I like watching stars so here’s a little journey to the brightest stars using the OBAFGKM spectrum.

From Alnitak (the hottest and bluest) to Betelgeuse (the coolest and orangest).

First galaxy of 2025. I’ve always struggled with this one. The challenges are to bring out the detail of the core, getting some structure in the outer arms and battling the bright stars outside of the frame. But I really like the final result.

I also think I have some collimation issues but I hope to solve these in the next few clear nights under the full moon.

The last few weeks I’ve been pondering about getting another scope with more focal length but in the end I’ve decided to stick with my 5 inch newt for now. I do plan to perform some upgrades, so I’m looking for a better focuser and I might even replace the full metal tube with some carbon material.

This should be an interesting project, let’s hope I don’t break the scope in the process.

In the meantime, the SQA55 did some work on the Orion Nebula. This has been an amazing purchase and now it will get some well deserved rest.

In the end I did have some extra clear skies to finish the Horsehead project. I still think this one looks better with a broadband filter but with an 80% moon phase and Orion dropping very low in the early morning I have no choice but to continue with duoband.

I might have some more clear sky tonight so I will have a go at the Orion Nebula.

This is one of the most iconic and well known DSO’s, famously discovered in 1888 by Williamina Fleming. I collected about 5 hours of integration time on this target but had to throw away about 3 hours. I believe this target deserves at least 10-15 hours so I’ll park it for now and revisit next winter.

I’ve been trying to get a proper image on the Jellyfish Nebula for a while now. This supernova remnant in Gemini is probably my favorite deep sky object. I did capture something last December which I shared here, but the session was plagued by high clouds and I was never really happy with the final result.

I tried two more sessions this year with my 130PDS in November but I had the same issues with high clouds. 

The sudden appearance of clear skies in the last weeks gave me another opportunity though. I decided to take no risks and go for the widefield approach with my SQA55 and I am happy with the result. I still feel I might revisit this one at some point with a SII filter to bring out some of the green of the nearby nebula.

2024 has been an amazing year for my astrophotography. It started rough with only a couple cold clear nights in January but really opened up by April. In total I managed to work on 38 projects with many of them exceeding 10 hours total integration time. 

I also managed to get some pictures of objects that were really high on my bucket list such as the Twin Quasar, TON618,  brown dwarfs, the Trifid Nebula and the Helix nebula. 

I need to prep my 130PDS now for galaxy season and as I said before I might look at upgrading to a bigger refractor in the near future. No rush though, the universe is not going anywhere anyway. 

I had two clear nights on Christmas which I used to gather about 11 hours on the Rosette Nebula and another 7 hours on the California Nebula. With the cold weather outside this really made me appreciate the simplicity of a small refractor. I can carry the whole setup outside and I’m up and running within 10 minutes. Compared to my small newtonian I never have to go outside to tinker or change things, it just works.

This is driving me down the rabbit hole of potentially looking for a new scope to go after smaller targets. I love my newt but it has some serious flaws (mainly the weak focuser). I could get a better, bigger newt but that comes with extra challenges. I could also get a bigger refractor but that too comes with certain limitations. I’ll probably overthink this for the next few months.

For now I’m looking forward to galaxy season again.

A rather unique event happened this week, two consecutive clear nights in november! I really wanted to test my mount after the belt mod upgrade and used the Pleiades as a test target.

The belt modification – before and after:

There are more targets I would like to shoot but everything will depend on the weather. This shot of the Pleiades was taken with the SQA55 so I’ll try another target soon with my ‘heavier’ setup, the 130 PDS.

The Soul Nebula is a complex structure of emission nebulae and open clusters, packed full of detail and contrast. I managed to get 5 hours on it last night.  

It’s usually processed with either deep red colors or the mix of blue and gold from the HOO palette. I always like to go soft on these targets and try to create a “warmer shade of red.”

I won’t be imaging for a few weeks now. Incoming clouds is one of the reasons but it’s mainly because I’ll have some maintenance done on my HEQ5 mount. I will replace the gears with the belt mod which will hopefully future proof the mount for whatever equipment I might combine it with over the next few years.

My HEQ5 has been amazing though and with the exception of some issues last winter it has been working flawless for me. 

I’ve started doing some research on new projects but the next targets will be the “low late fall targets” in the Orion & Monoceros region.

Autumn means rapidly changing weather forecasts, foggy mornings, high humidity and lots of dew but also nebula season, which means some of the most fascinating and popular astrophotography targets can be observed.

We’re nearing that time of the year, where clear skies become a rare event so I can only hope to be lucky this year and get some good imaging time, we’ll see.

Here are some of the finished projects from summer and early autumn: the Triangulum Galaxy, Capella, The Lion Nebula and The Ghost of Cassiopeia.