r/astrophotography

Equipment and Details

Targets: Orion Nebula, M42 Horsehead Nebula. IC434 and Flame Nebula, NGC2024

Telescope: Spacecat51 w/ ZWO EAF

Camera: ZWO ASI2600mm-pro, Dew Heater on, Bin 1x1

Filters: 2" Antlina 3nm SHO in a ZWO EFW Mount: AM5 on William Optics 800 Motar tri-pier Controller: ASlair Plus and Samsung Tablet Guide scope: Askar FRA180 pra Guide Camera: ZW0 ASI174mm

Bortle 3 Sky

Exposures:

Ha 20 x 300 sec

Sii 20 x 300 sec

Oii 20 x 300 sec

Red 10 x 60 sec

Green 10 x 60 sec

Blue 10 x 60 sec

Calibration frames done

Color Palette: SHO with RGB star Processed in Pixinsight-Drizzle x2 and Lightroom

Social: IG: Lowell_Astrophotography

Engulfed in dark molecular clouds of interstellar dust and surrounded by other deep space objects such as the Ghost Nebula (Sh 2-136), the Iris Nebula makes a stunning statement with its beautiful blue hues. A bright flower in a garden of irradiated soil.

1,600 years ago, as the Roman Empire was collapsing and the Mayan Dynasty was born, the light in this photo began its journey to my telescope. This is the second time I’ve captured it — the first time being when I was just dipping my toes into astrophotography. After 8 months in the hobby, I’ve learned so much and expanded my understanding in ways I never anticipated.

Check out the full frame photo on Astrobin: https://app.astrobin.com/i/bnxk6c

Total integration time: 160 subs x 180s = 8h (2 nights)

Equipment:

• Telescope: William Optics Pleiades 111
• Main camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
• Mount: ZWO AM5N
• Accessories: ZWO EAF Pro
• Guidescope: William Optics Guide Star 61
• Guide camera: ZWO ASI220MM Mini

Processing:

• Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight
  • RC Astro BlurXTerminator
  • RC Astro NoiseXTerminator
  • RC Astro StarXTerminator
• Adobe Photoshop 2026

My first astrofotography setup is finally ready! Just waiting for the guidescope and camera to make it complete but I’m already gonna try it out on the first clear night I get because I’m so hyped. I’m also saving up for a better telescope like an APO,ED doublet/triplet/petzval or whatever to upgrade the lens. Also considering on buying an CLS/UHC filter because I live in a bortle 6 region.

Equipment:

- Canon 500D EOS (unmodded)
- Sigma DC 18-200mm (f/3.5-6.3) lens
- some cheap bahtinov mask, dew heater and dovetail from amazon
- ACK-E5 Battery dummy for Canon EOS
- Svbony 905C Guiding cam
- Svbony SV165 Guidescope
- 3D printed hot shoe for adapting my guidescope

DIY V4X17 strainwave GoTo mount with harmonic gears.

Equipment for mount:

- 48mm Nema17 (DEC)
- 64mm Nema17 (RA)
- 2x ZXS17 harmonic drive gezr
- Belt reduction with GT2 Pulleys
- Fysect E4 controller with OnStepX firmware

Extra info:
NINA for controlling the mount
Stellarium for finding objects
ASTAP for plate solving with H18 star catalog
PHD2 for guiding

This is my first attempt at photographing a galaxy. I have a lot to learn and there is huge room for improvement but I had a lot of fun with this and can’t wait for the next clear night.

About 15 hours of data captured over 4 sessions.

900x60s light subs + flats, darks, and bias
Processed in Astro Pixel Processor where I followed the steps and left most of the defaults

Equipment:
Celestron 9.25 Edge HD with .7x reducer
ASI533mm Pro
LRGB filters
EAF
2” 7 space filter wheel
Wave 150i mount on a carbon fiber tripod
200mm guide scope with ASI676mm
ASIAir Plus

Camera: Sony A6400 (no mod),

Lens: Samyang 135mm f/2,

Mount: Skywatcher HEQ5,

Sky: Bortle 5, no moon.

Around 400 of 30 s subs pre-processed, stacked and post-processed in Siril with a pretty standard procedure. However due to moderate light pollution quadratic background extraction was applied already at sub level. Shot at f/2.8, ISO 400.

Visible near the upper right corner is the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888). The halo around Sadr is a result of lens optics and I did not attempt to remove it. A reflection nebula near the lower left corner around 44 Cygni is also visible.

✨ The M66 Group (Leo Triplet)

📷 ASI 294 MC Pro Color

🔭 Star Adventurer 2i

🔎 Askar FMA180 apo (180mm f/4.5)

🕶️ Broadband Filter IDAS NGS1 (2")

🌌 Gain 120 (-10°C), 32x120s (1h 4min)

🧪 40 dark, 40 flat, 40 dark-flat

💻 Siril, RawTherapee, GIMP, Snapseed

📍 Turin (Piedmont, Italy) - Bortle 8

📅 May 20, 2026

Captured: 2026-03-25

Acquisition Details:
Ha: 10 × 300.0s (50.0 min) - Antlia Ha 3nm Pro
SII: 5 × 300.0s (25.0 min) - Antlia SII 3nm Pro
OIII: 5 × 300.0s (25.0 min) - Antlia OIII 3nm Pro
Luminance: 5 × 120.0s (10.0 min) - Baader Luminance
Red: 5 × 120.0s (10.0 min) - Baader Red
Green: 5 × 120.0s (10.0 min) - Baader Green
Blue: 5 × 120.0s (10.0 min) - Baader Blue
Total integration: 2.3 hours
Gain: 100
Sensor temp: -10.0°C

Equipment:

Telescope: TMB-92 Signature Series APO (92mm f/5.5, ~420mm effective FL)
Camera: ZWO ASI533MM Pro (mono, Sony IMX533, 3008×3008, 3.76μm)
Mount: Orion Atlas EQ-G (EQMod)
Filter Wheel: ZWO 8-position EFW
Guide Scope: ZWO 60mm f/4.7 Guidescope
Guide Camera: SVBONY SV905C
Focuser: PrimaLuceLab Sesto Senso 2

Processing:
Siril stacking, Syqon Starless AI star removal, custom Python pipeline
Image scale: 1.85 arcsec/pixel, FOV: ~1.54° x 1.54°

Location: 37.90°N, 122.06°W

https://app.astrobin.com/i/umsfos?r=C

Celestron 8 Edge w/ .7 reducer (f7@1422)
6 hrs Antlia TriBand / 3 hrs no filter
ASI 2600 Air
EQ6R Pro
Bortle 7/8
108 x 300”

This has been one of the tougher targets to process for me. Hasn’t been a Wham, Bam, Thank You, Ma’am experience. Haha

Still feels too cartoonish and will likely improve with more time. Perhaps my next outing to the Bortle 2/3 campsite will help.

Took this one year ago and forgot to post

Shot on z6iii with a sigma 14-24 2.8 with a FtoZ

192 shots, Untracked

F2.8 iso 3200, 20seconds

Bortle 1-2 in Maldives

Foreground in one frame edited and denoised in Lightroom

Stacked with deepsky stacker, edited with Photoshop, gradient removal and denoised by graxpert, used starnet to remove stars

Combined both milkyway and foreground in Photoshop

Final color calibration in Lightroom

After getting my first photo last week, M101 LRGB with 10 30s subs each and being more excited than I can explain, I decided to go for another target and up the stakes a bit. I did 25 180s subs in LRGB and 10, 300s subs of Ha on M51. This proved to be MUCH more challenging. Between a failed meridian flip that had me pointing at the ground, calibration frames that totally messed up the original image forcing me to re-stack the data without them and hoping I had anything worthwhile, to realizing just how inept I am at pixinsight. I actually got something I’m proud of. Any advice to improve is greatly appreciated

Equipment:
William optics flt 132 scope with .79 reducer
ZWO OAG with ASI220mm guide camera 
ASI26000mm camera
skywatcher cq350 pro mount
All running with ASIAIR
processed in pixinsight

One of my favorite summer targets finally getting some attention. IC 1318 is the sprawling emission complex surrounding Sadr in the heart of Cygnus, with two prominent "wings" of Hα separated by a dark dust lane.

Gear:

• Celestron C8 w/ Hyperstar (f/2.1)
• EQ6-R Pro
• ZWO ASI533MC Pro
• Optolong L-Ultimate 2"

Acquisition:

• 140 × 120s lights
• 4h 40m total integration
• Bortle 8/9

Processing (PixInsight): WBPP, SPCC, BlurX, GraXpert as opposed to DBE for this one), NoiseX, GHS stretch, StarX, color work on starless, recombined with screen blend.

GraXpert really earned its keep on this one, DBE struggled to find true background samples in such a nebula-dense field.

Quiero compartir esta imagen aunque quiero preguntarles sobre los colores ¿es demasiado saturación o si es irreal ?

D5600 no astromodificada

13s

3200 ISO

Rokinon 14mm T 3.1 = f/2.8

Bortle 4.5

230 lights y 20darks

Sin rastreador de estrellas

Procesado en Sequator /Siril / Lightroom mobile

Took and processed this one last night. Using a Canon 5D MKiii, Canon Ultrasonic 70-200 lens, and a Skywatcher Star Adventurer GTI.
Processed in Siril.

399x light frames(one failed) 15 seconds each
80x darks
80x biases
20x flats

3h of 60s exposures, with a full spectrum canon 60d, Svbony sv220, sv503 70mm with 0.8 reducer flattener, and a ioptron skyguider pro. Fully calibrated except darks no dithering. Stacked in siril processed in graxpert, pix and gimp. Any tips would be nice

Caught about 1 hour and 23 minutes of narrowband from a Bortle 4 site, and 3 hours of broadband from my Bortle 8/9 backyard, then composited the two for the best of both worlds: punchy emission line color from the dark sky narrowband, and natural calibrated star colors plus continuum context from the longer broadband stack.

Captured on a Celestron C8 with Hyperstar at f/2.1, ZWO ASI533MC Pro, EQ6-R Pro mount. Narrowband through an Optolong L-Ultimate (3nm Ha + 3nm OIII). Processed in PixInsight using the Foraxx palette via NarrowbandNormalization, then screen blended the broadband stars onto the narrowband nebula.

Just for fun, if you shrunk the Crescent down to the size of a basketball, our solar system would be smaller than a single grain of sand inside it. The math of this hobby never stops being wild

• Narrowband: 1 hour 23 minutes from Bortle 4
• Broadband: 3 hours from Bortle 8/9
• Telescope: Celestron C8 with Starizona Hyperstar (f/2.1)
• Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro
• Mount: Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro
• Filter: Optolong L-Ultimate (3nm Ha, 3nm OIII)
• Guiding: PHD2
• Sequencing: NINA

Betelgeuse taken with Dwarf 2
150 subs x 6 seconds @ 60 gain
stacked and processed in Siril and Gimp
accessories: 3d printed star spike mask