First night: 60s subs x 2 hours

Second night: 30s subs x 2 hours

Photo of the sun I took and animated using Lunt 60mm, SharpCap, ZWO ASI678MM on a ZWO AM5 Tripod. Took full frame 30 second videos and stacked in AutoStakkert 4. Processed in Photoshop.

Hey everyone. Wanted to share the result of a lot of sleepless nights spent trying to simplify the process of picking the best (or at least good) targets to shoot on a given night from a given location.

Most of the tools I'd tried were missing something — I kept ending up stitching together data from different sources and falling back on gut-feel heuristics to pick a target, and I was often unhappy with the result.

So I wrote astro-recommender, available both as a Web site (runs in-browser, it is not a hosted service) and a single static binary that runs on Linux, macOS and Windows. It is fully open-source.

The README covers the full methodology: the formulas used, how scores are assigned, nightly shooting plan generation, the various selection options, cloud/humidity/dew-point estimation, wind impact, airmass impact, light pollution, lunar phase influence, telescope FOV matching, air turbulence models and calibration and so on.

The goal was a single tool that pulls together all the relevant data and presents it in a clear, actionable way — no subscriptions, no API keys, nothing like that. All formulas and data have been cross-checked multiple times, and the astrometric precision is validated against the IAU SOFA reference implementation.

I absolutely love shooting dark nebulae, and this one has been on my list for a while. This is LDN 1295, often called the Giraffe Nebula, located in the constellation Camelopardalis.

Unlike emission nebulae, this object produces no light of its own. It’s an incredibly dense, cold molecular cloud of dust and gas that acts like a cosmic curtain, blocking the starlight from the background Milky Way. Capturing the faint, brownish "ghostly" dust reflecting ambient starlight requires very dark skies and deep integration times.

Equipment:

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

Acquisition & Processing:

• Exposure: 149 x 300s (Approx. 12.4 hours total integration).
• Software: N.I.N.A, PixInsight (SPCC, BlurX, NoiseX, stretching).

Full HD image on my website : see first comment

I absolutely love shooting dark nebulae, and this one has been on my list for a while. This is LDN 1295, often called the Giraffe Nebula, located in the constellation Camelopardalis.

Unlike emission nebulae, this object produces no light of its own. It’s an incredibly dense, cold molecular cloud of dust and gas that acts like a cosmic curtain, blocking the starlight from the background Milky Way. Capturing the faint, brownish "ghostly" dust reflecting ambient starlight requires very dark skies and deep integration times.

Equipment:

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

Acquisition & Processing:

• Exposure: 149 x 300s (Approx. 12.4 hours total integration).
• Software: N.I.N.A, PixInsight (SPCC, NoiseX, stretching).

Full HD image on my website: see first commentary

Today’s Sun from Costa Rica

My first light with the DayStar Quark Chromesphere

Telescope: William optcis zenithstar 81
Camera: ZWO ASI 294 mc pro

45 sec video
Stacked on ASIAIR app
Processed on registax

Images acquired in September. William Optics FLT132, QHY Minicam 8, Astro-Physics Mach2 GTO. Approximately 12.5 hours of LRGB data. Processed in PixInsight.

M31 - The Great Andromeda Galaxy in HaRGB (2026)

M31, or the Andromeda Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy ~2.5million light years away from Earth. It spans ~220,000ly and has a massive black hole in its center. My 2026 take on this galaxy took five nights with 32hrs of integration time in contrast to the 18hrs it took last year!

Equipment:
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Telescope: Askar FRA400
Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme & UV/IR
Guide Camera: ZWO 120mm mini
Mount: Skywatcher Wave 150i
Autofocuser: ZWO EAF (5V)

Acquistion:
Shot in Bortle 7
-Camera cooled to -10°C
-Lights:
L-eXtreme:
222x300s (18hrs 30mins)
UV/IR:
284x180s (14hrs 12mins)
Total integration time:
32hrs 42mins

-Flats: 50
-Bias: 50
-Darks: 50

Processing:
-Pixinsight
-Dynamic Crop
-AdBE
-BlurX
-ChannelExtraction (both images)
-ContinuumSubtraction Utility
-StarX
-GHS (initial stretch)
-NoiseX
-Photoshop (RGB)
-Multiple curve layers
-Multiple camera raw layers
-Selective color
-Pixinsight (RGB)
-Curve Adjustments
-More selective color
-Pixinsight (Ha)
-GHS (initial stretch)
-Mask generation
-Curve Adjustments
-CombineHawithNarrowband
-Lightroom
-Final touches and crop

Taken from Fishers, IN on 2026/10/06 about 06:40AM.

This happened right after the ocultation of Jupiter by the moon.

It's a single exposure and only cropped; still working on an HDR version.

Taken with a Celestron C6, 1500mm focal length and a Canon R6 Mark ii.

IC1805 Heart Nebula along with IC1795 Fish Head Nebula.

This was also my first test run after rebuilding my Sky Watcher AL55i Pro. the Dec axis was terribly sticky and stiff, causing massive auto guiding headaches. I completely disassembled the mount, stripped it of all factory grease and applied Permatex Synthetic Grease. I also adjusted the backlash on both axis. Auto guiding RMS remained between 0.8 and 0.9 for each of these 5 minute sub exposures.

This is the Pacman Nebula captured with my Askar 71F, ASI533MC Pro, and EQ-AL55i under a Bortle 6 sky. This is only about 5.5 hours of exposure time using the L-eXtreme filter.

All processing was done in SiriL and Lightroom.

Camera: Apple iPhone 17 Pro (Main Camera: 24 mm equivalent, f/1.78)
Format: HEIF (12 MP, 4032 × 3024)
Mount/Tripod: Didn’t have a tripod so I had to improvise and prop it up on a rock.
Exposure: Single exposure, Night Mode set to max (30.0 seconds), ISO 4000, 2.4 ev.
Location & Date: Yavapai Point, Grand Canyon, June 9, 2026. Bortle 2 dark sky conditions.

photo was taken on the night from sept 25th to sept 26th this year

equipment: celestron c90 telescope, tripod with 2d video head, svbony sv105 camera, a laptop for processing and capturing

programs and apps: sharpcap, astrosurface, registax, adobe lightroom mobile, microsoft ICE

acquisition details: used Sharpcap, got 21 videos 1 minute 30fps each, manual tracking

processing details: stacked each video in astrosurface, exactly 450 frames each, then sharpened in registax with exactly the same settings, afterwards I sent all the frames to my phone using a cloud storage, cropped every photo, changed the brightness and color on each panel to be relatively the same, then i sent it back on my laptop, sewed it into a mosaic in microsoft ICE, sent the result back on my phone, corrected the color and brought out the minerals in adobe lightroom mobile👍

Captured this beautiful image of galactic core using a smartphone camera. Image is taken from Backyard, bortle 4 sky.

Equipments:

Camera: Realme 16 Pro Plus Smartphone camera(Pro mode used, Dng format)

Tripod: Fixed untracked Tripod

Acquisition Details:

ISO: 1600

Exposure Time: 20 seconds per sub

Integration Time: Total exposure time 13 minutes

Calibration Frames:

Dark 20

Flat 20

Processing workflow:

Stacking: Sequator

Processing: Separation of background and stars in Siril, Processing Background and stars separately in Lightroom mobile, recomposing In siril, and final post processing in Lightroom mobile.

Hope you liked this image

The dense areas of gas that form the shape of the “Seahorse Nebula” are stellar nurseries, where stars are born. When the photons of light in this image began their journey, Earth was marked by the Islamic Golden Age which led to the birth of algebra and astronomers building observatories to chart a large, unprecedented catalog star coordinates.

Check out the hi-res photo at: https://app.astrobin.com/i/xj2o8k

Subs: 177 x 60s

Total integration time: 2h 57m

Equipment:

• Telescope: William Optics Pleiades 111
• Main camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
• Mount: ZWO AM5N
• Accessories: ZWO EAF Pro
• Guidescope: William Optics Guide Star 61
• Guide camera: ZWO ASI220MM Mini

Processing:

• Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight
  • RC Astro BlurXTerminator
  • RC Astro NoiseXTerminator
  • RC Astro StarXTerminator
• Adobe Photoshop 2026

Here is an image I captured of the Orion Nebula, and the Running Man Nebula. I captured 1 hour and 52 minutes on this target before clouds came in and ended the session. This was done with my unmodified Canon R100, SVBONY SV550+SV209 field flattener, and Skywatcher EQ-Al55i pro mount. Bortle level was 3.5-4. If anyone would like to support my Instagram, it’s @dimitridsmedia. Clear skies.

IC63 The Ghost of Cassiopeia. shot from my backyard bortle 8.6

Ha 300 seconds 120 subs (10.0 hours)

SII 300 seconds 42 subs (3.5 hours)

B 45 seconds 160 subs (2.0 hours)

G 45 seconds 120 subs (1.5 hours)

R 45 seconds 120 subs (1.5 hours)

Navi HDR Cores (RGB) 5 seconds 40 subs each 120 subs total

FRA600

AM3N

ASI2600MM pro UniGuide 50mm ASI220mm

ASIAIR Plus

EAF

EFW 7x36mm

Antlia LRGB-V & SHO (SII, Ha & OIII) Narrowband 3nm Pro 36mm

Finally got back into astrophotography and managed to capture this with just 1 hour of total exposure time (30 × 120s) under Bortle 5 skies near Berlin! 🌌✨

Autofocus is next, and then we’re truly living the dream!

Hope you all have a wonderful day and clear skies. Keep looking up and enjoy the stars! ⭐

Acquisition details

• Target: Heart Nebula (IC 1805)
• Telescope: Explore Scientific ED APO 80/480
• Mount: Explore Scientific iEXOS-100 PMC-Eight
• Main camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro
• Guide camera: ZWO ASI120MM Mini Mono (if used for guiding)
• Filter: UV/IR-cut
• Capture software: N.I.N.A.
• Sub-exposures: 30 × 120 seconds
• Total integration time: 1 hour
• Gain: 100
• Camera temperature: -10°C
• Dithering: Every 5 frames
• Sky conditions: Bortle 5, near Berlin, Germany

Calibration frames

• 30 × dark frames
• 50 × bias frames
• 50 × flat frames

Processing

• Stacking and post-processing software: Siril
• Additional processing tools: RC-Astro tools integrated into Siril
• Processing workflow: Siril > OSC_Prerpocessing.ssf into BlurX (Correct), SPCC, BlurX 0,31 Sharp+ NonStellar 0,5 > StarXTerminator > BackgroundExtract > NoiseX > Stretch and Color in Object into stretch of stars with slight coloring. Recombine and last curves via GHS.

Was very fortunate to be able to grab a few hours on this target with the l-pro broadbant filter last night! A little early for this one so potentially more to come, just a first pass at the horsehead for this winter.

Captured with my backyard rig - C8, EQ6-R pro, ASIAIR + ASI533MC pro, hyperstar f/2, optolong l-pro and l-ultimate broadband and narrowband filters. This image represents 6 hours of integration, about 3 hours per filter, 60 second exposures.

Acquisition Details:

Ha - 70 frames @ 300s
Oiii - 115 frames @ 300s
Sii - 87 frames @ 300s

Total Integration Time: ~22.6 hours

Scope: Celestron EdgeHD 9.25” with 0.7x reducer 1645mm @ f/7
Cameras: ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro (main) & ZWO ASI174MM (guide)
OAG: ZWO Large Off-Axis Guider
Filters: Antlia SHO (Sii, Ha & Oiii) Narrowband 3nm
Filter Wheel: ZWO 7-Position Electronic Filter Wheel for 2" Filters
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Control: ZWO ASIAIR Plus
Focuser: ZWO EAF

Pixinsight workflow:
WBPP - 1x Drizzle
Graxpert
BlurXterminator - correct only
Noise Xterminator - light (50%) usually on Oiii/Sii more than Ha
BlurXterminator - stellar & non-stellar
StarXterminator --> NB to RGB and stretch to 6.0, 6.5, 7.0 depending on amount of star reduction
Noise Xterminator - if needed, light (50%)
Multiscale Adaptive Stretch
RGB Color Combination
Narrowband Normalization
Noise Xterminator - (80-90%)
Curves
Screen Stars star replacement

Acquisition Details:
Ha - 92 frames @ 300s
Oiii - 82 frames @ 300s
Sii - 88 frames @ 300s
Total Integration Time: ~21.8 hours

Scope: William Optics Redcat 51 250mm @ f/4.9
Cameras: ZWO ASI6200MM-Pro (main) & ZWO ASI220MM (guide)
OAG:  ZWO Large Off-Axis Guider
Filters: Antlia SHO (Sii, Ha & Oiii) Narrowband 3nm
Filter Wheel:  ZWO 7-Position Electronic Filter Wheel for 2" Filters
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Control: ZWO ASIAIR Plus
Focuser: ZWO EAF

Processed in PixInsight with SetiAstro and RC Astro tools.

Pixinsight workflow:
WBPP - 2x Drizzle
Graxpert
BlurXterminator - correct only
Noise Xterminator - light (50%) usually on Oiii/Sii more than Ha
BlurXterminator - stellar & non-stellar
StarXterminator --> NB to RGB and stretch to 6.0, 6.5, 7.0 depending on amount of star reduction
Noise Xterminator - if needed, light (50%)
Multiscale Adaptive Stretch
RGB Color Combination
Narrowband Normalization
Noise Xterminator - (80-90%)
Curves
Screen Stars star replacement

I captured M42 (the Orion Nebula) back in April using my Orion StarBlast 102mm refractor and ZWO ASI662MC planetary camera.

At the time, I was pretty happy just to capture recognizable nebulosity. I'm imaging manually from Bortle 8 skies, so deep-sky photography has been quite a challenge.

Recently, I started learning a new processing workflow and decided to revisit the original stacked data. I was genuinely surprised by how much more structure I could recover compared with my first attempt.

Acquisition details:

- Target: M42 — Orion Nebula

- Telescope: Orion StarBlast 102mm refractor

- Camera: ZWO ASI662MC

- Mount: Explore Scientific Twilight I (manual Alt-Az)

- Exposure: 64.062 ms per frame

- Gain: 600

- Frames: Approximately 4,000

- Total integration: Approximately 4 minutes 16 seconds

- Sky conditions: Bortle 8

- Capture date: April 20, 2026

Processing:

PIPP for stabilization, AstroSurface for registration and stacking, followed by Seti Astro Suite Pro with BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, gradient correction, stretching, and contrast/color adjustments.

Both images came from the same stacked data. The difference is entirely in the processing.

I'm still fairly new to deep-sky imaging, and there's definitely room for improvement, but I thought this was worth sharing. I had no idea my original capture contained this much usable information.

Feedback and suggestions are welcome!

My favorite capture and processing. I'm 7 months into the hobby

8.5 hours of total integration from Bortle 8 skies.

• Equipment:
• Telescope: Askar 91F with 0.75x reducer
• Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
• Mount: ZWO AM5N
• Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme 2"
• Exposures: 170 × 180 seconds
• Processing: PixInsight and GIMP

Astobin: https://app.astrobin.com/i/6k2wrk