Bright Ascension, Leesburg, VA (2025)

02/09/2024

The Great Orion Nebula

Constellation 🌌: Orion
Distance 📏: 1,500 ly

An unmistakably grand gem in our night sky, the Orion Nebula shines bright overhead in the winter months. I was lucky to have a string of four clear and moonless nights this week, so I took advantage of the conditions to image this nebula for the first time in two years. I wanted to stay as true to the calibrated color as I could, with very minimal tweaking. I used some shorter exposures to reveal the intensely bright core and the trapezium open cluster within. In the next few days I’ll share a closeup of the core from the shorter exposures.

Shooting from Bortle 5/6 skies I am extremely impressed with the amount of dust that came through. This is just about 15 hours of straight RGB. No H-alpha added in. Very happy with the performance of these optics and the entire rig as a whole. Everything ran so smooth and sharp during those four nights and it really shows!

A little bonus project to wrap up the season with my main rig. Stay tuned for more!

Clear skies.

01/30/2024

“Flame of Auriga”

Flaming Star Project - Part 2

Here is the (almost) full FOV of my latest capture. It’s a bit taller but had to crop down to 4:5 for IG. I knew going into this project that this target would be a bit different to process than some of the other emission nebulae I’ve done recently. The oxygen is extremely faint, but it is definitely there! Sulfur and hydrogen are in a bit of a messy mixture that doesn’t create as much depth as I am used to getting. However, there are some beautiful structures that have come through and I was blown away by the oxygen in particular. YES, there is indeed structure there! I will make a separate post to highlight this fascinating feature, as it is very difficult to make out when mixed in with the other stronger signal from H-alpha and Oiii.

91 hours of total integrated exposure time here! Captured from my deck in my backyard under Bortle 6 skies.

If you ever have any questions about my process, gear, or just want to chat.. feel free to send me a PM!

01/22/2024

“Rogue Star”

Flaming Star Project - Part 1

Thought to have been originally ejected from the Trapezium cluster in Orion, AE Aurigae (bright blue star slightly right of center) is just a visitor from afar. Evidence of its movement through the region can be seen in the faint ionized oxygen around it. As a bright O-type star, it is hot enough to ionize the gases it is passing through.. leaving behind a visible wake. I will share more details of this in a later post so be sure to stay tuned for that!

91 hours total here, 30/30/30/1 (S/H/O/RGB) is my usual target recipe for narrowband+RGB stars. It’s a tougher edit due to the weak oxygen signal and messy mix of hydrogen and sulfur emissions. But I think I accomplished what I set out for! Be sure to check out some broadband images of this region. The reflection nebula around AE Aurigae popularly imaged in broadband does not make the “cut” with my narrowband filters.

My shooting window for the winter constellations is closing as my house blocks most of the western sky. This is likely my last big project until Milky Way season returns this summer.

If you have any questions about my gear or process, feel free to PM me!

Clear skies.

12/31/2023

Faced with many new challenges in 2023, I’m proud of the work I was still able to put together. Hopefully the weather in 2024 will be more favorable the first half of the year! Nonetheless, fall in Virginia continues to be an incredible time for astrophotography.

Thank you all for the support and interest in my work! Be sure to check out my website if you are ever interested in hanging one of these pieces on your wall!

#2023

Address

Leesburg, VA

Website

http://www.brightascension.space/, https://linktr.ee/brightascension

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