Antipodean Astrophotography

21/08/2026

Comet 220P/McNaught on the morning of 21 August 2026. After considerable rainfall in the early evening my weather predictor said clear skies in the morning. Alarm set at 0300 as this is when this comet clears my observatory walls. Woke up to clear skies, rolled the roof off the observatory and set the telescope to task. Watched the first few 2 minute subexposures come through, clouds started to roll in. Undaunted, after checking that it was actually clouds, not condensation on my scope, I set NINA to task and eventually ended up with 53 usable sub-exposures of 2 minutes each.

Combined and stacked in Pixinsight using Adam Block's workflow.

From Wikipedia: 220P/McNaught, is a Jupiter-family comet with a 5.5-year orbit around the Sun. It is one of several comets discovered by Australian astronomer, Robert H. McNaught. It reached perihelion on 14 June 2026, two weeks after a large outburst in which the comet brightened as much as 8,000 times. In August 2026 there was a second outburst brightening by a factor of about 600.

Larger version here;

91 Cet), 91 lam Cet, Menkab (λ Cet imaged with Sky-Watcher Esprit 150ED, Player One Poseidon-C Pro, 1h 48m of total integration, by rat156 on AstroBin.

20/08/2026

Comet 220p/McNaught.
Captures in the early morning of 17 August 2026. In all 27 x 60 Second frames were combined for this image.

Larger version https://app.astrobin.com/i/eb9a41

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IC 1867 imaged with Sky-Watcher Esprit 150ED, Player One Poseidon-C Pro, 27m of total integration, by rat156 on AstroBin.

19/08/2026

I have recently published a version of this as a narrowband image, in doing so I grabbed about 30 minutes of each of the four panels that make up this mosaic for the RGB stars. I was delighted to see quite a lot of detail in the nebulous regions so promised to add some more integration time to the RGB and make another mosaic. Another 90(ish) minutes of each panel and this is the result, starry and starless.

Much larger versions at https://app.astrobin.com/i/avk9s7.

Share and enjoy!

Cheers
Stu

07/08/2026

Lagoon, Trifid and Chinese Dragon nebulae region, 4 panel mosaic in HOO with RGB stars.

A four panel mosaic captured over a couple of nights. Mostly dual band narrowband data captured using a OSC camera and HA/OIII filter. I also captured 15 minutes for each panel in RGB to get the stars in their correct colours. During the processing I “discovered” that the, typically represented as blue, part of the Trifid nebula is mostly reflection nebulosity rather than the OIII I expected. I have included starry and starless images of both HOO and RGB, though the RGB shows signs of the mosaic blending process, but for 15 minutes in 30 second subs from light polluted Melbourne it is not terrible. I look forward to getting mor data in RGB.

Total integration: 13h

Integration per filter:
- UV/IR Cut: 1h (120 × 30")
- Multiband: 12h (360 × 120")

Equipment:
- Telescope: Sky-Watcher Esprit 150ED
- Camera: Player One Poseidon-C Pro
- Mount: Software Bisque Paramount MX GEM
- Filters: Altair Ha+OIII ULTRA DualBand 6nm CERTIFIED CMOS 2", Player One Anti-Halo UV IR-Cut 2"
- Software: Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight

For more information, visit AstroBin:
https://app.astrobin.com/i/9z7h5w?r=0

02/08/2026

The Large Magellanic Cloud, 4 panel mosaic in RGB and HO. A combination of broadband RGB data and narrowband data to highlight the numerous nebulae in our companion galaxy.

From NASA Hubble (with some edits);
"Nearly 200,000 light-years from Earth, the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, floats in space, in a long and slow dance around our galaxy. Vast clouds of gas within it slowly collapse to form new stars. In turn, these light up the gas clouds in a riot of colors, visible in this image.

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is ablaze with star-forming regions. From the Tarantula Nebula, the brightest stellar nursery in our cosmic neighborhood, to LHA 120-N 11, the small and irregular galaxy is scattered with glowing nebulae, the most noticeable sign that new stars are being born."

Published: Aug 2, 2026

Total integration: 10h

Integration per filter:
- Lum/Clear: 4h (240 × 60")
- Multiband: 6h (180 × 120")

Equipment:
- Telescope: SVBony SV555
- Camera: SVBony SC571CC
- Mount: ZWO AM5
- Filters: Altair Ha+OIII ULTRA DualBand 6nm CERTIFIED CMOS 2", Optolong UV/IR cut 2"
- Software: Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight, Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA)

For more information, visit AstroBin:

This mosaic of the LMC was taken over a couple of nights, roughly an hour of RGB for each panel with a little more for the narrowband data. Heavy gradients through both images because of an almost fu...

02/08/2026

Managed to image this one with my protable setup from the backyard under pretty much full moon, this time of year the milky way is essentially at zenith when the sun sets, so at full moon around 90 degrees from the moon which lessens the impact. I still had significant light gradients to deal with but the end result is pleasing. It would be better under darker skies, but I may not get another chance to get this one.

Rho Ophiucus cloud complex widefield, 4 panel mosaic
Total integration: 4h

Integration per filter:
- Lum/Clear: 4h (240 × 60")

Equipment:
- Telescope: SVBony SV555
- Camera: SVBony SC571CC
- Mount: ZWO AM5
- Filters: Altair Ha+OIII ULTRA DualBand 6nm CERTIFIED CMOS 2", Optolong UV/IR cut 2"
- Software: Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight, Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA)

For more information, visit AstroBin:

A 4 panel mosaic of the area centered around Antares. This area contains many objects including the Rho Ophiucus cloud complex.Images taken with my portable setup, but in my backyard. SVBony SV555 s...

02/08/2026

M54, an intergalactic globular cluster. After weeks of cloudy nights a break in the weather which co-incided with full moon, which adversely affects the pictures I try to take. Anyway I tried out a new web based app to tell me what to take pictures of, they were all globular clusters as stars really aren't affected by the moonlight. Here's M54. There's a nice write up of this cluster in the NASA hubble page linked in the Astrobin description.

Published: Aug 2, 2026

Total integration: 1h

Integration per filter:
- UV/IR Cut: 1h (60 × 60")

Equipment:
- Telescope: Sky-Watcher Esprit 150ED
- Camera: Player One Poseidon-C Pro
- Mount: Software Bisque Paramount MX GEM
- Filter: Player One Anti-Halo UV IR-Cut 2"
- Software: Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight

For more information, visit AstroBin:

This image shows what could be just another globular cluster, but this dense group of stars known as M54 was the first globular cluster found outside our galaxy. M54 belongs to a satellite galaxy of t...

20/07/2026

Comet 10P Tempel captured on the morning of 18 July 2026. Cropped from a larger image.

From NASA APOD website with modifications as they did not use my image, "Comet 10P/Tempel 2 orbits the Sun once every 5.4 years. Currently visible in binoculars or small telescopes toward the constellation Capricornus, the periodic comet is captured in this telescopic image from July 17 sporting a bright nuclear region and pretty greenish coma. Remarkably, a thin dust trail, not a typical dust tail, is also seen extending both east and west of the Tempel 2 nucleus. Unlike a comet dust tail, which tends to temporarily fan out in a direction away from the Sun, this dust trail is due to the residual dust shed during many past orbits along this ancient periodic comet's orbital plane. In fact, Tempel 2's dust trail may get a little narrower and brighter from our perspective as Earth crosses through the comet's orbital plane on July 20. Comet 10P/Tempel 2 will reach a perihelion on August 2, and make its closest approach to Earth on August 3."

This image is constructed of about 120 one minute exposures which I removed the stars from each individual image, you van see the remnants of the star halos still in this very stretched image.

Share and Enjoy!

Comet 10P Tempel 2
by rat156

Equipment:
- Telescope: SVBony SV555
- Camera: SVBony SC571CC
- Mount: ZWO AM5
- Filters: Altair Ha+OIII ULTRA DualBand 6nm CERTIFIED CMOS 2", Optolong UV/IR cut 2"
- Software: Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight, Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA)

For more information, visit AstroBin:
https://app.astrobin.com/i/kq0wrn

app.astrobin.com
Comet 10P Tempel 2 - AstroBin
This can't be combined with what you've already added to your post.

Captured on the morning of 18 July 2026

13/07/2026

I think that this is the final image from data from NT. Again this was taken at Ti Tree roadhouse. I have deliberately not dimmed the stars so much as this is in the "centre" of the Milky Way, which I have just learned, from our point of view is not the centre of the galaxy. See https://youtu.be/2hxG1B8Hypc?si=4FDqifA6vRBCmbJw for a detailed explanation from Franklin Marek.

It's a similar area to the previous image, but in RGB rather than narrowband. There's a lot of stars in the image and this more natural look has some appeal.

LBN 52 region in RGB
by rat156

Equipment:
- Telescope: SVBony SV555
- Camera: SVBony SC571CC
- Mount: ZWO AM5
- Filter: Optolong UV/IR cut 2"
- Software: Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight, Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA)

For more information, visit AstroBin:
https://app.astrobin.com/i/hezujq

This is a similar area to the previous image, but in RGB rather than narrowband. There's a lot of stars in the image and this more natural look has some appeal.

11/07/2026

Another image from Ti Tree Roadhouse, I think I took some more data at Uluru as well. This one is the LBN52 region that I have repeated with my telescope at home which has a much longer focal length. Again I used the portable setup with a 243 mm focal length scope and APS-C sized colour sensor.

LBN52 and The Swan Nebula
by rat156

Published: Jul 11, 2026

Equipment:
- Telescope: SVBony SV555
- Camera: SVBony SC571CC
- Mount: ZWO AM5
- Filters: Altair Ha+OIII ULTRA DualBand 6nm CERTIFIED CMOS 2", Optolong UV/IR cut 2"
- Software: Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight, Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA)

For more information, visit AstroBin:

Widefield image of LBN52 area, captured the Swan nebula in the same frame. Image taken at Ti Tree Roadhouse in the Northern Territory.