u/FrancoisDolphins

Acquisition Details:

• Target: LDN 43 (Cosmic Bat) in Ophiuchus
• Dates: June 11 - 15, 2026
• Location: Aveyron, France
• Frames: 172 x 180s (Optolong Clear filter) - Total ~8.6 hours.
• Conditions: Outstanding 9/10 seeing on night 1, settling to 6/10 for the rest.

Equipment:

• Telescope: TS-ONTC Hypergraph 10″ (f/3.4)
• Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC DUO
• Mount: SkyWatcher EQ8R-Pro

Processing: Stacked and processed in PixInsight, with final touches in Affinity. LDN 43 is usually processed with very deep blacks to make the bat shape look dramatic and spooky. I wanted to go a different route and lightened the background to bring out the very faint Integrated Flux Nebula (IFN) and surrounding dust clouds. Bringing up the shadows took a toll on the SNR, but a careful pass of NoiseXTerminator really helped smooth it out while keeping the dust textures intact. It makes the bat look a lot less scary, but I really like this softer perspective.

Full resolution on my website: https://doffinastrophoto.com/astrophotography-ldn43/

Acquisition Details:

• Targets: M97 & M108
• Dates: March 15 - 17, 2026
• Location: Aveyron, France (Bortle 4)
• Conditions: Outstanding seeing (8/10 consistently)
• Frames: 193 x 140s (Optolong Clear filter) - roughly 7.5 hours total.

Equipment:

• Telescope: TS-ONTC Hypergraph 10″ (f/3.4 with 0.85x reducer)
• Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC DUO
• Mount: SkyWatcher EQ8R-Pro

Processing: Stacked and processed in PixInsight. The seeing was so good that the details in M108's dust lanes popped incredibly well. I am particularly happy with the beautiful blue OIII signal of the Owl Nebula and being able to pull out its faint pinkish outer collar using just broadband data. If you zoom in, the background is loaded with distant galaxies!

https://doffinastrophoto.com/astrophotography-m97-m108/

Acquisition Details:

• Object: M81 (Bode's Galaxy), M82 & IFN
• Dates: March 3 - April 20, 2026
• Location: Aveyron, France
• Frames: 394x180s (Clear Filter) + 147x180s (L-Extreme Filter) = ~27 Hours total.

Hardware:

• TS-ONTC Hypergraph 10″ (f/3.4)
• ZWO ASI2600MC DUO
• SkyWatcher EQ8R-Pro

Processing: Stacked and processed entirely in PixInsight. I really wanted to go deep to reveal the Integrated Flux Nebula (dust from our own Milky Way acting as a foreground veil) rather than just the galaxies. I blended the L-Extreme data to highlight the starburst jets in M82 and the Ha regions within M81. The signal-to-noise ratio after 27h at f/3.4 is fantastic, and I love zooming in to spot the tiny background galaxies scattered everywhere!

More details on my website: https://doffinastrophoto.com/astrophotography-m81-m82-bodegalaxy/