Event Photography

06/02/2026

Wolf-Rayet 134 within the hydrogen emission nebula NGC 6883. A Wolf-Rayet star is an incredibly hot star that is often surrounded by a "bubble" of excited hydrogen (red) or oxygen (blue). In this case the bubble is oxygen, and this image captures just one side of the bubble -- the other side is much dimmer and harder to capture.

WR-134 is in the constellation Cygnus, and is about 6,100 light-years away. The photons emitted by that excited oxygen have been travelling since about the time of the creation of the Earth according to Bishop Usher (who based his chronology on an analysis of the age of patriarchs in the Old Testament all the way back to Adam). Or, since the time of the use of proto-cuneiform writing in ancient Sumer.

56 x 300-sec exposures (plus 30 flats & bias frames, 20 darks)
4 hr 40 min total exposure
Bortle 4 sky
Waxing gibbous Moon, 94% illuminated
ZWO ASI533MC Pro camera (-5°C, gain 101, offset 70)
Optolong L-eNhance filter
Apertura CarbonStar RC6 telescope (1377 mm focal length)
EQ5 Pro mount (guided)
stacked and processed in Siril
Denoised and background extracted in GraXpert
tweaked in Raw Therapee and GIMP

05/15/2026

05/15/2026

05/14/2026

Arp 85 -- much more commonly known as the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51, composed of NGC 5194 & 5195 -- is a member of Arp's list that I have photographed several times before (and that is permanently tattooed on my right forearm). This is one of the most photogenic of the Arp of Messier objects.

These colliding galaxies, in the constellation Canes Venatici, are about 28 million light-years away from us. I caught photons that set out when a comet exploded in the Earth's atmosphere over what is now Libya, creating silica-rich glass fragments. A 30 g stone from this impact is the only known large fragment of a comet that struck the Earth to be found.

Arp's 1966 list of "peculiar galaxies" includes this duo along with many other galaxies that are not nicely symmetrical. The distinctive shape of these two galaxies resulted from their collisions. The smaller NGC 5195 is believed to have come from behind the larger 5194 and passed through it 500 - 600 million years ago, and then passed back through once again some 50 to 100 million years ago.

36 x 300-sec exposures (plus 30 flats & bias frames, 20 darks)
3 hr total exposure
Bortle 4 sky
Waning crescent Moon, 32% illuminated
ZWO ASI533MC Pro camera (-5°C, gain 101, offset 70)
Baader UV/IR filter
Apertura CarbonStar RC6 telescope (1377 mm focal length)
EQ5 Pro mount (guided)
stacked and processed in Siril
Denoised in GraXpert
tweaked in Raw Therapee and GIMP

05/11/2026

The "Eye of Sauron" galaxy, NGC 4151, appears at the center of this image. The prominent and smaller spiral galaxy to the right is NGC 4156. Above is UGC 07188, and the smudge on the left is PGC 2145586 (labelled image in comments). This portion of the sky is in the constellation Canes Venatici.

Distance estimates to these galaxies vary, but it seems that they are gravitationally bound to each other and are around 52 million light-years away (although one estimate places UGC 07188 at some 320 million l-y!). Assuming a distance of 52 million l-y, I captured photons whose journeys began when bats first appeared here on Earth, and shortly before some mammals returned to the oceans to become whales.

50 x 300-sec exposures (plus 30 flats & bias frames, 20 darks)
4 hr 10 min total exposure
Bortle 4 sky
Last quarter Moon, 52% illuminated
ZWO ASI533MC Pro camera (-5°C, gain 101, offset 70)
Baader UV/IR filter
Apertura CarbonStar RC6 telescope (1377 mm focal length)
EQ5 Pro mount (guided)
stacked and processed in Siril
Denoised and background extraction in GraXpert
tweaked in Raw Therapee and GIMP