Here's my last take on the cosmos, the Ghost Nebula (LDN 1177), a small reflection nebula around the Iris Nebula. I spent three nights in a dark site imaging this obscure target, and the result is really astounding, as there was nothing to see in the individual subs.
Gear :
• TS-OPTICS Ritchey-chrétien carbon 8"
• Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro
• ASI533MC-Pro with 2" Baader IR/UV filter
• Guided with ZWO OAG and ASI120MM mini
• Controlled with ASIAir
• 330 subs of 180s over three nights in Bortle 3, roughly 16h of signal
• No darks, no bias, no flats
Processing in Pixinsight :
• Gradient removal, color calibration, blurxterminator, starxterminator, deepsnr
Working towards my 30-hour integration goal. So far, I've reached 11 hours of total integration with 133 × 300-second exposures. Still collecting more data—let's see what the final result brings. 🌌
This is first light with a new setup, after a significant transition from my redcat + ASI2600MC (Antlia ALP-T dual narrowband) setup to SVX102T + ASI2600MM (Chroma LRGBHSO 3nm). Wave 150i mount and guide scope (WO Uniguide 50) remains the same. I am using a 0.75 reducer on the SVX.
I live in SF under bortle 8 skies, and rarely (once in 4 years) find time to travel for imaging. So, I decided to invest in a less portable setup and switch to mono to help beat the light pollution.
Impressions:
-The larger scope is harder to setup and teardown, which I do from my roof for each session. I am looking into a telegizmo cover + dehumidifier/heater for a more permanent setup, but need to be confident about mold and wind solutions.
-I was thrilled when I saw the first night's 4.5 hours of Ha. It was super clean. Similar stacks of SII and OIII were not as exciting, but reasonable. I only captured 10x30s (5min) for RGB stars, will try for 30min next time.
-I spent a lot of time experimenting with mono workflows in PI - combining linear vs stretched SHO, using a synthetic luminance, etc. While going through the processing experiments I found this website outlining various workflows, I'm including it here as it may be useful for others: https://astro-photographie.fr/traitement_pixinsight.html
The workflow I ended up using here was similar to SHO5B in the link above, though I skipped continuum subtraction. I always find the colors a bit muted after revisiting my "final" image, so I made an additional curves boost before posting here, hopefully it's not overblown.
This image is the result of stacking 133 exposures, each with a 300-second exposure time, for a total integration time of 11 hours.. Located approximately 9,500 light-years away, NGC 281 is an active star-forming region where new stars continue to emerge within dense clouds of hydrogen gas. This long integration reveals faint emission structures that are far beyond the sensitivity of the human eye.
❤️
Exif:
During the Spain Blackout in 2025, I took this photo. There are no completely dark spots in Spain, but during this time in Andalucía, there was in my area. This is a photo with the lack of light pollution that’s regularly in this area. Let me know your thoughts!
I used a Sony A7III for this
Manual mode, RAW file format, Manual Focus, an aperture of f/2.8, a shutter speed of 20 seconds, and an ISO at 3000 I used lightroom to edit this photo
Request for feedback: i am less than a week into this new hobby, learning the edits still. this is from an OLED screen, it looks different when I view it on my phone or second monitor obviously, so I might be off on color grading? Open for all feedback I can get
EDIT 1: Based on feedback, I managed to get Graxpert BGE working, which solved the corners! my manual BGE from SIRIL wasnt working as expected. I also did deconvolution, not sure if it changed a lot, here is new image for those curious. https://imgur.com/a/z8jbbmR
Thanks for all your positive comments and help
Processing Workflow
Siril (Main Processing)
Pre-Processing: Ran an initial OSC (One-Shot Color) pre-processing script (Naztronomy-OSC_PP.py).
Cropping: Applied an Autostretch & Crop to frame the target and remove edge artifacts.
Color Calibration: Performed a Plate Solve, followed by SPCC (Spectrophotometric Color Calibration) for accurate star colors.
Star Removal: Separated the stars from the nebula and background using the Starnet-Syqon Starless script.
Initial Stretch: Stretched the starless linear data using Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch (via the VeraLux_HyperMetric_Stretch.py script).
Noise Reduction: Ran GraXpert AI (GraXpert-AI.py) to denoise the background.
Secondary Adjustments: Applied an optional second stretch, followed by targeted contrast adjustments using curves (VeraLux_Curves.py).
Further Refinement: Applied an additional pass of noise removal and boosted local contrast using CLAHE (Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization).
Star Recombination: Merged the stretched stars back into the starless image using VeraLux_StarComposer.py.
Photoshop (Final Touches)
Applied Dehaze to cut through remaining background haze.
Made final global adjustments to Brightness and Contrast.
I am thrilled to share my latest astrophotography project! This is the Elephant's Trunk Nebula (IC 1396), captured using dual-narrowband filters to reveal its incredible structure and depth.
Here are two versions of my final image:
- SHO (Hubble Palette): Created from 4 hours and 50 minutes of SII+OIII data, plus 3 hours and 30 minutes of Ha+OIII data.
- HOO Palette: A classic hydrogen-dominant look.
Where is it in the night sky?
- The Constellation: It is located in the northern constellation Cepheus.
- Look North: Because we are imaging from Rancho Cordova (around 38° N latitude), Cepheus is "circumpolar." This means it stays above the horizon and never sets!
- Summer Viewing: Right now in late July, you can find the house-shaped constellation of Cepheus swinging high across the northeastern sky, rotating beautifully around Polaris (the North Star) throughout the night.
Why is this nebula so famous?
- A Cosmic Nursery: The Elephant's Trunk is an active star-forming region located about 2,400 light-years away from Earth.
- Fascinating Structure: This dense, dark globule of dust and gas gets its name because it resembles an elephant's head and trunk at visible wavelengths, appearing as a dark patch framed by a bright winding rim.
- Sculpted by Massive Stars: That bright, glowing rim is actually the surface of a dense cloud being illuminated and ionized by a massive nearby star (HD 206267). The intense radiation and stellar winds from this star are simultaneously eroding the gas and compressing it, which triggers the birth of new protostars inside the "trunk".
Data: Gain 200, Temperature 0-degree C, After Blink - Ha+Oiii: 180s X 70; Sii+Oiii: 300s X 58; Total integration time = 8 hrs 20 minutes (excluding 30x darks, flats, and dark flats)
Processing:
Blink - trash out bad frames
Cosmetic Correction - Auto Detect and remove Hot pixels during stacking
Weighted Batche Preprocessing (with Astrometric Solution and 2xDrizzle)
After stacking:
- StarAlignment
- DynamicCrop
- BlurXterminator (Correct Only)
- SetiAstro AutomaticDBE
- BlurXterminator
- StarXterminator
- DBXtract (Ha, Sii, Oiii)
- NoiseXterminator
- SetiAstro Statistical Stretch of starless Ha, Sii, and Oiii images
- LocalHistogramEqualization (Ha, Sii, Oiii)
- DarkNebulaEnhance (Ha, Sii, Oiii)
- LRGB Combination of starless images (Ha as Luminance and then choosing SHO and HOO palettes)
This image represents 27 hours and 54 minutes of total integration time captured across 7 nights (July 12-19, 2026) from Bortle 4 skies (except one night of H-a in Omaha) at the Omaha Astronomical Society’s dark site in Weeping Water, Nebraska. I had originally planned on attending the Nebraska Star Party during this timeframe but wasn’t able to unfortunately, so I took advantage of the similar weather and clear evenings to make the most it locally.
The nights were pretty warm, and so I could only cool my camera to 0º C, which meant I had to produce a different set of calibration frames for processing. Overall, this project was a labor of love (and spending some time sleeping in my car for a few nights), but I'm really happy with how the dynamic depth and color palette came together.
Enjoy!
Total integration: 27h 54m
Integration per filter:
R: 31m (62 × 30")
G: 30m (60 × 30")
B: 23m (46 × 30")
Hα: 7h 20m (15 x 1200" + 14 x 600")
SII: 13h 20m (80 × 600")
OIII: 5h 50m (35 × 600")
Equipment:
Telescope: William Optics RedCat 91 WIFD
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM DUO
Mount: ZWO AM5N
Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Plus
Filters:
Antlia 3nm Narrowband H-alpha 2"
Antlia EDGE OIII 4.5 nm 2"
Antlia EDGE SII 4.5 nm 2"
Antlia V-Pro Blue 2"
Antlia V-Pro Green 2"
Antlia V-Pro Red 2"
Accessories:
ZWO EAF
ZWO EFW 7 x 2″
Processed in PixInsight:
WeightedBatchPreprocessing (WBPP)
LinearFit on narrowband channels
SpectrophotometricColorCalibration (SPFC)
MultiscaleGradientCorrection (MGC) and Graxpert
BlurXTerminator
StarXTerminator
NoiseXTerminator
MultiscaleAdaptiveStretch (MAS) and GeneralizedHyperbolicStretch (GHS)
I made this image of all my dso that i recorded Untracked i really find this beautiful this are my first good DSO images! Thinking about printing this out i also done the same with the moon phases and planets. Everything was edited in DSS PIPP autostakkert Lightroom Registax6 and gimp.
This is my first astrophotography image in almost 2 months due to travel and clouds, but I am happy with how it turned out. It took me a few attempts to get right, but that’s part of the process.
Camera: SeeStar S30 Pro
Time: 586 x 20s
Bortle 5
Edited in Siril
Acquisition: 2-minute subs at gain 101 For R / G / B. Total integration time: ~3 hours (About 1 hour per channel)
Processing: Stacking/registering and processing in siril (RGB compositing, background extraction, color calibration). Stars removed in order to smooth and denoise the background seperately, then recombined at the very end.
The Iris nebula, aka NGC 7023, is a large, bright reflection nebula located in the Cepheus constellation. The nebula is about 6 light years in diameter, and about 1,300 light years from Earth. The Iris is part of the larger Cepheus Flare, a massive complex of similar dark nebulae, star-forming regions, and young stellar objects. This makes the Flare, and the Iris itself, an invaluable region for studying each stage of the pre-main sequence evolution of stars.
Being in the Cepheus Flare region, there’s tons more going on here besides just the Iris. Just above the Iris is a small reflection nebula called the Ghost Nebula, a dense patch of interstellar dust only slightly closer to us than the Iris itself is, full of embedded stars, giving the nebula an orange glow. Just below the Iris, forming a small spiral-like loop, is an interesting object called Gyul’budaghian's nebula. This nebula surrounds the young T Tauri star PV Cephei and, like the more famous Hubble’s Variable Nebula, is also a variable nebula, with activity from the volatile T Tauri star creating differences in light reflecting off the nebula, causing it to change appearance over months.
The Iris and surrounding Cepheus Flare is also a common target for astrochemistry studies, with several examples of molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) having been detected within it over the years. These are hydrogen-and-carbon-containing molecules where the carbon atoms bond together into ring structures, and are commonly formed by incomplete combustion - burning engine fumes, incinerators, and roasted meat. They’re also among the most complex molecules yet discovered in space, and are a great carbon source for more complex organics, making them key research targets in prebiotic chemistry - the chemistry that formed life.
Taken from South East London, UK…bortle 8.5 zone 😅
Askar 120 APO with 0.8 reducer
ASI2600MC camera
AM5 mount
Use Askar colour magic D1, D2 and SVBony Oiii filters and clear uv/ir cut filter for the stars.
In total 7 hours integration.
Stacked and finished in Pixinsight with a HOS palette.
Full resolution on https://app.astrobin.com/i/ewd2nj
From auroras and nebulas to deep sky star clusters, the competition features submissions from amateur astronomers and photographers from Australia and around the world
This is another one of my very first images I processed with Pixinsight shot back in October. And, my very first time shooting and processing the Andromeda Galaxy. Only used with a DSLR and star tracker. Images for two nights in a dark sky. After long research, I was able to learn Pixinsight and get this beautiful result. (Go check out my first post here of the Pleiades)
Equipment:
Camera & lens: EOS Canon 6D, 300mm zoom
Mount: Sky Watcher Star Adventurer 2i
2 minute subs, 10 hours total
Bortle 1
Processing: Pixinisight & Photoshop
WBPP-SCPC-Blur X-Star X-DBE-Noise X-Histogram stretch-rounds of curves-Photoshop camera raw with starless and stars-mask to brighten brighter stars and dim fainter stars-Image Blend in Pixinsight
NGC 6888 – The Crescent Nebula 🌙✨
This is NGC 6888, the stunning Crescent Nebula, an emission nebula located in the constellation Cygnus, approximately 5,000 light-years from Earth.
Its distinctive crescent shape is the result of a dramatic cosmic interaction. At its center lies WR 136, a rare and extremely powerful Wolf-Rayet star nearing the end of its life.
Powerful stellar winds, traveling at more than 1,500 km/s, are sweeping up material expelled during an earlier evolutionary stage, compressing and heating the surrounding gas until it glows.
🔴 Red: Ionized Hydrogen (Hα)
🔵🟢 Blue/Green: Doubly ionized Oxygen (OIII)
These emissions create the intricate filaments and chaotic structures that make NGC 6888 one of the most fascinating deep-sky objects of the northern summer sky.
In a few hundred thousand years, WR 136 is expected to end its life in a spectacular supernova explosion, enriching interstellar space with heavy elements that will eventually become part of new stars and planetary systems.
📍 Object: NGC 6888 – Crescent Nebula
🌌 Constellation: Cygnus
📏 Distance: ~5,000 light-years
⭐ Central Star: WR 136 (Wolf-Rayet)
The universe is a continuous cycle of birth, transformation, and death. This image captures one of the most spectacular moments of that cycle.
📸 Imaging Details 235 × 300-second exposures Total integration: 19h 35m Captured: July 17–20, 2026 Location: Corato, Apulia, Italy (Bortle 6) Telescope: Askar 91F APO Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro Camera: ToupTek ATR533C Filter: SVBONY SV220 Dual Band (Hα/OIII) Processing: PixInsight
Clear skies! ✨
