Deep Sky Dan

04/08/2026

The Cigar Galaxy like you've never seen before! 🤯

I've photographed M82 a few times but never this deep.

A different astronomy and space science related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.

23/07/2026

Part 3 - Final - Lagoon Nebula

Here it is! Two hours of color data and one hour of H-alpha data combined & processed to my liking. All from a bortle 3 area here in Nagano, Japan. Adding in 100% of the H-alpha data kind of killed the natural core colors so I pulled it back to 68%, set blending mode to Lighten, and custom blended it into the core region. There are so many beautiful stars in this area of the Milky Way so I was careful enough to tone them down but not totally hide most of the smaller ones. This version has been cropped in so it's closer and easier to see. I will post the full frame in the comments section. Once again the Nakoh Optics 92GX, the Player One Poseidon-C Pro, and Scorpio Astro H-alpha filter did a fantastic job of capturing this gem!

16/07/2026

Part 2...

In this photo you are seeing the Lagoon Nebula that was photographed using a special 2" 3nm Hydrogen-alpha filter from Scorpio Astro. This is part of their newest "Halo-Free" SHO filter set. This photo is not a single but rather a stack of twelve 5 minute exposures which equates to 60 minutes. Zero processing done except for some denoising to make it clearer and pleasing to look at. It's amazing what these filters can do for your astrophotography. Even with a color sensor!
In part 1, I showed you only one hour of natural live-stacked color data. Next up, in part 3, I will be taking that color data, this hydrogen data, processing them both, then combining the two to create a very unique look at Messier 8!

Telescope: Nakoh Optics 92GX
Camera: Player One Poseidon-C Pro

14/07/2026

Thor's Lightning
(SNR G150.3+4.5)

If you're on Astrobin then you probably know how hard it is to get IOTD. We'll our team at CAT Astro did just that! Check it out and read about how it all came together!

AstroBin Image of the Day: CAT // Thor's Lightning (SNR G150.3+4.5) - A 537-Hour Collaboration Featuring MarSai 01 & LDN 1400, by C.A.T, Sean, Joseph Biscoe IV, Trevor Sweigart, Stefan Pfleger, Jeff Nibler, Dan Conover, Michael Telesco, Beaver(Alejandro), Andrew Hillyard, Heath Dobson, Mikołaj Wadowski, Florian Brill, Lynx Coleman, Mayur Ramudit and Maarten van Bokhorst

For additional details and full resolution:
https://www.astrobin.com/rv5orx/

13/07/2026

Part 1...

The Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8) is a favorite Milky Way target in spring and summer. However for me, the summer weather has not been kind and I have not seen it at all. I did have a chance earlier this year to photograph it in a beautiful dark sky location when it was still pretty low. While shooting 5 minute exposures I was also live stacking at the same time. The photo you see here is the result of that. One hour of live stacked data in it's purest form. Zero stretching and zero saturation. Only a touch of denoising to clean it up. Usually we see much more processed results posted online and thats normal, but this is as natural as you'll ever see it.

The same night I was able to photograph it with a special filter that allows only the light from hydrogen gas to pass through. This is a hydrogen-rich region and it's just crazy to see the difference between regular color and what this filter collects. I will be posting a photo of what only that hydrogen data information looks like, then a finished photo of RGB color data + hydrogen data.

Telescope: Nakoh Optics 92GX
Camera: Player One Poseidon-C Pro

02/07/2026

📢Need your votes!!!📢

If you have a minute please vote for my M33 photo!
🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Vote for my entry A Deeper Look At M33 in the DarkSky Nighttime Photography Competition! Find my entry here: https://capturethedark.darksky.org/contest2026/entry/4574

29/06/2026

This photo is a collaborative effort from a group I'm a part of. Numerous astrophotographers around the world all pointing our telescopes to the same target and collecting tons of time using various filters. Here is our most recent effort on an extremely difficult target!

I used my Svbony SV555 to capture RGB data and OIII narrowband data.

Please have a look and let me know what you think!

Introduction© Collaborative Astrophotography Team - Animation going through LRGB (with Ha removed). HaLRGB, HaOiiiLRGB and OiiiLRGBThis deep-field astrophotograph from the Collaborative Astro Team cap...

07/06/2026

The Leo Triplet
Arp 317

The Leo Triplet, or the M66 Group, is a group of interacting spiral galaxies located in the northern constellation Leo. The group consists of the galaxies Messier 65, Messier 66 and NGC 3628, also known as the Hamburger Galaxy. The Leo Triplet lies at an approximate distance of 35 million light years from Earth.

•NGC 3628 (The Hamburger Galaxy): An unbarred spiral galaxy viewed perfectly edge-on. It is famous for its thick, prominent central dust lane and a massive, faint tidal tail of stars that spans over 300,000 light years.

•Messier 66 (M66): The largest and brightest of the three. It features a weak central bar and loosely wound spiral arms that are visibly warped and stretched due to gravitational interactions with the other galaxies.

•Messier 65 (M65): An intermediate spiral galaxy that appears relatively undisturbed. It has modest star formation and is notably poor in dust and gas compared to it's neighbors.

These three gems were my second target to shoot with the Nakoh Optics 92GX. The framing for these is perfect with the Player One Poseidon-C IMX571 sensor. And even plenty of room to catch the tidal tail of the Hamburger Galaxy. I had the opportunity to shoot from 1800 meters high up in a bortle 3 location and that data played a huge part in the final outcome you see here. I also shot from a bortle 4 and my local bortle 5. Once again, the Optics on the 92GX did not disappoint. Zooming in on each galaxy reveals amazing detail that really surprised me. I am beyond impressed with this photo. It's now time to point this scope towards some emission nebulae!

• Nagano, Japan
• Bortle 3/4/5
• Nakoh Optics 92GX Quintuplet Refractor
• Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro (tuned)
• Player One Poseidon-C Pro
• Player One 2" Anti-Halo UV/IR cut
100 x 300s, -20°, 0 gain, 25 offset
15 darks, 15 flats, 15 dark flats (per session)
• Gemini Astro EAF
• SVbony SV241 Power Hub
• SVbony SV165 30mm mini guide scope
• SVbony dew heater strips
• Player One Sedna-m guide camera
• Software: NINA, PHD2, Win10 laptop
• Stacking: Astro Pixel Processor
• Processing: Adobe Photoshop

29/05/2026

The Needle Galaxy

This bright galaxy is one of the most famous examples of an edge-on spiral galaxy, oriented perpendicularly to our line of sight so that we see right into it's luminous disc. NGC 4565 has been nicknamed the Needle Galaxy because, when seen in full, it appears as a very narrow streak of light on the sky. It's located 30 to 50 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices, it spans roughly 100,000 to 140,000 light-years across and is considered a near-twin to our own Milky Way.

•Central Bar: Infrared observations reveal that its bright central core actually has a boxy, elongated bar structure, much like astronomers believe exists at the center of the Milky Way.

•Dark Dust Lane: A prominent, thick band of cosmic dust cuts cleanly through the bright yellowish starlight of the galactic disk.

Usually I'd be shooting galaxies like this with my 8" SCT, but ever since I got my hands on this 92GX from Nakoh Optics here in Japan I've had a blast imaging with it. And this beautiful galaxy was first light. The last time I photographed the Needle galaxy was with my smartphone so it's nice to finally give it some proper attention and reveal those beautiful dust lanes. Watching exposures popup on screen in bortle 3 skies sure is amazing. A small feature I really like are all the tiny background galaxies. Thus far the 92GX has been a great scope. It will be released for sale in the coming months.

• Nagano, Japan
• Bortle 3/4/5 locations
• Nakoh Optics 92GX Quintuplet Refractor
• Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro (tuned)
• Player One Poseidon-C Pro
• Player One 2" Anti-Halo UV/IR cut
120 x 300s, -20°, 0 gain, 25 offset
15 darks, 15 flats, 15 dark flats (per session)
• Gemini Astro EAF
• SVbony SV241 Power Hub
• SVbony SV165 30mm mini guide scope
• SVbony dew heater strips
• Player One Sedna-m guide camera
• Software: NINA, PHD2, Win10 laptop
• Stacking: Astro Pixel Processor
• Processing: Adobe Photoshop 2026

22/05/2026

Milky Way from my smartphone!

I stacked 20 x 10sec of the recent image I posted, then processed the stack to get to this. Yes, I went nuts to try and get alot more out of this super short stack than what should be possible😅But you can clearly define alot of regions of interest.