Lmst

Around the Flaming Star

This image depicts a region in the Auriga constellation, including multiple deep-sky objects. I aimed for the Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405) and the Tadpole Nebula (IC 410), but the wider framing of the lens includes the star clusters M36, M38, and NGC 1907, as well as the nebulae IC 417, Sh2-235, LdN-1512, LdN-1522, and LdN-1523.

As with my previous DSO images, this image was taken without a tracker but with sporadic manual tracking with a standard DSLR setup with a 105 mm macro lens. This time I used 1360 × 2 s frames, resulting in 45 m 20 s exposure time.

This relatively short integration time is near the limit of what is possible for me, as the large number of frames requires a lot of storage during processing (>700 GB in this case). Details of the nebulae are not obtainable with this method, but the general shape can be seen. It also only works well with larger objects, as the relatively wide tele, noise, and resolution limits do not allow capturing details of smaller DSOs.

Despite the limitations, it is fun to experiment without a tracker and see what is possible.

The workflow included #Siril, #GraXpert, #StarNet, and #GIMP.

Nikon D500, Sigma 105mm EX DG OS HSM, 105 mm, f/2.8, 1360x2 s, ISO 3200, tripod, no tracker
#Nebulae #StarCluster #astrophotography #photography #germany #digikam

An image of a region of the starry sky with many stars. A large red nebula with two bright regions is in the center of the image, with a diffuse reddish-brown background nebula. Two larger star clusters are visible to the left, as well as two more tiny red glowing nebulae. Three small dark nebulae are to the right, where they block the stars behind them.

The same, but annotated, image of a region of the starry sky. The bright nebula regions are named the Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405) and Tadpole Nebula (IC 410). The star clusters are annotated as the Starfish Cluster (M38) and the Pinwheel Cluster (M36). Other nebulae include the Sh2-235 and Spider Nebula (IC 417). The dark nebulae have the designations LdN-1512, LdN-1522, and LdN-1523. The brightest star in the image is annotated with Hasseleh (Iota Aurigae).

Cat's Paw Nebula

This is my attempt at the James Webb Space Telescope data of the Cat's Paw Nebula NGC 6334. Many stars were removed or oversaturated in the filter data downloaded from MAST, resulting in a lot of artifacts in the short- and long-wavelength composite images created with #Siril. I combined both images in #GIMP and tried to fix some of the artifacts. After different tries, also on the raw data, I decided to run #StarNet++ on the combined FITS file created with GIMP and then painstakingly clean the rest (felt like 10000) of the star artifacts up. I tried to stay true to the nebula by interpolating what the area behind and around the stars most likely looks like. GIMP's heal brush worked really well, but it took many hours to complete.

The full-resolution image can be seen on my website when choosing the original size in the upper right corner (warning: it is 77 MB in size): https://www.picturavis.com/picture?/391/categories

Telescope: JWST/NIRCam
Proposal ID: 6778
Observation description: NIRCam observations of a star forming nebula
Release date: 10.07.2025
Filters: F090W (blue), F187N (light blue), F200W (blue-green), F277W (yellow-green), F335M (yellow), F444W-F470N (red)

#CatsPawNebula #NGC6334 #JWST #JamesWebb #NIRCam #Nebula #SpaceTelescope #astrophotography #DeepSky #DigiKam

A surreal image of a colorful false-color space nebula photographed in infrared by the James Webb Space Telescope. There are four bright blue regions that resemble a cat's paw. They are surrounded by yellow and orange streaks, as well as darker brown areas. There are a few smaller bright yellow and red areas as well.

M31 Andromeda

I went outside for the Aurora party, and all I got was this lousy Andromeda Galaxy.

Since I was a day late for the aurora, but the sky was relatively clear, I decided to try the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) again, this time with more integration time. This was in a Bortle class 4–5 area with occasional thin clouds (you can see the shine around the bright stars), but at least the moon rose late. It (again) worked out better than expected. M32 and M110 are clearly visible, and even finer details and colors of the galaxy can be seen.

This time, I used 868 frames with a total exposure time of 28 minutes and 56 seconds, with sporadic manual tracking. The FITS sequence file of the registered images was over 200 GB… and the standard processing script failed, because today I learned 400 GB is apparently not enough free space for processing astro images.

Post-processing was done in #Siril with #GraXpert and #StarNet, and then #GIMP including #GMIC. The annotation in the second image was also done in Siril.

Without a tracker, the larger field of view of the 158 mm (effective) lens is good, as I did not have to adjust the camera as often. But the need to crop out less-exposed outer areas reduces the available final resolution. Additionally, the maximum limit of 2 s exposures (any more and the Earth rotates too fast) requires many images (and data).

Nikon D500, Sigma 105mm EX DG OS HSM, 105 mm, f/2.8, 868x2 s, ISO 3200, tripod, no tracker
#Andromeda #Galaxy #astrophotography #photography #germany #digikam

A square image of a galaxy in the starry night sky. The galaxy is a bright yellow spiral with thin dark parts. Some areas are bluish. The center looks like a bright star in a nebula. Two more galaxies are visible that are much smaller in the image and much less defined. There are many stars in front of the galaxy.

The same square image of a galaxy in the starry night sky as the first image, but with annotations. Green circles and text mark the galaxies M31, M32, M110. The bright star cluster NGC206 inside the Andromeda Galaxy is marked. Two stars belonging to the Andromeda constellation are also annotated.

Look into the past 2.0

Ruins of the ancient cretan city of Itanos ( Ίτανος) in front of the Milky Way.

This is a second attempt at photos taken in 2022.

The Milky Way was photographed with an integration time of 38 x 8s = 5m 4s and processed with #Siril, #GraXpert, #StarNet and #GIMP. The ruins were taken with 30s exposure and light painted with a flashlight, then processed with #RawTherapee and GIMP. Final composition was done in GIMP.

Milky Way: Nikon D500, Tokina AT-X 11-20 f2.8 PRO DX, 11 mm, f2.8, 38x8s, ISO 3200, tripod
Ruins: Nikon D500, Tokina AT-X 11-20 f2.8 PRO DX, 11 mm, f2.8, 30s, ISO 800, tripod, light painted
#astrophotography #ruins #nightscape #milkyway #photography #greece

A composite photo of a night scene of a ruin under the stars and Milky Way. The ruins sit on top of a hill with green shrubs, and the Milky Way spans from left to right in the night sky. Many stars are visible, like diamonds in the sky.

The Pleiades 2.0

This is a second attempt at post-processing the Pleiades star cluster (M45). This time, I took more time to learn #Siril and added #GraXpert for background extraction and denoising.

The data are the same as in the previous attempt, so you can see how important post-processing is in astrophotography. Fine details are not visible, as the data do not contain enough information, but to my taste, this version is much improved.

I am still very impressed with what is achievable with a standard DSLR, a fast lens, and a standard tripod.

Nikon D500, Sigma 105mm EX DG OS HSM, 105 mm, f/2.8, 177x2 s, ISO 3200, tripod
#pleiades #astrophotography #photography #germany #digiKam #StarNet #GIMP

A photo of the Pleiades, a very bright star cluster visible in the night sky even under heavy light pollution. The main stars of the cluster are surrounded by bluish nebulae. The rest of the image displays many stars and gray and reddish nebulae. Neither the nebulae nor most of the stars are visible to the naked eye.

Comet 2025 A6 Lemmon

The conditions on Sunday (19.10.2025) were good, so I drove out to photograph the comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon. It was only visible in the camera and not to the naked eye.

This image is a composite of the comet, stars, background without stars, and the foreground. Except for the foreground, the image was created from 171 frames (14 minutes and 15 seconds of exposure) using #Siril, including #StarNet. Post-processing and final composition were done in #GIMP.

Nikon Z50, Nikkor 17-28/2.8, 28 mm, f/2.8, 171×5 s, ISO 1600, tripod
#comet #lemmon #astrophotography #photography #nightscape #germany #digikam

A nightscape photo with a comet in the upper center of the image. The comet has two tails, one bluer and narrower than the other. The starry sky is dark blue with a gradient to orange where the sun set. The foreground is black tree silhouettes.

Andromeda Galaxy

This image of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) was not planned. I saw M31 on the Stellarium app while outside for Comet Lemmon and thought, why not? I took a few photos but gave up early because I thought my equipment would not be enough to get any details. Turns out I was wrong, and you can get details even with a 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens on a crop-sensor DSLR.

This was just 23 photos, resulting in 46 seconds of exposure. Post-processing was done in #Siril with #StarNet, followed by #GIMP and #Darktable. Next time, I’ll know better!

Nikon D500, Sigma 105mm EX DG OS HSM, 105 mm, f/2.8, 2 s, ISO 3200, tripod
#Andromeda #Galaxy #astrophotography #photography #germany

An image of a galaxy far, far away. It looks like a yellow saucer with a radial light gradient and some concentric tea swirls. A smaller galaxy can be seen above it. A few stars are visible around the galaxy.

Milky Way Section

A section of the Milky Way from 118 images (9 minutes 50 seconds exposure time). I played around with the #StarNet integration in #Siril to bring out the structure of the Milky Way independently from the stars.

Nikon D500, Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G, 50 mm, f/1.8, 5 s, ISO 3200, tripod
#MilkyWay #astrophotography #photography #germany #digiKam #Darktable #GIMP

A section of the night sky containing countless stars forming a bright vertical band. Large, dark, cloud-like areas block out the yellow light from the stars behind.

Tja - wenn das Wetter mal mitspielt…
Sh2-155 oder C 9 „Höhlennebel“.
In mehreren Nächten insgesamt fast 6h mit verschiedenen Einstellungen mit meinem #dwarf3 ausgenommen und in #siril mit #starnet , #graxpert und #cosmicclarity nachbearbeitet…

#astronomy #astrophotography

Sharpless 2-155 oder Caldwell 9 , auch Höhlennebel genannt.

Hier noch womit mein #dwarf3 beschäftigt war, während ich die Milchstraße bewundert hatte (siehe mein letzter Post):
NGC 281 - Pac-Man Nebel.
240 Aufnahmen a 30s, nachbearbeitet mit #siril , #starnet und #graxpert - aber ich denke, das bekomme ich noch besser hin, man lernt ja nicht aus.

#astrophotography #astronomy

Die Plejaden und der Rosettennebel vom 30. November.

Die Aufnahmen wurden zuerst mit #Siril gestackt und bearbeitet. Mit #Starnet wurden die Sterne etwas reduziert.
Heute habe ich dann die Bilder noch mit #Darktable nachbearbeitet.
Denn Unterschied kann man am Rosettennebel gut erkennen.

Teleskop: SkyWatcher EvoGuide 50ED
Montierung: Skywatcher AZ-GTi
Kamera: ASI533MC-Pro
Gain: 101
Offset:30
Frames:
122x30s (Rosettennebel)
300x30s (Plejaden)
#Astrodon #astronomy #astrophotography #astronomie

“#Splynx is very advanced software [#CRM/#NMS]. It's giving every #ISP the prestige of playing a big game” Dritan Vreshta w/ #Starnet

#WISPAPALOOZA 2024 #WISPA check them out at the booth #322 or #LibreQoS booth #818 + here is the website: splynx.com

#OpenSource #FLOSS #WISP #FISP #FWA #WiFi #InternetServiceProvider #QoE #QoS #QualityOfExperience #QualityOfService

NGC6960 Cirrusnebel
Az-GTi
EvoGuide50 ED
ASI 533MC-Pro190x30s
Az-GTi

Wieder mit mit #Siril bearbeitet und mit #Starnet die Sterne reduziert.
#Astrodon #astrophotography #astronomie #astronomy #BackYardAstronomy

Ich habe inzwischen im East Veil Nebula mit #Siril und #Starnet die Sterne etwas reduziert.

#Astrodon #astronomy #astrophotography #astronomie

After submitting a ticket to the SIRIL team on GitLab, it appears this issue is a bug triggered by my image's data exceeding SIRIL's max range of 255. The devs are working on fixing it, and they kindly provided a workaround in the interim (see ticket comments): https://gitlab.com/free-astro/siril/-/issues/1244

#SIRIL #Astrodon #StarNet

Are there any fellow astrophotographers using the Player One Poseidon-C Pro who have experienced histogram issues after running their file through StarNet in SIRIL?

When I attempt to apply the GHB or even the auto-stretch option in SIRIL to my starless file, the histogram slider resets to the left, or the image becomes completely white. If I don't run StarNet, I can use GHB without any problems.

#SIRIL #Astrodon #StarNet

@jwildeboer these companies #spacex #starlink # amazon #kuiper #oneweb #europe #hongyman #starnet #china etc have no idea the wreck these #megaconstellations are going to do to the #health of mankind in hundreds of years from now, JUST NO IDEA

'Variational Inference for Deblending Crowded Starfields', by Runjing Liu, Jon D. McAuliffe, Jeffrey Regier.

http://jmlr.org/papers/v24/21-0169.html

#galaxies #starnet #variational

#StarNet system with technology such as #laser communication and #AI : #China 🇨🇳 has been developing numerous alternative #AntiSatellite 🛰️ technologies, including #microwaves that can jam communications or #burn 🔥 electronic components.
#Lasers for blinding or damaging satellites, nano-sats that can be launched in huge numbers to cripple bigger satellites, and cyber weapons to hack into the #satellite #communication #network. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3178939/china-military-needs-defence-against-potential-starlink-threat