Deep Sky Astrophotography

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Deep Sky Astrophotography

This page is dedicated to imaging objects in deep space.

08/02/2026

This nebula is one I have photographed before, but I sometimes use different narrowband filters to get a slight variation or more detail depending on what it is I am going after. This is NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula. It is an emission nebula located in the constellation Cygnus about 5000 light years away. Its shape is due to the fast stellar winds from the Wolf-Rayet star WR-136 that crashed into the slower moving gas that was ejected when the star was a red giant. I used a filter that allows only H-alpha, H-beta, OIII, and Sulfur wavelengths of light through. I wanted to capture the blue ionized oxygen gas shell that surrounds the nebula. This is from the fast stellar winds hitting the older gas. The nebula is about 25 light years across and although it appears bright here, it is relatively dim when viewed through a telescope. Thanks to long exposure photography you can really see the detail in this nebula. I am including a starless version of this image so you could see the nebula better, especially the surrounding blue shell..

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED152CF
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8-Rh Pro
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Total Exposure Time: 19h5'
Hi res image: https://app.astrobin.com/u/rebrowni?i=4ey9aw

07/20/2026

The rest of the summer will mostly be nebula photos. Most I have done before but in some cases with different telescope and/or different filters so the image looks at least slightly different than what I have posted before. This is Sharpless 101 (Sh2-101), also known as the Tulip Nebula because when photographed its outline resembles a tulip. It is an emission nebula located in the constellation Cygnus. It is about 6000 light years away and roughly 70 light years in diameter. (Side note: I get asked a lot about the size of the objects I photograph and even though I post it, it is hard to grasp physically what these numbers mean. To put it into context, the distance from earth to the sun is about 8.5 light minutes. So the Tulip nebula is about 4.3 million times larger than the distance from the earth to the sun, or 8.5 times larger than the entire solar system, counting out to Neptune's orbit). In this image is a microquasar (smaller version of a quasar) Cygnus X-1. It is labeled in the second image for those interested. You can also make out the bowshock created by the energetic particles from the black hole at the center of Cygnus X-1.

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED152CF
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8-Rh Pro
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Total exposure time: 6h45'
Hi res image: https://app.astrobin.com/u/rebrowni?i=i4fd8x

07/13/2026

My latest processed image capture is one I have done before, but always have a tough time processing it because the central portion is so bright that it is difficult to get the detail of the outer region without blowing out the central region. This time I was able to get some decent detail without overexposing the central area. This is M13, also known as the Hercules Cluster, or Great Hercules Cluster. This is a globular cluster of stars in the constellation Hercules. There are several hundred thousand stars (300,000 to 500,000 estimate) in this cluster, bound together by gravity. This can be seen with the naked eye in very dark skies (no light pollution) using averted vision, but is is difficult. You can see with binoculars but it just looks like a fuzzy bright spot. Smaller telescopes can make out the stars but you need a larger aperture telescope to resolve the stars in the center. M13 is about 145 light years in diameter and maybe 23,000 to 24,000 light years away. It is one of over a hundred that orbit the center of the Milky Way.

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED152CF
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8-Rh Pro
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Total Exposure Time: 6h50'
Hi res image: https://app.astrobin.com/u/rebrowni?i=0jzkxx

06/27/2026

This week is probably the last of my galaxy images now that the Milky Way is starting to come back into view and most of the available night sky will be nebulae. These two galaxies are NGC 5033 and 5005. Of course there are several other smaller more distant galaxies in the image, but these are the two prominent ones. NGC 5033 is the one on the lower left. It is an inclined spiral galaxy. It is about 53 Mly away. It has a bright nucleus and faint spiral disk. The southern part of the galaxy is a little misshapen and the black hole is off center probably indicating this galaxy has undergone a merger at some time long ago. It is weakly influenced by the gravitational forces of NGC 5005, but not enough to be distorted by tidal forces.
NGC 5005 (upper right) is also an inclined spiral galaxy with a bright nucleus and disk that contains many spiral arms. It is about 45 Mly away. Both of these galaxies are located in the constellation Canes Venatici.

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED152CF
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8-Rh Pro
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Total Exposure Time: 6h20'
Hi res image: https://app.astrobin.com/u/rebrowni?i=ce0b4a

06/19/2026

Now that skies are starting to be clear, I have some more images coming. This week is a galaxy known as NGC 4151, or the nickname given by some astronomers, the Eye of Sauron (for you LOR fans). NGC 4151 is an intermediate spiral Seyfert (quasar like nuclei and very bright) galaxy. It is about 52 Mly away from earth in the Canes Venatici constellation. It is a member of the group of galaxies known as the NGC 4151 group, which is part of the Virgo Supercluster. There are at least two dozen other galaxies in this image. Most are very far away.

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED152CF
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8-Rh Pro
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Total Exposure: 3h40'
Hi res image: https://app.astrobin.com/u/rebrowni?i=uqj43j

06/02/2026

It's been a while since I last posted. I have been busy and not very many clear nights. The weather is starting to get better and should have plenty of clear nights coming soon. This is one of the images I took back in February and just now getting around to putting it online. This is the first item in the Messier catalog, known as Messier 1 or M1; more commonly referred to as the Crab Nebula. I have photographed this before but this time I only used the color camera and no filters. It looks a bit different (color wise) without the filters. M1 is a supernova remnant from a star that went supernova in 1054 and was recorded by the Chinese and observed by the Mayans, Japanese, and Arabs in the daytime when the star exploded. It could be seen for about two years. Since M1 is 6500 light years away from earth, the explosion actually occurred about 5450 B.C.. The nebula is located in the constellation Ta**us. Now it is only visible with a telescope. The nebula's diameter is 11 light years. I cropped the original image so you could see it up close.

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED152CF
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Mount: Sky Watcher EQ8-Rh Pro
Total Exposure Time: 9h50'
Hi res image: https://app.astrobin.com/u/rebrowni?i=25ej3r

02/19/2026

I am continuing to process these images from the week of clear skies we had, here is the second one I finished. This is Messier 106 (M106). It is an intermediate spiral galaxy. Intermediate just means it is in between the classifications of barred and unbarred spiral galaxy. For reference, the Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy. M106 is in the constellation Canes Venatici about 25 Mly away. This galaxy is one of the largest and brightest nearby galaxies, which is similar and size to the Andromeda galaxy. M106 is 151,000 light years in diameter and has a supermassive black hole at the center roughly 39 million times the mass of the sun. In this image are several galaxies. NGC 4217 is in the lower right corner and unfortunately it got cut off some. I should have framed it better. Next time. This galaxy is 60 Mly away and is a possible companion galaxy to M106. A companion galaxy is a smaller gravitationally bound galaxy. NGC 4248, which is the smaller galaxy just to the upper right of M106 is a companion galaxy. There are several others if you just look around the image.

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED152CF
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8-Rh Pro
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Total exposure time: 8h50'
Hi res image: https://app.astrobin.com/u/rebrowni?i=287mfa

02/04/2026

We had a week of clear skies here in Oregon and so I got the telescope out and captured a few nice images of some old and some new targets. This one is vdB 31, and is a new target for me. vdB 31 is the bright blue reflection nebula surrounded by the dark interstellar dust. The nebula is located about 470 light years away in the constellation Auriga. The bright star that lights up the nebula is a hot young variable star known as AB Aurigae. The nebula is surrounded by dust clouds with names Barnard 26, 27, and 28.

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED152CF
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8-Rh Pro
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Exposure Time: 15h15'
Hi res image: https://app.astrobin.com/u/rebrowni?i=h6xm0k

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