13:37:19 GMT Had a nice clear night last night and started a new project! While getting ready to bring in my equipment this morning, I decided to try the moon again with my DSLR and used an intervalometer this time to make getting a ton of frames a lot easier. I ended up with over 1200 subframes at 1/125 and stacked the best 25% of those here. Then, I used 1 subframe for the background at 0.4” https://astrodavido.com/images/1216413/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1216413/ Sun, 03 May 2026 14:22:30 GMT I’m finally wrapping this one up despite losing about half of my data in the blue channel due to clouds. I’m just too eager to move onto an exciting project that I have planned and I want to make sure I have enough time to complete it before the season is over. M99 or NGC4254 is in the constellation of Coma Berenices and is a grand design spiral galaxy with one dominant arm so it’s a little lopsided. It is about 50-60 million light years away... https://astrodavido.com/images/1215815/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1215815/ Sat, 02 May 2026 16:38:12 GMT Here’s an image that I’ve been working on for a month or so after my primary targets have gone out of view. I wanted to take advantage of the clear sky time and found the features of the barred galaxy NGC4394 pretty interesting despite the short total exposure time. https://astrodavido.com/images/1215135/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1215135/ Fri, 01 May 2026 09:43:56 GMT The forecast indicated clouds all evening but shortly before I was turning in for the evening, I decided to step out to see how the sky looked. The moon was bright at 98% with some wispy clouds surrounding it making for a nice view so I ran back in to grab my camera. Deep sky was out of the question for the night so I settled for the moon instead! This was a stack of about 30 frames at 1/125 and 1 frame for the background at 0.8”. https://astrodavido.com/images/1212906/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1212906/ Sun, 26 Apr 2026 15:48:36 GMT I decided to give the moon another go last night and tried for some earthshine photos as well but that didn’t work out. While taking my images, I noticed a bright star in the field and had to look it up to find that it was Regulus, one of the brightest stars in the night sky. https://astrodavido.com/images/1211722/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1211722/ Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:41:42 GMT The night before I imaged the moon but my focus was on Jupiter and its moons so I wanted to go back and image the moon properly so here we go! this was about 150 subframes and stacked the best 50% of them and merged with an overexposed shot for the background. https://astrodavido.com/blog/is-astrophotography-hard/ https://astrodavido.com/blog/is-astrophotography-hard/ Sat, 18 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT Is astrophotography hard? It can be, especially at the beginning, but it becomes easier with experience. By setting realistic expectations, starting with simple goals, and committing to learning the process, anyone can improve over time and create meaningful astrophotography images. https://astrodavido.com/images/1205176/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1205176/ Sat, 11 Apr 2026 14:38:21 GMT Messier 12, nicknamed the Gumball Globular, is a dense ball of hundreds of thousands of ancient stars in the constellation Ophiuchus. It lies about 16,000 light-years away and spans roughly 75 light-years across. Globular clusters like this are among the oldest objects in our galaxy, and through a telescope M12 resolves into a glittering scatter of stars that really does look like a jar of gumballs. https://astrodavido.com/images/1204629/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1204629/ Fri, 10 Apr 2026 12:59:58 GMT The Sombrero Galaxy is one I had wanted to photograph for years and finally caught in a single clear night. Its nickname says it all: a bright, nearly edge-on galaxy with a glowing central bulge wrapped in a dark lane of dust, giving it the look of a wide-brimmed hat. It sits about 29 million light-years away and holds an estimated 100 billion stars. Because it is so bright, it rewards even one night under the stars. https://astrodavido.com/images/1203771/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1203771/ Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:51:48 GMT Messier 95 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Leo, about 33 million light-years away and home to an estimated 40 billion stars. I love these barred spirals, because our own Milky Way is one too. Looking at M95 is a little like seeing a portrait of the kind of galaxy we live in, viewed from the outside. https://astrodavido.com/images/1197226/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1197226/ Sun, 29 Mar 2026 14:16:28 GMT Onto the next galaxy for the season, the Cigar Galaxy! This is one that I’ve imaged before a couple of times but only along with its neighbor M81, Bode’s Galaxy in a wide field view and never on its own with a zoomed in view like this. https://astrodavido.com/images/1188907/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1188907/ Sat, 14 Mar 2026 15:02:30 GMT I’m officially switching into galaxy mode now that we are looking out of the Milky Way’s plane at night so our skies are filled with galaxies. This is my first of hopefully many of the season. M64, also called the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy or the Evil Eye Galaxy is located about 17 million light years away from us in the constellation of Coma Berenices and is around 55000 light years in diameter. https://astrodavido.com/images/1188643/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1188643/ Fri, 13 Mar 2026 22:38:44 GMT My first nebula imaged for 2026 and probably the last until after galaxy season! Clear skies have been pretty rare this season… https://astrodavido.com/images/1183335/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1183335/ Sat, 28 Feb 2026 15:52:44 GMT After nearly 4 months of cloudy weather, it was good to get back out last night even though it looks like it will be awhile before another clear night. I’ve decided to start fresh and go ahead post what I had on this. This was originally taken in October and I planned to shoot it for at least 5-6 more nights but it’s not in a good spot at my location any more so I’m calling this one complete. https://astrodavido.com/images/1130815/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1130815/ Fri, 24 Oct 2025 20:27:58 GMT This one has been in progress for quite awhile and riddled with issues for some reason. I lost about a nights worth of data due to some focusing issues after a meridian flip but I’m going to go ahead and call this one complete for now and move on to another project once the clouds go away. I intended to go a little deeper on the Ha integration but I’m ready to wrap this one up. https://astrodavido.com/images/1127618/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1127618/ Sat, 18 Oct 2025 11:34:31 GMT A close-up of the Moon through my telescope. I had some extra time one morning when my main target was still hidden behind the trees, so I turned to the Moon instead. Even a quick look along the terminator, the line dividing lunar day from night, throws the craters and mountains into sharp relief as long shadows stretch across the surface. https://astrodavido.com/images/1126988/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1126988/ Thu, 16 Oct 2025 21:12:49 GMT I’ve been sick for this entire week and have missed several perfectly clear nights but I managed to stack some RGB frames I took of the moon on Saturday and here are the results. https://astrodavido.com/images/1126646/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1126646/ Wed, 15 Oct 2025 22:52:25 GMT Not sure if you’re supposed to use this much data in WinJupos but I thought that I’d give it a try and used about an hours worth of captures and it seems to have worked ok https://astrodavido.com/images/1125472/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1125472/ Sun, 12 Oct 2025 21:01:10 GMT This is the first time that I’ve imaged the moon in at least a year! I had some extra time this morning since my primary target was behind trees when I woke up and I decided to try the moon but wasn’t really prepared hence only one frame. I may try again soon with my DSLR and 600mm lens soon to do some stacking! https://astrodavido.com/images/1125243/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1125243/ Sun, 12 Oct 2025 12:44:24 GMT Best 25% of ~11000 frames https://astrodavido.com/images/1124836/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1124836/ Sat, 11 Oct 2025 15:17:26 GMT This was fun to do and the seeing was quite decent this morning! This is an animation of 66 minutes. https://astrodavido.com/images/1122735/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1122735/ Sun, 05 Oct 2025 19:03:42 GMT Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, captured one morning from my backyard. This is built from about 22 minutes of video, with thousands of frames stacked to beat the blurring of Earth's atmosphere. You can pick out the planet's banded cloud belts, storms of ammonia and other gases stretched into stripes by Jupiter's rapid rotation. https://astrodavido.com/images/1122507/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1122507/ Sun, 05 Oct 2025 13:34:48 GMT 22 minutes of data with ok seeing https://astrodavido.com/images/1121207/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1121207/ Thu, 02 Oct 2025 23:18:10 GMT Here’s one that I’ve wanted to image since I started all of this and I believe it ended up being my longest total integration time yet! https://astrodavido.com/images/1118745/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1118745/ Sat, 27 Sep 2025 20:10:11 GMT This is the derotated image of Jupiter from this morning after finally figuring out how WinJupos works! https://astrodavido.com/images/1118742/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1118742/ Sat, 27 Sep 2025 20:03:14 GMT Here’s an animation from WinJupos using 22 minutes worth of data from this morning. https://astrodavido.com/images/1118606/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1118606/ Sat, 27 Sep 2025 16:44:40 GMT Pleased to have better seeing this morning and have the Great Red Spot visible along with a couple of moons! Still trying to get better at planetary processing. Best 25% of ~8000 frames https://astrodavido.com/images/1115404/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1115404/ Sun, 21 Sep 2025 14:08:14 GMT Here’s my first image of Jupiter with the C11! It’s not the best time for Jupiter quite yet but I’m still pretty happy with the result. Looking forward to more opportunities to image it! https://astrodavido.com/images/1111378/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1111378/ Fri, 12 Sep 2025 10:01:19 GMT I've probably imaged the Wizard more than any other deep sky object but it is one of my favorites. This took 6 clear nights to capture the data which includes RGB data for the stars. https://astrodavido.com/images/1104104/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1104104/ Thu, 28 Aug 2025 00:33:07 GMT Here’s one that I imaged over the last 3 clear nights while waiting for my main target to become visible over my neighbors trees. I seldom image star clusters because most of them are fairly small in apparent size but this one and M13 (also in Hercules) are relatively large. This cluster is thought to have around 300,000 stars in it and is 26,700 light years away from us! https://astrodavido.com/images/1101699/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1101699/ Sat, 23 Aug 2025 17:46:44 GMT This is a reprocess of the Saturn images I took on 08/16 but this is a stack of 4 different 5 minute long videos with the best average of around 35% of all frames. This was the first time I’ve managed to figure out and use WinJupos to derotate the images. https://astrodavido.com/images/1101139/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1101139/ Fri, 22 Aug 2025 16:28:44 GMT The Tulip Nebula is a glowing cloud of gas about 6,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, named for its petal-like shape. Its most fascinating detail is easy to miss: the faint blue arc near one edge is a bow shock created by Cygnus X-1, one of the first black holes ever discovered. That black hole orbits a blue supergiant star, and as the pair tears through the surrounding gas it pushes out this shock wave. Hidden in this pretty fl... https://astrodavido.com/images/1100002/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1100002/ Wed, 20 Aug 2025 11:17:57 GMT I set up the night before last to do some deep sky imaging and that all went well. Yesterday morning, I went out to break everything down and bring my gear inside when I thought that I had just enough time to set up the C11 to take a quick peek at Saturn and my first view of the Orion Nebula of the season. My wife came out and noticed the shadow which reminded me about the Titan shadow transit. I had about 10 minutes before the event was over... https://astrodavido.com/images/1098121/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1098121/ Sat, 16 Aug 2025 11:41:39 GMT Saturn and its rings, captured from my backyard by stacking the sharpest frames from about 20,000 in a video to cut through the blur of our atmosphere. The rings are made of countless chunks of ice and rock, and even a modest telescope can show the gap that divides them. Seeing the ringed planet with your own gear never gets old. https://astrodavido.com/images/1096429/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1096429/ Mon, 11 Aug 2025 19:19:22 GMT The Ring Nebula in the constellation Lyra is one of the most famous sights in the summer sky, a glowing smoke ring puffed out by a dying star. When a Sun-like star runs out of fuel, it sheds its outer layers into space, and its exposed hot core lights them up from within. This was a quick capture squeezed in between other projects, but it is a rewarding little target. https://astrodavido.com/images/1094688/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1094688/ Thu, 07 Aug 2025 11:24:17 GMT Neptune, the most distant major planet in our solar system, and my first time ever imaging it. It is a tough target because it is so far away that it shows up as just a tiny blue-green dot even at high magnification. That faint disc is a giant world of ice and gas nearly 3 billion miles from the Sun. https://astrodavido.com/images/1094189/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1094189/ Wed, 06 Aug 2025 11:35:47 GMT First light for my new C11! This was very exciting for me as this is my dream telescope and I finally managed to get one. I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to use it for several days and was happy to see that it was mostly clear early this morning. I set up quickly and spent about a half an hour just looking through the scope at Saturn in amazement when I noticed the seeing was really quite good for my area and decided to shoot some video.... https://astrodavido.com/images/1089352/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1089352/ Sat, 26 Jul 2025 11:57:45 GMT Here's a very active region in Cygnus containing lots of hydrogen & oxygen with an interesting nebula in the upper right corner, Abell 71. https://astrodavido.com/images/1084177/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1084177/ Sat, 12 Jul 2025 10:37:48 GMT I’ve imaged this a few times before but usually only for a few hours in total exposure time. I wanted to make sure to pick up more of the faint oxygen here and of course could have gone deeper but I’m pretty happy with the overall result for the time invested. Thanks for looking! https://astrodavido.com/images/1083929/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1083929/ Fri, 11 Jul 2025 16:08:30 GMT I’ve tried to image this every year for the last 3-4 years and never succeeded until now! I almost ran out of time because this isn’t visible for very long each night this time of year so I was only able to get about 30 minutes of exposure time per night. I tried to use older data to have a long total integration time but had issues with my calibration files so I had to trash all of that and only use my most recent dataset but I’m happy to hav... https://astrodavido.com/images/1081524/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1081524/ Sat, 05 Jul 2025 11:55:27 GMT M8 - The Lagoon Nebula Inspired by the new image released by the Vera C Rubin Observatory, I decided to try a nebula that I’ve never imaged before and I’m glad I did! There’s lots of nebulosity here and I love the presence of the dark Bok globules. This nebula is around 4000-6000 light years away from Earth and is around 110 x 50 light years in dimension. https://astrodavido.com/images/1076128/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1076128/ Sun, 22 Jun 2025 15:55:21 GMT I’m back! We’ve finally had a nice run of clear skies lately here in Kentucky and looks like we have a few more clear nights ahead. I decided to switch back to my larger scope to get some nice close up views. I have a couple more projects in the works so there’ll be more to come on that soon. https://astrodavido.com/images/1034327/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1034327/ Sat, 08 Mar 2025 14:35:26 GMT It’s been so long since I’ve been able to do anything related to astrophotography, I was sincerely afraid that I wouldn’t remember how to do it! It’s been cloudy here for the last 4-5 months with only about 3 clear nights. I took advantage of a clear night a few nights ago and remembered that it’s essentially galaxy season so my wide-field set up isn’t ideal right now but my galaxy set up is still having issues. Hopefully that will all be reso... https://astrodavido.com/images/1003879/ https://astrodavido.com/images/1003879/ Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:21:42 GMT NGC 2264 is a busy star-forming region in the constellation Monoceros, about 2,600 light-years away, and it packs two objects into one frame: the Christmas Tree Cluster of young stars and the dark, dust-filled Cone Nebula. The bright young stars light up the surrounding hydrogen and are slowly carving away the cold gas, where new stars are still being born. A festive target I captured over the holidays. https://astrodavido.com/images/985993/ https://astrodavido.com/images/985993/ Sun, 03 Nov 2024 15:57:56 GMT I was hoping to finish up on this one by getting some RGB data to combine with my narrowband data but it seems the weather isn’t going to cooperate anytime soon. So for now, I’ve instead opted to process this in black and white which has a nice spooky vibe. https://astrodavido.com/images/982467/ https://astrodavido.com/images/982467/ Sat, 26 Oct 2024 16:19:59 GMT The Pleiades, also called the Seven Sisters, are my obligatory annual portrait of this cluster. On clear autumn and winter nights my eyes are always drawn straight to them, a little knot of blue stars that looks like a tiny question mark made of diamonds. They sit about 440 light-years away, and the soft blue haze around the brightest stars is starlight scattering off a cloud of interstellar dust the cluster happens to be drifting through. https://astrodavido.com/images/981370/ https://astrodavido.com/images/981370/ Wed, 23 Oct 2024 22:31:57 GMT Here's one I've wanted to revisit for a long time. I first imaged this a couple of years ago with a color camera and a duo-band filter with little success in bringing out the squid and OIII structures. I knew then that I was going to have to come back to this with a monochrome set up at some point and with all of the clear nights that we've had recently, I decided it would be a good time to try again. I'll likely reprocess this at some point s... https://astrodavido.com/images/978994/ https://astrodavido.com/images/978994/ Fri, 18 Oct 2024 01:33:55 GMT ISO 800 50mm f/2.8 https://astrodavido.com/images/976380/ https://astrodavido.com/images/976380/ Sat, 12 Oct 2024 10:21:48 GMT I think we've broken a record here in Kentucky - we've had something like 9-10 clear nights in a row! This is the most exposure time I've ever collected for one image and it's clear how having more data makes the processing go so much better. Previously, I have never been happy with the methods I've tried to combine Ha with RGB for a galaxy. Over the last week or so, I've been preparing for how I was going to handle the post-processing on this... https://astrodavido.com/images/964310/ https://astrodavido.com/images/964310/ Wed, 11 Sep 2024 23:49:31 GMT This is one I’ve wanted to image for a long time. I was hoping to use my C8 on this but I’ve had some issues with it lately and ended up being really happy that I was able to get such a wide field on this area. Since I didn’t think there was a lot of oxygen or sulfur in this region, I just shot hydrogen and colorized it and used the RGB frames for stars. https://astrodavido.com/images/958113/ https://astrodavido.com/images/958113/ Fri, 30 Aug 2024 00:14:20 GMT A wide-field view of the Tulip Nebula in Cygnus alongside WR-134, the bright star ringed by a blue arc in the upper part of the frame. WR-134 is a Wolf-Rayet star, an unusually hot, massive star roughly 400,000 times more luminous than our Sun. Its fierce radiation and blistering stellar wind have blown the surrounding gas into that glowing shell. This one took 22 hours of exposure over four nights. https://astrodavido.com/images/949860/ https://astrodavido.com/images/949860/ Sun, 11 Aug 2024 20:16:13 GMT The Cygnus Loop is the expanding wreckage of a star that exploded thousands of years ago, a supernova remnant in the constellation Cygnus. Its delicate, lacy filaments are shock waves plowing into the surrounding gas and making it glow. It sprawls across a huge patch of sky, which makes capturing the whole loop a favorite wide-field challenge of mine. https://astrodavido.com/images/927226/ https://astrodavido.com/images/927226/ Sat, 08 Jun 2024 15:17:09 GMT The North America Nebula earns its name from its uncanny resemblance to the continent, right down to a dark 'Gulf of Mexico' of dust. It is enormous, covering an area of sky about ten times the size of the full Moon, yet far too faint to see with the naked eye. Curiously, we did not pin down its distance until 2020, when the Gaia spacecraft measured it at about 2,590 light-years away. https://astrodavido.com/images/924523/ https://astrodavido.com/images/924523/ Fri, 31 May 2024 12:32:34 GMT Long story short, after months of equipment issues with my C8 telescope, I’ve still been unable to fix the problem and have decided to use my other scope, the little 72mm refractor just so I can do some imaging again. This one won’t win any awards or anything as it’s pretty short on total exposure time and focal length but I’m just happy to be out there under the stars again! https://astrodavido.com/images/921787/ https://astrodavido.com/images/921787/ Tue, 21 May 2024 22:18:44 GMT I’ve been really struggling with my equipment for the last couple of months and have spent all of my clear sky time trying to try one thing at a time to rule out potential issues. I’ve been close to giving up a few times but stuck with it and as of yesterday, I have found the problem and have a solution in mind! It turns out that my issue was caused by the vibrations from the fan in the cooler in my camera which was causing elongated stars acr... https://astrodavido.com/images/914106/ https://astrodavido.com/images/914106/ Thu, 02 May 2024 00:51:48 GMT This crowded frame captures Markarian's Chain, a graceful curve of galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, including the pair known as the Eyes Galaxies. Nearly every smudge here is an entire galaxy of billions of stars, tens of millions of light-years away. Scenes like this are a humbling reminder of just how many galaxies fill even a small patch of sky. https://astrodavido.com/images/913859/ https://astrodavido.com/images/913859/ Wed, 01 May 2024 12:32:06 GMT I’m still working on getting my equipment dialed in correctly but still able to get some imaging done in the process thankfully. I’m trying to slow down and solve one problem at a time and have managed to get rid of the tilt in my system, next is get the back focus perfected. https://astrodavido.com/images/911352/ https://astrodavido.com/images/911352/ Mon, 22 Apr 2024 23:59:45 GMT I’ve been going through some equipment issues so I’ve unfortunately been spending more time fiddling with things instead of imaging but I think I’ve finally got things straightened out! This was mainly just a test image early this morning with only 30 minutes of total exposure but I like how it turned out. https://astrodavido.com/images/900889/ https://astrodavido.com/images/900889/ Sun, 24 Mar 2024 18:56:58 GMT Here’s one that I’ve been wanting to image for a while and thought this would make a great start to galaxy season! It’s believed that NGC 3718 & NGC 3729 are interacting causing the oddly stretched shapes. They look as though they’re close together but in reality are about 150000 light years apart from each other. https://astrodavido.com/images/900126/ https://astrodavido.com/images/900126/ Fri, 22 Mar 2024 12:27:45 GMT Colorized hydrogen alpha with RGB stars Always one of my favorite deep sky objects, I’ve imaged this one several times but never at this long of a focal length. I can’t fit as much of it in my FOV with this telescope but I can gain resolution. This would improve a lot with more exposure time but I’m in galaxy mode now so I’m moving on and I’m pretty happy with how it looks. I always forget just how faint this is! https://astrodavido.com/images/897059/ https://astrodavido.com/images/897059/ Wed, 13 Mar 2024 01:02:26 GMT I started gathering exposure time on this while waiting for my primary target to come into view. I don’t have much time left to pick up any additional time before it’s gone for the season so I went ahead and processed what I had and actually like it in black & white. https://astrodavido.com/images/893840/ https://astrodavido.com/images/893840/ Sun, 03 Mar 2024 23:47:55 GMT I decided to reprocess this using just my RGB data for more natural colors and taking care to not blow out the core and show the trapezium some which is just visible. Next up, Galaxy season!! I have a nice upgrade to my other set up that I’m excited to try out. I purchased the Starizona SCT Corrector IV to see how it will pair up with my C8 and APS-C camera sensor. Hopefully, I’ll have some results soon. https://astrodavido.com/images/893161/ https://astrodavido.com/images/893161/ Fri, 01 Mar 2024 21:13:19 GMT I wasn’t sure the weather this year was going to work out for me to be able to capture enough data for this, but it worked out ok. I was hoping to pick up more data in total but that will have to wait until next year. I decided to blow out the core to show more of the surrounding dust and gas. One of these years, I’ll get around to doing this with shorter sub-exposure lengths in the RGB channels to highlight the details of the inner core and s... https://astrodavido.com/images/890377/ https://astrodavido.com/images/890377/ Wed, 21 Feb 2024 11:46:48 GMT After working on this project for a month and ending up with over 30 hours of total exposure time, I’m very happy to present my final image of this. I believe this is my longest integration yet as well as possibly the first time I’ve added RGB stars to narrowband data. Quite pleased with this one! https://astrodavido.com/images/888545/ https://astrodavido.com/images/888545/ Fri, 16 Feb 2024 01:09:06 GMT While continuing to make progress on my primary target, I’ve been picking up some exposure time on this area after the Seagull Nebula is obscured by trees. I’ve always found this area of the sky interesting because it’s filled with integrated flux nebula which I’ve tried to bring out here. https://astrodavido.com/images/866046/ https://astrodavido.com/images/866046/ Fri, 15 Dec 2023 17:07:06 GMT The Rosette Nebula is a large, bright flower of glowing gas in the constellation Monoceros, about 5,200 light-years away. It is rich in hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur, and unusually strong in sulfur compared to many nebulae, which makes for vivid color. At its heart, a young cluster of stars is blowing a cavity in the cloud with its radiation and winds. https://astrodavido.com/images/861927/ https://astrodavido.com/images/861927/ Thu, 30 Nov 2023 00:58:44 GMT I’m still working on trying to get the spacing correct between my camera and corrector and getting closer but still have more work to do. This is a target I’ve always wanted to image but have never been able to get to it and the framing never really worked with my smaller camera before. Now that I have the larger camera, I should be able to image this properly in a couple more months. This was all I was able to get early this morning since it’... https://astrodavido.com/images/860497/ https://astrodavido.com/images/860497/ Fri, 24 Nov 2023 14:32:16 GMT Here’s another one from when I was testing out back focus spacing on my wide-field setup. Going to need to make some adjustments to fix the corner stars. Still like how this turned out despite the low integration time and the fact that this is just a colorized Ha image. https://astrodavido.com/images/860396/ https://astrodavido.com/images/860396/ Fri, 24 Nov 2023 00:57:13 GMT Happy Thanksgiving! It was clear again last night and I decided to switch gears and try to get my wide-field setup going. I haven’t had a ton of success getting my C8 back focus perfected but I want to use this setup a lot this winter so I figured I’d try it out and it’s not perfect but not too far away from it. https://astrodavido.com/images/856886/ https://astrodavido.com/images/856886/ Mon, 13 Nov 2023 12:46:50 GMT I hadn’t done any planetary imaging for the last 2 years so I figured it would be a good time to try it out again while I’m waiting for an adapter to come in for my DSO setup. It took me awhile to get it figured out again and the seeing wasn’t great but this was the best I could come up with. This was the best 25% of about 6800 frames. https://astrodavido.com/images/853770/ https://astrodavido.com/images/853770/ Sat, 04 Nov 2023 00:38:53 GMT Here’s another one from the new camera! This is still data where the stars have odd shapes because of not having the correct spacing between my camera and corrector but that should hopefully be remedied this weekend. Anyway, I wanted this to be one of the first targets I went after with this setup because I knew it would frame up really nicely at 1300mm of focal length with an APS-C sized camera sensor. https://astrodavido.com/images/853642/ https://astrodavido.com/images/853642/ Fri, 03 Nov 2023 16:38:53 GMT Up until recently, I’ve been imaging with a 1600MM Pro and decided to finally upgrade to the 2600. I’ve read everywhere how much better this camera is with the added bonus of a larger sensor but never really understood what the improvements would be exactly. Now, after working with some of the data for awhile, I see how much cleaner it is and allows me to stretch further without adding as much noise. I’m glad I finally took the very expensive... https://astrodavido.com/images/846470/ https://astrodavido.com/images/846470/ Sat, 14 Oct 2023 11:54:49 GMT The Spider Nebula, IC 417, is a star-forming cloud in the constellation Auriga. This is a black-and-white view in the light of hydrogen, and I have a soft spot for monochrome deep-sky images; sometimes stripping away the color best highlights the structure of the gas. It is often photographed next to its smaller companion, the Fly Nebula. https://astrodavido.com/images/846151/ https://astrodavido.com/images/846151/ Fri, 13 Oct 2023 14:42:08 GMT SH2-173, nicknamed the Phantom of the Opera Nebula, is a faint cloud of glowing hydrogen. This is a colorized view built from hydrogen-alpha data. Faint emission nebulae like this are invisible to the eye but reveal their ghostly shapes in a long exposure through the right filters. https://astrodavido.com/images/845651/ https://astrodavido.com/images/845651/ Wed, 11 Oct 2023 22:44:54 GMT A close-up of part of the Soul Nebula, a large star-forming region in the constellation Cassiopeia. Inside these towering pillars of gas and dust, new stars are being born, and their radiation sculpts the surrounding clouds into the dramatic ridges and hollows you see here. https://astrodavido.com/images/843260/ https://astrodavido.com/images/843260/ Wed, 04 Oct 2023 23:04:20 GMT I wanted to reprocess my image of this from October to see how I could improve and I’m really happy with the results! This was a tough one - I still wanted to use the hydrogen channel as the luminance layer but there’s no free lunch. Doing that would cause the beautiful reflection nebula NGC2023 (the blue region to the bottom left) to disappear. I had to get creative with masks and blending the natural red channel with the hydrogen to use as l... https://astrodavido.com/images/843053/ https://astrodavido.com/images/843053/ Wed, 04 Oct 2023 09:11:33 GMT The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is a winding column of gas and dust about 2,400 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. The 'trunk' is a dense rope of cold gas being lit and eroded by nearby hot stars, and pockets deep inside it are collapsing to form brand-new stars. Captured in hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur over several nights. https://astrodavido.com/images/839726/ https://astrodavido.com/images/839726/ Sun, 24 Sep 2023 19:57:56 GMT SH2-112 is a bright emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus. It shows off one of my favorite features in this kind of object: dark, dusty structures silhouetted against a bright background glow of oxygen. A young, massive star nearby pumps energy into the cloud and makes it shine. https://astrodavido.com/images/839526/ https://astrodavido.com/images/839526/ Sun, 24 Sep 2023 13:22:09 GMT I’m still planning to get a deep image of this using my wide-field set up but that’s another month or 2 away. For now, I just wanted to get a quick view of things this morning and see how it could turn out. Thankfully this is an extremely bright object so it doesn’t require a ton of exposure time. I tried not to blow the core out as badly so the trapezium cluster is still just visible. I also elected not to use luminance at all here since it w... https://astrodavido.com/images/838210/ https://astrodavido.com/images/838210/ Wed, 20 Sep 2023 23:32:04 GMT The Bubble Nebula is exactly what it sounds like, a nearly perfect sphere of gas about seven light-years across, blown into space by the fierce wind of a single massive, hot star. That star is many times more massive than our Sun, and its relentless outflow pushes against the surrounding cloud to inflate this delicate cosmic bubble. https://astrodavido.com/images/836223/ https://astrodavido.com/images/836223/ Sat, 16 Sep 2023 14:27:28 GMT The Fish Head Nebula, IC 1795, is a glowing region of star formation in the constellation Cassiopeia. It sits right beside the larger Heart Nebula and forms the 'fish' shape that gives it its name. Captured over three clear nights in hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur. https://astrodavido.com/images/831768/ https://astrodavido.com/images/831768/ Mon, 04 Sep 2023 15:01:29 GMT The Lion Nebula, SH2-132, is a faint emission nebula on the border of Cepheus and Lacerta whose tangled gas suggests the shape of a crouching lion. It glows in the light of hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen, energized by hot massive stars buried within it. This is a close-up view I put many hours of processing into. https://astrodavido.com/images/830770/ https://astrodavido.com/images/830770/ Fri, 01 Sep 2023 12:24:04 GMT The Pac-Man Nebula, NGC 281, in the constellation Cassiopeia, is named for the way a wedge of dark dust makes the bright cloud look like the video-game character mid-chomp. This is a close-up with my larger telescope, revealing the dark 'Bok globules', dense knots of gas and dust where new stars are taking shape. https://astrodavido.com/images/828192/ https://astrodavido.com/images/828192/ Thu, 24 Aug 2023 23:17:55 GMT The Wizard Nebula surrounds a young star cluster in the constellation Cepheus, its billowing gas suggesting the shape of a robed wizard. It is one of my most-imaged targets; I keep coming back to it. The cluster's hot young stars light up and sculpt the surrounding hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen. https://astrodavido.com/images/827793/ https://astrodavido.com/images/827793/ Wed, 23 Aug 2023 23:44:33 GMT The Cocoon Nebula, IC 5146, in the constellation Cygnus, is a glowing pocket of star birth wrapped in dark dust lanes and trailed by a long, snaking cloud. A young star at its center lights up the surrounding gas, hatching from the very cocoon that formed it. https://astrodavido.com/images/825806/ https://astrodavido.com/images/825806/ Sat, 19 Aug 2023 12:57:11 GMT The Fireworks Galaxy earns its nickname: this face-on spiral has hosted an unusually large number of supernovae in recent decades, far more than a typical galaxy. Its spiral arms are dotted with bright pink knots of star formation. I captured this after two straight months of clouds finally broke over Kentucky. https://astrodavido.com/images/807648/ https://astrodavido.com/images/807648/ Sun, 18 Jun 2023 16:12:10 GMT The Dumbbell Nebula, Messier 27, is a planetary nebula, the glowing shell of gas thrown off by a dying Sun-like star as it exhausts its fuel. Its two-lobed, hourglass shape gives it the 'dumbbell' name. Strong oxygen emission lends it a striking blue-green glow, with fainter hydrogen filling in the finer details. https://astrodavido.com/images/804444/ https://astrodavido.com/images/804444/ Tue, 06 Jun 2023 14:42:24 GMT Here’s an animation comparing the difference between a raw 2 minute exposure and a stacked and processed image containing 30 minutes of total exposure time just for fun. https://astrodavido.com/images/803521/ https://astrodavido.com/images/803521/ Sat, 03 Jun 2023 12:58:08 GMT The Crescent Nebula, NGC 6888, in the constellation Cygnus, is a glowing shell blown by a Wolf-Rayet star, a rare, massive star in the final act of its life. Its powerful wind is slamming into gas the star shed earlier, sculpting this crescent-shaped bubble that glows in hydrogen and oxygen. https://astrodavido.com/images/800785/ https://astrodavido.com/images/800785/ Fri, 26 May 2023 12:55:24 GMT The Eagle Nebula, Messier 16, is home to the famous Pillars of Creation, the towering columns of gas and dust made iconic by the Hubble Space Telescope, where new stars are actively forming. This is my full-color version in hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen, which also shows the bright 'Star Queen' feature glowing within the nebula. https://astrodavido.com/images/800185/ https://astrodavido.com/images/800185/ Wed, 24 May 2023 11:57:26 GMT Another look at the Eagle Nebula, Messier 16, and its Pillars of Creation, here rendered in a hydrogen-and-oxygen palette. The pillars are dense fingers of cold gas resisting the erosion of nearby hot young stars, and deep inside them new stars are still being born. https://astrodavido.com/images/799352/ https://astrodavido.com/images/799352/ Sun, 21 May 2023 17:44:45 GMT The Pinwheel Galaxy, Messier 101, is a big, beautiful face-on spiral. This image is extra special because it also captured supernova 2023ixf, a star seen exploding in the galaxy in May 2023. I began imaging just before it appeared and finished afterward, so the exploding star shows up in the final picture. M101 is a sprawling spiral considerably larger than our own Milky Way. https://astrodavido.com/images/799251/ https://astrodavido.com/images/799251/ Sun, 21 May 2023 11:42:53 GMT Excited to display my first image of a supernova! The first data set was collected on 05/17-18. The supernova occurred in the evening on 05/19 and my second data set displayed is from 05/20-21. https://astrodavido.com/images/796367/ https://astrodavido.com/images/796367/ Thu, 11 May 2023 00:15:33 GMT Albireo is a gorgeous double star in the constellation Cygnus. To the naked eye it looks like a single star, but a telescope splits it into two, one glowing gold and the other blue, one of the loveliest color contrasts in the entire night sky. I shot this in a hurry one morning before work, and it brought back the first time I ever saw Albireo through a telescope. https://astrodavido.com/images/795589/ https://astrodavido.com/images/795589/ Sun, 07 May 2023 14:43:39 GMT Messier 109 is a barred spiral galaxy in Ursa Major, sometimes saddled with the goofy nickname the Vacuum Cleaner Galaxy. It is a distant island of billions of stars, its arms sweeping out from a bright central bar much like the structure of our own Milky Way. https://astrodavido.com/images/795056/ https://astrodavido.com/images/795056/ Fri, 05 May 2023 11:13:37 GMT Messier 13, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, is one of the finest globular clusters in the northern sky, a tight swarm of hundreds of thousands of ancient stars about 25,000 light-years away. These clusters are among the oldest structures in our galaxy, and M13 is bright enough to spot with binoculars on a clear night. https://astrodavido.com/images/788902/ https://astrodavido.com/images/788902/ Fri, 14 Apr 2023 13:07:22 GMT Jones-Emberson 1, nicknamed the Headphone Nebula, is a faint planetary nebula, the glowing shell cast off by a dying star. Its two rounded lobes really do look like a pair of headphones. Objects like this are dim and diffuse, so they take many hours of exposure to reveal. https://astrodavido.com/images/788527/ https://astrodavido.com/images/788527/ Wed, 12 Apr 2023 22:12:52 GMT NGC 4725 is a striking barred spiral galaxy, unusual for having only a single dominant spiral arm, with the smaller galaxy NGC 4712 sharing the same field far beyond it. I love a good barred spiral, and watching this pair emerge in my data honestly gave me goosebumps. Both lie tens of millions of light-years away. https://astrodavido.com/images/786494/ https://astrodavido.com/images/786494/ Wed, 05 Apr 2023 01:22:06 GMT Added color data https://astrodavido.com/images/785363/ https://astrodavido.com/images/785363/ Fri, 31 Mar 2023 13:32:36 GMT The Iris Nebula, NGC 7023, is a reflection nebula in the constellation Cepheus, a flower-like bloom of blue where dust catches and scatters the light of a bright central star. Unlike emission nebulae that glow with their own light, reflection nebulae shine only by reflected starlight, which is what gives the Iris its soft blue petals. https://astrodavido.com/images/785239/ https://astrodavido.com/images/785239/ Fri, 31 Mar 2023 00:40:50 GMT The Triangulum Galaxy, Messier 33, is the third-largest member of our Local Group of galaxies, after Andromeda and our own Milky Way. This face-on spiral is about 2.7 million light-years away and is speckled with pink clouds of star formation across its loose, sprawling arms. Built from over ten hours of exposure. https://astrodavido.com/images/784784/ https://astrodavido.com/images/784784/ Wed, 29 Mar 2023 21:14:33 GMT The Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, are the most recognizable star cluster in the sky, a sparkling knot of blue stars in the constellation Taurus about 440 light-years away. The soft blue haze wrapping the brightest stars is not the cloud they were born in; it is an unrelated patch of dust the cluster is currently drifting through, scattering the starlight blue. This is a reprocess of my data using newer techniques. https://astrodavido.com/images/784679/ https://astrodavido.com/images/784679/ Wed, 29 Mar 2023 13:35:28 GMT The Crab Nebula, Messier 1, is the wreckage of a star that was seen exploding in the year 1054, so bright it was recorded by observers around the world. Nearly a thousand years later, its shredded remains are still expanding across space, about 6,500 light-years away. It amazes me that we can photograph the debris of a millennium-old supernova from a backyard. https://astrodavido.com/images/784424/ https://astrodavido.com/images/784424/ Tue, 28 Mar 2023 14:23:58 GMT The Pac-Man Nebula, NGC 281, in Cassiopeia, gets its name from the wedge of dark dust that makes the glowing cloud look like the arcade character. Scattered across it are dark 'Bok globules', dense pockets of gas and dust that are collapsing to form new stars. This was some of my earliest monochrome data, reprocessed with what I have learned since. https://astrodavido.com/images/784073/ https://astrodavido.com/images/784073/ Mon, 27 Mar 2023 13:13:29 GMT The Whirlpool Galaxy, Messier 51, is a classic face-on spiral caught in the act of interacting with a smaller companion galaxy tugging at the end of one arm. That gravitational dance is compressing gas and triggering waves of new star formation, making the Whirlpool one of the most photogenic galaxies in the sky. https://astrodavido.com/images/783959/ https://astrodavido.com/images/783959/ Mon, 27 Mar 2023 01:11:46 GMT A wide-field pairing of two star-forming nebulae in the constellation Auriga: IC 410, the Tadpoles Nebula, named for two dense streamers of gas near its center, and IC 417, the Spider Nebula. Both are lit by clusters of hot young stars carving out the surrounding hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen. https://astrodavido.com/images/783823/ https://astrodavido.com/images/783823/ Sun, 26 Mar 2023 17:04:45 GMT Thor's Helmet, NGC 2359, is a glowing bubble of gas complete with sweeping 'wings' that give it the look of a winged helmet. It is blown by a Wolf-Rayet star at its center, a rare, extremely hot and massive star nearing the end of its life. I was stunned by how much oxygen showed up here in just a couple of hours of exposure. https://astrodavido.com/images/783756/ https://astrodavido.com/images/783756/ Sun, 26 Mar 2023 14:03:18 GMT NGC 2903 is a bright barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Leo, oddly overlooked given how photogenic it is, often called one of the finest galaxies that Messier missed. Its arms are studded with pink knots of active star formation, and a bright bar of stars cuts through its glowing core. https://astrodavido.com/images/783235/ https://astrodavido.com/images/783235/ Fri, 24 Mar 2023 20:17:30 GMT The Flaming Star Nebula, IC 405, in the constellation Auriga, mixes red emission and blue reflection nebulosity, all set alight by the restless star AE Aurigae. That star is a cosmic runaway, flung across the galaxy from elsewhere, and it just happens to be blazing through this cloud of gas and dust right now. One of my longtime favorite nebulae. https://astrodavido.com/images/781498/ https://astrodavido.com/images/781498/ Sat, 18 Mar 2023 12:35:42 GMT Messier 106 is a large, splendid spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. Beyond its bright spiral arms it hides a secret: extra 'anomalous' arms of glowing gas driven by a supermassive black hole feeding at its core. It sits roughly 24 million light-years away. https://astrodavido.com/images/779196/ https://astrodavido.com/images/779196/ Thu, 09 Mar 2023 19:10:24 GMT Bode's Galaxy, Messier 81, is a grand-design spiral in Ursa Major, one of the brightest galaxies in our sky and a favorite among astrophotographers. For this version I swapped hydrogen-alpha data into the red channel to bring out the pink star-forming regions threaded through its elegant arms.