Deep Sky Astrophotography

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Deep Sky Astrophotography

This page is dedicated to imaging objects in deep space.

11/01/2026

Happy Halloween!

The Ghost Nebula. Captured September 2024 Malheur Field Station - The Great Basin Society, Inc.

10/25/2026

Here is a nebula which I have not photographed before. This is LBN 438, also known as the Sandworm Nebula. It is a faint dusty nebula in the constellation Lacerta (The Lizard). Although this is listed in the Lynd's Bright Nebula catalogue, this guy is pretty dim, and I was only able to get about 7.5 hours of exposure before weather set in. I was able to bring out some of the detail and the ERE (extended red emission) out of it, but I would liked to have put more time into this. The ERE is photoemission from carbon rich dust. This nebula is about 850 light years away and maybe 7.5 light years long.

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED152CF
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8-Rh Pro
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Total Exposure Time: 7h35'
Hi res image: https://app.astrobin.com/i/pin6br

10/12/2026

Sorry, this is a longer post than usual, but there is a lot here this time.

In the summer and fall there aren't too many galaxies to image, however this is one that is visible and rather popular to capture. There are two groups of galaxies in this image. One is called the Deer Lick Group and the other is Stephan's Quintet. Stephan's Quintet was one of the first 5 images that JWST published when it revealed its first images in July 2022. I was rather surprised since I photographed it in Sep. 2021. In any case I decided to image these groups of galaxies again since NGC 7331 (the largest galaxy in the image) had a star go supernova and was discovered September 1. My image is from September 19. Actually it took three nights to do it, so technically from Sep 16-19. The supernova (SN 2026aaiv) got larger as the days progressed and so it looks rather large in my image. I will post 2021 cropped image (without SN) with 2026 cropped image so you can see the supernova. The images were taken with slightly different field of view so lining them up exactly is very difficult. You will see the supernova easily enough.

The Deer Lick Group was coined in the 1980's by amateur astronomer Tom Lorenzin to commemorate an exceptional viewing session at Deerlick Gap overlook in North Carolina. This group of galaxies (known as NGC 7331 Group) includes NGC 7331 (the largest galaxy with SN 2026aaiv) in the upper right portion of the image which is about 40 Mly away in the constellation Pegasus. The four galaxies just above NGC 7331 are NGCs 7335, 7336, 7337, 7340 at 290 - 370 Mly away. These five galaxies make up the NGC 7331 Group. They are not gravitationally bound. They just look close to one another because of the view.

Stephan's Quintet group of five (hence the name quintet) galaxies in the lower left of the image was discovered by Edouard Stephan in 1877 in Marseille. Four of these galaxies form the first ever discovered compact group of galaxies, meaning they are all gravitationally bound to each other. At some point in the far future these are expected to merge with each other. There is a shockwave in the intergalactic gas that is believed to be caused by a galaxy falling into the center of the group. These are the two galaxies in the center of the group.

There is a lot more I could say, but I'll stop. Enjoy the image.

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED152CF
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8-Rh Pro
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Total Exposure time: 10h40'
Hi res image: https://app.astrobin.com/u/rebrowni?i=g6zi7b

09/27/2026

I got a little behind processing the images I have captured over the end of the summer. I still have a few more to go. Here is the latest one. This is a dark nebula in the Cepheus, Barnard 150, more commonly referred to as the Seahorse Nebula. I have always liked this particular dark nebula, but I did not feel my previous attempts were good enough. I am pleased with how this one turned out. I have about 12 hours of exposure on this, so I was able to get more detail than previously. It is about 1200 light years away. It is a dense dusty cloud of gas shaped by three star forming gas cores known as LDN 1082A, B, C. I have two versions of this since Facebook generally darkens the image I see on my computer, so I hope this comes out ok.

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED152CF
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8-Rh Pro
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Total Exposure Time: 12h15'
Hi res image: https://app.astrobin.com/u/rebrowni?i=7c6g9c

09/04/2026

It looks like fall started early here, so I had to move my telescope inside while we get a week's worth of rain here. I am still catching up on summer image processing. This latest image is one I have done before but never really satisfied with it. I think this is my best version so far. This is Sharpless 114 (Sh2-114), also known as the Flying Dragon nebula. It is clearly evident where it gets its name. It is likely shaped by interstellar winds and magnetic fields of nearby stars. It is a faint emission nebula located in the constellation Cepheus, about 3800 light years away. This object is dim and can only be seen with long exposure photography. You won't be able to see this in a telescope. This image took me over 13 hours of exposure, plus, it is in a rich star field making getting the nebula to come out is a challenge. There is a tiny planetary nebula at the northeast corner just above the dragon's neck, known as Kronberger 26, name after its discoverer Matthias Kronberger.

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED152CF
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8-Rh Pro
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Total exposure time: 13h35'
Hi res image: https://app.astrobin.com/u/rebrowni?i=dxyee8

08/22/2026

The skies have not been too cooperative here in PNW. More clouds than usual for this time of the year, and also a few days of wildfire smoke. I have been out a few nights and this week is a new image for me. It is an area of Cygnus, which is loaded with bright nebula. There are two notable named nebula in this image. One is Sharpless 115 (Sh2-115) and Abell 71. Abell 71 is the small round planetary nebula at the top left in the image. It has a center of blue surrounded by reddish hydrogen gas. I don't see a lot posted about this little guy. It is still up for debate on whether this is a planetary nebula or just part of the Sh2-115 HII region. This little nebula is roughly 2400 light years away. Sh2-115 is the rest of the image and is an emission nebula and HII (ionized atomic hydrogen) region of space. It is located about 10,000 light years away. It is part of the extensive star forming region of the Orion arm of the Milky Way.

The coloring is a little different on this nebula that some of my others. I used an OPT Triad Ultra filter that only allowed a certain narrowband range of light emission given off by the gases present in the nebula. I used this to separate the gases into different colors to represent the gases within the nebula. This is not really a true color representation of this nebula, but it does give more detail on its makeup.

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED152CF
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8-Rh Pro
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Total Exposure Time: 11h25'
Hi res image: https://app.astrobin.com/u/rebrowni?i=kbc6cw

08/15/2026

I haven't had as many clear nights as I would like, due to some clouds and wildfire smoke when the winds blow west. Oregon has had a record number of acres burned this year with over 2.3 million acres burned so far. One fire alone was 580,000 acres. One of the downsides to living in the northwest.
So this week is a nebula I have photographed before, but I am using a different filter than in the past to see if I could tease out anymore of the center portion which generally gets blown out due to over exposure. This is Messier 27 (M27), also known as the Dumbbell Nebula. It has also been referred to as the Apple Core Nebula. It is a planetary nebula surrounding a white dwarf star in the constellation Vulpecula (Latin for "Little Fox"). It is about 1360 light years away. This can be seen in a telescope easily enough. The central region shows many "knots" of gas and dust, which is what I was trying to bring out in some detail. Stellar winds aren't strong enough to blow away the large clumps, but they do blow away the smaller dust and clouds leaving a trail behind the larger clumps. These clumps range in size from 17 billion to 56 billion kilometers or 100 to 300 times larger than the distance from the earth to the sun.

Telescope: Explore Scientific ED152CF
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8-Rh Pro
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Total Exposure Time: 8h
Hi res image: https://app.astrobin.com/u/rebrowni?i=hf19k1

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

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