Chris Kjeldsen Fine Art Photography

Name: Chris Kjeldsen Fine Art Photography
Address: Florissant, CO, 80816, US
Telephone: +17196411555

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Chris Kjeldsen Fine Art Photography

Chris Kjeldsen, award winning photographer/photographic storyteller, specializes in landscape, theater, event, family and portrait photography.

His passion for photography has led him into fine art photography, developing his unique style. Chris strives to produce dramatic images that tell a story and evoke an emotional response. Like his Facebook photography page, Chris Kjeldsen Fine Art Photography to see more of his artwork. Having lived most of his life in Colorado, Chris loves hiking and exploring the mountains and enjoys playing cla

rinet with local groups when the opportunity arises. Chris and his wife enjoy living in the mountain and have two beautiful grown children. Chris also is a third-degree black belt with Universal Kempo Karate. Chris is also the President of Ground Floor Home Inspection. A highly reviewed multi-inspector home inspection company serving Colorado. In addition, he is one of ten national technical trainers for American Home Inspectors Training. Chris enjoys many days traveling our nation each year helping others learn about the home inspection industry. "Chris is an inspired photographer. He looks out of different eyes that see beauty and majesty in everyday life. I swear he sees the inner essence of things and he shows it to us. I love his work!" Mary Beth Robinson Guevara

04/17/2026

NGC2903 A Barred Spiral Galaxy in Leo and NGC2916

Captured in Florissant, CO – Apr 2026

I thought 30 million light-years was far, but check out PGC27249 at 590 million light-years away. Others in the picture are farther away. I’ll put an annotated picture in the comments. Look up a few.

NGC 2903 is a bright barred spiral galaxy in Leo, about 30 million light-years from the Milky Way.
• Discovered by William Herschel in 1784
• Later identified as a spiral by William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse
• Classified as SBbc (barred spiral with moderately tight arms)
Key features:
• Strong central bar feeding gas inward
• Active starburst core forming ~0.7 solar masses/year
• Most stars lie in the outer disk; bulge stars are older
• No active galactic nucleus
The small galaxy to the right of NGC 2903 is NGC 2916 is a spiral galaxy (type Sb) located roughly 162–193 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. Discovered by William Herschel on February 24, 1784, this system features a bright core and well-defined spiral arms, appearing with a magnitude of 12.1 in the constellation Leo.

Above NGC 2916 is PGC27249 (small horizontal line) - Based on its recessional velocity of the galaxy PGC27249 is approximately 590 million light-years away. This distance measurement is derived from the expansion of the universe, where higher velocities generally correspond to greater distances.

[Wiki, AI]

• Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro Equatorial Go-To Mount
• ZWO ASIAir Pro Wireless Imaging Controller
• ZWO 30 mm f/4 Mini Guide Scope
• ZWO ASI120MM Mini Monochrome CMOS Camera
• ZWO ASI2600MM Pro USB 3.0 Cooled Mono Astronomy Camera
• ZWO 7-Position Electronic Filter Wheel for 2-Inch Filters
• ZWO 5V EAF (Electronic Automatic Focuser)
• Explore Scientific 127mm FCD100 f/7.5 ED APO Triplet Refractor (BACK-FOCUS 17.5mm)
• Explore Scientific 3" Field Flattener/0.7x Focal Reducer
• Filter set: Astronomix Deep-Sky Luminescence, R, G, B, L, Ha, OIII, SII

Shots (24 hours):
• 39 Blue, 121 gain, 300 seconds
• 68 Green, 121 gain, 300 seconds
• 71 Red, 121 gain, 300 seconds
• 109 Luminescence, 121 gain, 300 seconds

Processed in:
• PixInsight
• Lightroom

03/22/2026

Happy Sunday! :)

At about 30-million light years away, these are very beautiful galaxies!

Soli Deo Gloria 🙏

NGC4656 The Hockey Stick Galaxy and NGC 4631 Whale Galaxy

I began collecting data for this project on the night the US Men's Hockey Team won gold, right after the US Women's team did the same. We celebrated both amazing teams and the US Paralympics, which took gold, too. What a trifecta!

Captured in Florissant, CO – Feb/Mar 2026

NGC 4656/57 is a warped, edge-on barred spiral galaxy about 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. It's also known as the Hockey Stick Galaxy or the Crowbar Galaxy. Its odd shape likely comes from interactions with NGC 4656, NGC 4631, and NGC 4627. This galaxy belongs to the NGC 4631 Group.

On March 21, 2005, astronomers discovered a luminous blue variable in "super-outburst" in NGC 4656/57.

NGC 4631, also called the Whale Galaxy or Caldwell 32, is a barred spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici, about 30 million light-years from Earth. William Herschel, a German-British astronomer, discovered it on March 20, 1787. Its wedge shape makes it look like a herring or a whale, which is how it got its nickname. Since we see this galaxy edge-on from Earth, astronomers study it to learn more about the gas and stars outside its main plane.

NGC 4631 has a central starburst, which means there's a lot of intense star formation happening there. You can see this in the light from ionized hydrogen and the heated interstellar dust. The biggest stars in these regions burn hydrogen quickly and then explode as supernovae. So many supernovae have gone off in the center of NGC 4631 that they've pushed gas out of the galaxy's plane. This superwind has created a huge, faint halo of hot, X-ray-emitting gas around the whole galaxy.

NGC 4631 has a close companion, the dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 4627. These two galaxies are listed together in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies as a "double galaxy" or galaxy pair.

NGC 4631 and NGC 4627 belong to the NGC 4631 Group, which also includes the interacting galaxies NGC 4656 and NGC 4657. However, it's hard to say exactly which galaxies are in this group because the area is crowded. Depending on the study, the group could have anywhere from 5 to 27 galaxies, and different researchers list different members..

[Wiki, AI]

• Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro Equatorial Go-To Mount
• ZWO ASIAir Pro Wireless Imaging Controller
• ZWO 30 mm f/4 Mini Guide Scope
• ZWO ASI120MM Mini Monochrome CMOS Camera
• ZWO ASI2600MM Pro USB 3.0 Cooled Mono Astronomy Camera
• ZWO 7-Position Electronic Filter Wheel for 2-Inch Filters
• ZWO 5V EAF (Electronic Automatic Focuser)
• Explore Scientific 127mm FCD100 f/7.5 ED APO Triplet Refractor (BACK-FOCUS 17.5mm)
• Explore Scientific 3" Field Flattener/0.7x Focal Reducer
• Filter set: Astronnomix Deep-Sky Luminescence, R, G, B, L, Ha, OIII, SII

Shots (41 hours):
• 125 B, 121 gain, 300 seconds
• 104 G, 121 gain, 300 seconds
• 130 R, 121 gain, 300 seconds
• 133 L, 121 gain, 300 seconds

Processed in:
• PixInsight
• Lightroom

03/20/2026

NGC2359 – Thor’s Helmet

NGC 2359, also called Thor's Helmet, is an emission nebula found in the constellation Canis Major. It sits about 11,960 light-years from Earth and spans 30 light-years across. At its center is the Wolf-Rayet star WR7, which is extremely hot and believed to be in a short-lived stage before becoming a supernova. While it is similar to the Bubble Nebula, Thor's Helmet has a more complex shape and a curved bow-shock structure, likely because it interacts with a nearby large molecular cloud.

The nebula looks like a bubble but has many complex, thread-like structures. It contains several hundred times the mass of our Sun in ionized gas, along with several thousand more in un-ionized gas. Most of this material comes from interstellar space and has been swept up by strong winds from the central star, though some of it is enriched with fusion products and likely comes straight from the star itself. Parts of the nebula are expanding at speeds between 10 and 30 kilometers per second, which suggests it is between 78,500 and 236,000 years old. Scientists have studied the nebula using radio and X-ray observations, but it is still not clear if it formed during the star's class O main sequence stage, as a red supergiant, a luminous blue variable, or mainly as a Wolf-Rayet star.

NGC 2361 is a bright patch of nebula found on the edge of the central ring of NGC 2359.

[Wiki, AI]

• Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro Equatorial Go-To Mount
• ZWO ASIAir Pro Wireless Imaging Controller
• ZWO 30 mm f/4 Mini Guide Scope
• ZWO ASI120MM Mini Monochrome CMOS Camera
• ZWO ASI2600MM Pro USB 3.0 Cooled Mono Astronomy Camera
• ZWO 7-Position Electronic Filter Wheel for 2-Inch Filters
• ZWO 5V EAF (Electronic Automatic Focuser)
• Explore Scientific 127mm FCD100 f/7.5 ED APO Triplet Refractor (BACK-FOCUS 17.5mm)
• Explore Scientific 3" Field Flattener/0.7x Focal Reducer
• Filter set: Astronnomix Deep-Sky Luminescence, R, G, B, L, Ha, OIII, SII

Shots (62 hours):
• 155 Ha, 121 gain, 600 seconds
• 107 OIII, 121 gain, 600 seconds
• 107 SII, 121 gain, 600 seconds

Processed in:
• PixInsight
• Lightroom

02/26/2026

Happy Hump Day! A galaxy I don't see captured as often as others, but it's very active. I hope you enjoy it!

Soli Deo Gloria! 🙏

IC2574 – Coddington’s Nebula
Grand spiral galaxies often get most of the attention, showing off their young, bright blue star clusters in neat spiral arms. But small, irregular galaxies also create new stars. For example, the dwarf galaxy IC 2574 has clear signs of strong star formation in its reddish areas of glowing hydrogen gas. Like spiral galaxies, the active regions in IC 2574 are stirred up by stellar winds and supernova explosions, which send material into the galaxy's interstellar medium and spark more star formation. Only 12 million light-years away, IC 2574 belongs to the M81 group of galaxies, visible in the northern constellation Ursa Major. This faint but interesting galaxy, also called Coddington's Nebula, is about 50,000 light-years wide and was discovered by American astronomer Edwin Coddington in 1898.
[NASA, AI]

Equipment:
• Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro Equatorial Go-To Mount
• ZWO ASIAir Pro Wireless Imaging Controller
• ZWO 30 mm f/4 Mini Guide Scope
• ZWO ASI120MM Mini Monochrome CMOS Camera
• ZWO ASI2600MM Pro USB 3.0 Cooled Mono Astronomy Camera
• ZWO 7-Position Electronic Filter Wheel for 2-Inch Filters
• ZWO 5V EAF (Electronic Automatic Focuser)
• Explore Scientific 127mm FCD100 f/7.5 ED APO Triplet Refractor
• Explore Scientific 3" Field Flattener/0.7x Focal Reducer
• Filter set: Astronomix Deep-Sky SII, OIII, Ha, R, B, G, L
Images (66.5 hours):
• 133 Blue, 300 seconds
• 146 Green, 300 seconds
• 272 Luminescence, 300 seconds
• 152 Red, 300 seconds
• 93 Ha, 300 seconds

Processed in:
• Pixinsight
• Photoshop
• Lightroom

02/22/2026

M94 – Cat’s Eye Galaxy

Messier 94, also called NGC 4736, Cat's Eye Galaxy, Crocodile Eye Galaxy, or Croc's Eye Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy in the mid-northern constellation Canes Venatici. Pierre Méchain discovered it in 1781, and Charles Messier added it to his catalog two days later. Some sources call M94 a barred spiral galaxy, but its bar looks more oval than straight. The galaxy has two ring structures.

M94 is about 16 million light-years away from Earth, with an uncertainty of about 1.3 million light-years.

M94 is a type of galaxy called a low-ionization nuclear emission region, or LINER. In these galaxies, optical spectra show that ionized gas is present, but the gas is only weakly ionized.

At the center of M94 is a supermassive black hole with a mass equal to 16 million times that of our Sun.

M94 has two rings: an inner ring about 5,400 light-years wide and an outer ring about 45,000 light-years across. These rings likely form at resonance points in the galaxy's disk. The inner ring is an area of intense star formation, often called a starburst ring. Gas is pushed into this ring by the galaxy's inner oval-shaped bar, fueling the star formation.

M94 is one of the brightest members of the M94 Group, which includes between 16 and 24 galaxies. This group is part of the larger Virgo Supercluster, also known as the Local Supercluster. While many galaxies are linked to M94, only a few nearby ones seem to be held together by gravity. Most of the others are moving away with the expansion of the universe.

[Wiki, AI]

Equipment:
• Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro Equatorial Go-To Mount
• ZWO ASIAir Pro Wireless Imaging Controller
• ZWO 30 mm f/4 Mini Guide Scope
• ZWO ASI120MM Mini Monochrome CMOS Camera
• ZWO ASI2600MM Pro USB 3.0 Cooled Mono Astronomy Camera
• ZWO 7-Position Electronic Filter Wheel for 2-Inch Filters
• ZWO 5V EAF (Electronic Automatic Focuser)
• Explore Scientific 127mm FCD100 f/7.5 ED APO Triplet Refractor
• Explore Scientific 3" Field Flattener/0.7x Focal Reducer
• Filter set: Astronomix Deep-Sky SII, OIII, Ha, R, B, G, L

Images (41 hours):
• 82 Blue, 300 seconds
• 115 Green, 300 seconds
• 176 Luminescence, 300 seconds
• 119 Red, 300 seconds

Processed in:
• Pixinsight
• Photoshop
• Lightroom

02/20/2026

NGC2403 – Intermediate Spiral Galaxy

Captured in Florissant, CO – Jan/Feb 2026

Happy Sunday, everyone! I hope your Valentine’s Day was full of happiness and love‼

See more of my art here: https://pixels.com/profiles/chris-kjeldsen

This beautiful galaxy doesn’t have a cool name like Whirlpool, Pinwheel, Bode's, or Cat’s Eye. It’s just known as a Spiral Galaxy. I think it needs a better name. Comment with what you think it should be called, and I’ll see what I can do. 😀

Psalm 19:1 Proclaims, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork," indicating that creation constantly reveals God's presence. Soli Deo Gloria!
NGC 2403, or Caldwell 7, is a spiral galaxy with a hazy blue look, dotted with pink, flower-shaped gas clouds and streaks of dark dust. The pink clouds are H II regions, where new stars are born. In these large, hot areas of ionized hydrogen, the gas can create thousands of stars over millions of years. Each new, hot star emits ultraviolet light, which continues to ionize the nearby hydrogen.

NGC 2403 is about 80,000 light-years across. It became well known to supernova researchers in 2004, when it produced the brightest supernova seen in more than ten years and one of the brightest ever recorded. This event, called Supernova 2004dj, reached a peak magnitude of 11.2.

NGC 2403 is more than 12 million light-years from Earth. It is easiest to see from the Northern Hemisphere in winter. In the Southern Hemisphere, people near the equator can spot it best during summer. With binoculars or a telescope, the galaxy looks like a stretched, faint patch in the constellation Camelopardalis. It is fairly bright, with a magnitude of 8.9.

Caldwell 7 is similar to many galaxies in Charles Messier’s famous catalog, but Messier did not include it. Instead, the galaxy was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel in 1788.

[Nasa, Ai]

Equipment:
• Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro Equatorial Go-To Mount
• ZWO ASIAir Pro Wireless Imaging Controller
• ZWO 30 mm f/4 Mini Guide Scope
• ZWO ASI120MM Mini Monochrome CMOS Camera
• ZWO ASI2600MM Pro USB 3.0 Cooled Mono Astronomy Camera
• ZWO 7-Position Electronic Filter Wheel for 2-Inch Filters
• ZWO 5V EAF (Electronic Automatic Focuser)
• Explore Scientific 127mm FCD100 f/7.5 ED APO Triplet Refractor (BACK-FOCUS 17.5mm)
• Explore Scientific 3" Field Flattener/0.7x Focal Reducer
• Filter set: Astronomix Deep-Sky Luminescence, R, G, B, Ha, SII, OIII

Capture Time: (29.5 hours)
• R –131, 180 seconds
• G –193, 180 seconds
• B -124, 180 seconds
• L -143, 180 seconds

Processed in:
• PixInsight
• Lightroom

02/07/2026

NGC 7822 (The Cosmic Question Mark Nebula)

Captured in Florissant, CO – Dec 2025-Jan 2026

The Cosmic Question Mark Nebula – Close Up

So, what's the question the cosmos is asking? Or, better yet, what's the answer??? Maybe the question is, “Who’s going to win the Super Bowl?”. Post your answer below. 🙂

Soli Deo Gloria!

NGC 7822 is a young star-forming complex in the constellation of Cepheus. The complex encompasses the emission region designated Sharpless 171 and the young cluster of stars named Berkeley 59. The complex is believed to be some 800–1000 parsec distant (about 3.26 light-years per parsec), with the younger components aged no more than a few million years. The complex also includes one of the hottest stars discovered within one kpc of the Sun, namely BD+66 1673, which is an eclipsing binary system consisting of an O5V that exhibits a surface temperature of nearly 45,000 K and a luminosity about 100,000 times that of the Sun. The star is one of the primary sources illuminating the nebula and shaping the complex's famed pillars of creation-type formations, the elephant trunks.
[Wiki]

Equipment:
• Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro Equatorial Go-To Mount
• ZWO ASIAir Pro Wireless Imaging Controller
• ZWO 30 mm f/4 Mini Guide Scope
• ZWO ASI120MM Mini Monochrome CMOS Camera
• ZWO ASI2600MM Pro USB 3.0 Cooled Mono Astronomy Camera
• ZWO 7-Position Electronic Filter Wheel for 2-Inch Filters
• ZWO 5V EAF (Electronic Automatic Focuser)
• Explore Scientific 127mm FCD100 f/7.5 ED APO Triplet Refractor (BACK-FOCUS 17.5mm)
• Explore Scientific 3" Field Flattener/0.7x Focal Reducer
• Filter set: Astronomix Deep-Sky Luminescence, Red, Green, Blue, Ha, SII, OIII
Shots (51.5 hours):
• 259 Ha, 300 seconds
• 190 SII, 300 seconds
• 169 OIII, 300 seconds
Processed in:
• PixInsight
• Lightroom

01/19/2026

Happy MLK Day! ❤

We've been blessed with some beautiful, clear skies, and I've been working on a number of targets. It's time to finish one.

I hope you enjoy NGC1977!

NGC1977 – The Running Man Nebula

Captured in Florissant, CO – Jan 2026
The Running Man Nebula, also called NGC 1977 or Sh2-279, is a reflection nebula located in the Orion constellation about 1,460 light-years from Earth. William Herschel discovered the nebula in 1786. Due to its proximity to the Orion Nebula, both are frequently photographed together.

The nebula is situated along Orion’s sword, just north of the Orion Nebula. It is commonly referred to as the Running Man Nebula due to its resemblance to a person running with outstretched arms.

NGC 1977 is also sometimes referred to as the Ghost Nebula. Its appearance resembles a cartoon ghost with a pointed head and wavy arms and legs, evoking the image of a specter drifting through space.

Equipment:
• Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro Equatorial Go-To Mount
• ZWO ASIAir Pro Wireless Imaging Controller
• ZWO 30 mm f/4 Mini Guide Scope
• ZWO ASI120MM Mini Monochrome CMOS Camera
• ZWO ASI2600MM Pro USB 3.0 Cooled Mono Astronomy Camera
• ZWO 7-Position Electronic Filter Wheel for 2-Inch Filters
• ZWO 5V EAF (Electronic Automatic Focuser)
• Explore Scientific 127mm FCD100 f/7.5 ED APO Triplet Refractor (BACK-FOCUS 17.5mm)
• Explore Scientific 3" Field Flattener/0.7x Focal Reducer
• Filter set: Astronomix Deep-Sky Luminescence, R, G, B, L, Ha, SII, OIII

Capture Time: (20 hours)
• R –128, 180 seconds
• G –116, 180 seconds
• B -74, 180 seconds
• L -87, 180 seconds

Processed in:
• PixInsight
• Lightroom
• Photoshop

Check out my store at: https://pixels.com/profiles/chris-kjeldsen.

Soli Deo Gloria! 🙏

01/09/2026

NGC1499 – The California Nebula

This is such a great target! It's finally snowing here, so what a great time to process the data I've been capturing. 🌨️ Here are 39 hours of captured images. I wanted to emphasize the OIII (blue) in the nebula, as it is so very faint and often ignored. I like the result! I hope you do as well.

Soli Deo Gloria! 🙏

Captured in Florissant, CO – Dec/Jan 2026

NGC 1499, also known as the California Nebula or SH2-220, is a large, faint emission nebula located approximately 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Perseus. While difficult to observe with the naked eye, it appears clearly in long-exposure photographs and spans about 2.5 degrees. The nebula is named for its resemblance to the state of California. As a typical HII emission region, it contains significant sodium and limited molecular oxygen. The cloud is likely illuminated by Xi Persei, a hot, blue-white main-sequence star that belongs to a group of young stars probably formed from the same cloud.

E.E. Barnard discovered this nebula in 1884, and it was added to Dreyer's NGC catalog soon after.

Equipment:
• Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro Equatorial Go-To Mount
• ZWO ASIAir Pro Wireless Imaging Controller
• ZWO 30 mm f/4 Mini Guide Scope
• ZWO ASI120MM Mini Monochrome CMOS Camera
• ZWO ASI2600MM Pro USB 3.0 Cooled Mono Astronomy Camera
• ZWO 7-Position Electronic Filter Wheel for 2-Inch Filters
• ZWO 5V EAF (Electronic Automatic Focuser)
• Explore Scientific 127mm FCD100 f/7.5 ED APO Triplet Refractor (BACK-FOCUS 17.5mm)
• Explore Scientific 3" Field Flattener/0.7x Focal Reducer
• Filter set: Astronomix Deep-Sky Luminescence, R, G, B, Ha, SII, OIII

Capture Time: (39 hours)
• Ha –188, 300 seconds
• SII –161, 300 seconds
• OIII -125, 300 seconds

Processed in:
• PixInsight
• Lightroom
• Photoshop

12/31/2025

What a very exciting year for Astrophotography! I learned some new tricks and collected a ton of data (all images captured in Florissant, CO)! 😀

Thank you all for following my adventure - It means a bunch to me! ❤

Soli Deo Gloria! 🙏

Happy New Year! 🎉🎉🎉

Please stop by my store and grab a couple of items to help support my journey! 👈👈👈👈👈
https://pixels.com/profiles/chris-kjeldsen

Address

Florissant, CO
80816

Telephone

+17196411555

Website

http://cmkjeldsen.wix.com/ckfineart

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