Leo Triplet Galaxies, 22 x 300 Second/5 Minute Frames, taken with Sharpstar 100qii Refractor and ZWO ASI183 Astro Cooled Camera overnight 22nd February 2026. These three with distances ranging between 30 to 40 Million Lightyears Away.

Leo Triplet Galaxies NGC3628(Top Right), M66 (Charles Messier saw this one) Top Left, M65 (and this one too) at the bottom.

 

NGC2070, Tarantula Nebula and Surrounds 'Tryout Shot' , 6x 5 Minute Frames (30 Minutes inTotal) with SWED80 Refractor, SVBony 405cc Astro Cooled Camera.

 

NGC 2070 The Tarantula Nebula and surrouds.

Another 'trying' and perplexing session with the NINA (Nighttime Imaging 'N Astronomy) program on a remotely controlled PC. Frames combined and enhanced in PixInsight. Interestingly I think the lack of data precipitated a change to my usual imaging process.   Then use of RCAstro's Blur Exterminator on the linear data, even at less than 10% of its full strength was way to harsh on the surrounding nebulosity.

I took to stretching to Non-Linear (a usual step) and then applying  Blur Exterminator at 40% for a much better result.

Gabriel Mistral Nebula and The Pearl Open Star Cluster, Constellation Carina, 35x3 Minute frames(Combined and Enhanced in Pixinsight and Affinity) taken with Sharpstar 100qii Refractor Telescope and ZWO ASI183MC Camera.February 2026.

Moon Shot from April 2025

The Mineral Moon.   Although not apparent to the naked eye moonlight, enhanced digitally, can reveal the difference in mineral density and makeup especially in the basins of the lunar mare. Posted on Facebook April 2025 but omitted a blog post here.

Rosette Nebula NGC 2237 et.al. in Narrow Band Ha, O3 and S2. Taken with Vixen ED80 Doublet Refractor, Dual Band Ha/O3 and O3/S2 Filters and a Modified Canon 550D. 20 x Ha/O3 and 42 x O3/S2 individual frames/exposures taken over 2 nights 25th and 26th January 2026.

The Rosette Nebula, Caldwell 39 or NGC 2237 and the central star cluster NGC 2244, the light from which causes the Nebula to emit and glow in it's own light.   Approximately 5000 light years away and 100 light years across.  Our sun and it's neighbouring star, Rigil Kentaurus, would sit very closely, relatively speaking, inside the centre of the this nebula,
 

No more clear nights now for a few days and just just as well as I need to catch up on some sleep. Although once I set the telescope up over these 2 nights it was pretty much 'set and forget and sleep tight' with the ASIair telescope computer controlling the imaging, tracking, guiding and meridian flip. But it doesn't serve you breakfast in the morning. ZWO could add that functionality in perhaps in the next firmware update.

Anyhow this was another step forward for me getting data with 2 sets of filters and combining them in the Pixinsight Image Processing program

Raw Frame from , slightly enhanced, 5 Minutes Exposure.

Mount Pleasant Observatory Early Evening Sky and Moon and Nightscape shots with Google Pixel Phone in 4 Minute Long Exposure Mode on Tripod.

Aurora Night 20th January 2026

Messier 78, Caspar the Friendly Ghost Nebula, Bright Reflection Nebula in Orion, 1350 Light Years in Distance, Sharpstar 100qii Refractor and ZWO ASI183 Camera, 31 x 5 Minute Frames, Stacked and Processed in PixInsight

 

Messier 78

Last Shots 2025 of Eta Carinae taken New Years Eve, NGC3372 in Dual Narrowband Ha and Oiii. Taken with Vixen ED80 Refractor Telescope and Modified Canon 550D Camera. 24 (some with tinges of cloud ) 300 second/5 Minute frames , stacked and enhanced with false colour techniques in Pixinsight and Photoshop.

HOO Pallete

 

Forax Pallete

Large Magellanic Cloud, Sharpstar qii Refractor and ASI183 ZWO Camera.

 

Part of Eta Carinae NGC 3372 commonly referred to as "The Keyhole" taken/imaged with Celestron C8 Edge SCT and ZWO ASI533 Camera, 8500 Lightyears distant or 2600 Parsecs, in the Constellation of Carina (The Keel of the Argo Navis, from mythology, Jason and the Argonauts' Boat. This are of the sky also comprises the constelations of Puppis and Vella) Taken from 9 of the best of 10x5 minute/300 second frames acquired on a very patchy cloudy nights on the 16th December 2025.