u/lumoraastro

First proper attempt at NGC 281 (the Pacman Nebula), captured tonight from the dark skies at Thornborough Henges, North Yorkshire, UK.

DWARF 3 in EQ mode, using the Duo-Band filter with 15-second exposures. This is 1 hour 35 minutes of integration.

Really pleased with how much of the red emission and dark dust structure came through, especially around the central star cluster. The darker Thornborough sky definitely made a difference compared with imaging from home in Leeds.

Nothing exotic equipment-wise — just the little DWARF 3 sitting beside a 5,000-year-old henge on a bloody freezing October night. 😂🌌

Target: NGC 281 / Pacman Nebula

Telescope: DWARF 3

Exposure: 15 sec

Integration: 1h 35m

Filter: Duo-Band

Location: Thornborough Henges, North Yorkshire, UK

Watching the stars with the dwarf 3 at Thornborough henge in Ripon, North Yorkshire, England, UK.

The harvest moon taken from Leeds, England, UK.

999 frame stack from my dwarf 3.

My latest capture of C33, the Eastern Veil Nebula, taken with the DWARF 3. I left it running but some frames were rejected because of the pollution in my area.

This is 2 hours 48 minutes of total integration, showing the fine red and blue against a very dense star field.

I’ve kept the stars rather than reducing them - all I did was slightly altered the black point and slightly adjusted the contrast, that's all

DWARF 3 | C33 | 2h 48m integration

Captured today from Leeds, UK using my DWARFLAB DWARF 3 with the supplied solar filter. The Sun was unusually quiet in white light, with no obvious large sunspot groups visible — just a few extremely faint features across the disc.

I captured 999 × 15-second frames and stacked the best frames to produce the final image. Even without prominent sunspots, I thought it was worth sharing what a quiet solar disc looks like through the DWARF 3.

Original content (OC) – photographed and processed by me. ☀️🔭

M27 – The Dumbbell Nebula

A wide-field capture of Messier 27 (M27), the Dumbbell Nebula, taken with my DWARF 3.

This was only 25 minutes 15 seconds of total integration, so M27 is fairly small in the frame, but I was happy to capture its distinctive blue-green glow against such a dense Milky Way star field.

Due to the light pollution in my area , the final image has had some noise clean-up and moderate star reduction to make the nebula stand out more clearly. It isn't intended to be a completely untouched representation of the raw stack, but the target and surrounding field come from my original DWARF 3 capture.

📍 Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK

🔭 DWARF 3

🌌 M27 / Dumbbell Nebula

⏱️ 25m 15s integration

Probably my favourite Milky Way capture with the DWARF 3 so far.

Taken from Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK (53.8°N, 1.4°W) in the early hours of 20 September 2026. 2h 13m total integration using 15-second exposures, with some really nice dust-lane structure coming through despite the light pollution.

Still learning astrophotography and processing, but I'm genuinely impressed by what this little telescope can pull out of a Leeds sky.

DWARF 3 | 15s subs | 2h 13m | Leeds, UK 🌌🔭

Probably my favourite Milky Way capture with the DWARF 3 so far.

Taken from Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK (53.8°N, 1.4°W) in the early hours of 20 September 2026. 2h 13m total integration using 15-second exposures, with some really nice dust-lane structure coming through despite the light pollution.

Still learning astrophotography and processing, but I'm genuinely impressed by what this little telescope can pull out of a Leeds sky.

DWARF 3 | 15s subs | 2h 13m | Leeds, UK 🌌🔭

My first ever attempt at capturing the Milky Way with my DWARF 3 from Leeds, UK.

12 minutes 30 seconds total imaging using 10-second exposures.

I wasn't really sure what to expect, especially with the light pollution around Leeds, but I was really pleased to see the Milky Way structure and dark dust lanes starting to appear amongst the huge number of stars.

I've learned a lot since taking this one, but I'm keeping it because it was the first time I'd managed to capture the Milky Way myself.

Definitely the image that got me hooked on trying more. 🌌🔭

The Moon (01/08/26) (Enhanced/Post processed)

Captured with: Dwarf 3 Smart Telescope

Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK

A photo of the Moon taken from my back garden in Leeds.

Taken in EQ mode with exact alignment achieved, the craters & surface detail stood out, especially around the edge.

I only gave the image a slight bit of sharpening and also brought out the Moon's natural colours to show some of the different minerals on the surface. No colour filter was used – just a little bit of processing after the image was taken.