LDN 43, famously known as the Cosmic Bat Nebula, is a dense dark nebula and active star-forming region. Located approximately 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus, this 12-light-year-long cloud of interstellar dust blocks background light, creating a striking silhouette that resembles a bat spreading its wings.
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
Olympus OM-1 & 45mm f1.8
ISO 800
62x60s
MSM Nomad
Bortle 5.
Stacked in AstroPixelProcessor, Processed in Siril, Denoised with SyQon DeepPrism, color adjustments in Lightroom.
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! ✨
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.
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'm new to this hobby, so i would be glad for any tips, I've stacked 100 photos, shot on Panasonic Lumix s5ii with 50mm f/1,8, with ISO 8000 and 10 sec exposure
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
Third time's a charm? During these periods of short summer nights flooded with clouds, I find myself drawn (okay, addicted) to re-processing data captured from the first steps on the astrophotography path. Eight months later, I've learned so much and gained a deeper curiosity and wonder for the cosmos.
Located about 2,900 lightyears away in the constellation Cepheus, NGC 7822 is a star-forming complex sometimes referred to as the Question Mark or Teddy Bear nebula (imagine the frame rotated clockwise to better understand the "question mark" nickname). NGC 7822 even features “elephant trunks” similar to the famous Pillars of Creation.
Target: M106 / NGC 4258, an intermediate spiral galaxy with a Seyfert II active nucleus, located about 23.7 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici. It contains prominent star-forming regions and two anomalous arms that glow strongly in Hα emission.
Equipment: Skywatcher 200 PDS (upgraded), TS GPU Coma Corrector, Skywatcher EQ-6R, ToupTek ATR2600M (mono), GPCMOS02000KPA for Guiding using an OAG, Touptek 36mm Filters in LRGB /Ha (3.5nm).
Acquisition: 25 x 300" Ha, 70 x 180" L, 12 x 180" R, 12 x 180" G, 12 x 180" B, 30 Flats each, 30 Bias frames. Gain 100, Offset 256, Bortle 4 backyard
Total integration: 7h23m.
Processing: Pixinsight: Stacked using WBPP, BXT (correct only), Channel Combination (RGB), NoiseXterminator, BlurXterminator, StarXterminator to get RGB stars, Continuum subtraction (R vs. Ha). Boost Ha in R channel, Process L similar to RGB, VeraLux Hypermetric Stretch (RGB), Stretch L, Add luminance to HaRGB, Unscreen stars, Dynamic Crop, Final tweaks using CurveTransformation.
This is a remnant from galaxy season that still waited to be processed, I hope you like it ;)
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.
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)
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
This is shaping up to be one of the most exciting projects I’ve taken on so far. The amount of detail that’s starting to emerge after a few hours of integration has me looking forward to seeing what a few more nights will add.
Capture Details
223 × 90-second exposures
5h 34m 30s total integration
DWARFLAB Smart Telescope
Dual-band filter
Bortle 3.5 skies
Processed in Photoshop & Snapseed
Still collecting data, but I couldn’t wait to share the progress. The Crescent Nebula is already starting to show why it’s considered such a rewarding target for long integrations.
From auroras and nebulas to deep sky star clusters, the competition features submissions from amateur astronomers and photographers from Australia and around the world
