We become very small when looking at the scale of the universe. I can understand the unease, but I find it comforting. Problems and challenges here matter at our scale, but in a universal one they are just blips in time.
This is beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing.
The Pleiades star cluster (M45) captured over 25 hours. The blue glow is starlight reflecting off interstellar dust. The surrounding brown structures are the Integrated Flux Nebula, incredibly faint clouds lit by the glow of our entire galaxy.
#astrophotography #astronomy #space #m45
This is the cosmic Spaghetti Nebula! This ionized gas is a remnant of a star that exploded 3,000 light-years away! It spans 160 light-years across. Captured in hydrogen (red) and oxygen (blue-green), it’s a testament to the universe’s powerful artistry.
#SpaghettiNebula #Supernova #Astrophotography
A long exposure picture of the California Nebula utilizing the SHO palette.
NGC 1499: The California Nebula
A detailed look at a cosmic shoreline, where a hot star's energy illuminates and carves away a giant cloud of gas and dust. The brilliant colors map out the hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen gases within this massive stellar nursery.
#CaliforniaNebula #space #nebula
Image of the heart nebula in SHO narrowband with RGB stars.
Starless image of the heart nebula in SHO narrowband.
This is the Heart Nebula, a star-forming region 7,500 light-years away and over 300 light-years wide. The colors reveal ionized gases energized by a cluster of large young stars at its core. This represents 99 hours of data gathered by my remote observatory.
#HeartNebula #Astrophotography
Yesterday's solar storm caused aurora to be visible all the way down in central Texas, where I have my astrophotography equipment hosted. Here is a timelapse from my pier cam where you can see the Aurora glow to the north for quite some time. www.youtube.com/shorts/xpKtr...
My AT115’s 'last light' shot: the iconic Horsehead & Flame Nebulae in Orion. This 48-hour exposure shows clouds of dust and gas where new stars are born. The famous 'horse' is a dark dust cloud blocking the light from the glowing ionized gas behind it.
#astrophotography #space #nebula #orion
That’s where it starts, then you just keep falling further down the hole 🤣.
This is my astrophotography setup. William Optics Cat91, ZWO 2600mm main camera, chroma filters, am5n mount.
Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon), showing off its two distinct tails!
The thin, blue ion tail is gas blown straight back by the solar wind. The yellow tail is made of dust particles reflecting sunlight along its orbital path.
It's on a ~1350-year orbit, so catch it now—it won't be back for a while :)
Could have used this advice about 2 minutes ago… ouch!
The New York Times did a profile on the observatory where I currently have two telescope setups. Very cool. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/s...
That’s the gist. This is 240x 5 minute shots of luminance, 60x 5min of red, 58x 5min of green, 57x 5min of blue. I shoot with a mono camera, so it all gets stacked/combined when I have all of the data. The mount tracks to pixel perfect accuracy to avoid star trails/blur. youtube.com/shorts/m5wEM...
Chasing cosmic ghosts! This is IC63, a cloud of gas and dust being sculpted by a brilliant nearby star. The pink is glowing gas and the blue is starlight reflecting off dust. Captured from my remote observatory in Texas over 34 hours!
#astronomy #space #astrophotography #nebula #science
The Milky Way's core rising above Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park.
The Milky Way's core from Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. The dark lanes aren't empty space; they are massive clouds of interstellar dust obscuring the stars behind them. This view was created by stacking 30 minutes of exposures.
#Astrophotography #MilkyWay #Space
The Flying Bat Nebula (red hydrogen) surrounds the faint Giant Squid Nebula (blue-green oxygen). They appear together but are a line-of-sight illusion. This deep image required many hours of exposure with a telescope to capture the Squid's incredibly dim light.
#Astronomy #Space #Astrophotography
M104: The Sombrero Galaxy! ~31M LY. Its iconic profile comes from a nearly edge-on view & that incredible, dark dust lane. The bright core holds a supermassive black hole & the halo hints at thousands of globular clusters. A cosmic masterpiece! #SombreroGalaxy #M104 #Astrophotography #Galaxy #Space
New image from my latest deep-sky project: SH2-114, the Flying Dragon Nebula. This faint and intricate nebula lies in the constellation Cygnus, and was captured over six weeks in a remote observatory in Texas.
You can see a full-resolution version of this photo, and all of the astrophotography that I have done, at my Astrobin: app.astrobin.com/u/javanpa#ga... #astrophotography #astronomy #eaglenebula #starfrontobservatories
I’m excited to share this deep-sky portrait of NGC 2403, a gorgeous spiral galaxy located about 9 million light-years away. Though lesser known than its famous cousins, this galaxy is brimming with star-forming regions and dotted with clusters of young, hot stars.
Astro photo of messier 81 and 82 - a pair of galaxies in the constellation of Ursa Major
Check out the stunning duo of M81 & M82—Bode’s Galaxy and the Cigar Galaxy— which I was able to capture in incredible detail from Starfront! With 36 hours of integration time, this image reveals these cosmic neighbors, located about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.
Big news! My telescope has officially moved to Starfront Observatories - its new home at a remote observatory in the heart of Texas! With incredibly dark skies and over 200 clear nights a year, I’ll have many more opportunities to capture the cosmos.
Astro photo of the Crab Nebula in narrowband.
This is Messier 1 (the Crab Nebula). What you see is the remnants from a supernova in our galaxy that happened over 1,000 years ago. It’s ~6,500 light years away from earth, and ~11 light years from edge to edge. This image represents 11 1/2 hours of data. #astrophotography #astronomy #crabnebula
Rosette nebula in SHO palette.
Rosette nebula in SHO palette - starless.
Had a clear night down in the Florida panhandle so I was able to get my scope out for a night of shooting. This is the Rosette nebula. It also was a great night getting my equipment tested before sending it off to Starfront observatory. Lots of astrophotography is in my future… very exciting.
It is, especially if I have a layover or am doing coast to coast. Travel inevitably gets disrupted and by starting early I usually can still make it to my destination even with disruptions.
What if I like early flights? Can I save $40 then?
This is going pretty well for me today.
I’ll take this bet…
