Dean MacDonald Photos

Home
Canada
Owen Sound, ON
Dean MacDonald Photos

Astrophotographer located in Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada. I’m an amateur astrophotographer based in Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada.

Prints can be ordered from my website.

10/23/2026

Birds Flying High – Eagle and Swan Nebulae (M16, M17) – Emission Nebulae in Serpens and Sagittarius

I captured this three-panel mosaic using my ASI294MM and 80mm APO. I started this project in June, but it took nearly until the end of August to collect enough data to bring all three panels together ... and took me another couple of months to get around to editing it.

The Eagle Nebula (M16) is an emission nebula located approximately 5,700 light-years away in Serpens, best known for the iconic Pillars of Creation. Its star cluster was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745 and catalogued by Charles Messier in 1764. The Swan Nebula (M17), also known as the Omega Nebula, is an emission nebula located approximately 5,500 light-years away in Sagittarius. It was discovered by de Chéseaux in 1745 and independently catalogued by Messier in 1764.

10/12/2026

NGC 1333 has been on my list for quite a while now. It’s such a cool little chunk of the night sky but it always seemed to get pushed aside for other targets. I originally planned on shooting this one with my 6" RC, but I ended up going with the 80mm APO to capture more of the surrounding dust.

I definitely could have added more data to this, and may still someday, but this is the version I'm sticking with for now. This image has a combined total exposure of 9h 30m in LRGB, taken with my 80mm APO and ASI294mm.

NGC 1333, also known as the Embryo Nebula, is a reflection nebula in the constellation Perseus. Located about 1,000 light-years away, it lies within the Perseus Molecular Cloud and is one of the closest active star-forming regions to Earth. NGC 1333 was discovered by German astronomer Eduard Schönfeld in 1855 and is home to a large population of very young stars.

10/05/2026

This one has been sitting unfinished for quite a while. I had originally planned to add quite a bit more data, especially Ha, but while waiting for Monoceros to come around again I ended up repurposing the camera and some of the other equipment from my 6" RC for my new wide-field setup.

So, I'm going back through some of my older unfinished images, even if they don't have all the data I originally planned to collect. In this case, I'm pretty happy with what I was able to pull out of the data I had. This image has a combined total exposure of 9h in LRGB, taken with my 6" RC and ASI1600mm-c.

The Angel Nebula (NGC 2170) is a reflection nebula located about 2,400 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros. It is part of the Monoceros R2 molecular cloud, a large star-forming region. NGC 2170 was discovered by William Herschel on October 16, 1784, and was later included in the New General Catalogue compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer.

09/21/2026

First Light with a New Perspective

After some initial testing, this was my real first light with the “new” wide-field rig.

I’m used to spending multiple nights shooting a single target. But at 105mm, there’s a lot more going on in a single field of view. This 2-panel mosaic most notably includes the North America and Pelican Nebulae, the Butterfly Nebula, and the Crescent Nebula, along with a whole bunch of surrounding nebulosity.

For some perspective, I’ve previously photographed the Butterfly, NGC 6914, North America and Pelican (2-panel mosaic), and the Crescent separately with my 80mm APO. I’ve also shot the Crescent with the 6" RC. So there are roughly 5–6 panels worth of imaging in those previous projects that still don’t even come close to the field of view in this shot.

This was also a bit of a revival for my very old ASI1600MM-C. Paired with the new SV535 105mm f/2.8, it’s giving this old camera some new life.

8 hours total integration (4 hours per panel), shooting LRGBHaOIII. I probably could have saved myself the Ha and OIII time on this one… lesson learned. 😭

The real goal with this setup is to eventually create some unique wide-field views that sit somewhere between deep-sky and astro landscape. I’m planning some much larger mosaics that will incorporate both sky and foreground, giving a real sense of scale while still focusing on specific regions of the night sky rather than going for the typical ultra-wide Milky Way view.

Now I know the rig works and can move on to some larger projects that will require some serious planning. 😎🔭

08/14/2026

🔭My contributor copy of the October 2026 issue of Sky & Telescope arrived, featuring my image of the Iris Nebula (NGC 7023) and Ghost Nebula (vdB 141), taken with my ASI294MM Pro and an 80mm APO.

The article looks at some of the faint reflection nebulae and illuminated dust in Cepheus, including what it takes to find these objects visually. This image took more than 20 hours of exposure time to put together, revealing dust that would be extremely difficult to see through an eyepiece.

Since this is an early contributor copy, I’ve blurred the article for now, but I couldn’t resist sharing a quick look. 😁

🌐 deanmacdonald.com

06/28/2026

Here's 12 hours on Bode's Galaxy (M81) and the Cigar Galaxy (M82).

Only my second finished project of the year, but I've got a few more on the go that I'm looking forward to getting back to... if the weather cooperates.

If not, I'll probably be waiting till fall. These short nights don't leave much imaging time, and before long the mosquitoes will be bad enough to keep me inside. 😂

🌐 deanmacdonald.com

06/25/2026

Some exciting news!

An editor at Sky & Telescope Magazine recently reached out to ask if they could use my image of the Iris Nebula (NGC 7023) and Ghost Nebula (vdB 141) in an upcoming article about the van den Bergh catalog of reflection nebulae.

The image will appear in the October 2026 issue. It's an honour to have one of my images included in such a well-respected astronomy publication, and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished article in print. 😁

🔭 Clear skies! 🌐 deanmacdonald.com

05/25/2026

About this time last year, I was preparing some of my first astrophotography prints for the Square Foot Show at the Owen Sound Artists’ Co-op.

After one of my prints sold last summer, I got a call during our family camping trip asking if I’d like to join as a temporary member. Of course, my answer was yes.

To my surprise, they weren’t sick of me yet 😉 and extended my temporary membership. Then, in February of this year, I was offered full membership, which I happily accepted.

Now, I’m very pleased to announce that I’ll be joining the board of directors for the Owen Sound Artists' Co-op! A great community of talented folks, and I’m really looking forward to being more involved.

See y’all tonight at the AGM! 😁

05/18/2026

My latest capture, the Leo Triplet 🔭

I imaged the Leo Triplet back in 2024 with my 80mm APO, but it was nice to revisit this target with a little more reach.

The Leo Triplet is a group of three prominent galaxies located approximately 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. Messier 65 and Messier 66 are both intermediate spiral galaxies discovered by Charles Messier in 1780. NGC 3628, also known as the Hamburger Galaxy, is an edge-on spiral galaxy discovered by William Herschel in 1784.

This is 10.5 hours in LRGB, taken with my ASI 1600MM-C, using my 6” RC and a 0.67 reducer at 0.74× reduction.

🌐 deanmacdonald.com

05/11/2026

I think I've found the perfect place to hang my 'Summer of 69' piece by William Van Veen – right next to my scopes!

I had to snag this from the Owen Sound Artists' Co-op before someone else beat me to it. 😁

Address

Owen Sound, ON

Website

http://deanmacdonald.com/, http://deanmacdonald.ca/, https://app.astrobin.com/u/DeanMacDonaldPhotos

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Dean MacDonald Photos posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.