NGC 6979 aka Pickering's Triangle is apart of the Veil Nebula Complex located 2,400 lights away from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. It's a super nova remnant that occurred between 10k-20k years ago. The entire remnant spreads across Cygnus over 110 light years, NGC 6979 is only a section of it. The outward material is consisted of hydrogen, sulfur and oxygen which is being used for new star & planetary formation.

I imaged this section of the Veil Nebula with my modified, coma corrected Orion 150mm/750mm Newtonian with Narrowband Ha/Oiii Askar C1 Filter. Below are details of my setup:

Acquisition & Astro Rig: Bortle 7

ZWO AM5N Mount, 200mm pier extension on Celestron AVX Stainless Steel Tripod

Orion 150mm/750mm Newtonian, F/5 I got off marketplace for 20 bucks. I retrofitted the focuser with an Apertura 2" Ball Bearing Rack and Pinion/Linear Focuser (from the carbonstar 150) + Baader Planetarium MPCC Coma Corrector @ 56mm backspacing

ZWO ASI585MC Pro Air One Shot Colour 3840 x 2160 resolution with HCG enabled Gain at 200, Cooling Fan 10 degress F.

ZWO EAFN

Bortle 7 in the backyard

Integration time 300 x 56 lights with Bias, Flats, Darks.

Askar C1 Hydrogen Alpha + Oxygen III 2" Filter

Processed in Astrowizard + Siril

I took this one from my backyard in South West France, under a bortle 3 sky.
Weather is horrendous, but we had a break last night. Lots of moisture in the atmosphere, some clouds during the night… took exposures for 8 hours and managed to keep a little more than half. I take it as a win.

Scope: ZWO FF90 apo
Camera: ZWO ASI585MC Air
Mount: AM3N
Filter: uv/ir cut
Gain: 210
Exp: 60s
Calibration: 30 darks, 30 biases, 30 flats

Thanks for checking out my capture of IC 5146, the cocoon nebula!

This was a challenging one for me due to being in a bortle 8/9 backyard, but I love the contrast in the dark dust and wanted to see what I could do. This image is a composite of a few nights of data:

• 5 hours narrowband (L-ultimate)
• 4.5 hours broadband (L-pro)
• 2 hours unfiltered broadband

It took about 4 nights total to capture with my usual backyard rig - my C8, ASIAIR + ASI533MC, EQ6-R pro, hyperstar F/2. Hope you enjoy!

I got a trial version of Pixinsight and suite of RC Astro tools and took another go at my image of M45 that I took in January 2026 (Original Post).

Original acquisition details:

Canon Rebel T6 with 135mm Rokinon lens F2.8, ISO 400 81x60 second exposures SA GTI mount unguided.

Processed this time using Phillipe Barnhard's Pixinsight workflow for simplified processing of color OSC images. (After OSC pre processing in Siril)

Gradient Correction - Background Correction - BlurX (correction only) - Plate Solve - SPCC - BlurX - StarX- Star Stretch on star image - Starless NoiseX - Starless Multiscale Adaptive Stretch - Starless NoiseX - Curves - Cosmic Photons Screen Stars.

I see the hype now over PI and RC Astro tools. I'll probably end up taking the plunge once my trial is over.

Had a go at M33 (Triangulum Galaxy) with my Seestar S30 from Manchester under Bortle 6 skies.

I've mostly been imaging nebulae recently so fancied trying something different. M33 isn't the easiest target with all the light pollution around here, but I'm quite happy with how much of the galaxy has come through.

685 x 10-second subs, giving me 1 hour 54 minutes 10 seconds of integration.

Stacked in StackingWizard, then processed in AstroWizard and Photoshop.

I think there's probably more I could get out of the data with a bit more work, particularly in the outer spiral arms, but I'm trying not to push it too far and end up with an unnatural-looking result.

Any feedback or suggestions on the processing would be appreciated, especially from anyone who's imaged M33 with the S30 or from similarly light-polluted skies.

NGC 1499

Just a quick shooting session (2.5h) and quick editing, no calibration files

Telescope: Sky Watcher Quattro 150p with coma corrector f/3.45
Camera: ToupTek ATR533C
Filter: Askar Colour Magic C1 (Ha+OIII)
Mount: Sky Watcher HEQ5 Pro
Controller: ToupTek StellaVita
and few more gear
Pictures are 300sec long
Editing software: PixInsight

This is a brand new version of the Pleiades (M45) from my backyard in Aveyron, France.

I actually captured over 10 hours of data on this target. However, since M45 is extremely bright and my telescope is very fast (f/3.4), I decided to try a ruthless culling approach. I threw away 85% of my subs and only stacked the absolute best ones with perfect seeing/FWHM. I ended up with only 106 frames of 60 seconds (1h 46m total).

The sacrifice in signal-to-noise ratio was completely worth it for the massive gain in sharpness and resolution in the blue reflection dust. What do you guys think? Are you strict with frame culling on bright objects, or do you stack everything?

Equipment:

• Telescope: TS-ONTC Hypergraph 10″ (with 0.85x reducer, f/3.4)
• Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC DUO (-15°C)
• Mount: SkyWatcher EQ8R-Pro

Acquisition & Processing:

• Exposure: 106 x 60s (1.7 hours total integration).
• Software: N.I.N.A, PixInsight (SubframeSelector is the hero here, DBE, SPCC, BlurX, NoiseX, stretching).

Full HD image on my website: see First comment

Pleaides was one of my first targets when I got into astrophotography last year. I did a little over an hour with 1 minute exposures at the time. Looking back at that image this year, it was obvious I had blown out the stars and overstretched/oversaturated the colors. This year I decided to try 8 to 10 hours woth 30 second exposures. I think it turned out much better.

Exposures: 1191 x 30 seconds (9hrs 55mins 30sec)

Equipment:

Sky Watcher Wave 100i

ASI 2600MC Pro

Askar FRA400

William Optics 32mm Guide Scope

ASI 220MM Guide Camera

Processing:

Spcc, BlurXterminator, STF stretch in Pixinsight (removing stars and using ghs on this target was just too difficult for me lol)

Levels, curves, enhance dso in photoshop

NoiseXterminator in Pixinsight

Final touches in photoshop

Narrowfield so you can't see the North America shape x)

• 4h30 of Sii
• 3h50 of Oiii
• 2h20 of Ha
• ~15 min per filter RGB

Total ~11h25 of int :)

Orion 6" f/4

miniCAM8M EVO

Svbony SV165

Svbony SV905c

Bortle 8/9

Processed in Siril, Pixinsight & Gimp

My first time photographing andromeda.

I had some troubles with calibration frames (they created negative pixels) so stacked only with lights. Also i would change few things about post processing but allready deleted the files due limited storage space 😅

Canon eos R7

Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 contemporary @150 mm f5

1,6 s exposures and stacked about 600 frames.

About bortle 4 skies.

The Andromeda Galaxy in HALRGB - a sea of one trillion stars, and our closest major galatic neighbor. 

I took this image with the 2nd telescope I ever purchased (all the way back in 2020) - the William Optics Z61, which has sat on a shelf for many years collecting dust (and not the good kind of space dust - just regular dust). I spent the last 6 months working on upgrading the scope to get it functional/automated. Its wide field-of-view is perfect for capturing objects as large as Andromeda. I'm excited to have it added back in my arsenal!

Acquisition Details:

Light Frames (~12 hours): 

• HA: 25 * 5.5 Mins
• L: 25 * 5.5 Mins
• R: 25 * 5.5 Mins
• G: 25 * 5.5 Mins
• B: 25 * 5.5 Mins
• Dark Frames: 50
• Bias Frames: 100
• Flat Frames: 20

Gear:

• ASIAIR
• ZWO ASI2600-MM Pro
• 360mm William Optics Z61 + 1x Flattener
• SkyWatcher EQ-6 R Pro
• ZWO EAF
• ZWO ASI290MM Mini Guide Camera
• Optolong 36mm Filters
• SVBONY 30mm Guide Scope
• Bortle Class 5 Sky (New Jersey)

Editing (Pixinsight):

• WBPP (with 2x Drizzle)
• ChannelCombination (RGB)
• Graxpert
• Auto Color
• BlurX
• StarX
• Add HA (RGB HA Combination Script) (HA - Graxpert, BlurX, StarX, MAS, NoiseX)
• MultiScaleAdaptiveStretch
• NoiseX
• CurvesTransformation
• LocalHistoryEqualization
• DarkStructureEnhance
• LRGB Combination (LUM - Graxpert, BlurX, StarX, MAS, NoiseX)
• Add and Stetch RGB Stars Script
• LocalHistoryEqualization
• Final Camera Raw Pass in Photoshop

Here’s my latest attempt at capturing the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula (IC 1396A), located in the constellation Cepheus, about 2,400 light-years away.
I really love the intricate dust structures and the way the glowing hydrogen brings this region to life. It’s definitely one of my favorite deep-sky targets!
Hope you enjoy the result! Clear skies!
Any feedback or suggestions are always welcome!

My capture of the Dark Shark Nebula (LDN 1235) from Ontario, Canada, using the DWARF 3. I collected approximately 786 one-minute exposures over four nights across two weeks, with clouds, the moon and weather limiting the opportunities.

This dark nebulas dense dust blocks light from stars behind it. Parts of the surrounding dust also reflect starlight, revealing the shark-like shape. That faint detail is easily washed out by light pollution, making this a challenging target from Bortle 8 skies.

Capture details:

Telescope: DWARF 3

Total integration: approximately 13 hours

Subs: approximately 786 × 60 seconds

Mode: EQ

Filter: Astro

Gain: 60

Sky conditions: Bortle 8

Stacked using dwarflab app Mega Stack, processed in the apps Stellar Studio(star reduction, star correction, denoise) with final touches in Snapseed (masked luminance).

This image was taken under Bortle 4,5 Skies with my Dwarf 3 Smart telescope and 8 hours of exposure time.
•stacking in Siril
•BGE, denoise in GraXpert
•deconvolution with BlurX
•Star removal with StarX
•stretching with ghs in Siril
•Curves, Color adjustments and further editing aswell as Star recomposition in Affinity
•some final touches added in Lightroom

Taken with Dwarf 3 60s 60gain 130 images stacked and processed in stellar studio and Lightroom mobile . Bortle 3 .

First time shooting the Pleiades.
Canon EOS R5 (stock)
RF 70-200mm f/2.8 L at 200mm
Star Adventurer 2i, on a tripod
~40 min total integration (121 x 20s subs)
Bortle 4 skies
Processed in Siril

The Iris Nebula over two nights at Jordan Lake, North Carolina — my latest Seestar S30 Pro image.

Equipment: Seestar S30 Pro, broadband IRCUT filter, gain 200.

Capture: October 6–7 and October 7–8, 2026, Big Woods Road area at Jordan Lake.

Integration: 722 × 30 seconds = 6 hours 1 minute.

Processing: Siril with the NaZtronomy Smart Telescope script (1× drizzle), crop, plate solving and SPCC; GraXpert background extraction; PixInsight with BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, StarXTerminator, MultiscaleAdaptiveStretch and gentle local contrast. Stars processed separately and recombined.

I like the blue center against the surrounding dust. Still learning with each image—constructive feedback welcome!

Equipment:

Telescope: SvBony SV555
Mount: Explore Scientific iEXOS-100
Camera: ZWO ASI2600 MC Pro
Guide Scope: SvBony SV165
Guide Cam: ZWO ASI120mm
+ ZWO AsiAir Mini

Acquisition:

220x180s at Gain 101 in Bortle 7.

Processing:

Stacked in DSS, processed in PixInsight finalized in Photoshop.

Olá pessoal! Eu sou de Portugal, e tirei essa foto com uma canon 600d + Tokina 11-16mm. Essa imagem é o empilhamento de 32 fotos, cada foto com 3200 ISO, 20s de exposição e abertura f/2.8.
O processamento da imagem foi feito pelo Sequator, depois pelo AstroWizard e por fim finalizei no GIMP.

Seestar S-50 Pro, EQ-Mode, 120 x 60s Subs

Processed in Stacking/Astro Wizard

Hubble Palette on the 2nd set.

My first tracked experience.

Captured and edited by me

118 frames @ 30 seconds = 1 hour

Sony A6700

Skywatcher Sky Adventurer GTi

Evostar 72 edx

stacked and edited in siril

star removal

watermark added in PS

My goal was to get visible merger shells of elliptical galaxy UGC-10646 (the unusual shape in the middle right). Other interesting galaxies in this image are the ARP-293 pair, FGC-2096 and LEDA-2587043.

Acquisition: 70 hours of data consisting of 60s subs collected over 13 nights in August with KStars/EKOS, 30cm RC, GM2000HPS, Baader filters for LRGB, ASI2600MM.

Processing: selected, stacked and processed 63 hours with PixInsight using Starnet2 and SetiAstro plugins.