AstroKajan

Hello! I am a North New Jersey based Landscape and Astrophotographer. Check out my webpage. Hello and thank you for visiting my page!

My name is Kajan and I'm based in Northern New Jersey. Follow me as I capture moments in time. My first attempt at capturing a moment was in 2020 when my wife and I went to witness the Northern lights in Norway. Armed with almost no knowledge of how to work a DSLR, we quickly learned what to do to capture this magic. Since that life-changing trip, I’ve been able to look through the lens and captur

e many of these moments and am overjoyed to be able to share these moments with you. Thank you for visiting my page!

08/12/2026

Today's solar eclipse from Northern New Jersey.
It may not be totality, but its still a show.
Events like these should remind us how small we really are in the grand scheme of everything, but how beautiful the universe is

Aaannnndddd...no...there was no gravity loss today ya loonies!🤣🤣🤣

08/06/2026

The elephant trunk nebula, IC1396, is an emission nebula I've taken images of over the last few years. This is probably cleanest, and most detailed version, and it only took about 5 hours of integration time using the L-xtreme filter paired with the Asi2600mc pro. Pretty damn impressive!

Can you spot the elephant and its trunk? What do you see when you look at it??

With the horrendous weather patterns, and only about 5 clear nights this year I've been forced into the single filter route, but am aiming to reshoot with a combo of the L-xtreme and L-Synergy to get a much more accurate color balance.

The beauty of this target is how vast its colors really run, and how few times it's really captured.

-xtreme

08/01/2026

It's been a HOT minute, but in June I entered a local photo contest for the first time and it was quite the experience.

My famous Sunflower and the Milkyway scored 2nd place in the flora category, and my Speedwell Park Fishing Man photo took 3rd in the Architecture category.

I was definitely thrilled to have been able to compete with so many other local photographers.

These photos can be found on my website if you like them and would love to have them hung up as well!

07/14/2026

The Leo Triplet (M65, M66, NGC 3628) in all its glory, or its glory as it was roughly 35 million years ago .

Back in April I set out to get a target I haven't shot before. The Leo Triplet caught my eye and I couldn't help but spend as long as I could capturing this.
I believe there was roughly 30+ hours spent capturing these photons, and many more processing all of the data.

To make this even more fun, it was the first new target I've imaged and processed using Pixinsight. The detail and control I have in processing blows my mind!

05/01/2026

LOBSTERS IN SPACE!

The Lobster Claw Mebula and bubble nebula sit so close to each other and fit in my FOV so nicely that I couldn't not capture them both!
They sit right in Cassiopeia and
Really allow for some good color separation. I shot this using my filter, hence the primarily red image with hints of that Oxygen and sulfur.
This year im hoping to use my L2-duo to revisit and get tons of more data!

Last fall was really quite spectacular for imaging and I was able to get all sorts of targets, this being one of my favorites!
This is also my last image using photoshop to process. Its become too expensive to justify and there are way better programs out there now since I started this journey 6 years ago.

astrophotography

04/29/2026

Pac-Man is eating its way through space!

Back last fall, when clear nights were more abundant, i spent some time trying to capture Pacman. Well he's a quick one!
Sitting roughly 9500 light years away, and roughly 48 light years across, I was able to get a good widefield view of what's going on.

This is one of my last images using photoshop, and one i was really able to work with to manipulate the colors to make things pop. I'm quite happy with it!

astrophotography

01/14/2026

For those who've asked - I've created a separate page for my non-astrophotography work.

Landscapes, nature, and everyday photography are now love at

will continue to be my hub for all things astro

As always, I appreciate the love and support and look forward to seeing you all at

12/02/2025

The Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888) is a large, glowing gas and dust cloud in the constellation Cygnus, located about 5,000 light-years from Earth.

I took this shot with my back during the early fall to learn how the works. I was quite impressed with the detail it was able to pull through my at 420mm.

Quite the fun processing adnenture trying to separate, adjust, and re-combine all the color channels to create something that wasn't dominantly red (which is what the L-enhace produces.

Finally getting around to posting some backlog, so stay tuned! And swipe to see a close up of the Crescent nebula

Camera: Asi2600mc pro
Mount: HEQ5 Pro
Scope: Apatura 72ed
Control: Asiair Plus

11/09/2025

The Heart Nebula and Fish Head Nebula shot through my new filter. This came as part of their new L2-duo set to allow us OSC users to capture the SHO pallette much more accurately. This is done through both the L-xtreme (Ha and Oiii) and the L-Synergy (Sii and Oiii). A combination of the two give you the SHO pallette.

Since I already have the L-enhace and only had one clear night I figured I'd do a comparison to test a few things.
1. How does the L-extreme do under a full moon?
2. How is the halo control (known issue in previous l-extreme versions)?
3. How is the color and contrast.

Well here are my thoughts:
1. Under a full moon, the results were amazing. Im excited to try this under less than full moon status.
2. Halo control is no issue. Optolong has fixed the Halo issue and I saw absolutely no issues here.
3. Color and contrast look great. The detail is amazing and the depth of color really surprised me.

All in all, I'm so excited to pair the both the L-xtreme and the L-Synergy the next time I have a few clear nights in a row. Processing will be a learning curve but, that's the hobby isn't it 😂

Gear:
Camera: ASI2600MC Pro
Mount: Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro
Controls: Asiair Plus
Image details: 8 hours of 7 minute subs under a full moon
Processing: DSS, Photoshop

07/06/2025

Sometimes the sky gives you stars.
Sometimes the ground answers with its own.

For just over an hour, I watched fireflies blink their quiet language into the night — tiny lanterns floating through the summer dark, writing stories in the air while stars traced slow arcs above.

I didn’t try to chase it. Just set the shutter and let time pass.
Some moments aren’t meant to be rushed — only gathered, gently.

And somewhere in between all that stillness,
it felt like I could believe that **planet Earth turns slowly.**

Brighten your screen and zoom around to see all of the tiny lanterns.

📷 Nikon D5600
🔭 18mm (18–55mm kit lens)
🕒 30s exposures over 70 minutes
🖥️ Stacked in StarStax, polished in Photoshop
📍 Backyard stillness

Maybe the best light shows aren’t just above us — but all around.

Address

Vernon, NJ

Website

https://www.pictorem.com/profile/AstroKajan

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